There’s a lot of talk of grime right now, but a lot of people don’t understand what that environment was like at the beginning. It could be exciting, but it wasn’t always as fun as it looked. It’s not like I had a job or a house [with a] picket fence. None of us did. And, back in those days, it was the kind of music that would make people shoot their gun in a club. People died at those raves. | | | | Boy in Da Kobe Jersey: Dizzee Rascal at the T in the Park Festival, Kinross, Scotland, July 11, 2010.
(Ross Gilmore/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “There’s a lot of talk of grime right now, but a lot of people don’t understand what that environment was like at the beginning. It could be exciting, but it wasn’t always as fun as it looked. It’s not like I had a job or a house [with a] picket fence. None of us did. And, back in those days, it was the kind of music that would make people shoot their gun in a club. People died at those raves.”
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| | rantnrave:// In buying BILL SIMMONS' the RINGER, SPOTIFY is acquiring what Spotify boss DANIEL EK calls "the new ESPN," which is a catchy soundbite even if you'd be hard-pressed to explain what it means, along with a high-pop-culture-IQ music/movies/TV editorial brand that will hopefully continue to flourish under its new ownership. Simmons' last sports and pop-culture site, GRANTLAND, was sent to an early grave by the old ESPN, so here's hoping Spotify does better. It's hiring the Ringer's entire current staff, which is a good sign. But more than anything, it appears, Spotify is buying a podcasting powerhouse to add to its own considerable podcast portfolio, for which it spent $400 million over the past year (how much the Ringer adds to that is unknown; the sales price wasn't disclosed). Simmons was an early podcast adopter and he's always excelled at it. "@ringer will remain @ringer in every respect," he tweeted after the announcement. "They appreciate what we do and they want us to be us." But the question for this particular newsletter is, will @Spotify remain @Spotify? And what exactly *is* @Spotify? In its Q42019 earnings call Wednesday, the company said it now has 124 million paid subscribers and 271 million monthly users. Its churn rate is down, which means it's doing a good job retaining existing users. But its average revenue per user is down, there was a €73 million annual operating loss and SPOT stock took a bit of a beating after the announcement. What good are a quarter billion users if they're not making you money? That's a rhetorical question, the answers to which are outside the purview of today's rant, not to mention my word count. But not entirely a rhetorical question. "Spotify looks beyond music in search of a profit," read the headline on a FINANCIAL TIMES story (paywalled) published a day before the earnings call. The short version, which isn't breaking news: Driving users to podcasts that it owns may be a faster route to profitability than driving them to music that it licenses from labels and publishers at hefty royalty rates. Spotify has long claimed that its podcast audience boosts the music side of its business because it listens to more music than other users do. Labels don't necessarily buy that. And they don't necessarily have to buy that; their current Spotify deals guarantee them a hefty cut of subscription revenues regardless of what users are listening to. But Spotify is trying to renegotiate those deals, FT reports, and labels are nervous that the service will push to lower its music payouts if podcast listening grows at the expense of music listening. "They are constantly trying to chip away at that share of music on the platform," an anonymous music executive tells the financial publication. Royalty allocations "may evolve over time," a source identified as "a person close to the company" says. You don't need to read between the lines to guess that those negotiations, to put it in musical terms, might get loud... "Who Are Musicians Supporting in the 2020 Democratic Primary?" and do you even have to ask? One perhaps small surprise, though: JOHN MELLENCAMP, from small town Indiana, likes the New York Wall Street guy... What is it with classic rock bands and their drummers these days?... Longtime CHICAGO TRIBUNE rock critic GREG KOT, who's one of the good eggs, is taking a buyout and leaving the paper. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | The Guardian |
| Amid disillusionment with mainstream clubbing, illegal events are harking back to the original spirit of rave -- but police maintain they are as dangerous and criminal as ever. | | |
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 | GQ |
| Send Wayne your beat. Wait seven years. Profit. | | |
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 | Jacobin |
| The music industry is making money hand over fist, but life for average musicians remains incredibly precarious. But musicians aren’t temporarily embarrassed millionaires - they’re workers. And like any other worker, the solution to their problem is collective organizing. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| The latest episodes of Netflix’s ‘Hip-Hop Evolution’ show the history of rap music in a compelling way devoid of any hand-holding. | | |
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 | Vox |
| Spotify is making yet another big budget purchase aimed at getting a lead in the growing podcast industry: The streaming music company has agreed to a deal to purchase The Ringer, the podcast-centric media company run and owned by Bill Simmons. Spotify intends to hire Simmons and all of his approximately 90 employees. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| David Bowie’s final album reminded her albums outlive artists, so she worked on her new LP “as if I was going to die.” | | |
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 | Dazed Digital |
| Back with a new album, the pop star goes deep on immigration activism, Latin identity, and her favourite karaoke song, with questions from the likes of Timothée Chalamet, Jim Jarmusch, and Yara Shahidi - plus, her biggest fans in the world. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| Techstars Music’s 2020 startup class focuses on recording innovation, AI-driven fraud detection, real-time concert analytics and more. | | |
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 | Penny Fractions |
| Let’s dive into the rapidly growing short-form video app…Tik—wait, Triller! | | |
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 | The Telegraph |
| Last year, the three members of Green Day were interviewed in Los Angeles by the alternative-music radio station KROQ-FM. | | |
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 | DJ Mag |
| Over the past 10 years, DJing has undergone seismic transformations in technology and process. New styles of DJing have emerged, and some have had huge impacts on dance music culture -- even birthing new genres and music production techniques. | | |
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 | British GQ |
| Stormzy’s voice sells millions, but it belongs to millions more. Interview by Gary Younge. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| A reimagining of his final album by the drummer and producer Makaya McCraven is another step toward a contemporary reckoning with his powerful oeuvre. | | |
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 | 8Sided Blog |
| Yes, recording artists need to make a living, and streaming payouts are awful. But digital tip jars are not the answer. | | |
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 | Bloomberg |
| China’s antitrust authority has suspended a probe of Tencent Music Entertainment Group’s dealings with the world’s three largest record labels, according to people familiar with the matter, lifting a cloud hanging over that country’s dominant music streaming company. | | |
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 | NPR |
| The latest album by the rapper formerly known as Mos Def will be heard by very few people -- a fact that represents everything fascinating and frustrating about his last decade. | | |
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 | Level |
| For immigrants, encouragement to pursue the arts is slim. Here’s why it’s important. | | |
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 | The Muse |
| Taylor Swift recently reached a rite of passage typical of pop stardom: She sanctioned and participated in a documentary about herself. In the tradition of Madonna: Truth or Dare, Katy Perry: Part of Me, and Gaga: Five Foot Two, Netflix’s Miss Americana: Taylor Swift, offers a slice of a life lived largely. That’s its ostensible goal, at least. | | |
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| Level |
| In law enforcement and politics, an organized effort to silence a subculture continues. | | |
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 | Cowboys & Indians |
| A stroke may have robbed him of his voice, but the legendary country singer still has something to say. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | "When we ain't kids no more, will it still be about what it is right now?" |
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