Kanye West is not Picasso / I am Picasso / Kanye West is not Edison / I am Edison / I am Tesla. | | | | Ella Mai's self-titled debut album is out today on 10 Summers/Interscope.
(Gus Stewart/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Kanye West is not Picasso / I am Picasso / Kanye West is not Edison / I am Edison / I am Tesla.”
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| | rantnrave:// The MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT has been signed, sealed and delivered and goes into effect on Jan 1, 2020. The sweeping bill makes several major changes to the way digital royalties are tracked, valued and paid; most notably, it creates a new agency, run by songwriters and publishers, to oversee digital mechanical licensing. "A great day and a new era for the music industry," in the words of ASCAP CEO ELIZABETH MATTHEWS. "The most comprehensive legislation in music history," per lyricist, podcaster and activist ROSS GOLAN. "Every professional songwriter in America who has suffered devastating economic losses in the era of digital music delivery can now breathe a sigh of relief," said STEVE BOGARD, president of NASHVILLE SONGWRITER ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL. Engineers and producers will benefit, too, as will streaming music services, who for the first time can secure blanket mechanical licenses. The legislation, which brought together three separate bills, was the result of years of dealmaking, compromise, lobbying and sweat—and a little last-minute scrambling. And now, in some ways, the even harder work begins. The legislation calls for the creation, from scratch, of a new licensing agency. How it's formed "and which private companies emerge as partners will be of immense interest in the music industry," the TENNESSEAN's NATE RAU writes, with a patina of understatement. It also means building a comprehensive database of songs and recordings, "an ambitious undertaking that has yet to be successfully completed in past industry attempts," as BILLBOARD's ED CHRISTMAN notes. The lobbying effort, presumably, now turns from Washington to Los Angeles, Nashville, New York and Silicon Valley. But today is a day for champagne and celebration. And while there is reorganizing ahead, it's worth appreciating the organizing that's already been done. "We are no longer the exploited sleeping giant," Golan said of his fellow songwriters and artists. "We are here and we are organized. We were told uniting songwriters is like herding cats. Well we did and now we are a pride of lions"... Absent from the WHITE HOUSE signing ceremony for the Music Modernization Act were any major pop stars and many of the music industry figures who spilled their blood to get the law passed. BILLBOARD reports on several last-minute disinvitations... This upcoming scripted series on HULU ain't nuthing ta f*** wit... LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM sues his former FLEETWOOD MAC bandmates. We look forward to a settlement that requires them to reunite and record an album about it... FYRE FESTIVAL organizer BILLY MCFARLAND gets six years in federal prison... There's a marimba-playing robot named SHIMON who has learned how to improvise with a live band and is totally not terrible (but who has not yet been asked to join Fleetwood Mac)... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from ELLA MAI, QUAVO, ST. VINCENT, USHER (surprise!), KURT VILE, ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS, AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE, BELLY, COLTER WALL, TOM MORELLO, RÜFÜS DU SOL, WILLIAM BASINSKI & LAWRENCE ENGLISH, JAAKKO EINO KALEVI, YOUNG THE GIANT, TRIPPIE REDD, SHY GLIZZY, BLACK EYED PEAS, MATTHEW DEAR, ADAM HOOD, YOUNG BUCK, EDIE BRICKELL & NEW BOHEMIANS, JIMMIE ALLEN, JESS GLYNNE, JUSTIN COURTNEY PIERRE, BERES HAMMOND, JOHN GRANT, JOHN HIATT, SARAH BORGES, PRIMAL SCREAM, the WATSON TWINS, MORGAN EVANS, CALVIN JOHNSON, the DODOS, LINDSAY BEAVER and the BOTTLE ROCKETS. Also, jingle my bells, Christmas albums are starting to coming out, like a lot of them, but basketball season hasn't even begun so all you need to know for now, maybe, is that ERIC CLAPTON pays tribute to AVICII on his... RIP RANDALL CLAY. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | recode |
| Hubbard says they need his startup Rival, which will publicly launch next year. | | |
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 | The Fader |
| Known for its celebrity members and chart-topping worship songs, Hillsong Church's secret weapon is its army of talented volunteers. | | |
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 | Refinery29 |
| Inside the quick affairs, jealous spats, pick-up lines, and longings that define a touring musician's love life. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| At long last the Music Modernization Act was signed into law today by President Donald Trump, witnessed by a smattering of industry executives and such recordings artists as Kid Rock and John Rich, the president's besties. | | |
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 | Songtrust |
| With the passing into law of the Music Modernization Act, guest writer Seth Lorinczi takes a deeper look into the current music business inadequate system of compensating music creators and rights holders fairly in order to truly understand why these new changes are so historic. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s "Shallow" got us thinking: What are the best songs written or performed on screen by characters in a movie? | | |
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 | Stereogum |
| In 2015, Twenty One Pilots were the biggest band you've never heard of. By the end of the following year, they were the biggest band, period. After debuting at #1 three years ago with "Blurryface," their second album for Warner subsidiary Fueled By Ramen, the Columbus duo kept up the slow-burn growth that had lifted them from unknowns to grassroots cult heroes to major-label radio stars. | | |
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 | Trapital |
| Mega-producers once had remarkable runs, but changes in the industry made it difficult for today's best producers to stay on top for long. | | |
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 | MusicAlly |
| Streaming is a world of tracks and playlists rather than albums, right? An event in London organised by British industry bodies the BPI and ERA promised to explore the role of the album in the streaming era, including some stats and views pushing back on the assumption that it doesn’t have one. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| With Elvis Costello and the Imposters’ first new LP in over a decade out this week, our Invisible Hits column celebrates his longtime backing bands with standout performance clips from over the years. | | |
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| Billboard |
| With all the music that’s eligible out and votes for nominees soon due in, a new awards season awaits -- with #grammyssomale fresh in the music world’s memory. Will a jolted academy, armed with expanded categories, deliver a reinvigorated ceremony in Los Angeles when it airs Feb. 10, 2019? Grammy hopefuls Dua Lipa, Ella Mai and Post Malone weigh in. | | |
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 | The Atlantic |
| In a music business once defined by stark genre separations, consumer culture is shifting the way songs are (or aren’t) categorized. | | |
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 | The Tennessean |
| The Grand Ole Opry's $12 million expansion and renovation was completed in time for shows this weekend to celebrate its 93rd birthday. | | |
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 | Catapult |
| If cancer and trauma are hereditary, is it not my responsibility to do everything in my power to ensure neither my children nor I have to suffer? | | |
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 | Noisey |
| Or, how riffs can help us cope in a post-Kavanaugh world (plus new tunes from Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Iron Reagan, Cloud Rat, and more). | | |
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| Noisey |
| The legal short answer is, well, it's complicated. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| With One Direction on indefinite hiatus, the globe’s boybands have been slugging it out for the top spot. Meet the seven K-poppers who won, after wowing both the US and the UK. | | |
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 | Passion of the Weiss |
| Harold Bingo scours the streets of the D beyond Sada Baby and Payroll Giovanni to look at new projects from Cash Kidd, FMB DZ, Drego and Beno, Allstar JR, and Rocky Badd. | | |
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 | DJBooth |
| Today, it takes more than just great songs to be heard. It takes imagination, collaboration, and great presentation. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| Remember when nostalgia was considered lame? Specifically, a little under 15 years ago, when Wichita Falls pop-punks Bowling for Soup's cover of Baltimore kindred spirits SR-71's "1985" became a minor hit on the airwaves. (Interestingly, both bands dispute who came up with the idea to have Bowling for Soup cover the song -- an instance where remembering the past felled both outfits.) | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | From "Look Now," out today on Concord. |
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