Now that America has the virus on the run, the live show has reawakened. Are we in the clear? Many hope so. In fact, more shows are on the books now than in 2019.

“Around the world, people are showing the need to get out and socialise once again which reinforces our expectation that a return to concerts will be the logical progression as vaccines are readily available to everyone who wants to get one”, Rapino said.

He continues: “We are already seeing confirmed major tour dates for 2022 up double digits from the same time pre-pandemic in 2019 for 2020.

Live Nation’s Rapino did predict that live show would return by summer.

Instagram teamed up with Merchbar and will add shopping features to over 4,300 artists, labels and creators.

“The past year has been so challenging for the music industry and we hope that together with Merchbar, we can make it easier for artists to use Instagram to connect with their fans and support themselves with our shopping tools,” said Perry Bashkoff, Director, Music Partnerships at Instagram.

“Instagram brings artists and fans together in a totally unique and personal way. We’re thrilled to add another dimension to that connection with the integration of the tactile, physical goods fans treasure so much. This is one of those rare moments that is a win for the entire ecosystem, and we’re excited to enable these functionalities for artists and their supporting companies while providing fans a terrific experience for discovering and buying artist products,” said Edward Aten, CEO of Merchbar.

Speaking about merch. Our readers have been telling us to make KOAR shirts, but we still can’t decide on a color. If we did have merch, the instagram feature wouldn’t be available to us anyway, it’s only for select artists. If the feature was available to us, that would motivate me to choose on a color. Hurry up and serve everybody.

Joshua Ryan drops a new track Graveyard – that blends r&b and alt-pop. If Justin Bieber released the track it would be massive.

The song was written by Ryan, a Detroit native who now resides in Los Angeles. He grew up listening to Motown, 90’s R&B, and singer songwriters. He sang-along to Boys II Men, Whitney Houston, The Commodores, Frank Sinatra, etc. and lived in the attic of a friends house.

Fast forward, he traveled to Russia and played for MTV and the American Embassy, performed on Late Night Television, and played on the Vans Warped Tour. Give the song a stream on KOAR’s Indie Invaders.

Kings favorite Clide drops Can’t Give Back Your Love. You’ll love if you like sad boy/ chill pop. The Berlin-based indie pop singer-songwriter is a Kings favorite has over 400,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. The most recent track landed on Spotify’s New Music Friday.

Clide tells Kings “I tried to flip the perspective of a heartbreak. Usually it’s told from the point of view of getting hurt. Being the one that has to hurt somebody, because it’s the right thing to do can be very painful too. It isn’t talked about a lot though, so I wanted to write a song about it.

Indie rock outfit Pet Envy drops the new track Swords. Known for their live show chops, the band nabbed best pop band at the Nashville Industry Music Awards. Their music is a staple on Nashville’s Lightning 100 AAA station and also landed on Showtime’s series Shameless. You’ll love if you like dreamy indie pop such has Vampire Weekend, Foster the People, and MGMT.

Their sophomore EP was produced by Josh Reynolds (Little Big Town) and features guests including Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews, Béla Fleck), Roy Agee ( Prince, Glenn Miller Orchestra), and Dr. Blum (Misterwives).

Give it a stream on KOAR’s Indie Invaders playlist and watch the video here.