Pryor & Lee. Photo: Jeremy Cowart

Black River Records duo Pryor & Lee are set to hit the road on their Right Now Tour this fall. The country duo also announced that new music is in the works and set for release later this year. The Right Now Tour will kick off Aug. 20 in Richmond, Virginia with visits along the way in Tuscaloosa, Athens, Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, and more before wrapping in Greenville, South Carolina on Oct. 16.

“We can’t wait to get back on the road and have the opportunity to play this new music we have been working on for everyone,” share Pryor & Lee. “Right Now is the time for a good time and to put this crazy year behind us. We’re ready to bring one heck of a party!”

The duo’s song “Good Ol’ Dogs and God” debuted on top playlists, including Apple Music’s New In Country, Amazon Music’s Breakthrough Country, and Spotify’s New Music Nashville. Earlier this summer, Pryor & Lee partnered with 130 humane organizations, rescue groups, and animal shelters across the country and in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Canada to celebrate the release of the track and the unconditional love that pet parents share with their four-legged companions.

The pair also have upcoming show dates with Granger Smith, Frank Foster, and Rodney Atkins. For a full list of upcoming shows or to purchase tickets, click here.

Jack White

Jack White has launched Jack White Art & Design, a comprehensive new multimedia website cataloging his creative work spanning over two decades. Jack White Art & Design presents a look at his award-winning artistic career through hundreds of photographs and videos, showcasing key works within such wide-ranging practices as industrial design, interior design, furniture and upholstery, graphic design, instruments and hardware, sculpture, vinyl concepts, film directing, and photography.

White opened his own upholstery shop, Third Man Upholstery, in 1996 which was housed in Detroit’s artist-friendly Pioneer Building. He also utilized the space to work on sculpture and songwriting before closing it in 1998. The past 20 years have seen White further exploring his design muse via myriad projects under the visionary Third Man Records umbrella.

White’s industrial design showcases his concept and design for the innovative Third Man Pressing plant and other Third Man facilities, including the first ever published interior photos of White’s famed Third Man Recording Studio, home to almost all of his recordings since its 2008 inception. Meanwhile, White’s work within interior design is showcased in Third Man Records’ shops and headquarters in Detroit and Nashville, plus his own Three Pin Alley, a professional bowling alley with bar and lounge.

“To work with Jack White, to watch him work at anything is to witness the mind of an artist as it explores and problem solves,” says Third Man’s Ben Blackwell. “In carpentry and interior design, being in Jack’s presence during the ideation process, the hypotheticals and head tilting, can be both inspiring and maddening. There’s no reason a building needs to have acoustical tiles, tin ceilings or shiny yellow floors. But that’s not the point. The point is to make something beautiful.”

White’s furniture and upholstery work offers first-ever public views of projects including an office chair restored in 2014 for Woodland Studios owners Gillian Welch and David Rawlings; an original Sam Phillips Recording studio couch, refurbished by White at the personal request of the Phillips family; the one-of-a-kind Warrior Chair, White’s first design contribution to the showroom of the Dallas company Warstic; the Aluminum Chair Set, a series of four chairs hand stained and refinished by White during the pandemic lockdown of 2020; and the Triple 78 Chair, a very personal project for White that pays tribute to the structure of Third Man Records itself.

The graphic design section of White’s portfolio includes handmade show posters and flyers from 1997-2001, cover art spanning The White Stripes’ 1998 7” debut single, “Let’s Shake Hands,” through iconic albums and singles from The White Stripes and his own solo work, Third Man logos, and the Grammy Award-winning collections The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records: Volume One, 1917-1927 and The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records: Volume Two, 1928-1932.

White’s work with instruments and hardware include Third Man Hardware as well as custom designed guitars, drum kits, the iconic Peppermint Triple Tremolo Unit, and the Diddley Bow, a one-string, entry-level instrument constructed on-camera as the opening scene to Davis Guggenheim’s award-winning 2009 documentary It Might Get Loud.

In the realm of sculpture, White’s work sees the public premiere of a number of varied works including 1995’s “Dog House,” 1997’s “Machine Gun Fan,” a working sculpture he designed and constructed at his Detroit studio and still used today at the Third Man Upholstery studio, and 2015’s “dead” sculpture, “The Red Tree.” Additionally, his vinyl concepts showcase such innovations as the Under Label Groove, the first-ever commercially released Liquid Filled LP, the Triple Decker Record, Tri-Color Records, and the groundbreaking ULTRA LP.

His film & directing gathers numerous music videos directed by White for his solo work and his band, The Dead Weather, along with videos for Third Man recording artists The Black Belles, a technique and instrument series, promotional films, documentary looks at the famed Third Man Record booth and ULTRA LP, and short films previously only seen as projections during 2018’s Boarding House Reach world tour.

White’s photography is represented with collections of polaroids, double exposure polaroids, photo booth photographs, digital photography, and photos taken using Third Man Records impossible film, a custom duochrome instant film conceived by White and created by the Dutch company, The Impossible Project.

Jack White Art & Design also includes a guide to White’s primary art and design influences, among them prolific commercial artist Norman Saunders, industrial designer George Nelson, Gilded Age cabinet maker, decorator, and upholsterer George A. Schastey, industrial design pioneer Henry Dreyfuss, Dutch furniture designer, architect, and principal member of the De Stijl artistic movement Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, and Dutch graphic artist and visual artist “Ootje” Oxenaar.

Spotify Q2 Financial Earnings

Spotify has announced its second quarter financial results, showing a 22% increase year-over-year (Y/Y) in Total Monthly Active Users with 365 million which was below expectations. Premium subscribers also saw a 20% increase Y/Y, reaching 165 million which was ahead of what was forecasted.

“Q2 was a strong quarter for Spotify overall, with the majority of our major metrics performing better than expected,” says Spotify CEO and founder Daniel Ek. “While MAU growth was softer than expected in the first half of the year, we are seeing that trendline reverse and all the leading indicators show that we are back on track. By accelerating our pace of innovation and investing for the long term, we continue to cement our standing as the preferred audio platform around the world.”

Revenue experienced a 23% growth Y/Y which fell toward the top end of guidance range due to significant advertising strength and subscriber outperformance. Spotify’s advertising business also accelerated, seeing a 110% increase since this time last year.

This quarter there was a strong trend for podcasts on the platform. Podcast consumption was up 95% Y/Y in aggregate and over 30% on a per user basis. The share of overall consumption also reached an all-time high.

View the full earnings report or see the infographic.

The Nashville Symphony and the Nashville Musicians Association, AFM Local 257, have announced the ratification of a new contract for the orchestra musicians going into effect Aug. 1, 2021. Under the new three-year contract, the musicians will return to full-time work in September, beginning with a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on Sept. 11 at Ascend Amphitheater.

Much of the new contract is a modified version of the former agreement which locked in musicians for four years, expiring in 2022. As the Symphony rebounds financially from COVID, the musicians’ annual compensation in the first year will be cut 7% from their salary in the year leading up to the pandemic. In the second year of the new agreement, compensation will return to pre-pandemic levels, followed by a 6.25% increase in the third year, which will nearly return the musicians to the salary level that would have been reached at the end of the former agreement in 2022.

“We are profoundly grateful to the musicians of the Nashville Symphony for their collaboration and cooperation in reaching this agreement,” says Pamela Carter, Chair of the Nashville Symphony’s Board of Directors. “While the past year has been extraordinarily challenging for our entire organization, we recognize that it has been especially difficult for our musicians. This agreement represents the most essential step in the orchestra’s reemergence, as it enables the musicians’ return to the stage, while at the same time ensuring that the Nashville Symphony can remain sustainable and continue to serve our community for generations to come.”

In addition to establishing annual compensation levels, the agreement provides for an immediate lump-sum payment of $7,000 per musician. Other provisions of the agreement provide flexibility to both musicians and management in recognition of the ongoing impacts of the pandemic.

“Musicians have been hit harder than most by the pandemic, and the Nashville Symphony is no exception. Finding a way forward has been extremely difficult for NSO members, who had to shoulder enormous financial burdens with no income for six months and a small fraction of their normal salary since January 2021. Nashville is very fortunate to have this multiple Grammy-winning orchestra, who deserve to be compensated appropriately. We could not have reached this agreement without the hard work of our dedicated Negotiating Committee, who never lost sight of the goal of getting the NSO musicians back to work at a pay level that they can live with,” AFM Local 257 President Dave Pomeroy shares.

The agreement also affirms the Nashville Symphony’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, with the ultimate goal of building an orchestra that is more reflective of Music City. In pursuit of this goal, musicians and management have agreed to update the audition process based on some of the recommendations from the National Alliance for Audition Support, a national initiative to increase diversity in American orchestras. The new provisions will assist the Nashville Symphony in ensuring a fair and equitable process for musicians participating in auditions.

“We are profoundly grateful to our community for its unwavering generosity and support, which has enabled us to reach this point,” comments Nashville Symphony President & CEO Alan D. Valentine. “The Nashville Symphony will once again be able to focus on doing what we do best: providing great music and education programs for the people of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. This agreement will enable the Nashville Symphony to begin its own healing and rebuilding journey, even as we help our community heal through the life-transforming power of music. It also reflects a shared commitment with our musicians to building a bright, vibrant future for our orchestra – one that is even more meaningful for the community we serve.”

Single tickets for the Nashville Symphony’s 2021/22 season go on sale to the public beginning this Friday, July 30.