Mel Parsons’ new album CASTLE HILL has debuted at #1 in both the Top 40 Albums Chart and the Top 20 Aotearoa Albums Chart. To celebrate the album’s release, Mel and her band are hitting the road for a nationwide theatre tour.
Tom Lark – the project of multi-faceted artist and producer Shannon Fowler – has released a one-off single, 'Sun's Up'. The track is the artist's first new solo material since the 2025 release of his sophomore album, Moonlight Hotel.
Following more than a decade at the forefront of Aotearoa's contemporary soul scene, critically acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, song-writer and producer, Louis Baker announces his second, full-length studio album, Trouble, due for release on 9 October 2026 featuring the recently released title track.
On Tuesday, 25 August, EXCEL School of Performing Arts will open its doors to high school students and their whānau for an Open Day featuring workshops, performances and a campus tour. From 11am to 2pm, visitors can meet EXCEL’s tutors and students, explore its Music and Dance programmes and experience the school’s creative culture.
Pan-Asian Music Showcase Night, which began as an initiative to connect Asian artists working in New Zealand, has entered a new stage this year after being invited to become part of the official Auckland Asia Festival programme. However, for organiser Han Lee, the longer-term vision goes far beyond creating a larger music event.
NOPILOT’s third single “The Line” draws inspiration from uplifting, anthemic pop-rock songs, akin to The Killers, Kings of Leon, and Sam Fender. This track gestures a softer tone to NOPILOT’s previous releases, emphasising lyrics and storytelling, as well as emotion through soaring choruses.
Fresh off a meteoric rise that has cemented their status as Aotearoa's hardest-working blues-band, electrifying trio BB & THE BULLETS are thrilled to announce the global release of “Wild Honey” from their sophomore album “Wrong Side Of The River”.
Tāmaki Makaurau-based soul-food singer-songwriter dān dān's debut EP songs about food is out now. songs about food is a bilingual English and Mandarin EP about family, identity, and growing up between cultures, with food doing the heavy lifting as the medium of storytelling.
Ōtautahi drama-kid-turned pop-diva Phoebe Vic arrives with her roaring debut album Mood Swinger, a triumphantly sharp and self-confident statement on the trials of being a modern woman in a modern age.
Singer-songwriter Ben Chavasse has released his second 2026 single, a lush track titled ‘Teething’. On ‘Teething’, Chavasse sings confessions and yearnings of a wannabe lover boy, experiencing repeated crushings from distant, fantastical crushes. However, there are hints this hopeless romantic is courting his own heartaches.
New Zealand indie pop/rock artist Jessica Leigh enters a bold new creative chapter with I'm On Fire, the first single from her forthcoming EP At The Same Time, due for release in November. Following the release of her independently produced EP I WANNA BE A STAR earlier this year, Leigh continues to establish herself as one of New Zealand's emerging self-producing artists.
The West Auckland made artist introduces his truest sound yet on “Māori Kid Meets World”, arriving Friday 18 September during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. For the first part of his career, award winning artist, MOHI, made the music he thought he was supposed to make. On Māori Kid Meets World, he steps beyond that polished image and introduces the person behind it: a funny, sharp-edged and fiercely ambitious Māori kid from Henderson with a rich, unmistakable voice.
Hina will take Descending Dreams on the road this September with Dave Khan, translating the album to a two-person live setting for four shows across the North Island. A key collaborator throughout Descending Dreams, Khan contributes electric guitar, pedal steel and viola across the record. Together, the pair will pull the songs out of their studio arrangements and into something sparer and more intimate, a chance to hear the album find another life in new rooms.
From one of Aotearoa’s treasured voices comes proof of the cathartic, healing power of music. Louis Baker’s powerful new single Trouble, out today, sees the acclaimed artist transform personal turmoil into a deeply personal and resonant new work.
Isla Noon announces Out of Body Redux, a reimagined version of her immersive debut album. To celebrate the release of Out of Body Redux, Isla Noon will bring the project to the stage for a special release show at Auckland’s Big Fan on Friday 7 August. Performing the new EP live and in full, Noon will be joined by special guest CRYSTAL for a night celebrating the next evolution of her debut record.
On Friday 21 August, Greatsouth returns to BIG FAN to celebrate the release of his debut album, Hellhole of the Pacific, alongside special guests Louis McIver Smith (FKA Skinny & Soft) and huaxiflowerstream.
Aotearoa’s rising pop-rock force Castaway continue their momentum with the release of their new single, “Reasons To Stay” - the latest glimpse into their upcoming body of work. Following their recent success opening for SIX60 and Synthony at the One New Zealand Stadium, and the growing traction of recent singles “Heart Attack” and “CUCKOO”, Castaway return with “Reasons To Stay”. This latest single continues a run of releases signalling the band’s rise.
Still riding high on their single “Where Do You Run To?” - which spent nine consecutive weeks as the #1 rock song on New Zealand radio charts and their follow up “Hollow Hour” which remains in the charts to this day - The Response announce their latest track “Clear As Crystal”.
Three of Aotearoa's most exciting young wāhine Māori artists NAIA ((Ngāti Tūwharetoa) Jaedyn Randell (Ngāti Paoa and Ngāti Makirangi.) and Makayla (Ngāti Kahungunu) are joining forces this August for Silk & Soul — an intimate six-city theatre tour celebrating storytelling, soul music and the power of wāhine voices.
Now firmly established as a cornerstone event on the Christchurch cultural calendar, Go Live Festival brings generations of fans together under one roof for a unique celebration of live music. Get your tickets now!
Ōtautahi-based singer-songwriter Bryony Matthews has today released her new album, BRAIN STORM – a deeply personal and powerful concept album that lays bare the challenges she faced after a life-changing accident. The record includes the lead single ‘Storm’. To mark the release of BRAIN STORM Bryony is embarking on a five-date New Zealand tour, giving audiences the chance to immerse themselves in her world.
Singer-songwriter and environmental storyteller Anderson Rocio releases “Our Kind” on World Ranger Day, a powerful new single created in partnership with conservation organization Saving The Wild and The Power In Us Project.
Ōtautahi/New Zealand artist Morgan La Fae introduces her ethereal debut single Cigarettes and Coffee along with its accompanying visualiser, marking the first release from the upcoming dream-pop EP Full Immersion. The track sets the tone for a concept EP of 5 songs with each one relating to each of the 5 senses. The project is rooted in emotional immersion, nostalgia, and the blurred line between reality and fantasy.
The best indie-pop songs can make devastation sound deceptively carefree. On their first new original music release in over a year, Imperial April pull off that balancing act with "Wake Me From My Sleep," a bright guitar-pop song that carries the weight of chronic illness beneath its sun-bleached hooks.
Tāmaki Makaurau singer-songwriter Beth Torrance releases her new EP, Your Favourite, out now, through Particle Recordings. A hooky, bittersweet, indie rock collection about new connections, overthinking, escapism, and the strange thrill of wanting to be known.
Enigmatic band Same Name Confusion is making a return, and doing it their way. After a multi-year hiatus, the Auckland / Melbourne-based group is returning with their second full-length album, SNC.
Tāmaki Makaurau. Auckland, NZ – More than 30 talented young music and dance students from diverse cultural backgrounds at EXCEL School of Performing Arts are preparing to bring two years of learning to life as they embark on a six-week tour of Auckland, Whangārei, Kaitaia and Hamilton, performing at high schools and community concerts.
With Two for Two charting at No. 5 on the Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles Chart and No. 18 on the Official Top 20 Aotearoa Albums Chart, Caru and Brandn Shiraz continue to cement themselves as one of Aotearoa's most exciting collaborations. Following their 2026 Aotearoa Music Award win for Best Electronic Artist, the duo now present their first official music video together, extending the world of Two for Two beyond the dancefloor, as a live session for listeners at home.
The Music Managers Forum Aotearoa is proud to announce FOUNDATIONS, a refreshed evolution of its long running Back to Basics seminar series. Presented in collaboration with Ka Korokī Ka Maranga | Māori Music Industry Collective, FOUNDATIONS is a free two hour workshop for artists and self managers in the early stages of building a music career.
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland producer Edward Liu (EDYONTHEBEAT) releases "Troubles" with Donson PK, the latest single from his second album im just a producer, out 12 March 2027.
