I’m starting to want to write more from other characters; I don’t always want to be the person in the song... All the great heroes of songwriting of mine were honest, but they found honesty in other hearts. | | | | Miranda Lambert in West Palm Beach, Fla., Aug. 11, 2007.
(Larry Marano/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I’m starting to want to write more from other characters; I don’t always want to be the person in the song... All the great heroes of songwriting of mine were honest, but they found honesty in other hearts.”
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| | rantnrave:// A rapper, a DJ and an algorithm walk into a major label. And the major label signs the algorithm. Today's music industry humor brought to you by WARNER MUSIC, which has signed an artificial intelligence app called ENDEL to a record deal. Endel, based in Berlin, uses parameters such as your location, the weather and your heart rate to create real-time personalized soundscapes aimed at focus and relaxation. Basically, it makes the music one imagines TOM CRUISE is, or should be, listening to most of the time in MINORITY REPORT. The company also has released five albums digitally in 2019, all based around the theme of sleep. It seems kind of obvious, with the future having already arrived and record companies scrambling to remain relevant, why a label would want to sign an AI. The question is why would an AI want to sign with a label? Does it need artificial A&R help? An advance to pay for mastering? Tour support? In Endel's case, there are connections. (Aren't there always? You spend years building a fanbase, touring in vans and living on ramen, and some label exec's son's college roommate gets the deal. Or the label exec's son's iPad.) Endel is a graduate of the TECHSTARS MUSIC accelerator program, which counts Warner as a partner. Warner's Arts Music has already partnered with Endel on those five sleep albums. And streaming listeners to date have, um, slept on those albums. According to Spotify's posted play counts, two months after the albums were released, no Endel track has 1,000 plays. And if you search for "Endel" in Spotify, the app is the fourth artist that shows up, right behind a reggaeton singer of the same name. Which is to say, even AI can use some promo help. At least until another AI startup solves that problem. So let's say this makes perfect sense, for now... Coincidentally, I got a tour of the Techstars Music office earlier this week, and for now I'll just say wow... NETFLIX's MÖTLEY CRÜE biopic THE DIRT drops today, arriving in a very different world than the no-holds-barred book of the same name played to 18 years ago. NEIL STRAUSS, who wrote the book with the band but was only marginally involved in the film, tells the LA TIMES the film isn't intended to glamorize the band's sometimes-appalling behavior. "They’ve done everything horrible that one can imagine" and the movie chronicles that reality, he says. "As far as making a moral decision," says rapper MACHINE GUN KELLY, who plays drummer TOMMY LEE, "I think that’s on the viewer." Of course, certain moral decisions have already been made by the film itself... YVES TUMOR, RHIANNON GIDDENS, NILS FRAHM and SPIRITUALIZED are among the artists parked in Knoxville, Tenn., this weekend for the BIG EARS FESTIVAL, along with an extraordinary collection of artists celebrating the 50th anniversary of ECM RECORDS. When people talk about festival season, this is what I would like them to mean... Here's what JOHN BRANCA is doing to try to save MICHAEL JACKSON's legacy... PATRICK CROWLEY, who oversaw BILLBOARD's LGBTQ vertical PRIDE, has been fired after allegations, reported in BUZZFEED, that he sexually harassed an artist seeking coverage on the site. More artists have since come forward with similar accusations. Crowley hasn't commented; his lawyers reportedly sent cease-and-desist letters to artists who tweeted about him... EX HEX's MARY TIMONY meets MARIANA TIMONY, a music writer who borrowed her name... The TEMPTATIONS musical AIN'T TOO PROUD opens on Broadway to mixed reviews... It's FRIDAY and that means music from CHRISTIAN SCOTT ATUNDE ADJUAH, IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE, RICH THE KID, ETIENNE CHARLES, JENNY LEWIS, TAMARYN, AMERICAN FOOTBALL, DEAN LEWIS, NILÜFER YANYA, MÖTLEY CRÜE, APPARAT, DON TRIP, NAV, MARY LATTIMORE & MAC MCCAUGHAN, ANDREW BIRD, EX HEX, RAYANA JAY, LAMBCHOP, LA DISPUTE, AVEY TARE, JAYDA G, LAUREL HALO/DJ-KICKS, ORVILLE PECK, TLE CINCO, STRAND OF OAKS, BILL MACKAY, LAFAWNDAH, ANTEROS, SPIRAL STAIRS, LUTHER DICKINSON & SISTERS OF THE STRAWBERRY MOON, LUCY ROSE and SLEEPER... RIP JUSTIN CARTER. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | No Depression |
| We had an agreement, a part of my audience and I. We never exactly spelled it out, but now I can see the terms. I would play music, make people laugh, cry, and dance, but be vague enough in my songwriting and in my persona to allow them to overlook anything that didn’t jive with who they wanted me to be. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| The streaming giant is now fighting on three fronts: in India; the Washington, D.C., Copyright Royalty Board; and Brussels' antitrust system. Whatever happens, it could lose the PR war. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Once a band name turns into a brand name, there’s a strong incentive to continue on, even with a lineup that fans might not recognize. | | |
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 | Guitar World |
| What's it like, exactly, to play guitar in a Led Zeppelin tribute band? We decided to ask three of the best. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| On his new Netflix show, ‘Turn Up Charlie,’ the British actor plays a DJ -- and in real life, the man formerly known as ‘DJ Big Driis’ is prepping for Coachella. | | |
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 | Music Industry Blog |
| Facebook recently secured licensing deals with music rightsholders in India, an important step in what has thus far been an underwhelming social music strategy since first inking rights deals in June 2018. Facebook has the potential to be a giant in social music, in no small part because most streaming music apps do such a poor job of social functionality themselves. | | |
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 | Stereogum |
| Louis Bell is credited on more than half of this year's #1 hits. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| Few in the #MeToo era who watch Mötley Crüe in "The Dirt" as they conquers clubs, the Billboard charts and the sexual appetites of many young women would argue that the mid-1980s rock scene wasn’t more debauched than it is today. Is now the best time to celebrate it? | | |
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 | Detroit Metro Times |
| Amanda Palmer is a sick f***. This is how she describes herself amidst an emotional hangover following a "surreal" listening party and sleepover for her latest record in the Catskills. She is also one of the most hated women on the internet, or at least she was, and has become as polarizing of a feminist figure as Lena Dunham. | | |
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 | British GQ |
| Fine dining fare served with a side of rap. | | |
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| Billboard |
| “Nobody expected it to sell well,” Raitt says now. “They just said, ‘We're not going to pay a lot of money for you, so just make a record that you want.’” | | |
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| Rolling Stone |
| Artists and fans alike have been flocking to the Blue Ridge Mountains town, drawn by its reputation for musical spontaneity. | | |
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 | Blank Newspaper |
| How beer, process, community and a thirst for knowledge relate to Big Ears. | | |
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 | GQ |
| Ariana Grande’s longtime producer has a signature approach that runs deeper than a given sound or mood. | | |
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 | Music Business Worldwide |
| Apple's Oliver Schusser and Interscope's Steve Berman on a new pop phenom. | | |
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 | MusicAlly |
| Have you heard about ‘dry streams’ yet? They’re streams that come without a great deal of interest in the artist themselves: for example, on mood or activity-driven playlists on streaming services where listeners aren’t necessarily noticing who made the tracks. | | |
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 | Paper |
| South African gqom music used to be a boy's game. The Durban-born house genre (pronounced "gome" with a click at the beginning) first emerged from townships just before 2010. The dark, underground sound, aptly named for the Zulu word for drum, is the product of a direct approach to the dance floor. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| The conductor once known for bringing the Grateful Dead to the orchestra stage comes to D.C. for the final time. | | |
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 | Hypebeast |
| In honor of Rosie the Riveter Day. | | |
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 | Highsnobiety |
| Skits, interludes, and segues were once an integral part of rap albums. We investigate their history and who's still using them today. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | "To love her is to learn her / Some things you just can't learn." |
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| © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group |
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