People are scared in the music biz, trained to see nothing, look the other way. It’s what helps people get ahead who rise up through the system. I did that for years too. But now I’m one of the older more experienced people, an independent manager. If I don’t speak up, who will? | | | | Members of Les Amazones d'Afrique in Crozon, France, Aug. 5, 2016. "Amazones Power" is out today on Real World.
(Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images) | | | | | | “People are scared in the music biz, trained to see nothing, look the other way. It’s what helps people get ahead who rise up through the system. I did that for years too. But now I’m one of the older more experienced people, an independent manager. If I don’t speak up, who will?”
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| | rantnrave:// In December, the RECORDING ACADEMY's board of trustees stepped up and said yes to 16 of the 18 recommendations made by a task force on diversity and inclusion that the Academy had convened to address the growing perception that women weren't getting a fair shake in the music industry in general and at the Academy's GRAMMY AWARDS in particular. Those 16 yeses got the headlines. The one "no" and the one "not really" didn't get much attention. They're worth revisiting in the wake of a Grammy-week scandal that makes the 2018 Grammy-week scandal seem almost quaint. The trustees said no, for now, to the idea of ranked-choice Grammy voting, which the task force said would increase diversity and decrease the chance for "polarizing" winners. And they rejected a radical change to the structure of the board, which would have given a bigger voice to the Academy's rank-and-file membership and to a proposed new diversity and inclusion committee, in favor of a significantly smaller change. That board, which was 65% male, 63% white and 87% over the age of 40 at the time of that report, is the same board that, if you are to believe its suspended CEO, DEBORAH DUGAN, hired her as the Academy's first female chief and then conspired to block almost every change she tried to institute. She, too, not coincidentally, wanted to change the shape of the board. And, well, here we are. Thursday of Grammy week found Dugan taking her case to two networks with a lawyer by her side, the Academy's chief awards officer denying the Grammy nominations are fixed, and that task force coming back into view to demand that the board immediately implement its 18 recommendations and to announce it will reconvene in 90 days and "expects to hear progress from the Academy by that time." Industry voices have been weirdly silent—or hiding behind anonymous quotes—for most of the week, but TY STIKLORIUS, a task force member and music manager whose clients include JOHN LEGEND, went on the record with the NEW YORK TIMES Thursday. "I hope that other women and anyone interested in the integrity of the Grammys joins me in sending a vocal vote of absolutely no confidence in the board," Stiklorius said. Will others follow? Will the news, come Sunday, be about the artists who've won Grammys or an organization that's lost them?... It's never too late to change your mind: SONOS made a mistake in telling its customers it would no longer support its "legacy" products, some only a few years old, and that its legacy and newer products would be basically incompatible, CEO PATRICK SPENCE said in a public apology Thursday. "We heard you," Spence wrote. "We did not get this right from the start." Sonos' down-and-up week raises some other troubling questions about its technology that I'll address in this space soon, but good on the company for making good with its customers quickly... Likewise to DISCOVERY NETWORKS, which has reversed course on a heartless decision to require composers on all its shows to give up their performance royalties—for many of them, their main source of income. The network backed down in the face of a protest campaign from 11,000 composers and musicians... UMG's LUCIAN GRAINGE is the executive of the decade and UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING's JODY GERSON is the executive of the year, according to BILLBOARD, which has unveiled its annual POWER LIST (notably absent: anyone from the RECORDING ACADEMY except its powerful outside counsel, JOEL A. KATZ, who earlier this week denied Deborah Dugan's claim that he sexually harassed her)... ANNE LITT is the new program director of music at influential public broadcaster KCRW. The station is still looking for a new permanent host of MORNING BECOMES ECLECTIC to replace JASON BENTLEY, who essentially did both jobs until leaving in September... NETFLIX's TAYLOR SWIFT documentary, MISS AMERICANA, premieres at SUNDANCE... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from JEFF PARKER & THE NEW BREED, J HUS, LES AMAZONES D'AFRIQUE, KHUSHI, ETHAN GRUSKA, ANDY SHAUF, BREAKING BENJAMIN, PET SHOP BOYS, SARAH MARY CHADWICK, SY ARI DA KID, YELENA ECKEMOFF, BONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN, ROBERT HAIGH, OKAY KAYA, NICOLAS GODIN, WIRE, WOLF PARADE, the BLACK LIPS, the HADEN TRIPLETS, HIGHER POWER, DAVEY SUICIDE, NEKTAR, BENNY BENACK III, the WOOD BROTHERS and the soundtrack from THE TURNING featuring MITSKI, COURTNEY LOVE, KIM GORDON and more. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| The Recording Academy hired Deborah Dugan as an agent of change, and with her scorched-earth EEOC complaint, that is what she brought. | | |
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| Women dominate this year’s Grammy nominations, but industry gender parity is still a world away. Here’s how progress might look. | | |
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| To reflect an industry that is more complex than ever, Billboard presents its most expansive look yet at the executives shaping each sector of the business. | | |
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| Nearly 20 new event-ticketing startups have launched globally over the past three years, with the sector as a whole attracting more than $330 million in venture-capital funding in that time period. But despite this sustained entrepreneurial activity, ticketing still remains twice as consolidated as recorded music. | | |
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| The company says bug fixes and security patches will keep coming. | | |
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| Drake's record label gets criticized for its singular focus, but it's the model most likely to be replicated this next decade. | | |
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| How the Waxahatchee singer-songwriter got sober, moved to Kansas City, and made her best album yet. | | |
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| In FKA twigs' Grammy-nominated video "Cellophane," the performer shows off her hard-earned pole-dancing skills. | | |
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| After the massive success of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Nirvana faced a tough decision: Should they release "Come As You Are" or "In Bloom" as their next single from 1991's Nevermind? While record label folks felt "Come As You Are" had the greater potential to be a hit, the group's late lead singer Kurt Cobain had some reservations about the song. | | |
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| Accusations of harassment, favoritism and bullying have overshadowed Sunday’s show and pitted the Recording Academy against its suspended chief executive. | | |
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| When some executives reach the top, they take a moment to enjoy the view. Not Lucian Grainge. In 2011, less than a year after he was named chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, he led the company into one of the biggest deals in music business history by acquiring EMI's recorded-music division - home to artists ranging from the Beatles to Katy Perry. | | |
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| Yola, a black British singer embracing country, classic pop and roots music has earned four nominations to the upcoming Grammy Awards. | | |
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| Nearly 50 years after her first Grammy nomination, country renegade Tanya Tucker is enjoying a career renaissance -- and a chance at the icon status her admirers say she has been denied too long. | | |
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| Your guide to the New Orleans-based band up for the Best New Artist Grammy Award. | | |
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| Women are receiving just 1/10th of airplay on country radio, down from 1/3rd two decades ago. | | |
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| The Mile High City is on the rise thanks to jam-band fanatics, a wild shape-shifting venue, and decriminalized magic mushrooms. | | |
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| Nipsey Hussle's business partner David Gross tells Complex how Our Opportunity investment initiative is carrying out Nip's vision. | | |
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| Ash Lauryn on women in dance music, then and now. | | |
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| In the dark nights after long days, the music gave our fathers something to cling to. | | |
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| Spoiler alert: Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé got snubbed a lot. | | |
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| | | | | Jeff Parker & the New Breed |
| | From "Suite for Max Brown," out today on International Anthem/Nonesuch. |
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