The precarious state of the music business in three parts: 1) How everything was canceled in a matter of days in mid-March, leaving a lot of people jobless and unsure about their future, and laying the groundwork for a reshaped live music business and scheduling nightmares when and if things return to normal again. Great reporting and longform storytelling by ROLLING STONE's SAMANTHA HISSONG, ETHAN MILLMAN and AMY X. WANG. 2) Why contractual guarantees for artists "will all but disappear" when that day comes, and why promoters by and large can't afford to refund fans' money in the meantime. Terrific behind-the-numbers analysis by VARIETY's SHIRLEY HALPERIN and JEM ASWAD. 3) Why artists may want, or need, to rethink how the streaming economy works when there's no live-music economy to balance it out. Reliably provocative feather-ruffling by PENNY FRACTIONS blogger DAVID TURNER. The unknown in all three parts is how many weeks, months or (yes) years we might be talking about. A day after California GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM said large public gatherings like concerts and sporting events are unthinkable for the foreseeable future, the mayors of Los Angeles, New York and New Orleans said concerts and sports almost certainly won't be returning for a long time, probably not until sometime next year. Is it possible to route a tour only through cities and states whose mayors and governors are itching to reopen public spaces in the middle of a pandemic? Would fans show up? Would that dictate the kinds of artists (and genres) who can tour, and the ones who can't? How might *that* reshape the live business? Are there artists and promoters willing to take that risk? Are there insurers willing to insure them? Instead of real audiences paying to see hologram artists (remember that trend from way back in 2019 and 2020?), will real artists start playing to hologram audiences? Will live music and recorded music switch economic places? Will livestreaming continue to split the difference and outshine them both? (Will androids livestream electric sheep?)... Alto saxophonist LEE KONITZ was the last surviving member of MILES DAVIS' BIRTH OF THE COOL band and was celebrated as one of jazz's great pure improvisers. The idea, he once said, was "not knowing the first note of what you’re going to play." Or where you were going to go from there. In a sense, he improvised his own lengthy career, too. For most of it, as WBGO's DAVID R. ADLER writes, he "didn’t lead a steady working group. He simply played with everyone." He didn't have a publicist, agent or email account either. He leaves behind a giant discography and endless hours of well-studied solos. He died Wednesday at 92, from pneumonia caused by Covid-19. RIP. MusicSET: "The Toll: Artists Lost to the Coronavirus"... Good citizens: RIHANNA and JAY-Z team with TWITTER's JACK DORSEY to announce $6.2 million in grants to communities hit hard by the pandemic... In conjunction with the COACHELLA documentary 20 YEARS IN THE DESERT, the festival has been uploading pro-shot video of performances by BILLIE EILISH, RUN THE JEWELS, ODESZA and others to YOUTUBE... TOM WAITS and KATHLEEN BRENNAN on HAL WILLNER: "Hal was the wry and soulful and mysterious historical rememberer"... RIP BETTY BENNETT LOWE and PAUL COOPER.