New Music and Tours

Kamasi Washington announced that his new double album, Heaven And Earth, will be released on 22nd June via Young Turks. The artists previewed his next record with two new songs ‘Fists Of Fury’ from the Earth side of the album and ‘The Space Travelers Lullaby’ from the Heaven side. The album was recorded with Washington’s band, The Next Step, and members of the West Coast Get Down. Washington will also go on an extensive, North American tour, throughout June, July, October and November, visiting over 30 different locations in support of his new album.  

The highly anticipated sixth record from the Arctic Monkeys, Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, will be released by the band on May 11th via Domino. Arctic Monkeys also finally announced UK and Ireland tour dates – the band’s British and Irish fans will be able to see them perform in September 2018 in Manchester, London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Dublin and Newcastle.

We’re pleased to announce our live dates in September 2018. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 13th April. Support comes from @thelemontwigs – for more information head to our website.

A post shared by Arctic Monkeys (@arcticmonkeys) on Apr 9, 2018 at 12:57am PDT

Lykke Li teased new music by releasing a 90-second video called ‘so sad so sexy.’ On 14th March, Lykke Li confirmed via Twitter that a new song will be coming soon, yet she didn’t specify when and whether a new album will also be released this year. The mysterious teaser features some cinematic visuals and a fragment of new music.

The Cure are back in the studio, which was apparently inspired by the band having a chance to curate the 25th annual Meltdown Festival. It has been shared by Robert Smith that The Cure are working on new music, while he also admitted that “Funnily enough, doing this Meltdown thing has actually galvanized me and I’ve booked studio time for the band.” Smith revealed that their performance at Meltdown might already feature some new songs, although he also said: “I never wanted to be in a position where I was forcing myself to write.” The Cure will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their first album on 9th July 2019, something that Smith mentioned as well: “What shall we do? Go back to Crawley, where it all started? Play in the pub where we did our first show as The Cure? Or should we go mega, play a show in every capital city in the world?”

Chromeo announced a new album and tour dates. The Montreal-based duo will be releasing their new record, Head Over Heels, on 15th June via Warner Bros. Their newest LP will welcome a bunch of guest artists, including The-Dream, French Montana, Stefflon Don, and Amber Mark. The first song from the album, titled ‘Must’ve Been’, is already available to listen and features a Grammy nominated singer DRAM.

Music Business

VEVO experienced a security breach on their website on 10th April, with a number of high-profile music videos falling victim to hackers. The videos’ thumbnails and titles have been replaced, including ‘Despacito’, a video with the highest number of views in the world. The video’s thumbnail was changed to a picture of a group of masked people holding guns. Music videos by other artists, including Taylor Swift, Shakira, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, or Drake were also affected by the breach. VEVO confirmed that the security breach did take place and added that: “We are working to reinstate all videos affected and our catalogue to be restored to full working order. We are continuing to investigate the source of the breach.”