Big news last week for UK music fans when it was announced that Hilco has bought therefore saved 132 HMV stores. After a tough couple of months it seems like there is a slightly more certain future for at least some of the brand’s empire. With this 2500 staff will also keep their jobs but it does look like some stores will be closing and then jobs will be lost. A full list of stores that have been saved and will remain open are online so if you are wondering about your own local HMV then you can find out what is happening to it online. Hopefully the brand can relaunch from this and become a little bit more successful again but we will just have to wait and see what their ideas are.
It was announced last week that David Bowie’s new album ‘The Next Day’ is the favourite to scoop this year’s Mercury Music Prize. The awards that are not only October and a shortlist will not be announced until mid-September has already seen bookmakers looking at odds for certain bands. Foals with their 3rd album ‘Holy Fire’ are second favourites and Laura Marling’s currently unreleased forthcoming album is also a serious contender. Only albums released between 11 Sept 2012 and 9 Sept 2013 are eligible for nomination this year, who is your money on this year to be announced/win?
The tracklisting for ‘The Great Gatsby’ film has been revealed with plenty of songs from big names including Florence and the Machine, Jack White, Lana Del Rey and The XX. Beyonce and Andre 3000 have teamed up to record a cover of Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back in Black’ which will feature. The soundtrack curated by Jay Z was bound to be full of big names and it seems he has disappointed with that, it will be interesting to see how the music fits with the highly anticipated film.
Some cancellations for Primevera Sound festival in Barcelona were announced last week with FIDLAR, Fiona Apple and Foxygen all pulling out of this year’s festival, for reasons including not being in Europe at that time and reasons out of that acts control. However, two new acts Django Django and Phosphorescent have been added to the line up in order to replace them. The festival already features the likes of Blur, My Bloody Valentine and The Postal Service playing so regardless of the cancellations it looks like it will be a good festival again this year.
Imagine Dragons were denied a Number 1 album in the UK this weekend with Justin Timberlake’s album ‘The 20/20 Experience’ holding onto the top spot for the third week in a row. Bring Me The Horizon’s excellent 4th album ‘Sempiternal’ jumped up the album charts being 3rd this week with David Bowie and P!nk completing the top 5. James Blake has said he is ‘starting not to care about illegal downloading’ of his albums. After his debut album leaked months before it was released and now his label has streamed five tracks from his new album which is out today. He talks about his label’s not all that great approach to digital marketing and that it is getting harder for people to justify paying for his albums when it is out there for free online. What do you think about this, is it the label’s fault or will people always find a way to illegally download anyway regardless of streaming prior to release? Finally, Andrew Lloyd Webber has bought the rights for School of Rock and plans to turn the 2003 film into a musical for the stage. He says he could write new songs for the musical instead of using the original soundtrack that features such bands as AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and The Clash, it also hasn’t been mentioned whether Jack Black would be reprising his role or when/where it will be released. Is this a good or bad idea?
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