There should be a BEYONCÉ greatest-hits album and a DRAKE greatest-hits album and maybe it's time for one from TAME IMPALA, too (greatest-hits album exist for beloved oddball singles like this, don't they?). It's universally accepted that, aside from the occasional WHITE STRIPES curveball, there's no particular need for such an endeavor in these days of celestial jukeboxes and endless playlists. Anyone can make a greatest-hits album for any artist in a minute or two of clicking and dragging. SPOTIFY has essentially made hundreds if not thousands of its own and could make thousands more tomorrow if it wanted. Or you could just hit the play button on the "top songs" module for any artist at your favorite streaming service and what else would you need? But the greatest greatest-hits albums and best best-ofs are more than the sum of those frictionless efforts. They're acts of careful, purposeful curation aimed at telling us something. The arc of an artist's growth. The context in which these hits and those album cuts existed. A different way to approach an artist you thought you knew or weren't sure you needed to know. A way into a discography, or maybe a way out. They're arguments. Acts of consideration and reconsideration. Immaculate corrections. Soundtracks to biopics that haven't yet been made and may not need to if the soundtrack is good enough. And, maybe most important, they're common points of reference. Ten people go to APPLE MUSIC in search of the best of Tame Impala and find 10 different playlists with 10 different answers. A different song or two here. A different sequence there. And runaway personalization has brought us a world of playlists that may change depending on who you are and when you click. They deliver a million unique experiences but no shared understanding, no reliable point of view. We could use some common points of reference these days. Give me Drake's version of Drake's greatest hits, fixed to a format, his "TAKE IT EASY" always there at the beginning to comfortably ease me in, his "ONE OF THESE NIGHTS" always there at the top of side two to remind me how far he'd gone in just two or three years, and how much further he still has to go. I just might decide to go further, too... Here at REDEF, we've started making box sets: collections of our collections of oral histories from around the universe of pop culture. Just released: "REDEF Box Set: Music Oral Histories" which compiles dozens of oral histories of classic albums, clubs and music videos... The iconic CAPITOL STUDIOS in Hollywood has shuttered its mastering operation... Further down the California coast, TAYLOR GUITARS is now 100 percent owned by its employees... BANDSINTOWN has launched a $9.99/month livestream concert subscription... As a reminder, since there's no longer sufficient space in this newsletter to share the names of everyone who's sold their publishing to HIPGNOSIS for 10s or 100s of millions of dollars, I'll instead be checking in occasionally to let you know who has *not* done so. Today's non-seller: HIPSWAY. Still looking forward, meantime, to the day when someone cashes in with Hipgnosis for $200m and uses the money to invest in the publishing of 10 newer/younger artists for $20m each, like a basketball team gutting its roster and rebuilding from scratch... RIP HOWARD JOHNSON, MARK KEDS and PAUL DELEON.