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Norwegian Art-Pop Visionary AURORA Joins Forces With World of Warcraft on Original Song “A Place To Call Home”

Eric Alper
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Norwegian Art-Pop Visionary AURORA Joins Forces With World of Warcraft on Original Song “A Place To Call Home”

Two worlds with devoted global followings have found common ground. Blizzard Entertainment has released “A Place To Call Home,” an original song featuring Norwegian art-pop artist AURORA, created in collaboration with the Blizzard music team for World of Warcraft: Midnight. Co-written by Brendon Williams, AURORA, and Laura Intravia, the track blends AURORA’s signature ethereal vocals with cinematic, fantasy-driven production built around themes of belonging, resilience, and the search for home within Azeroth. The music video is streaming now on the World of Warcraft YouTube channel.

The pairing makes complete sense. AURORA has spent a decade building one of the most distinctive and devoted fanbases in global music, accumulating over 2.6 billion streams across critically acclaimed albums including ‘All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend’, ‘The Gods We Can Touch’, and her latest ‘What Happened to the Heart?’, while touring over 50 countries and selling nearly 300,000 tickets worldwide. World of Warcraft has been one of the defining cultural forces in online gaming since its 2004 launch, with hundreds of millions of players across its 30-year history building lives, alliances, and identities inside Azeroth. Both artist and game trade in worlds you can disappear into completely, and “A Place To Call Home” captures exactly that feeling.

ZZ Top Announce First South America Tour Dates In 16 Years This November

Eric Alper
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ZZ Top Announce First South America Tour Dates In 16 Years This November

ZZ Top are heading south. The legendary Texas trio has announced eight dates across Mexico and South America this November as part of their ongoing “The Big One!” tour, marking the band’s first South American performances in 16 years. Pre-sale tickets are available Wednesday, March 25 at 10:00am local time, with public on-sale Friday, March 27, except Santiago and Buenos Aires which go on sale April 17.

The run opens with three Mexican dates in Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey before the band heads to Santiago, Chile, then across Brazil with stops in Porto Alegre, Curitiba, and São Paulo, closing in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “ZZ Top is looking forward to bringing its rock ‘n’ roll roadshow back to our amigos in Argentina, Brazil and Chile,” said frontman Billy F Gibbons. “We are always excited to be with our longtime friends, fans and followers en México. ¡Todo bien!”

The Big One! November 2026:

November 9 – Guadalajara, MX – Telemex Auditorium

November 11 – Ciudad de México, MX – Auditorio Nacional

November 12 – Monterrey, MX – Banamex Auditorium

November 16 – Santiago, CL

November 18 – Porto Alegre, BR – Pepsi On Stage

November 20 – Curitiba, BR – Igloo Super Hall

November 21 – São Paulo, BR – Espaço Unimed

November 24 – Buenos Aires, AR

Dutch Marching Band K&G Leiden Tears Through Metallica’s “Master Of Puppets” And It Absolutely Delivers

Eric Alper
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Dutch Marching Band K&G Leiden Tears Through Metallica’s “Master Of Puppets” And It Absolutely Delivers

Dutch show and marching band K&G Leiden brought full intensity to the 2024 Streetparade Vlaardingen in The Netherlands with a jaw-dropping arrangement of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” captured by a smoothly-moving lead vehicle and shared by trumpet player Max Karreman. The performance is tight, powerful, and as committed as the original.

Canadian Artists Generated CAD $544M on Spotify in 2025 as Loud & Clear Canada 2026 Report Lands During JUNO Week

Eric Alper
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Canadian Artists Generated CAD $544M on Spotify in 2025 as Loud & Clear Canada 2026 Report Lands During JUNO Week

The numbers behind Canada’s global music dominance are now on the record. Spotify has released Loud & Clear Canada 2026, its annual transparency report on streaming revenue, dropping it during JUNO Awards week in Toronto. The headline figure is striking: Canadian artists generated more than CAD $544 million in royalties from Spotify alone in 2025, up 19% year over year and nearly 60% over four years, vastly outpacing Canada’s total recorded music revenue growth of 5.6% in the same period.

The global reach driving those numbers is equally significant. Ninety-two percent of those royalties came from listeners outside Canada, confirming what the industry has suspected: export is not a bonus for Canadian artists, it is the engine. Canadian artists were discovered by first-time Spotify listeners more than 3.56 billion times in 2025. Over 370 Canadian artists generated more than $100K CAD on the platform alone, more than 100 surpassed $500K CAD, and nearly 70 crossed the $1 million CAD threshold.

“Canada has always punched above its weight culturally, but Loud & Clear shows the scale behind that success,” said Elizabeth Phipps, Head of Artist and Label Partnerships at Spotify Canada. “With a market of under 40 million people, export isn’t optional, it’s fundamental to the future of Canada’s music sector.”

Francophone music is a particular bright spot. Royalties from French-language music increased 38% globally in just two years. Montreal artist Charlotte Cardin, who records in both French and English, speaks to the shift: “People are so open to listening and being touched by a song or an album that’s not necessarily in the language that they speak or understand.” Punjabi-Canadian music and diaspora-driven genres are seeing similar international momentum.

Alongside the report, Spotify is launching SongDNA, a new interactive feature built into the listening experience that maps the full creative network behind any track, from songwriters and producers to collaborators, samples, and influences. It is the kind of tool that makes music discovery feel like genuine exploration.

Country Music Hall of Fame Icon Reba McEntire Brings “One Night In Atoka” to Her Hometown Restaurant on April 9

Eric Alper
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Country Music Hall of Fame Icon Reba McEntire Brings “One Night In Atoka” to Her Hometown Restaurant on April 9

Reba McEntire is going home. The Country Music Hall of Fame member has announced “One Night In Atoka,” a one-night-only pop-up performance at Reba’s Place, her restaurant and entertainment venue housed in a restored historic Masonic Temple in Atoka, Oklahoma. The intimate, stripped-down show takes place April 9 and offers fans something genuinely rare: McEntire in her hometown, in a room built around her personal history.

The venue itself is worth the trip. Reba’s Place spans two stories and includes expansive dining areas, a live music stage, a rotating collection of memorabilia from McEntire’s personal archives, and exclusive limited-edition merchandise available for one night only. This is not a arena show dressed down. It is something far more specific and personal than that.

Fans can enter to win tickets now at RebasPlace.com/OneNightInAtoka. The online sweepstakes, open to residents of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, closes March 31 with winners notified by April 2. An additional in-person drawing takes place at Reba’s Place on April 9, with entries accepted from 10:00am CST and the draw held at 6:00pm CST. In partnership with the City of Atoka, a free public simulcast of the performance will stream on a newly installed high-definition screen at the outdoor stage in the park behind the restaurant.

McEntire’s resume makes the intimacy of this event all the more striking. Thirty-five number one singles, more than 58 million albums sold worldwide, 60 Billboard Country Airplay Top 10 hits, and a record that places her alongside George Jones, Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton as the only artists with Top 10 success across five straight decades. Her latest single “Trailblazer,” featuring Lainey Wilson and Miranda Lambert, pulled 2.6 million on-demand streams in its first week alone.

One night, one room, one of the most decorated artists in country music history. Atoka is the place to be on April 9.

Swindon Post-Grunge Trio I See Orange Turn a Love of Red Wine Into a Powerhouse New Single “Wine Boy”

Eric Alper
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Swindon Post-Grunge Trio I See Orange Turn a Love of Red Wine Into a Powerhouse New Single “Wine Boy”

A bottle of red wine, a Friday night ritual, and a Mexican-born bassist living in Swindon. That is where “Wine Boy” began. I See Orange, the UK-based post-grunge power trio, have released their latest single and video, a surging alt-rock track that personifies a bottle of wine as a love interest and turns the metaphor into something genuinely compelling. Louder Than War calls it “a track that captures the band’s knack for balancing gritty rock textures with sharp melodic instincts.”

“Lyrically, ‘Wine Boy’ explores the feeling of being in love in a metaphorically non-sober state, intoxicated not just by another person, but by sensation, desire, and obsession,” says lead singer and bassist Giselle Medina, who moved from Sinaloa, Mexico to the U.K. in 2022. The concept grew from her own discovery of wine as a social drink, a ritual she called her Poets Fridays, and evolved into something far more vivid and emotionally charged.

The track itself delivers. Fuzzy guitars, layered harmonies, and infectious melodies collide with the kind of commercial instincts that separate bands who understand songs from bands who just understand volume. Medina, guitarist Cameron Hill, and drummer Charlie Hart have been sharpening this sound since forming in Swindon in 2022, and recent showcase appearances at New York’s New Colossus Festival and Austin’s SXSW have been turning heads well beyond their U.K. base.

The band’s trajectory is accelerating. Their single “Mental Rot,” supported by Seattle NPR flagship KEXP and the BBC, surpassed 353,000 YouTube views. “Doll Guts” made history as the first single released on London-based Japanese label JPU Records by a non-Japanese artist. Last week, the trio wrapped a recording session in Los Angeles with producer Phillip Broussard Jr., whose credits include Adele, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and System of a Down, assembling material for their debut album.

A debut record produced by Phillip Broussard Jr. with this much momentum behind it is worth watching closely.

Pixies Announce 7 New U.S. Dates As They Mark 40 Years Of Reshaping Modern Music

Eric Alper
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Pixies Announce 7 New U.S. Dates As They Mark 40 Years Of Reshaping Modern Music

Forty years in and Pixies are still filling rooms that matter. The band has announced seven new US dates for September 2026, their first North American shows since a 2025 tour that drew raves from coast to coast. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 27 at 10am local time at pixiesmusic.com.

The run adds headline stops in Greenville SC, Wilmington NC, Louisville KY, Columbia MO, Santa Fe NM, and Tucson AZ, alongside festival appearances at the Borderland Music Festival in East Aurora NY and the Sea Hear Now Festival in Asbury Park NJ. The shows arrive as Charles “Black Francis” Thompson, Joey Santiago, David Lovering, and Emma Richardson round out a year that takes them through China, the Philippines, Hong Kong, the UK, and Europe first.

2026 marks the 40th anniversary of the band’s 1986 formation and the release of the Come On Pilgrim mini-LP. The milestone lands alongside another staggering one: “Where Is My Mind?” from 1988’s immortal ‘Surfer Rosa’ has surpassed one billion plays on Spotify. A catalog that includes platinum-certified ‘Doolittle’, ‘Bossanova’, ‘Trompe le Monde’, and seven more albums keeps growing in stature with each passing generation.

Their ninth album ‘The Night The Zombies Came’, released October 25 via BMG, drew immediate praise from AllMusic, who called it among their finest post-reunion music. The Hollywood Reporter recently declared them “the band that drew the blueprint for alternative rock.” That blueprint is still being followed by half the bands on the planet.

Pixies USA 2026:

September 15 – Greenville, SC – Peace Center Concert Hall

September 16 – Wilmington, NC – Cape Fear Community College Wilson Center

September 19 – East Aurora, NY – Borderland Music Festival

September 20 – Asbury Park, NJ – Sea Hear Now Festival

September 22 – Louisville, KY – Iroquois Amphitheater

September 23 – Columbia, MO – Rose Park

September 25 – Santa Fe, NM – The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing

September 26 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre

Best Instagram Downloaders in 2026: A Comparison of the Top Tools

Eric Alper
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By Mitch Rice

In 2026 social media reporting shows that which is once underdog in the space of Instagram content download has now come to the front. A wide range of content from Reels and Stories which are short form to carousel posts and high resolution pictures are available that users want out for they own use as a resource for creative ideas, content which they want to archive, and also for education. As social media trends towards a video first experience it is noticeable that the demand for tools which allow users to download content from Instagram has increased greatly.

Modern downloaders have improved in speed, privacy, format flexibility and device compatibility. Many of these tools integrate into the browser, and also there is a range which develop desktop software for large scale downloads and advanced media management. Also a increasing trend is multi platform support which means that tools are now able to save media from not only Instagram but also many other popular sites in one place.

Fast speeds, support for Reels, image quality, playlist saving, cross platform compatibility. Below is a comparrison of what are today’s most used and preferred tools.

SaveFromIns

SaveToIns is a useful platform which is put forward for users that are looking for an easy and quick solution to save Instagram content. It is also reported that it does a great job of downloading videos, photos, Reels, and audio from many different popular sites which in turn makes it a much more flexible tool than that of the single platform options.

Users post a media link, choose the one which is in their prefered format, then start the download.

Because of what it does which is to download online video and music, it is also very useful for people which have one thing they can use on many platforms as opposed to separate apps for each site.

Best for: Fast web downloads and multiple website media support.

4K Video Downloader

In 2026 4K Video Downloader is still the go to desktop solution. Although known mainly for YouTube downloads it also does an excellent job with Instagram profiles, Reels, Stories and post videos.

It’s in it’s high quality downloads which is seen as the primary benefit, including HD and 4K when that is an option. Also the software does batch download which is very much so for creators, researchers, or social media managers that require to archive large scale amounts of content.

Desktop software has better file organization, naming and storage options which users don’t get with web based apps.

Best for: Large scale downloads and high resolution media archiving.

SnapInsta

SnapInsta also a very popular web based Instagram downloader which has speed as its focus. It is out there for the most part to download Reels and Stories with ease.

The platform does very well with mobile users’ needs as it functions very well in mobile browsers. This makes it a go to option for users which tend to save content right to their smart phones or tablets.

It’s that of simplicity that is seen rather then complex features, which also makes it for casual use.

Best for: Quick mobile friendly Reel downloads.

Inflact Downloader

Inflact presents a better and more robust solution for Instagram download. It is seen that they go beyond the basic video and photo download to include profile based downloads and story save which in turn is very useful for professional settings.

Many users’ favorite feature is that is handles full public profiles at once and also organizes the downloads into a more structured format. This makes it very useful for agencies, analysts, and those who have to go back to the same accounts repeatedly.

It is that it includes a wider range of social media features which in turn appeals to users that don’t just want a basic download tool.

Best for: Profile level downloads and in depth usage.

FastDl

In 2026 FastDl saw an increase in it’s user base for which it is credited to it’s clean interface and strong performance with Instagram Reels. It is also noted that it is a fully web based service which puts focus on quick link action and smooth file delivery.

The tool works on all devices from desktop to mobile, users are just asked to copy over the Instagram URL. A very simple design was used which in turn makes it easy for new users, also it was seen that a fast response time really appealed to repeat users.

For users whose speed is a priority over features this is the best choice.

Best for: Rapid and easy browser downloads.

iGram

IGram also is a popular choice for downloading Instagram videos, photos, carousels and Reels. It is noted that they do well in terms of quality conservation and support for many file types.

The service is online which makes it available across operating systems. Also it does a better job of handling carousel post downloads than many other light weight options which in turn makes it a good choice for users who want to get all images and videos from a single post.

Best for: Rotating posts and also included mixed media.

JDownloader 2

For tech savvy users JDownloader 2 is a great desktop choice. It goes beyond Instagram and handles downloads from many sites.

Its includes of which are batch processing, download queue management, automated link grabbing, and resume support. May have a small learning curve but power users prefer it for large scale media collection tasks.

This is for those that require efficiency and automation.

Best for: Advanced users and also large download queues.

Comparison Summary: Which is the best Instagram Downloader?

The best Instagram downloader in 2026 depends on the user’s goals.

  • For quick online downloads: SaveFromIns, SnapInsta, and FastDl 
  • For professional desktop use: 4K Video Downloader and JDownloader 2 
  • For profile and account-based saving: Inflact 
  • For carousel and mixed posts: iGram

Users that are in search of a lightweight browser solution may go for savefrom Instagram type tools which also include support for Instagram with download from other popular sites. On the other hand users with large media libraries may see more value in desktop software which offers batch processing and automation.

Overall what is seen is that which which does it best balances speed, performance, media quality and ease of use according to the user’s workflow.

Data and information are provided for informational purposes only, and are not intended for investment or other purposes.

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London Power Alternative Duo Joel X Eleanor Map the Full Terrain of Love on Double Single “Garden Plot / Something Strange”

Eric Alper
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London Power Alternative Duo Joel X Eleanor Map the Full Terrain of Love on Double Single “Garden Plot / Something Strange”

Two songs, two emotional worlds, one completely distinctive voice. London-based power alternative duo Joel X Eleanor have released “Garden Plot / Something Strange,” a double single that moves between obsession and tenderness with the kind of precision that defines everything they do. Both autistic and intensely detail-driven, the pair approach songwriting where every lyric, melody, and sound must earn its place.

“Garden Plot” opens with apparent warmth and slowly reveals something darker underneath. Eleanor wrote the song after Joel asked her for flowers, the idea being to plant a garden that blooms year after year rather than offer cut flowers that die. Joel’s brooding production reframes that sweetness into fixation, transforming domestic imagery into something quietly unsettling. Recorded partly at Joel’s grandmother’s house in Birkenhead and an AirBnB in Derby, the track even incorporates a Christmas tree made from aluminium cones as percussion, and carries a whispered line from Hungarian poet Attila József. The video, filmed on the streets of Camden and Walthamstow, brings that tension to life with full commitment.

“Something Strange” moves in the opposite direction. Softer and more vulnerable, the track captures the disorienting adjustment of sharing your life with someone for the first time, that moment when solitude becomes companionship. Eleanor’s layered contralto vocals guide the emotional weight while Joel’s production holds space rather than fills it.

The pair cut their teeth between 2022 and 2025 as London underground rock band Sweet Anna before stepping forward as Joel X Eleanor. Their sonic reference points run from Radiohead and Muse to The Smashing Pumpkins and the harmonic richness of London’s modern jazz scene. Mixed and mastered by Julie Bartley at Rolling Audio in Newcastle, both tracks sit heavy, melodic, and unmistakably their own.

Live Dates:

June 6 – Canterbury, UK – HMV

September 12 – Matlock, UK – Spectrum Festival

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That Eric Alper

Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.

Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com

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