| The pandemic has brought up all of these mental health crises and domestic crises that were always there, that I always sang about, that people had so much to say about in terms of, 'She's just feigning emotional fragility.' And it’s like, 'Well, not really. You’re feigning emotional togetherness despite the fact that you're a wack job Monday through Friday.' | | |
| |  | SXSW's Odd Past: Tyler, the Creator at the Fader Fort, Austin, Texas, March 19, 2011.
(Roger Kisby/Getty Images) |
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| | | “The pandemic has brought up all of these mental health crises and domestic crises that were always there, that I always sang about, that people had so much to say about in terms of, 'She's just feigning emotional fragility.' And it’s like, 'Well, not really. You’re feigning emotional togetherness despite the fact that you're a wack job Monday through Friday.'” | |
| | Masters of Coins
There's something for everyone in LOUD & CLEAR, the information-rich website Spotify launched Thursday to explain how its royalties work. To those looking for affirmation that SPOTIFY has been a goldmine for artists and labels, let it be known there are nearly 8,000 artists whose Spotify catalogs generated at least $100,000 in royalties in 2020—nearly double the number of artists as just three years before—and more than 1,800 who generated $500,000 or more. Those royalties, as the site makes clear, are split between artists, labels, writers and publishers, and if the artist is a band, they're further split among bandmembers, but still, as income from just one streaming site, that's nothing to sneeze at. In all, Spotify says it sent out over $5 billion in royalties last year. On the other hand, for those looking for confirmation that streaming is more about pennies than dollars, behold Spotify's own numbers for what it considers a typical DIY artist—no label, uses a distributor to get music into Spotify, had at least 1,000 listeners last year. Spotify says it's home to 286,000 such artists and they had an average of 34,700 monthly listeners in 2020 and generated an average of $4,100 in royalties. Those numbers are begging to be sneezed all over. Nearly 35,000 people listen to your music every month and the entire pot of money available to your label, your publisher, yourself and your bandmates at the end of the year is four thousand bucks? That seems low, no? If, say, half of those monthly listeners bought exactly one $9.99 album download from the artist per year, on, ITUNES or BANDCAMP, those sales would generate way over $4,100 in royalties, by many multiples.
While there are plenty of people who wish Spotify would charge more for subscriptions and grow its royalty pot that way (the company addresses that issue, vaguely, in one question in a Q&A section), the bigger questions I tend to hear are about how Spotify's attention and money are split among its haves and have-nots and what role the site plays in creating such divisions. So. Many. Questions. Loud & Clear isn't quite as loud and clear on those issues, preferring to avoid "why" questions in favor of "what" questions. "Why is this the best way to divvy up that $5 billion" is, it would seem, another question for another website. And the site's calculations stop, literally, at Spotify's front door. "Artists ask me all the time why they’re not making more money" Spotify CEO DANIEL EK tweeted Thursday. "If the music industry is generating so much, then where the hell is it going? These are fair questions." But Loud & Clear's answer, in the end, is that it goes to "rights holders"—which in most cases means labels and publishers—and what happens from there isn't Spotify's concern. Which seems as obviously true as it is unsatisfying. Who can take it from there? Who *should* take it from there? Do fans have a right to know? Do artists?
Car Trouble
The BLUES FOUNDATION has rescinded KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD's Artist of the Year nomination for this year's BLUES AWARDS and asked his father to resign from its board of directors. The move comes after another board member, MERCY MORGANFIELD—daughter of late blues great MUDDY WATERS—posted a vicious rant on Facebook titled "The Way My Daddy Looks At a White Man Winning a Blues Foundation Music Award While Waving A F*****g Confederate Flag" (since deleted from Facebook but preserved here; someone please print it out and put in on the wall of the BLUES HALL OF FAME) and resigned from the board herself. Shepherd, who owns and was frequently photographed with a DUKES OF HAZZARD replica car with a Confederate flag painted on the roof, apologized Thursday to "anyone that I have unintentionally hurt"... That thing the representative from Texas said during a congressional hearing Thursday about the old saying about finding all the rope in Texas and getting a tall oak tree isn't in fact an old Texas saying but a lyric from an 18-year-old country hit by Oklahoman TOBY KEITH and Texan WILLIE NELSON. Keith and longtime songwriting partner SCOTTY EMERICK wrote "BEER FOR MY HORSES" and Nelson sings the line in question. In case you're wondering when it was last acceptable, before Thursday, to talk approvingly of lynching in public. The answer is 2003. An unforgivable low point for everyone involved. Keith has done better. Nelson has done a lot better. As for the congressperson from Texas, I'll let the rest of this paragraph speak for itself.
Dot Dot Dot
The cover of JUSTIN BIEBER's new album, "JUSTICE," stylizes the "T" as a crucifix, as does the logo of the long-running French electronic duo JUSTICE, and the latter are not happy. They've sent him a cease-and-desist letter for the album and any associated merchandise. They may have damning receipts. They say Bieber's team reached out to them a year ago to try to get in touch with their logo designer. No comment yet from the pop singer, whose album came out today... National Geographic's GENIUS series takes on ARETHA FRANKLIN in an eight-part biopic series that premieres Sunday night. CYNTHIA ERIVO plays the Queen of Soul... MILLS COLLEGE, the Oakland school whose influential CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC brought together teachers and students including JOHN CAGE, TERRY RILEY, PAULINE OLIVEROS, LAURIE ANDERSON, PHIL LESH and HOLLY HERNDON over the years, is shuttering its academic programs and converting itself into an institute for women's leadership. The school, which had been struggling financially, said the pandemic pushed it over the edge.
It's Friday
And that means new music from LANA DEL REY, whose luxuriantly introspective CHEMTRAILS OVER THE COUNTRY CLUB finally arrives, a few months behind schedule... Griselda's BENNY THE BUTCHER, exploring what he calls "the dark side of the game" with producer HARRY FRAUD on PLUGS I MET 2... JON BATISTE, who takes a socially conscious soul turn on the ambitious WE ARE...LORETTA LYNN's guest-laden 50th studio album (or 60th if you count the 10 she made with CONWAY TWITTY)... Jazz singer VERONICA SWIFT re-setting songs from the musical theater for the pandemic age... An album about "death, longing, isolation, regret and closure" from venerated singer/songwriter DAVID OLNEY and Nashville newcomer ANANA KAYE, completed shortly before Olney died onstage a year ago... And new work from JUSTIN BIEBER, RINGO STARR, DDG & OG PARKER, TOKYO JETZ, GUAPDAD 4000 & !LLMIND, NITIN SAWHNEY, JOYCE WRICE, MORGAN WADE, MELISSA CARPER, ALICE PHOEBE LOU, STARRAH (released earlier this week), BELL ORCHESTRE, NEW PAGANS, MIDDLE KIDS, STING (duets, with the people you'd imagine Sting would be doing duets with), TOO MUCH JOY, MEEMO COMMA, SPECIAL REQUEST (a DJ-KICKS mix), SOFIA KOURTESIS, ELECTRIC JALABA, KOTA THE FRIEND & STATIK SELEKTAH, BFB DA PACKMAN, 22GZ, BEHN GILLECE, HARRY CONNICK JR., A.A. WILLIAMS, SHOW ME THE BODY, SERJ TANKIAN, PAUL STANLEY'S SOUL STATION, GHOST OF VROOM (MIKE DOUGHTY and ANDREW "SCRAP" LIVINGSTON), PINK SIIFU & FLY ANAKIN, CHAD VAN GAALEN, BRIGHTER THEN, YEAR TWINS and ANDREW FARRISS... And a rarities collection from producer ADRIAN SHERWOOD's NEW AGE STEPPERS.
| | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| |  | Okayplayer |
| | The Case For Protecting Hip-Hop’s Founders | | by Elijah C. Watson | | Led by figures like LL Cool J and Swizz Beatz, there is a small movement happening to ensure hip-hop's founders aren't just getting their dues but getting paid for their contributions. | |
 | WIRED |
| | Big Music Needs to Be Broken Up to Save the Industry | | by Ron Knox | | A year without live music has been a disaster. So has corporate power in streaming, recording, and ticketing. Antitrust may be the only solution. | |
 | Variety |
| | Spotify Unveils ‘Loud and Clear,’ a Detailed Guide to Its Royalty Payment System | | by Jem Aswad | | As more and more artists have learned in the nearly 15 years since Spotify first launched, the way that it pays out streaming royalties is very, very complex, based on a dizzying number of factors that add up differently for each artist. | |
 | Sounds Like Nashville |
| | How Spotify Playlists Like Indigo Help Artists Survive the Pandemic | | by Chris Parton | | Three indie-country artists explain how curated playlists have been a lifeline through COVID-19. | |
 | NPR |
| | Grammy Winner Burna Boy Makes Music -- And Social Noise | | by Ifeanyi M. Nsofor | | In Nigeria, Burna Boy is known as much for his social crusading as he is for his Afro-fusion style music. | |
| Variety |
| | How Jason Derulo Cracked TikTok’s Code and Resurrected His Career | | by Jem Aswad | | At the end of 2019, singer Jason Derulo 's career was at a low ebb. While the singer had enjoyed a string of multiplatinum singles and Teen Choice Awards in the early 2010s, he hadn't had a major hit in several years, and an attempt at branching into acting - er, in the epic star-studded flop "Cats" - hadn't really worked out. | |
 | The Guardian |
| | Why bands are disappearing: 'Young people aren’t excited by them' | | by Dorian Lynskey | | Maroon 5’s Adam Levine was scoffed at for suggesting there ‘aren’t any bands any more’ - but if you look at the numbers, he’s right. Wolf Alice, Maximo Park and industry insiders ask why. | |
 | Complex |
| | The Return of Live Music: Here Are the 2021 Festivals and Tours You Should Know About | | by Trace William Cowen | | A number of multi-day festivals are going ahead with a 2021 return to semi-normalcy after a painful year away from the live music experience. | |
 | KQED |
| | SF Opera and UCSF's New Mask for Singers Helps Bring Back In-Person Performances | | by Chloe Veltman | | The VOXCV mask was developed-and patented-by SF Opera and UCSF in order to bring back live opera. | |
 | Vulture |
| | Just Rambling About Love With Ringo Starr | | by Devon Ivie | | The Beatles legend on his friendships, “sliding doors” moments, and how his life’s been one big beautiful mystery. | |
|  | Longreads |
| | Shelved: Dr. Dre's 'Detox' | | by Tom Maxwell | | Killer beats, huge hype, and failure to follow through. | |
 | Broken Record |
| | Broken Record: Valerie June Shines Bright | | by Leah Rose and Valerie June | | Valerie June has helped widen the scope of contemporary Ameicana music. She’s one of few African American women in the category and her unique combination of gospel and Appalachian folk is a shimmering example of what's possible in the roots-music tradition. Broken Record producer Leah Rose caught up with Valerie to talk through her stunning new album, "The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers." | |
 | Music Tectonics |
| | What a Fan Wants: Fave founder Jacquelle Horton | | by Tristra Newyear Yeager and Jacquelle Amankonah Horton | | What are music industry solutions for monetizing fandom missing about the true power of fans? Jacquelle Amankonah Horton, founder of Fave, sits down with host, Tristra Newyear Yeager, to explore the wild world of fandom. Jaquelle discusses the inspiration for Fave, her own personal experience as a diehard fan, and the ever-evolving definition of what it means to be a fan. | |
 | Applied Science |
| | Applied Science: Independent as F*** | | by Jon Tanners | | On Sony buying AWAL, false binaries of independence, a vertically integrated future, and NFT's. | |
 | NPR Music |
| | Scoring The Snyder Cut, 4 Years After Being Fired From 'Justice League' | | by Tim Greiving | | Tom Holkenborg, aka Junkie XL, is far from the first film composer to be fired at the eleventh hour. But he might be the first to get his job back. | |
 | The New York Times |
| | ‘Genius: Aretha’ Speaks Loudest When It Sings | | by James Poniewozik | | Cynthia Erivo is dynamic in a bio-series that is strongest when it makes the case for the Queen of Soul as a creative force. | |
 | Level |
| | It's Time to Abolish 'Powerful' Performances at Award Shows | | by Tirhakah Love | | Music stars and activists alike have exploited Black death and protest imagery for profit. | |
 | The Quietus |
| | Stranded: Four Artists On The Isolation Of Coronavirus | | by Patrick Clarke, Aimee Armstrong and Noel Gardner | | From abandoned tours to life-threatening health issues, tQ spoke to different UK-based artists about how the coronavirus pandemic has left them stranded. | |
| Sounds Like Nashville |
| | Loretta Lynn Proves She's 'Still Woman Enough' on 50th Album | | by Deborah Evans Price | | Loretta Lynn worked with her daughter Patsy Lynn and Johnny Cash's son, John Carter, on 'Still Woman Enough,' a project heralded as a celebration of women. | |
 | Stereogum |
| | Frank 'Poncho' Sampedro On Tripping At Budokan And Why Neil Young And Crazy Horse’s New 1990 Live Album Is The Band’s Definitive Document | | by Stephen Deusner | | "In my heart I think 'Rust Bucket' is one of the best Crazy Horse records ever." | |
| | | 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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