Nashville’s artists will soon be getting a new creative space in Music City, when the artist-driven studio Createurs opens Aug. 25.

Founded by Nashville music industry veteran Jackie Stevens (who serves as the company’s CEO), artist Kylie Morgan and Los Angeles-based cinematographers William Carnahan and Sam Shimizu-Jones of Will Call Media, the 2,000-square-foot space will offer a destination for creators to record, shoot and edit content. The space offers flexible membership options, corporate membership packages and one-time booking availability.

Located at 305 14th Avenue North in Nashville, Createurs aims to serve as a creative hub for music artists, influencers, podcasters, visual creators, athletes and labels, among others. The space will offer a photography studio, a green screen room, a podcast suite, an education space, a performance space, dressing rooms, a collaborative social space and on-site creative experts to aid in supporting and curating content sessions.

“Content has changed every part of the way we do business in Nashville,” Stevens said in a statement. “But too many artists are priced out and need more support. We built Createurs as a place to remove that pressure so artists can focus on what matters, creating.”

Stevens previously served as executive producer for Westwood One’s The Big Time with Whitney Allen and Nights With Elaina. She also earned multiple ACM, CMA and Gracie Award wins and nominations along the way. In 2019, she joined UMG Nashville (now MCA) as director of promotions for EMI Records, working with artists including Eric Church, Brothers Osborne and Morgan, the latter known for her top 40 Country Airplay hit “If He Wanted to He Would” and her 2023 debut country album Making It Up As I Go.

The facility was designed and constructed by artist/designer Danielle Joy Art, while Shannon LaBrie of LaBrie Spaces added design elements.

Irish rap group Kneecap – which has drawn a storm of criticism, support, attention and legal action over the past half-year – continued to speak out about the war in Gaza during an afternoon set at the Øyafestivalen in Oslo, Norway, on Friday (Aug. 8).

Right before the trio of Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí took the stage, an English-language white-text-on-black-background message played on a video screen, accusing the Norwegian government of “enabling” the “genocide” against the Palestinian people via investments held in the county’s sovereign wealth fund (referenced as “oil pension fund” in the message). “Over 80,000 people have been murdered by Israel in 21 months,” the band’s message continued. “Free Palestine.” The message was greeted readily by a cheering audience. Most estimates (including those from health officials in the area) place the Palestinian death toll at more than 60,000. That number does not distinguish between civilians and Hamas militants. An estimated 18,500 of those killed were children.

While conflict between Israel and Palestinian territory has been ongoing for decades, the conflict escalated on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants entered Israel and killed 1,200 people, more than 800 of whom were civilians, and took 251 hostages, at least 40 of whom have been killed; around 50 hostages, both dead and alive, remain unreleased. Israel’s ensuing invasion of Gaza has killed an estimated 60,000 and led to an ongoing humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced and facing starvation. Gaza health authorities have reported that almost 200 people have died of hunger since the conflict began and the United Nations has estimated that some 1300 were killed while seeking food, though Israel has frequently disputed the UN’s figures. Israel’s security cabinet recently approved a plan to take complete control of Gaza City and forcibly relocate at least 600,000 Palestinians, a move decried by many world leaders.

The Norwegian government’s connection to the war in Gaza is complicated. While Norway has broken with the United States and Israel by recognizing Palestine as a state, the Government Pension Fund of Norway – which invests surplus revenues from the country’s petroleum industry and has more than $1.9 trillion in assets – is under scrutiny after a recent piece by Aftenposten, Norway’s largest printed newspaper, reported that the sovereign wealth fund invested around $15.2 million in Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd., a jet engines parts manufacturer supplying the Israeli military, between 2023-2024. While Norway’s Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg has ruled out wholesale divestment of Israeli companies, the newspaper’s revelation spurred the government to launch a review of the sovereign wealth portfolio to ensure that it was not investing in Israeli companies contributing to the war in Gaza.

Halfway through the Belfast group’s hour-long performance, they offered up more detailed thoughts on Norway’s purported connection to the conflict. “I don’t have to lecture you people,” said Kneecap’s Mo Chara, wearing a keffiyeh. “I can understand there’s people here like, ‘All right, we get it, I’m sick of yous going on.’ I wish I didn’t have to talk about this, I wish I didn’t have to get on stage every gig and talk about this. The fact is, as long as we’re on stage and as long as nothing is changing, Kneecap will always use this platform and this stage to call out the genocide and the war criminals. I don’t need to lecture you people when your oil fund is being used to fund the genocide.” The majority of Kneecap’s massive crowd greeted his speech with cheers and applause; many waved Palestinian flags as he spoke. The Israeli government has flatly denied committing genocide against Palestinians, and the term remains hotly debated. Some say those who accuse Israel of genocide are motivated by antisemitism, though two Israel-based human rights organizations recently began adopting the word with regards to the war in Gaza.

Mo Chara gave a “quick shout-out” to Øyafestivalen for “standing by Kneecap” despite calls for its removal from the lineup, but added that he thinks “it’s a disgrace and a shame that KKR” – a global investment firm that owns Superstruct Entertainment, which runs Øyafestivalen, among many other international music festivals – “is behind all these festivals. No company investing in Israel while they commit war crimes should be involved in and taking part in music festivals,” he concluded, with the crowd voicing its agreement.

Criticism of KKR wasn’t limited to Kneecap’s set. Outside the festival entrance on Friday, a small but vocal group of protestors gathered to urge people to boycott Øyafestivalen over KKR. At a different stage, more than an hour later Kneecap wrapped, Irish rockers D.C. Fontaines flashed an onscreen message of “Free Palestine,” which was also greeted enthusiastically by the crowd.

Mo Chara is currently facing a terrorism charge from the British government over purportedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in November 2024, where the group allegedly said “up Hezbollah, up Hamas.” Since then, the punk-leaning rap group released a statement declaring “we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah” and described video footage as “deliberately taken out of context.” Mo Chara alluded to the charges during the show, saying, “we love the English people, it’s the English government we don’t like.” Not long after Kneecap first hit the Øyafestivalen stage, they urged the audience to give them more of a response: “For f—k sake, we’re up in court on terrorism charges – give me a bit of energy.”

In July, Kneecap were banned from performing in Hungary over what a Hungarian politician described as “antisemitism and glorifying terror,” calling them a “national security threat.”

“The authoritarian government of Viktor Orban say we ‘pose a national security threat,’” the group wrote in a statement after the ban. “There is no legal basis for his actions, no member of Kneecap has ever been convicted of any crime in any country. We stand against all hate crimes and Kneecap champions love and solidarity as well as calling out injustices where we see it…. It’s clear this is political distraction and a further attempt to silence those who call out genocide against the Palestinian people.”

HYBE was the week’s top performing music stock after its share price jumped 15.9% to 291,000 KRW ($209.33) following the company’s Q2 earnings on Wednesday (Aug. 6). The K-pop giant’s revenue rose 10.2% year-over-year to $516.7 million, while operating profit jumped nearly 30% to $48.3 million

Other K-pop stocks also posted big gains. YG Entertainment rose 17.4% after reporting an 11.6% revenue gain in Q2. JYP Entertainment climbed 14.5% even though the company did not report earnings this week. SM Entertainment, which reported a 19% increase in consolidated revenue in Q2, gained 8.3%. Collectively, the four K-pop companies posted an average stock price gain of 14.0%. 

A week after nearly all music stocks suffered losses, a handful of Q2 results helped the Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) gain 9.0% to 2,980.51. Stocks improved in markets around the world after taking a drubbing a week earlier. In the U.S., the Nasdaq composite rose 3.7% and the S&P 500 improved 2.3%. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 improved 0.3%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index rose 2.9%. China’s SSE Composite Index improved 2.1%. 

Warner Music Group (WMG) shares jumped 10.8% to $31.71, its best closing price since March 27, following the company’s earnings results on Thursday (Aug 7). Encouraged by streaming growth, market share and cost-cutting, among other developments, some analysts raised their WMG price targets following the announcement. J.P. Morgan lifted WMG to $36 from $33, citing revenue that came in ahead of estimates and “margin-accretive growth” to come from renewed licensing deals with streaming platforms. TD Cowen raised WMG to $46 from $36. Guggenheim maintained its buy rating and $37 price target. 

Live Nation shares gained 4.7% to $153.13 and reached an intraday price of $156.65 on Friday (Aug. 8), less than $1 below its 52-week high, after the company’s earnings results released Thursday showed a 16% spike in total revenue and a 19% jump in concert revenue. Many analysts lifted their price targets on Friday, including Benchmark (to $180 from $178), Wolfe Research (to $173 from $168), Guggenheim (to $182 from $170), Goldman Sachs ($168 from $162), Roth Capital (to $180 from $164) and JP Morgan (to $180 from $165). 

The biggest streaming companies also posted strong gains. Spotify, the BGMI’s most valuable component, jumped 12.4% to $706.22 after dropping 9.4% a week earlier. Currently valued at approximately $145 billion, Spotify is well below its 52-week high of $785.00 set on June 27. Netease Cloud Music rose 9.0% to 266.80 HKD ($33.99), bringing its year-to-date gain to 133.6%. Tencent Music Entertainment rose 7.7% to $22.13, raising its 2025 gain to 95.0%. 

Cumulus Media, which reported earnings on Thursday, saw its shares fall 6% on Friday but finished the week up about 14%. Investors reacted to the 9.2% decline in revenue in the second quarter and CEO Mary Berner’s description of a “challenging” advertising landscape. Adjusted EBITDA fell 11.3% to $22.4 million from $25.2 million in the prior-year period. 

iHeartMedia was the week’s biggest loser, falling 11.6% to $1.60. The company will report second-quarter results on Monday (Aug. 11).