A team of scientists and sound therapists claims to have found the most relaxing song ever. In an experiment with the Manchester band Marconi Union, the scientists were able to create a track more relaxing than Coldplay or, more impressively, Enya. Listen to “Weightless” below and drift away into eternal chill. The track’s 60 BPM is said to trigger “entrainment,” the synchronization of brainwaves and heart rate.
Iggy Pop says Kmart is the original house of glam rock fashion
The first show the Stooges played in New York City, opening for the MC5 at the World’s Fair Pavilion in Queens, is better remembered as the first time Iggy Pop cut himself onstage with the edge of a drumstick. “I was definitely upping the ante,” he said, “It was New York! … I remember wearing a little pair of Levis short-shorts and Minnetonka moccasins and I was doing these long, dangerous stage dives. And the audience was just … [makes a wide-eyed face] … it was uncomfortable, so there was some self-mutilation,” he laughed.
While defining his rock star look, Pop found it all in one place: Kmart. “I was walking around [Kmart] and saw this silver glove on one of the female mannequins and thought ‘this would make me look cool’ … so I’d send people to get boxes and boxes of these Kmart silver gloves I’d wear every night.” The rest of his look was in a different aisle. “I would take a little glass bottle of Johnson & Johnson baby oil, pour it all over my body and face, then cover myself in gold and silver glitter. There was a product called Nestle’s Streaks ‘n Tips that came in black, gold or silver … I don’t see it around anymore.” He laughed.
Patti Smith reads from Oscar Wilde in HM Prison Reading
Singer and artist Patti Smith reads from Oscar Wilde’s 100-page letter De Profundis, which he wrote during his two-year incarceration in Reading Prison.
Celebrities Offer Advice to the Class of 2017
A commencement ceremony is a big deal for students and their families and of course many schools book celebrity speakers like Mark Zuckerberg, Hillary Clinton and Will Ferrell all of whom gave commencement addresses this year. But not every school can land an A-list speaker so as a service to those graduates, Jimmy Kimmel and his friends put together an all-star graduation speech that is 100% guaranteed to position you for success.
Stingray wants help to curate their Canadian music channels
Stingray is calling out to music lovers from Coast to Coast to help curate the greatest province-specific Canadian music channels ever heard!
Stingray is proud to be Canadian and share its love of homegrown music. Stingray today confirmed that, amongst all streaming music services, it is the only one dedicated to promoting Canadian talent.
With a reach of 90% of the Canadian market (10 million households), Stingray’s efforts result in incomparable visibility for Canadian artists. Close to 15,000 Canadian artists and bands are broadcast on Stingray Music channels on TV, mobile, and the web.
From May 17 to June 16, 2017, Canadians are invited to join Stingray Music on Facebook and nominate tracks by their province’s best singers, bands, and musicians. Participants will be entered to win one of 10 $150 travel credits offered by VIA Rail.
Starting June 21, 2017, and leading up to Canada Day, Stingray will share one channel a day on Facebook and on the Stingray Coast2Coast web page. The channels will be available for streaming through the Stingray Music mobile app and web player.
For more information, visit the Stingray Coast2Coast web page.
Buzzangle Music Announces Shazam Data Integration
BuzzAngle Music, the leading innovator in music consumption analytics, today announced integration of global data from Shazam, one of the world’s most popular apps. It marks the first time Shazam data is available in a comprehensive analytics platform like BuzzAngle Music. The data provided from Shazam includes the number of Shazams for every song within a given market and country, as well as further breakdowns for age, gender and information regarding user engagement with the track pages.
The importance and value of the Shazam data to BuzzAngle’s users will be in the ability to view the number of Shazams alongside existing consumption data— such as song sales, song streams and song airplay—in all charts, reports and dashboards. The Shazam data is available immediately as a premium upgrade option within the standard BuzzAngle Music service.
“Shazam has been downloaded over 1 billion times and people around the globe are Shazaming 20 million times each day,” said Richard Westover, Head of Music Data Services at Shazam. “Our proprietary data is an unparalleled asset for the industry and in artists’ strategies. We are very excited to be part of BuzzAngle’s advanced platform and help their analytics be even more comprehensive.”
“Programming has always been a balance of science and art,” said Tom Poleman, Chief Programming Officer at iHeartMedia. “The data available at our fingertips is increasingly more sophisticated thanks to BuzzAngle. Having this Shazam data will make it even more powerful.”
“We are excited to partner with Shazam to again provide a first for the music industry. Providing the Shazam data alongside consumption statistics will provide even greater insight into the discovery and popularity growth of songs,” said Jim Lidestri, CEO of Border City Media, the makers of BuzzAngle Music.
Shazam has continued to build upon its global leadership in music discovery and deepen the connections between artists and fans, in addition to its visual recognition and augmented reality features. Through integrated partnerships with leading music companies from around the world, Shazam delivers a complete music experience including videos, lyrics and recommendations. There are also almost 9,000 artists verified on Shazam that are sharing content with their followers.
Since its official launch in May 2016, BuzzAngle has been the leading innovator in music-consumption analytics by being the first to offer daily updates; the first to develop a global platform; the first to develop a dashboard-driven system; the first to show streaming data at a market level; and the first to show both major and independent label and distributor market share based on streaming and total consumption. BuzzAngle is the only platform that allows users to create individualized reports on a daily basis, and in multiple countries. BuzzAngle methodology allows for more than 10 trillion combinations of individualized reports for albums, songs, artists, labels and distributors.
Music consumption, measured by streaming and multiple sales configurations, has become increasingly complicated to track, but BuzzAngle Music provides the tools that deliver meaningful information that the music industry needs immediately. BuzzAngle’s platform provides countless sorting options, such as daily album and song sales, streaming activity, and radio airplay, all of which can be broken out market by market; Determinations on marketing, promotion and live concert tours can be made based on the driving forces of consumption; label promotion staff and station program directors can determine which songs are truly taking hold in a particular market; A&R departments rely heavily on BuzzAngle Music data to identify emerging artists.
2CELLOS Performs a Live Cover of “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses
2CELLOS Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser performing Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N’ Roses at their historical 5th anniversary concert at Arena di Verona, May 2016. You know where you are? You’re in the jungle baby.
Heavy Metal Cover of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme Song
Now this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air
Oltedal, Norway musician Leo Moracchioli created an awesome heavy metal cover of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song.
Sirius XM to make $480 million strategic investment in Pandora
SiriusXM (SIRI) and Pandora (P) announced an agreement under which SiriusXM will make a $480M strategic cash investment in Pandora.
Under the terms of the agreement, a subsidiary of SiriusXM will purchase an aggregate of $480M in newly issued Series A convertible preferred stock of Pandora. SiriusXM purchased $172.5M of Series A preferred stock upon execution of the agreement and has agreed to purchase the balance of the Series A preferred stock at a second closing. The Series A preferred stock will represent a stake of 19% of Pandora’s currently outstanding common stock and a 16% stake on an as-converted basis. The Series A preferred stock is convertible into common stock at a purchase price of $10.50 per share. The conversion price of the Series A preferred stock is approximately a 14.2% premium to Pandora’s volume weighted average price for the 20-day period preceding June 9, 2017. The Series A preferred stock will bear a 6% cumulative dividend, payable in cash, accretion of the Series A preferred stock or a combination thereof.
Through this agreement, SiriusXM is making a strategic investment in the leading U.S. provider of ad-supported digital radio. With a loyal quarterly audience of nearly 100M listeners in the U.S., Pandora is by far the leading player in the burgeoning digital audio advertising market. The capital provided through the SiriusXM investment will allow Pandora to make targeted investments and capitalize on opportunities to build on its position in the streaming radio business.
When the transaction closes, three individuals designated by SiriusXM will be named to the Pandora Board of Directors. One of those individuals will serve as Chairman and SiriusXM designated directors will serve as select Board committee representatives. With these appointments, the Pandora Board will be expanded to consist of nine directors. In connection with the transaction, Pandora agreed with an affiliate of Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (KKR) to terminate their Investment Agreement announced on May 8, 2017, and pay KKR a termination fee of $22.5M.
Pandora is required to redeem the Series A preferred stock on the fifth anniversary of the closing for an amount equal to its liquidation preference plus all accrued and unpaid dividends. Pandora can also redeem the Series A preferred stock at any time after the third anniversary of the closing if the daily volume weighted average price of Pandora’s common stock is greater than or equal to 175% of the then applicable conversion price for a period of at least 20 days during a 30 day trading window prior to the notice of redemption.
SiriusXM will be subject to certain standstill restrictions, including, among other things, that it will be restricted from acquiring additional securities of Pandora for 18 months. After that period and for so long as a director designated by it is serving on the Board of Directors, SiriusXM has agreed not to acquire more than 31.5% of Pandora’s equity securities without the approval of Pandora’s Board of Directors. The second closing contemplated by the agreement is subject to customary closing conditions, including antitrust approval, and is expected to close by the fourth quarter. The agreement may be terminated by either party if closing has not occurred by February 1, 2018.
First Look at Upcoming Feature Film About Iconic Band The Tragically Hip and their Historic Man Machine Poem Concert Tour
On the heels of a special sneak peek at the conclusion of its annual Upfront presentation, CTV today released a first look at the upcoming CTV Feature Presentation, a film about Canada’s beloved The Tragically Hip, their challenging year, and their momentous cross-Canada Man Machine Poem Tour.
The film chronicles the emotional and epic lead up to the iconic Canadian band’s now-legendary 2016 tour that captured the heart of the nation. Viewers will be given a unique and exclusive perspective into The Tragically Hip’s world through intimate moments, behind-the-scenes and on-stage footage, personal interviews with the band and close friends, as well reactions from their devoted fans from across the country.
Commissioned by Bell Media, the documentary is set for a fall theatrical run, distributed by Elevation Pictures, ahead of its television premiere in late fall on Canada’s most-watched network, CTV. The network premiere will be followed by airings on various Bell Media and on-demand platforms, including The Movie Network, MUCH, and CraveTV.
The film is directed by renowned Canadian documentary filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier (Manufactured Landscapes, Act of God, Watermark), and produced by Banger Films’ Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn (HIP-HOP EVOLUTION, RUSH: BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE).