| Dolly [Parton] said there’s two sides to every story. When you’re telling your side of the story, is it fair? You don’t make songs to hurt somebody, but they do. |
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| Miley Cyrus at Lollapalooza Brazil, São Paulo, March 26, 2022. |
| (Mauricio Santana/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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| rantnrave:// |
It’s Friday
And MILEY CYRUS, fresh off her first #1 single in a decade, is here for her flowers, and she’s buying. At age 30, having spent more than half her life making records, “she has finally transformed into the kind of old-school grown-up legend she’s always wanted to be,” Rob Sheffield writes in Rolling Stone. ENDLESS SUMMER VACATION, he says, is her “Saturn-return post-divorce album.” Cyrus celebrates album release day with a concert-and-interview special, “Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions),” that premieres at 1pm ET/10am PT today on Disney+. Brandy Carlile guests on the album and Rufus Wainwright joins her in the special. Three generations of fearless, old-school grown-up legends... MEET ME @ THE ALTAR is three women with pop-punk roots and Radio Disney dreams who met on the internet, and the first line of the first song on their first full-length album is “I’m a bitch and my band is an industry plant, at least that’s what it says on the internet.” If that doesn’t melt your bubblegum heart, just wait a few seconds for the hook to kick in. “That Disney era of rock just kind of died out, so the kids don’t have ‘Camp Rock, they don’t have ‘Lemonade Mouth,’” guitarist Téa Campbell says. “And we hope that we get to be that”... Unhinged (in the good way) rapper RXK NEPHEW has pilloried Kanye West in song, thinks Tupac might have been cloned, and released more than 400 tracks in 2021. The Washington Post calls him “rap’s answer to this paranoid American moment.” TIL I’M DEAD, Dylan Green reports in the Face, is “his first album to be fully mixed, mastered and carefully sequenced... and the first one he’s made completely sober.”
Also today: New music from Fever Ray, the Blaze, Twice (their 12th mini album), the War and Treaty, EBK Young Joc, Conway the Machine & Jae Skeese, Musiq Soulchild & Hit-Boy, Nia Archives, Lonnie Holley (with guests Moor Mother, Michael Stipe, Sharon Van Etten and Bon Iver), Fatima Al Qadiri, Sleaford Mods, FNF Chop, Avelino, Rarelyalways, King Khan, Jane Bunnett & Maqueque, Eric Reed, Esthesis Quartet, Page McConnell & Trey Anastasio, Rival Sons, Van Morrison, Death Cab for Cutie (acoustic version of 2022 album “Asphalt Meadows”), Lia Kohl, Judiciary, For the Fallen Dreams, Dub Pistols, the Nude Party, Manchester Orchestra, H. Hawkline, Shana Cleveland (of La Luz), Frankie Rose (ex-Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls), Brix Smith, Thayer Sarrano, Joanne Robertson, Taali, Shalom, Ripe, Infinity Crush, Eyelids, Collapsing Scenery, Vntageparadise, Scree, MSPaint and Godcaster.
Etc Etc Etc (Through the Gift Shop)
Recorded music revenues in the US were up 6% to $15.9 billion in 2022, marking the industry’s seventh straight year of growth, according to the RIAA. But the overall rate of growth is slowing, and is the growth of its biggest revenue source, subscription streaming. In the UK, the BPI reported a slightly softer year-over-year growth of 4.7%...Also on the rise: piracy... APPLE MUSIC says its long-promised classical music streaming service will launch March 28—a year and a half after Apple bought (and closed) the classical service PRIMEPHONIC. Apple Music Classical will be the standalone service that classical music fans have long said they need, but won’t require its own subscription; it will be accessible to anyone with a paid Apple Music sub. It will be iPhone-only at launch, with an Android counterpart to follow... Kudos to the CURE for announcing a North American summer tour with “no ‘platinum’ or ‘dynamically priced’ tickets” (save for a few VIP charity seats at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL in May, the band says)... The local west London rock group formerly known as EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP is auctioning the BANKSY painting the artist gave it in 2010 in return for the band changing its name—which the band came up with before Banksy did. The painting is expected to bring in as much as $800,000, which will be divided between the band, now called BRACE YOURSELF!, and the music charity MUSICARES... When white critics write about Black music.
Rest in Peace
AISHA STEPHENS, of Syracuse, N.Y., the third woman to die as a result of the stampede after GloRilla’s concert Sunday night at the Main Street Armory in Rochester, N.Y. City officials revoked the venue's entertainment license Wednesday, forcing it to close.
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| - Matty Karas, curator |
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The New York Times |
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| Changing His Tune for Mother Russia |
| By Valerie Hopkins and Georgy Birger |
| As the Kremlin seeks to remake Russia’s institutions to comport with its militaristic worldview, cultural figures are picking a side. One singer made his choice - and is growing rich. |
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Pitchfork |
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| FTC Should Investigate Music Streaming Deals, Study Urges |
| By Marc Hogan |
| The Federal Trade Commission must use its subpoena power to follow the money in the music industry, according to a new white paper from consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Knowledge. “This is a structural problem,” the author says. |
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Variety |
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| Streaming Brought Record Growth to the Music Business -- TikTok and A.I. Need to Get It Right |
| By Mitch Glazier |
| Record companies recognize the potential of many forms of AI, from innovating new studio tools to helping plan sustainable tour routes. Human creatives will no doubt find amazing new ways to put AI to work as they tell new stories and innovate new sounds. But we also see the unique threat posed by “generative” AI that purports to replace human artistry. |
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Trapital |
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| The Future of Music and Gaming (with Vickie Nauman) |
| By Dan Runcie and Vickie Nauman |
| Last year, David Guetta did a 20-song, 50-minute DJ set on Roblox. It seems straightforward but this week’s podcast guest, Vickie Nauman, CEO of CrossBorderWorks, needed to clear 143 different writer’s shares for Guetta to play those songs. |
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Applied Science |
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| Underground Hip-Hop Economics Pt. 1 |
| By Jon Tanners |
| Thoughts on the economics and creative potential characterizing the (exciting!) current moment in underground hip-hop. I’m splitting this into two parts, the first more philosophical, the second a case study powered by CreateSafe’s Record Deal Simulator. |
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The FADER |
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| The world is opening up for Fever Ray |
| By Jordan Darville and Karin Dreijer |
| Karin Dreijer discusses "Radical Romantics," their third album as Fever Ray, on The FADER Interview. |
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LAist Studios |
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| K-Pop Dreaming Ep 4: Moon Night |
| By Vivian Yoon |
| In this episode, we head to an American military neighborhood in Seoul in the late 1980s. Tucked in an alleyway was a little grimy club that blasted American hip-hop, the place was for African American GIs to cut loose, but it pulled in an unexpected crowd - young Koreans who would become the pioneers of modern K-pop. |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “You” |
| Miley Cyrus |
| A stellar performance. From "Endless Summer Vacation," out today on Smiley Miley/Columbia. |
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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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