| I signed late. I didn't sign early... I had a platinum album before I signed my deal. I own my masters right now, every song you ever heard me on. I got a 70/30 split with my label. I get 70, they get 30... We learned from all the OGs who f***ed up. |
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Childish Gambino at the last (for now) Bonnaroo, Manchester, Tenn., June 14, 2019. This year's fest has been canceled.
(Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
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“I signed late. I didn't sign early... I had a platinum album before I signed my deal. I own my masters right now, every song you ever heard me on. I got a 70/30 split with my label. I get 70, they get 30... We learned from all the OGs who f***ed up.”
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Summerteeth
Covid-19, you're not alone in preventing people from seeing live music. Here's Stereogum writer CHRIS DEVILLE's loving ode to going to his first concert in a year and a half—WILCO Sunday night in Columbus, Ohio—accompanied by an explanation that his life as a father might have had as much to do with that long lull as the pandemic. "Not that I was exactly out at shows every night *before* COVID-19," DeVille writes. "You know how it goes." But this weekend everything fell into place and, to quote Stereogum's headline, "Damn, It Felt Good." Live music, it's a salve. (And this might just be an excuse for me to point out that Wilco has opened every show on its current tour with "A SHOT IN THE ARM." You would, too, if you had a song called "A Shot in the Arm." Still, well played.)
And then there's nature. BONNAROO on Tuesday fell victim to Hurricane Ida, which, not satisfied with its vengeful path through New Orleans, the soul of American music, headed north to Tennessee and, reconfigured as Tropical Depression Ida, soaked the site of what would have been the biggest American music festival in two years. It may or may not have been a good idea to try staging the fest in the middle of one of the hottest hot spots of the current Covid-19 wave, even with strict requirements for proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test, but festival organizers were determined to go ahead after having to cancel twice in 2020. The return of live music is going to be touch-and-go for a while, there's no way around that. For Bonnaroo, Mother Nature did what the Delta variant couldn't. Canceling the fest only two days before it was scheduled to begin, with fans already on the way, was no doubt a painful decision, but the right decision. The cost will be significant. But after all this natural disaster, can we afford a man-made one? That cost would be even higher.
Money for Something
BILL ACKMAN's PERSHING SQUARE HOLDINGS is going to end up owning 10 percent of UNIVERSAL MUSIC after all. The fund is paying $1.15 billion for its final 2.9 percent piece. And in case anyone else has that kind of dough lying around, Ackman thinks WARNER MUSIC is undervalued, too... And for anyone who wants to convert their music copyrights into a few million bucks, here are the tax reasons why it might make sense to sell your publishing catalog now instead of waiting, at least according to a trio of entertainment wealth managers. In case anyone still owns their publishing. Which is no longer clear to me.
Rest in Peace
Bluegrass banjo player BILL EMERSON of the Country Gentlemen... RUTH MARX, a commercial jingle singer who also sang backup for her son, Richard Marx.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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The Tennessean |
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| 'UTTER pain': Festival-goers distressed after Bonnaroo gets canceled, but some find other plans |
| by Daniella Medina |
| Bonnaroo cancellation leaves thousands agitated, hopeful for 2022. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| Grounded by COVID, Patti Smith joined Substack and Instagram. But nothing replaced playing live |
| by Evelyn McDonnell |
| For Smith — whose work ethic has led to some of rock’s most iconic albums as well as multiple volumes of verse, prose and artwork, including an award-winning memoir — pulling the pandemic emergency brake didn’t just plunge her into seclusion; it inflicted a sort of whiplash. |
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GQ |
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| The Spirit Is Missing From Kanye's 'Donda' Megachurch |
| by Stephen Kearse |
| Inspired by his beloved mother, Kanye's 10th album falls short of a homecoming. |
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The New York Times |
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| Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Era, on a Chaotic Stage |
| by Jon Caramanica |
| West is still one of the most influential pop stars of the century, but multidisciplinary spectacle is more his goal than music now, and he isn’t the star of his own 10th album. |
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Billboard |
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| Why This Is the Right Time to Sell Your Catalog |
| by Dan Weisman, Adam Sansiveri and Stacie Jacobsen |
| Artists are taking advantage of low interest rates by selling their catalogs before a likely increase in tax rates - but the window may be closing soon to maximize returns. |
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Streaming Machinery |
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| The HiFi Saga |
| by G.C. Stein |
| This story is a bit odd, but someone should write it down for one reason or another. It begins when Spotify announced “Spotify HiFi” on February 22, 2021. |
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Stereogum |
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| Damn, It Felt Good To See Wilco Again |
| by Chris DeVille |
| For the first time in a year and a half, I finally went to a concert again Sunday night. Not that I was exactly out at shows every night before COVID-19. You know how it goes: Ever since I started having kids, I don't make it out as much as I used to. |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘These are his true remains’: the fight over Jeff Buckley’s final recordings |
| by Eamonn Forde |
| In an extract from his book on late musicians’ estates, Eamonn Forde explores the feud that began shortly after Jeff Buckley’s death between the songwriter’s label and his mother. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| Bill Ackman: Universal and Warner are both under-valued… but UMG’s the right bet for us |
| by Tim Ingham |
| Billionaire investor explains his rationale for paying nearly $4 billion for 10% of Universal Music Group. |
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The Independent |
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| Gerry Rafferty: Bipolar alcoholic, industry misfit -- and one of Britain’s most treasured musicians |
| by Paul Sexton |
| Ten years after his death, a new record adds to the treasured artist’s legacy. Paul Sexton speaks to Rafferty’s daughter Martha about putting together one final round of superior song craft. |
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| but tuesday is just as bad |
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The Washington Post |
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| A star opera singer is changing classical music with a radical idea: Listening |
| by Michael Andor Brodeur |
| How do you fix a house in rough shape? It depends on how rough the shape. |
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UPROXX |
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| Yola Is Finally Living For Herself -- And Crushing Black Woman Stereotypes Along The Way |
| by Bianca Gracie |
| With the release of ’Stand For Myself,’ the British singer is dissolving genre lines and living up to that album title. |
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IQ Magazine |
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| How does livestreaming fit in a post-pandemic industry? |
| by Gordon Masson |
| The significant winner throughout Covid-19’s restrictions has been livestreaming. But as live shows and touring kickstart, what’s next for this developing revenue stream? |
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Axios |
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| Amazon quietly building live audio business |
| by Sara Fischer |
| The service will begin with a focus on live music performances. |
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NPR Music |
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| Little Simz: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert |
| by Bobby Carter and Little Simz |
| The London rapper performs songs from her new album "Sometimes I Might Be Introvert" from a living room dropped inside a void. |
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GQ |
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| 11 Great Lee 'Scratch' Perry Recordings: A Musical History |
| by Rob Kenner |
| Renowned as the mad genius of reggae, he crafted many of his greatest recordings at the Black Ark, a quirky four-track home studio in a residential neighborhood in Kingston, which he infamously set ablaze one day in 1979. |
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Decrypt |
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| What is Audius? The Decentralized Music Sharing and Streaming Service |
| by Ekin Genç |
| It’s like Spotify or SoundCloud, but on the blockchain: Audius is a crypto-powered music streaming app that’s giving power back to artists. |
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Toxic: The Britney Spears Story |
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| Toxic Chapter 10: Gasoline |
| by Tess Barker and Babs Gray |
| #FreeBritney is about so much more than Britney Spears. What bigger changes has Britney's case ignited? Tess and Babs investigate who gets the right to make mistakes, and why. |
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Billboard |
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| How Tencent Music’s Problems Ripple Through the Business Worldwide |
| by Glenn Peoples |
| Tencent Music's share price, which hit an all-time high on March 23, fell a whopping 74.6% as of Aug. 23, wiping out $40.1 billion of market capitalization. |
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Vox |
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| 20 years after Aaliyah’s death, her story only feels more tragic |
| by Constance Grady |
| R. Kelly groomed Aaliyah in plain sight, and the world let him. |
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Smithsonian Magazine |
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| At 40, MTV Is Officially Over the Hill |
| by Michelle Delgado |
| Born in 1981, the network soon grew to include reality TV and the VMAs. But nothing compares to its glory days of 24/7 music videos. |
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| Music of the day |
| "Nos Matamos" |
| Jhay Cortez |
| From "Timelezz," the Puerto Rican songwriter's second album, out Friday on Universal Music Latino. |
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YouTube |
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From "Timelezz," the Puerto Rican songwriter's second album, out Friday on Universal Music Latino.
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| Video of the day |
| "On Drums... Stewart Copeland" |
| BBC Four |
| Episode 1 of BBC Four's three-part 2020 series "Guitar, Drum and Bass," hosted by Stewart Copeland and featuring Sheila E., Taylor Hawkins, Bobbye Hall, Chad Smith and more. |
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Dailymotion |
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Episode 1 of BBC Four's three-part 2020 series "Guitar, Drum and Bass," hosted by Stewart Copeland and featuring Sheila E., Taylor Hawkins, Bobbye Hall, Chad Smith and more.
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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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