New Music and Tours

Drake recently hinted that he’s working on a new album, potentially a full-length record which would follow the Scary Hours EP from January 2018. Drake himself posted a picture via Instagram which reveals that he’s spending time in the studio recording new material. The date of the album release has not been announced yet.

Who’s ready for this album to drop #Roommates!? Can y’all guess what it’s called? #Drake

A post shared by The Shade Room (@theshaderoom) on Apr 2, 2018 at 4:27am PDT

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has announced a solo album release, which will happen on 15th June via Warner Bros Records. Shinoda has already released Post Traumatic EP this year, with three deeply personal songs influenced by the death of Linkin’ Park’s co-frontman, Chester Bennington. The coming album, sharing the same name as that EP, was described by Shinoda as “a journey out of grief and darkness, not into grief and darkness.” Shinoda will also be going on a solo tour later this year, performing in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Osaka, Tokyo, and Leeds at Leeds Reading Festival on the 24th August.

Ben Folds and Cake will be co-headlining a tour this summer in the United States and will be visiting eight different locations this August, performing in Philadelphia, Forest Hills, Columbia, Richmond, Nashville, Highland Park, Milwaukee and Indianapolis. Folds’ last solo album, Way To Normal, was released in 2008, followed by a handful of collaborative projects, while Cake’s most recent LP, Showroom of Compassion, saw the day of light in 2011.

Music Business

George Ezra’s sophomore album, Staying At Tamara’s has officially become UK’s best-performing album of 2018 with and an equivalent of 63,000 copies sold and streamed. Ezra’s first chart-topping record, Wanted On Voyage, came out in 2014, but it took it several weeks to reach the top spot, contrary to his second LP. Staying At Tamara’s dethroned The Greatest Showman soundtrack, which had been at no. 1 for eleven weeks, a record which it holds along with Adele’s album, 21.

Apple Music is adding video content to its streaming platform after the promise of becoming “home for music videos”. Subscribers will gain an exclusive access to music video premieres from artists such as Kylie Minogue, A Tribe Called Quest, Beck, Sabrina or Jonas Blue, as well as curated playlists and highlights such as ‘Today’s Video Hits’. Apple Music is merging the music and video experiences in an effort to distinguish itself from other streaming services, as well as to find a more effective way of connecting with music fans.