Hypebot • new music industry, music marketing & music tech news from across the web

One common critical question lobbed towards web3 projects is: “yes, but why do you need the blockchain to do that?” The answers, of course, are multifarious and nuanced, and there are plenty of good reasons to use web3 tech. But it’s often the case that ideas don’t *need* to use web3 to work.

A fan club, for instance, can work very well without it being a DAO, and – as Roblox has apparently decided – limited edition virtual items don’t need to be NFTs.

Eric Clapton announced Monday that his recurring Crossroads Guitar Festival will take place in Los Angeles this fall, with a roster of 41 guest musicians or bands set to take the stage across two nights at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles Sept. 23-24.

Musicians due to perform one or both nights include Santana, the War on Drugs, the John Mayer Trio, ZZ Top, Sheryl Crow, Gary Clark Jr., H.E.R., Buddy Guy, Los Lobos, Vince Gill, Stephen Stills, Jimmy Vaughan, Robbie Robertson, the Del McCoury Band and Joe Bonamassa.

SM Entertainment’s artists will be joining Weverse, the mobile app and web-based superfan platform built by rival K-pop company HYBE.

The platform brings together artist-related content such as music videos, teasers, movies and live streams. It also has a merch platform known as Weverse Shop.

Over the past few days, three Universal Music Group-affiliated megastars – Drake, The Weeknd, and Rihanna – have seen their vocals replicated by AI tools, and then ‘performed’ within viral music productions.

The tune that’s drawn the most attention,  understandably, is a cover version of Ice Spice’s risqué 2022 hit Munch (Feelin’ U), on which the vocals are ‘performed’ by an AI copycat of Drake’s voice.

The Puerto Rican superstar's history-making headlining slot was not only a rousing spectacle of his greatest hits, but an open opportunity for him to address his latest critics.

Grimes is set to present a Keynote on artificial intelligence at the International Music Summit in Ibiza later this month.

The brand new Winamp is finally here: It's ready to conquer Spotify. The iconic media player returns with a modern touch.

Live Nation and Mellen Events have introduced a new booking agency, promoter and artist management company, Cut Above Collective.

Exec is founder and CEO of sports agency KLUTCH Sports Group, and Head of Sports at UTA…

A new survey from the Netherlands suggests that young festival-goers this summer will be trying out a new strategy to offset rising costs due to inflation.

TikTok’s heavy focus on user-generated video content means that those users are increasingly generating more advanced content as they become more skilful at creating it. They are now turning to external apps to make slicker, or more complex videos, using advanced editing features.

Artists spend months rehearsing for — and years dreaming about — headlining the Coachella festival, the biggest in North America. So the fact that Frank Ocean’s festival-closing performance — his first in nearly six years — was so shambolic left many concertgoers distressed, depressed, annoyed and other similar emotions (and left exponentially more people feeling similar kinds of ways when his set was unexpectedly not livestreamed).

Montana could soon join Afghanistan and India as the only jurisdictions in the world with a complete ban on TikTok, after lawmakers in the US state voted in favor of the move on Friday (April 14).

The state House voted 54-43 in support of the measure, sending the bill to the desk of Gov. Greg Gianforte, who would have to sign the bill for it to become law.

The artists billed on the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival lineup are enough to draw in huge crowds, but one of the most exciting aspects of any performance is seeing if they're going to bring out any surprise guests.

Thankfully, Weekend 1 had its fair share of superstars. Here's who joined Coachella performers the past few days.

The last time powerhouse Korean girl group Blackpink played Coachella, during a much-hyped mid-day set in 2019 on the Sahara stage, it was a different band and the world was a different place. That…

On Friday (April 14) Drake took to Instagram to voice his opinion on an AI-generated cover of him rapping Bronx princess Ice Spice's "Munch."

The inaugural American Music Honors awards show — a fundraiser for the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University — launched Saturday night without two very imp…

This A to Z music event planning checklist helps event planners and music promoters cover all bases when organising music events.

The last time powerhouse Korean girl group Blackpink played Coachella, during a much-hyped mid-day set in 2019 on the Sahara stage, it was a different band and the world was a different place. That…