I get why everyone is excited about some states reopening right now. In my opinion, without a vaccine, this is like opening up a designated section of a public pool for pissing. | | | | Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, displaying solid social distancing chops at Coachella in April 2019, are "Stuck" atop this week's Billboard Hot 100.
(Kevin Mazur/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I get why everyone is excited about some states reopening right now. In my opinion, without a vaccine, this is like opening up a designated section of a public pool for pissing.”
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| | rantnrave:// One more thought on the present and future of live concerts while you take a peek, if you'd like, at what the men's room looks like at a socially distanced concert circa May 2020 (don't worry, there are no people in the photo). The considerable damage to artists, road crews, venues, promoters and everyone else associated with the live music business continues to be well chronicled. "My crew is suffering, the future is unknown, and most of the bands you know and love won’t make it out of this," HALESTORM's LZZY HALE wrote on INSTAGRAM Monday, and while there may be some hyperbole in her assessment, there may also be a good deal of truth. She, unlike me, is on the front lines, and she's been there for a couple decades. But there's one particular subset of bands I've been thinking about lately: young and upcoming artists in genres like rock, metal, jazz and country (most genres, actually) where playing live is everything, especially when you're starting out. Those first couple years on the road, or in hometown clubs, is where craft, chemistry, crowds and careers come from. No fans means no sales, no streams, no merch, no album, no band. And for so many artists, no gigs means no fans. What becomes of bands that formed last June, or this January? Can they survive six months of not playing live? Can they survive a year of not getting in a van? How many of them won't make it out of this? How do you calculate the loss of artists you may never hear? Could a year's crop, or more, be ruined? MusicSET: "Future of Live Music"... The calculations that go into the BILLBOARD HOT 100 make for "one of the most walled-off processes in the entertainment business," VARIETY's SHIRLEY HALPERIN and JEM ASWAD note. But BILLBOARD dragged those calculations somewhat into the open Monday in a attempt to referee a public dispute between ARIANA GRANDE, whose fundraising JUSTIN BIEBER duet "STUCK WITH U" debuts at #1 this week, and 6IX9INE, whose post-prison comeback "GOOBA" debuts at a disappointing (for him) #3. 6ix9ine leveled a conspiracy theory-ish charge at Grande's digital sales that doesn't deserve oxygen without better (or any) evidence, and accused the magazine of undercounting his streams by tens of millions of plays; in turn, the rapper was accused by unnamed sources of racking up fake YOUTUBE plays. Billboard rejected the sales accusation against Grande but said it's seeking further information. The mag addressed the streaming numbers discrepancy by explaining that 6ix9ine was hyping his global YouTube plays while only US plays count for Billboard's charts. Then, without pointing fingers or naming names, it dryly noted that it also routinely reduces YouTube play counts for such issues as "lack of user verification" and "excessive plays." Lines, read between them. Of course, Billboard being Billboard, it also took the time to trumpet a chart formula "with each metric divided by a certain number, which results in an average chart ratio" and in which "each song has its own ratio breakdown based on its specific activity," and suddenly high school calculus sounds like a breeze. A fascinating read. We know a little more now about how this works. But just a little... Meanwhile on the album chart, NAV's GOOD INTENTIONS is #1 with the help of "100 different merchandise/album bundles" and a deluxe version released two days after the original album... KEVIN MAYER, formerly head of streaming at DISNEY, is the new CEO of TIKTOK (and COO of parent company BYTEDANCE)... RIP PADDY BOWDEN, an early MTV marketing employee who was married to IRON MAIDEN's BRUCE DICKINSON for 29 years; they had separated last year. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | | a woofer in tweeter's clothing |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| Twitch’s head of music explains why channel subscriptions and so-called “tipping” on the Amazon-owned platform could open up a significant new revenue stream for artists in the future. | | |
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 | ABC News |
| Many fear they'll never be able to reopen in the wake of COVID-19. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| On his second major-label album, the Detroit rapper provoked, joked, threatened and emoted. Twenty years later, listen to the songs that came first, and the ones he inspired. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| Her new album, "Punisher," was crafted with foresight and intention, but the absurdity of the world in which it's being released requires a certain amount of disengagement. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| In an effort towards transparency regarding the Hot 100's chart rules and tabulation process, Billboard wanted to clear some things up regarding this week's chart, in which new singles from rapper 6ix9ine ("Gooba") and the pop star duo of Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber ("Stuck With U") were in contention for the top spot. | | |
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 | Forbes |
| From musicians like Perry Farrell to execs like John Sykes and Marcie Allen, the trailblazers in the music industry all agree the companies and people that can survive the pandemic are those that evolve. Here's how six people in music have changed their roles in the last few months. | | |
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 | Stan |
| Take a look at the strategies that their fanbases used to ensure the remixes for "Savage" and "Say So" would be on top of the charts. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| Tracing the singer-rapper’s rise from viral curio to TikTok phenom to the No. 1 artist in the country. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| In Amsterdam, 102 members of one choir fell ill, and cases have been reported in Europe, America and the UK. But scientists cannot agree on the cause. | | |
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 | Statista |
| This chart shows a contact tracing response in Seoul, South Korea, after a clubgoer was tested positive for coronavirus (2020). | | |
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 | Very Smart Brothas |
| I don’t know what I was doing awake on the Saturday before Easter (April 12), at midnight, but whatever it was, I Shazam’d a song at 12:05 A.M. My best guess is that, per usual, I was watching a movie, or some television show and heard a snippet of a song that tickled my fancy. (In my life, Shazam is the greatest life hack to ever do it.) | | |
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 | The Quietus |
| Twenty years after Prince abandoned the Love Symbol to reclaim his own name, Soma Ghosh explores what lay behind this subversion of gender and racial identity. | | |
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 | Water & Music |
| There’s a huge gap in public perception between the likes of Spotify and Bandcamp, with respect to their roles in direct-to-fan communication and monetization. | | |
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| Rolling Stone |
| Streaming data shows that bluegrass, country, and singer-songwriter classics have spiked during the pandemic, even as streams fell overall. | | |
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 | Texas Monthly |
| Over the last three decades, a radio deejay has helped transform Brady into a place where twangy instrumentals reign. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| Fans who had to have their temperatures taken and wear masks for the Travis McCready show said it was worth it for the experience of hearing live music again. | | |
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| The New Yorker |
| The sound is often tinny, the stage patter awkward, but live-streamed events have generated moments of startling power. | | |
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 | MusicAlly |
| The #BrokenRecord campaign started by musician Tom Gray in the UK is gathering steam. He was a guest on our Music Ally TV Show on Friday. | | |
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| The Guardian |
| Fuelled by drink and drugs, his band Einstürzende Neubauten destroyed venues and invented industrial music. Now they’re back -- so why is he doing cookery classes on Instagram? | | |
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 | Vanity Fair |
| In the 1980s and ’90s, the late label boss had a wildly successful vision for selling R&B and rap acts like Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, and Heavy D to the mainstream. As his friend and one-time biographer remembers, it helped pave the way for almost everything that has followed. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | From "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip," out now on BMG. |
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