It’s a very Merry Christmas for The Greatest Showman – the film’s hugely successful cast recording takes this year’s Christmas Number 1 album with its strongest week of sales yet.

Australian radio paid greater attention to Australian music in 2018 with almost 50,000 most spins this year.

Anthony O’Grady, the founder of Australian music newspaper RAM and before that contributor to predecessor pop paper Go-Set has passed away in Sydney.

Taylor Swift tour pocketed $277.3 million in ticket sales in 2018 and that was just for North America.

The year of 2018 has been topped and tailed by long running soundtracks, "A Star is Born" now racks up its eighth week at the top, matching the eight-week-stay achieved by "The Greatest Showman" in January and February.

It's a fifth week at the summit of the ARIA Singles Chart for the Ariana Grande track "thank u, next", which also lands a fifth week at the top in New Zealand and Canada, a sixth week in both Ireland and England and it returns for a fourth week at No.1 in America.

The next round of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers has been revealed with The Cure, Radiohead and Def Leppard to be inducted alongside Stevie Nicks and Janet Jackson, Roxy Music and The Zombies.

Major new titles coming this week from: Bruce Springsteen, Evanescence (live), Mitchell Tenpenny, Kodak Black, Zayn, Alan Walker, XXXTentacion, Wild Summer 2019 compilation and the soundtrack for Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.

NEW YORK, NY — 12 December, 2018 — New York City — Mr. Nick Kontonicolas, COO of The Noise Network (USA) has confirmed awarded China and America based television presenter and blogger Ms. Wei Wei Gao will JV her MGM International Media Inc company with The Noise Network to work on The Noise Network’s China Music Export Initiative for 2019.

Melbourne singer, songwriter, producer and drummer G Flip has received the 2019 ARIA Emerging Artist Scholarship.

Kendrick Lamar looks set to dominate the 2019 Grammy Awards after receiving seven nominations on Friday.

Russell Morris, Daryl Braithwaite and John Farnham … collective age 208. Man are their voices in mighty fine form still!

Congratulations to The 1975, who land straight in at Number 1 on this week's Official Albums Chart with A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships.

It's now a seventh week at the top in Australia for the soundtrack to "A Star is Born" by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, plus the set also holds for the same period in New Zealand too.

Could the Ariana Grande track "thank u, next" become the final No.1 of 2018, as this week it lands a fourth week atop the ARIA Singles Chart, plus also a fourth stay in New Zealand and Canada and logs a fifth week atop the UK and Irish singles charts too.

Kevin Somers, the Australian agent/booker who worked with Jimeoin, Dave Hughes, Eric Bana and Vince Sorrenti over the years, has lost his battle with cancer.

The National Live Music Awards were held across Australia on Thursday 6 December 2018. As part of the awards Magic Dirt were inducted into the National Live Music Hall of Fame.

Major new titles coming this week from: Coldplay (Live), All That Remains, Cilla Black, Slipknot (re-issue), John Mellencamp, The Carpenters & RPO, Brett Young, Ice Cube, Van Morrison, Brothers 3, Wes Carr, Mel Parsons, Richard Swift and the Mary Poppins Returns soundtrack.

The music of Savage Garden will be remarketed to the world in 2019 following a deal between Sony boss Denis Handlin and John Woodruff Management.

Melbourne’s hidden music gem of a venue MEMO Music Hall will pay tribute to its local artists with Summer Sounds of St Kilda series throughout January.

The National Live Music Awards are thrilled to announce the final additions for the 2018 runs of events this Thursday!

Take That may be celebrating their 30th anniversary but they show no signs of slowing down - their new album Odyssey lands straight in at Number 1 on the UK’s Official Albums Chart with massive opening week numbers.

It’s been another mighty seven days for Ariana Grande as thank u, next holds on to Number 1 for a fourth week.

The soundtrack for the film 'A Star is Born' logs a sixth week atop the ARIA Albums Chart, two weeks shy of the eight weeks set in January and February for the years other long-running No.1 soundtrack in "The Greatest Showman".

The Ariana Grande run at the top continues in Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada (all third week), England and Ireland (both 4 weeks) for her song "thank u, next", which got a video clip release on Saturday (1st of Dec.)

Three Sydney acts plus one each from Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle, Perth and Auckland have been added to the SXSW line-up for 2019.

Labor has promised to overhaul current laws in relation to ticket sales for live music and events if (make that a when) it assumes power in May 2019.

Major new titles coming this week from: The 1975, Clean Bandit, David Bowie (Live), Neil Young (Live), Bryan Ferry, Alessia Cara, Damien Dempsey, Buddy Holly & Royal Philharmonic Orch., Mel Parsons and Dolly Parton's soundtrack for 'Dumplin''.

Kasey Chambers was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame this week with an imaginative poem by Paul Kelly.

Around 500,000 viewers tuned in to watch the ARIA Awards across Australia last night.