1) Katy Perry (not ranked last week): Adele and Lady Gaga tend to steal her thunder, but Katy Perry just keeps raking them in: she leads the MTV Video Music Award nominations with nine nods.
2) Your dad”s modern rock (not ranked): Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink-182 and Staind all return to Billboard”s alternative rock chart chart this week with first singles from new projects after years away.
3) Take That (not ranked): And just like that the reformed British Boy band shattered Bruce Springsteen”s previous record for highest grossest concert stand. Who”s the boss now?
4) Blake Shelton (not ranked): “The Voice” mentor scores his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. If we were him, we”d get in our “Voice” mentor chair and spin around and around to celebrate.
5) Fans First Coalition (not ranked): Those excellent paragons of consumer rights TicketMaster and Live Nation link with a number of artists and promoters and form a coalition to fight secondary ticketing site StubHub, which they believe is gouging the public. Because TicketMaster fees are so not doing that….
6) Justin Bieber (not ranked): It takes the rest of us a lifetime, but apparently the Bieb needs only a month to “kind of grow up.” he tells the Hollywood Reporter that he”s taking 30 days off to hang with friends, “think, pray and just kind of grow up.”
7) Pitchfork Music Festival (not ranked): Despite sunstroke-inducing heat, all the little hipsters gathered together in Chicago last weekend to sneer and make fun of their friends” favorite bands during the three-day sold-out fest.
8) Sylvia Rhone (not ranked): The Doug Morris protege has worked for him at Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and. now, it looks like she may follow him to Sony Music to reinvigorate the Portrait imprint. It”s really good to have friends in high places.
9) Apple (not ranked): Bloomberg reports that Apple could buy Hulu in a move that would shake Netflix to its core and increase Apple”s world domination.
10) Spotify (No. 10): The new (to the U.S.) streaming service signs up around 70,000 paid subscribers in its first week, according to Billboard. How many more are using the ad-supported version? Either way, it”s a strong start. https://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/spotify-u-s-70-000-reasons-to-believe-the-1005289682.story