Legendary guitar maker Fender has launched of the Fender Play Foundation, a new charity designed to provide resources and music education opportunities to young people. Avril Lavigne, Chris Stapleton, Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco, Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, Ashley McBryde and Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt have signed on as inaugural artist ambassadors.

As in many corners of the music industry, the data surrounding live music is a bit of a mess. But it's a mess which the startup Vibrate is hoping to fix by creating a standardized system for the entire global ecosystem of live music. Similar to IMDb, the company would utilize a mix of crowdsourcing, curation, and blockchain to pull together the necessary assets and information to populate its database.

Once your band is practiced up and you've got a solid set of songs together, it's time to go on tour. Touring can be a great way to broaden your network and find new fans, plus it gives you and everyone in your band valuable experience, but it is essential to  plan ahead.

So you've crafted the perfect subject line for your upcoming show or festival, but for some reason people still aren't clicking through to your event site. What's the issue? There's a good chance the trouble could lie in the actual copy of your event invitation - if the body of the invite isn't engaging enough to galvanize potential audiences, chances are you won't see much return on your investment. Here we look at five free and effective ideas for you next online invitation.

Bandsintown Manager has relaunched as Bandsintown For Artists. The revamped platform adds free geo-targeted messaging to fans and other improvements that build upon concert discovery platform Bandsintown's ongoing commitment to enhance the connection between artists and fans through live music.

In an exploration of how much the ubiquity of smartphones has impact our media consumption, Fred Jacobs looks at the recently constructed Samsung KX stage, a vertically stacked contraption taylored specifically for its view-ability via smartphone.

Billboard and Hollywood Reporter owner Valence Media laid off seven editorial staffers at Spin Media Group this week across music sites Spin, Stereogum and Vibe as the profits from a resurgent music industry fail to trickle down to the media that serve it.

Music creation app Stagelight has been acquired by Roland Corporation. With the help of the music tech giant, the Stagelight team has developed a new music creation app called Roland Zenbeats.

WEDNESDAY 9.18.19

Music Business News From Around The Web

Updated continuously under the More News tab

A new RIAA report shows that in the first half of 2019, the U.S. Latin music business continued to grow at a double-digit pace. By mid-year 2019, Latin music revenues grew 13.5% to $232 million at estimated retail value versus the prior year.

In this piece, Mike Henry of Paragon reveals the impressive popularity which Urban Alternative has gained as  a public radio format, providing a blend of new and old hip hop, R&B, soul, urban, rap, and local music to the listening populace.

Global Citizen, the nonprofit best known for its efforts to end extreme global poverty, has announced “Global Goal Live: The Possible Dream,” a 10-hour performance, spanning five continents to raise funds to support of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

CD Baby has hired Los Angeles based music marketer Geoff Halliday to lead release marketing for its international team focused on providing artist and label services to its distribution roster.

When it comes to using Instagram (or really any social media) to promote your music, it's important that you develop an engaged community of fans, not just a passive audience, vaguely aware of who you are. Here we look at five key techniques for properly promoting your band on Instagram.

The newly appointed Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) has submitted its proposal to the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) outlining the structure of the collective and the funding required to carry out the statutory demands of the Music Modernization Act.