I’ve always had mentors, and teachers, that have placed an importance upon listening. If you’re present, you should be listening, and if you’re listening you can’t be talking at the same time. The same thing goes in music. | | | | And in the end: A group of New Jersey fans on their way home from Woodstock, 51 years ago today, at the Port Authority in New York.
(Vic DeLucia/New York Post/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | “I’ve always had mentors, and teachers, that have placed an importance upon listening. If you’re present, you should be listening, and if you’re listening you can’t be talking at the same time. The same thing goes in music.”
| | | | | | rantnrave:// Two disruptive hearts beat as one: As everyone from LIL NAS X to PPCOCAINE to someone in a corner office at MICROSOFT knows, TIKTOK is a place where you can launch a hit without going through the traditional music biz channels. And as artists like NLE CHOPPA and LIL TECCA know, UNITEDMASTERS is where you might go to distribute and monetize that hit beyond TikTok without having to talk to, or give your masters to, a traditional record company. A match made it heaven, then, unless you work for the traditional side of the business, in which case your mileage may vary. "This likely won't go down well with labels," TECHCRUNCH suggests in its story about TikTok's new deal with UnitedMasters, which, among other things, will allow TikTok artists to use the app to distribute songs to streaming services, and which will see the two companies working together to promote artists inside the app, with no need for label involvement on either end. For UnitedMasters and founder STEVE STOUTE, it's a sort of first-look deal for a bottomless well of new artists; for TikTok, it's a boost to the app's "appeal to independent-minded artists who operate outside the traditional industry machinery"; and for all those artists, a potential new path forward... Eighteen years (!) after the execution-style killing of RUN-DMC's JAM MASTER JAY in a Queens, N.Y., recording studio, two men, who apparently have been suspects for more than a decade, were charged with the murder Monday. Prosecutors say the 2002 murder was the result of a major cocaine deal that went bad. "I'm relieved," DARRYL "DMC" MCDANIELS wrote, even though "this latest news opens up a lot of painful memories." Federal prosecutors first accused one of the men, RONALD WASHINGTON, in 2007. The other, KARL JORDAN JR., was charged with the attempted murder of Jam Master Jay's nephew in 2003—the case was dismissed—and has, in retrospect, a creepy INSTAGRAM. Some cold-case perspective: The NOTORIOUS B.I.G. and TUPAC SHAKUR were murdered, respectively, only five and six years earlier... BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's "THE RISING" soundtracked a stirring campaign video early in the first night of the DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, but the Springsteen song that got repeated attention was "MY CITY OF RUINS," which supplied the night's "Rise Up" theme. The song was written, around the turn of the century, about Springsteen's (and my) old hometown, Asbury Park, N.J., which had been all but left for dead, and was repurposed as an anthem for New York when Springsteen used it to open the AMERICA: A TRIBUTE TO HEROES telethon 10 days after 9/11. Both Asbury Park and New York did "rise up" in the years that followed, but as my friend BRIAN HIATT notes in his book BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS, Asbury Park's recovery was a partial one. Residents of the city's west side, "located on the other side of an actual set of train tracks," are "still waiting for a fair share of the city's renewed prosperity to come their way," Hiatt writes. A warning, perhaps, for whoever is elected to lead America through its current moment of ruin. Rescue both sides of the metaphoric tracks this time, please... This is why FUGAZI was trending on TWITTER Monday, and it is glorious... RIP STEVE GROSSMAN, QUINN "DJ SPICOLI" COLEMAN and RICK COHEN.
| | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | Artists finally have a chance at properly benefitting from their songs being played in shops and cafés around the world - thanks, in large part, to Swedish company Soundtrack Your Brand | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | "I May Destroy You" music supervisor Ciara Elwis on collaborating with Michaela Cole, negotiating with Daft Punk and stanning "The O.C." and "Gossip Girl." | | | |  | Variety | | The music is not only remarkably diverse, it also advances the party's and presumptive candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' messaging in ways that are both subtle and overt. | | | | | Variety | | A look back at political campaign songs (authorized and not), from Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" to the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want"... along with "Nixon's the One" and "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." | | | |  | The New Yorker | | A new documentary makes the case for “America’s only rock ’n’ roll magazine.” | | | |  | Conquest of the Useless | | When The Strokes ruled the world... ish and 'good hair, good shoes' was the mantra. | | | |  | British GQ | | With his latest album, "Twice As Tall," Burna Boy has outgrown his title of “African Giant” and is taking on the world. | | | |  | Bandcamp Daily | | The stunning “Source” lives at the intersection of jazz, dub reggae, and more. | | | |  | The New York Times | | TikTok is partnering with UnitedMasters, a music distribution company, to allow artists on the video-sharing platform to distribute their songs directly from the app to streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube. | | | | | Rolling Stone | | Fifty years ago, the Beatles went through rock’s most famous breakup. Inside the heartbreak, the brotherhood, and why the music still matters. | | | |  | Attack Magazine | | UK house don Silverlining shares his experiences of the electronic music industry with other South Asian and Middle Eastern artists. | | | | | The New Yorker | | The writer and musician explores the links between Black experience in industrialized labor systems and Black innovation in electronic music. | | | |  | Vulture | | Conor Oberst returns, but this time he’s happy not to be in the spotlight anymore. | | | |  | The Guardian | | The team behind the Italian city’s New Generation festival needed a larger stage if they were to host a socially distanced event - so they created one in the famous Boboli Gardens. | | | |  | Tidal | | In country, Americana and roots-music history, pushing back against injustice has been as essential as Jack Daniel’s, pickup trucks and mama. | | | |  | Complex | | After producing Drake's hit single "God's Plan," Cardo connected with Drizzy again for "Laugh Now Cry Later." | | | |  | Route | | In the first of a new series on Route, experts across the fields of journalism, live music, marketing and more talk through the terms they wish they knew before they started the job. From 'advances' to 'riders' to 'above the line' - Industry Jargon Explained will help to demystify the language of the music industry. | | | |  | Pollstar | | Will all these diversity initiatives and vow translate into real and lasting change? When the “all clear” is sounded will the rush and excitement of getting back to work relegate all these pronouncements of good intentions to the back burner? Will the dark days of 2020 be forgotten and consigned to the trash heap where good intentions and hopeful resolutions go to die? | | | |  | Treble | | A chronicle of America's most uniquely ugly art form through the ages. | | | | | The Guardian | | Too wild even for Ozzy Osbourne, UFO’s Pete Way, who has died aged 69, set the bar for rock excess -- but also for what the bass guitarist could bring to a hard rock band. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | Live at Woodstock circa 11 am ET, Aug. 18, 1969. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
