New Music

Dirty Projectors teased new music this week by sharing a short video on their Instagram page with a fragment of a new song playing in it. The Instagram post is also advertising a tour the band announced earlier this month. This new world tour will include a date at Riley Smith Hall at the University of Leeds on August 20th, with the band also set to perform in London, Glasgow and at Green Man Festival in the UK.

Pearl Jam also shared a new song this week, ‘Can’t Deny Me’, which is now available to listen on streaming platforms. Previously, the song was released exclusively to Pearl Jam fan-club members. The band has also confirmed that they are preparing to release a new album, a follow up to Lightning Bolt from 2013.

Tours

Breaking Benjamin are going on tour this year, starting April 25th in Richmond. 10 Years, another American rock band, will be joining them on almost all of the tour dates, which will last until 20th May, ending in Columbus. Breaking Benjamin are going to release their sixth album, Ember, on April 13th on Hollywood Records.

Justin Vernon also revealed that Bon Iver is going on tour this summer. The artist announced ten North American dates; the tour will kick off in Portland on May 24th and will include venues and festivals in George, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Missoula, Chicago, Indianapolis, Manchester and Santa Barbara.

Beyonce and Jay-Z have officially confirmed that they will be going on their second joint-headline tour this summer. During their “On The Road 2” tour, the pair will visit stadiums across Europe and America, including four dates in the UK. Beyonce and Jay-Z will perform in Cardiff on June 6th, Glasgow on the 9th, Manchester on the 13th, and London on the 15th. Dates in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and France are in the schedule too, before the pair will head back to North America to continue touring until October 2018.

A post shared by Beyoncé (@beyonce) on Mar 12, 2018 at 6:55am PDT

Although Arctic Monkeys are making their home fans wait and have not yet revealed any UK concert dates, the band already announced their North American tour dates for May, June, July and August. North American fans will be able to see the Arctic Monkeys perform in the US in Los Angeles, Raleigh, Nashville, Atlanta, Queens, Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh, Detroit and in Toronto, Canada.

Music Business

Kobalt announced that it will be investing $150 million into AWAL, its newly established recorded music business division, described as “music services for independent artists.”

Kobalt wants to move on from traditional label deals and offer independent artists more freedom and flexibility. It will let creators retain full control of their music rights while taking 15% share of the revenue. AWAL will also offer data analytics, such as earnings from Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, distribution across those platforms, playlist promotion, as well as marketing, synch, press & radio releases, and funding.