Willie Colón, the iconic trombonist, arranger, bandleader and producer who was one of the architects of salsa, a leader of the genre and one of its most towering names, died Saturday (Feb. 21). He was 75 years old. His death was confirmed in a Facebook post by his longtime manager, Pietro Carlos. “Willie didn’t just…
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From Rubén Blades and Marc Anthony to Grupo Niche, Elvis Crespo and Olga Tañón, major figures in Latin music mourned the loss of salsa pioneer Willie Colón, who died Saturday (Feb. 21) in New York City at the age of 75. Blades, with whom Colón formed a legendary duo in the ’70s and ’80s that…
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Authorities in Ohio have arrested and charged a former contestant on American Idol with shooting and killing his wife and staging the crime scene to mislead investigators. Caleb Flynn, 39, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of murder, assault and tampering with evidence. “I just want to take care of my daughters. I’m not a…
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HYBE AMERICA’s Nashville operation has undergone a dramatic overhaul. Big Machine Label Group is no more, after the company rebranded its country, Americana, and roots rock division as Blue Highway Records. To lead Blue Highway, HYBE recruited veteran music and entertainment executive Jake Basden as CEO. Basden arrives with a career spanning both the management…
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Secretly Distribution (SD) has named its longtime Chief Operating Officer, Chris Welz, as the company’s newest Partner. Welz, who has spent two decades at Secretly, is credited with shaping the independent music distributor’s global physical operations during his COO tenure while launching and developing its digital services and DSP relationships. As Partner, working alongside Secretly…
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Live Nation Entertainment has posted annual revenues of USD $25.2 billion for 2025, up 9% – or by $2.05 billion – year-over-year. The live entertainment giant has today (February 19) also reported that a record 159 million people attended Live Nation-promoted shows in 2025 (across 55,000 concerts) – up by 8 million YoY. A standout…
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Live Nation has publicly called on the US Department of Justice to settle the government’s antitrust lawsuit against the company and its subsidiary Ticketmaster, arguing that the prospect of a court-ordered breakup is effectively dead. In a statement published today (February 19) — the same day the company reported record annual revenues of $25.2 billion — Live…
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Virgin Music Group (VMG) announced on Friday (February 20) that it has completed its acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings LLC (Downtown). The closure follows the European Commission’s approval of the deal last Friday (February 13), subject to Universal Music Group‘s commitment to divest Downtown’s Curve royalty accounting business. UMG’s Virgin Music Group first announced the…
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Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s Weekly Round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s Round-up is exclusively supported by BMI, a global leader in performing rights management, dedicated to supporting songwriters, composers and publishers and championing the value of music. This…
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This week in dance music: Illenium scored his fourth No. 1 on the Top Dance Albums with his latest LP Odyssey. The album comes ahead of his Sphere residency of the same name that begins in early March. “I can’t wait,” the artist recently told Billboard of this residency. “It’s getting to the point where…
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