| In spite of our efforts to move Heaven & Earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the Festival happen this year. We are so sorry to let you all down. | | |
| |  | Ozuna and Anuel AA at the Latin American Music Awards, Los Angeles, Oct. 17, 2019. Their album "Los Dioses" is out today on Real Hasta la Muerte/Aura Music.
(JC Olivera/Getty Images) |
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| | | “In spite of our efforts to move Heaven & Earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the Festival happen this year. We are so sorry to let you all down.” | |
| | Summer, Soft?
There goes the first domino of the summer festival season and it's a doozy: Organizers of June's GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL have pulled the plug because of the pandemic for the second year in a row, unleashing a tidal wave of doubt and anxiety across a continent's worth of promoters still trying to figure out if festivals can happen anywhere this summer. "It's sent a very bad signal," a spokesman for France's HELLFEST, scheduled for the same month, told the New York Times.
Glastonbury may or may not prove to be a bellwether, though. Its size—200,000-plus fans on 900 acres of farmland—works against it. The site requires months of planning and EMILY EAVIS, who runs the fest with her father, MICHAEL, says they lost millions of pounds when they had to cancel in March a year ago. (KENDRICK LAMAR, TAYLOR SWIFT and PAUL MCCARTNEY would have headlined that version; this year's headliners were never announced.) Insurance companies aren't offering Covid policies, and calls to the UK government to set up a Covid insurance program of its own have fallen on deaf ears.
Parliament is busy with music crises this winter. Its Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee held a hearing two weeks ago on the live event crisis, and promoters' biggest ask was for that insurance program. Members of parliament also heard complaints that day about the UK's failure to get an agreement for visa-free touring for British musicians in Europe (and vice versa) during Brexit negotiations. This week, the same committee continued an ongoing inquiry into the economics of music streaming, an unrelated issue with related consequences: The musicians struggling to make a living from streaming royalties are the same musicians whose other chief source of income, touring, is in danger for a second year in a row. The fact that the price of playing in France, Spain and other countries just went up will serve as one last insult whenever touring anywhere becomes possible again.
In the meantime, festival season in Britain, Europe and the US is one big tentative question mark. American promoters seem to have set their hopes on a fall festival season in 2021: BONNAROO has been moved to September and the NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FEST to October. COACHELLA is still officially scheduled for April but no acts have been announced and, with Covid still spreading uncontrollably in California, no one expects it to happen. The rumor mill and local government officials are both pointing to fall. But can anyone bank on October at this point? Will the vaccine rollout speed up? Is a third wave of Covid in our future? Are bands, venues, promoters and everyone else ready to roll the dice on fall 2021? Do any of them have any better options?
Other European fests are still sounding optimistic. Kendrick Lamar, one of the headliners who never saw Glastonbury last year, is now a headliner at ROSKILDE, scheduled for June in Denmark. The official word there: "Cautiously optimistic."
A funny/not-funny detail from that live-event hearing in the UK. The Guardian's LAURA SNAPES reported that PAUL REED, chief exec of the Association of Independent Festivals, worried that a lack of insurance options would force festivals to cancel "early and en masse." And then if the Covid situation improved and music fans were hungry to venture out, the result, per Snapes, would be "demand without supply." Now where else have we heard of that problem that lately?
Are Royalties Electric?
Speaking of the streaming music economy: Here in his car, GARY NUMAN is complaining that a million plays of a single song netted him £37... ASHLEY MCBRYDE's album NEVER WILL and MICKEY GUYTON's single "BLACK LIKE ME" were the winners of Nashville Scene's 21st Annual Country Music Critics' Poll, the gold standard of country critical consensus... The first of three parts of a BROAD MUSEUM video series on the music that inspired JEAN MICHEL-BASQUIAT finds TERRACE MARTIN tracing the influence of bebop in general and CHARLIE PARKER and DIZZY GILLESPIE in particular. A fantastic 10-minute watch... OMG the lead story in the mix below, MOSI REEVES' longread for Pitchfork on "sample snitching." A head-spinning read. But talk about blaming the messenger.
It's Friday
And that means new music from reggaetón stars ANUEL AA & OZUNA (their first album together is both a creative and business collaboration) and Northern Irish techno duo BICEP, as well as RHYE, LIL SKIES, TH1RT3EN (PHAROAHE MONCH with guitarist MARCUS MACHADO and drummer DARU JONES), CAROLINE SHAW, ARCA (EP with OLIVER COATES collaboration), LOGIC1000, YU SU, TOMORROW X TOGETHER (K-pop group's first Japanese-language album), BRS KASH, PALBERTA, SPEED STICK, KIWI JR., LANDE HEKT, STILL CORNERS, STEVE AOKI, MAGGIE LINDEMANN, JEREMIAH FRAITES (LUMINEERS songwriter/drummer's first solo album), TRZTN, JAMES YORKSTON & THE SECOND HAND ORCHESTRA, CARM (YMUSIC trumpeter CJ CAMERIERI with assists from JUSTIN VERNON, MOUSE ON MARS and YO LA TENGO), THEE CONDUCTOR, FINN ASKEW, GUCCIHIGHWATERS, CAMP TRASH, CUB SCOUT BOWLING PINS (ROBERT POLLARD side project, but then again what indie-rock group isn't?), ASPHYX, NERVOSA, THERION, WARDRUNA and JASON BIELER & THE BARON VON BIELSKI ORCHESTRA.
Rest in Peace
Country singer and multi-instrumentalist RANDY PARTON, who frequently collaborated with big sister DOLLY, and Australian opera director ELIJAH MOSHINSKY.
| | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | art is how we decorate space |
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|  | Pitchfork |
| | Sample Snitching: How Online Fan Chatter Can Create Legal Trouble for Rap Producers | | by Mosi Reeves | | By publicly identifying and discussing unlicensed samples, hip-hop fans on websites like WhoSampled and YouTube may be unwittingly putting their favorite producers at legal risk. | |
 | NPR Music |
| | The Voices Of Black Women Were Essential To Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound | | by Maureen Mahon | | The full impact of Spector's musical legacy is impossible to measure without accounting for the creative labor of singers like Darlene Love and the damage Spector's manipulations did to their careers. | |
 | The Baffler |
| | Streamlining the Streaming Regime | | by Sam Backer | | While the Music Modernization Act offers a handful of benefits to songwriters and performers, it offers more—a lot more—to the companies that have long dominated music. | |
 | Billboard |
| | Anuel AA & Ozuna Rewrite the Rules of Reggaetón With Joint Album | | by Leila Cobo | | With 'Los Dioses,' they're pushing their genre forward and setting a divine new business model for entrepreneurial artists. | |
 | Los Angeles Times |
| | Brian Eno has had a pretty good quarantine | | by Rob Tannenbaum | | Holed up in the English countryside, the producer, musician and visual artist has been busy reinventing Zoom and falling in love with music again. | |
 | The New York Times |
| | Glastonbury Canceled Again, Casting Doubt Over Europe’s Music Festivals | | by Alex Marshall | | Britain’s biggest music event won’t take place for a second year in a row. The decision has sent shock waves across Europe, where festivals have already been asking politicians for help. | |
 | DJ Mag |
| | What will Brexit really mean for touring UK and EU artists? | | by Wil Crisp | | For musicians, Brexit has struck at the heart of what keeps their industry going — touring. Here, DJ Mag looks at the current rules for touring artists and crew, and how governments need to change the rules to keep the music industry alive | |
 | Nashville Scene |
| | 21st Annual Country Music Critics’ Poll: The Results | | by Geoffrey Himes | | Mickey Guyton, Ashley McBryde, Jason Isbell and beyond - 95 critics weigh in on the best in 2020’s country music. | |
 | Trapital |
| | Binta Brown on the State of the Music Industry, omalilly projects, and Black Music Action Coalition | | by Dan Runcie and Binta Brown | | Music executive Binta Brown talked about why she left a successful career as an attorney to enter the music industry. | |
 | Okayplayer |
| | The Female Rappers Dominating UK Drill | | by Court Kim | | From Ivorian Doll to Miss Lafamilia, these female UK drill rappers are dominating on their own terms. | |
| music is how we decorate time |
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|  | Midia Research |
| | Songs are the golden eggs in music catalogues, but who is looking after the goose? | | by Keith Jopling | | It will not have escaped your attention that music catalogues are changing hands for serious sums of money. The race to acquire the songwriters’ share is on, and it is speeding up. However, while that race is a sprint, what happens after that is a marathon. | |
 | Music Business Worldwide |
| | Hipgnosis is selling a lot more shares to raise a lot more money to buy a lot more music | | by Tim Ingham | | Hipgnosis could potentially raise over $2bn in the next 12 months. | |
 | Bandcamp Daily |
| | Bicep: From Belfast Bloggers to International Dance Music Stars | | by Jeremy Steinberger | | The duo's hotly anticipated sophomore album, “Isles,” follows a period of relentless touring, and brings in aspects of music from around the world to their core sound. | |
 | Longreads |
| | Shelved: Yoko Ono | | by Tom Maxwell | | On Yoko Ono’s 1974 album “A Story,” and stepping out from behind the ever-present shadow of John Lennon. | |
 | Penny Fractions |
| | Why Record Labels Love Social Media | | by David Turner | | Record labels, social media, and seemingly endless pits of cash. | |
 | Adam Neely |
| | Lady Gaga's MIXED METER Star Spangled Banner?! | | by Adam Neely | | Analyzing Lady Gaga's version of the star spangled banner she sang for Joe Biden's inauguration. It's pretty cool! | |
| The New York Times |
| | He Called His Song ‘American Anthem.’ It Actually Became One | | by Abby Ellin | | When President Biden quoted Gene Scheer’s song in his inaugural address, it solidified its transformation from art song to Norah Jones tune on a Ken Burns soundtrack to patriotic hymn. | |
| Music Business Worldwide |
| | BMG, Beggars Group and Hipgnosis each have strong opinions on streaming. Here are those opinions | | by Tim Ingham | | Submissions to the UK's Parlimentary inquiry into streaming are released for public consumption. | |
 | The Broad |
| | Time Decorated: The Musical Influences of Jean-Michel Basquiat - Part 1 | | by Terrace Martin and Quincy Jones | | L.A. jazz musician Terrace Martin delves into how bepop, birthed in New York City much like Basquiat, played a role in his artistic vision. | |
 | The Undefeated |
| | Michael Harris’ story ranges from Death Row Records to freedom | | by Justin Tinsley | | Death Row co-founder Harry O had his sentence commuted on Donald Trump’s last day as president. | |
| |  | | Music of the day | | "Sundial" | | Bicep | | From "Isles," out today on Ninja Tune. |  | YouTube |
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From "Isles," out today on Ninja Tune. |
| | 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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