A great song can make the worst artist in the world a star. | | | | Shadows and light: Arca at FYF Fest, Los Angeles, July 22, 2017.
(Scott Dudelson/WireImage/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “A great song can make the worst artist in the world a star.”
|
| |
| | rantnrave:// ASCAP and BMI combining their catalogs into a master copyright database isn't as crazy as MEEK MILL and DRAKE sharing a bottle of wine or OASIS and BLUR merging their rhythm sections, but it's an unprecedented act of cooperation between the two biggest performing rights organizations in the US. The longtime rivals say it's a proactive step toward industry-wide transparency on copyrights and licensing, which seems like a smart response to restaurants, radio stations, digital music services and everyone else who says it's getting harder to identify copyright holders in an increasingly fragmented licensing universe. More rivals should share bottles of wine and/or rhythm sections. How about the entire creator/licensor community and the entire programming/licensee community? That would be RED SOX–YANKEES territory. But ASCAP and BMI, even if the longtime rivals are on the same side of that particular divide, is a welcome start. (But is it a true master database if SESAC and GMR aren't involved? Should the government be involved? Or should the government stay out of the way and let the market handle it?)... I'm not sure what $10K buys you these days in your quest to develop the next SOUNDCLOUD or ITUNES. But I kinda love this offer from WETRANSFER to 173 recently laid off SoundCloud employees... Top-notch spinning from lawyers for MICHAEL JACKSON's estate after a jury ruled the estate owed QUINCY JONES $9.4 million in royalties in a suit in which he initially sought $30 million: The jury, they said in statement, "denied Quincy Jones $21 million"... More awesome responses to NPR's "150 Greatest Albums by Women": JONATHAN BOGART offers his 150 Greatest Albums by Women Before 1964 (i.e. before the NPR list's cutoff point), noting, "Contra the received wisdom of boomer-centric pop historians, the album did not start being a cohesive form of expression when the BEATLES cracked AMERICA." And my friend BRIAN MANSFIELD from SHORE FIRE MEDIA responds to the original list's omission of PATSY CLINE and BRENDA LEE by crowdsourcing a SPOTIFY playlist of The 150 Greatest Singles Made by Women (from the RONETTES to RIHANNA). Lists *should* beget lists. Just remember that the NPR original wasn't a list, per se, it was an argument. Then again, all lists, at least all good ones, are arguments. You should start your own... RIP DR. G. YUNUPINGU, BILLY JOE WALKER and MICHAEL JOHNSON. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
|
|
 | Rolling Stone |
| Academy Award winner is on tour with his band, drawing audiences eager to hear his iconic work live. | | |
|
 | Medium |
| What if each and every laid-off SoundCloud employee was offered ten thousand dollars to refrain from getting a job? To leave and start something. To leave and start working on the new future of music, whatever that might be. | | |
|
 | British GQ |
| How Mick Jagger became the self-appointed owner of The Rolling Stones. | | |
|
 | The Line of Best Fit |
| Terminally uncool and ingenious, Paramore have been at the intersection between the alternative and mainstream for more than a decade. | | |
|
 | Music Business Worldwide |
| There are around 365 million people in China that will happily buy into culture and entertainment – young people that have newly disposable income to spend on leisure. It may not be the entire 1.2 billion population, but it’s still the equivalent of the entire USA buying into music. Imagine that. | | |
|
 | The Guardian |
| It used to be that if you liked the music, you got the T-shirt. Now, the band T-shirt is a fashion trend all on its own -- whether you like what it stands for or not. | | |
|
 | The New Yorker |
| In a recent concert at the Barclays Center, Lamar’s delivery was a testament to the enduring power of an unvarnished rap performance. | | |
|
 | Billboard |
| Billboard had a chance to talk to some of the industry’s most in-demand touring musicians to learn secrets of being on the road. | | |
|
 | Broadcasting & Cable |
| The move appears unlikely to preempt a recently announced legislative effort to mandate such a database, though the combined database has been in the works for a year, said a spokesperson for the licensing groups. | | |
|
| Rolling Stone |
| Gregg Allman collaborators including producer Don Was describe how the singer's emotional farewell album, 'Southern Blood,' took shape. | | |
|
 | The Boston Globe |
| Angelakos initially made the new music available months ago, sending it directly to Twitter followers in exchange for retweets in support of the #weneedscience campaign. | | |
|
 | Los Angeles Times |
| Jones claimed the master recordings for Jackson's albums were improperly remixed to deprive him of royalties and production fees. Jackson's estate said an accounting error caused the producer to miss out on some funds he was owed but put that figure at about $392,000 — significantly lower than the $30 million Jones was seeking. | | |
|
 | Salon |
| On its new album, Arcade Fire shows a cynical side. | | |
|
 | Saving Country Music |
| Even people who despise country music see Willie Nelson as a beacon of light in the world, as a guidepost of infinite wisdom, and as an irreplaceable soul on this mortal coil. For decades now, music has simply been the excuse to pay attention to what a gift it is to have Willie Nelson inhabit planet Earth. | | |
|
| Billboard |
| J Balvin and Willy William's "Mi Gente" has quickly become one of the world's most popular tracks, placing second on Spotify's global music chart now only to the remix of another Spanish-language hit -- "Despacito." | | |
|
 | Stereogum |
| SoundCloud is in trouble. Earlier this month, the streaming platform laid off nearly half its workforce, positioning the move as what it needs to do to remain "independent." Since then, there have been reports that the company doesn't even have enough money to survive the next two months, even after the mass layoffs. | | |
|
 | The Daily Beast |
| The Freddie Mercury biopic is go. But with Queen executive-producing the project, how honestly will it examine Mercury’s complex private life and desire for privacy? | | |
|
 | Guitar World |
| Polyphia’s most recent song and video, for their 2016 track “Lit,” kicks off in a manner similar to that of many instrumental shred bands-with the camera showing the group’s two guitarists, Tim Henson and Scott LePage, simultaneously picking out a twisty, fleet-fingered repeating harmony lick high up on the necks of their guitars. | | |
|
 | WTF with Marc Maron |
| Marc believes -- and many agree with him -- that Randy Newman is an American genius. One person who's not so sure is Randy himself who, after half a century as a recording artist, 13 solo albums, 23 soundtracks, six Grammys, two Oscars and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, tells Marc he still doesn't think he's done enough. | | |
|
 | The Creative Independent |
| Musician Lætitia Tamko (aka Vagabon) discusses the specifics behind how she built a following, her transition from amateur to professional musician, and why it's important never to shove your work down people's throats. | | |
|
| | | | | | | From "Tremendous Sea of Love," self-released via Twitter in March and to be released to digital services this Friday. |
| | |
|
|
| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
|
|
