Las Vegas, 1999. Stone Temple Pilots at the House of Blues, filmed for MTV’s “Spankin’ Live” special, remastered with immersive audio and streaming now. Scott Weiland commands the stage with serpentine intensity, the DeLeo brothers build a wall of sound, and Eric Kretz drives the whole thing forward with relentless precision. “Crackerman,” “Vasoline,” and “Interstate Love Song” hit with the full ferocity of a band at a pivotal moment, just ahead of their fourth album ‘No. 4.’ Professionally captured and now remastered, this is STP exactly as they were.
Jamiroquai’s O2 Arena Triumph Is Now Yours to Stream
Jamiroquai brought the full spectacle to London’s O2 Arena on December 14, 2025, and Jay Kay led the band through a sold-out 20,000-strong crowd, blending acid jazz-funk classics “Virtual Insanity,” “Cosmic Girl,” and “Space Cowboy” with newer material, while Rob Harris’s bass lines, Matt Johnson’s keys, and Kay’s signature hat-and-dance energy made it one of the most electrifying British shows of the year.
SiriusXM Brings Full Live Coverage of the 2026 PGA Championship to Golf Fans Everywhere
The 2026 PGA Championship has a home on radio, and SiriusXM is delivering it in full. Live coverage of all 4 rounds runs May 14–17 from Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, outside Philadelphia, co-produced with Westwood One.
Veteran broadcaster Brian Katrek handles lead play-by-play duties, with former PGA Tour pro Brendon de Jonge as lead analyst. On-course reporters Emilia Doran, Dennis Paulson, and Raymond Burns track the key playing groups throughout each round. First and second round coverage starts at 1 pm ET Thursday and Friday. Weekend rounds begin at 2 pm ET Saturday and Sunday.
Morning and early afternoon coverage brings its own team. Michael Breed, George Savaricas, and Will MacKenzie provide commentary during the earlier hours, while Jason Sobel contributes from the booth and handles post-round player interviews. Immediately following each round, Gary Williams hosts a 2-hour wrap-up of the day’s play.
Beyond the live championship broadcasts, talk programming runs daily throughout PGA Championship Week, starting at 7 am ET on weekdays and 9 am ET on weekends. 2016 Senior PGA Champion Rocco Mediate hosts 3 episodes of his exclusive SiriusXM show, “The Rocco Hour,” Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 7 pm ET. On Saturday and Sunday, David Marr III hosts “PGA of America Radio” live from 9–10 am ET, featuring interviews with PGA of America Golf Professionals who earned spots in this year’s field.
All programming is available to SiriusXM subscribers on channel 92 and through the SiriusXM app. Full schedule details are at SiriusXM.com/golfonsxm.
Tenille Townes, Gabriel Fredette, and Cat Clyde Lead Spotify Canada’s Newest Ambassador Cycle
Spotify Canada has named its latest round of playlist ambassadors, and the lineup covers serious ground. Tenille Townes, Gabriel Fredette, and Cat Clyde are the newest faces of the EQUAL, RADAR, and Indigenous programmes respectively, each bringing a distinct voice to a platform that reaches listeners worldwide.
To mark the occasion, all 3 artists will appear on Toronto’s iconic Sankofa Square billboard. Each ambassador also curates a playlist spotlighting other genre-defying artists shaping what’s next in music.
Tenille Townes steps into the EQUAL Canada ambassador role with everything you’d expect from one of country music’s most compelling storytellers. The Grande Prairie, Alberta native, now based in Nashville, built her reputation on heartfelt, observational songwriting and vocals that don’t miss. Her advocacy for women and queer creatives aligns directly with EQUAL’s mission of amplifying underrepresented voices in music.
Gabriel Fredette carries the RADAR Canada flag, and the numbers behind him are hard to ignore. The Montreal-area artist first turned heads on La Voix in 2024, then launched “Tant qu’on est toi et moi” into the stratosphere, holding the number one position on the Mediabase Top 100 for over 13 weeks. Fredette is a genuine force in Quebec and Francophone pop, and this ambassadorship puts him exactly where the momentum says he belongs.
Cat Clyde brings the Indigenous programme a voice rooted in both place and craft. The Métis singer-songwriter, based in rural Ontario, moves between soulful blues and folk-tinged warmth with a naturalness that sounds completely uncontrived. Her album ‘Down Rounder’ established her range, and she’s currently finishing her next record for Concord Records.
The Toronto Jewish Film Foundation Announces its 34th Annual Festival, June 4–14, 2026
The Toronto Jewish Film Foundation is proud to announce the 34th annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival (TJFF), taking place in-person June 4–14, 2026, with screenings across Toronto and a selection of films available online across Ontario through to June 23.
This year’s Festival features 85 films from 22 countries, alongside two panels and two short film programmes, reflecting a wide-ranging international slate spanning documentary, narrative, and archival work. With 58 in-person screenings and 27 online presentations, TJFF continues its hybrid model, expanding access for audiences both in Toronto and across Ontario .
Opening the Festival on Thursday, June 4, at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema is the world premiere of Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls: Another Side of Woody Guthrie, directed by Steven Pressman. The film offers a revealing look at the lesser-known influence of Jewish culture on the iconic American musician, drawing on archival materials and personal histories.
Closing out the in-person programme on June 14 is You Had To Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, an intimate documentary revisiting the 1972 Toronto production that launched the careers of Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Gilda Radner and others, capturing a defining moment in Toronto’s cultural history.
This year’s programme includes 48 Canadian premieres, among them six International Premieres, six North American Premieres, and three World Premieres, highlighting TJFF’s continued role in bringing new and significant work to Canadian audiences.
Among this year’s highlights are films recognized at major international festivals, including Tell Me Everything (Sundance), Where To? and Safe House (Berlinale), Holofiction (Venice), and Brother Verses Brother (SXSW), Dead Language (Tribeca), alongside a strong slate of premieres and emerging voices. This year’s awards further reflect the strength of the programme: Duki Dror’s UNraveling UNRWAreceives the David A. Stein Memorial Award—the “Tzimmie”—a $5,000 prize for the Best Documentary making its Canadian Premiere at TJFF; and Netalie Braun’s Oxygen receives the Micki Moore Award, a $5,000 prize for the Best Narrative Feature directed by a woman. The NextGen Award for Best Short Film, selected by a jury of York University film students and sponsored by the Leonard Wolinsky Foundation, goes to It Might Even Be Real, directed by Yael Bonne.
Across the programme, films engage with questions of history, identity, and representation, from archival explorations of collective memory to contemporary stories shaped by political and social realities. Titles such as 1948: Remember, Remember Not, One Street in Silwan, and The Sea reflect a sustained engagement with how narratives are constructed, contested, and lived.
“This year’s programme reflects a range of perspectives that don’t always sit easily together, but that’s part of what makes a festival meaningful,” said Stuart Hands, Director of Programming. “Cinema creates space to encounter different histories, experiences, and points of view—sometimes in tension with one another—and to sit with that complexity rather than resolve it too quickly.”
These themes extend into the Festival’s public programming, including free panels such as Challenging Narratives: Voices of Protest in Israeli Cinema and Shared Memory: The Holocaust in Popular Art, which bring filmmakers and artists into conversation around the ethical and cultural dimensions of storytelling.
The Festival will welcome 33 guests (and counting) for in-person appearances, offering audiences opportunities for post-screening discussions and direct engagement with filmmakers and participants.
From formally inventive documentaries and archival works to intimate character-driven stories and lighter fare, TJFF2026 invites audiences to engage with a diverse range of perspectives across cultures and generations.
The Festival also includes a series of free screenings and public events, spotlighting archival gems, cult favourites, and artist-led conversations. These include The Boys and Other Snapshots of Jew-ish Toronto featuring live filmmaker commentary, Rob Reiner’s rarely screened short-lived TV series Free Country, Sidney Lumet’s Bye Bye Braverman, the 40th-anniversary presentation of Alex is Lovesick, and the panel Shared Memory: The Holocaust in Popular Art.
TJFF2026 also welcomes Belgian-Israeli cartoonist Michel Kichka as this year’s Artist-in-Residence. Best known for his graphic novel Second Generation: The Things I Didn’t Tell My Father, Kichka draws on his experience as a child of Holocaust survivors with humour, clarity, and deep personal insight. His residency spans a documentary portrait, a Carte Blanche screening, and the free public panel Shared Memory: The Holocaust in Popular Art, offering audiences multiple opportunities to engage with his work and perspective across the Festival.
TJFF’s online programme runs June 11–23, extending the Festival beyond the theatre with a curated selection of features and shorts available to stream across Ontario in 72-hour windows. The online lineup includes titles such as Bookends, Surviving Malka Leifer, Sapiro v. Ford: The Jew Who Sued Henry Ford, The Sea, The First Lady, Daytrip, and If These Walls Could Rock.
For the first time, the Festival will also host the Jewish Film Presenters Conference (June 3–4), a biennial gathering of international programmers and industry professionals. The conference includes a pitch event highlighting projects by Jewish filmmakers, with a focus on supporting new work and strengthening Jewish storytelling in Canada.
The People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Delaney Capital Management, will be announced following the Festival.
The full 2026 Festival lineup & event list can be found at https://tjff.com/tjff2026/
The Beatles Are Opening the Doors to 3 Savile Row
3 Savile Row has always been one of the most storied addresses in rock history. Now, for the first time, fans get to walk through the door. Apple Corps Ltd. has announced The Beatles at 3 Savile Row, the first-ever official Beatles fan experience, opening in London’s Mayfair district in 2027.
The building needs no introduction. It served as Apple Corps headquarters from 1968 to 1972. The band recorded ‘Let It Be’ in its basement. And on January 30, 1969, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr climbed five flights and played 42 minutes of music that stopped a city cold, their final public performance together.
All 7 floors of the Grade II listed mansion are part of the experience. Fans will move through never-before-seen archival material from Apple Corps’ extensive collection, rotating exhibitions, and a full recreation of the original basement studio where ‘Let It Be’ came to life.
The destination piece, literally and architecturally, is the rooftop. Apple Corps CEO Tom Greene confirmed the railings remain exactly as they were on that January afternoon in 1969. Fans will stand on the same surface where the Fab Four gave the world one last unforgettable show.
McCartney described the layout to the BBC with characteristic directness. “You go in on the ground floor, and there’s memorabilia and stuff like that,” he said. “Then you work your way up through the building, and see various things that happened here and there, until you get to the top, where you go out on the roof and pretend to be a Beatle.”
McCartney also offered a fuller statement: “It was such a trip to get back to 3 Savile Row recently and have a look around. There are so many special memories within the walls, not to mention the rooftop. The team have put together some really impressive plans and I’m excited for people to see it when it’s ready.”
Starr kept it short and kept it perfect: “Wow, it’s like coming home.”
The experience also includes a fan store for licensed Beatles merchandise. Greene framed the announcement in terms of what fans have always deserved. “Every single day, fans are taking pictures of the outside of 3 Savile Row,” he said, “but next year they can go in and explore all seven floors of the iconic building.”
A second experience is currently in development, with details coming later. A four-film Beatles cinematic event directed by Sam Mendes, starring Harris Dickinson, Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal, and Joseph Quinn, arrives in April 2028 through Sony Pictures. The Savile Row experience will open well before cameras roll on that one.
Fans can register now at the official Beatles website for ticketing updates and first access to news as it drops.
Why Taylor Swift’s Songwriting Still Sets the Standard
In April 2026, the New York Times polled more than 250 music insiders and named Taylor Swift one of the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters, alongside Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Dolly Parton, and Carole King. A few weeks later, she became the youngest woman ever inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She is 36 years old, and the music world is still catching up to her.
She writes with extraordinary detail
Taylor Swift understands that specificity is what makes a song feel true. She writes about a scarf left at a sister’s house, a refrigerator light, a parking lot on a Tuesday. These precise, lived-in details are what pull listeners in and keep them there. Over 90 percent of her songs use action-driven imagery that roots the listener in a specific place and time. That is craft, deliberate and repeatable, and it is one of the reasons her songs connect so deeply with so many people.
She builds real stories
Swift thinks like a novelist. From the Romeo and Juliet reimagining of Love Story at age 17, to the full character study of The Last Great American Dynasty, to the ten-minute emotional journey of All Too Well, she builds songs with genuine narrative arc. Her bridges deserve special mention. They are extended emotional turns that reframe the entire song and leave listeners somewhere completely different from where they started. Few writers working today can build a bridge the way Taylor Swift can.
For her Songwriters Hall of Fame induction, Swift personally chose five songs to represent the full range of her craft: Love Story, Blank Space, Anti-Hero, All Too Well (10 Minute Version), and The Last Great American Dynasty. Together they cover narrative storytelling, satire, confessional writing, long-form emotional depth, and character-driven historical perspective. That range across a single career is remarkable.
She grows across every album
From the country warmth of Fearless to the pop precision of 1989 to the indie-folk intimacy of Folklore and Evermore to the late-night introspection of Midnights, Swift has moved freely across genres while keeping her voice, her wit, and her emotional honesty fully intact. She has been doing this for twenty years, and each record finds a new way to surprise. Artists who sustain that level of creative restlessness across two decades belong in a very short conversation.
She writes melodies that make the words land
Swift writes melodies that serve her lyrics rather than compete with them. Her verses tend to be conversational, sitting close to just a few notes, so that the words arrive first and the melody carries them forward. When the chorus opens up, you feel the release. This approach, where every syllable lands exactly where it should, is a quality shared by the greatest pop songwriters of any era. It is also why her songs are so easy to sing along with and so hard to forget.
She writes with genuine honesty
Swift writes about self-doubt, about power imbalances in relationships, about the way the world treats women differently depending on how much success they have. She writes these things directly, and then wraps them in melodies that reach millions of people. That combination of emotional transparency and pure songwriting craft is what places her in the same conversation as the writers who shaped popular music across generations.
She is already shaping the next generation
Artists including Gracie Abrams, Maisie Peters, and Phoebe Bridgers carry clear elements of Swift’s songwriting approach in their work: the specificity, the melodic restraint, the confessional honesty, the bridge that changes everything. A generation of writers learned how to write songs by listening to hers, and that influence will keep moving forward long after the current era ends.
Taylor Swift wrote Love Story at 17. She spent years restoring All Too Well before releasing the full ten-minute version to the world. The New York Times called her one of the greatest living American songwriters. The Songwriters Hall of Fame opens its doors to her in June 2026. Twenty years in, her songwriting keeps setting the pace.
5 Budget Hacks for Seeing More Live Shows Without Going Broke
Live music is one of the best things in the world. The bad news? The average concert ticket now costs over $135 — and that’s before fees, drinks, parking, and a t-shirt you absolutely didn’t need but bought anyway.
The good news is that with a little strategy, you can see a lot more shows for a lot less money. Here’s how.
1. Master the presale
Presale tickets give you access to seats before the general public — and sometimes at better prices. The trick is knowing where to look. Sign up for artist newsletters and fan clubs, which often come with presale codes. Your credit card may already have you covered too: Citi, American Express, Capital One, and Chase all offer presale access and concert perks to cardholders. T-Mobile and Verizon do the same for their customers.
On Ticketmaster, you can follow your favourite artists directly and get notified the moment a presale opens. Treat it like a race — have your payment info ready, use your fastest internet connection, and be at your screen the moment the window opens.
Live Nation’s Concert Week typically runs each May and offers tickets to thousands of shows for around $25–$30. It’s one of the best deals of the year for live music fans. Keep an eye out for it.
2. Buy at the box office
This one sounds old-fashioned, but it works. Buying tickets directly at the venue’s physical box office lets you skip the service fees that platforms like Ticketmaster tack on — fees that routinely add 30% or more to the base price. Not every venue has a walk-up box office, but for those that do, it’s worth the trip. Bring a valid ID and check the venue’s website for box office hours before you go.
3. Go on a weeknight
Weekend shows cost more. It’s that simple. Demand drops on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, and ticket prices often follow. Weeknight concerts are also less crowded, easier to get to, and — honestly — a little more fun. You’re there for the music, not the Friday night chaos. If your schedule has any flexibility at all, this is one of the easiest ways to save 15–20% without changing anything else about your concert experience.
4. Wait until the last minute — strategically
For shows that aren’t completely sold out, the day before or the day of can be the best time to buy. Ticket holders who can no longer attend often drop prices sharply to move their seats fast. Platforms like Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, and Gametime are worth checking in the final 24–48 hours. Gametime in particular has built its entire model around last-minute deals and is a solid app to have on your phone.
A word of caution: this strategy works best for shows where you’re not heartbroken if you miss out. For the artists you absolutely can’t miss, buy early.
5. Think of festivals as a bundle deal
A festival pass that gets you two or three days of music — including headliners, up-and-coming acts, and artists you’d never have discovered otherwise — often costs the same as a single premium ticket to one arena show. Instead of treating a festival as a splurge, think of it as the smartest value in live music. You spread the cost across an entire weekend, discover new favourites, and get more memories per dollar than almost any other option out there.
Michael Pennington, Star Wars Actor and Shakespearean Giant, Dead at 82
Michael Pennington, the celebrated British actor who brought quiet menace to the role of Moff Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi and devoted a lifetime to the works of Shakespeare, has died at the age of 82.
His passing was announced on May 10, 2026. No cause of death was given.
To millions of moviegoers, Pennington was the cold, composed Death Star commander confronted by Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi — a small role, unforgettably played. But to the theatre world, he was something far larger: one of the most respected Shakespearean actors of his generation, a founder of the English Shakespeare Company, and an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Born Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington on June 7, 1943, in Cambridge, England, he joined the RSC upon graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge, and never really left the stage for long. He played Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Richard II — the great roles, again and again, with a dedication that defined his career.
That dedication was perhaps never more apparent than in 1980, when he turned down the opportunity to star opposite Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant’s Woman — simply because he could not let Hamlet go. “I realised I couldn’t let Hamlet go,” he later said, calling the role “one of the prizes.” He would eventually share the screen with Streep years later, playing Michael Foot in The Iron Lady.
In 1986, alongside director Michael Bogdanov, Pennington co-founded the English Shakespeare Company, an ambitious venture aimed at bringing large-scale classical productions to wider audiences through touring. The company’s Wars of the Roses cycle toured worldwide and was televised, cementing his place in theatrical history.
He was also a gifted collaborator. He worked frequently with Dame Judi Dench — it was watching her play Ophelia as a young man, he said, that first inspired him to pursue the theatre. “There’s no one quite like Judi,” he told The Independent in 2015. “For her, acting is playing.”
Beyond the stage, Pennington was a prolific author, writing ten books including guides to Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as a memoir on acting, Let Me Play the Lion Too. He lectured, directed, and performed internationally — in Japan, Romania, Argentina, the United States, and beyond.
His final screen role came in 2022, voicing The Trust in five episodes of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series Raised by Wolves.
Actress Miriam Margolyes, who knew him from their Cambridge days, said simply: “A very fine actor, brilliant, wise, clear. I am sad beyond measure. Bless your dear memory, old chum.”
Michael Pennington is survived by his son. His partner, Prue Skene, predeceased him in 2025.
He was 82. The stage is quieter for his absence.
How to Get More Streams on Apple Music
Hey, friends! If you’re an independent artist trying to grow your streams on Apple Music, first of all — you’re in the right place, and you’re asking exactly the right question.
Apple Music is a massive opportunity. With an estimated 95 to 110 million paying subscribers worldwide as of 2026, and a per-stream payout roughly double what Spotify pays (around $0.008 to $0.010 per stream), it’s one of the most artist-friendly platforms out there right now. Every single listener is a paying subscriber — there’s no free tier diluting your royalties.
So how do you actually grow there? Let’s go through it, step by step.
1. Claim and optimize your Apple Music for Artists profile
This is step one, and I cannot stress it enough. Your Apple Music profile is your digital home — the first thing a new listener or a playlist curator sees when they find your music.
Here’s what a great profile looks like:
- A compelling bio that tells your story, highlights your milestones, and reflects who you are as an artist. Keep it descriptive but concise — the longer it is, the fewer people will actually read to the end.
- High-quality, professional press photos that grab attention.
- Links to all your social media platforms, so curious new fans can follow you everywhere.
- Accurate genres and subgenres — think of these as directional signs that guide listeners to your music through search and discovery.
Once you’ve claimed your profile through Apple Music for Artists, you’ll also unlock access to analytics and the ability to pitch your music to editorial teams.
2. Pitch to Apple Music playlists — early and thoughtfully
Getting onto an Apple Music editorial playlist can absolutely transform your stream counts. Apple’s editorial playlists are curated by real human teams, and they’re among the most influential in the world.
Here’s how to approach pitching:
- Submit at least 10 days before your release date for full editorial consideration. There’s a hard cutoff at 7 days prior for late adds.
- You get one pitch per song, and it cannot be edited after submission — so take your time and do it right.
- Your pitch should have a clear shape: open with the genre and closest reference artist. Describe what makes the song distinctive — the hook, a production choice, the lyrical angle. Close with your credentials: prior streaming numbers, past playlist placements, any press or sync highlights. Keep it factual, not hype-y.
- Fill in every metadata field: mood, genre, subgenre, instrumentation, Spatial Audio details, lyrics. The more context you give, the better Apple’s editorial team can match your music to the right playlist.
Don’t have direct access to the pitch tool? Work with your music distributor — companies like DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, and AWAL often have direct relationships with Apple Music and can pitch on your behalf.
3. Use pre-adds to build momentum before release
Apple Music’s pre-add feature is the equivalent of a Spotify pre-save, and it’s a secret weapon a lot of artists don’t use enough. When fans pre-add your upcoming release, the music is automatically added to their library the moment it goes live — which means an immediate surge of streams on release day. That surge gets noticed. By curators. By algorithms. By everyone.
Ask your fans to pre-add through your social channels, your email list, and anywhere else you connect with them. Make it easy with a direct link.
4. Use Apple Music for Artists analytics — seriously
The analytics inside Apple Music for Artists are deeper than most people realize, and using them strategically can genuinely change how you make decisions. For every track, you can see streams, listeners, and Shazam activity, average completion rates broken into 25/50/75/100% buckets, the top playlists driving your streams, and which regions are responding most to your music.
The completion rate data is especially valuable. Apple’s editorial team weighs first-listen retention heavily — a track that holds 70%+ of listeners past the halfway point signals a well-structured song. If your drop-off happens at the 25% mark, you might have an intro problem worth addressing in your next release. Use the regional data, too. If a particular city or country is lighting up for you, that’s a market to lean into with targeted promotion.
5. Leverage Shazam integration
Here’s one that’s unique to Apple Music: Shazam matters. When someone Shazams your music — whether they heard it at a coffee shop, in a store, or on a friend’s speaker — they can be directed immediately to your Apple Music track. That seamless discovery can directly increase your stream counts.
Encourage your fans to Shazam your songs when they hear them out in the world. And make sure your music is properly registered — Shazam is owned by Apple, and its activity feeds directly into Apple Music’s recommendation systems.
6. Promote on social media — with purpose
“Post more” isn’t actually the advice — it’s post smarter. What works:
- Behind-the-scenes content that shows your creative process and makes fans feel connected to you.
- Music previews and teaser clips that create excitement before release.
- Apple Music’s own promotional tools — badges, smart links, embeddable players, and audio cards for Twitter/X that let people preview directly.
- Tagging playlists and curators when you get a placement — it builds relationships and tells the algorithm something good is happening.
And here’s a tip: Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to do your pitching pushes, since editorial teams tend to prep playlists by Thursday. Align your social media energy around that rhythm.
7. Collaborate with other artists
Collaborations are one of the fastest ways to reach new audiences — and they’re underused. A feature or joint release introduces you to your collaborator’s entire fanbase overnight. Beyond that, collaborative momentum builds the kind of organic traction that catches playlist curators’ attention. When your listener numbers are growing consistently, curators become more likely to take a chance on you.
8. Release consistently — not just once in a while
Both Apple Music’s editorial teams and its algorithmic systems reward artist consistency. Releasing music every 6–8 weeks keeps you in rotation, signals to the platform that you’re an active artist, and gives curators a reason to come back to your profile. You don’t need to reinvent yourself every release. Just keep showing up.
9. Consider Dolby Atmos / Spatial Audio
Here’s a bonus tip that most artists overlook: releasing in Dolby Atmos earns you an additional royalty bump of approximately 10% on top of the baseline rate for Atmos streams. Apple has invested heavily in Spatial Audio and actively promotes it. If your music can be mixed in Atmos, it’s worth exploring — both for the listener experience and the financial upside.
Growing on Apple Music isn’t magic — it’s strategy, consistency, and genuinely connecting with your audience. Claim your profile. Pitch early and thoughtfully. Use your analytics. Build pre-add campaigns. Collaborate. Show up on social. And keep releasing music. The listeners are there, the payout is there — and with the right approach, your music can be there too.
Good luck out there. I’m rooting for you.