It just feels dystopian to be working a record now. | | | | Thundercat at the Newport Jazz Festival, Aug. 2, 2019. "It Is What It Is" is out today on Brainfeeder.
(Eva Hambach/AFP/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “It just feels dystopian to be working a record now.”
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| | rantnrave:// To release an album now, in the middle of a global pandemic, or to wait? To push an album out into the world when you can't tour, when record stores are closed, when promo opportunities are thin, and when, to be blunt, people are dying? Or to wait until the worst has passed but release schedules could be overbooked, touring routes turned into traffic jams and momentum might lost? "It's very tough to know exactly what to do," DUA LIPA, who released FUTURE NOSTALGIA a week ago, tells VARIETY. "I’ve always felt like if I have music that I’m going to put out and it’s ready, I don’t want to sit around and wait for the perfect time," SAM HUNT whose first album since 2014 drops today, tells the LA TIMES. FIONA APPLE apparently is defying corporate wishes by releasing FETCH THE BOLT CUTTERS in two weeks. Others, like LADY GAGA (“it just doesn’t feel right... with all that is going on"), HAIM and SAM SMITH, have decided to wait. Variety's CHRIS WILLMAN has a good story on the heart-wrenching decision many artists will face in the coming months and the factors they'll have to consider—like ticket/album bundling, which has suddenly become pretty much unavailable. The math, Willman notes, might be different for up-and-coming artists and stars. The market has sent somewhat mixed signals. Overall record sales hit a record low last week (a bonus statistic on that), but at the same time, the WEEKND had the biggest sales week of the year with AFTER HOURS. People still need music, there's no doubt about that. And it's FRIDAY, and we've yeses from THUNDERCAT, YAEJI, ASHLEY MCBRYDE, SAM HUNT, ROD WAVE, YVES TUMOR, ANNA BURCH, EMPRESS OF, PURITY RING, KIANA LEDÉ, LOGAN LEDGER, WU FEI & ABIGAIL WASHBURN, JAMES ELKINGTON, RUTHIE COLLINS, NDUDUZO MAKHATHINI, JIMMY GREENE, EVERYTHING IS RECORDED, ALL TIME LOW, TĒTĒMA, TESTAMENT, JOHN CARROLL KIRBY, NNAMDÏ, A$AP TWELVYY, NATHAN FAKE, KASKADE (EP out Saturday), JOYRYDE, WILMA ARCHER, MAITA, M. WARD, AUGUST BURNS RED, KURT ELLING, MYSTERY JETS, BILLY RAFFOUL, PEEL DREAM MAGAZINE, ELLIS, MELKBELLY and TOPS... And tracks/singles/things from FRANK OCEAN, DRAKE and LINDSAY LOHAN... JARVIS COCKER, BEN GIBBARD and MICHAEL CHAPMAN are among the artists playing LIGHT IN THE ATTIC's livestreamed Covid-19 benefit starting at 7 pm ET tonight... Just because it's livestreaming doesn't mean you don't need a ticket... RIP EDWARD TARR and BILL MARTIN. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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 | The New Yorker |
| Fund-raisers, grants, and governmental relief are all helping to keep musical artists afloat. Yet the industry may already be showing signs of permanent damage. | | |
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 | Variety |
| As recording artists face tough calls about whether to stick with their imminent album release dates or postpone them indefinitely, the two top dance-pop divas of the moment provided divergent examples of which way to go. | | |
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 | REDEF |
| How many hooks can one songwriter possibly have in him? We may never know. In a career that spanned three bands, TV, films, musicals and more, Adam Schlesinger, tragically lost to the coronavirus in 2020, never came close to running out. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| “The most understated commodity of this craziness right now is the barter and trade for features,” says one A&R. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| The English singer’s excellent second album could be one of the last major music releases we see for a while. | | |
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 | NPR |
| G Herbo came up in Chicago's drill scene -- a style of music praised for its lack of affect and criticized for its portrayal of violence. But on his new album PTSD, he drops the mask and cries. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| Companies like Side Door, StageIt and Looped are stepping up to help artists monetize online performances. | | |
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| Variety |
| The shutdown of production was devastating to Los Angeles' music community, just as it has been for every aspect of TV- and movie-making. But creative thinking is putting some studio musicians back to work. | | |
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 | Music Business Worldwide |
| The CEO of Believe, Denis Ladegaillerie, offers his advice to artists, labels and managers during an uncertain time. | | |
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 | The Undefeated |
| The master pianist died at the age of 85 due to complications from COVID-19. | | |
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| Billboard |
| Billboard picks the greatest pop star -- as well as the best debut and the best comeback -- for every year of the MTV era. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| With the coronavirus pandemic putting live shows on hold, performers are adapting how they practice. | | |
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 | GQ |
| With the pandemic come the pandemic jams. Amos Barshad checks in with the rappers, DJs, and singers making us smile, one coronavirus song at a time. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| Kathy Valentine's hair-raising memoir recounts life before, during and shortly after the Go-Go’s ascended to become the darlings of the MTV generation. | | |
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 | Complex |
| Daniel “Tekashi 6ix9ine” Hernandez is now out of prison and in home confinement. But what does that mean? How will this work? We looked through the documents. | | |
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| Rolling Stone |
| Paramore’s singer opens up about her deepest secrets on her first-ever solo album. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| Cristina Monet-Palaci turned her acid wit to tales of faded glamour and toxic affairs -- and became a true pop one-off. | | |
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 | VICE |
| "It feels really strange to also be like, 'Hey, would you like to write about this brand new band? By the way, our entire society is crumbling.'" | | |
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| Los Angeles Times |
| Sam Hunt will release his new album “Southside” into a musical environment that Lil Nas X, Blanco Brown and others would tell you Hunt helped shape. | | |
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| The Ringer |
| Knxwledge's "1988" arrives at a perfect moment. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | Thundercat, with Steve Arrington, Steve Lacy and Flying Lotus |
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