Your steel sharpened my steel as I watched you create cadences from the ether and set them free into the universe to become poetic law, making the English language your b****. I always wanted to change you, to somehow sophisticate your outlook and make you see that there were far more options than the streets, only to realize that you and the streets were one... and there was no way to separate a man from his true self. | | | | Megan Thee Stallion at Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival, Houston, Nov. 9, 2019.
(Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Your steel sharpened my steel as I watched you create cadences from the ether and set them free into the universe to become poetic law, making the English language your b****. I always wanted to change you, to somehow sophisticate your outlook and make you see that there were far more options than the streets, only to realize that you and the streets were one... and there was no way to separate a man from his true self.”
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| | rantnrave:// SPOTIFY's subscriber numbers, active users and podcast listening hours are all up, revenues too, and while advertising is down, it's starting to pick up again as the global pandemic drags on. But the streaming music leader is still piling up net losses like DRAKE piles up hits, according to the company's Q2 earnings report. The quarterly loss of $418 million was more than quadruple the company's losses a year ago, which it attributed partly to increased payroll taxes in some countries as a result of its booming stock price. Spotify executives are feeling good, all things considered, and not just because they got to spend Wednesday reporting their earnings rather than doing a ZOOM call with a Congressional subcommittee. "The big news here is that there isn’t really a lot of big news," chief exec DANIEL EK told the WALL STREET JOURNAL. "I've never been more bullish about where we are" was his message to investors. In line with a strategy that focuses on "growth rather than maximizing revenue," Spotify is continuing to spend on podcast acquisition, international expansion and other priorities. One area where growth is a little slow is goodwill with artists, and I've been wondering lately if Spotify—or any streaming company—might consider offering some temporary relief to artists by unilaterally raising royalty rates for as long as the pandemic continues to keep musicians locked up at home. A Spotify CARES act, if you will, to benefit artists in need while growing goodwill rather than revenue for the company. I wonder how an investment like that might pay off in the long run, in subscription numbers, in content, in any number of intangibles, and if the short term financial hit would even matter... Some fascinating between-the-numbers analysis of SPOT's earnings by MUSIC BUSINESS WORLDWIDE's TIM INGHAM... Writing in ROLLING STONE, New York State Health Commissioner HOWARD ZUCKER makes the case for why the CHAINSMOKERS (and, never forget, GOLDMAN SACHS CEO DAVID SOLOMON) concert last weekend in the Hamptons was not only "an illegal and reckless endangerment of public health" but also callous and cruel. "What struck our collective nerve," Zucker writes, "was seeing so many with so much to their advantage—concert attendees were generally young, healthy, and, as indicated by the $850 ticket prices, able to afford health care if they should need it—be so cavalier about taking a risk that could have dire consequences for many." His department is investigating "how this rule-flouting event was able to get off the ground." Organizers say they worked with state and local officials to take all the precautions they could... GARTH BROOKS does not want to be the CMA Entertainer of the Year yet again—he is not alone in this wish—and he's asked the org to take him off the ballot. The CMA says its rules don't allow it to tamper with its own ballot and it will be "up to voters" to decide what to do... The MERCURY PRIZE's rules prevent it from considering critically acclaimed RINA SAWAYAMA at all, because although she's lived in the UK since she was a child, she isn't a citizen. She calls it an act of "othering" and says it's much worse than if she had simply been snubbed... Whip-Smart Little Pill: LIZ PHAIR should interview ALANIS MORISSETTE more often and the LA TIMES should transcribe the results every time... RIP MALIK B (QUESTLOVE remembers his old ROOTS bandmate with this amazing story) and BENNETT GLOTZER. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| For all his current success and acclaim, the world's biggest young rock star continues to be ignored at rock radio. | | |
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| Liz Phair was supposed to be on tour with Alanis Morissette right now. Instead, she's interviewing the "Jagged Little Pill" star for The Times. | | |
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| What we learned about Premium subs around the world, that Universal deal and SPOT’s advertising woes. | | |
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| Dr. Howard A. Zucker, the state’s chief doctor, calls DJ duo’s widely criticized Hamptons concert a “flagrant disregard for the public’s health during a pandemic.” | | |
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| In the early 1970s, Garrett Saracho was among the city’s most exciting young jazz musicians. A writer tracks him down at his home near Whittier. | | |
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| Researchers are still digging into the question and sharing their findings decades after the Nazis sacked the homes of Jews during World War II. | | |
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| The story of the record industry in 2020 was supposed to be centered on TikTok and continued streaming growth. Instead, with the onset of this pandemic, a new assumption was made: People want, no must, see live streams of their favorite artists. | | |
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| Three decades ago, the punk rockers, hardcore kids and metalheads of New York City relied on the operators of one answering machine to find out where bands were playing. This is the story of 212-OPEC. | | |
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| Pianist Yuja Wang, violinist Leonidas Kavakos and several prominent academics have been accused this week of making anti-Black comments. Ensuing debates have been playing out on Twitter and Instagram. | | |
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| The rapper, who has died at age 47, was a formidable presence on the Philadelphia hip-hop group’s first four albums. | | |
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| A billion-dollar industry silenced seemingly overnight, ringtones laid the foundations of modern mobile consumer technology and set the stage for the app store and mobile commerce as we know it today. | | |
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| A new documentary about the Los Angeles band explores the punk roots that came before its pop sheen, and the power dynamics that led to its split. | | |
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| The Mobile, Alabama, rapper floats and stings throughout her debut album, ‘Ho, Why Is You Here?’ She could also be hip-hop’s next great star. | | |
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| LeAnn Rimes and Pharrell Williams headlined DecreeFest, a two day online extravaganza staged by the funsters at the US Department Of Justice that is entertaining the world by, erm, discussing the intricacies of collecting society regulation and the current review of the BMI and ASCAP consent decrees. Fun times. | | |
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| "It's time for somebody else to hold that award," Garth Brooks said Wednesday (Jul. 29). | | |
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| The Black Madonna and Joey Negro are changing their aliases, but this shouldn’t paper over wider issues within the electronic music scene | | |
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| What happens when Hollywood's intellectual property king meets Queen Bey? That's the question worldwide fans and Hollywood insiders are mulling with anticipation, as Beyoncé's latest visual album, " Black Is King," prepares to debut July 31 on Disney Plus. | | |
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| On this program, we look at Puerto Rican protest songs over the past two centuries; including Paracumbé on subversive bomba dances from the time of slavery, Las Barrileras 8M, an all-women drumming group demanding an end to violence against women and a new plena from Hector Tito Matos about the death of George Floyd. | | |
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| A nationality clause in the Mercury Prize and the BRITs are stopping musicians from entering the race. It's turning the arts into a form of border control, the 'SAWAYAMA' musician says. | | |
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| The night was muggy, a storm grumbling as it approached, and I was rushing the dog through a boring walk around the block. Then I heard it. A warm strum of guitar chords, intricate and lilting. Not a recording. Live. Funny, how quickly you know that. | | |
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| | | | | | | "I shock your brain with the miscellaneous / Who be the zaniest... with words that are spontaneous?" RIP Malik B. |
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