| If you listen to a song, you'll hear exactly what I am feeling. The story behind me rapping was me trying to express myself through high school. B***hes didn't like me—that's fine—and I started rapping. That's how I was able to get my emotions out instead of fighting them. I got it out the classy way. |
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 | | Flo Milli at Summer Smash in Chicago's Douglass Park, June 19, 2022. | | (Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images) | | |
| quote of the day |
| "If you listen to a song, you'll hear exactly what I am feeling. The story behind me rapping was me trying to express myself through high school. B***hes didn't like me—that's fine—and I started rapping. That's how I was able to get my emotions out instead of fighting them. I got it out the classy way." | | - Flo Milli, whose "You Still Here, Ho?" was surprise-released Wednesday on RCA | |
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| rantnrave:// |
Pay Me My Money Down
Welcome, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN fans, to the world of dynamic ticket pricing, where on Wednesday afternoon you could find floor seats about a third of the way back in an arena in Tampa, for Springsteen's first US tour in seven years, for $4,400 each, inclusive of fees, directly from TICKETMASTER. And where on Wednesday night you could find similar seats in Tulsa for anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 each. And where there was no guarantee the same seats wouldn't be going for a little more, or a little less, 10 minutes later. "Ticket prices may fluctuate, based on demand, at any time," a Ticketmaster popup told you while you waited in an online queue for your chance to grab these seats. "Tickets are selling fast," another popup told you while you stared at the base prices and service fees and hovered over the buy button. "Get yours now before they're gone."
Or, perhaps more to the point, before the price changes.
HARRY STYLES and BAD BUNNY fans have already been here in 2022, albeit at a slightly lower starting price point. Others will be here soon in this back-to-the-arenas-and-stadiums summer. The on-sale day for the first group of Springsteen/E Street Band shows seemed to hit a particular nerve, though maybe that's just my Twitter timeline, full of people who might get comped on their Harry Styles and Bad Bunny tickets but have to compete with the hoi polloi for their Bruce seats. Your timeline—or your kid's or your mom's—may vary.
Wherever the complaints come from, one wonders if a reckoning might be due sometime soon. There were significantly cheaper Springsteen tickets available farther back, it should be noted, but a $2,500 "Official Platinum" ticket, accompanied by a $450.70 service fee (or $901.40 if you're the kind of person who buys tickets in pairs), is going to sting even if you only notice it in your peripheral vision while on your way to snag a couple seats in section 306. That service fee alone could have got you into SPRINGSTEEN ON BROADWAY.
The super-expensive prices are due in part (WSJ paywall) to a growing desire to squeeze out resellers by charging what the market will bear rather than setting prices lower and letting resellers pocket the difference, and partly to increased touring costs caused by inflation and Covid. But the loudest complaints seem to stem from another factor, dynamic pricing, which uses algorithms to adjust those prices in real time based on demand. Knowing a good seat costs a thousand bucks is one thing; not knowing from minute to minute whether it's going to cost a thousand or two thousand is something else altogether. I've written about this before, and without repeating myself at length I'll just note that I'm not sure borrowing pricing ideas from the airline industry is ever the best idea.
And then, adding insult to injury, despite the stated goal of using pricing to squeeze out resellers, Ticketmaster is also selling what it calls "verified resale tickets" side by side with all its other tickets. What "verified" means, in this usage, is that you know the seats are legit. Whether the sellers or their prices are legit is an entirely different question. Why, with 2022 technology, are we letting resellers do their reselling as soon as regular tickets go on sale? Where are they getting the tickets to resell? Why not block them instead of verifying them?
As for those service fees, which are somewhat all over the place—28 percent on a $99.50 ticket and 18 percent on a $2500 tickets, based on some quick spot checking—I'd humbly offer two suggestions. Either cap them, because a $200 or $300 "service charge" begs all sorts of questions, or, alternatively, go ahead and gouge the rich people buying the platinum seats but then use that money to eliminate service charges altogether for the regular people, whether they're old-time Springsteen fans gearing up for their 50th show or newly minted Bad Bunny fans getting ready for their first.
No-Shows
Facing a public backlash and a potential revolt from its staff, iconic Minneapolis music club FIRST AVENUE canceled a DAVE CHAPPELLE show Wednesday night, two days after it was announced and hours before the controversial comedian was scheduled to take the stage. "We believe in diverse voices and the freedom of artistic expression, but in honoring that we lost sight of the impact this [booking] would have," the venue wrote on its socials. The show was quickly relocated to the LIVE NATION-owned VARSITY THEATER, where Chappelle was already booked for the next two nights... Two days earlier, the MAIN STREET ARMORY in Rochester, N.Y., did the same to an upcoming stop on the DONALD TRUMP- and QAnon-affiliated ReAwaken America tour, saying it was responding to "the outpour(ing) of concern from our community, both good and bad." The club's change of heart came after JAPANESE BREAKFAST canceled its own show at the same venue to protest the ReAwaken America booking.
Etc Etc Etc
WARNER MUSIC becomes the first major label to sign on to SOUNDCLOUD's user-centric royalty model... LIVE NATION, facing three lawsuits over the stabbing death of DRAKEO THE RULER at the ONCE UPON A TIME IN L.A. festival in Los Angeles in December, argued in a court filing this week that the attack was "unforeseeable" and it shouldn't be held legally responsible... Stereogum's TOM BREIHAN on Atlanta rapper and XXL Freshman class of 2021 graduate FLO MILLI, whose YOU STILL HERE, HO? got a surprise release Wednesday, two days ahead of schedule: "Flo Milli has mastered the art of rapping like the meanest popular girl in any high school. In rap right now, there might be nobody who's better at making utterly withering comments and then laughing about it."
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
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 | | Westword |
| | Homegrown Hardcore: Convulse Records Rouses Denver's DIY Spirit | | By Justin Criado | | Musician Adam Croft never planned to start his own record label. As a member of three bands — Destiny Bond, Euth and Product Lust — he was more focused on touring and going to school at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Then an opportunity presented itself in 2018. | | |
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 | | Resident Advisor |
| | A History of Chopped and Screwed in Ten Tracks | | By Lance Scott Walker | | DJ Screw's slow, psychedelic DJ and production style has majorly influenced electronic music, R&B and pop. Houston-based artist Rabit and author Lance Scott Walker trace the roots of this pervasive sound. | | |
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 | | DJ Mag |
| | Carl Cox is still searching for his perfect techno sound | | By Bruce Tantum | | After more than three decades of DJing all over the world, Carl Cox remains one of dance music's most beloved figures. With a new album on the way, and a fresh emphasis on live performance, the king talks about his incredible journey, and his determination to keep challenging himself. | | |
 | | Songwriters on Process |
| | Songwriters on Process: Kevin Morby | | By Ben Opipari and Kevin Morby | | Kevin Morby 's writing process involves cheap pens, cheap paper, a good hardwood floor, and running shoes. Dental floss proves it. | | |
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| what we're into |
 | | Music of the day | | "Pretty Girls" | | Flo Milli | | "Girls just wanna have fun..." From "You Still Here, Ho?" | | |
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| Music | Media | | | | | | Suggest a link  | | "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?'" |
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