| You don't make any money being an artist. Writing and producing? You get your money from that. |
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Working it: Missy Elliott in Cologne, Germany, Aug. 15, 2001.
(Ronald Siemoneit/Sygma/Getty Images)
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“You don't make any money being an artist. Writing and producing? You get your money from that.”
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Music Sounds Better With You
Will you be able to hear it?
SPOTIFY is going hi-fi later this year, with a CD-quality, lossless streaming option, which is objectively better than what's available at Spotify now and objectively worse than the hi-res, better-than-CD-quality streams you can get at specialty sites like QOBUZ and, to a lesser extent, TIDAL. And none of which will matter unless you have speakers that can replicate that audio information and ears that can hear it. Here's a fun test to get an idea if you can. And here's a vintage 2012 deep dive, courtesy Sound on Sound, into how digital audio compression works, math included. "CD quality," by the way, is digital-speak for how you listened to pretty much all your music until about 10 years ago. Now, a decade later, it counts as an upgrade. Spotify has yet to say what it will cost for that optional upgrade, but it says there's high demand. But asked by British lawmakers earlier this week if it could simply raise everyone's subscription price so there'd be more money to pay musicians, the service said not so fast. Users still have the option of to abandon the legal streaming world in favor of piracy, Spotify's HORACIO GUTIERREZ told Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. There will have to be some needle-threading, apparently. Will the music fan currently getting her music via TIKTOK through wireless earbuds, whose dad got his on a SONY WALKMAN, and whose grandmother was happy with the AM radio, go for a new, let's say, $19.99/month tier? Or are her parents the target audience here, and will they go for it? Will it matter if they can hear it? Is it enough if they think they can? Will enough of them upgrade to make a difference in the royalty check of whoever wrote that song that's all over TikTok and that's now on Spotify in CD quality? Check your audio connections and stay tuned.
England's Dreaming
The BRIT AWARDS and the MERCURY PRIZE have changed their eligibility rules after a wave of protests by fans of RINA SAWAYAMA—who was deemed ineligible for the 2020 Mercury Prize—and lobbying by Sawayama herself. "I’m over the moon," the Japanese-British singer/songwriter wrote Tuesday after both organizations said they'll consider anyone who's lived in the UK at least five years to be British. Previously, only artists with British citizenship were eligible for the Merc and the British categories at the Brits. Sawayama is 30 and has lived in England since she was 5... Elsewhere in Britain, organizers of the READING AND LEEDS festival say it's a go for this August, throwing a huge lifeline to an endangered summer festival season. The announcement came a day after Prime Minister BORIS JOHNSON unveiled a roadmap for reopening the UK's live music industry sometime this summer, and a month after GLASTONBURY, which had been scheduled for June, was officially scrapped. There are, of course, no guarantees what the country's health landscape will look like six months from now, so think of the announcement as organizer FESTIVAL REPUBLIC placing a public bet on itself. Director MELVIN BENN told the Guardian the fest doesn't have cancellation insurance because no one's currently offering it. "We’re certain that it’s going to go ahead,” he said. STORMZY, POST MALONE, LIAM GALLAGHER and CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN are among the headliners for the two-city, two-weekend fest.
Etc Etc Etc
MTV NETWORKS is reviving YO! MTV RAPS, BEHIND THE MUSIC and UNPLUGGED for the PARAMOUNT PLUS streaming service because apparently there are no new ideas anymore. (But why aren't they reviving CATWALK?) "Unplugged," it should be noted, has been revived, or at least attempt-revived, a few times over the years, most recently on Tuesday. Also coming: FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE, a six-part series hosted by DAVE GROHL and his mom, VIRGINIA HANLON GROHL, about musicians and their mothers, which everyone who ever worked at VH1 should be retroactively fired for not having come up with 20 years ago... Album title of the year: singer/songwriter EVAN GREER's SPOTIFY IS SURVEILLANCE, which comes out April 9 and features the single "EMMA GOLDMAN WOULD HAVE BEAT YOUR ASS"... Experimental violinist/composer GALYA BISENGALIEVA premieres music from her album ARALKUM in collaboration with filmmaker SANA SERKEBAEVA in a livestream this afternoon from Brooklyn club NATIONAL SAWDUST. The event is part of the club's DIGITAL DISCOVERY FESTIVAL: BODY/SPACE, which spotlights music and movement collaborations and will continue on Thursdays through April... BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN is (mostly) innocent and that SUPER BOWL JEEP commercial is back online.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Billboard |
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| The Fan Data Goldmine |
| by Tatiana Cirisano |
| New tech that allows artists to interact with superfans — and turn their data into dollars — promises to open long-term revenue streams. |
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NPR Music |
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| What Does Daft Punk Leave Behind? |
| by Andrew Flanagan, Vivian Host, Piotr Orlov... |
| Daft Punk's music is and always will be formidable, but the roots and future of its legacy aren't yet crystal clear. NPR Music asked a few experts to consider what the two did for them personally, and what that might mean for the history books. |
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| rave:// A powerful, important essay |
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Listen to the Music |
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| The Britney Effect |
| by Courtney E. Smith |
| I’ve talked with so many women and former co-workers in the industry about the vile things we’ve heard said about women artists, opinions on their bodies and their looks that are dehumanizing. It’s had an impact on all of us. It’s also caused us to wonder: What terrible things must they be thinking about me? |
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The Boston Globe |
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| Bad Bunny is the undisputed champ in a pop music marketplace gone global |
| by Maura Johnston |
| Some anglophone observers have been confused by Bad Bunny being deemed as a pop star, despite three Top 5 singles on the cross-genre Hot 100, including a featured role on Cardi B’s salsa-driven 2018 No. 1 “I Like It.” And a World Wrestling Entertainment championship. |
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Music x |
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| Dream: the future of massive interactive live events for music |
| by Maarten Walraven-Freeling |
| The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Philharmonia Orchestra show the way. |
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KQED |
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| How Fantastic Negrito, Rexx Life Raj and Salami Rose Joe Louis Pivoted from Touring |
| by Nastia Voynovskaya |
| COVID-19 decimated the concert industry. Here's how three artists found creative ways to adapt. |
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DownBeat |
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| Pandemic Presents An Opportunity For Artists To Assess Career Goals |
| by Sean Jones |
| An opportunity to look back by way of the lens of the present as we plan for the future. |
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Sound Field |
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| The Genius of Fela Kuti and Afrobeat (feat. Femi & Made Kuti) |
| by LA Buckner |
| The brilliance of Nigeria’s Fela Kuti and the innovation of Afrobeat are synonymous with activism, dance, and the representation of beauty within African culture. |
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Pitchfork |
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| The Endless Life Cycle of Japanese City Pop |
| by Cat Zhang |
| Boosted by the YouTube recommendations algorithm, and now TikTok memes, an American-influenced strain of vintage Japanese music has become a perennial cult hit online. The trend says more about Western perceptions of the East than the other way around. |
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The Guardian |
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| Archie Shepp on jazz, race and freedom: 'Institutions continue to abuse power' |
| by Lanre Bakare |
| At 83, the saxophonist has somewhat mellowed his funkily avant-garde music - but his anger at the racial injustice he has fought all his life remains undimmed. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| How did 'Drivers License' become the song of 2021? By exulting in the power of teen-girl melodrama |
| by Mikael Wood |
| Olivia Rodrigo's swooning power ballad 'Drivers License' is the latest in a rich tradition of teenage melodrama in pop music, from the Shangri-Las to Taylor Swift. |
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Billboard |
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| Spotify's Music Leaders on the Streaming Giant's 'Audio-First' Future |
| by Micah Singleton |
| Global heads of music Marian Dicus and Jeremy Erlich and head of marketplace Charlie Hellman discuss Spotify’s latest music initiatives, what it’s like working at a music streaming service that's no longer laser-focused on music, and the challenges they face as Spotify nearly doubles the number of countries it operates in over the coming weeks. |
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VICE |
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| The Glorious, Messy Rise and Fall of New Rave |
| by Daniel Dylan Wray |
| An oral history of the most colourful moment in UK youth culture. |
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| rave:// Song Exploder's Hrishikesh Hirway gets a little personal in this one |
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Song Exploder |
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| Song Exploder: Sasha Sloan – 'Until It Happens to You' |
| by Hrishikesh Hirway, Sasha Sloan and King Henry |
| Singer/songwriter Sasha Sloan made her debut album, "Only Child," with her boyfriend, producer Henry Allen, aka King Henry. In this episode, Sasha, along with Henry, tells the story of making her song “Until It Happens to You.” |
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Tidal |
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| 'Alice Is Kind of Eternal': A Conversation With Alice Cooper |
| by Shaun Brady |
| The affable hard-rock pioneer talks about his Detroit-inspired new album, the band’s early Motor City breakthroughs, and how it’s possible that “somebody else could play Alice” after he’s gone. |
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The New York Times |
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| New York City’s Arts and Recreation Employment Down by 66 Percent |
| by Colin Moynihan |
| The New York State comptroller’s office details the effects of the pandemic’s devastation and says a full recovery would be made only with government assistance. |
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Stereogum |
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| The Fat Boys Were Important |
| by Tom Breihan |
| "Krush Groove" is a ridiculous movie. Somehow, Def Jam Recordings co-founders Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin talked Warner Bros. into making a movie about the beginning of the label, and they did it before Def Jam had ever released an album. Rubin played himself. |
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SPIN |
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| Cleveland Still Rocks |
| by Daniel Kohn |
| The city’s music scene is banding together to survive the pandemic. |
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SPIN |
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| It’s a Boston Thing |
| by Liza Lentini |
| Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey on their new album, giving back, and generally being a big-hearted punk. |
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Attack Magazine |
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| How Do You Organise Your Music Collection? |
| Alphabetically? Chronologically? All thrown together in one massive folder called 'Jamz'? We speak to some DJs about how they organise their music. |
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MTV News |
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| 20 Years Later, Life Without Buildings Share Their Voice With A New Generation |
| by Loren DiBlasi |
| The short-lived Glaswegian band resurfaced after viral fame, allowing their 2001 debut, 'Any Other City,' to reach a new crowd. |
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| Music of the day |
| "Revolutionize" |
| Adrian Younge |
| From "The American Negro," out Friday on Jazz Is Dead. |
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YouTube |
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From "The American Negro," out Friday on Jazz Is Dead.
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| Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech |
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“REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in
everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask ‘why?’” |
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| Jason Hirschhorn |
| CEO & Chief Curator |
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