I feel like everybody now gets inspired by a preset or a sample library that comes with a program; and you can just go with that, if you feel like making it easy. But the person who thought life should be easier, I want to meet that person and punish him. It makes life horrible, and not worth living. | | | | Joe DeGeorge blows it for Downtown Boys at the Panorama Music Festival, New York, July 29, 2018.
(Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I feel like everybody now gets inspired by a preset or a sample library that comes with a program; and you can just go with that, if you feel like making it easy. But the person who thought life should be easier, I want to meet that person and punish him. It makes life horrible, and not worth living.”
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| | rantnrave:// Remember way back in mid-July, when passage of the MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT seemed almost certain? Remember when songwriters, publishers, subscription music services and digital radio were in near unanimous agreement on how to fix digital music copyrights and licensing? Remember when the U.S. government was going to authorize the creation of a music licensing collective to administer digital royalties? Remember when the biggest hurdles they all had to dance around were a couple outlying senators, Democrat RON WYDEN and Republican TED CRUZ? That was fun. But that was before the miraculously stitched together music community was blindsided by one of its own. Last-minute objections raised by BLACKSTONE, the private equity firm that owns SESAC and HARRY FOX, have turned the act's prospects from nearly guaranteed to fuzzy at best, while turning the music rights world against itself. Artists and songwriters are asking their SESAC-affiliated colleagues to resign, and some have threatened to stop working with SESAC writers if Blackstone doesn't change course. Among the leading voices are JASON ISBELL, STEVEN TYLER ("Hey SESAC—We are all seasick!!!") and BMI's 2017 pop songwriter of the year, ROSS GOLAN. Publishing companies and associations are on war footing. What Blackstone is proposing is that current digital licensers, including its own Harry Fox, be allowed to continue to operate in place of the new central collective. The collective's role would be diminished and, says Blackstone, competition would be created, which would be good for songwriters. Songwriters strongly disagree, while noting Blackstone's obvious self-interest. The collective, they say, is as essential to the Music Modernization Act as rhythm and melody are to a pop song. But is it possible the melody line is a little sour? Not everyone considers Blackstone/SESAC/Harry Fox the enemy; here's DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS on why the industry should be paying attention to this challenge, and why it may not have been quite as unexpected as many have made it out to be. Either way, a ticking clock looms over these negotiations. If the act isn't passed before the end of the year, when a new Congress takes power, everyone kind of has to start over... ROLLING STONE and VARIETY owner PENSKE MEDIA is making a strategic investment in analytics and charts service BUZZANGLE MUSIC. Should BILLBOARD be worried?... A year after proposing a new, female-centric canon of popular music, NPR MUSIC continues its Turning the Tables project by spotlighting the essential songs by women in the 21st century. The new list showed up early this morning; I can't wait to spend some quality time reading, listening and absorbing... Yo, give SKY FERREIRA her SOUNDCLOUD account back... The single most mind-blowing revelation from SPOTIFY's Q2 earnings call: DANIEL EK claims METALLICA changes its setlists from city to city based on Spotify streaming data. And setlists for all, as it were. Metallica, it should be noted, has yet to confirm this... The six-part documentary series REST IN POWER: THE TRAYVON MARTIN STORY, exec-produced by JAY-Z, premieres tonight on the PARAMOUNT NETWORK and BET... RIP DR. JULIA YASUDA, MARK "THE SHARK" SHELTON, JOSEPH MAUS, TOMASZ STANKO, OLIVER DRAGOJEVIC and FRANZ BEYER. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Genius |
| A handful of mixtapes have recently arrived on streaming services, but many more may never make the switch. | | |
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 | NPR Music |
| This list is part of Turning the Tables, an ongoing project from NPR Music dedicated to recasting the popular music canon in more inclusive – and accurate – ways. This year's list, selected by a panel of more than 70 women and non-binary writers, celebrates artists whose work is changing this century's sense of what popular music can be. | | |
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 | Village Voice |
| On the outside looking in. | | |
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 | Crosscut |
| Love this city? Then you should care about the future of this music venue. | | |
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 | Slate |
| “In My Feelings” is an accidental smash. It could become Drake’s biggest hit. | | |
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 | gal-dem |
| Drake has released a new album and with it, new memes. Are memes the measure of popular music? And what happens when they go wrong or worse, corporate? | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| Behind the industry’s elevated reputation: Dozens of artists say they are victims. | | |
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 | Pando |
| Pandora was never the darling of Silicon Valley. Ever. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| "Meant to Be," the crossover hit featuring Florida Georgia Line, is about to make country music history-but no one in the industry can figure out why. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| The music mogul is an executive producer of a sprawling six-part docu-series centered on the death of Mr. Martin, and the divisive verdict. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| Dua Lipa, Ella Mai, directors, and industry executives explain how music videos get made, how they make money, and why -- long after the golden age of MTV -- they still play a major role in artists' careers. | | |
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 | Longreads |
| In the aftermath of an assault, Matthew Miles Goodrich considers the effects of opioids on himself, the culture, and his musical hero, Prince. | | |
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 | Facebook |
| Paul McCartney in Casual Conversation with special guest Jarvis Cocker at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. | | |
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 | Passion of the Weiss |
| Will Hagle takes a look at “Fortnite,” the latest track from 03 Greedo. | | |
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 | Refinery29 |
| A look at how we created a climate ripe for men like R. Kelly to prey on Black girls, and who is trying to stop him. | | |
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 | The Tennessean |
| As CD sales slump and music festivals become more popular, many singers and fans are headed to sea for a more luxurious festival experience. | | |
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 | Salon |
| As the UK icon celebrates a milestone birthday, a look back at her music and legacy. | | |
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 | Trapital |
| The Carters prove that joint projects can yield worse results for artists at the top of their game. | | |
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 | Sonos |
| Sonos uses a unique blend of science and art to ensure your favorite music, movies, and TV shows sound the way their creators intended. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| How the lengths of popular hip-hop records have shifted across the last 30 years. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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