[Finneas] is really good at writing a verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge core, and I’ve grown up listening to and really liking songs that have, like, no structure, like Frank Ocean or Imogen Heap—songs that kind of don’t make sense, but they do. | | | | H.E.R., aka Gabi Wilson, rocks the B.A.S.S. at the Essence Festival, New Orleans, July 06, 2019.
(Erika Goldring/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “[Finneas] is really good at writing a verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge core, and I’ve grown up listening to and really liking songs that have, like, no structure, like Frank Ocean or Imogen Heap—songs that kind of don’t make sense, but they do.”
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| | rantnrave:// It's easy to make light of GENIUS for suing GOOGLE for allegedly copying/stealing lyrics of songs that neither company wrote and that neither has any copyright claim on. Absent that copyright, Genius is claiming Google and one of its lyric partners, LYRICFIND, violated its terms of service and that Google engaged in anticompetitive behavior. The latter is based on the notion that Google isn't simply a competing lyric site; it's Google. As a number of legal experts quickly noted, the claims will be difficult ones for Genius to make in court, where it's seeking a minimum of $50 million in damages. They may be equally difficult to make in the court of public opinion, where anyone can simply point out that none of the companies involved in the suit owns the lyrics to SELENA GOMEZ's "LOSE YOU TO LOVE ME." Gomez, her co-writers (JULIA MICHAELS, JUSTIN TRANTER and the production team MATTMAN & ROBIN) and their respective publishers own them. Genius and Google both license them from the publishers, who, oddly, don't necessarily provide the lyrics along with the license. The companies often have to source the words themselves. What Genius does own is the rather ingenious bit of hidden Morse code it embedded in the Gomez song and others as a watermark, as well as the considerable labor required to transcribe, verify and organize all those lyrics. If another company scrapes the Genius site to get the lyrics for itself, that's what it's stealing. What protection does that labor deserve? What right does anyone else have to its output? Do songwriters, who are engaged in a daily battle to scrape pennies out of streaming companies who also don't own their work, see that labor as a natural ally or a natural enemy? Does the likelihood that they're seeing even fewer pennies from the Googles and Geniuses of the world change that math? If a music publisher who didn't supply its own lyrics to either Genius or LyricFind copy-pasted one of those companies' transcriptions and delivered them to everyone else, would *that* be a problem? If Genius wins in court, do Gomez, Michaels, Tranter, Mattman and Robin get any of that $50 million? I don't know what questions the court will ask. These are my questions... While APPLE TV+ hasn't said who's the subject of its upcoming OPRAH WINFREY-produced documentary on a sexual assault case in the music industry, the LOS ANGELES TIMES spotted several of RUSSELL SIMMONS' accusers in the official description of the movie by the SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL, where it will premiere in January. The Sundance slate also includes NETFLIX's TAYLOR SWIFT documentary MISS AMERICANA (which apparently has the clearances it needs from BIG MACHINE) as well as docs on ST. VINCENT (co-written and -produced with CARRIE BROWNSTEIN) and the GO-GO'S... Has Apple, meanwhile, paid BILLIE EILISH $25 million for a documentary about her due in 2020?... Speaking of Eilish, JEM ASWAD's deep dive with her and her brother FINNEAS into their songwriting process is fantastic. Also, she's well versed in the BEATLES, who are way older than VAN HALEN... Add WILLIE NELSON himself to the list of people who'll never smoke weed with WILLIE again. But he'll continue to enjoy cannabis in other forms, according to his publicist, who notes there are "numerous ways of consumption," which is a good song title if you're reading, TOBY KEITH... Federal prosecutors speaking highly of TEKASHI69. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | The Guardian |
| The popularity of Record Store Day -- and its Black Friday edition -- is turbo-charging the collector mentality at the expense of the average buyer. | | |
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 | Variety |
| A couple of years ago, Todd Decker volunteered his services to Christian rapper Flame as a forensic musicologist — an expert who parses melodies and chord structures to determine if two songs are “substantially similar.” In doing so, he found himself thrust into the middle of one of the hottest debates in music. | | |
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 | Smithsonian Magazine |
| In a 40-year salute to “Christmas Rappin,” hip-hop chronicler Bill Adler tells the tale of how the famous rap recording came to life. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| From Ice Cube to Lana Del Rey, from Slauson to Silver Lake, a panoramic playlist for our city. | | |
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 | TechCrunch |
| As music streaming apps struggle to differentiate, Apple is making concert video a more central part of its strategy with a Billie Eilish show at its HQ's Steve Jobs Theater. | | |
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 | Dazed Digital |
| As shesaid.so and InChorus release findings on music industry issues, we speak to women who have dealt with comments, encounters, and discrimination firsthand. | | |
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 | The Undefeated |
| As the rapper and businessman celebrates a big birthday, an examination of his life’s work thus far | | |
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| Variety |
| While only one person appears on most of the magazine covers, Billie Eilish is actually a duo -- at least, musically speaking. Nearly every song the 17-year-old star has ever released was co-written with and produced by her 22-year-old brother Finneas O'Connell, whom she credits and affectionately introduces to concert audiences as "my big brother and my best friend." | | |
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 | Forbes |
| Topping charts and shifting culture. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| The two heirs to The Ramones' legacy appear to have reached a truce in their bitter dispute over treatment of the band's legacy following an arduous and lengthy arbitration. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| From Robyn to Taylor to Kendrick to J Balvin to Taylor - here are the greatest songs of the last 10 years. | | |
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 | Ted Gioia |
| Ted Gioia picks the 100 best albums of 2019, all styles, all genres. | | |
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| Los Angeles Times |
| Jack Antonoff's work with Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift helped make 2019 a banner year, culminating in three Grammy nominations, including record and album. | | |
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 | Vox |
| Backstage at the Metropolitan Opera. | | |
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 | Penny Fractions |
| The internet’s earliest days in the context of music lacked centralized, dominant platforms. This allowed for a wide range of experimentation in early digital album sales, releasing songs for free and helping establish online fan communities. | | |
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 | Dallas Observer |
| One young woman from Waxahachie has gained national fame for singing cover songs in a parking garage after becoming an "American Idol" reject. Emma Oliver, 21, now has more clarity than ever before on what she can achieve through her music. | | |
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 | JAZZIZ Magazine |
| JAZZIZ is proud to partner with six-time GRAMMY Award-winning saxophonist David Sanborn to present Sanborn Sessions, a gathering of top artists from a variety of genres to explore the essence of music and being a musician through song and conversation. | | |
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 | Mixmag |
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| Billboard |
| With 2020 just around the bend, allow us to jog your memory once more on this decade’s least-greatest hits. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Gaye Su Akyol has revived a style of music once thought deeply uncool, and she uses it to comment poetically on her country. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | Originally released in 2013, to be reissued as part of "Tunes 2011 to 2019," out Friday on Hyperdub. |
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