You can find awesome rhythm in everything. People will hear certain breaks that I make and be like, 'Where’d that come from?' I’ll be like, 'That was the part where dude was running down the steps in "Annie Get Your Gun."' | | | | The Weeknd on "Saturday Night Live," March 7, 2020.
(Will Heath/NBCUniversal/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | “You can find awesome rhythm in everything. People will hear certain breaks that I make and be like, 'Where’d that come from?' I’ll be like, 'That was the part where dude was running down the steps in "Annie Get Your Gun."'”
| | | | | | rantnrave:// The music equivalent of "I wear a mask to protect you; you wear a mask to protect me" is "I don't play overcrowded, understaffed rock gigs to protect you; you don't DJ pandemic-defying raves to protect me"—with the bonus factor, in this case, that you're not just protecting me, you're also protecting everyone who would have come to that rave and everyone they would have come into contact with for the next couple weeks. This goes double for Business Techno Industrial Complex events. And yes, full disclosure, I'm totally not fun at parties, not this year. Think of this as me subtweeting VAN MORRISON and giving a big thumbs up to every DJ that DAVE CLARKE is subtweeting in this FACEBOOK post while using this late summer day when we all should be on vacation somewhere to amplify this headline from dance-music writer SHAWN REYNALDO: "Please Stop Partying." This has been a public service announcement on behalf of science, medicine and it ain't over just because you're bored out of your mind... A good time, this is, to listen to recorded music, watch music documentaries and livestreams, dance on your own, make music of your own or, if you can find a buyer, consider selling your old songs for eight or nine figures. Did anyone else have "IMAGINE DRAGONS sell their songwriting copyrights for more than $100 million" on their 2020 bingo card? Does anyone want to guess what a 50 percent stake in RZA's songs went for? While the Imagine Dragons catalog went to CONCORD MUSIC, RZA's was swallowed up by MERCK MERCURIADIS' copyright investment fund HIPGNOSIS, which hasn't actually spent the past two years buying every successful pop, rock, R&B and hip-hop song ever, it just seems that way, because while not every perennial hit is in the Hipgnosis catalog (yet), just about every songwriter in the Hipgnosis catalog has at least a few of those. If it isn't a proven reliable, predictable, investible property, to use three of Mercuriadis' favorite words, he's explicitly not interested. If it's "DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'" (the JOURNEY catalog) or "UPTOWN FUNK" (MARK RONSON) or "RUN THIS TOWN" (NO I.D.), he's all in, at sky-high prices that prompted one anonymous publishing exec to say, "F*** that guy." (H/T DAN RUNCIE's TRAPITAL newsletter for reminding me of that quote.) I have questions that I plan to explore further sometime soon, but, for starters, in an era when artists and songwriters have learned the hard way, over and over again, that owning your masters and your publishing is the key to a happy, secure future, why are so many A-list artists lining up for buyouts? The upfront money is great, but who's going to be the winner 10 or 20 years down the line? Are they selling now because the market, disrupted by Hipgnosis, is at an artificial high and may never be this good again? Are they right? More questions stewing... JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE died of a "probable drug overdose," Nashville police said Tuesday... Good diversity goals from TECHSTARS MUSIC, to be implemented immediately (good social distancing, too)... RIP RILEY GALE, TOM RELLEEN and DAN PARISE. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | |  | Esquire | | Even as he enters a new phase of who 'The Weeknd' is, Abel Tesfaye remains the modern bard of our most f***ed-up times. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | For nearly 30 years, John Shepherd broadcast freewheeling records from all over the world, to what he hoped would be an interstellar audience. | | | |  | Music Business Worldwide | | The scene appears set for Daniel Ek's company to make its move into a burgeoning sector. | | | |  | The Overtake | | Thousands of people are missing the connection they make with others at live events and it's harming their mental health. | | | |  | Pollstar | | David Castillo, a self-proclaimed "“Long Island hardcore guy into really weird music,” and who plays in the band Primitve Weapons, has been Saint Vitus’ booker since its inception in April 2011. He helped raise more than $130K for the venue during the pandemic/economic crisis. | | | |  | First Floor | | a.k.a. Plague raves, illegal parties and the depressing reliability of human selfishness. | | | |  | Slate | | We scoured all 62 years of Billboard’s Hot 100 charts looking for the most bawdy, lewd, raunchy, and outright depraved songs to ever reach No. 1. Here’s what we found. | | | |  | theLAnd | | Saviii has distinguished himself as one of the most magnetic young stars in hip-hop, able to make grim stories motivational and upbeat songs sound like they have teeth. | | | |  | Medium | | As investors, we think this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a gigantic business in music and live events. We also think it is the perfect opportunity to build a more equitable and diverse music business. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Employees of the radio station said they were shocked to see a colleague known as Paddy Duke in a new HBO documentary about the racist murder of a Brooklyn teenager in 1989. | | | |  | Toronto Star | | This wasn't my first outdoor concert. But it was my first outdoor concert at a drive-in. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, though I was pretty sure the experience would not be like the one Keith Urban delivered on stage at a drive-in in Tennessee in May. | | | |  | Hollywood Reporter | | "I love a good mystery story," opens a new legal memorandum from Nicki Minaj. "Don't you? That is what this case is: a good mystery story." It's now time for more in the heavyweight copyright battle between Tracy Chapman and Nicki Minaj over the latter's "Sorry," which was derived without permission from Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You." | | | |  | Level | | Allegations have dogged the singer for years - yet, he only tries to discredit those from women without power | | | | | Pitchfork | | “This is not a charity case,” says rapper and deputy label director BL Shirelle. “We’re working with people who are masters at what they do.” | | | |  | Variety | | The push for diversity in the Emmys ' music branch has made significant progress, as voters nominated a record number of people of color and a near-record number of women this year. More than 26% of all nominees in the seven music categories were non-white, up from 15.5% last year and from 22% the year before. | | | |  | Bandcamp Daily | | The Bay Area trio is far from your stereotypical leather-clad, alcohol-pickled nihilists-and it shows in both their musical approach and broader worldview. | | | |  | SPIN | | Perry Farrell may be recognized as the face of ’90s alternative culture, but his relevance hasn’t waned three decades later. | | | | | Music Business Worldwide | | Single Music's Tommy Stalknecht on the new online D2C revolution taking hold in music -- powered by Shopify. | | | | | Variety | | The #GlobalAidForLebanon campaign launched by Weeknd manager and XO Records CEO Wassim "Sal" Slaiby in collaboration with Global Citizen and World Food Program USA (WFP USA) has brought in more than $1.2 million in cash and pledges to date, exceeding $1 million in just ten days, with donations continuing to come in. | | | |  | Broken Record | | Our episode with Justin Townes Earle was scheduled to run next month. But after we heard about Earle's passing over the weekend, we decided to put it out sooner. It's a deeply sad conversation in some places. It's also incredibly soulful, funny and searching. And the performances, culled from Earle's album "The Saint of Lost Causes," are brilliant. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | "Won't stay silent for things that I love." | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
