| There needs to be a place where people can go where it’s all about dancing and not about being pretentious and turning into a really chic kind of ‘Cocktail House’—the lounge thing where it’s all glamorous and everyone pretends they’re in a Puffy video... I come from the place where you go out and you sweat and you dance and you close your eyes and you sing, throw your hands in the air and you scream and you take a ride with the DJ. |
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| Ultra Naté in Hyde Park, London, June 15, 1998. |
| (Brian Rasic/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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“There needs to be a place where people can go where it’s all about dancing and not about being pretentious and turning into a really chic kind of ‘Cocktail House’—the lounge thing where it’s all glamorous and everyone pretends they’re in a Puffy video... I come from the place where you go out and you sweat and you dance and you close your eyes and you sing, throw your hands in the air and you scream and you take a ride with the DJ.”
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- Ultra Naté, 2007
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| rantnrave:// |
Hell’s Kitchen
One more story that slipped through the cracks here at MusicREDEF HQ while I was on the injured list: my friend BRIAN HIATT’s report for Rolling Stone on songwriters squeezed between the changing (read: worsening) economics of writing in the streaming age and artists taking bites out of their ever-shrinking royalty pie in the form of dubious songwriting credits. A-list pop songwriter OAK FELDER tells Hiatt about a colleague who skipped out of a writing session after three hours to go to a restaurant. But not because he had a reservation: “He’s like, ‘No, no, I’m going to work... I work in the kitchen.’” DUA LIPA/CHAINSMOKERS collaborator EMILY WARREN mentions a Grammy-winning songwriter friend who’s currently driving for UBER. KIMBERLY “KAYDENCE” KRYSIUK’s says her first royalty check for an ARIANA GRANDE album track a few years back was $2,004.61.
LUCIAN GRAINGE has put streaming economics at the front of the music biz agenda for 2023. He and UMG are working with TIDAL on an “updated” “artist-centric” model for streaming revenues, though they’ve been vague on what that might mean. In Australia, meanwhile, TIKTOK is experimenting with reducing the amount of licensed music users can incorporate in their own videos and hear in other users’ videos. It’s unclear what the company’s endgame is, but there’s understandable nervousness at labels that one of the most important platforms for music marketing and discovery may be looking for ways to share less of its revenues with the companies that supply the music.
Songwriters aren’t so much in the middle of all this as they are at the bottom. The very nature of their work tends to make them freelancers, but they’ve organized to protest outside SPOTIFY’s offices and, as Hiatt notes, several prominent writers signed a pact two years pledging not to work for artists who ask for credits on songs they didn’t write. They’ve had mixed results on both fronts, with the pact’s signers, who still need the work, not all adhering to it. Publishers have made some headway in streaming royalty negotiations. But it seems fair to wonder what the writers’ place will be in a new artist-centric economy, should it ever come to pass, and who will be their best advocates. Because a songwriter’s place is most definitely not in the kitchen.
Etc Etc Etc
Can concert ticket fees really be killed? LIVE NATION’s MICHAEL RAPINO says no way, though he and his company are pushing for legislation that would require those fees to be disclosed at the beginning, rather than the end, of a transaction (which I don’t believe anyone is preventing Live Nation from doing, say, now)... The Trichordist’s DAVID LOWERY explains how bills being considered in Georgia and other states to limit such fees are “Trojan horse” bills actually designed to restrict artists’ ability to sell tickets directly to fans... Should your office have a soundtrack?... (Duh. Everything. Should. Have. A. Soundtrack)... LL COOL J eats spicy wings and makes platitudes like “humility’s a superpower” sound deep... British rockers DRY CLEANING treat themselves to mani-pedis in Brooklyn... ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME ballots are in voters’ hands. May I suggest you start at the bottom of this year’s ballot, alphabetically speaking, and work your way up, my voting friends?
Rest in Peace
Italian club DJ and Ibiza regular RENATO “RENÈ” GIMANI... Artist manager BRETT RADIN, who most recently worked at Knitting Factory Management.
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| - Matty Karas, curator |
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| if you could read my mind |
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Rick Beato |
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| The Keith Jarrett Interview |
| By Rick Beato and Keith Jarrett |
| Keith Jarrett is an American jazz pianist and composer born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1945. He is considered one of the most influential and accomplished jazz musicians of his generation. This is my interview with him. |
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Rap Radar |
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| Rap Radar Podcast: Lil Yachty |
| By Elliott Wilson, Brian "B.Dot" Miller and Lil Yachty |
| Lil Yachty isn't afraid to experiment. After taking the wock to Poland and a two-year hiatus, the Atlanta rapper returned this year with his alternative album, "Let's Start Here." |
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JazzTimes |
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| Favorite Number: Four Decades of Stories From New York’s 55 Bar |
| By Shaun Brady |
| The story of the 55 Bar dates back to Prohibition, when the underground West Village watering hole opened as a speakeasy. It entered jazz lore in 1983, when the late bassist Jeff Andrews approached then-owner Peter Williams about performing there. |
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The Ringer |
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| The Science of How Music Hits Have Changed in the Last 60 Years |
| By Derek Thompson and Chris Dalla Riva |
| How does technology shape art? Why has songwriting become more of a visual skill in the 21st century? Why are today's hit songs shorter than songs from any period since the Beatles? What happened to the guitar solo intro-and the classic rock genre in general? How did rap and hip-hop take over the charts? |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “Free” |
| Ultra Naté |
| Ultra Naté on her 1997 house classic: "I wanted guitars, because I was really into REM’s 'Losing My Religion.' We wanted a rock song that would work in clubs. It was intentionally very different from what was happening in dance music." |
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| Music | Media |
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Suggest a link  |
| “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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