So much of [the music industry] is based on travel and gathering. It’s like a double whammy. We’re not making cars or running a restaurant. Our whole industry is based on the key things that are driving this nightmare. But I think we’re gonna make it through. | | | | Closeup on Lee Konitz's left hand, Pomigliano D'Arco, Italy, Sept. 23, 2012.
(Marco Cantile/LightRocket/Getty Images) | | | | | | “So much of [the music industry] is based on travel and gathering. It’s like a double whammy. We’re not making cars or running a restaurant. Our whole industry is based on the key things that are driving this nightmare. But I think we’re gonna make it through.”
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| | rantnrave:// The precarious state of the music business in three parts: 1) How everything was canceled in a matter of days in mid-March, leaving a lot of people jobless and unsure about their future, and laying the groundwork for a reshaped live music business and scheduling nightmares when and if things return to normal again. Great reporting and longform storytelling by ROLLING STONE's SAMANTHA HISSONG, ETHAN MILLMAN and AMY X. WANG. 2) Why contractual guarantees for artists "will all but disappear" when that day comes, and why promoters by and large can't afford to refund fans' money in the meantime. Terrific behind-the-numbers analysis by VARIETY's SHIRLEY HALPERIN and JEM ASWAD. 3) Why artists may want, or need, to rethink how the streaming economy works when there's no live-music economy to balance it out. Reliably provocative feather-ruffling by PENNY FRACTIONS blogger DAVID TURNER. The unknown in all three parts is how many weeks, months or (yes) years we might be talking about. A day after California GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM said large public gatherings like concerts and sporting events are unthinkable for the foreseeable future, the mayors of Los Angeles, New York and New Orleans said concerts and sports almost certainly won't be returning for a long time, probably not until sometime next year. Is it possible to route a tour only through cities and states whose mayors and governors are itching to reopen public spaces in the middle of a pandemic? Would fans show up? Would that dictate the kinds of artists (and genres) who can tour, and the ones who can't? How might *that* reshape the live business? Are there artists and promoters willing to take that risk? Are there insurers willing to insure them? Instead of real audiences paying to see hologram artists (remember that trend from way back in 2019 and 2020?), will real artists start playing to hologram audiences? Will live music and recorded music switch economic places? Will livestreaming continue to split the difference and outshine them both? (Will androids livestream electric sheep?)... Alto saxophonist LEE KONITZ was the last surviving member of MILES DAVIS' BIRTH OF THE COOL band and was celebrated as one of jazz's great pure improvisers. The idea, he once said, was "not knowing the first note of what you’re going to play." Or where you were going to go from there. In a sense, he improvised his own lengthy career, too. For most of it, as WBGO's DAVID R. ADLER writes, he "didn’t lead a steady working group. He simply played with everyone." He didn't have a publicist, agent or email account either. He leaves behind a giant discography and endless hours of well-studied solos. He died Wednesday at 92, from pneumonia caused by Covid-19. RIP. MusicSET: "The Toll: Artists Lost to the Coronavirus"... Good citizens: RIHANNA and JAY-Z team with TWITTER's JACK DORSEY to announce $6.2 million in grants to communities hit hard by the pandemic... In conjunction with the COACHELLA documentary 20 YEARS IN THE DESERT, the festival has been uploading pro-shot video of performances by BILLIE EILISH, RUN THE JEWELS, ODESZA and others to YOUTUBE... TOM WAITS and KATHLEEN BRENNAN on HAL WILLNER: "Hal was the wry and soulful and mysterious historical rememberer"... RIP BETTY BENNETT LOWE and PAUL COOPER. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| In March, COVID-19 wiped concerts and festivals off the calendar - and that was just the beginning. Inside music’s unprecedented crisis. | | |
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| As the industry struggles to find its footing in this new age of uncertainty, it’s meant taking drastic action to conserve cash flow. At whose expense? | | |
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| Record stores and labels may soon face another devastating blow: the potential end of Media Mail. | | |
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| From the late Pop Smoke to Fivio Foreign, BK drill music has become the new sound of NY. Here's the history (and future) of the movement. | | |
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| "Minecraft" isn’t a stranger to virtual concerts, but now it’s a primary venue. | | |
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| Salsa music, with its large bands and close dancing, has a devoted following in L.A., but its very nature makes it especially susceptible to the ravages of the coronavirus. | | |
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| In interviews, a range of D.C. musicians said they had lost crucial income, and were struggling to replace in-person interaction with digital alternatives. | | |
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| The ‘Afternoon of Jazz’ concert hosted by Jackie and his wife Rachel was a ‘jam session for civil rights’ and raised nearly $15,000. | | |
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| For the May issue, Will Welch spent three months across three countries talking to Ye about the Yeezy campus he's developing in Wyoming, his next album, his “altered ego,” and his renewed faith in God. | | |
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| How elusive the concept of real improvisation is. As a listener, one could even be forgiven for asking what the point of improvising is in the first place. In the following interview, which I conducted for Chamber Music America at the very end of 2012, Lee and I explore this thorny topic, among others | | |
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| This moment shows us that whether through livestreamed DJ battles or concerts, there are plenty of ways of reorienting digital music consumption. Are those efforts at a sustainable scale? No. But neither is mainstream streaming and its pitfalls are already known. | | |
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| The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess has found a novel way to celebrate classic and current albums amid quarantining. | | |
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| The music artist and education activist discusses the state of economic opportunity and the impact of the coronavirus . | | |
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| Since his mentor, Adam Schlesinger, died of COVID-19 complications, the best local musician you've never heard has been posting his unreleased songs online, tracing decades of charmed moments and near-misses on the edge of breaking through. | | |
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| Scenes from inside the weird gold mine | | |
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| Niall Horan, Justin Bieber, 5SOS and more scrapped their tour plans. What are fans doing about it? | | |
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| Metallica, Neil Young, Radiohead, Joan Jett, Grateful Dead and more have hopped on the bandwagon. | | |
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| Apple may have discontinued click-wheel iPods, but a community of iPod modders resurrects them for their sound and nostalgia. | | |
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| The writer-director’s comedies - from "Office Space" to "Silicon Valley" - always sum up the spirit of their times. So why has he made an LSD-soaked cartoon about George Clinton and Bootsy Collins? | | |
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| His former manager, publicist, and longtime friend reflects on the pop genius and life of the multi-talented songwriter. | | |
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| | | | | Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh |
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