| Songwriters are last in line for streaming royalties... On average, songwriters earn between a third and a half of what artists do. If we live in a 'song economy,' that's unfair: the distribution of royalties needs to change to reflect that. | | | | |  | Mickey Guyton sings "Hold On" at the ACM Awards, which aired Sunday from Nashville.
(Kevin Mazur/Getty Images) | | | | | "Songwriters are last in line for streaming royalties... On average, songwriters earn between a third and a half of what artists do. If we live in a 'song economy,' that's unfair: the distribution of royalties needs to change to reflect that." | | | | Bridges
If Sunday night's ACM AWARDS hasn't minted MICKEY GUYTON as a major country star, I give up. But I think it might have. As co-host (with KEITH URBAN), she was charming, gracious, engaging and as corn-free as it's possible to be in a gig that constitutionally demands corniness. As a performer (of "HOLD ON"), she was electrifying. Guyton was also emblematic of a ceremony that made significant strides in recognizing women and Black artists (you might say it went out of its way to do so but you'd be wrong; it was really just opening its eyes to artists and work that has long deserved to be honored), and that did so knowing it wasn't going to be able to stick the landing. After a night that shined a spotlight on the likes of MIRANDA LAMBERT (who performed three times), MAREN MORRIS (double winner including Female Artist of the Year), CARLY PEARCE, JIMMIE ALLEN and the WAR AND TREATY, and in which MARTINA MCBRIDE read a list of Single of the Year nominees who were all women, everyone watching knew it was going to end, predictably and puzzlingly, with an Entertainer of the Year competition between five white men. One of those men wasn't even nominated as Male Artist of the Year, which is one of those awards show quirks that I still need explained to me (anyone?); naturally, he won. LUKE BRYAN, according to the ACMs, was the best entertainer, while THOMAS RHETT was the best male artist, which, if I were Luke Bryan, I might take as a backhanded compliment. Or maybe I'd just accept that the night was about Mickey Guyton and Miranda Lambert and Maren Morris and put my trophy on a shelf in the den and move on. As it happens, Bryan, who announced last week he had tested positive for Covid, accepted the award by video. The show—the second ACM ceremony in seven months thanks to some Covid rescheduling—employed a variety of social distancing measures, including performances, some live, some on tape, from a half dozen or so audience-free locations. But the most powerful message, if you ask me, came from several winners who gave their acceptance speeches while holding their masks in their hands like it was no big deal. Like it was almost normal. If they can do it, so can we. After Bryan's win, Urban reminded us that "country music is a huge, big family where everyone is welcome" and threw to a final performance by the BROTHERS OSBORNE, whose lead singer, TJ OSBORNE, came out as gay in February. Like that was no big deal either. Which it isn't.
Stone by Southwest
Wow late breaking news: PENSKE MEDIA CORP., parent of Rolling Stone, Billboard and Variety, has acquired a 50 percent stake in SXSW, the Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported Sunday night. SXSW was the first major music event forced canceled by the pandemic, and a year later it could only run a small virtual event. "When JAY PENSKE came to us with interest in becoming a partner, it was a true lifeline for us," SXSW co-founder ROLAND SWENSON said. Terms weren't disclosed, but according to the Journal's LUKAS I. ALPERT, SXSW's founders will continue to run the music, tech and film festival while Penske will be the organization's largest stakeholder.
Thoughts for Your Penny
It's good that we're having a public discussion about what exactly streaming services are paying artists, but there are a million reasons why we shouldn't judge them by how much they're paying per stream, including the basic fact that none of them actually pay per stream. You can calculate an effective per-stream rate at any given time, as APPLE did last week, but you should use that calculation to ask questions, not to answer them. I'll have some questions later this week. In the meantime, some thoughts from JEM ASWAD and BOB LEFSETZ in today's mix, below.
Etc Etc Etc
"Congrats on your vaccine appointment. But did you get BAD BUNNY tickets?"... ICED EARTH guitarist/songwriter JON SCHAFFER on Friday became the first person to plead guilty for participating in the January US Capitol insurrection. Three of his bandmates quit after he was arrested in January... FEARLESS (TAYLOR'S VERSION) debuts at #1 and Taylor say she's already in the studio working on her next version... GUSTAVO DUDAMEL heads to Paris... Songwriter DIANE WARREN, who's had 12 songs nominated for Academy Awards but never won, plays all of them in five minutes. Her Golden Globe-winning "LO SÌ," from THE LIFE AHEAD, is this year's nominee... Austin musicians and music industry professionals can get the Moderna vaccine on two dates this month at the rock club EMO'S. Credit to AUSTIN PUBLIC HEALTH and the HEALTH ALLIANCE FOR AUSTIN MUSICIANS... LED ZEPPELIN lyric or GRETA VAN FLEET lyric?
Rest in Peace
"WHOA!" rapper BLACK ROB... MIKE MITCHELL, who played guitar on the KINGSMEN's iconic 1963 "LOUIE LOUIE" and remained in the band the rest of his life... Pulitzer-winning composer WAYNE PETERSON... WILLIAM A. BROWER, who was a jazz critic, concert programmer and longtime stage manager at the New Orleans Jazz Fest... Michigan-via-Mississippi soul singer LOU WILSON.
| | | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | |  | | Vox |
| | How slow jams took over the radio | | by Estelle Caswell | | Quiet Storm is a staple of late-night Black radio. | |  | | The Guardian |
| | 'I'm not ready for other people's sweat to drip on me': will clubbing survive the pandemic? | | by Alexandra Jones | | With mass events on the horizon, nightclubs are getting ready to welcome ravers again. But is there such a thing as a Covid-safe crowd - and will it be as fun? | |  | | The Evening Standard |
| | Paris Jackson: 'my dad will always influence everything I do in some way' | | by Kevin EG Perry | | As the child of one of the most famous men on the planet, model, actor and now musician Paris Jackson could have become a celebrity brat. Instead, she's a chilled bohemian with her own musical credentials. | |  | | Variety |
| | Why It's Misleading to Say 'Apple Music Pays Twice as Much Per Stream as Spotify' | | by Jem Aswad | | Variables make apples-to-apples comparisons (sorry) nearly impossible, but multiple sources say the two companies' rates are much closer than Friday's inaccurate headlines would imply. | |  | | Lefsetz Letter |
| | The Apple Letter | | by Bob Lefsetz | | So, Apple pays a penny a stream! But that's just because there are fewer streams. | |  | | The New York Times |
| | When a TikTok Influencer Dances, Who Gets Credit? | | by Jon Caramanica and Taylor Lorenz | | Addison Rae's appearance on Jimmy Fallon's show sparked conversations about appropriation and how dance has been central to the platform. | |  | | Complex |
| | How Kanye West Pulled Off His Iconic Headlining Set at Coachella 2011 | | by Brenton Blanchet | | As Pusha-T emerged on stage in front of 80,000 Kanye West fans to perform his "Runaway" verse on April 17, 2011, something was looming over him. It wasn't a figurative "looming over," but rather a gargantuan set piece rising above him—a mural made entirely of stone that Kanye had requested to be rigged up for his headlining set at Coachella. | |  | | Vulture |
| | The Highs, Lows & Whoas of the 2021 ACM Awards | | by Justin Curto | | High: Mickey Guyton is a star. Low: Blake Shelton tried. | |  | | The Quietus |
| | A Deafening Glory: On 'Sound Of Metal' And The Hell Of Noise | | by Soma Ghosh | | Darius Marder's bold debut "Sound of Metal" asks the viewer to understand rock and deafness as two contradictory things -- but it's a complex history, finds Soma Ghosh. | |  | | NPR |
| | Arooj Aftab's Newest Album Finds Light In Dark Times | | by Lulu Garcia-Navarro | | NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Arooj Aftab about her new album, "Vulture Prince," completed after the loss of her brother and threaded through with themes of grief and longing. | | | what are you gonna tell her? |
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| | | The Guardian |
| | Björn Ulvaeus: Today's pop industry cheats songwriters – and deters the risk-taking that made Abba | | by Björn Ulvaeus | | It's the song, not the album, that rules modern pop - but payment for writers is dysfunctional at best. We urgently need a new model. | |  | | Music Industry Blog |
| | The music industry's centre of gravity is shifting | | by Mark Mulligan | | The coming creator tools revolution could be at least as impactful on the wider music business as streaming was. | |  | | Metal Blast |
| | The Fall of Jon Schaffer | | by J Salmeron | | Unlike most of the Capitol rioters, Iced Earth founder Jon Schaffer has left an extensive public record of his ideology. It was with the goal of understanding how someone like Schaffer could fall for Trump's lies about the election that I spent the last two months speaking with people who are close to him, and reading and listening to virtually every interview he ever gave. | |  | | Los Angeles Times |
| | Gustavo Dudamel is Paris Opera's next music director. What does this mean for L.A.? | | by Mark Swed | | Los Angeles will share the conductor with the City of Light for at least five years. | |  | | Call & Response |
| | Rhiannon Giddens -- Looking Back (Looking Forward) | | by Adia Victoria and Rhiannon Giddens | | "Nostalgia is a killer of truth" says roots musician Rhiannon Giddens. "Musically, what I try to do is just tell as much truth as I can." In the first episode of Call & Response, Adia and Rhiannon trace the lineage of the banjo from the Caribbean to the Carolinas and question the whitewashing of American folk and blues music. | |  | | VICE |
| | How Many Artists Have to Say They're Struggling Before We Listen? | | by Kristin Corry | | DMX's death and the testimonies of Demi Lovato and Bobby Brown should force the industry to consider how fame exacerbates addiction and mental health. | |  | | Straight Up |
| | Nile Rodgers and Merck Mercuriadis on how Hipgnosis is flipping the music industry upside down | | by Kathleen Johnston and Eleanor Halls | | Chic co-founder and super producer Nile Rodgers and his longtime manager Merck Mercuriadis join Straight Up to chat about how they've made a decades-long professional partnership work and why they've never had an argument (except a small one in this episode). They also told us all about their business venture, Hipgnosis. | |  | | Passion of the Weiss |
| | 'You Can't Live Life with a Dead Soul': An Interview with Adrian Younge | | by Patrick Johnson | | Patrick Johnson speaks to the multi-instrumentalist about his powerful new work 'The American Negro' and finding optimism in a nation that often lacks humanity. | | | | The New York Times |
| | Alan Vega Left a Robust Vault. The Excavation Begins With a New Album | | by Rob Tannenbaum | | The Suicide singer died in 2016. Now his wife and musical partner, Liz Lamere, is releasing "Mutator," an album the duo made in the mid-90s. | | | |  | | | Music of the day | | "Pride (in the Name of Love)" | | Dierks Bentley with the War and Treaty | | Live at the Station Inn in Nashville, for the ACM Awards. |  | | YouTube |
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Live at the Station Inn in Nashville, for the ACM Awards. | Released 20 years ago this month. | | | 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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