Long Island-based hip-hop/R&B artist and Fortis Sterra founder Rob Wellz has secured global distribution and marketing through The Orchard (Sony Music) via EvoMusic. The deal brings Wellz’s full catalog and upcoming releases under The Orchard’s infrastructure while establishing his imprint, Fortis Sterra Unbounded, as a new label under the EvoMusic umbrella. Wellz retains independent ownership…
Spotify rolled out editor-led short-form video recommendations directly inside its flagship New Music Friday playlist for U.S. listeners on June 12. Curators now appear alongside track picks with video context explaining their selections, spotlighting emerging artists, and sharing stories behind the songs. The update integrates content from The Drop Weekly (launched September 2025) into New…
June 15, 2026 — One of the clearer independent velocity anomalies this weekend is queer alt-pop artist VANÈS and her track “STARFUCK,” which has surpassed 11 million streams while operating fully independently. Key Delta Observations Insider Implications For A&R teams and catalog scouts, this type of independent velocity is a high-signal indicator. Tracks achieving 10M+…
Olivia Rodrigo’s third studio album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love delivered one of the biggest opening days of 2026 on Spotify. The 13-track project, released June 12 via Geffen Records, racked up approximately 81.6–82.6 million global streams in its first full day, according to Spotify and industry tracking. This marks…
TL;DR — Rick Beato’s video Why Only Rich Kids Make It In Music Today is mostly correct about the structural barriers facing musicians in 2026. These include production costs, gatekeeping, social-media labor, and streaming economics that punish anyone without a runway. But the conclusion he implies (that talent without trust funds is doomed) falls apart…
Most guides on the internet tell you that you need a Neumann condenser, a flagship interface, and a subscription bundle of plugins. They’re wrong. Some of the most-streamed songs of the last five years were written and demoed on setups that would cost less than what you’ve already budgeted. The gear is not the constraint….
The Crate GX-212 is a solid-state guitar combo amplifier from the 1990s to early 2000s, known for its high power output and versatility in rock and metal genres. It’s known as a reliable, budget-friendly option for beginners and intermediate players, though its sound quality can vary based on personal preferences and modifications. It typically features…
This guide is for the songwriter. The person whose primary use case is sitting in a bedroom or home studio at 11pm, plugging in, and trying to find the sound that suggests the next chorus. The criteria for that person are different. Tone purity matters less. Inspiration matters more. Latency from idea to capture matters…
This is no music theory textbook. It will not teach you to read sheet music, understand counterpoint, analyze Bach chorales, or pass a conservatory entrance exam. It will not cover modes in depth, voice leading, the circle of fifths as a mathematical object, or the difference between a Neapolitan sixth and an augmented sixth chord….
Every songwriter has one. Some have dozens. It lives on your phone in a folder of unnamed voice memos, or in a DAW project called “idea_verse_MAYBE_06,” or in a dog-eared notebook on your bedside table. It’s the cemetery of unfinished songs. An accumulating archive of verses that never found a chorus, progressions that lost their…