Spotify has lifted the limit of the number of songs, albums, and playlists allowed in a user’s Library. That limit, which was set at 10,000 items, is now gone. The change does not affect offline listening, where users can download 10,000 songs across five different devices. In addition, the new update does not change that playlists can have no more than 10,000 songs.
A metal-head named Hell General is making the rounds in northeast Minneapolis in an ice cream truck, but all he is serving is - metal music, Loudwire reports. Beelzebub's officer revamped a Postal Service truck into a black ice cream truck sporting non-existent treats in the shape of Rammstein, Opeth, Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory, Arch Enemy and more logos from the world of metal. Not surprisingly, he doesn't want to make kids happy - “In all actuality, my intentions with the truck have nothing to do with selling ice cream... When the children materialize in the streets I will coast right past them with the sinister look of rejection”. Instead of serving kids some sweet tastes, he plays them some raw Behemoth, Lamb of God or Strapping Young Lad.
An amazing story in Guardian about violinist Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman who in 2002 at the age of 21 joined an award-winning ensemble led by a famous composer, only to find out that all of the musicians aren’t actually playing their instruments but are simply miming along to a CD instead. She was hired by a man she calls The Composer, and she played in the fake orchestra for four years in front of thousands. Hindman published a memoir about it, 'Sounds Like Titanic'.
"It doesn’t seem likely we are going to open in the fall" - Jay Marciano, chairman of AEG Presents, told New York Times about the possibility of major torus this fall. AEG is the parent company of Goldenvoice, which presents Coachella, and the festival's 2020 edition is currently rescheduled for October. Live Nation president Joe Berchtold said they don’t expect a large volume of major tours in the fall. Live Nation previously said that drive-in concerts, reduced capacity shows, broadcasts from empty venues are all under consideration. BBC reports from a performance in Copenhagen by Danish musician Mads Langer; more than 70 similar shows are planned.
Heavy metal talk show Two Minutes To Late Night's latest cover is a funny little thing - it has members of Sleigh Bells, Poison the Well, Cloak and High On Fire covering Guns N' Roses' 'Rocket Queen'; experimental rapper JPEGMAFIA has released a new, energetic and direct song 'Cute Pie'; art rockers The Velvet Teen have released a big and atmospheric song 'Mean Mind'; Nicolas Jaar released yet another new song - 'All One', a latino psychedelic club smoothie; Bright Eyes' new song 'One and Done' is heavily orchestrated, melancholic, almost Mediterranean-sounding; 'Cannibals' by Paddy Hanna is theatrical and haunting;
'On the Record' by HBO Max is about Drew Dixon, who spoke publicly of alleged assault and abuse by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. The documentary is about her trauma, her music career abruptly stopped when she couldn't stand the abuse anymore, being stripped down to a person with just one dimension - "the abused one", about coming forward as a black woman against a hero in the black community. The abuse seemingly continues to this day - the film received a standing ovation at Sundance, but the response from the music industry since has been mostly silence. Guardian reports on the heavy and important issue.
Toronto experimental pop duo Black Dresses have disbanded just weeks after releasing their new album 'Peaceful As Hell', as a result of a pattern of harassment directed at band's member Devi McCallion, Stereogum reports. Her bandmate Ada Rook said in a statement that "entitled fans have been behaving in a very hurtful and frightening way towards Devi including extended invasion of privacy and harassment for some two years now, only going to further and further extremes”. McCallion was much more direct in her statement -"thanks for your support and also your repulsive parasocial stalker rage directed at hurting us”. Black Dresses' profile at Bandcamp is still active.
Numerous musicians - including Justin Bieber, Ice-T, Ice Cube, Common, Ariana Grande, Snoop Dogg, Madonna - have spoken out after a video of yet another incident of the US police brutality against the American black community surfaced on social media. Family attorney George Floyd was arrested on Monday (May 25) on suspicion of forgery. In the viral clip, Floyd was unarmed and cried out that he couldn't breathe as an officer kneeled on his neck. He later died at the hospital.
A California company Production Club came up with the Micrashell, a protective suit people can wear to music festivals and clubs to prevent the spread of COVID-19, NBC LA reports. There’s a N95 filter, an air ejection system, a “cell link pouch”, and even snap-in canisters for drinking and vaping.
Jimmy Cobb, a percussionist and the last surviving member of Miles Davis’ 1959 'Kind of Blue' groundbreaking jazz album died Sunday at age 91. The album, released on Aug. 17, 1959, captured a moment when jazz was transforming from bebop to something newer, cooler and less structured, with NPR saying Cobb gave it its "pulse". It has sold more than 4 million copies and remains the best selling jazz album of all time. Cobb would also work with such artists as Dinah Washington, Pearl Bailey, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Wynton Kelly and Stan Getz. He’d also release a number of albums on his own.
The Mysterines' 'I Win Every Time' is a raw, loud rock song, the new band doesn't really seem to care what anybody thinks; 'Sucker' by Madeline Kenney is a different love song, it features Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner; the mysterious Slingbaum has shared a new track, an alter-pop song titled ‘Behoove’, featuring D’Angelo and Erykah Badu; Sondre Lerche goes from indie-pop to synthpop in 'That's All There Is', with a great video to go with.
Bolivian group Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos travelled to Germany in March to prepare for a two-week tour, but before they had played a single show, the entire country was put into coronavirus lockdown. Since then, the orchestra has been stuck at a hostel on the grounds of Rheinsberg Palace near Berlin, BBC reports. That's the good news. The bad news is - the surrounding areas is home to 23 packs of wolves, and the orchestra members have become afraid of ghosts while in the castle. Germany has started to open up, but the Bolivian government won't take the orchestra back, not just yet.
'From the Basement' was a live performance web series created by producer Nigel Godrich that ran from 2006 to 2009, and it is coming to YouTube "in its full glory". It was shot at the BBC's Maida Vale studios and had no host or audience or interviews, just artists performing live. The first episode featured Thom Yorke previewing then-new Radiohead songs and The White Stripes. Other guests included Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop, PJ Harvey, Sparks, Beck, Jarvis Cocker, The Fall, Fleet Foxes, The Shins, Thundercat, Andrew Bird, Super Furry Animals, Willis Earl Beal, Damien Rice, José González, Eels, Albert Hammond Jr, Jamie Lidell, CSS, Seasick Steve, Queens of the Stone Age, and more.
Future's 'High Off Life' reached the No. 1 on the most recent Billboard 200 album chart, after earning 153,000 equivalent album units in its debut week. 16,000 of those units came from album sales, mostly from merchandise/album bundles, while almost all the others were streamed, Billboard reports. Also in the new top 10: Polo G's 'The Goat' bows at No. 2 with 99,000 units, and Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit’s 'Reunions' jumps from No. 149 to No. 9 after its first week of wide release, with 35,000 in sales.
Guinean singer Mory Kante, an influential figure in African and world music, has died at the age of 70. Kante brought Guinean, and Mandingo, culture to the world. He was called an ambassador of Afro-Pop music. His song 'Yeke Yeke', released in the late ’80s, has been remixed and covered extensively.
An estimated crowd of 3,000 people attended a concert in Tel Aviv on Thursday, that was among the first large live music gatherings since the global industry shut down in March amid the coronavirus pandemic, Times of Israel reports. The cultural protest event was staged in support of crew members who rely solely on live music concerts for their livelihood. It had the backing of the Israeli Police and the city of Tel Aviv, and it was against the Israeli government for ongoing shutdown of live events.
Lana Del Rey called out fellow female stars Doja Cat, Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, Cardi B, Kehlani, Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé, who "have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f---ing, cheating, etc". On her Instagram post headlined "Questions for the future" she then asked if she can continue singing about her own dark past "without being crucified or saying that I’m glamorizing abuse?”. Del Rey added she liked those singers, and would like to "have some of the same freedom of expression without judgement of hysteria". After being accused of racism, she further explained - "there are certain women that culture doesn’t want to have a voice it may not have to do with race I don’t know what it has to do with".
"I felt like I was in that cartoon 'Cars'... Playing to all these headlights and everything" - country singer Keith Urban told BBC how it felt like playing at a drive-in. In general, he says, it felt like a "tailgate party". Is it the future? Urban suggests it's too expensive.
Google Play Music is going to be fully shut down later this years, which means YouTube will be the only streaming music option from the company. Google Play Music has been a very easy way to upload CDs and purchased music from other platforms into a single cloud, accessible anywhere. Google says now they would be rolling out a new, simple way for users of its Play Music offering to transfer files over to YouTube Music. AJOMT analyzes what happens next...
“The only real challenge for me was [the absence of] the energy from a mosh pit. But the car horns, the flashing headlights - that was crazy cool” - Keith Urban said about his concert last week for about 200 people in 125 cars or trucks at the Stardust Drive-In Theatre in Tennessee. Variety reports Live Nation plans to take the concept nationwide in the USA this summer, and produce concerts at its 40 amphitheaters - in the parking lots. There are still some issues to think about: radio sound or loudspeakers; carload or individual pricing; allowing lawn chairs or trying to keep customers inside their cars; parking lots or drive-ins.
Joe Rogan is taking his podcast exclusively to Spotify in a licensing deal worth more than $100 million, in one of the largest such deals in the rapidly growing podcast business. Spotify's aim, presumably, is to become “the largest audio platform in the world”, but what does this deal mean for music in general?. Spotify users will probably spend less time listening to music, but Spotify will probably gain subscribers thanks to podcasts, who will also listen to music. Music Business Worldwide goes into detail what will this deal mean for both record labels and artists, as well as music publishers and songwriters. BIG thinks this means "death to independent podcasting".
British singer-songwriter Laura Marling has sold out the first major geo-blocked concert of this year - a live, multi-camera, ticketed event taking place at 7 p.m. ET on June 6 at London’s Union Chapel, limited to North American fans, Variety reports. She has announced a similar show on the same day, taking place at 8 p.m. GMT / 9 p.m. Berlin time (three hours before the first-announced show) geo-blocked for U.K. and European Union fans. Tickets, priced at 12, will also be capped to a limited number.
There are over 14,500 Grateful Dead live concert recordings on Archive.org available for streaming for free. They can be filtered by year, by taper, by type of recording, by date added, or searched for specific songs, albums, venues, recording studios... New recordings are being added every week.
Wu-Tang Clan have launched “Protect Ya Hands”, a plant-based, vegan hand sanitizer with a citrus scent made in collaboration with skincare company JUSU. For every purchase of the hand sanitizer, another hand sanitizer will be donated to the Ottawa Mission Foundation along with other homeless shelters throughout Canada. Sanitizer is part of their new A Better Tomorrow Collection, which also includes a T-shirt and a reusable food bowl. Orders can be found here. Check out the hand sanitizer below.
Neil Young has shared his fifth Fireside Session, lockdown shows streamed from his yard, and this week it was a special "Banyard Edition". Young played this time for an audience of chickens, and some other of his and Daryl Hannah's animals, like Laslo the llama. Neil breaks out the ukulele for 'Tumbleweed', plays 'Homegrown', 'Harvest', 'Old Man' and 'Everybody Knows This is Nowhere'. The audience seemed cheerful! Watch the show at Neil Young Archives.
Rolling Stone made a list of 100 greatest debut singles that became building blocks to great careers, and a couple of seismic one-hit wonders. It goes from 'Achy Breaky Heart' by Billy Ray Cyrus which "helped shift the trajectory of country music", to '…Baby One More Time' by Britney Spears - "this girl changed the sound of pop forever". Check out the full list - 100-51, 50-1.
Lily Cornell Silver, daughter of the late Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, has launched a discussion program called Mind Wide Open to normalize the topic of mental health. She made the announcement this week on her Instagram, three years after her father has died. Cornell Silver said that her goal is to normalize mental health discussions. The new series will take place on Instagram and will feature interviews with mental health professionals, public figures and other notable guests.
Twitter user @RottenDrawings' has reimagined every album cover by the metal pioneers Death as a 'Seinfeld'-related sight gag. Each Death album - 'Scream Bloody Gore' (1987), 'Leprosy' (1988), 'Spiritual Healing' (1990), 'Human' (1991), 'Individual Thought Patterns' (1993), 'Symbolic' (1995), and 'The Sound of Perseverance' - gets a recreation that references that basic 'Seinfeld'. Awesome!
Berlin-based vocalist and producer Lyra Pramuk released her debut album 'Fountain' of "futuristic folk music" this year, made entirely with her own voice. Fact Magazine visited her in her studio to see how she does it.
