Zack O'Malley Greenburg's Blog, page 83

Memo To Apple: Fix iTunes Ahead Of iTunes Radio Launch

iTunes Radio will have a snappy interface (and apparently a feature that causes your iPhone to have a full charge at 11pm).

Apple plans to launch its long-awaited iTunes Radio this fall, and the rollout already in the works suggests a product that’s desperate to live up to its considerable hype.

The streaming radio service will include a snappy new interface (see image on right), and sponsors are lining up to get a piece of the platform’s ads, which will play via audio for every 15 minutes of l...

Sin City’s Latest Savior: Electronic Dance Music

Calvin Harris and Tiësto (pictured) are the world's two highest-paid DJs--and part of the reason behind the recent revival in Las Vegas. Story by Ryan Mac and Zack O'Malley Greenburg

It’s 1:30 a.m. as Saturday turns into Sunday in Las Vegas, and Neil Moffitt hasn’t had a drop to drink. His 3,000 guests, churning under strobe lights at Hakkasan, the brand-new 80,000-square-foot nightclub complex Moffitt oversees, are another story. Hopped up on vodka, Red Bull and who knows what else, they’re...

Avicii And The Ever-Changing Definition of EDM

Avicii: The unlikely bluegrass champion.

Things started getting weird when the banjo player arrived. The Swedish DJ known as Avicii had already been spinning onstage at Miami’s Ultra music festival for quite awhile, playing fairly standard club fare that included snippets of his own “Levels” as well as “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

The crowd had gathered to hear the latest in electronic dance music, so when a handful of bluegrass musicians shuffled onto the stage last March, they...

Zedd Ahead: Meet The Next Big Star Of Electronic Music

Zedd: a new star on deck.

Anton Zaslavski, better known to burgeoning hordes of fans as the DJ/producer Zedd, got his stage name as a matter of convenience.

As a middle-schooler in Germany, he often sat next to a good friend who shared his first name. When the teacher would call on Anton, they’d both answer. So they simply started referring to each other by the first letter of their respective last names–Zaslavski went by the European “zed” and later tacked on another “d” to make his moniker st...

Electronic Cash Kings 2013: The World’s Highest-Paid DJs

see photos

Click for full photo gallery: The World's Highest-Paid DJs 2013

It was a few minutes after midnight when the models walked in—a signal that the party at Las Vegas superclub Hakkasan was just beginning. About two dozen of them took their places along the banquettes behind the DJ booth, dancing and smiling at the 3,000 gyrating bodies on the floor before them.

Moments later, Tijs “Tiësto” Verwest strode to the stage. He donned a pair of headphones, raised his right hand and the music sw...

Electronic Cash Kings 2013: Preview And Contest

Deadmau5 & other DJs continue to cash in on EDM. Tune in tomorrow to see 2013's top 12 earners.

Deadmau5 and the rest of the world’s highest-paid DJs are raking in cash faster than ever as the electronic dance music boom continues–and FORBES is watching.

Last year we released our first-ever Electronic Cash Kings list to rank the genre’s top earners. Tomorrow at 10am Eastern Standard Time, we’re releasing the 2013 edition.

Like last year’s package, this one spans print, web and video. But we’ve g...

Top-Earning Musicians Also Have Top Grammar, In Many Cases

Beyoncé is among music's elite in terms of both earnings and grammar.

Beyoncé is having a huge year, even by her lofty standards. In February she wowed the world with a show-stopping Super Bowl performance and in July launched her Mrs. Carter World Tour. Over the past 12 months, she raked in $53 million.

“I’m never satisfied,” she told FORBES four years ago. “I’ve never met anyone that works harder than me in my industry.”

Beyoncé can add another superlative to her résumé: Among music’s biggest...

So Long, MP3: Reports Reveal Rapid Growth For Streaming

Daniel Ek's Spotify is positioned to profit from music consumption trends (sorry, Thom Yorke).

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich may not be fans of Spotify, but judging by recent reports, the streaming music service and its brethren are here to stay.

According to Nielsen & Billboard’s 2013 Mid-Year Music Industry Report, the first six months of the year saw 50 billion audio and video streams, a 24% increase over the same period last year.

“Streaming continues to be a treme...

Play Gig-It: Farmville Meets Rock Band, On Facebook

Nas rocks a virtual stage on Play Gig-It.

Nas doesn’t usually perform multiple concerts on the same night, but April 30th was a notable exception. The Queens-born rapper wowed a crowd with a string of hits from his classic,Illmatic—and followed with another set at the same venue, ending with the 1994 album’s closer, “It Ain’t Hard To Tell.”

Nobody seemed to mind that he was doubling up, though: for his first show, the audience was a virtual one. After the real Nas picked a set of his actual son...

Jay-Z’s Album Clocks Best Opening Week In Spotify History

Jay-Z: Magna Carter.

Jay-Z‘s Magna Carta Holy Grail was already guaranteed to have the best opening week sales of any album in his career, thanks to Samsung’s decision to buy 1 million copies in advance.

Now the rapper can boast another best: the most first-week streams of any album in Spotify’s history.

The numbers are in, andMagna Cartaclocked 14 million full album streams in the U.S. alone, easily topping recent record-setting releases from Mumford & Sons (8 million) and Daft Punk (9.5 millio...