WHITNEY HOUSTON: Estate has settled with the IRS
Whitney Houston's estate has settled a long-standing claim with the IRS.
The six-year dispute centered on whether the singer's heirs had under-reported her royalties and other income by more than $20 million. Instead of going to trial, the feds decided to settle for a $2 million penalty, instead of the $11 million first demanded.
Whiitney Houston passed away in February, 2012. (New York Post)
THE BEATLES: #1 again
The Beatles are music's vinyl champions for 2017.
According to Billboard, The Beatles had the two top-selling vinyl albums last year. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sold 72,000 LP copies, trailed by Abbey Road at 66,000. Rounding out 2017's vinyl Top 10 are Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Volume One (soundtrack), Ed Sheeran's Divide and Amy Winehouse's 11-year-old Back to Black.
In 2017, 14 percent of all physical album sales (as opposed to downloads) were on LP.
PAUL McCARTNEY: New Year's resolution
It looks like Paul McCartney will release his first new album in five years in 2018.
He told fans in a Q-and-A on his website that this year "I’ll probably be putting out a new album. So, I’d like that to be something I really love and then hopefully the fans will love it too! We’re putting the finishing touches to it now. So, I would like to achieve making that a really great album. Fingers crossed! That’s not what it’s called, but fingers crossed!"
McCartney has been working on the project with Greg Kurstin, best known for his work with Beck, Foo Fighters, Adele and Sia. McCartney's last studio album was New in 2013.