| The human voice is... the most complex instrument out there, capable of reproducing a wider variety of sounds than anything else we've ever made, with the possible exception of the synthesizer. |
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Theon Cross performing with Sons of Kemet at All Points East, London, Aug. 27, 2021.
(Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
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“The human voice is... the most complex instrument out there, capable of reproducing a wider variety of sounds than anything else we've ever made, with the possible exception of the synthesizer.”
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The Singer Not the Song
Hell yes to the proposition that the human voice is "The Most Important Instrument in the World." If I had a dollar for every time someone tried to tell me the voice isn't an instrument at all and that singers aren't musicians, I might be one of the 700 Americans who'd be subject to the billionaires tax currently being contemplated in Washington. They're wrong, every one of them. "The voice," YouTube musicsplainer CORY ARNOLD, aka 12TONE, tells us in his latest video, "is totally acoustic and innate, built into the human body by nature itself. There's no knobs, no settings, just raw primal sound." Which is part of what makes it so difficult to play. There's no instrument that's harder to master. Throw a rock in the middle of any street in East Nashville and you'll hit a guitarist who could go on tour with any band in the world tomorrow. Do the same in Atlanta and you'll hit a hip-hop producer who probably has a song in the Hot 100 right now. But there's nowhere you can go and find a truly great singer that easily. They're much more rare. Theirs is an incredibly unique and personal instrument. You can't tune it or dial in a sound. You can't tune out how you're feeling. You can't walk away from it when you get frustrated, or trade it in for a better one at GUITAR CENTER. But damn, if you ever truly master it... This has been a public service announcement. Also, Cory/12Tone consistently makes smart, fun, insightful videos about how music works, this one included.
Report Cards
SPOTIFY ad revenue in Q3 was up 75% year-over-year, because podcasts. It's now the leading podcast platform in the US based on total listeners. Whether this is good for news for musicians and music companies who are heavily invested in Spotify revenue will probably be up for debate for quite some time. Better news on the music front: Paying subscribers increased 19% year-over-year, as did the number of monthly active users, which Spotify says will pass 400 million by the end of 2021. And average revenue per user, which has been trending downward for years because of discounted family plans and expansion into markets with lower rates, crept up for a second straight quarter; it's now $5.03... UMG reported 17.4% growth in its first quarter as a public company, fueled by streaming revenues and new albums by BILLIE EILISH, DRAKE and Japanese pop group KING & PRINCE. "I firmly believe the music industry is only at the beginning of a new wave of growth and evolution," CEO LUCIAN GRAINGE told investors... Worldwide publishing revenues took a hit in 2020 because of the pandemic, which decimated collections from concerts and from stores, restaurants, hotels and bars, CISAC said in its annual report. While those collections dropped nearly 50 percent, the overall 10.7% downturn was better than CISAC originally expected. TV and radio revenues were down only slightly and digital revenues continued to boom. "It could have been worse," CISAC president BJORN ULVAEUS told Variety. Ulvaeus will do his best to add to all those revenue streams, and stem the losses, when the band he moonlights in releases its first album in 40 years Friday.
Rest in Peace
Viagra Boys guitarist BENJAMIN VALLÉ... ROSE LEE MAPHIS, a West Coast country pioneer who co-wrote the standard "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music)" with her husband, Joe Maphis... Blues harmonica player WILLIE COBBS.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Culture Notes of an Honest Broker |
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| The Only Instrumental Record Ever Banned by US Radio |
| by Ted Gioia |
| Guitarist Link Wray belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-if only for recording the most feared guitar instrumental in American music history. |
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Music Data Pro |
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| DJ Mixes in the world of streaming music (and video) -- Part 1 |
| by Chuck Fishman |
| As Apple Music and Spotify move to include “DJ Mixes” as part of their music offerings, it’s time to take an in-depth look at how DJs are presented in the world of music streaming and video. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| How a trans indie-rock star made the record of their life, with the help of some new housemates |
| by Randall Roberts |
| Amid COVID, L.A.'s Hand Habits, Sasami and King Tuff moved in together to wait out the pandemic and make music. The result? The best music of their careers. |
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The Ringer |
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| Wale Is Just Making Sure You’re Listening |
| by Logan Murdock |
| The brash D.C. rapper still has a lot to say, but he’s also letting the music speak for itself on his great new album, ‘Folarin II.’ |
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Variety |
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| ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus Talks CISAC Report and the ‘Immoral’ Treatment of Songwriters by the Music Industry |
| by Jem Aswad |
| “It’s immoral!” Ulvaeus exclaims. “Songs are an asset class all of a sudden — a commodity — and the songwriter is out there on the periphery.” |
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The Guardian |
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| Gil Scott-Heron changed my life -- and his humane message still resonates |
| by Abdul Malik Al Nasir |
| The ‘godfather of rap’ is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this week alongside Jay Z and LL Cool J, and remains an inspiration for how he lifted up the downtrodden. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| Six reasons why regionality still matters for the global music streaming business |
| by Ryan Blakeley |
| The importance of regionality persists, even with increased global connectivity. |
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kill yr idols |
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| Nothing Happens for a Reason, in B-flat |
| by George Grella |
| American classical music institutions constantly fret about getting new, younger audiences and, year in and year out, don’t do the most obvious things to make that happen. |
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Pitchfork |
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| Learning to Love Phish |
| by Brad Nelson |
| One writer’s voyage into the jam band’s silly, obsessive, funky, terrifying cosmos. |
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12tone |
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| This Is The Most Important Instrument In The World |
| by Cory Arnold |
| How voices work. |
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The New York Times |
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| New York Has a New Band of Buzzy Post-Punk Teens: Geese |
| by Jim Farber |
| The Brooklyn quintet thought the band would end after high school graduation. Now its debut album, “Projector,” is arriving. |
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Austin 360 |
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| A wall plastered with 25 years of band stickers removed, but not forgotten, from Austin's Continental Club |
| by Deborah Sengupta Stith |
| A chapter of Austin music history closed on Wednesday as the Continental Club removed a wall near the back door where Dianne Scott curated a collection of Austin music and art stickers for over 25 years. “I didn’t expect to get so emotional,” she said. |
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Attack Magazine |
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| The 2nd Most Sampled Track In History |
| We take a look at one of dance music's most well loved samples, the 'Think' break, taken from Lyn Collin's classic funk track 'Think (About It)'. |
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Newsweek |
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| Devo responds to John Hinckley, would-be Reagan assassin, over song royalties |
| by Aila Slisco |
| "It's possible that he's not lying," Devo founder Gerald Casale told Newsweek. "But certainly it's not because of Devo that he didn't get his money." |
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Country Queer |
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| Singing Through The Cracks |
| by Lilli Lewis |
| Musician and record label executive Lilli Lewis says growing up in the margins "has made me a blueswoman, and by that, I mean a seer." |
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Billboard |
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| Grand Ole Opry Has Put on a Show Nearly Every Saturday Since 1925 |
| by Tom Roland |
| The Grand Ole Opry's 5,000th Saturday show will air on WSM-AM on Oct. 30. |
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KQED |
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| A New Generation of Filipino Hip-Hop Builds On a Deep Bay Area Legacy |
| by Alan Chazaro |
| Guapdad, Saweetie and some of today's best-known Bay Area artists rep their Filipino heritage, continuing a tradition going back to the '80s. |
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Music In Africa |
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| Who gains from Kenya’s dysfunctional music royalty space? |
| by Lucy Ilado |
| When the Kenya Copyright Amendment Bill of 2019 was signed into law, it was seen as a new dawn for creatives. Two years later, the optimism has dwindled. |
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Billboard |
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| Should Men Write Female Anthems? Beatriz Luengo, Ovy on the Drums & More Hitmakers Debate on ‘Cultura Clash’ |
| by Jessica Roiz |
| Beatriz Luengo, Elena Rose, Ovy on the Drums, and Edgar Barrera, discussed if men should write women empowerment songs in the new Cultura Clash episode. |
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The Trichordist |
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| A Potential Solution in Phono IV To the Streaming Services’ 'Lowest In History' Rate Proposals : Withdrawing The Settlement To Freeze |
| by Gwendolyn Seale |
| When you download the hundreds of pages of the services’ written direct testimony from the CRB, and wade through the arguments in the mire of heavily redacted passages, there is a surprising common theme used to bolster every last one of their positions. |
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| Music of the day |
| "The Spiral" |
| Theon Cross (ft. Afronaut Zu & Ahnansé) |
| Tuba inspiration. From "Intra-I," out Friday on New Soil/Marathon. |
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YouTube |
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Tuba inspiration. From "Intra-I," out Friday on New Soil/Marathon.
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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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