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Jason Gray releases ‘Place For Me’

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Jason Gray, `Place For Me` (Cover art courtesy of Hoganson Media and Centricity Music)

Jason Gray, “Place For Me” (Cover art courtesy of Hoganson Media and Centricity Music)

Fri, Jun 30th 2023 03:10 pm

Single encourages listeners to find belonging amidst ‘miracle of the Church’

√ Full-length album to release Oct. 13

Press Release

Centricity Music recording artist and songwriter Jason Gray releases “Place For Me” today to digital and streaming outlets globally through https://fanlink.to/placeformeJG. The song is also going for adds at radio and will be featured on Gray’s full-length album set to release Oct. 13 (title TBA).

Written by Gray, produced and engineered by Grammy Award-winning Jeff Sojka (Jeremy Camp, Crowder) and mixed by Sean Moffit (Chris Tomlin, NEEDTOBREATHE), “Place For Me” is a beautifully crafted, driving pop song lifted by Gray’s vocals and a chorus of voices singing about the universal human need for belonging.

“The Church at its best offers a place to belong based on our need for help, patience, guidance and grace,” Gray said. “If you have been humbled by whatever life has thrown at you, be encouraged. You are not on your own, you have a place to belong and you are uniquely prepared to receive the best of what God has to offer through the miracle of the Church, the gathering of the saints.”

“Hallelujah there’s a place for me // In the company of sinners saved by grace // Here among the broken on their knees // Hallelujah, Thank you Jesus, there’s a place for me” (“Place For Me” chorus)

WATCH:

Taking his new single, hits from his current, American Songwriter-featured “Order Disorder Reorder” LP, and more fan favorites on tour, Gray also hosts “Acoustic Storytime” heard on SiriusXM The Message on the second Friday of every month at noon ET. Named after his live album that released in 2008, this monthly writer’s-round radio show recorded at The Well Coffeehouse in Nashville features performances and stories behind the songs from many well-known Christian artists.

Having combined insightful and heartfelt lyrics with infectious pop melodies for well over a decade, all the latest Jason Gray tour, music, news and more information can be found at http://jasongraymusic.com/, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music.

More About Jason Gray

Acclaimed Centricity Music recording artist Jason Gray is known for his extraordinary ability to convey deep theological truths within infectious pop melodies. That ability has sparked multiple hit singles and drawn audiences to packed out events across the country. His latest album, “Order Disorder Reorder,” launched the Top 10 and Top 20 Billboard radio hits “I’m Gonna Let It Go” and “Remind Me You’re Here,” respectively, while his 2016 album, “Where The Light Gets In,” debuted in the Top 5 of Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart. This followed the success of 2014’s “Love Will Have The Final Word,” which sparked Gray’s Billboard Christian Airplay Top 10 and first No. 1 AC radio hit, “With Every Act of Love.” With his early records, “A Way To See In The Dark” and “Everything Sad Is Coming Untrue,” he had five consecutive Top 5 singles, including the No. 1 Inspirational radio single “Nothing Is Wasted.” Garnering multiple ASCAP Performance Awards, Gray has also toured with Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Third Day, TobyMac and numerous others, in addition to headlining tours of his own.

About Centricity Music

The No. 1 Billboard Top Christian Albums Imprint for three consecutive years, Centricity Music is an independent Christian music company based in Franklin, Tennessee. Founded in 2005 with a commitment to artist development and stylistic diversity, its artist roster includes Andrew Peterson, Apollo LTD, Brandon Heath, Chris Renzema, Coby James, Jason Gray, Jordan Feliz, Katy Nichole, Lauren Daigle, Natalie Layne, North Point Worship, Patrick Mayberry and Unspoken. Providing label and publishing services, Centricity is a family-owned organization. The committed work of its staff and artists has yielded successes such as Grammy Awards, Billboard Awards, Dove Awards, K-Love Fan Awards, and multiple Gold and Platinum albums and singles. For more Information on Centricity Music, visit https://centricitymusic.com/.



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Guest column: CKWW sale risks end of link to

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Published Jun 30, 2023  •  Last updated 16 hours ago  •  3 minute read

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Windsor’s mayor, others express disappointment with Bell Media decision to lay off local radio personality Steve Bell. Shown here on Feb. 4, 2021, is the Bell building where AM800 is broadcast. Photo by Dax Melmer /Windsor Star

By Kevin Curran

The latest announcements of cutbacks in Canadian media may mean an end to the reminder of Windsor’s unique role in North American radio history.

Bell Media managers said there is a buyer for CKWW, also known as AM580.

CKWW took to the air in 1964 to answer complaints that Windsor’s other radio station, CKLW — now known as AM800 — was too focused on attracting an audience from the U.S., and its commercial rates were too high.

In 1993, the two stations came under common ownership, they started sharing CKLW’s building on Ouellette Avenue; and the news-talk format at 580 and music format on 800 swapped dial positions.

CKLW holds a special place in media history.

Known as “The Big 8” from 1967 to 1984, its Top 40 format featured personable disc jockeys, a news department that would deliver a story like no one else and a loyal following well beyond Windsor.

In 1976, CKLW was the sixth-most listened-to radio station in the U.S. At a time when state lotteries could not legally advertise on radio and TV, Connecticut’s governor was jealous the Michigan lottery was attracting players through CKLW, the top-rated station in Detroit.

It was CKLW’s success on the other side of the Detroit River that unnerved members of the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission.

CRTC analyst George Pollard was blunt: “The station was licensed to serve that small Canadian community and it never did that job.”

With music listeners migrating to FM, the CRTC extracted its revenge by rejecting a plan to change The Big 8 over to 94 The Fox on FM.

AM580 reminds listeners that it operates “from the home of the legendary Big 8.” While the disc jockeys and newscasts are gone, that music continues to emanate from the station’s four towers in former Anderson Township (now part of Amherstburg).

Listening to CKWW is a trip in an audio time machine. A lot of the music is songs that can be heard on any other classic hits station. But what may now go away with the sale of the station is a reminder of what made CKLW so fascinating.

Music director Rosalie Trombley appreciated the unique music scene of Detroit. It is hard to imagine the music director of a Canadian station being invited to a White House event for the Black Music Association, but she was on the list.

Alice Cooper admitted, “CKLW, we owe everything to them.”

CKLW’s U.S. competitors, who thought the imposition of Canadian content regulations would hurt The Big 8’s audience, were mistaken as this station in Windsor drove the U.S. music business.

This was most evident in 1974. Four of the 31 Billboard No. 1 singles that year were by Canadian artists with songs that debuted on CKLW: “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks, “Sundown” by Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Anka’s “You’re Having My Baby” and “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” from Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

While The Big 8 was making hits for others, CKLW made its own contribution as Byron MacGregor’s recording of Gordon Sinclair’s “The Americans” climbed the charts.

Trombley introduced American listeners to Keith Hampshire’s “Big Time Operator” and Wednesday’s version of “Last Kiss.” CKLW listeners heard Frank Mills sing “Love Me Love Me Love” seven years before spinning with “Music Box Dancer” and Nick Gilder’s “Roxy Roller” two years before “Hot Child in the City” became a U.S. and Canadian chart topper.

At ages 12 and 13, The Keane Brothers may have been the youngest hosts of a U.S. network variety show. Their one hit, “Sherry,” met CanCon standards and was played on CKLW.

These songs continue to be played AM580. CKWW provides continuing exposure for hits by Canadian artists such as The Stampeders, Charity Brown, Tom Middleton, R. Dean Taylor and Edward Bear.

Complaints about CKLW’s U.S. focus go back to 1953. But the station’s success at introducing Canadian musicians to the lucrative American audience cannot be denied.

AM580 is a reminder of the days when Windsor played an important role in the radio and music industries on both sides of the border.

It is sad how the statue of Rosalie Trombley to be unveiled in Festival Plaza this fall may be the last reminder of the days when Windsor was where hits were made.

Kevin Curran is a member of the journalism faculty at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He grew up on Long Island, New York, listening to CKLW at night. He has written extensively on cross-border targeted radio.

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SoundCloud Promotes Tracy Chan to Chief Content

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SoundCloud has promoted two staff members — Tracy Chan to chief content officer and Ama Walton to senior vp of music licensing/deputy general counsel — and hired Devi Mahadevia, who joins the company as senior vp of strategy following a stint at Meta, the company tells Billboard.

“Tracy is one of the foremost innovators at the convergence of music and tech, and his new role bringing together all aspects of content on the platform will drive meaningful innovation for artists and fans,” said SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton in a statement. “Ama has pioneered fan-powered royalties deals to bring a new, more transparent model to streaming, and she brings her extraordinary background and expertise to the leadership role of deputy general counsel to help navigate new frontiers for SoundCloud.” 

Seton continued, “Devi is a long-term strategist whose extensive experience with consumer partnerships, product integrations, and corporate development represent a huge asset to the company as we grow and innovate across the business.”

In a separate statement, Mahadevia added, “I look forward to working with the team to forge new paths and uncover opportunities that benefit artists and listeners alike.” She previously oversaw consumer partnerships and product integrations for Meta’s AR and VR initiatives.

The promotions and new hires come during a tumultuous period for SoundCloud, which announced plans to lay off 8% of its workforce in May. “This is a challenging but essential decision to ensure the health of our business and get SoundCloud to profitability this year,” Seton told staff in an email at the time.

That round of layoffs was the second in less than 12 months. SoundCloud had previously announced it would cut “up to 20%” of its staff in August 2022 due to “the challenging economic climate and financial market headwinds.” Michael Weissman, who took over as a CEO in 2020, departed SoundCloud in March. And Lauren Wirtzer-Seawood, who served as chief content & marketing officer for roughly two years, left in May.



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Mellencamp to discuss career with Bob Costas in

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Hoosier singer-songwriter John Mellencamp will talk about his creative process in an interview with journalist Bob Costas in the first installment of a new weekly series “With” on public television.

On the heels of the arrival of Mellencamp’s 25th full-length studio album “Orpheus Descending,” he’ll sit down with jCostas for the premiere of the new, intimate, one-hour public television series “With,” directed by Emmy Nominated Patrick Heaphy. The series premieres nationwide on public television Saturday, July 1. WFYI, a PBS affiliate in Indianapolis, will air the program at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Full episodes will also be available to stream weekly on WithTheShow.com.

“With” will continue, featuring vulnerable conversations pairing music icons with fellow creators, musicians and friends for a candid glimpse inside the creation of their most beloved hits. “With” will feature five episodes of unheard stories, additionally pairing Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi with David Fricke; Peter Frampton with Trey Bruce at Analog Hutton Hotel; Mike Campbell with Fricke; and Angus Young and Brian Johnson of AC/DC with Fricke.

The artists will be discussing the songwriting process, challenges within the music industry and philosophy behind their art, and peel back the curtain, exposing the perseverance that goes into creating their music.

In the season opener Mellencamp, a Seymour native, musician and longtime painter, talks with Costas about fame and his dual paths of creativity, being an upstander, having control over one’s art, breaking the rules, and his influences from Woody Guthrie to German Expressionism to his grandmother.

Filmed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mellencamp expresses both sides of his artistry as he plays his guitar amidst a selection of his self-portraits and drawings assembled for the episode.

“John is a great artist, and to deal in understatement, an interesting and opinionated man,” Costas said in a news release. “As it happens, we have known each other for more than 30 years and this is the latest of many interviews we have done together. Given the setting and the stage of John’s life and career, it stands out as one of the most memorable.”

“It is an honor to have John Mellencamp and Bob Costas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art,” shares Don Maggi, executive producer of “With.” “John was our first choice to film at The Met to honor his achievements in his music and painting career.”

“With” is a production of Don Maggi with iMaggination, Inc. and directed by Patrick Heaphy of LCM247, and is distributed nationally by the National Educational Television Association (NETA). With was made possible by support from The Hutton Hotel Nashville Tennessee and Heavens Door Whiskey.

Mellencamp’s career in music spans more than 35 years. He is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame, a recipient of the John Steinbeck Award, the ASCAP Foundation’s Champion Award, The Woody Guthrie Award, the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and, more recently, the Founders Award — the top honor assigned by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

He is also one of the most successful live concert performers in the world and has performed in Terre Haute venues such as the Indiana Theatre and Hulman Center. In 1985, Mellencamp, together with Willie Nelson and Neil Young, created Farm Aid. The social activism reflected in his songs helped catalyze Farm Aid, the concert series and organization that has addressed the struggle of American family farmers for more than 25 years.

Mellencamp also continues to focus on another facet of his artistic expression: painting. His style has progressed over the years as evidenced by several gallery shows and published portfolios, and in recent years he has increased his output by completing over 150 new works. A self-curated book of Mellencamp’s work, “John Mellencamp: Paintings and Assemblages,” is out now via Rizzoli New York.

“Legends of Rock: John Mellencamp,” a permanent exhibition at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, opened last year. There, Mellencamp confirmed his massive “Live and In Person 2023” tour, which completed a stunning 77 date run. LA Weekly said, “Mellencamp strode out looking for all the world like a Brando or a Paul Newman or a James Dean—a Misfit who managed to find his place in the world through his music.”

A reissue of his seminal album Scarecrow is out now to critical praise, and features a wealth of bonus tracks, rarities and more. Mellencamp’s 25th full-length studio album “Orpheus Descending” was released June 16 via Republic Records. It was recorded at his own Belmont Mall Studio and produced by Mellencamp. One of his most personal records to date, standout tracks “Hey God” and “The Eyes of Portland” focus on social issues Mellencamp continues to passionately advocate for.

Mellencamp continues his journey as the walking embodiment of rock icon; passionate, plain-spoken, and a self-proclaimed rebel. John Mellencamp continues to live and work in Bloomington, Indiana.

“With Season 1” premiere dates (for TV, check local listings):

July 1 – John Mellencamp WITH Bob Costas

July 8 – Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi WITH David Fricke

July 15 – Peter Frampton WITH Trey Bruce

July 22 – Mike Campbell WITH David Fricke

July 29 – Angus Young and Brian Johnson of AC/DC WITH David Fricke



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A Free Music Production App for Musicians and

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ByteDance Launches Music Production App ‘Ripple’ in the US

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance announced today that it’s launching a new, free-to-use music production app in closed beta in the United States. The app, called Ripple, is currently available on an invite-only basis to a small group of testers. Ripple is designed to help musicians and creators create and edit audio in a way that’s similar to portable smart digital audio workstations (DAWs), ByteDance says.

With Ripple, users can directly sing or hum a melody into the app, after which it will use machine learning to expand the melody and turn it into an instrumental song. The app’s model was trained on music that is licensed to or owned by ByteDance. The length of the song outputted will match the length of the song inputted. The company notes that Ripple currently has the ability to create instrumental music outputs only. ByteDance did not comment on whether it plans to expand this capability to include lyrics.

Ripple features what ByteDance calls a “virtual recording studio” that lets users record, cut, trim, and edit audio files with ease on their mobile device. ByteDance told AsumeTech that it plans to to add more mobile-friendly tools to help creators with their audio editing efficiency in the future.

“Ripple is designed to inspire musical creativity and help musicians, artists and composers express themselves,” ByteDance said in a statement. “We’re excited to see how creators use Ripple to tap into into their creativity to soundtrack their own short form videos.”

Although Ripple doesn’t have a direct integration with TikTok, ByteDance sees creators using the app to create background audio for their short form videos. A spokesperson for the company told AsumeTech that it’s simple to create music in Ripple and use it to soundtrack a TikTok video, noting that all a user would have to do is create a track on Ripple and then click to share it to TikTok.

The company said it invited musicians and music enthusiasts to test Ripple at this early stage. ByteDance invites those who wish to beta test Ripple to visit Ripple.club where they can download Ripple for iOS and request an invitation code. ByteDance did not share how long it plans to run the closed beta phase before expanding Ripple’s availability. The company did, however, say that there are no plans to launch Ripple in other countries at this stage.

The launch of the new app doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, given that Music Business Worldwide reported last year that ByteDance was developing a music creation and audio editing app for launch in the US.

It’s worth noting that Ripple is somewhat similar to another ByteDance app called Mawf. The sound-editing tool for artists and creators launched in beta in Europe and the UK last year. ByteDance confirmed that Mawf and Ripple are two separate, standalone apps. Mawf uses machine learning to turn any audio signal into sounding like a musical instrument.

Today’s launch comes as ByteDance has been pushing deeper into the music business in the US. Last year, ByteDance filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in May for a service called “TikTok Music. The filing indicated that the trademark could be applied to a mobile app that would allow users to purchase, play, share and download music. Also last year, TikTok launched its own music marketing and distribution platform, SoundOn, to help more artists get their music heard.

ByteDance Launches Music Production App ‘Ripple’ in the US

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance announced today that it’s launching a new, free-to-use music production app in closed beta in the United States. The app, called Ripple, is currently available on an invite-only basis to a small group of testers. Ripple is designed to help musicians and creators create and edit audio in a way that’s similar to portable smart digital audio workstations (DAWs), ByteDance says.

With Ripple, users can directly sing or hum a melody into the app, after which it will use machine learning to expand the melody and turn it into an instrumental song. The app’s model was trained on music that is licensed to or owned by ByteDance. The length of the song outputted will match the length of the song inputted. The company notes that Ripple currently has the ability to create instrumental music outputs only. ByteDance did not comment on whether it plans to expand this capability to include lyrics.

A Powerful Music Creation Tool

Ripple features what ByteDance calls a “virtual recording studio” that lets users record, cut, trim, and edit audio files with ease on their mobile device. ByteDance told AsumeTech that it plans to add more mobile-friendly tools to help creators with their audio editing efficiency in the future.

“Ripple is designed to inspire musical creativity and help musicians, artists and composers express themselves,” ByteDance said in a statement. “We’re excited to see how creators use Ripple to tap into their creativity to soundtrack their own short form videos.”

No Direct Integration with TikTok, But Potential for Collaboration

Although Ripple doesn’t have a direct integration with TikTok, ByteDance sees creators using the app to create background audio for their short form videos. A spokesperson for the company told AsumeTech that it’s simple to create music in Ripple and use it to soundtrack a TikTok video, noting that all a user would have to do is create a track on Ripple and then click to share it to TikTok.

The company said it invited musicians and music enthusiasts to test Ripple at this early stage. ByteDance invites those who wish to beta test Ripple to visit Ripple.club where they can download Ripple for iOS and request an invitation code. ByteDance did not share how long it plans to run the closed beta phase before expanding Ripple’s availability. The company did, however, say that there are no plans to launch Ripple in other countries at this stage.

Expanding into the Music Business

The launch of the new app doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, given that Music Business Worldwide reported last year that ByteDance was developing a music creation and audio editing app for launch in the US.

It’s worth noting that Ripple is somewhat similar to another ByteDance app called Mawf. The sound-editing tool for artists and creators launched in beta in Europe and the UK last year. ByteDance confirmed that Mawf and Ripple are two separate, standalone apps. Mawf uses machine learning to turn any audio signal into sounding like a musical instrument.

Today’s launch comes as ByteDance has been pushing deeper into the music business in the US. Last year, ByteDance filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in May for a service called “TikTok Music. The filing indicated that the trademark could be applied to a mobile app that would allow users to purchase, play, share, and download music. Also last year, TikTok launched its own music marketing and distribution platform, SoundOn, to help more artists get their music heard.

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[stan] is the new Social Community app for Fans to

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[stan] is the new Social Community app for Fans to Interact with their Favourite Artists – Music Industry Today – EIN Presswire

























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Wizkid’s ‘Essence’ Wins R&B/Hip-Hop Song of The

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Wizkid Stage Performance

Nigerian record production duo, Uzezi Oniko and Okiemute Oniko, known collectively as Legendury Beatz, snagged the Top R&B/Hip-Hop & Rap Song of the Year at the 2023 ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards for co-writing ‘Essence,’ the global hit by Wizkid featuring Tems.

The award was organised by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.

Dr. Luke took home the Songwriter of the Year award for co-writing such hit songs as Latto’s ‘Big Energy,’ Doja Cat’s ‘Need to Know’ and Nicki Minaj’s ‘Super Freaky Girl.’

Warner Chappell Music was named publisher of the year for songs including Jack Harlow’s ‘First Class’ and Beyoncé’s ‘Break My Soul’ and ‘Cuff It.’

Legendary rapper and producer, Dr. Dre received the inaugural ASCAP Hip-Hop Icon Award.

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Hawaii celebrity, Nicole Scherzinger, engaged!

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HONOLULU (KHON2) — Nicole Scherzinger recently shared a photo of her engagement to boyfriend, Thom Evans, on her Instagram.

Check out more news from around Hawaii

Scherzinger posted two photos, one of Evans on one knee with Scherzinger holding both hands over her smile and the other with the ring on her finger looking at her new fiancé.

Scherzinger captioned the two photos with “I said yes” followed by a ring and heart emoji.

The two were pictured both wearing blue and appeared to be on a picnic at the beach.

The Instagram post was uploaded on June 27 and has accumulated 795 thousand likes and 14.8 thousand comments.

Scherzinger was born in Honolulu and is known for being a singer, dancer, actress and television personality.

She was a lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, won Dancing with the Stars, was a voice actress in Moana, and a judge on The X Factor and The Masked Singer among the many things the newly engaged star is known for.

Scherzinger visits Hawaii as her family home is located in Waianae.

She appeared on “Secret Celebrity Renovation” in late 2022 and renovated her grandparents home. This show gives celebrities a chance to gift a surprise home renovation to a person who helped guide them to success, according to the show.

Awards Nicole Scherzinger has won:

  • 2006 ASCAP Pop Music Awards: “Buttons” Most Performed Songs                                          
  • 2008 BMI Pop Awards: “Buttons” Award-Winning Song  
  • 2012 Cosmopolitan Awards: Ultimate Fun Fearless Female
  • 2013 The Asian Awards: Outstanding Achievement in Music
  • 2013 Cosmopolitan Awards: Ultimate TV Personality        
  • 2013 Glamour Awards: TV Personality    
  • 2013 Harvard Foundation: Cultural Rhythms Artist of the Year

Scherzinger is also celebrating her birthday on June 29, two days after announcing her engagement on Instagram.

Get news on the go with KHON 2GO, KHON’s morning podcast, every morning at 8

She posted photos of her young self with a caption that read, “Happy Birthday little Nicole
You were always such a good little girl, with the sweetest heart, and the biggest dreams. Now you’re grown and I am very proud of how far you’ve come, and are still Becoming.”

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The app offers more than 1,000 sessions and is organised into different moods

The mindfulness app created by Madonna’s tour

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It seems fitting that on the day I speak to Niamh McCarthy, the 29-year-old founder of a new meditation app that promises to calm you down in minutes, my stomach hurts from stress. She is smiley and sympathetic, a sunny ray of Californian calm (she’s originally from Ireland but her accent is all over the place). And then she tells me she was in a car crash yesterday, which puts my deadlines into perspective.

“I’m fine!” she reassures me, beaming down the Zoom camera. “I thought to myself, I could react to this experience, or I could go with the flow. So I went with the flow.” She shrugs and smiles, the picture of chilled-out health.

It wasn’t always like this. McCarthy used to be the sort of person who “didn’t have time to meditate”, working full pelt in the music industry, on tour with U2 and Madonna — a career that led to burnout. Her app, Mindful Nation, combines music with mindfulness sessions which, she claims, will improve your day and change your life, no matter how busy you are.

She started out aged 20 working in New York for Guy Oseary, then CEO of Maverick, and spent four years on the road as a manager on back-to-back tours with U2 (“the most amazing human beings”), jetting over to support Madonna when needed (“I’ve never met a harder worker”). “It was a dream job,” she says, but it came at a price. By just 24 she was burnt out and suffering from panic attacks.

The app offers more than 1,000 sessions and is organised into different moods

The app offers more than 1,000 sessions and is organised into different moods

MINDFUL NATION

After collapsing in Germany and being told by a doctor that she needed to change her lifestyle, she stopped touring and moved to LA. But the pressure didn’t stop. “In the Maverick office there are the most talented people, but everyone is so stressed and unhappy. We were living our dream but were so entrenched in deadlines that we forgot this could be fun.”

A doctor told her that taking deep breaths could help her to calm down. It worked. She started studying meditation, including under Deepak Chopra, and launched Mindful Maverick sessions in the LA office, where she’d invite in meditation experts, play upbeat music and peel the managers away from their desks for a few minutes to breathe and relax. “The music was key. It had to be fun. These were people who said they couldn’t meditate, who didn’t have time to be mindful.”

Her new app, including investment by Live Nation and already being used globally by staff there and at Ticketmaster, builds on that idea — that even busy, stressed people who don’t have time to meditate can change their mindset with just a few minutes a day. It’s easy to use, with more than 1,000 sessions led by different “trainers” with British, Irish and American accents, and organised into different moods — Calm, Grounded, Focused — as well as curated playlists called things such as Anxiety Goodbye.

The vibe is inevitably American and they do say things like “let’s realign our intention”, but sessions are gloriously short — usually about three minutes. I’ve dabbled with other apps, such as Calm and Headspace, but Mindful Nation seems to take less commitment. “A lot of people that use our app can’t meditate. They go to the gym and they listen to music to relax.” The music, created thanks to McCarthy’s contacts, is genuinely good — a sort of relaxed Ibiza vibe, with no whale song. When my 11-year-old walks in on me listening to a three-minute session with Marlyn, she says it doesn’t sound very “meditatey” and she’s right, but that’s why I like it. Marlyn, incidentally, is Madonna’s former personal trainer, with a cheerful, husky Latina voice that gets your attention. When she tells me to take a deep breath and be kind to myself, I do as I’m told.

After a few sessions I’m not quite a sunny ray of Californian calm, but the stomach ache has shifted and I’m feeling less jittery. McCarthy tells me how she tested her method at live events, with musicians and mindfulness experts on stage. “We tried it at the Download Festival in Donington Park — it was 20,000 people, all heavy-metal fans standing in a field doing the meditation, hugging each other, grown men crying. It was insane.”
£4.99 through the App Store

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Canva inks deals with Warner and Merlin to let

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If you’ve ever used an automated video creation app, you’re likely familiar with the rather poor options available for soundtracking your work – low-quality, public-domain jingles are often what you get.

Starting this fall, that’s going to change for users of Canva, one of the world’s most popular graphic design platforms and described as “the world’s first all-in-one visual communication platform”.

The Australia-headquartered company announced on Thursday a first-of-its-kind partnership with Warner Music Group (MWG) and Merlin, the digital music licensing organization for indie labels and distributors, that will bring commercial music to Canva’s asset library starting this fall.

Users of Canva’s premium tier, Canva Pro, as well as users of Canva for Education and Canva for Non-Profit, will be able to add songs from WMG’s catalog, or the catalogs of indie rights holders represented by Merlin, to their videos or other media presentations. The company plans to roll the feature out to users of Canva for Teams at a later date.

Rights holders will earn royalties when clips of their songs appear in published videos made with Canva.

Canva is often used to quickly produce videos for TikTok, YouTube or other video services. It’s also commonly used for businesses’ training videos, slideshows and other presentations. The music feature will be accessible to Canva users in the US, Europe, Brazil, Canada and Australia.

“Music is such a fundamental expression of creativity, and offers an inspirational starting point for many,” Silvia Oviedo, Head of Content, Discovery & Print at Canva, said in a statement.

“We are thrilled to welcome Warner Music Group and Merlin to the Canva content ecosystem, and can’t wait to see what millions of music fans, content creators, educators and beyond design using content from their favorite artists.”

“At Warner Music Group we are focused on being at the forefront of music innovation,” Jessica Goldenberg, SVP, Digital Strategy & Business Development at WMG, said in a statement.

“This collaboration with Canva will provide new opportunities for our artists to increase their reach and engage their fans, while also empowering Canva’s creator community to elevate their designs with our robust catalog. Together with Canva, we look forward to shaping the future of visual communication by enabling creativity in ways that are uniquely achievable with music.”

Andrew Ludwick, Vice President of Business Development, Digital, at Warner Chappell Music, said: “Warner Chappell is proud to have our song catalog included in Canva’s music launch. Along with generating compelling new revenue streams for our songwriters, this innovative new partnership will unlock the power of music for individual designers, presenters, and educators.”

“This collaboration with Canva will provide new opportunities for our artists to increase their reach and engage their fans, while also empowering Canva’s creator community to elevate their designs with our robust catalog.”

Jessica Goldenberg, Warner Music Group

Merlin CEO Jeremy Sirota added: “We are excited to partner with Canva, a dynamic platform that empowers creativity and self-expression. Merlin prides itself on being a market leader in bringing independent music to new discovery platforms — this partnership with Canva will allow creators to connect with the vast array of Merlin member music from around the world.

“This is yet another significant milestone in Merlin’s commitment to drive the evolution of the digital music landscape and open up new forms of revenue opportunities for our members.”

Launched in 2013, Canva has built a user base of around 135 million by offering creators a simple one-stop shop for producing videos or other media for social platforms. Users navigate an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface, and have access to resources such as templates, a font library, stock photo and video footage, illustrations and audio clips.

Canva says its users create an average of 250 new designs every second.

“This is yet another significant milestone in Merlin’s commitment to drive the evolution of the digital music landscape and open up new forms of revenue opportunities for our members.”

Jeremy Sirota, Merlin

The company has rolled out a number of AI-powered tools, including Beat Sync, which helps users match their video to the beat of a selected song, as well as a text-to-image tool that allows users to verbally describe the graphic they want to an AI engine that then automatically generates the image.

The company has also announced it plans to compete directly with Google and Microsoft in the office software space. In late 2022 it launched Magic Write, an AI-powered copywriting assistant.Music Business Worldwide

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