Music Biz Headlines, March 22, 2019

By Kerry Doole

How the Junos started an unlikely friendship between Arkells & Jeremy Dutcher

At the Canadian music awards ceremony, a stranger, Max Kerman, frontman of Arkells, invited Dutcher back up to the stage when they won rock album of the year so he could finish his speech. – Karen Bliss, Billboard 

Conductor Noel Edison launches new choir after sexual misconduct allegations

The former artistic director of the Elora Festival and Singers – which fired him last year – and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir – from which he resigned shortly afterward – is starting a new choir, the Edison Singers. – Marsha Lederman, Globe and Mail

Ralph’s Good time 

The Toronto pop singer and adult woman brings her debut full-length A Good Girl to her show opening for Scott Helman tonight. – Brandon Young, The Coast

Interview: Leikeli47 takes us behind the mask

One of hip-hop's most fascinating rising stars, the balaclava-clad rapper talks vulnerability, confidence and the Black experience. – Sumiko Wilson, NOW 

The Bad Beats let 'er rip on Off the Hook

The point I’m trying to make here is that this Vancouver four-piece is no bunch of fuzz-pedal dilettantes. The group's second album offers solid evidence. – Adrian Mack, Georgia Straight

Villages’ trad pride 

After laying an indie-rock base in Mardeen, the folk quartet Villages goes back to its Cape Breton roots with its debut LP.  – Jonathan Briggins The Coast

Percy Jackson musical The Lightning Thief is a hit with kids

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical kicked off its run at the Ed Mirvish Theatre on Tuesday evening and this rock musical with mythical inspiration is definitely aimed at the adolescent, tween and teen set. – Raju Mudhar, Toronto Star

 Council votes to sell Pantages Theatre, protect downtown Bay store

Theatre on Market Avenue in Winnipeg to be sold for $530,000 to developers who intend to keep it open. – Laura Glowacki, CBC

international

Guy Oseary launches GoFundMe for New Zealand mass shooting victims

'It was important for me, an Israeli Jew, to show love, says the US music mogul. – Rania Aniftos, Billboard

YTD stats: Massive streams, physical outselling digital

On-demand audio streaming now makes up more than three-quarters of all music consumption in the U.S. The equivalent of nearly 125m albums has been sold and streamed through 3/14. Of that total, nearly 100m equivalents come from streaming, representing 77.5% of the total market. Physical albums, meanwhile, have logged north of 13m units so far this year, with a 10.5% share (CDs 8%, LPs 2.5%). Digital albums and tracks have been rapidly dwindling. – Hits Daily Double

'Refuse whitewash of Israel's crimes': Roger Waters calls for Eurovision boycott

Ex-Pink Floyd frontman argues artists who opt out of contest set for May in 'apartheid' Tel Aviv will be 'remembered for standing on the right side of history' – Aya Chajut, Haaretz

Music-making platform Splice raises $57.5m, with ex-SONGS boss Matt Pincus backing company

Cloud-based music creation and collaboration platform Splice has just raised $57.5 million in a Series C funding round. Among the platform’s backers are Matt Pincus, founder of SONGS Music Publishing. – Murray Stassen, MBW

Grimes announces new concept album ‘Miss_Anthrop0cene’

Four years after Art Angels, Grimes is ready to birth a new full-length record, the pleasantly complicated opus Miss_Anthrop0cene, which she detailed last night on social media. – Victoria Wasylak, Vanyaland

Robert Smith confirms first new Cure Album in 10 years: 'It sounds like us'

It's been a decade since fans have gotten new music from The Cure, but don't let your mascara run just yet, new tracks are just around the corner. Smith states “I’m still doing this for the right reasons.” – Gil Kaufman, Billboard

Op-Ed: Woodstock 50

It’s just another festival. Albeit with a legendary brand name, which has been tarnished by two previous anniversary iterations. The festival business has changed. Everything doesn’t sell out. Some crater completely, like Pemberton in British Columbia. If you build it, there’s a good chance they will not come. Even if they’ve come before, they might not again. – Bob Lefsetz, Celebrity Access

Rita Ora’s taxi driver taught her how to speak Spanish for Sofia Reyes collaboration

Rita Ora recently teamed up with Sofia Reyes and Anitta on the single “R.I.P.” The song, released last week, is a mix of Spanish, English, and Portuguese. Reyes has revealed that Rita’s taxi driver was the person who taught her Spanish for the song. – Fabio Magnocavallo, inquisitr

If I may be so bold: An essay by Hayes Carll

I was shocked to learn that there were people following me and calling themselves my fans who thought I should keep my mouth shut about those issues. I had been unaware that calling out white supremacists would be upsetting or surprising to anyone who listened to me, but it was. – No Depression

These New Puritans: Inside the Rose review – swimming in ideas

While not as commercial as they profess, TNP’s fourth album is surprisingly direct and romantic. – Alexis Petridis, The Guardian

New Netflix biopic The Dirt prompts rueful reflection from Motley Crue

Partying with Ozzy Osbourne, snorting cocaine off drum kits and having sex backstage with groupies mid-show. These are just a few of Motley Crue’s wild antics depicted in their biopic The Dirt (now streaming on Netflix), which charts the band’s meteoric rise to fame in the 1980s. – Patrick Ryan, USA Today

Report: Music fuels economic growth in cities

Sound Diplomacy, a London-based music strategy consultancy, has released a 13-point manual illustrating how investing in music can lead to economic, social and cultural development in cities.  – Anna Grace, iq

The Dils roar back with sold-out show in Long Beach

Seminal LA punks deliver at the head of a strong bill. – Brett Callwood,  LA Weekly

 Incredible ‘game-changing ball’ is world’s first portable recording studio

A Polish start-up has been wowing music industry veterans with the world’s first microphone recording studio. – Nick Westerby, thefirstnews

Country singer Justin Carter dies after he's shot with a gun being used as a music video prop

The rising Texan country music star had signed a deal with Triple Threat Management just days before his death. – Taryn Ryder, Yahoo Music