Blackstone, Hipgnosis Partner to Invest in Music; Alternative Classical Launches Opera Roulette; DistroKid Joins with American Songwriter on Song Contest

Blackstone said on Tuesday it would deploy around $1 billion in partnership with an advisory firm owned by music executive Merck Mercuriadis to buy music rights and record songs as online streaming gains popularity and becomes more lucrative.

Alternative Classical has launched Opera Roulette, a free and fun way to watch scenes from live opera performances from all over the world.

Leading music distribution platform DistroKid has partnered with American Songwriter to become the “Exclusive Music Distributor” Song Contest Sponsor for 2021 and 2022.

$5 grad school by Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst, covering the people, projects and technologies shaping 21st century culture.

'Things Take Time, Take Time' according to the next album by Australian artist Courtney Barnett. It doesn't take much time to play with her music stems.

Last year, Spotify decided to embrace podcasts as part of the company’s larger communications strategy with the launch of its behind-the-scenes podcast, “Spotify: For the Record,” which has featured interviews with Spotify execs, employees and industry experts about music, tech and podcasting.

Podcast studio Audio Up and SiriusXM enter a creative programming and strategic agreement and announce a $12 million Series B funding round.

Facebook is expanding its investment in audio initiatives with the launch of a new “Audio” destination in its mobile app in the U.S., where users will be able to discover in one place all the audio formats Facebook now hosts, including podcasts, Live Audio Rooms and short-form audio.

Taishi Fukuyama from QRATES.com discusses vinyl.

From Yves Tumor to Tems to MIKE, these musicians are blazing new paths forward.

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