To see so many white people dancing to this music that blacks made and they could dance, they had rhythm, it was tripping me out because they were in the groove. | | | | Celebrities Listening to Music on Headphones: Meow.
(Hulton Deutsch/Corbis/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “To see so many white people dancing to this music that blacks made and they could dance, they had rhythm, it was tripping me out because they were in the groove.”
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| | rantnrave:// Well this is awkward. Two weeks after pulling R. KELLY and XXXTENTACION from its playlists under a controversial new policy on "hateful conduct," SPOTIFY is planning to reverse course on one of the two artists, according to BLOOMBERG's LUCAS SHAW. (Multiple sources confirmed the news to VARIETY, while one source said "nothing has been decided.") Care to guess which one of the two? Care to guess which unadjudicated allegation Spotify still considers a dealbreaker, and which one it apparently doesn't? Care to guess if APPLE and PANDORA, which don't have similar policies but did follow suit vis-a-vis R. Kelly, will keep following suit? Does anyone want to play a game of TWISTER? Will Spotify's programmers have to promote the artist's music now, or will they merely be given the choice? Will it actually be a choice? (And hey, is everyone still good with BRAND NEW on their playlists? Just checking.) One root of the problem, of course, is Spotify's decision to go public with its policy in the first place, rather than simply stop promoting the artists it wasn't comfortable with. If XXXTentacion stopped showing up on RAPCAVIAR without an announcement, there hardly would have been a basis for anyone to complain—Spotify is under no obligation to promote anything it doesn't want to promote—and lots of people would have welcomed his absence. By putting it in writing, Spotify raised way more questions than it could possibly answer, no matter how good its intentions were. The other root of the problem is the unilateral nature of the decision. By most accounts, labels and managers weren't consulted in advance, but they certainly made their unhappiness known afterward. Bloomberg says several acts threatened to pull their music from the service, and both Bloomberg and Variety said Spotify's head of artist relations, TROY CARTER, was instrumental in getting the company to reconsider. Could a few discussions among key stakeholders, in advance, have prevented all of the fallout? Or, I don't know, should we be thankful that Spotify started the public discussion, no matter how awkward the first act turned out to be? How do we keep the discussion going and make act two better?... VEVO throws in a towel... EPs have always felt less "important" than LPs in artist discographies, in artist histories, on radio, in stores, pretty much everywhere, for reasons having nothing to do with the music on them. The streaming era has made that lack of importance tangible. I'm with TRENT REZNOR... I'm with short albums in general... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from J BALVIN, PUSHA T, SUDAN ARCHIVES, CHVRCHES, SHAWN MENDES, A$AP ROCKY, KAMAAL WILLIAMS, JOSHUA REDMAN, BROWNOUT, LAMONT DOZIER, DEL MCCOURY, JONATHAN DAVIS, ZAYTOVEN, JENNY HVAL, SNOW PATROL, OTZEKI, TRACYANNE & DANNY, THUNDERPUSSY, ARI ROAR, JEFFREY OSBORNE, and JOHN POWELL's score for SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY... MONDAY is MEMORIAL DAY and MusicREDEF will be taking the day off to get our linen clothes out of storage and start pondering what the Song of the Summer will be. Maybe you'll be in DETROIT. See you Tuesday. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Detroit Metro Times |
| How a homegrown artform took over the world. | | |
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 | NPR Music |
| After cracking the American pop charts last year, the Colombian reggaeton star is following the success of "Mi Gente" with his fifth album, Vibras. And he knows you're still listening. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| It's fair enough to debate the legislation formerly known as the CLASSICS Act. But some of this criticism is factually inaccurate, most of it is hysterical, and all of it is coming from Make-The-Internet-Great-Again die-hards who haven't gotten over the Supreme Court's ruling that held the post-Napster file-sharing service could face liability for copyright infringement. | | |
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 | Bloomberg |
| Facing a rebellion among artists and even some of its own employees, Spotify Technology SA will partially walk back a move to punish musicians for their personal misconduct. | | |
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 | UPROXX |
| From Jason Isbell to Metallica, the soundtrack choices in Showtime’s hit series ’Billions’ are left of center -- and that’s for a reason. | | |
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 | Highsnobiety |
| Today’s hip-hop community could do a lot worse than follow A$AP Rocky’s lead by embracing Moby as not only a fervent admirer of their work, catalogues, and artistry but as a potentially valuable source of inspiration. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| The teen-pop megastar reveals a dark — or at least darker — side on his make-or-break third album. | | |
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 | recode |
| The music business thought about building its own YouTube competitor. Instead, it’s letting YouTube do what YouTube always wanted to do. | | |
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 | Refinery29 |
| Black rappers have long used Asian references in their music. Same with Asian hip hop. But instead of kinship, this relationship is based on caricatures. | | |
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 | Lefsetz Letter |
| The president of Motown Records (and president of Urban Music/Co-Head of Creative at Universal Publishing Music Group) shares the story of her rapid rise through the Atlanta music scene. She discusses race in America, being a female executive in the music industry, the future of hip hop, and how she develops global strategy for the artists under her wing. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| A collaboration between LCD Soundsystem and Soulwax, Despacio plays deep disco and classic rock but, with a rig heavier than Metallica’s, it holds its own against the big drops of mainstream DJs. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| The sprawling Brooklyn complex may have been unsustainable, but its anti-gentrification, pro-diversity approach should be a model for the next generation of DIY venues everywhere. | | |
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 | Complex |
| Jensen Karp turned battle rap into a million-dollar record deal back in 1999. Now he’s writing rhymes for The Rock, Halle Berry, and Anne Hathaway. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| The singer and songwriter has spun tragedy into plainly angry action on her new album, “Hell-On.” | | |
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 | Mixmag |
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 | The Fader |
| Our Song of the Summer playlist including Drake, Cardi B, Lil Uzi Vert, and Playboi Carti. | | |
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 | The Muse |
| It took decades for Josiah Wise to find his voice. This is figuratively true for most developing adults, but for Wise, who performs music under the name serpentwithfeet, it was also literal. | | |
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 | Red Bull Music Academy |
| He was known as “The Godfather.” The story of Ken Collier is the story of three pivotal generations of Detroit nightlife, and how one phenomenal gay DJ held the door open for techno. | | |
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| Complex |
| The L.A. production duo helped produce five songs on 'The Life of Pablo.' The experience taught them how to make the best album of their career. | | |
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| The Guardian |
| The neo-soul star has sold millions, raised three kids and embodied wokeness before the word was even coined. But can her reputation survive January’s "I saw something good in Hitler" comment? | | |
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 | YouTube |
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