| Taking a good photo is all instinct. I don't use any technicalities. You've just gotta have love. | | | | |  | Can't live if living is without my radio: LL Cool J circa 1986.
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | | "Taking a good photo is all instinct. I don't use any technicalities. You've just gotta have love." | | | | Independently Wealthy
"[T]his deal allows the three major music companies to continue to dominate the indie distribution sector" is how BILLBOARD, without any apparent ironic intent, reported Monday's news that KOBALT is selling its independent label services and distribution business, AWAL, to Sony (along with its neighboring rights division, KNR). This is the biggest deal of music's hot stove season since BOB DYLAN sold all his songs to MR. JONES for a not dissimilar number of hundreds of millions of dollars. Sony seemingly grows its recording and distribution roster and, perhaps more significantly, digital toolbox, while a streamlined Kobalt Music Group narrows its focus to publishing and related businesses, including its Kobalt Capital song investment fund.
As for the artists, TRAPITAL's DAN RUNCIE didn't miss the chance to note the irony that AWAL, now owned by the world's second biggest label, "literally stands for Artists Without A Label!" BOB LEFSETZ sees it as more bad than ironic, at least from the artists' perspective: "the people who left major label distribution to go to AWAL... are back where they started, and there's no viable alternative." There's always an alternative, though. Just one less than there used to be. There will be two stories, at least, going forward. Follow the money. And follow the artists. But in the short run, Sony does indeed appear to have become a much bigger independent music force, which is a sentence I can't believe I just wrote, while Kobalt, if you follow the numbers here, may well be more profitable than it was 24 hours ago. (Trapital's Runcie, I should add, does a nice job of quickly laying out what both sides might be looking for.)
Also, Kobalt still exists. BLOOMBERG reported in September that the company, said to be worth north of $1 billion, was considering cashing out and that all three major labels were potential buyers. After news broke Monday of the partial sale, believed to be for about $430 million, the company said it's healthy and no longer for sale. "Our team and capabilities," founder and chairman Willard Ahdritz said, "will only grow stronger and play a continued role in making the industry better for creators."
Future Games
One more thing about SOPHIE, prompted by a Facebook thread in which a bunch of older critics and industry types were trying to figure out what it means that many of them had either never heard of the late electro-pop musician or had heard of her but never heard her. It struck me that Sophie was exactly the kind of artist who could have, even should have, connected with the very audience who never got the chance to hear her. Though she started in a literally faceless, bubblegum-adjacent subculture, she brought an auteurist touch to everything she did. She wrote and produced her own music (as well as for several other artists), and was obsessive about her musicianship. She had a strong point of view and a life story to (eventually) share through her music. She was concerned with notions of authenticity even while understanding how slippery and subjective those notions can be. She was interested in art and literature. Not unlike, say, MADONNA, with whom she worked, she was a pop artist who rock fans could have loved.
PITCHFORK's PHILIP SHERBURNE on the radical futurism embedded in Sophie's musical choices: "Culture's ability to see past the horizon has become increasingly eclipsed by its addiction to the past. But Sophie... was not afflicted with that myopia." And from the RINGER's JUSTIN SAYLES: "Sophie's impact extended beyond the borders of music—Sophie, a trans icon, challenged people to reimagine the concepts of gender, identity, and what the future itself could look like."
Etc Etc Etc
MARILYN MANSON's label, LOMA VISTA, has dropped him after EVAN RACHEL WOOD wrote on Instagram that he "started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years." Manson, who has been similarly accused by other women in the past, called Wood's allegations "horrible distortions of reality"... UK royalty collector PRS FOR MUSIC has decided not to go through with a controversial plan to impose a flat fee on artists and venues doing small livestreams. The fee would have made it more expensive to license your own livestream—in the middle of a pandemic—than a live show in front of an audience... Art rock: JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT's punk and no wave influences... A song from MA RAINEY's BLACK BOTTOM with music by BRANFORD MARSALIS and lyrics by the long-deceased playwright AUGUST WILSON and Delta blues singer CHARLEY PATTON is ineligible for a Best Original Song OSCAR nomination because of those credits... TONY BENNETT was the first artist I interviewed who simultaneously made me feel in awe and completely out of my depth. He was gracious to a fault, which is to say I assume he pretended not to notice. Songs are a kind of temporary defense against this cruel, cruel disease and so I'm sending him every love song in my heart.
Rest in Peace
Photographer RICKY POWELL, celebrated for his work with the BEASTIE BOYS and other hip-hop artists... SIBONGILE KHUMALO, South Africa's "First Lady of Song"... New Zealand bluegrass fiddler COLLEEN TRENWITH.
| | | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | | | rantnrave:// Confession and/or brag: I've never set virtual foot in this virtual space. | | |  | | Los Angeles Times |
| | Black creatives helped turn Clubhouse into the next tech unicorn. But who stands to gain? | | by August Brown | | Hip-hop stars, executives and creatives flocked to the invite-only audio chat app Clubhouse, giving it instant cache and, ultimately, a $1-billion valuation. | |  | | Cabbages |
| | On The Mainstreaming Of American Drill | | by Gary Suarez | | Speaking purely from a commercial standpoint, 2020 was Lil Durk's year. | |  | | Music Business Worldwide |
| | What now for Kobalt? The small matter of a $500m-a-year publishing company, for starters | | by Tim Ingham | | Following the sale of AWAL and Kobalt Neighbouring Rights, where does Willard Ahdritz's company go from here? | |  | | Pitchfork |
| | Remembering SOPHIE's Radical Futurism | | by Philip Sherburne | | The revolutionary artist helped change the landscape of pop music as we know it. | |  | | The Atlantic |
| | The Explosive Song That Liberated Tina Turner | | by Jason Heller | | Fifty years ago, the Queen of Rock seized her crown-and sparked her rebirth-with her fiery rendition of 'Proud Mary.' | |  | | The Guardian |
| | From sharehousing with AC/DC to comforting Sharon Osbourne: life as the world's first female roadie | | by Jenny Valentish | | Tana Douglas found her calling in 1973. Before she was 21, she had worked with Carlos Santana, Neil Diamond, and Iggy Pop. | |  | | Lawyer Drummer |
| | TikTok For Musicians: What You Need to Know | | by Kurt Dahl | | If you're an up-and-coming musician, you should be on TikTok. Let's look at why. | |  | | The Nelson George Mixtape |
| | Jah Love with Bob Marley | | by Nelson George | | For Black History Month, and with Marley's birth upcoming, I'm revisiting an interview with the superstar conducted a few months before his death, Caribbean immigration, and a show at the Garden. | |  | | Tidal |
| | Locked Down, Turnt Up | | by William E. Ketchum III | | Resilient and resourceful as ever, hip-hop culture has thrived in the face of the global pandemic. | |  | | Sound Field |
| | Jazz Shaped Hip-Hop, but How Has Hip-Hop Impacted Jazz? | | by LA Buckner and Linda Diaz | | Hip-hop's foundation and evolution owe itself to jazz. And it's reciprocal. Jazz has borrowed from all facets of hip hop culture and musical contributions, showing that one of the country's oldest genres is still young at heart. Linda Diaz and LA Buckner break down how these two genres cross-pollinate. | | |  | | The New York Times |
| | Foo Fighters Wanted to Rule Rock. 25 Years Later, They're Still Roaring | | by Jeremy Gordon | | Dave Grohl and his bandmates are called upon whenever rock music with joy and gravitas is required. Now they're releasing an album with a twist. | | | | Music Business Worldwide |
| | 'Latin music artists are not getting the recognition they deserve' | | by Rhian Jones | | MTW Agency CEO Diana Dotel discusses the challenges that come with working with Latin music and biggest lessons learned across her career. | | | rave:// A major new voice. | | |  | | KEXP |
| | Arlo Parks -- Performance & Interview (Live on KEXP at Home) | | by Arlo Parks and Gabriel Teodros | | KEXP.ORG presents Arlo Parks sharing a live performance recorded for KEXP and talking to host Gabriel Teodros. | |  | | XXL |
| | Hip-Hop Mixtapes We Need on Streaming Services ASAP | | by Robby Seabrook III | | A lot of mixtapes didn't make it to streaming platforms, so they live elsewhere, whether it's in your CD collection, on your computer or housed on your favorite mixtape site. Things would be much easier if mixtapes could just be streamed on DSPs. | |  | | Stereogum |
| | Even Without Real Answers, 'Framing Britney Spears' Communicates Dark Truths | | by Chris DeVille | | The new documentary inspired by the #FreeBritney movement begins the only way it rightly could: with a montage of fans voicing their support for Britney Spears. A man with a megaphone leads a crowd in a call-and-response chant: "What do we want?" "FREE BRITNEY!" "When do we want it?" "NOW!" | | | | Los Angeles Times |
| | The tortured, touching love saga of Cicely Tyson and Miles Davis | | by Randall Roberts | | Across decades, Cicely Tyson and Miles Davis were the epitome of a glamorous power couple. But behind the scenes, his drug abuse and philandering took its toll. | |  | | DownBeat |
| | William Parker And The Observance Of Beauty | | by Dave Cantor | | A tangle of connections fosters the bounty of William Parker's career. The bassist--who's released a 10-album set called "Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World"--is New York's free-jazz caretaker, a performer who frequently forges symbiosis on and off the bandstand. | |  | | Anchor |
| | Whose Song Is It Anyway? Annabella Coldrick, MMF | | by Hayleigh Bosher and Annabella Coldrick | | Annabella Coldrick, CEO of the Music Managers Forum (MMF) talks about the changing artist manager dynamic, then we hear Annabella's views on the UK music streaming inquiry, we consider where the line is between radio and streaming, and should we decide it from a technical or experiential perspective? | |  | | The Conversation |
| | TikTok's sea chanteys – how life under the pandemic has mirrored months at sea | | by Jessica Floyd | | Crews sang the songs to ease the fears, anxieties and loneliness of daily life on merchant ships. | |  | | The Ringer |
| | Sophie Showed Us the Future | | by Justin Sayles | | The electronic music pioneer, who died at the age of 34 on Saturday, left an indelible mark and challenged people to rethink concepts of gender, identity, and sheer possibility. | | | |  | | | Music of the day | | "Car Thief" | | Beastie Boys | | "Homeboy, throw in the towel." RIP Ricky Powell. |  | | YouTube |
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"Homeboy, throw in the towel." RIP Ricky Powell. | There are NSFW moments within, but this is who he was. First of four parts. | | | Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech | | "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?'" | | |  | | | Jason Hirschhorn | | CEO & Chief Curator | | |  |
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