We [artists] need to stop pretending that we’re not trying to make a living. We need to make it OK to ask music lovers to support the music they love, directly. By buying an album in a physical or digital format, not just streaming (but stream it too!), the artist is more likely to see direct benefits through better profit margins, a higher profile with DSPs, retailers and labels, and increased chart potential. | | | | Yola (with Dan Auerbach) at Monday night's "To Nashville, With Love" benefit, which raised $500,000 for disaster relief.
(Jason Kempin/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “We [artists] need to stop pretending that we’re not trying to make a living. We need to make it OK to ask music lovers to support the music they love, directly. By buying an album in a physical or digital format, not just streaming (but stream it too!), the artist is more likely to see direct benefits through better profit margins, a higher profile with DSPs, retailers and labels, and increased chart potential.”
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| | rantnrave:// Kudos to GOLDENVOICE if it pulls off moving two entire festivals, COACHELLA and STAGECOACH, from April to October, as the promoter now officially says it's doing. After a week of cancellations around the world, you can read a hopeful note, if you so choose, into Tuesday's announcement that Goldenvoice is committed to making the two marquee festivals still happen in 2020. It's a bet that the festival business will be viable again relatively soon. It's also a lot of chess pieces to move, and if you want to add a cautionary tone to your hopefulness, you might note that the announcement didn't mention any artists. The headliners for the now-shelved April events were TRAVIS SCOTT, FRANK OCEAN and the reunited RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE over two Coachella weekends and THOMAS RHETT, CARRIE UNDERWOOD and ERIC CHURCH for Stagecoach. BILLBOARD and the NEW YORK TIMES reported that organizers had spent the previous days trying to re-book as much of the original lineup as it could; Billboard's sources suggested on Monday that Goldenvoice was prepared to go ahead with a rescheduled fest only if enough headliners said yes. For now, though, silence, as if it's early January all over again. If you're used to being at spring Coachella, by the way, expect warmer days and cooler nights for the October version. The Coachella dates, on the second and third weekends of October, match up with the dates of the classic-rock DESERT TRIP fest that Goldenvoice staged at the same site in 2016. Stagecoach, as usual, will happen a week later. That, at least, is the plan... Here's what to do if you want to refund your ticket (which Coachella is offering, unlike several other recently disrupted events) or your travel... A friend posted the March 3, 1969 playlist from Chicago top 40 powerhouse WLS-AM on FACEBOOK the other day, because that's what friends do. TOMMY ROE's key-hopping bubblegum classic "DIZZY" was #1 and MOTOWN singer EDWIN STARR's first major hit (of two), "TWENTY-FIVE MILES," was #40. As inevitably happens in these threads, someone mentioned how much more diverse radio was back then. Before I started in on my own inevitable popsplaining reply, I checked the top 40 songs on the current BILLBOARD HOT 100, and I'm here to say it absolutely holds up, as pop almost always does. Three Spanish-language songs (and a few more Latinx artists beyond that), three country songs, a few old folk like MAROON 5 and LADY GAGA alongside the young blood of BILLIE EILISH and ARIZONA ZERVAS, a lot more women than you could hear on the 1969 top 40 and, for good measure, a new bubblegum classic at #1. Thank you, 2020, for the music... RIP KEITH OLSEN and TOM WATKINS. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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 | Complex |
| He sits in a stark room at his computer, headphones on, and pulls up the lyrics. His face lights up, jaw drops, eyes widen, head sometimes bangs; he might laugh after figuring out or guessing at the meaning, sometimes so blown away by the words or music he gets up from his chair with a clap or a skip. | | |
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 | NPR |
| The positive exposure for artists from their songs appearing in film, television and advertisements has turned the job of music supervision into a power player in the music business. | | |
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 | Digital Trends |
| Though it's still far from a household name, like MP3, MQA is on the verge of changing the way we listen to digital music. | | |
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 | Austin American-Statesman |
| What's happening around Austin now that the fest is canceled? | | |
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 | CityLab |
| For Austin Mayor Steven Adler, the decision to call off the Texas capital’s signature music and film festival due to COVID-19 fears wasn’t an easy one. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| A face-to-masked-face encounter with singer RMR, whose remake of a Rascal Flatts song, and its accompanying gun-laden video, went viral last week. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| The pioneering Sons of Kemet saxophonist on masculinity in crisis, the end of humanity, and what it means to be British. | | |
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 | Broken Record |
| Bassist, songwriter, and composer Esperanza Spalding discusses her latest work and the opera she’s writing with the legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter. She also discusses why she shies away from being labeled a prodigy, what it’s like jamming at Joni Mitchell's house, and how, despite her improvisational approach, she’s more than just a jazz musician. | | |
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| Los Angeles Times |
| Los Angeles Opera said Tuesday its investigation of former General Director Plácido Domingo has found sexual harassment allegations against him to be credible, closing another chapter in the dramatic downfall of opera’s biggest star. | | |
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 | Variety |
| The cancellation of SXSW last week matters for many reasons. It matters because the City of Austin depends on the money the conference brings with it - over $350 million by 2019's count. It matters because SXSW is a vital part of our music culture - whether the general music-consuming public realizes it or not. | | |
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| | | like a whirlpool it never ends |
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 | Music Business Worldwide |
| What happens if there is a crisis? | | |
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 | Passion of the Weiss |
| Andrew Matson speaks to members of the famed collective about its music and influence. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| The image of a red brick wall with the phrase "Strictly Rhythm" scribbled on it in black marker symbolizes not only the iconic Strictly Rhythm label, but the '90s New York underground club scene in which the label was deeply influential. | | |
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 | Celebrity Access |
| In fighting for one's rights within hip-hop in the music business, it takes more than a good powerbroker; It takes a dedicated powerbroker with a background as a lifelong fan. | | |
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| The Guardian |
| Tom Watkins, who has died aged 70, took Bros and East 17 to superstardom with a brash and combative managerial style. | | |
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 | Level |
| Seattle-born Nissim started out a Black Gangster Disciple -- then became a disciple of the Torah. | | |
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 | The Kitchen Sisters |
| In March 2019, on the occasion of his birthday, The Lou Reed Archive opened to the public at the New York Library for the Performing Arts with parties, friends, family, fanfare and a drone concert at the largest cathedral in the world. During that week and beyond we spoke to many of Lou’s archivists, family, and friends — Laurie Anderson, curator Don Fleming, and many more. | | |
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 | Okayplayer |
| While horrorcore artists like Gravediggaz have all but disappeared, many of the characteristics of the sub-genre carry-on albeit with less fanfare. | | |
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 | The Red Hand Files |
| Or are you happy to preserve the lyric as a product of its time, and respect the original content? | | |
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 | The Bitter Southerner |
| Decades ago, state laws and socio-economic pressures almost eradicated the heritage languages of Louisiana French and Creole, known in south Louisiana parishes as Kouri-Vini. But today, through education, art, music, and food, locals are working to keep the languages alive and nurture a new generation of local French and Kouri-Vini speakers. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | "I can’t do my dance 'cause my pants, they from France." From "Eternal Atake," out now on Generation Now/Atlantic. |
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| © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group |
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