"These songs are about taking action - using experience as a teacher and a guide" which makes for Medhane's "most present and clear-eyed project", as Pitchfork says in review (tagged it Best new music, grade 8,4). His raps got better - "there is even more force and focus behind his bars", as well as production - "the beats are gorgeously gritty, warped yet whole; he remolds jazz and soul samples as if from particles of sand, which brings the clarity of the raps into sharper relief".

MIDiA sees five emerging revenue sectors that could collectively be the music industry’s growth driver in the near future:

Contextual experiences -  Instead of bring your own music, the trend will be the context will bring it

The vast majority of the millions of independent artists will spend much more on creator tools than they will ever earn from their music

Virtual events - the sector is in desperate need of commercial structure and product tiering

Monetising fandom - virtual merch, artist badges, premium chat, artist avatars

Vast amount of music-centred social activity on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok has not yet been properly monetised, which makes for a gaping hole of opportunity

Grimes is preparing a new online exhibition 'Selling Out', where she’ll be selling drawings, prints, photographs, and conceptual pieces, Bloomberg reports. The most notable piece in the collection is a conceptual piece, also called 'Selling Out', which finds Grimes selling part of her soul for the “best offer”. The idea behind it: "'Selling Out' is executed as a contract in which Grimes sells a fraction of her soul, formalizing the idea that every time an artist sells a piece of their art, part of the soul is sold with it".

Korn recently did a performance in 'AdventureQuest 3D'. Late last year The Offspring performed in 'World Of Tanks'. Recently, Travis Scott staged a big concert in 'Fortnite'. The latter is special - "a very different kind of social network" - says Nathan Brown, a video game writer, consultant, and the ex-editor of game industry bible Edge. "It is a pop-cultural phenomenon, yes, but a cross-cultural one as well – a place where Batman can snipe John Wick from halfway across the map, only to get ganked by a 'Star Wars' Stormtrooper while hoovering up the loot. It is the closest thing modern society has to the metaverse”. GQ reports on that particular part of live concert future, merged with video games.

Drake's 'Toosie Slide' features the singer in a black balaclava, moving through the mostly empty Toronto mansion. Haim sisters perform solemn choreography at a safe distance from each other on a cracked outdoor basketball court in 'I Know Alone'. Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande’s charity duet, 'Stuck With U', intermixed pixelated visions of teenage fans dressed for the proms they will never go to with glimpses of celebrities like Chance the Rapper and Gwyneth Paltrow slow dancing in their immaculate houses. In Squarepusher's 'Detroit People Mover' a wireless printer on the floor of the actual Detroit People Mover -a monorail that travels a nearly 3-mile loop around downtown - spit out photographs that were shot in the city during the late 1970s and ’80s, when the mass transit system turned tourist attraction was built.

On Saturday, June 6th, singer-songwriter Laura Marling will play two live shows at London’s Union Chapel to a limited audience online, who have each paid $12 (for US audience) or £12 (for UK and EU audience). Tickets sold at $12/£12 apiece are enough for an “economically viable” show, and they will generate tens of thousands of dollars for the artist and her team. There's also creative possibilities for filmmakers when they don’t have a crowd to navigate while capturing a live concert, while a beautifully shot and performed concert could potentially become monetized long into the future. Rolling Stone envisages that paid-for livestreamed concerts like Marling’s will prove popular even after the traditional concert industry is back up and running - creating an enduring and meaningful new revenue stream for performers.

Renowned 82-year-old jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp, producer/DJ Damu the Fudgemunk, and MC Raw Poetic (Shepp's nephew) officially collaborated for the first time last year during one marathon session. The result is 'Ocean Bridges', a "fully improvised album on which Moore, Shepp and Damu the Fudgemunk tap into both of those genres’ more experimental sides and ultimately find a sound that isn’t fully aligned with either one" - Washington Post writes about the interesting collaboration. PopMatters says the album is "proof that genre crossovers can sound organic, and that the term 'crossover' doesn't have to come loaded with gimmicky connotations. Maybe we're headed for a world in which genres are so fluid that the term is dropped altogether from the cultural lexicon".

Billie Eilish has released a short film 'Not My Responsibility' with a spoken-word track addressing public perception and opinion of her body and clothing choices. The video, premiered at the start of her American tour this spring, features Eilish slowly removing layers of clothing before sinking into a dark, viscous liquid that consumes her. “Do you have opinions?” she asks in a voiceover. “About my opinions? About my music? About my clothes? About my body?... Is my value based only on your perception? Or is your opinion of me not my responsibility?”.

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 funny interview in Guardian with Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt. He talks about bonus tracks - "The whole idea bugs me. Either it’s an album or it’s not an album. It gets my Asperger’s up to even think about it”; politicians - “It would be illegal for me to express my actual political opinions in probably any country in the world, and I definitely wouldn’t be allowed to travel”; about growing up in a Buddhist commune, loud music, playing live, etc.

Cover Me is a blog with news articles and features focusing on cover songs, and tribute albums, including The Best Covers Ever (self-explanatory, right?), Five Good Covers - examining an oft-covered song from a variety of genres, In Memoriam - paying tribute to the recently departed, etc. Their latest choice is the cover of The Cure's 'A Forest' by the Polish metal band Behemoth where "everything is turned up to eleven".

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.

“I probably would’ve hated social media when I was coming up. There’s a certain mystique that gets destroyed. I like the mystique. I like waiting. I don’t need anybody to know where I am every minute or what I’m doing. Or what I’m about to do… There’s a certain mystique that came along with music that was entertaining to wait to see what was about to happen” - Dr. Dre told in GQ interview, NME reports. Another thing - “the generation that comes in today is more impatient than ever, mostly due to the fact that their access to information has never been so uninhibited. Thus their expectations of their daily lives have changed. But it’s not just about going to work sooner; it’s about wanting to have an impact once they are there. They have more power in the palm of their hand than any generation in history – and it’s power to influence, to understand and to do good".

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.

There are hundreds and thousands of great samples, really hard to pick out the best, but NME tried nevertheless. It's a good choice, although it's hardly definite. So, the top three: Destiny’s Child turning the Stevie Nicks' guitar riff ‘Edge of Seventeen’ into a R&B belter ‘Bootylicious’; A Tribe Called Quest use of Lou Reed’s lilting instrumentals into creating the legendary call-and-response led ‘Can I Kick It?’; ABBA’s 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' was pure pop before Madonna used it to make yet another disco banger, ‘Hung Up’.

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.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs have shared a video of a remote performance of their track 'Phenomena'. The camera focuses on Karen O in a darkened closet while Nick Zinner plays guitar on a laptop in front of her. For added effect, Karen decorated her closest with streamers, strobe lights, and even a smoke machine.

Acts wishing to play in the UK post-Brexit must pay £240 for visas for each member and prove they have savings of around £1000... Where will that leave us? Just another medium-sized European market with its own internal favourites, little more important to conquer than Hungary or Montenegro but, for many foreign acts, impossible to even have a crack at. Once a world-leading hub and haven for pioneers and visionaries, reduced to an unwelcoming island of shrinking relevance - Mark, My Words predicts the future of the UK live music scene.

'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.

Okay Player sees 10 major changes that are about to happen to the music business:

Artificial Intelligence-driven music-making will surge

Artists will gravitate towards more artist-friendly platforms that provide a stronger link to the fan as well

Closeness between fan and artist may be abandoned for good

Internet will be the medium No. 1 for artists

The music industry needs to figure out new, innovative ways for people to feel and touch music again

New and innovative ways to bring concert experiences to the masses

The sound of music will change, reflecting the realities of quarantine and social distancing

Finding ways to keep music top of mind in forthcoming times of overwhelming choice

The music industry will be in a fight for disposable income for the foreseeable future

New ways of setting up a show - drive-ins, fan-pods, or something similar

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.