If [greatest-hits albums are] done right, they exist as a thing unto themselves, like, 'That’s one of the band’s albums.' | | | | Tomorrow X Together at the Wango Tango fest, Carson, Calif., June 1, 2019.
(Kevin Mazur/Getty Images) | | | | | | “If [greatest-hits albums are] done right, they exist as a thing unto themselves, like, 'That’s one of the band’s albums.'”
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| | rantnrave:// Is buying beats online the new writing songs to CASIO presets? Is the existence of "OLD TOWN ROAD," with its nonexclusive $30 beat, any more or less weird, or any more or less a sign of the end times, than this dancehall classic ghostwritten by a Casio MT-40? Or this indie-rock landmark born in a button on a PT-30? Is it high time you and your band sold your drums and bought a bunch of type beats? Or can you save pop music, and perhaps the world, by trashing those type beats and buying back those drums? The answer to all the above questions, if you're asking me, is yes. Also, no. The way writers write and producers produce is ever changing, with watershed events showing up every few years (along with new tools and new crutches). LIL NAS X isn't the first pop star to light up the charts with some online beat-shopping, but the outsize success of "Old Town Road" serves as notice that we might have just crossed one of those watersheds. In their invaluable SWITCHED ON POP podcast, CHARLIE HARDING and NATE SLOAN enlist ABE BATSHON, CEO of BEATSTARS, the enormous online marketplace where Lil Nas X found his career-making beat, and a couple of BeatStars producer/sellers to examine how it works, why it works and whether or not we should be worried. I was struck by producer BREANA MARIN's insight that the most successful sellers in this market, where hundreds of thousands of beatmakers are vying for the attention of the next Lil Nas X, are those who are as much entrepreneurs and influencers as they are musicians. Which may sound noncreative, but it's also how much of the rest of the music industry works, isn't it? Batshon tells the hosts his site's biggest stars track their sales closely, know which kind of beats are doing best and "they're super in tune with what their core audience is listening to." In other words, they're basically acting as A&R reps. For themselves. This is a disruption that honors, in almost every important way, the thing that it's disrupting. Some mediocre music will come of it. Some great music, too... The online beats marketplace is also, not surprisingly, susceptible to samples and other elements of questionable legality, like, say, the NINE INCH NAILS sample that powers the YOUNGKIO beat that Lil Nas X bought. It wasn't cleared at the time; it is now, and TRENT REZNOR and ATTICUS ROSS are getting paid. It goes without saying that any existing music that's sampled, interpolated or otherwise baked into a new production should be cleared, credited and compensated. But as to the creativity of YoungKio and Lil Nas X's usage? Let's not start the whole sampling debate from scratch, please. It's a great sample of a great original... Music biz to new British PM BORIS JOHNSON: "You may be happy to leap off the edge of a cliff, but please, please don't throw the British music industry over there with you"... MTV adds a K-pop category to the VMAs and K-pop fans are not happy... TAY-K sentenced to 55 years in prison for 2016 home-invasion murder... RIP TODD-1. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| Lil Nas X licensed the beat for "Old Town Road" from an e-commerce platform. He originally bought a non-exclusive copy of the backing track for just $29.99 from a 19 year old Dutch record producer called YoungKio. And he's not the first hitmaker to do so. | | |
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| Perhaps no contemporary musician understands the rules of the streaming ecosystem better than the singer Khalid, who emerged as a teenager and is now one of the most listened-to artists in the world. | | |
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| Woodstock's stalled-before-it-started 50th anniversary celebration has taken over much of the news cycle this summer, but some of us haven't forgotten the disaster that was Woodstock '99, which kicked off its main stage 20 years ago today. | | |
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| The planning of Woodstock 99 was rife with tensions between the promoters and local officials in the small town of Rome, New York. But potential red flags portending trouble were overlooked in favor of the hope for what Woodstock could do for a community that was down on its luck. | | |
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| Speeding up serves a purpose. But if Katy Perry’s doing it, is the trend already played out? | | |
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| Tomorrow X Together -- Big Hit Entertainment's newest bet -- have embraced the awkward teenage years of K-pop bands and used it as a strength, becoming models for introspection and acceptance. | | |
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| The podcast industry is buzzing in the midst of a Bloomberg reportstating that Apple is in preliminary talks to finance original, exclusive podcasts for its platform. | | |
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| The comments in response to two sponsored posts on Facebook promoting an upcoming Winston-Salem concert by the Grammy-winning and internationally-acclaimed group Tinariwen came in a steady drip of loathing, vitriol and menace. | | |
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| Blueface scored the smash hit "Thotiana" and the cover of XXL's Freshman issue, but as the L.A. rapper awaits the release of his debut album, have fickle hip-hop fans moved on? | | |
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| It’s an all-too-common story: A fabulous black musician redefines a genre of music. He’s adored and emulated by other musicians, including famous white acts. But the financial rewards, for complicated reasons, don’t match up. | | |
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| New song arrives to coincide with a 75th birthday bash at the Waterfront this weekend. | | |
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| Nine albums in, indie's most consistent band are looking backward-and forward-with 'Everything Hits at Once.' | | |
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| Your favorite Green Day or Guns N’ Roses hit just might help buyers of a new asset-backed bond get paid. | | |
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| As streaming offerings become more expensive and convoluted, people are setting up their own smaller, more intimate platforms. | | |
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| Five years ago, burnt out on internet misogyny, one of the best indie bands of the 2000s broke up. They flex their punk-pop muscle on their comeback album, ‘Memory.’ | | |
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| Jazz pianism today stands at an apex. There have been other moments in the music’s history when innovation rushed ahead of performers and listeners. But more than a century after jazz’s emergence, there are countless virtuosic pianists out there composing, recording and seeking a new vision for the genre. | | |
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| Dan breaks down why distribution is so critical for today’s hip-hop artists and how it has created a partnership flywheel that benefits Jay Z, Rihanna, and countless others. | | |
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| There's more to be done to make dance music truly diverse. | | |
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| Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Ariana Grande, 21 Savage and the Jonas Brothers are vying for video of the year at MTV's Video Music Awards in August. | | |
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| Nick Broomfield’s film underlines the downside of a life spent providing inspiration for a male artist, says arts writer Fiona Sturges. | | |
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