Rap has taken over the Spotify Charts and now the genre has dominated the Grammys.

Shockingly, Ed Sheeran’s massive selling “Divide” did not get an Album of the Year nod, neither did albums by Gaga or Kesha. Rather, the Grammys went mostly for R&B and rap: Jay Z, Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino, who is really the actor Donald Glover.

Rather, all the pop stars including Gaga, Sheeran, Pink, Kelly Clarkson, and Kesha have been pushed down to to best vocal category.

“How the Grammys became the R&B/Hip Hop Awards will be the subject of much discussion at Black Rock today. Their traditional country nominee is absent, which for CBS is a disaster. The only pop singer who scored an Album of the Year nod was Lorde, the 20 year New Zealand singer whose “Melodrama” album not much of a hit compared to her previous outing.

Kendrick Lamar, Glover, Bruno Mars and Jay Z also took up most of the Record and Song of the Year categories even though almost none of that music is not what is typically thought of for those categories. I’ll bet a lot of pop, rock and R&B stars are in shock right now. Ed Sheeran and his team must be having Xanax omelettes.

Again, for older skewing CBS and producer Ken Erlich, this will be a challenge. This is not the show they want. Having no country nominees in the main categories is heart-attack inducing.

There were no nominations for singles released before the September 30th deadline by pop superstars Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and so on. Swift will not be performing “Look What You Made Me Do” with Right Said Fred. Cyrus won’t be singing “Malibu.”

For Jay Z, this must be quite a celebration. He wanted the Grammys at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. That didn’t happen. Instead, he will be a huge part of the Madison Square Garden show. Stunning.”

Feedspot just released the top 75 American Music Blogs. Kings of A&R has been selected as one the top 75 American music blogs. But what are music blogs and what is the purpose?

Music blogs can help music go viral and they can drive traffic to music streaming services such as Spotify, Soundcloud, and Apple Music. Most importantly, blogs are introducing their readership to new artists. Although the web has largely changed, blogs remain a collective powerful force. Artists, PR agents, managers, and other industry people will literally spend hours sending out new music releases to blogs, patiently waiting for a reply back. Patience is key because the email inbox of bloggers looks like a war zone. It’s not uncommon for a blogger to get 25 – 50 emails a day. Since bloggers deal with literally everyone in their respective industry, artists want to hunt down the tastemakers for there connections.

Nicole Cifani who is a Executive producer, writer, and DJ calls music blogs a cultural voice and says, “music blogs have helped shape the landscape of what we tune in to.”

She goes on to say:

“With that said, some similarities can be drawn between music blogs and indie labels. Music blogs are similar to indies because they excel at marketing and branding by taking a very DIY approach. This independent mindset is one that for whatever reason resonates well with music fans. CONTINUE READING

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Taylor Swift’s music label Big Machine is predicting the latest album ‘Reputation’ will move close to 2 million units first week. This is more than her previous releases. In fact, this is historic.

A Target spokesman notes, “Reputation is our biggest entertainment pre-sale of all time, across movies, music and books” and additionally stated that overall Target expects the album to be the biggest release of the season.

Although data analysts claim the 2 million first week album sales is an overreach, Big Machine is claiming the number is real close.

(credit: Instagram screenshot/ newspaper-theme album cover)

Taylor Swift understands the state of media and she wants no part of it. The media wants to bait her in a vitriolic discussion, but she won’t be their puppet, hence her news-paper themed cover art.

Outside of some Instagram postings, there has been no in-depth magazine interviews, no magazine covers, no radio station call-ins. Swift is counting on her die-hard fans and it’s working. Her latest album has sold 400k in pre-orders, the largest to date. Swifts zero-PR Campaign is working.

Swift was an open book up until now. The media is on hunt for the next victim and Taylor Swift is a big target. As of now, Swift has outsmarted the press.

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Taylor Swift’s new album is already selling lot hot cakes. The pop star has sold more than 400,000 pre-orders prior to the Nov. 10th release, making it the highest music pre-sale in history. Additionally, Swift was the highest paid artist in 2016. Swift made an estimated $170 million from touring and product endorsements whereas Adele made $80 million. In fact, Swift makes more than Madonna ($76.5 million) and Rihanna ($75 million). Simply, Swift is the biggest celebrity in the world.