Zack O'Malley Greenburg's Blog, page 108

30 Under 30: The Youngest Stars In The Music Business

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Click for full photo gallery: 30 Under 30: Music

It's been a good year for Mac Miller. The 19-year-old rapper played over 200 shows around the country, pumped his Twitter following past 1.4 million and released his debut album, Blue Slide Park, which became the first indie offering to open at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in over a decade.

"Making history is super-cool," he says, lounging on a plush burgundy chair at the Forbes headquarters in New York. "I ...

David Archuleta Headlines First Ever Forbes Holiday Concert

The Forbes building has been quite an eventful place of late. Had you walked into the lobby yesterday afternoon, for instance, you might have witnessed rapper Mac Miller's chance encounter with Steve Forbes.

And had you stopped by the fourth floor newsroom on December 2nd, you'd have noticed perhaps an even more unusual scene: 60 reporters, editors, producers, salespeople and technologists gathered in a circle, watching a live performance by David Archuleta (see videos above and below).

The...

The Top-Earning Women In Music

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Click for full photo gallery: The Top-Earning Women In Music

Alicia Keys gave birth to her first child in October 2010, but she barely skipped a beat in the year that followed. In 2011, the "Empire State of Mind" songstress co-directed a short film called Five, co-produced the Broadway debut of Stick Fly, grossed nearly $700,000 per night for a string of live concerts, and still was able to contribute time to Keep A Child Alive, the charity she cofounded.

"A lot of times, ...

Mac Miller Meets Steve Forbes

Mac Miller and Steve Forbes don't have much in common–one is a 19-year-old rapper, the other is a former Republican presidential candidate and editor-in-chief of a major national publication. When the two bumped into each other today in the lobby of the Forbes building, I felt it was my duty as a reporter to capture the unlikely interaction for all to see.

I'm not sure which of the two was more surprised to see the other, but once they were formally introduced, they shared what can only be...

Why Michael Jackson Is The Top Touring Act In America, Again

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Click for full photo gallery: Michael Jackson's Financial Life After Death

Sammy Davis, Jr. once said that "everything Michael Jackson does on stage is exactly right." The King of Pop indeed left some big leather loafers to fill, but judging by the crowd's reaction at MGM's Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour is doing an admirable job.

Among those in attendance for Saturday night's performance: Cee Lo Green...

Warner Music Group Quarterly Loss Not As Bad As It Looks

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Warner Music Group released earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter this morning, and though the company's quarterly net loss widened from $46 million to $103 million, the numbers aren't quite as troubling as they seem.

Though the loss was roughly twice as large as last year's fiscal fourth quarter gap, it reflected tens of millions of dollars in costs associated with this summer's sale of Warner to billionaire Len Blavatnik's Access Industries–about $60 million, judging...

Live Nation's Hertz Pact To Be Worth Millions

Yesterday afternoon, three yellow cars sat parked in front of New York's iconic Irving Plaza. Far from taxicabs, the sporty trio seemed to announce that there was something unusual–namely, a rare daytime performance by pop-soul act Fitz and The Tantrums–occurring inside.

The display heralded another uncommon event: a major deal between Live Nation and Hertz, unveiled shortly before the pop-soul act took the stage. "[Hertz] is not a brand you associate with music," said Russell Wallach...

How Bon Jovi Donates More Fame Than Justin Bieber [Video]

Justin Bieber may be more famous than Jon Bon Jovi, Paul McCartney and Bono, but he donates a smaller portion of his celebrity to his causes of choice, according to a study by research firm General Sentiment and Forbes.

The survey aimed to determine which stars confer the highest percentage of their personal fame on good causes. In the video above, Forbes Editor Randall Lane and I discuss the inner workings of list (click here to see the full methodology behind the numbers).

The publicity...

The Most Valuable Celebrity Charity Relationships

30 Under 30 In Music: Who Should Make The Forbes List?

30 Under 30: Who deserves to make the music list?

In January, for the first time ever, FORBES will release a special "30 Under 30″ magazine issue. It will focus on the 30 most influential players under age 30 in each of a dozen different industries.

I'll be curating the list for the music business, with the help of three experts who are themselves trendsetters and tastemakers (they'll remain nameless, for now). But as I've been finding with recent posts–like my New Rules For The New...