“It is with profound sadness that I am confirming that the legendary, iconic performer Prince Rogers Nelson has died at his Paisley Park residence this morning at the age of 57,” publicist Yvette Noel-Schure said. “There are no further details as to the cause of death at this time.”

Reporting from Paisley Park on Thursday, Andrea Swensson tells Minnesota Public Radio that she was among a few dozen people who had gathered at Prince’s estate after hearing of a death there — and that “even the journalists are hugging each other” after hearing that Prince died.

Swensson, who had met Prince and spent time with him as part of a retrospective about his film Purple Rain, described him as being “shy, sensitive — and flirtatious.”

News of Prince’s death emerged after police said Thursday that they were investigating a death at his compound in Chanhassen, Minn., with the Carver County Sheriff’s Office saying that deputies were on the scene.

The department said via a statement, “When deputies and medical personnel arrived, they found an unresponsive adult male in the elevator. First responders attempted to provide lifesaving CPR, but were unable to revive the victim. He was pronounced deceased at 10:07 am.”

The sheriff’s office later released a transcript of the 911 call that brought personnel to the scene. The dispatcher had to press the caller — who was on a cellphone — for a street address, which the caller didn’t know. Eventually the caller said it was Paisley Park, and the dispatcher knew where that was and was able to send an ambulance. Authorities have given no indication that any delay affected the outcome.

TMZ reports that Prince had recently had health problems:

“The singer — full name Prince Rogers Nelson — had a medical emergency on April 15th that forced his private jet to make an emergency landing in Illinois. But he appeared at a concert the next day to assure his fans he was okay. His people told TMZ he was battling the flu.”

Prince was just 19 when he released his first album, putting out For You in 1978. In the decades that followed, he went on to develop a unique sound and style that endeared him to generations of audiences — all while exploring new ground as an artist.

Anthony Valadez, a Los Angeles-based DJ and producer, tells NPR’s Here and Now that Prince also endeared himself to those he encouraged: “African-Americans rocking out.”

“You had to be stuck in a box,” Valadez says of 1980s music culture. “Even Michael [Jackson] faced a lot of that, trying to get his videos on MTV. And you had this African-American man standing with a guitar, and, man, it was just powerful, you know? It was just really powerful.”

Prince’s fifth album, 1999, exploded onto America’s music scene. Released in 1983, it included such hits as “Little Red Corvette” and “1999.” It also set the stage for Purple Rain, the 1984 movie and soundtrack packed with songs such as “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy” that became fixtures on the radio and established Prince as a pop culture icon.

As Swensson wrote for MPR about Purple Rain for the film’s 30th anniversary in 2014, “it grossed $7.7 million in its opening weekend, beating out Ghostbusters — and racked up comparisons to movies like the Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night and Citizen Kane in glowing reviews from major media outlets.”

Prince also won two Grammys and an Oscar (for original song score) for Purple Rain. In 2007, he won a Golden Globe Award for best original song, “The Song of the Heart” from Happy Feet.

From 1985 to 2007, Prince won a total of seven Grammy awards — most recently for “Future Baby Mama.”

Praising Purple Rain and other Prince projects, Jesse Carmichael of the group Maroon 5 told NPR in 2009, “The reason Prince is an inspiration to me is that he’s obviously writing from the heart, and somehow he’s able to take these personal feelings, turn them into poetry and present them in a way that’s accessible and weird at the same time.”

Prince’s career was marked by a famous standoff with Warner Bros., the music company from which he split in 1996. Changing his name to a symbol, he was referred to for years as “the artist formerly known as Prince.”

In a sign that the rift had finally healed, Prince made a deal with Warner two years ago that gave him control of his own music catalog (during his career, Prince recorded well over 30 studio albums).

When he changed his name, Prince rejected the major-label system. In an interview with reporters last August, he echoed that idea again, saying “Record contracts are just like — I’m gonna say the word — slavery,” as NPR’s Eric Deggans reported.

As Eric wrote, Prince urged artists to get paid “directly from streaming services for use of their music, so that record companies and middlemen couldn’t take a share.”

News of Prince’s death spread on social media, sparking tributes from fans, fellow artists, celebrities and even President Obama, who released this statement:

“Today, the world lost a creative icon. Michelle and I join millions of fans from around the world in mourning the sudden death of Prince. Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent. As one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time, Prince did it all. Funk. R&B. Rock and roll. He was a virtuoso instrumentalist, a brilliant bandleader, and an electrifying performer.

” ‘A strong spirit transcends rules,’ Prince once said — and nobody’s spirit was stronger, bolder, or more creative. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, his band, and all who loved him.‎”

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

According to the statement, Weiland died in Bloomington, Minn.; other details, such as the cause of death, were not revealed, citing his family’s desire for privacy.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

“Jamie Weiland, the singer’s wife, confirmed the news of his death to The Times in a brief conversation Thursday.

” ‘I can’t deal with this right now,’ she said, sobbing. ‘It’s true.’ ”

Weiland, whose career was marked by both Grammy Awards and drug and alcohol abuse problems, was the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots, which had numerous hits in the 1990s, and of Velvet Revolver, a supergroup that paired him with former members of Guns N’ Roses.

Weiland’s hits with Stone Temple Pilots include “Interstate Love Song,” “Creep,” “Plush” and “Big Empty.”

At the time of his death, Weiland had been touring with his new band, The Wildabouts. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the band’s Thursday night show “was canceled nine days ago because of slow ticket sales.”

It was a far cry from the heights of Weiland’s career, when he became famous both for reeling off chart-topping rock songs and for his wide-ranging fashion sense — from shirtless to shirt-and-tie. Over his career, Weiland sold tens of millions of records worldwide.

His struggles with heroin and other drugs often derailed Weiland over the years, even as he kept performing. Visits to rehab and police stations were also a distraction from the singer’s powerful voice, a gravelly bass that he tamed to sing rock ballads such as Velvet Revolver’s “Fall to Pieces” — a song about a singer struggling with demons, and whose video includes the depiction of a seeming drug overdose.

Stone Temple Pilots broke up in 2003 and got back together in 2008 — only to split for good in 2013.

During Stone Temple Pilots’ hiatus, Weiland found success again with Velvet Revolver, with the single “Set Me Free” from the Hulk soundtrack and the aforementioned “Fall to Pieces” and “Slither” from the band’s album Contraband.

In 2012, Weiland published a book called Not Dead & Not for Sale, in which he described being the victim of rape as a schoolboy, and in which he detailed his struggles with addiction.

From the prelude:

“Every time I try to catch up to my life, something stops me. Different people making claims on my life. Old friends telling me new friends aren’t true friends. All friends trying to convince me that I can’t survive without them.

“Then there are the pay-for-hire get-off-drugs professionals with their own methods and madness. They help, they hurt, they welcome me into their institutions … and, well, their madness.

“Welcome to my life.”

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Filmed Entertainment Inc., which owns Columbia House, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday in a Manhattan court after more than two decades of declining revenues, according to a company statement.

Although Columbia House moved exclusively to DVDs in 2010, it could not stay afloat in an industry crowded with streaming services. The company’s annual revenues peaked in 1996 at $1.4 billion, but by 2014, revenues had dwindled to just $17 million.

Columbia House “started in 1955 as a way for the record label Columbia to sell vinyl records via mail order,” according to the A.V. Club, which adds that it “continually adapted to and changed with the times, as new formats such as 8-tracks, cassettes, and CDs emerged and influenced how consumers listened to music.”

Columbia House once set the bar for the music-club subscription business model, becoming a household — or at least high school — name through its famous deal: piles of CDs and tapes for a penny.

But with giving away CDs nearly free, how exactly was Columbia House turning a profit?

“The phrase you want is ‘negative option,’ ” Piotr Orlov said, referencing the idea of hooking people with a good deal and then roping them into a contract. (Orlov is a contributing editor for NPR music and former Columbia House director of A&R and marketing between 1996 and 1999.)

“You had a contract that was over a short period of time — two, three or four years — you had to buy a number of titles under regular prices,” he said. “And these regular prices put CD store prices to shame. Like $19.99 [instead of] $11.99. It was an enormous markup.”

Orlov also said Columbia House signed multimillion-dollar contracts with companies such as Sony, Warner Music and others that allowed it to obtain the raw materials and produce its own CDs.

“[Columbia House] was partially owned by major music distributors. [It] would get the music parts — the art and the master tape — and manufacture it themselves.”

Columbia House, however, wasn’t the only one cashing in. Because the CDs came in the mail and customers could pay with cash or check, Orlov said the subscription process lent itself to what he called “low-grade mail fraud.”

“People would fill out a real address with fake names and get 12 free CDs,” he said. “The punch line to this joke is that everybody who worked at Columbia House had done this too [earlier in life]. It really was like an inside joke.”

For another NPR music denizen, Stephen Thompson, Columbia House also represented more than mere music.

“For generations of people, Columbia House was a huge rite of passage — your first foray into maybe wrecking your credit rating, or at least running afoul of an authority beyond your hometown. I was never a member myself, because my parents filled my head with horror stories, but I always look back on Columbia House as, like, Baby’s First Mail Fraud,” he said.

Its business model wasn’t perfect, Orlov said, but Columbia House was valuable in its time.

“What it did do was serve a purpose. If you didn’t have a record store, this was the closest you got to having a good music selection. It put in front of you the ability to buy CDs and send them to your house even if you lived in [the middle of nowhere].”

The FEI statement said the decline was “driven by the advent of digital media and resulting declines in the recorded music business and the home-entertainment segment of the film business.” While streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify surely cut into Columbia House’s profits, Orlov said the main reason for the company’s downfall is something else entirely.

“No one cares about owning CDs anymore,” he said.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

He was born Riley B. King on a plantation in Itta Bena, Miss. He played on street corners before heading to Memphis, Tenn., where he stayed with his cousin, the great country bluesman Bukka White. His career took off thanks to radio; he got a spot on the radio show of Sonny Boy Williamson II, then landed his own slot on black-run WDIA in Memphis. He needed a handle. At first it was Beale Street Blues Boy. Then Blues Boy King. Finally B.B. King stuck.

You can’t mention names without talking about his guitar, Lucille. It was actually more than one. The story goes that the first was a $30 acoustic he was playing at a dance in Arkansas when two men got in a fight, kicked over a stove and started a fire. When King was safe outside, he realized he’d left the guitar inside. He ran back into the burning dance hall to save it. After he learned the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to name his guitar for her to remind himself never to get into a fight over a woman. And since then, every one of his trademark Gibson ES-355s has been named Lucille.

The sound he got out of her was what set him apart. Playing high up on the neck, he’d push a string as he picked it, bending the note to make it cry. He didn’t burn a lot of fast licks, but you could feel each note he played. Nobody sounded like B.B. King, though later on plenty of rockers tried. (Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green got closest.)

King scored an R&B hit in 1951 with “Three O’Clock Blues” and began the next stage of his life as a touring musician. According to his website, King and his band played 342 one-night stands in 1956. He performed more than 250 nights a year into his 80s, his distinctive guitar sound and smooth vocals filling just about every major venue in the U.S. and abroad. In 1991, he opened his own spot, B.B. King’s Blues Club in Memphis. Others followed, and King remained involved in how they were run.

He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in ’87. He was so beloved that he received honorary degrees from the Berklee College of Music as well as Yale and Brown universities, among others.

In 1970, he scored a crossover hit with “The Thrill Is Gone.” It’s the tune everyone knows — classic B.B. King: Lucille’s piercing single notes punctuating each phrase.

The thrill is gone.
The thrill is gone away from me.
Although I’ll still live on,
But so lonely I’ll be.

That pretty well sums up how a lot of fans are feeling right now, now that B.B. King is finally gone.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Mitchell “regained consciousness on the ambulance ride,” her website says.

No other details have emerged about why the 71-year-old singer required medical attention. We’ll update this post with any news that emerges about Mitchell’s condition.

The eight-time Grammy winner has written songs such as “Chelsea Morning,” “Help Me” and “Big Yellow Taxi,” and she recorded classic albums such as Blue and Clouds. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

In December, Mitchell spoke to Morning Edition in a lengthy interview covering matters from what she calls her “helium voice” to her struggle with polio as a child in Canada.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

NPR’s Nathan Rott reports that Knight is out of surgery, but there were no other immediate details of his condition.

The gunshots rang out at the 10AK nightclub about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, TMZ reports.

Quoting a source, the website says Knight, 49, was shot in the stomach and arm, “but walked out on his own power” and was placed in an ambulance. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office says two others, a 32-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman, were also hit in the gunfire. The New York Daily News says they were transported to local hospitals and are expected to recover.

R&B Singer Chris Brown, who was reportedly hosting the party, was also shot at, but not hit, Hollywood Life says. TMZ says Brown may have been the intended target.

Knight was in the car with Tupac Shakur when the legendary rapper was shot and killed in 1996.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Womack began putting out records in the early 1960s as the lead singer of The Valentinos. He straddled styles ranging from R&B to country.

The Valentinos’ hit “It’s All Over Now” was recorded by the Rolling Stones and went to No. 1 on the U.K. singles charts.

Variety says Womack was “a gutsy singer and a superlative axe man” who “charted nearly 50 hits, the majority of them self-penned, during his career of more than 40 years.”

The magazine says:

“Born in Cleveland to a musical and religious family, Womack began singing and playing guitar at an early age. He toured the gospel circuit with his brothers. Cooke — also a product of gospel music, and the former lead singer of the Soul Stirrers — took the act under his wing, and recorded for SAR with a new moniker. After scoring a No. 8 hit in 1962 with ‘Lookin’ For a Love,’ the group reached No. 21 in 1964 with ‘It’s All Over Now,’ which the Rolling Stones turned into a top 30 pop hit the same year.

“After Cooke was shot and killed in an incident in a Los Angeles motel in 1964, the Valentinos disbanded. Womack scandalously married Cooke’s widow Barbara three months after the singer’s death.”

Rolling Stone writes:

“In 2012, Womack began a career renaissance with the release of The Bravest Man in the Universe, his first album in more than 10 years. Produced by Damon Albarn and XL’s Richard Russell, the album made Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Albums of 2012 alongside numerous other critical accolades. ‘You know more at 65 than you did at 25. I understand the songs much better now,’ Womack told Rolling Stone at the time. ‘It’s not about 14 Rolls Royces and two Bentleys. Even if this album never sells a nickel, I know I put my best foot forward.’ Upon his death, Womack was in the process of recording his next album for XL, tentatively titled The Best Is Yet to Come and reportedly featuring contributions by Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart and Snoop Dogg.

“Womack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. ‘My very first thought was — I wish I could call Sam Cooke and share this moment with him,’ Womack said. ‘This is just about as exciting to me as being able to see Barack Obama become the first black President of the United States of America! It proves that, if you’re blessed to be able to wait on what’s important to you, a lot of things will change in life.’ ”

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The map was created by Paul Lamere, who seems to have been caught by surprise by the popularity it gained after he posted it this week. And while he admits in the comments section of that post that there might be ways to improve his map, he certainly started an animated conversation with it.

“Yesterday I spent 45 minutes making a map to accompany a blog post, today I spend all day answering questions about it,” he tweeted. He later added, “Any second now I expect I’ll be getting a call from Seventeen Magazine for a photoshoot.”

The map caused a stir as people shared it on Facebook and Twitter. In discussing how their home state did, many also talked about the relief or disbelief the map inspired in them.

Those who were frustrated – “R.E.M.’s not from Maine!” “I’m from South Carolina and I’ve never heard of Hillsong Unlimited!” – might not have realized that despite appearances, the map depicts artists that distinguish states and regions from one another. That is to say, it doesn’t list your state’s most popular musical act; it lists the act that sets your state apart from all the others.

That point was lost on some folks, who were pushed down a confusing path by headlines that promised to reveal “Your State’s Favorite Music” or something along those lines.

Lamere is the director of developer platform at The Echo Nest, a tech company that works with streaming music services such as Rhapsody, SiriusXM, iHeartradio, and Rdio.

The findings “are based on the real listening behavior of a quarter million actual online music listeners,” says Marni Greenberg, the communications director for The Echo Nest. The map reflects the choices of listeners who have zip codes associated with their accounts.

And they emphatically do not reflect the popularity of artists in states. Instead, the data aims to reveal the differences in preference among states and regions.

Here are the five states whose assigned musical act was comparatively unloved by the rest of America:

• Alaska: Ginger Kwan (No. 33 vs. No. 12,062, for a gap of 12,029)
• Hawaii: J Boog (No. 40 vs. No. 4,703 for a gap of 4,663)
• Louisiana: Kevin Gates (No. 15 vs. No. 1,359 for a gap of 1,344)
• Wyoming: Dirty Heads (No. 48 vs. No. 1,334 for a gap of 1,286)
• South Dakota: Hinder (No. 42 vs. No. 1,154 for a gap of 1,112

One thing that might have helped to confuse some folks is that for some states, the map reflects what you might expect. George Strait represented Texas, for instance, while Bruce Springsteen’s name was on New Jersey and Phish was in Vermont. But in other cases, names seemed out of place.

Among the findings, the artist with the smallest gap between their appeal in a state and nationally was Sufjan Stevens, who (as you might expect) was big in Illinois, at No. 38. But he’s also doing well nationally, coming in at No. 68 for a gap, or “delta,” of only 30 spots.

As Lamere points out, he used several rules to populate the map. For starters, the acts must have music available on the streaming services whose data he consulted. He restricted the list of candidates to the top 50 artists in the target state.

And there could be no repeats. If two or more states all listen to the same artist, the one with the largest population got the name, while the others slid down to their second – or possibly far lower – choice.

For example, we can look at Washington, D.C., which doesn’t seem to be on Lamere’s map but is in an app that allows comparisons between states, regions, or the nation as a whole. With that in mind, we’re told people in D.C. would be more likely to listen to Phosphorescent, because the artist is ranked No. 44 in the district and No. 189 in the U.S.

And in an interesting twist on the metrics, Lamere’s tool lets us look at things from the other side of the prism, as well. The biggest gap between what’s popular nationally and what’s hot in D.C. exists in the person of Luke Bryan, we’re told. He’s at No. 48 in the U.S. but only at No. 647 in the district – a gap of 599 spots. Chris Brown and R. Kelly are next in line, with gaps of 121 and 99, respectively.

We should note that in our tinkering with the music app we’re using the default setting of 200 spots for “depth.” If you change that — dipping into a deeper well of music, essentially — you would probably get different results.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Von Trapp, whose family escaped Nazi Germany, died on Tuesday of natural causes, her brother Johannes von Trapp said, according to the New York Daily News.

“She was a lovely woman who was one of the few truly good people,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “There wasn’t a mean or miserable bone in her body. I think everyone who knew her would agree with that.”

The Associated Press writes:

“Maria von Trapp was the third child and second-oldest daughter of Austrian Naval Capt. Georg von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead von Trapp. Their seven children were the basis for the singing family in the musical and film.

“The Sound of Music was based loosely on a 1949 book by von Trapp’s second wife, also Maria von Trapp, who died in 1987. It tells the story of an Austrian woman who married a widower with seven children and teaches them music.

“In 1938, the family escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria and performed concert tours throughout Europe and then a three-month tour in America. The family settled in Vermont in the early 1940s and opened a ski lodge in Stowe.

“Von Trapp played accordion and taught Austrian dance with sister Rosmarie at the lodge.”

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, quoting law enforcement officials, says the instrument has been found:

“Milwaukee police have arrested three suspects in connection with the theft … two men, ages 42 and 36, and a woman, 32 — were arrested Monday morning at their respective Milwaukee residences and remained in police custody Wednesday. One of the suspects has been linked to a prior art theft.”

On Friday, an anonymous donor offered a $100,000 reward for the return of the violin, which is estimated to be worth at least $5 million.

“This is not something that can easily be disposed of at some future date,” Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn, told a news conference on Wednesday. “It’s not valuable for a thief. It’s only valuable to a collector.”

The violin, made in 1715, had been on indefinite loan to Frank Almond, concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, when it was stolen from him last week. According to Reuters, the culprits “used a stun gun on the musician after a concert in suburban Milwaukee.” The Associated Press says the current owner’s name has not been made public.

Stefan Hersh, a Chicago-based violin curator who helped restore the Lipinski after it was removed from a storage vault in 2008, is quoted by the AP as saying that Almond carefully guarded the instrument and understood its historical significance.

“He had a special case made for it, he kept it highly protected in his car, he never let it out of his sight,” Hersh said. “As a performer nothing shakes him, but after the theft he was highly shaken. I’ve never known him like that.”

Roughly half of the estimated 1,200 violins made by Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), who lived and worked in Cremona, Italy, are believed to have survived. They are prized for their superb tonal qualities. Such renowned violinists as Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Suk and Yehudi Menuhin, have owned them. Stradivarius and his associates also made violas, cellos, mandolins and guitars.

“Lipinski” is so named for a previous owner, Polish violinist Karol Lipinski. The instrument was also owned by famed virtuoso and composer Giuseppe Tartini.

The theft is not the first time a Stradivarius has gone missing: In 1967, David Margetts lost the “Duke of Alcantara,” made in 1732, and spent the next 27 years looking for it before it was recovered. And two violins by Stradivari were stolen in Manhattan, one from a the back of a Rolls-Royce and another, in 1996, from the apartment of its 91-year-old owner.

Although the Stradivarius has enjoyed a reputation among violin aficionados as the top luthier of all time, instruments made by the Guarneri family, contemporaries of Stradivari, are regarded by some as equal, or nearly equal, to their more famous rivals.

Update at 2:20 p.m. ET:

At a news conference on Thursday, law enforcement officials confirm that the violin has been recovered from an attic in a Milwaukee home and will be returned after it’s inspected by experts.

“We have very strong confidence that the violin is fine,” said Mark Niehaus, the president and executive director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm says at least one of the three suspects arrested could be charged as soon as Friday.

Police Chief Flynn said one of the suspects has a previous art theft conviction: “It appears we had a local criminal who had an interest in art theft and was smart enough to develop a plan for a robbery,” Flynn says.

“Beyond that, we don’t know what his motive was,” he says.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.