You have to have people say, ‘I don’t think you got it in you,’ because that’s what makes you dig for it. What you do after that, I think, is what really says a lot about you. | | | | Blueface in London, Nov. 20, 2019. His debut studio album, "Find the Beat," is out today on Cash Money West.
(Joseph Okpako/WireImage/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “You have to have people say, ‘I don’t think you got it in you,’ because that’s what makes you dig for it. What you do after that, I think, is what really says a lot about you.”
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| | rantnrave:// Hi. My top genres in 2019 were "art pop" (ANGEL OLSEN appears to be responsible for that), "soul" and "contemporary post-bop." And yours? Current mood: Wrapped... SOUNDCLOUD's announcement that it's reversing a plan to sharply reduce the number of songs its free users could upload to the site, which had been announced three days earlier, is a convenient reminder of the competing forces at work in the online music universe (and the online everything universe, more or less). ROLLING STONE's ELIAS LEIGHT described the original plan as "another step down the [major label] path, a move that was focused on the bottom line at the expense of the reckless artistry that once made the platform so exciting." SoundCloud positioned it as a simple tradeoff: For the first time, it was offering lossless HD storage to free users, and it would compensate by tightening the limits on the amount of music they could upload before they had to start paying. But users, including artists who have relied on SoundCloud as a crucial platform for releasing music, saw an altogether different tradeoff: a luxury gained and a basic necessity lost. So they revolted. And won. "We’ve spent the last few days... listening to you, learning from what you’ve said, and reflecting about what makes SoundCloud special as an open platform that helps creators of all types express themselves," the site wrote in an email to users. "And we heard you." That's a good, maybe even unexpected, corporate response, an acknowledgment of both the importance of the community that SoundCloud has fostered and of the leverage the community holds over its host. Openness and access win. But then what? The reversal doesn't make those competing forces disappear, and the host has leverage, too. So the status quo holds—"at least for now," as Leight dryly put it... CMJ is re-launching next year, according to the brand's first tweet in three and a half years. Re-launching as what, it isn't saying. Music festival? Magazine? Chartmaker? It also isn't saying who's doing the re-launching, beyond claiming that "we are completely different people" from the ones who ran the original brand into the ground and that these different, unnamed people "bought the assets—such as they were." Plan accordingly... "They Finally Fixed the Jukebox": NEW YORK TIMES theater critic JESSE GREEN on JAGGED LITTLE PILL, which opened on Broadway Thursday night... A buyer’s cartel can be "equally destructive of competition as a seller’s cartel," the US Justice Department said Thursday, siding with IRVING AZOFF's GLOBAL MUSIC RIGHTS in a long-running price-fixing dispute with US radio stations. The two groups are suing each other and the government's opinion gives a boost to the songwriters' suit, the LOS ANGELES TIMES reports... The ARCHIVE OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC's always amazing holiday sale of LPs, CDs, books and promo items begins Saturday and runs through Dec. 22 at its warehouse on 54 White Street in New York. It's promising "as usual a slew of Jamaican and Brazilian LPs + CDs PLUS promo items donated by Mute Records + Atlantic records and so many others." Threatened by rising rents, it isn't promising that it will still be on White Street, its home of 34 years, the next time this happens. It's an invaluable, enormous, unique archive. Go and buy stuff if you can... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from BLUEFACE, CAMILA CABELLO, RODDY RICCH, COURTNEY BARNETT, YANN TIERSEN, BURIAL, the CHAINSMOKERS, XXXTENTACION, LIAM PAYNE, the WHO, GEORGIA MAQ, the GO-BETWEENS, LEE "SCRATCH" PERRY, MAX B, FAT JOE, MOONBEAM TERROR, DIGITALISM, ANNA NALICK, the Broadway cast recording of JAGGED LITTLE PILL and a limited-edition BILLIE EILISH live acoustic album recorded a month ago at THIRD MAN RECORDS in Nashville (vinyl only, of course)... Oh, and Taylor Swift Wrote a Christmas Song Over the Weekend and here it is... RIP GLENN BRUDEN. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| Genius is far from the first company to accuse Google of anti-competitive behavior, but the suit over alleged theft of lyrics comes as public sentiment is turning against big tech. | | |
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 | Mixmag |
| Since launching in 2010, Instagram has had a disruptive impact on dance music. | | |
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 | Junkee |
| Thirteen years into his tenure as The Internet’s Busiest Music Nerd, Anthony Fantano’s influence isn’t showing any sign of abating. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| There has never been a greater awareness of how music can affect our mood. Little wonder restaurants are employing consultants to select music for their diners. | | |
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 | Slate |
| On his latest No. 1, the singer once again shows which way the winds are blowing. | | |
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 | Outside Online |
| Years after he took that pill in Ibiza, Grammy nominee Mike Posner left behind his life in L.A. to go on a 2,851-mile journey in search of... something. Here's what he learned about grief, motivation, struggle, and authenticity. | | |
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 | NPR Music |
| No, songs addressing climate change aren't new. But the new music that does seems animated less by a sunny streak of mainstream activism, and more by a certain feeling we all seem to be sharing. | | |
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 | Variety |
| Variety invited Bob Merlis, one of the legends of music publicity, to share his thoughts about one of his former bosses, Joe Smith, former head of the Warner Bros., Elektra/Asylum and Capitol labels. Smith died this week at age 91. Here's one sharp-dressed man on another: Joe Smith has been a constant for virtually the entirety of my professional life. | | |
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 | MusicAlly |
| A long-running argument about an American legal organisation’s desire to ‘clarify, modernise, and otherwise improve’ copyright legislation in the US is making headlines again. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| Streaming has made it difficult to discern whether an artist’s popularity is organic or manufactured. | | |
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 | ESPN |
| Whether he’s balling or rapping, Damian Lillard, aka Dame D.O.L.L.A., represents far more than just himself. | | |
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| Mixmag |
| The last 10 years in the rave. Here are the best tracks. | | |
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 | 5 Magazine |
| Audius is a streaming start up with an ambitious goal: to suck less than SoundCloud. | | |
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| The Washington Post |
| For 40 years, Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” has rocked countless bodies at weddings, proms and other celebrations. It has inspired “21st of September” parties around the globe. But if you asked EWF founder Maurice White why he put such a passionate and specific call in the lyrics to remember that date, he would always say there was no reason. He was lying. | | |
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| Rolling Stone |
| New box set features vintage live recordings of New Riders of the Purple Sage, made by the pioneering acid chemist and sound engineer known as Bear. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| Seventeen years ago, Alicia Keys was a Grammy newbie “hanging on for dear life” at her first ceremony. Fifteen awards later, she’s prepping for her second time hosting -- and dreaming up new ways to reflect an evolving industry. | | |
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| Variety |
| Label heads are not an uncommon sight at West Hollywood's Soho House, but judging by the surreptitious security guard who trails us discreetly as we walk to the private club's roof garden restaurant, one begins to comprehend that 10K Projects founder-CEO Elliot Grainge isn't your ordinary executive. | | |
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 | Synchblog |
| Eamonn Forde looks back on the past year in music publishing, from major deals and the booming catalogue acquisition space to ongoing disputes with DSPs. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| Two documentaries-one new, one newly resurfaced-nod to the Depechemania that gripped the Eastern Bloc. | | |
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 | Trapital |
| Rick Ross' record label looked destined to run rap for the 2010s, but the culture wasn't built for long-term success. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | From "Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial," out today on Atlantic. |
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