LA Weekly provocatively asks in a headline, ‘How did an LA Indie Label Wind Up Releasing Yoko Ono’s New Album?’ Our guess is no one else wanted it!

- Ronnie Spector returns with a new album that is a covers collection, including songs by the Kinks and the Rolling Stones.

- Launching two of the top three U.S. albums of 2015 – Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Justin Bieber’s Purpose — Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, the world’s No. 1 company in recorded music, saw revenues edge up 2.7% in 2015 to US$5.6 billion — thanks to a 43% hike in subscription and streaming revenues, the Paris-based company announced Thursday as it presented full-year 2015 results.

- Vevo joins the line-up of online services to announce it is launching a subscription service.

- Holy Fuck!  After months of teasing the band with the self-destructo name has released the title and date of its next album. It’s mildly called Congrats, and it’s due May 27.

- Wintersleep has a story to tell about landing Geddy Lee to play bass on “Territory” – a track included on the band’s The Great Detachment album, set for release by Dine Alone on March 4.

- Rufus Wainwright is escaping the grey winter here by heading to Buenos Aires, where he is performing two Prima Donna concerts at Teatro Colon on Friday and Saturday night. On his twitter feed he describes his performance as a 'symphonic visual concert'.

- Amanda Tosoff, the BC-raised Toronto-based pianist, composer and bandleader, launches Words - her fifth album - at Toronto’s Music Gallery on March 10. Following this she's at  Waterloo’s Jazz Room on March 11. Tosoff won the CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award at the '07 Vancouver International Jazz Fest and has performed with the likes of Ingrid and Christine Jensen, Emilie-Claire Barlow, and Phil Dwyer. The eclectic new record incorporates elements of pop, classical, folk, jazz and what she describes as 'art songs'.

Spotify is still seeing some healthy growth, despite increased competition from Apple Music: The music subscription service surpassed 28M paying subscribers by the end of 2015 and is now on track to hit the milestone of 30M, according to the Financial Times. Spotify hasn’t released any official metrics for some time; the service last revealed in June of 2015 that it had amassed 20 million paying subscribers and 75 million monthly active users.

- After months of speculation, Coldplay is indeed set to headline Glastonbury Festival this year. The Chris Martin ensemble is one of three Brit headliners, but so far the only one named. It's the first time an artist has headlined the legendary UK festival on four occasions, following previous appearances in ‘02, ‘05 and 2011. 

- There’s much hand wringing about the fate of the CBC. Barry Kiefl suggests the government ask Canadians what they expect from the pubcaster, in an op-ed piece appearing in the Globe & Mail.

- Thunder Bay’s 15^th annual Bluesfest has found a way round the bite on expenses with the sub-par loonie—book an all Canadian fest. Burton Cummings is the show closer on the three-day Marina Park shindig. Also on the bill are Tom Cochrane, Colin James, Steve Hill, David Gogo, Jack De Keyzer, Serena Ryder, Downchild Blues Band, April Wine, Steve Strongman, Gowan, and Terra Lightfoot. Who said white men can’t sing the blues?

- Ponderosa Festival will be returning to Rock Creek, BC after a tragic wildfire forced a last minute cancellation last year. Just announced, the festival will be returning August 19th - 21st.

- Adele "froze" when her performance of "All I Ask" at the Grammy Awards on Monday was marred by a mic fell on to the piano strings. "The piano mics fell on to the piano strings, that's what the guitar sound was. It made it sound out of tune. S**t happens," A-Bomb tweeted after the incident. During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show yesterday, Adele further explained the situation: “I heard it straight away,” she said. “And I knew where the mic was and I wanted to turn around and lift it up, but I froze. But I actually felt like it went well. In the room they actually sorted the problem and I’m always a bit pitchy anyways so I wasn’t particularly... I am! It’s emotion. It’s emotion…I was embarrassed. I woke up the next morning to people in England being like, 'We still love you, don’t worry' and I was like, 'I didn’t ask you if you still loved me, but thanks'. I was so embarrassed.” Continuing: "I cried pretty much all day. In fairness I would have cried if it went really well as well. If it was a stand out performance I would have cried as well. I always cry.”

- BreakOut West heads to Regina on October 13-16, 2016 for the first time since 2012! The 14th annual edition of BOW returns to Regina, Saskatchewan with the help of SaskMusic, Creative Saskatchewan, Tourism Saskatchewan, the City of Regina and the Regina Hotel Assoc. Submissions are now open for the BreakOut West Festival, Western Canadian Music Awards and the Western Canadian Music Industry Awards. The application process will be open until Monday, March 21 for all categories.

-  Nickelback lost out to 5 Seconds Of Summer in the Worst Band category at the NME Awards this week. Also on the slate were One Direction, U2, Little Mix, and Seaford Mods. Grimes lost to Taylor Swift in the Best International Solo Artist toss, and to Foals in the Best Album supported by HMV category.

-  Those of you keen to find out just what you’ll get when the cable companies are forced to offer you ‘skinny basic” TV channel bundles have to wait just a little longer. The CRTC has made this mandatory by March 1, and this week reminded the cable cos of their obligations. To date, none have unveiled details of what you’ll get for a service capped at $25 per month. Our hunch? Not much.

- George Canyon scores a triple win: The Canadian Country star’s latest release I Got This is the #1 best-selling Canadian country album this week after its chart topping debut on the Country Albums Chart.  Additionally, the first single “I Got This” and album track “Daughters of the Sun” are the #1 and #2 best-selling country songs, according to Nielsen SoundScan for the week ending February 11.