Harder, better, faster, stronger. | | | | Lady Gaga at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., Dec. 18, 2017.
(Kevin Mazur/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Harder, better, faster, stronger.”
|
| |
| | rantnrave:// Trading begins at 9:30 am ET today on the NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE, and there's a new stock in play. SPOTIFY, henceforth to be known on Wall Street as SPOT, begins trading publicly a day after a big tech sell-off, with whatever internal anxiety might come from analysts telling the world that the first day's trading will "gauge market opinion on whether [Spotify] can stave off fierce competition for music fans' wallets and eventually make a profit." No big deal. Spotify is playing it cool. The company, which isn't raising any money in its unusual direct listing—a road it chose partly because it doesn't need the cash—declined the NYSE's offer to ring the opening bell today, will not have executives on the trading floor touting the stock, and CEO DANIEL EK blogged Monday that "our focus isn’t on the initial splash" and it's "important to me is that tomorrow does not become the most important day for Spotify." The WALL STREET JOURNAL's ALEXANDER OSIPOVICH and MAUREEN FARRELL have a great explainer (paywall link) on how the day will work, and note that Spotify stock traded privately for as high as $137.50 over the past week. The official opening price may not be known for a couple hours after the bell rings, but analysts are predicting well over $137.50. Some degree of volatility is assumed. An unusually high percentage of shares will be in play and, per CNNMONEY's JILL DISIS and SETH FIEGERMAN, "there is pent-up demand for new tech IPOs" because there have been few major ones lately. Should you buy? Depends who you ask. And depends who you are, obviously. Will the music business look different tonight than it does this morning? No. Will we learn something about investor confidence in Spotify's—and perhaps streaming music's—future? Quite possibly. Does Spotify have a future? Yes. Has FOUR TET updated his Spotify playlist in the past few days? Glad you asked. He's even updated the title, which now has something to do with snails, backpacks and palm trees. Whoever you are, wherever you arem now might be a good time to be the snail. MusicSET: "Spotify Puts Itself on the SPOT"... What the competition is doing: AMAZON MUSIC says paid subscriptions have doubled in the past six months, thanks to PRIME and ALEXA. YOUTUBE has teamed up with GENIUS for a new feature called SONG STORIES... MEEK MILL was denied relief from his two-to-four-year prison sentence despite support from the PHILADELPHIA DA's office and PENNSYLVANIA GOV. TOM WOLF... IRVING AZOFF launches a SIRIUSXM talk show, UNMANAGEABLE, on Wednesday... RIP bubu music pioneer JANKA NABAY and GUARNERI QUARTET co-founder MICHAEL TREE. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
|
|
 | REDEF |
| Is Spotify a $23 billion company? What does its imminent direct listing on the New York Stock exchange mean for the world's biggest streaming service, for investors, for record companies and for the rest of the music business? Are you ready to trade? | | |
|
 | Rolling Stone |
| Behind his first headlining tour, the massive traveling party challenging reggaeton's dominance. | | |
|
 | Nashville Scene |
| 22 Music Row properties have been razed since Studio A was spared - here's a look inside preservation efforts. | | |
|
 | SPIN |
| "God save the Queen/ she ain't no human being!" Johnny Rotten once sneered, but for British-Barbadian reedsman Shabaka Hutchings, he has the guile to go with the poesy in echoing the sentiment 40 years later. In Hutchings, the emergent British jazz scene has its firebrand and potential superstar. | | |
|
 | Billboard |
| Buried among more visible investors like Sean Parker and Shakil Khan is a lesser-known stakeholder that's been key to Spotify’s evolution: Coca-Cola, whose minority investment as part of a 2012 round of funding also included Goldman Sachs and Fidelity Investments. | | |
|
 | The Atlantic |
| Jack White and Julian Casablancas once championed stripped-down sounds, but their new albums are shaggy and strange. | | |
|
 | Noisey |
| We talked with Ozoyo, a Turkish DJ and producer, about the music scene in Istanbul and what it's like to be an artist in a country where political rights and civil liberties aren't guaranteed. | | |
|
 | Salon |
| The Justice Department is reviewing accusations against Live Nation that it pressures venues to use its subsidiary. | | |
|
 | Fast Company |
| The 26-year-old singer has a clear and unique vision for her art that’s setting her apart from her contemporaries. | | |
|
 | NY Daily News |
| Judge Genece E. Brinkley issued a decision Monday in Philadelphia declaring that she would not recuse herself from the case, and that the "All Eyes on You" rapper's sentence of two to four years behind bars was "absolutely necessary" after he violated parole. | | |
|
 | Clash Magazine |
| An introduction to the director's expert use of sound. | | |
|
 | Vulture |
| It was the closest that live television has come to creating a hybrid new form, combining elements of cinema, the stage musical and the concert film. | | |
|
 | EW |
| There’s a reason Alice Cooper nearly died hanging himself by a noose onstage during rehearsals at Wembley Stadium in 1988: he wanted to put on a good show. | | |
|
 | Slate |
| Meanwhile, Ashley McBryde has the perfect album for fans missing the old Musgraves. | | |
|
 | Trench |
| And here's 50 tracks to prove it. | | |
|
| Billboard |
| "Idol" is experiencing its most LGBTQ-friendly season by letting the diverse singers proudly live out loud on television. | | |
|
 | The Guardian |
| Whether a proving ground for nascent acts or an opportunity for the old guard to win new fans, the acoustic staple was unmissable. Until Korn showed up. | | |
|
| Noisey |
| Delicate Steve played two shows at Noisey Weekend at basically the same time, so we had a photographer follow him as he ran all over Williamsburg. | | |
|
| Rolling Stone |
| "The excitement is consuming me," veteran harmonica player says of thriving collaboration with singer-songwriter 26 years his junior. | | |
|
 | NewMusicBox |
| Taking recordings of fragments of speech, transcribing them into instrumental melodies, and then harmonizing them has provided Scott Johnson with rigorous compositional techniques from his landmark "John Somebody" to his recent tour de force "Mind Out of Matter." But it still allows him to reference popular culture. | | |
|
 | YouTube |
| | | | | | | | |
|
|
| © Copyright 2018, The REDEF Group |
|
|
