| My brother Norman... loved technology and he loved music. A large chrome Sony reel-to-reel tape player took pride of place in our 'good room,' and Norman was enterprising enough to figure out that the reel-to-reel meant he didn’t have to keep buying music. If he borrowed an album from a friend for an hour, it was his forever. |
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| Bad Bunny at Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot, San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 28, 2022. |
| (Gladys Vega/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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“My brother Norman... loved technology and he loved music. A large chrome Sony reel-to-reel tape player took pride of place in our 'good room,' and Norman was enterprising enough to figure out that the reel-to-reel meant he didn’t have to keep buying music. If he borrowed an album from a friend for an hour, it was his forever.”
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- Bono, from his upcoming memoir, "Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story"
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| rantnrave:// |
Payola Tengo
Payola has always been sort of illegal and sort of not, a distinction that has never particularly mattered because payola has never stopped happening. But for anyone who needs an update, Billboard’s ELIAS LEIGHT has asked around and discovered that the current price for a label to add a song to the rotation of a single radio station in a small Northeastern US market is in the $3,000 range. A serious campaign to get on an alternative radio chart can run from $40,000 to $60,000, Leight reports, while the airplay to hit top 40 or R&B/hip-hop charts is more likely to cost in the six figures.
The real news here, to me anyway, is that the music industry’s biggest trade magazine is reporting this not as an investigative scoop but as a simple matter of fact. Leight notes pay-to-play’s sordid history (along with a few fruitless attempt to lessen its impact; hashtag the FCC, FREDRIC DANNEN and ELIOT SPITZER), and then, quoting a number of label promotion execs, documents exactly how it continues to work. His angle isn’t that this is shocking, but that it’s become a big problem for indie labels, who can’t keep up with the rising costs of what’s quaintly called promotion and therefore aren’t getting their songs on the radio. “There are certain formats,” a source tells him, “that indie labels don't venture into because they just can't afford it.” In case you’re wondering why major labels have a significantly bigger share of radio airplay than they do of the rest of the business.
The money, of course, isn’t going entirely into the coffers of those radio stations. Between 20% and 40%, apparently, goes to the indie promoters who control the radio pipelines. One wonders how many artists and songwriters, given the choice, would prefer that their labels just give the money to them and forget about radio. It’s 2022 and there are other ways to get a song heard, aren't there?
Etc Etc Etc
In the UK, meanwhile, indie radio stations have found themselves the victim of a better publicized form of inflation: fast-rising rents and energy costs. The Guardian's Will Pritchard reports on why GILLES PETERSON's WORLDWIDE FM and other online radio outlets have cut back their programming or stopped altogether... Outgoing YOUTUBE chief business officer ROBERT KYNCL is the leading candidate to replace STEVE COOPER as CEO of WARNER MUSIC GROUP next year, according to Bloomberg. Internal candidates also under consideration, per Bloomberg and Music Business Worldwide, include MAX LOUSADA, chief of Warner’s recorded music division, and OANA RUXANDRA, the company’s chief digital officer... As the cost of living in Austin skies ever upward, could Dallas and Fort Worth be replacing it as Texas’ live music capital? JOHNNY AUPING reports for Rolling Stone on the “prolific, accessible, and diverse artistic community” that’s bloomed between the Fort Worth Stockyards and Dallas’ Deep Ellum... PIERRE KWENDERS wins Canada’s POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE for his album JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE.
Rest in Peace
Violinist JORJA FLEEZANIS, best known as the longtime concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra. She was the second woman ever to hold that position at a major American orchestra... PAUL SARTIN, violinist/oboist for UK folk band Bellowhead... MURDOCH RILEY, co-founder of the pioneering New Zealand indie label Viking Records... Nine Guatemalan fans killed in a crowd crush Thursday at an all-day concert celebrating the country’s Independence Day. Rock band Bohemia Suburbana was closing the show when the tragedy happened.
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| - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| puerto rico está bien cabrón |
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The New Yorker |
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| From Boy to Bono |
| By Bono |
| I was born with melodies in my head, and I was looking for a way to hear them in the world. (Excerpted from Bono’s new memoir, “Surrender,” about the music of his early years.) |
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Americana Music Association |
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| T Bone Burnett's Keynote Speech at AMERICANAFEST 2022 |
| By T Bone Burnett |
| I have spent my entire life caring about what sounds good- what instruments sound good acoustically and what electronic equipment sounds good. But as far as the music we make with those tools, as much as I care about how the music sounds, I care as much about how it feels. |
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Herb Sundays |
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| Herb Sundays 54: Piotr Orlov |
| By Piotr Orlov |
| The NYC-based journalist and musical storyteller delivers his "youthful immigrant journey" in playlist and essay form. |
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Music Industry Blog |
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| WMG is moving beyond superstars -- and that is a good thing |
| By Mark Mulligan |
| As with any transition, the shift is not linear and there will continue to be more Olivia Rodrigos and Billie Eilishes, but they will be fewer and farther between, and crucially, they will be smaller than their pre-fragmentation peers. |
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Streaming Machinery |
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| Finding Innovation in Music Streaming |
| By G.C. Stein |
| Paraphrasing the famous quote, perhaps the future of music streaming apps already is here, and the problem is that it is way too spread out among different and conflicting apps and services. |
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Vulture |
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| The Ecstasy of Karen O |
| By E. Alex Jung |
| The Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer will give in to her urges, so long as she’s onstage. |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “Estamos Bien” |
| Bad Bunny |
| An ode to the strength of the people of Puerto Rico, written after Hurricane María in 2017. |
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| Video of the day |
| “El Apagón / Aquí Vive Gente” |
| Bad Bunny / Bianca Graulau |
| Bad Bunny marries the video for his current single to a 20-minute documentary by journalist Bianca Graulau about gentrification, displacement, a failing privatized power grid and other issues in their native Puerto Rico. The documentary's title translates to "People Live Here." It was released two days before Hurricane Fiona hit the island. |
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| Music | Media |
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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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