| It is going to be the biggest s***show in the history of the entertainment industry. | | |
| |  | Stream by Streamwest: Drummer Richard Spaven performs during a Jazz re:freshed SXSW showcase streamed from Abbey Road, London, March 16, 2021.
(SXSW/Getty Images) |
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| | | “It is going to be the biggest s***show in the history of the entertainment industry.” | |
| | I Want You Back
There are a million reasons why the widespread return of live music sometime this summer, or sometime this fall, or in early 2022, or whenever the stars and the science line up to let it happen, is going to be the s***show that today's quote of the day predicts. This well-reported longread by PATRICK SISSON covers most of the big ones, from the economics of turning venues into literal safe spaces, to the logistics of regulating a sprawling network of small businesspeople and performers who "didn’t get into business for this weird regulated energy," to are there going to be enough tour buses to go around? But it's hard not to believe that these two things are true, too: 1) That sprawling network has had a year to think about all this stuff while also learning how to work together for common causes, and 2) The people who go out frequently to see live music, whether at SAINT VITUS or the HOLLYWOOD BOWL or XS LAS VEGAS, are used to s***shows and they'll complain about them and then they'll forgive them as long as there's music and dancing on the other side. They've been waiting a year for that. They're not going to let it not happen. I'm feeling weirdly optimistic today. There are incredibly tough times to come, both and in and out of music. But there's also music. Anyway, this is a great read that pulls together a lot of strands of thoughts and conversations that we've all been having and points to everything that could go wrong, while remembering what has to go right. "Going to different shows all over the city, that’s the DNA of New York," Saint Vitus co-owner DAVID CASTILLO tells Sisson. "I want that back."
A good sign: Billboard reports that AEG will start bringing back furloughed workers on April 1 and has told employees that "everyone will return to work at full pay no later than October 1."
Higher and Higher (and Higher)
Depending on whose assessment you want to believe, the global recorded music business pulled in either $21.6 billion or $23.1 billion in 2020, or it brought in a whopping $31.6 billion in 2019 and something north of *that* in 2020. The lowest of the three is from the INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE PHONOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY (IFPI), meaning it's the official figure. The slightly rosier second figure comes from MIDIA, which claims to get closer to the truth by more rigorously tracking "the long tail of independents" than the official trade associations do and by following music production libraries, too. And then there's well-read music economist WILL PAGE, who pulls together a still wider collection of revenue streams, and who issued his 2019 findings a day before the IFPI presented its final 2020 numbers. But all the reports chart a sustained pattern of rapid growth, even through the pandemic year—which decimated live music while barely nudging recorded music from its growth track—and see more good times ahead, albeit for conflicting reasons. IFPI, via Variety's MARK SUTHERLAND, charts phenomenal growth in South Korea (up 45 percent in revenue over 2019) and China, and says Asia, Africa and Latin America are the industry's future hot spots. Page, conversely, says streaming music fans in North America and Europe are still driving the music market and the biggest potential for future growth is North American and European ANDROID users, who currently aren't spending as much on streaming music as their IOS counterparts do.
Meantime IMPALA, which represents indie labels in Europe, would like some of those streaming billions. Here's its proposed 10-point proposal for resetting the streaming economy, including some intriguing ideas for how to divvy up subscription royalties: higher payouts for longer songs, higher payouts for tracks that users specifically search for (as opposed to encountering them via playlists or radio), and a progressive royalty scheme that shrinks the gap between streaming's top and bottom earners by weighing bottom-tier streams more than top-tier streams. Impala also wants to eliminate safe harbor provisions and, in a not-so-subtle message to SPOTIFY, streaming "features that recreate elements of payola."
Etc Etc Etc
Recordings by JANET JACKSON, LABELLE, LOUIS ARMSTRONG and KERMIT THE FROG added to the Library of Congress' NATIONAL RECORDING REGISTRY... Union drive at SECRETLY GROUP... SWSW 2022 dates (in person, the fest really, really hopes)... The anarchist SPICE GIRLS of New Orleans... The people who learned to play instruments in lockdown... BUNNY hopping from the GRAMMYS to WRESTLEMANIA.
Rest in Peace
Ambient/new age composer and musician CONSTANCE DEMBY... Up-and-coming Texas country singer/songwriter TAYLOR DEE.
| | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| |  | Marker |
| | Live Music Is About to Get Its Grand Reopening | | by Patrick Sisson | | And it’s going to be total chaos. | |
 | The Atlantic |
| | Why Celebrities Are Agog Over This Tiny Climate Think Tank | | by Robinson Meyer | | A one-of-a-kind Washington nonprofit has become a hit with musicians selling crypto-art. | |
 | Tarzan Economics |
| | The Global Value of Music Copyright reached a record high of $31.6bn in 2019, up $2.1bn on prior year. Streaming makes up 47% | | by Will Page | | Music needs to know how much its worth. | |
 | Variety |
| | The Power of BTS and K-Pop, the Problem With Streaming’s 20% Growth, and Other Notes From IFPI’s Global Music Report | | by Mark Sutherland | | The headline figure showed that global recorded music revenues rose 7.4% in 2020 to $21.6 billion, only slightly below 2019’s 8.2% increase. But there was also an awful lot going on underneath the surface. Here are seven key takeaways that every exec should know about the global picture. | |
 | DJ Mag |
| | State of Play: the in-game concert boom | | by Cherie Hu | | Have concert promoters been irrevocably cut out of the in-game concert boom by game developers? | |
 | Vulture |
| | Remaking R&B in Serpentwithfeet’s Image | | by Briana Younger | | His music, much like the man, requires an audience unconfined by expectation of what is supposed to be. | |
 | GQ |
| | Howl Like a Superwolf: Matt Sweeney and Will Oldham on Following Up a Cult Classic | | by Chris Heath | | Back in 2005, Matt Sweeney and Will Oldham quietly put out an album called "Superwolf" and watched it become a cult classic. Now, at long last, they’re releasing the follow-up—and repping old-fashioned virtues like friendship, collaboration, and the reckless pursuit of life-changing art. | |
 | IMPALA |
| | It’s Time to Challenge the Flow: Impala’s 10-point Plan to Make Streaming Work | | Our aim is to make streaming fairer and provide a dynamic, compelling and responsible future for creators and for fans. We start by calling for an end to safe harbour privileges that distort the market. We also have asks for labels. | |
 | The New York Times |
| | Streaming Saved Music. Artists Hate It | | by Shira Ovide | | Many musicians aren’t sharing in streaming riches. Can digital music economics change to benefit everyone? | |
 | You Don't Need Maps |
| | (Don't) Gimme Indie Rock | | by Ellie Kovach | | State of the Scene Address 2021. | |
|  | The Independent |
| | Elvis Costello, The Anchoress, Frank Turner and more reflect on a year without live music | | by Mark Beaumont | | Mark Beaumont surveys the wreckage (and the upsides) of life for musicians under Covid, with the help of established stars from Brandon Flowers to Paul Weller, and newcomers like Flyte and Celeste. | |
 | Money 4 Nothing |
| | NF(t) DOOM or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blockchain | | by Saxon Baird and Sam Backer | | In the last month, the music world has gone positively gaga for NFT’s, the blockchain-based goods that (some say) promise to transform basic dynamics of the industry, bypassing major labels, reversing decades of artistic austerity, and basically doing everything short of reuniting the Beatles. We…aren’t so sure. | |
| Vulture |
| | Nile Rodgers’s Signature Sound Is Taking Over Pop Again -- Cory Wong Knows Why | | by Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding | | Allow funk musician Cory Wong to take you on a tour through the history of rhythm guitar, as forever innovated by the Chic legend. | |
 | Hollywood Reporter |
| | Wild Court Case Explores Two Global Pop Hits and a Key Question: Who Owns Remix? | | by Eriq Gardner | | The case of Arty v. Marshmello raises a novel intellectual property issue and erupts with the allegation that someone has "got to" OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder and convinced him to perjure himself. | |
 | Bandcamp Daily |
| | Without Limits or Lyrics: The Human Voice as Instrument | | by Phil E. Bloomfield | | These artists dispense with lyricism to use the human voice for more transcendent ends. | |
 | Essaying |
| | 'The Daughters of Dolly' and the Limits of Our Racial Imagination | | by Tressie McMillan Cottom | | The limit of drag's radical subversion + a surprising heir to Dolly's throne. | |
 | Complete Music Update |
| | Major label dominance and making available back in the spotlight at final Parliamentary session on streaming | | by Chris Cooke | | After all the various discussions as part of Parliament's review into the digital music market over how a stream should be defined, government officials at the latest hearing stressed several times that, in their opinion, modern streaming platforms were exactly the kind of services that the so called making available right was conceived to cover. | |
 | NME |
| | Music venues after a year of lockdown: 'We’re not safe yet -- we’re on the edge' | | by Andrew Trendell | | Grassroots music venues from across the UK have spoken to NME about their experience of being closed for a year during the coronavirus lockdown. | |
 | Tribune Magazine |
| | The Radical Jazz of William Parker | | by Stewart Smith | | A new biography of bassist and composer William Parker stresses free jazz's transformative capacities -- and details how his music gave expression to radical black, working-class and anti-imperialist politics. | |
 | SPIN |
| | Joni Mitchell and Me | | by Ricky Ian Gordon | | A story about falling in and out of love. | |
| | | | With Billy Porter, Honey Dijon, Nicky Siano and more. |
| | 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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