Tonight, I see a lot of talent but also a lot of fear. Fear that they won't get added to a playlist on Spotify, scared they won't get played on the radio, scared of not selling. That's the difference between being an artist and a business person. We are artists and our priority is to make art. | | | | Streaming shots fired: Megan Thee Stallion at an otherwise empty Red Rocks, Morrison, Colo, Sept. 2, 2020.
(Rich Fury/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Tonight, I see a lot of talent but also a lot of fear. Fear that they won't get added to a playlist on Spotify, scared they won't get played on the radio, scared of not selling. That's the difference between being an artist and a business person. We are artists and our priority is to make art.”
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| | rantnrave:// Maybe by spring 2021, and if not, think summer 2021, says IRVING AZOFF. "We may have to have little passes on our phone that say we've either had a test or a vaccination." "The back half of the year," offers AXS CEO BRYAN PEREZ, with a slow ramp up from socially distanced, half-filled theaters to fuller arenas while people re-acclimate themselves to the idea of going into crowded spaces. Two more perspectives on when concerts might be medically and economically viable again. Perez says a vaccine will have to be in general distribution first, and he rejects the idea of a ticketing company trying to jump that gun by requiring concertgoers to have negative Covid tests. "It’s not entirely clear if [ticketing companies] are the best suited to be in that game," he tells Rolling Stone's SAMANTHA HISSONG. AXS rival TICKETMASTER has said requiring ticketholders to prove they've been vaccinated or had a negative test is one of several ideas it's considering to help bring live music back, but it also says the choice of how to safely fill (or half-fill) venues will be up to venue owners, not ticketing companies. In either case, expect venues to connect tickets to identities, so they know who everyone in every seat is. "We're hoping for the best," says TYLER HUBBARD, half of Azoff client FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE, who's recovering from Covid himself. He wants to be on tour in the spring. He is most definitely not alone... Oh my GOD watch this right now: BARACK OBAMA and 22-year-old YOUTUBE reaction video stars TIM and FRED WILLIAMS, aka TWINSTHENEWTREND, interview each other about playlists, mixtapes, BOB DYLAN, a divided America and how music can help bridge divisions, and for five minutes they make everything better. Presidential flex of the day: "I made mixtapes, and mixtapes were hard back then. You guys have it easy. You just get on the computer"... Same but not the same: ELTON JOHN, who's way older than Obama, interviews SHAWN MENDES, who's the same age as the twins (who, by the way, get "QUEEN vibes" from Elton)... NATALIA LAFOURCADE, ROSALÍA and CARLOS VIVES were the top winners at Thursday's LATIN GRAMMY AWARDS. The ceremony's first-ever Best Reggaeton Performance trophy went to BAD BUNNY, but the pop stars who dominated this year's nominations largely came up short Thursday night. That was Bad Bunny's only win. J BALVIN walked in with 13 nominations and walked out with one award, for Best Urban Music Album. OZUNA won twice, both for his Rosalía collaboration... DOLLY PARTON, who's an actual angel, plays a fictional one in NETFLIX's holiday musical, CHRISTMAS ON THE SQUARE, which drops on Sunday. She also wrote all the music because why wouldn't a 74-year-old woman who in the past two months has released a Christmas album and a book about songwriting, and who has a Christmas special coming up in two weeks on CBS, write an entire musical while she was at it? How's your lockdown going?... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from BTS, MEGAN THEE STALLION, PHOEBE BRIDGERS (new recordings of songs from her PUNISHER album; TAYLOR SWIFT, take note), MEEK MILL, GARTH BROOKS, LEE BRICE, DA BABY, JEEZY, RICH THE KID & YOUNGBOY NEVER BROKE AGAIN, KALI UCHIS (her first Spanish-language album), SAINT JHN, NICK CAVE (live document of this), the WAR ON DRUGS, RAHEEM DEVAUGHN, SHYGIRL, CABARET VOLTAIRE (first album in 26 years, made by lone remaining bandmember RICHARD H. KIRK), the CRIBS, ROUTINE (<--OMG I love this song; the band is JAY SOM’s MELINA DUTERTE and CHASTITY BELT's ANNIE TRUSCOT), WILLOW & JAHNAVI HARRISON, HYPOLUXO, LITURGY, TOMBS, REFUSED, DARK TRANQUILITY, ROB MAZUREK, INGRID LAUBROCK, DIRTY PROJECTORS, the BUG & DIS FIG, LANDSHAPES, CECILE BELIEVE, LINDSTRØM & PRINS THOMAS, OMAH LAY, YSN FLOW, LOSKI, FRENCH MONTANA, TANK AND THE BANGAS, KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD, MY DYING BRIDE, ETERNAL CHAMPION, 5 BILLION IN DIAMONDS, the DIRTY KNOBS (HEARTBREAKER MIKE CAMPBELL's band), JOHN FOGERTY, LEO KOTTKE & MIKE GORDON, DAVE ALVIN, JOSH GROBAN, the NETWORK (if it walks like GREEN DAY and talks like Green Day...), GLAIVE, BUZZY LEE, LA TIMPA and HOLLY BOWLING (piano covers of the GRATEFUL DEAD)... And NEIL YOUNG's massive ARCHIVES VOL II, whose current physical version is vinyl only and already sold out... Best wishes to JEREMIH... RIP JOSE "PEPE" QUINTANA and GORDON KEITH. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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 | GQ |
| Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, Alicia Keys, Ludacris, Lil Jon, Brandy, Monica, Patti LaBelle, and more tell the true story of the Instagram battle show that has become appointment viewing for the culture. | | |
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 | A.V. Music |
| For the label’s 70th anniversary, we spoke to many of the roster’s artists and those who signed them to find out the stories and secrets of Elektra’s success—and later, how shifting radio formats and an anti-creative corporate climate did it in. | | |
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 | Variety |
| Was it a fair price? Experts have mixed opinions. | | |
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 | CBSSports.com |
| The industry has already warned about copyright issues and even reached a settlement with one NFL team. | | |
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 | TwinsthenewTrend |
| We listened to Bob Dylan, the 60’s counter-culture icon, after seeing his name mentioned in President Obama’s book "A Promised Land." We also got to ask President Obama a few questions. | | |
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 | VMan |
| Talking like old friends, Mendes speaks to John about life in the twilight zone, as well as his fourth studio album, "Wonder," out on December 4. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| A crop of zany, rainbow-colored videos have influenced the rise of niche songs, and tapped into a long-standing fascination with the “glitch.” | | |
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 | Complex |
| Mislabeling has led to the perception that R&B isn’t as successful and profitable as it actually is. | | |
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 | VICE |
| It's not just for gamers anymore. | | |
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 | NPR |
| Rapper McKinley "Mac" Phipps was sentenced to 30 years for allegedly killing a fan at one of his shows. NPR podcast Louder Than a Riot explores new evidence that Mac is likely innocent. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| With no contracts and cheap releases from the likes of Fugazi and Minor Threat, Ian MacKaye and comrades rejected booze, drugs and riches to give US punk a conscience. They look back on 40 years of righteous noise. | | |
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 | Nashville Scene |
| Talking with Lilli Lewis and Kamara Thomas about the future of a genre they’ve been shut out of. | | |
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 | Pollstar |
| "Let's do the whole music industry differently." | | |
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 | Music Business Worldwide |
| How Epidemic might pitch investors on its catalog, rather than its company. | | |
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| Pitchfork |
| The late singer-songwriter’s baleful devotionals offered a spiritual soundtrack to the cynicism and chaos around us. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| Sound designer Nicolas Becker looked to stethoscopic mics, fetal memories, and a centuries-old school for the deaf in France. | | |
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 | VAN Magazine |
| Remembering Maria Yudina 50 years after her death. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| Marvin Gaye’s presence has coursed through the entirety of Raheem DeVaughn's life. | | |
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 | UPROXX |
| The fallen Chicago star reveals his picks for a Chicago legends ’Verzuz’ along with his O Block inspirations. | | |
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 | Columbus Business First |
| In the face of a nationwide crisis, the small and scrappy Columbus Symphony Orchestra, made up of about 45 full-time musicians and 14 staff members, remains intact. | | |
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| Vulture |
| George Condo and Leila Josefowicz collaborated while apart. | | |
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 | Oxford American |
| There is a remarkable story tucked halfway through "Bessie," Chris Albertson’s biography of the blues singer Bessie Smith, in which Smith approaches a circle of robed North Carolina Klansmen, places one hand on her hip, and begins shaking the other in the air. She hollers obscenities at the men until “they finally turned and disappeared quietly into the darkness.” | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | Look out. From "Good News," out today on 1501 Certified/300 Entertainment. |
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