Taylor Swift will join The Voice as a “mega mentor” for season 17.  She’ll join the other judges including John Legend, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and Kelly Clarkson.

“I heard we have a mega mentor? I heard it’s supposed to be one of the most successful people in music,” Legend says before Swift nonchalantly walks out of the trailer behind them as her latest chart-topping single “Me!” featuring Brenden Urie begins playing.

The Cars frontman Ric Ocasek  was found dead in his New York townhouse on Sunday. He was 75. The Cars turned out a string of radio hits making them MTV favorites. Ric Ocasek was an extra-ordinary creative professional that wrote many songs for The Cars but also worked with Weezer, No Doubt, The Cribs and others. He was even hired by Elektra as an SVP of A&R.

Artists with new single releases on Spotify’s New Music Friday include Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and Lana Del Rey with the single Don’t Call Me Angel. Halsey drops the new single Graveyard, and Julie Michael’s released If You Need Me. Others include Charlie XCX White Mercedes, Green Day’s Father Of All, Weezer’s The End Of Game, and Charlie Puth’s Mother.

Green Day, Weezer and Fall Out Boy want to prove that rock acts can still pack out stadiums.  All three acts have teamed up for a 2020 stadium tour. Here are the numbers. All three bands together have averaged 27,000 ticket sales per show. The average stadium holds 30,000.  To promote the 2020 tour, each band will release new music.  The idea of all 3 bands touring together was propelled by Crush Music who manages all three acts.  Ironically, none of these bands have embarked on a stadium tour. If the tour is a success, then Green Day, Weezer and Fall Out Boy can walk away boasting big numbers increasing their star power in todays over-saturated musical climate. “The world is super hip-hop- and Instagram-[oriented], and I think this is counterprogramming to all of that,” says Wentz. “This is the biggest rock’n’roll thing that’s going to happen that summer.”

The 21 year old Stockholm artist Orkid releases the high energy track Get To Know U via Artery/Believe Digital. She grew up listening to Nat King Cole and Sam Cooke and started performing small town gigs before venturing on the bigger stage.
Streams: 40 million+ streams on Spotify, Apple, YouTube
Playlists: Featured on 20 + Spotify New Music Friday playlists.
Press: Complex, The Line Of Best Fit