Go to a music industry event and [scan] the room. Fifteen years ago, that same room would have been mind-blowing: Charlie Minor, Jerry Moss, Herb Alpert, Ahmet Ertegun, Chris Blackwell, David Geffen… Wow! Take a look now, man. | | | | Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, aka XXXTentacion, 1998 – 2018.
(Bennett Raglin/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Go to a music industry event and [scan] the room. Fifteen years ago, that same room would have been mind-blowing: Charlie Minor, Jerry Moss, Herb Alpert, Ahmet Ertegun, Chris Blackwell, David Geffen… Wow! Take a look now, man.”
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| | rantnrave:// The fact that he was a unique and gifted musician doesn't change the fact that XXXTENTACION was accused of doing some horrible things. The fact that the accusations include assaulting his pregnant girlfriend do not change the fact that his music connected with real people. His life and career were complicated to say the least, and listening to him required confronting some of the darkest ideas hidden beneath the surface of too much pop culture. Which he sometimes rapped about. He was a 20-year-old kid. He may or may not have deserved a long, severe punishment, but he definitely did not deserve the one he got: Murdered in cold blood in the front seat of his car Monday afternoon. We mourn a dark, difficult young life. RIP... XXXTentacion was not the only rising rapper shot to death in his car Monday afternoon. I have no more words. RIP JIMMY WOPO... Is TIDAL on its last legs and is the BEYONCÉ and JAY-Z album proof? Is PANDORA's way of doing radio a strange and wonderful relic of a business and culture that's changed more in the past five years than the PHILADELPHIA 76ERS? Is there room for anybody else to muscle their way into the room right now, like, say, YOUTUBE MUSIC, which launched wide on Monday with a service whose main goal is to get you play the same songs you played yesterday again today? If SPOTIFY wants you to, um, discover weekly, YouTube wants you to discover yourself as often as possible. I admit to all sorts of fascination with the service, whose homepage has shelves of content devoted to "Listen Again" (albums you've played recently), "Your Favorites" (more albums you're played recently plus "Your Mixtape," which algorithmically dishes your own favorite music back to you) and "Similar To," which is content based on a specific artist you've recently played. There are also plenty of mood and genre playlists, some obvious, some a little more adventurous and/or surprising (I'm looking at you, Daytime Chic, which I believe is an attempt at a light electronic yacht rock soul mix, and which sounds like something that would have taken quite a bit of time to get right in Pandora). YouTube's artist radio stations are, well, let me describe the RIHANNA station I clicked on: A N.E.R.D. and Rihanna collaboration, followed by a J-LO/KHALED/CARDI B collaboration, then two Rihanna songs, a DRAKE song and, I am not making this up, 20 more Rihanna songs. In a row. I'll say this for that algorithm: I was never unaware that I was on a Rihanna station. There's lots and lots of video, of course, and hidden buttons to do things as basic as add a song to your queue or look at the album that the song you're currently listening to is on. YouTube is trying its hardest to get you to stick with what you already have and already know, and company execs have made it clear that's no accident. It's a strategy, one of their differentiators. A lie-flat lean-back service. Whether that sounds like first class or coach to you will depend, I imagine, on who you are... BEY and JAY's LOVE IS EVERYTHING showed up Monday on YouTube, Spotify and other services after a two-day TIDAL exclusive. Spotify, at least, seems to be going out of its way not to promote it... How they got their crew into the LOUVRE, in case you were wondering... WARNER MUSIC welcomes back an old friend, or at least an old friend's brand name... Sales (DAVE MATTHEWS BAND) top streams (KANYE and KID CUDI) on BILLBOARD 200... DRE producing GAYE movie... EDDIE VEDDER stagedive, remembered... RIP PATRICK KENNEALLY. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| This weekend, Jay-Z and Beyoncé released joint album Everything Is Love exclusively via their Tidal platform. But with the record already on Spotify, Eamonn Forde argues that this is yet another vain lunge by the 1% and a platform that is failing to take off. | | |
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| Recently logging on to my old Pandora account felt like meeting a former self. | | |
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| Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy sits cross-legged on a comfy chair and talks openly about astral projection (he's for it), feminism (he's against it), and systemic oppression (it's over, apparently) while declining to address or reflect upon the criminal reasons he's unable to leave his house. "Would I change anything about my journey?" he says at one point. "F***, no." | | |
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| Broward County-based rapper XXXTentacion, who rose to fame while making music in his bedroom, was shot to death Monday iduring an apparent robbery. The Parkland resident, whose given name was Jahseh Onfroy, was leaving a motorcycle dealership when two gunmen ran up to his black BMW i8 and at least one of them fired. | | |
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| Six months after Prince’s death, his estate opened to the public. But without its owner it feels like a husk. | | |
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| ‘Everything Is Love’ confirms Beyoncé’s role opposite her husband and musical partner Jay-Z: She’s the queen and the king. | | |
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| The very best music discussions, deep dives, and interviews. | | |
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| The 25-year-old British singer is deeply, maddeningly, almost trolling-ly enigmatic. And that cultivated mystery—along with his disdain for the standard rules of superstardom—is probably what puts him on the short list for COOLEST HUMAN ALIVE. On a recent Friday night, though, he dropped his guard and spilled his guts. | | |
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| Nick Raskulinecz is looking to shake things up on Music Row, where country music is still the unquestioned king but musical diversity increases by the day. | | |
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| To find out more about the shifting roles of a record label and whether or not it’s still a worthwhile endeavour, I caught up with Elijah (Butterz), Tom Lea (Local Action), Laura Lewis-Paul (Saffron Records), DJ Magic (No Hats No Hoods), Nightwave (Heka Trax), and Roska (Kicks & Snares) to talk through their experiences and try to give you an essential guide to setting up your own venture. | | |
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| It’s not hyperbole to suggest he’s one of the most-talked about – and fiercely debated – music executives in history. The thing is, he knows exactly what you say about him. The good and the bad. | | |
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| Why Sony's generosity is a strategic play in light of growing artist power. | | |
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| The harpist’s new album presents not so much music to zone out to as music to self-actualize by. | | |
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| Consumer goods and services companies are spending over $2 billion a year to tap into the influence of artists and songs. These are the 72 masters of music marketing leading the way. | | |
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| The mission of the Fortt Knox podcast is to bring you one-on-one, unfiltered conversations with interesting entrepreneurs and leaders, and show what makes them tick. Most of the time, they're CEOs or founders. Sometimes I get to spend time with a guy like Q-Tip, whose approach to his craft has shifted the way we think about modern music | | |
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| Eban Schletter, the Mr. Show music director, breaks down how he created the tunes for one of the series’ most famous sketches, “The Great Philouza.” | | |
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| It's three in the afternoon on the first truly hot day of the year, and inside the Greenpoint photo studio the loud whistling of a fan combines with the blaring of Azealia Banks' discography to create a feverish cacophony. | | |
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| He's teamed up with Dickey Betts' son Duane for a tour honoring the music of the Allman Brothers. | | |
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| [PIAS]'s Michel Lambot on why a streaming platforms won't ever find becoming a label easy | | |
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| The Carters' surprise collaborative album, "Everything Is Love," insists that past grievances are buried. Will the Beyhive feel the same way? | | |
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| © Copyright 2018, The REDEF Group |
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