| If you are a white, straight person who is making money from music, you'd better be donating money to LGBTQ causes and Black Lives Matter and others that help marginalized people, because without marginalized people, music is gonna get really bad, really quick. | | | | |  | Red Hot style: King Princess in vintage Lollapalooza t-shirt at... Lollapalooza, Chicago, Aug. 1, 2019.
(Michael Hickey/Getty Images) | | | | | "If you are a white, straight person who is making money from music, you'd better be donating money to LGBTQ causes and Black Lives Matter and others that help marginalized people, because without marginalized people, music is gonna get really bad, really quick." | | | | For the Love of Money
Four billion dollars here, 16 billion dollars there, but is there enough to go around? It's not as if the music economy, like so many other economies, wasn't deeply divided before Covid, but the pandemic has done a hell of a job of bringing various divides into relief. The recorded music economy in general, and the streaming economy in particular, has had a booming year, while the live music economy has been hanging by a .010-gauge guitar string. But even within the latter sector, now that federal relief funds are finally trickling out to live venues (after an interminable wait), there are concerns that road crews are still being left behind. Veteran roadie SANDY ESPINOZA to Billboard: "We wear black on the stages so nobody sees us. That's great during a show that we're invisible. It's not so great during a pandemic." And now here comes YOUTUBE music chief LYOR COHEN with the news that his company paid out a mind-boggling $4 billion in royalties in the 12 months ending in March—but exactly how boggled your mind is will depend on how much of that $4 billion is headed in your direction. Cohen doesn't break it down in his open letter; he says only that "artists, songwriters, and rights-holders" are the recipients. (Hint: R-H >>> A > S.) "The music business," EAMONN FORDE writes in Forbes, "will have more questions than YouTube has given answers for here." Here's one such question from a lengthy report on Artists in the Digital Music Marketplace, issued a day earlier by the WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION, a United Nations agency tasked with the protection and promotion of intellectual property: "Why does everyone in the streaming economy seem to be prospering except performers whose work drives it all?" The report, written by CHRIS CASTLE and CLAUDIO FEIJÓO, comes down squarely on the side of the creators, and recommends a new streaming music royalty that would be paid directly to "performers (and potentially to producers)" without going through labels or publishers. While it's hard to imagine that specific idea gaining much traction in real life, maybe it's meant more as fuel for a growing discussion on inequities in streaming remuneration, which has been the subject of a parliamentary inquiry in the UK and a robust online campaign called #BROKENRECORD. Is there a better way to divvy up the $4 billion pot of gold at the end of that fan-made video? Is $4 billion enough? What's the value of a song, and how does it compare to the value of the companies and platforms it makes possible?
Etc Etc Etc
The history of recorded sound in 3 minutes, narrated by singer/songwriter CERYS MATTHEWS, I promise you this is wonderful... Atlanta producer and licensing exec TAMMY HURT has been elected chair of the RECORDING ACADEMY's board of trustees, replacing HARVEY MASON JR., who stepped down when he became the Academy's president and CEO... What's the exact source of this spot-on '80s homage JOHN MAYER artwork and why can't you pin it down even though you're sure you know? Parallel Twitter threads courtesy NPR's POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR and REDEF boss JASON HIRSCHHORN venture deep down a RICK SPRINGFIELD/RICHARD MARX/DON JOHNSON rabbit hole. Question #2: What's the last time you looked at an album cover? ... Has the NFT market collapsed?... SINÉAD O'CONNOR on her infamous appearance on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE 29 years ago: "A lot of people say or think that tearing up the pope's photo derailed my career.I feel that having a number-one record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track." (Plus an amusing and heartwarming story about two men who threw eggs at her as she walked out of 30 Rock that night, which did not end the way such things normally end).
Rest in Peace
Dallas singer/songwriter DARREN EUBANK... KRISHNASWAMI RAMACHANDRAN AZAD, drummer for the Denver bands Brothers of Brass and Stop Motion.
| | | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | |  | | Culture Notes of an Honest Broker |
| | Why Are Investment Funds Obsessed with Old Songs? | | by Ted Gioia | | Octogenarian musicians have never made so much money as now-but why? | |  | | Billboard |
| | Billboard's 2021 Pride List of Industry-Shaping LGBTQ Professionals | | by Katie Bain, Alexei Barrionuevo, Dave Brooks... | | After enduring a year of unprecedented challenges, 40 LGBTQ+ professionals from across the music business share the wins that have kept them going, the innovations that inspire them and the steps they're taking to ensure that everyone has a place in the music industry. | |  | | Forbes |
| | The $4 Billion Question: Will YouTube's Pay-Outs Placate The Music Business? | | by Eamonn Forde | | YouTube has announced that it has paid out $4 billion to the music business over the past year. The music business, as always, will have more questions than YouTube has given answers for. | |  | | WIPO |
| | Study on the Artists in the Digital Music Marketplace: economic and legal considerations | | by Chris Castle and Claudio Feijóo | | There's a pronounced imbalance between the significant market benefit to streaming music platforms derived from the world's performers compared to the relatively scant financial benefit received by these same performers. This study analyzes some of its causes and suggests a path forward. | |  | | The New York Times |
| | Some Venue Owners Get a Federal Lifeline. Others Are Told They're Dead. | | by Ben Sisario, Stacy Cowley and Julia Jacobs | | The first applications for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, offering $16 billion in federal aid, were approved. | | | | Billboard |
| | How Rina Sawayama Turned Pop Inside Out -- And Built One of Its Fastest Growing Fanbases | | by Mitchell Kuga | | With her genre-obliterating sound and gripping lyrics about identity, Rina Sawayama became one of the most exciting queer voices in pop. Now she's making room for anyone else who feels like an outsider. | |  | | Vogue |
| | Courtney Love Has a New Video Series Covering Her Favorite Songs | | by Keaton Bell | | With a renewed sense of purpose, rock's most indestructible provocateur shows no signs of slowing down. Chatting with Vogue, Love discusses bringing her video cover series "Bruises of Roses" to life, writing her new solo record in lockdown, and whether she'll ever tour with Hole again (don't hold your breath). | |  | | The Washington Post |
| | Wolfgang Van Halen shares a famous name. His music is his own | | by Geoff Edgers | | The master plan, as Wolfgang Van Halen told his dad late in 2019, would please everyone. One last Van Halen tour. Eddie, the guitar hero, and brother Alex, the drummer, would bring back both original singer David Lee Roth and his replacement, Sammy Hagar. | |  | | Sound Expertise |
| | Sound Expertise: Cracking Algorithmic Recommendation with Nick Seaver | | by Will Robin and Nick Seaver | | Algorithms run our lives these days, from Netflix binges to predictive policing. And that includes algorithmic recommenders--like Spotify's Discover Weekly and Pandora--that shape how we consume music. How does algorithmic music recommendation work and, perhaps more importantly, who makes it work? | |  | | Variety |
| | Blackout Tuesday, One Year Later: Some Progress, but Racial Parity Is a Long Way Off for Music Industry | | by Jem Aswad | | One year later, where does it stand? | | |  | | The New Yorker |
| | How Olivia Rodrigo Became Pop's Brightest New Star | | by Kelefa Sanneh | | On "Sour," Rodrigo delivers eleven semisweet songs, almost all of them about love gone wrong. | |  | | Los Angeles Times |
| | Sinéad O'Connor isn't looking for sympathy with her new memoir, just a little truth | | by Mary McNamara | | Before Britney, Demi or even the Dixie Chicks, Sinéad O'Connor said what she thought, did what she wanted and refused to be shut down. | |  | | The Ringer |
| | '60 Songs That Explain the '90s': How Sinéad O'Connor Turned a Prince Song Into Her Classic | | by Rob Harvilla | | The Purple One wrote 'Nothing Compares 2 U,' but O'Connor managed to inhabit the song and make it fully her own. | |  | | Music x |
| | The Decentralized Autonomous '1,000 True Fan' Organisation | | by Bas Grasmayer | | Decentralized ownership registries helped enable digital art's NFT boom of the past year. Next, blockchain, the distributed ledger technology, will underpin fanbases and the way artists build careers, teams, and engage with industry infrastructure. Can you put a fanbase on the blockchain? | |  | | The British Library |
| | The race to record sound | | by Harriet Roden | | Over 140 years ago, inventors across the globe busied themselves with trying to create a machine the capture soundwaves. Harriet Roden delves into the stories of the key players in the race to record sound. | |  | | Song Exploder |
| | Song Exploder: Arlo Parks – 'Black Dog' | | by Hrishikesh Hirway and Arlo Parks | | Last year, NME called "Black Dog" the year's "most devastating song." In this episode, the London singer and songwriter breaks down the song she made with producer Gianluca Buccellati. | |  | | VICE |
| | How Afghanistan's Gen Z Rappers Feel About US Troops Finally Leaving | | by Robyn Huang | | They were born around the time the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and they are entering their twenties as troops leave. | |  | | The Guardian |
| | 'She had no fear mechanism': the incredible, outrageous life of Miss Mercy | | by Jim Farber | | The life of the co-founder of Frank Zappa's band GTOs and industry wild child is being explored in a raucous new book. | |  | | PEOPLE.com |
| | Ricky Martin Doesn't Want to Hide Who He Is Anymore: 'I Am a Man with No Secrets' | | by Jason Sheeler | | The King of Latin Pop - back with a new album - says he's "more comfortable in his own skin than ever before" | |  | | And The Writer Is... |
| | And The Writer Is...Dan Nigro | | by Ross Golan and Dan Nigro | | After playing in his own pop-rock band, As Tall As Lions, as lead vocalist and guitarist, an Nigro moved to Los Angeles to work as a songwriter and producer. He's worked with artists as disparate as Olivia Rodrigo, Sky Ferreira, Carly Rae Jepsen, Caroline Polachek, Empress Of, Finneas and Conan Gray. | | | | | | "It was a Rock magazine with a capital R." | | | 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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