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 Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, 74 Sued for Sexual Assault

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Aerosmith Frontman Steven Tyler, 74 Sued for Sexual Assault

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, 74, is being sued by a woman in California who states he sexually abused her when she was 16 in the 1970s for more than three years. Tyler faces a sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress lawsuit.

Julia Misley’s lawsuit was filed on Tuesday under a 2019 California law that gave adult victims of childhood sexual assault a three-year window to file lawsuits for decades-old assaults. The deadline for filing such claims is Saturday.

Misley, formerly Julia Holcomb, 65, said in a statement that she wanted to take advantage of “a new opportunity to take legal action against those who abused me in my youth.” Unless victims publicly identify themselves, the Associated Press does not name them.

While Tyler is not named in the lawsuit, Misley identified him in a statement issued through the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates. Tyler discussed a relationship with a teenage girl in two books, published in 2011 and 1997, and she has previously recounted her experiences with Tyler.

Misley thanks a “Julia Halcomb” in the acknowledgments section of his memoir “Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?” Misley has said this is a reference to her.

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Steven Tyler Remains Silent

Tyler’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. Rolling Stone first reported the lawsuit.

Tyler allegedly “used his role, status, and power as a well-known musician and rock star to gain access to, groom, manipulate, exploit, and sexually assault” Misley over three years, according to the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, some abuse occurred in Los Angeles County. As a result, according to the lawsuit, she has suffered severe emotional harm and economic losses.

Misley met Tyler in 1973 at one of his shows in Portland, Oregon, and was later invited to Tyler’s hotel room, where she claimed she told him she was 16 years old, according to the lawsuit. Tyler would have been about 25 or 26 years old at the time. According to the complaint, he engaged in “various acts of criminal sexual conduct” against Misley.

According to the lawsuit, he engaged in sexual acts with her after multiple other shows, and in 1974 he became her legal guardian so that she could travel to him with shows.

According to the lawsuit, Misley became pregnant in 1975 due to sex with Tyler, and he coerced her into having an abortion.

steven tyler

Almost took a “Teen Bride.”

According to the lawsuit, Steven Tyler harmed Misley further by publishing memoirs that detailed aspects of their relationship without her knowledge or consent. According to the lawsuit, doing so exposed Misley to public attention and scrutiny, retraumatizing her and making it more difficult for her to recover.

Tyler mentions meeting an unnamed 16-year-old “girlfriend to be” in his 2011 memoir. He wrote that he almost “took a teen bride” and convinced her parents to sign over custody so he wouldn’t be arrested when she joined him on tour out of state.

“By including Plaintiff’s name in the acknowledgments, he left the readers and the public in no doubt of Plaintiff’s identity,” the lawsuit claims, adding that after the book’s publication, she was confronted with a picture of her face on a tabloid cover at a grocery store.

Tyler’s relationship with a teenage girl is also mentioned by several people in “Walk This Way,” Aerosmith’s 1997 “autobiography” in the form of oral history. The teen is given the pen name “Diana Hall” and is described as pregnant at one point. Tyler expressed interest in marrying her, mentioned abortions, and described the situation as “tricky all around.”

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of monetary compensation.

Source: Rolling Stone, AP, VOR News

Celebrity

Feds Search Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Properties As Part Of Sex Trafficking Probe

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NEW YORK — Federal Homeland Security Investigations agents and other law enforcement officers searched two properties owned by music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs in Los Angeles and Miami on Monday as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation by federal authorities in New York, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

It is unclear whether Combs was the target of the probe. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about the probe and talked to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

Homeland Security Investigations stated that it “executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners.”

A spokesman for the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

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Feds Search Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Properties As Part Of Sex Trafficking Probe

Lawyers for Combs and other representatives left messages requesting comments, but they did not immediately respond.

A police line was formed around the Los Angeles home in the affluent Holmby Hills district near Beverly Hills. Helicopter footage from KABC-TV showed several agents wearing vests, indicating they were from Homeland Security Investigations, and they were gathered in the backyard near the pool. A command post was set up outside the house, and agents were still coming and going hours after the search began.

Combs has faced many sexual assault lawsuits in recent months.

In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit saying that Combs pushed him into soliciting prostitutes and pressuring him to have sex with them. Shawn Holley, Combs’ attorney, stated of the charges, “We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies.”

Cassie, Combs’ former apprentice and girlfriend, sued him in November, accusing him of sexual abuse, including rape, over several years. The lawsuit claimed he pushed her to have sex with male prostitutes while filming them. The lawsuit was settled the day after it was filed.

Another of Combs’ accusers was a woman who said the rap producer raped her at the age of 17 two decades ago.

The Associated Press normally does not identify persons who claim to have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Cassie did.

In a December statement, Combs stated, “I did not do any of the awful things being alleged.”

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Feds Search Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Properties As Part Of Sex Trafficking Probe

According to Douglas Wigdor, an attorney representing Cassie and another woman who sued Combs, “Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.”

It is unclear whether the search is related to any of the charges in the cases.

Combs is one of the most important hip-hop producers and executives over the last three decades. Formerly known as Puff Daddy, he established one of hip-hop’s most powerful empires, blazing a route with several businesses using his iconic name. He founded Bad Boy Records and is a three-time Grammy winner who has collaborated with several major musicians, including the Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Faith Evans, and 112.

Combs founded the fashion clothing company Sean John, developed the music-focused Revolt TV channel, and produced the reality show “Making the Band” for MTV.

His most recent record, “The Love Album – Off the Grid,” came out last year, just days after Combs was recognized at the MTV Video Music Awards. It was nominated for best progressive R&B album at the February Grammy Awards, but the rapper-mogul did not attend.

combs

Feds Search Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Properties As Part Of Sex Trafficking Probe

The entertainment business has faced a constant stream of career-ending sexual misconduct charges in the years since tales about movie mogul Harvey Weinstein sparked the #MeToo movement in 2017. Weinstein and “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson are both serving jail sentences for rape. Dozens of civil cases have been filed against prominent individuals.

The music industry has not faced the same level of reckoning, but singer and producer R. Kelly is serving a prison sentence for sexually abusing young fans, seven women have sued hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, alleging he raped them, and two women have sued Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, alleging sexual assault.

Weinstein, Masterson, and Kelly appeal their convictions, while Simmons denies all of the claims made against him. Tyler has had one lawsuit dismissed and is now contesting the other.

SOURCE – (AP)

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Spotify Paid $9 Billion In Royalties In 2023. Here’s What Fueled The Growth

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Los Angeles — Spotify paid out $9 billion in streaming royalties last year, according to its most recent “Loud and Clear” report, released Tuesday.

In response to complaints about its lack of transparency, Spotify released its fourth annual report in 2021, which highlighted its historic achievements, including the largest annual contribution by any merchant to the music industry.

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“Spotify Paid $9 Billion In Royalties In 2023. Here’s What Fueled The Growth

This is everything we know about how much is being paid out, how many artists are achieving different levels of success,” says Charlie Hellman, Spotify’s vice president and worldwide head of music products. “So, everyone can have access to the information and be sort of up to date with the state of the industry.”

According to the data, 1,250 artists earned more than $1 million in recording and publishing royalties in 2023, 11,600 earned more than $100,000, and 66,000 earned more than $10,000. These figures nearly tripled from 2017.

According to the survey, more than half of the 66,000 musicians come from nations where English is not the primary language, indicating a more global music environment.

According to Hellman, “indie” musicians — those who self-distribute and are signed to independent record labels — accounted for $4.5 billion, or half of all royalties paid out by Spotify.

“There are millions of people who’ve uploaded a song at least once but that doesn’t really speak to whether they’re an artist, or if they’re doing this more as a hobby,” Hellman said.

Spotify focuses on musicians who “at least put up an album’s worth of music once they seem to have some indication that they’re trying to build a fan base.” He believes “about 225,000 professionally aspiring artists” are on the platform.

“They have a small fanbase. “They might have gigs listed on Spotify or something,” he says.

Spotify revealed in December that it would lay off 17% of its worldwide workforce, the music streaming service’s third round of layoffs in 2023, as it seeks to reduce expenses while increasing profitability.

Spotify stated that beginning in 2024, it would no longer pay for music with fewer than 1,000 annual streams.

spotify

“Spotify Paid $9 Billion In Royalties In 2023. Here’s What Fueled The Growth

“Songs that generate less than a thousand streams in a year would be generating pennies, a few cents in royalties,” Hellman says. So what we’re seeing was an increasing number of uploaders with $0.03, $0.08, $0.36 sitting there.”

For those DIY artists, there is a minimum withdrawal threshold from a distributor—$5.35 at DistroKid and $1 at TuneCore, two such distributors—and Hellman claims the withdrawal fees would exceed the royalties.

Spotify, like the majority of other streaming services, pays “streamshare” royalties to the site’s music rights holders. To calculate this, add up all of the streams of music belonging to or under the control of a specific rights holder and divide it by the overall number of streams in that market.

In short, greater rights holders control a larger share of the market. A listener streaming an artist 25% of the time does not imply that the act receives 25% of the listener’s membership price.

spotify

“Spotify Paid $9 Billion In Royalties In 2023. Here’s What Fueled The Growth

“All those pennies sitting in bank accounts all over the place were siphoning money away from artists who were really doing this, as an aspiring professional,” Hellman said about the choice. “And so, those royalties are now being put in the pot so that they can be redirected to artists who are getting more than a thousand streams a year.”

SOURCE – (AP)

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Celine Dion Says Living With Stiff Person Syndrome ‘Has Been One Of The Hardest Experiences Of My Life’

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Celine Dion

Celine Dion focuses on her family and the future while she deals with health issues.

On March 15, the iconic artist commemorated International Stiff Person Syndrome Awareness Day with an Instagram post in which she addressed her autoimmune illness, stating that it “has been one of the hardest experiences of my life.”

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Celine Dion Says Living With Stiff Person Syndrome ‘Has Been One Of The Hardest Experiences Of My Life’

Dion said she is “determined to one day get back on stage and live as normal a life as possible.”

A picture of Celine’s three sons—René-Charles, Nelson, and Eddy—accompanied her heartfelt letter.

Celine had three children with her late husband, René Angélil, who died in 2016.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, stiff person syndrome (SPS) is an uncommon neurological disorder that causes spasms and muscle rigidity. It also causes increased sensitivity to stimuli such as sound, lighting, and emotional discomfort, which can trigger muscle spasms.

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Celine Dion Says Living With Stiff Person Syndrome ‘Has Been One Of The Hardest Experiences Of My Life’

Dion first disclosed her diagnosis in 2022. She has ceased touring and performing live.

A documentary about the “My Heart Will Go On” singer, due to premiere on Prime Video, will follow her return to the stage.

On Friday,Celine stated in her caption that she is offering “encouragement and support to all those around the world who have been affected by SPS.”

“I want you to know that you can do it!” “We can do it,” she concluded.

Celine Dion is a powerhouse vocalist from Canada. She’s sold over 200 million albums worldwide, making her one of the best-selling artists ever.

Dion shot to fame after winning the 1988 Eurovision song contest.

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Celine Dion Says Living With Stiff Person Syndrome ‘Has Been One Of The Hardest Experiences Of My Life’

Her hits like “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic and “Because You Loved Me” showcased her incredible range and emotional delivery. Despite taking a break to care for her late husband René Angélil, Dion remains a Vegas headliner and touring force.

Her voice and resilience inspire fans globally.

SOURCE – (CNN)

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