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One Liners: Apple Homepod, Christian O’Connell, Britney Spears, more

By and | Published on Wednesday 24 January 2018

Apple Homepod

Other notable announcements and developments today…

• Universal Music Canada has promoted Kristen Burke to Executive Vice President and General Manager. She was previously Senior Vice President of Marketing. “Kristen is the coach and mentor that our artists want in their corner”, says CEO Jeffrey Remedios.

• Ezekiel ‘Zeke’ Lewis has joined Sony’s Epic Records in the US as Executive Vice President of A&R, moving over from Universal’s Motown label. “I am excited”, says Lewis.

• Napster, which is still a thing, has named Venesa Hoffmann as its new VP Business Development & Operations for EMEA. “I’m THRILLED to join Napster at such an exciting time in the company’s history”, says Hoffmann.

• Apple’s HomePod speaker will finally go on sale in the UK, US and Australia on 9 Feb. Unless it doesn’t. But it looks like it will.

• Christian O’Connell has announced he is standing down as breakfast show host on Absolute Radio after twelve years with the station. Radio Today reckons he might be heading for a new radio gig in Australia.

• Lil Wayne has released new track ‘Big Bad Wolf’, taken from newly completed mixtape ‘Dedication 6 Reloaded’. No release date has been announced for said mixtape, the follow-up to ‘Dedication6’, released at Christmas.

• A$AP Rocky has released new track ‘Five Stars’, the first from an as-yet-unannounced new project.

• Fever Ray has released the video for ‘Wanna Sip’, from her 2017 album ‘Plunge’. The album will be available on physical formats from 23 Feb. She also has two UK live shows in London and Manchester coming up in March.

• Unknown Mortal Orchestra have released new single ‘American Guilt’. They’ve also confirmed that they will play four UK shows in May, kicking off at the Roundhouse in London on 24 May.

• Sleigh Bells have released the video for ‘Favourite Transgressions’, taken from their 2017 EP ‘Kid Kruschev’.

• Indoor Pets (fka Get Inuit) have released new single ‘So Soon’. “I wanted to just write a love song, and ignore the voices in my head that say that all signs of positivity need to be taken with a pinch of salt”, says frontman Jamie Glass.

• Britney Spears is set to play five UK concerts in August, performing her Las Vegas residency show ‘Britney: Piece Of Me’. The first will be part of Brighton & Hove Pride on 4 Aug, with the tour finishing at the O2 Arena in London on 24 Aug.

• Lil Simz has announced her second ‘Welcome To Wonderland: The Experience’ event at The Roundhouse in London on 4 Mar. As well as herself, it’ll feature performances from Junglepussy, Iamnobodi, Lioness, Ezra Collective, Tawiah, VanJess, Cleo Sol, OTG, McKay Felt, Corey Wash, DJ Mille and more.

• Jonny Greenwood has got himself an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score for his soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’.

• Still with the Oscars, among the nominees for Best Original Song are Mary J Blige, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson for ‘Mighty River’ from ‘Mudbound’, Sufjan Stevens for ‘Mystery Of Love’ from ‘Call Me By Your Name’, plus Common and Diane Warren for ‘Stand Up For Something’ from ‘Marshall’.

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily – updated every Friday.



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