Many DJs juggle nocturnal activities with full-time or part-time work - Mix Magazine says in its article about the new generation of electronic DJs who continue to work at their 5-to-9 jobs and manage to DJ at night. Mix analyzes a few essentials: How can jobs help and hinder success? Is everyone suited to DJing and making music full-time? And if you had the chance to give up the day job, would you?
Country singer Cady Groves has died aged of 30 from “natural causes”, CNN reports. Groves is known for her pop country hits ‘This Little Girl’, 'Love Actually' and 'Forget You'. According to NME, her brothers Casey and Kelly died in 2007 and 2014 respectively, both aged 28 at the time of their deaths.
Experimental composer Drew Daniel gathered his friends and family, including his Matmos bandmate M.C. Schmidt, Horse Lords saxophonist Andrew Bernstein, percussionist Sarah Hennies, "and a world-class trio of vocalists: Angel Deradoorian, Colin Self, and Lower Dens singer Jana Hunter" to create "a cathartic, emotional windfall" with his project The Soft Pink Truth. The resulting album 'Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?', Pitchfork says, "carries itself with the strength of a soft prayer, masterfully fusing jazz, deep house, and minimalism into an enormous, featherlight shield".
A pair of extraordinary English gentleman Adam Hardman and Jonathan Oakes made a recreation of Glastonbury using thousands of tiny Lego bricks, assembled in Hardman's back garden, NME reports. The pair’s take on the festival featured their own version of the famous Pyramid Stage, and an array of special effects which they created using a smoke machine, party lighting and sparklers. An iPad was also used to display previous performances from the likes of The Killers, the Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Dolly Parton and the Chemical Brothers.
Ireland government announced exit plan from coronavirus lockdown, revealing that festivals with the appropriate distance between individuals practiced could return in August, NME reports. The final, fifth phase – which will be introduced on August 10 – mentions the return of larger social gatherings, including music festivals, but only “in accordance with both indoor and outdoor number restrictions and where social distancing can be complied with”.
American bottled water manufacturer Liquid Death Mountain Water has taken hateful social media comments about their water and turned them into a death metal album, Loudwire reports. 'Greatest Hates' is a 10-song collection made using gripes concerning the company whose slogan is "Murder your thirst". Tracks such as 'Dumbest Name Ever For Water', 'Get Slaughtered on Shark Tank' and 'This Crap Is Pure Evil' use verbatim quotations from angry Internet commenters to make the lyrics of the songs. Music was made by a group of real death metal musicians - Gus Rios (Gruesome, formerly of Malevolent Creation), James Malone (Arsis), Seth Ringer (Eternal) and Torin Ridgeway.
"My favorite thing about scoring is that every time it's a unique opportunity. I get to invent a new array of solutions with novelty and identity. I hope the music has not existed in the particular guise and aesthetic before that" - saxophone player extraordinaire Colin Stetson says in an interview about scoring soundtracks. His last - 'Color Out of Space', an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation starring Nicholas Cage.
Leading Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti has assembled a team of musicians to offer three weeks of free music classes online, Classical Music reports. Nearly 800 people have signed up so far to teach or play in her virtual sessions (sign up here; registration is free and will be open until Thursday 7 May). Beginning on 11 May, the sessions will culminate in a huge online concert at the end of the month. The sessions are free, donations are welcome.
Blues guitarist and singer Christone “Kingfish” Ingram was the big winner at the Blues Foundation’s 2020 Blues Music Awards taking home five awards - album of the year for his debut 'Kingfish', best emerging artist album, best contemporary blues album, instrumentalist-guitarist and best contemporary blues artist, Commercial Appeal reports. Nick Moss and his band featuring Dennis Gruenling won two awards for band of the year and traditional blues album for 'Lucky Guy!', while Moss took home the statue for song of the year for 'Lucky Guy'.
R.A. the Rugged Man 'Dragon Fire' is a great neo-Wu-Tang Clan song, featuring Masta Killa, XX3EME, Kool G Rap & Ghostface Killah; Disheveled Cuss play noise-pop on 'Oh My God'; 'Being Me' by Louis Culture is the sweet spot where hip-hop meets techno; Einstürzende Neubauten are back! - 'Alles In Allem' sees Blixa Bargeld playing organ in a meditative track; Brendan James' 'In Common' is a touching song calling for unity and hope; Christine and the Queens released a chamber pop cover of Neil Young’s 'Heart of Gold'.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again climbed the Billboard 200 chart with his latest release, '38 Baby 2', sold in 67,000 equivalent album units (in 63,000 SEA units, equaling 96.9 million on-demand streams, and 4,000 in album sales). It was actually a weak week on Billboard as '38 Baby 2' collects the smallest unit total for a No. 1-debuting album since 2017. '38 Baby 2' is the rapper’s second No. 1, following 'AI YoungBoy 2', which debuted at No. 1 less than seven months ago with 110,000 units earned in its first week.
Missouri Governor Mike Parsons has declared that concerts and other public events like movies and amusement parks can start happening in the state starting Monday, May 4. According to Billboard, Governer also noted that the seating shall be spaced out according to social distancing requirements. Most major Missouri cities, however, will not see concerts reinstated so quickly - St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said in a statement “We will continue to be guided by data, not dates”.
"The 25-year-old Atlanta-based artist’s voice is deep yet vulnerable; husky and cavernous" - the Guardian says in its introduction of R'n'B singer Baby Rose. She has been dubbed “the new voice of R&B”, with songs as "mere dressing for her gauzy introspection".
Sweden has allowed for gigs with up to a capacity of 40 people to take place with appropriate social distancing measures in place, and Spain is looking to phase in live music events from May in a number of stages with gradually increasing capacities, NME reports about the future of live shows. There are several ideas on how to organize future shows, obeying the rules of social distancing - a combination of physical and digital tickets so that some fans can pay to watch online. Some venues may insist on tracking apps or temperature checks, so they're sure none of the attendees is coronavirus-positive. Shows will be smaller, with several dozen people in the audience, so it's expected that certain genres will become bigger, specifically acoustic gigs.
A star-studded cover version of the Foo Fighters' Times Like These has topped the UK singles chart. It replaces another charity single at the summit - Colonel Tom Moore and Michael Ball's version of 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. It's the first time one charity single has replaced another at the top of the charts since 2014,
Eminem detained an intruder in his home April 5 - the star was awoken by a security alarm in the early hours of the morning, after someone broke into his gated Detroit-area home, ET reports. The 47-year-old found the intruder in his living room. His security guard arrived shortly afterwards, followed by the police.
Danish singer-songwriter Mads Langer performed at a drive-in concert last week at a stage that was erected on the outskirts of Aarhus, Denmark. As Forbes reports, Langer played to an audience of cars, with his performance being transmitted via FM radio to those in attendance. It’s apparently the first of a series of live events planned for the space.
90% of regular concert-goers have sought to replace the live music experience online during the COVID-19 lockdown, and around 70% of those who have been newly accessing livestreamed shows say they plan to continue doing so even once the pandemic is over - according to a new survey conducted in the US, Complete Music Updates reports. So, in-between real-life concerts, music-lovers will be regularly attending livestreams...
An amusing podcast at the Afropop Worldwide about the influence of American performers on African music (beyond Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix or James Brown). Listen to how Dire Straits became massively popular in the Sahel, influencing Tuareg rockers like Tinariwen and Tamikrest. American country superstar Jim Reeves' had an African career. Death-metal was big in Angola.
Old school hip hop icon, rapper, producer, dancer, and EPMD affiliate Stezo (Steve Williams) has passed away aged 51. Stezo first appeared on the hip-hop scene as a dancer for EMPD in their 1988 video for 'You Gots to Chill'. He eventually dropped his debut album, 'Crazy Noise' in 1989, which peaked at number 73 on the Billboard U.S. Tributes are coming in from fellow hip-hopers - Stretch Armstrong said “I never knew the brother, but he made some of the best records in one of the most competitive and innovative periods in hip-hop".
Walk-through disinfectant machines, plus smart wristbands worn by game-day workers that issue alerts when they cross social distance boundaries, are among the virus technology products quickly coming to market as arenas, stadiums and other public assembly facilities search for tools to provide greater protection for customers and staff - Pollstar reports on a new product. It is being tested in Hong Kong. Hopefully, everybody's not gonna start smelling funny.
Pioneering Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, a co-founder of the afrobeat musical genre, died in Paris on Thursday aged 79 of a heart attack, NPR reports. Allen was the drummer and musical director of musician Fela Kuti's famous band Africa '70 in the 1960-70s. Kuti once said that "without Tony Allen, there would be no afrobeat". Allen later collaborated with a number of artists, and was the drummer in The Good, the Bad & the Queen, with Damon Albarn, Paul Simenon and Simon Tong.
Bandcamp is waiving its fees on all sales through the website today (May 1), so the Quietus shared a buyer's guide to some of their favourite music from the last month that you can buy - Shabazz Palaces, Menzi, Oranssi Pazuzu, Aisha Orazbayeva, among others. Brooklyn Vegan recommends 10 new metal albums - Barishi, Ulcerate, Fluisteraars - as well as 10 lesser known classics.
Avishai Cohen the trumpet player (not Avishai Cohen, the bass player) released a mesmerizing cover of 'Teardrop', a jazzy, post-rocky take on the classic; Khruangbin announced new album 'Mordechai' - influenced by reference sounds from Pakistan, Korea and West Africa - with the lead single ‘Time (You and I)’; Rufus Wainwright's 'Alone Time' is warm and rich in its simplicity; Bristol singer-songwriter Fenne Lily's new single 'To Be a Woman Pt. 2' is a "retaliation against subordination and a reclamation of power"; experimental musician serpentwithfeet is back with 'Apparition', an arty R'n'B EP; BadBadNotGood released two new songs - an R'n'B-ish 'Goodbye Blue', and jazzy 'Glide'; singer Amber Mark goes into male-female interaction in clubs in '1894'; London singer/songwriter Eve Owen has built, in collaboration with The National's Aaron Dessner, a big-sounding song 'Mother'; Samia released a folk song 'Is There Something In The Movies', with a cinematic video to go with; Thom Yorke released his new song 'Plasticine Figures', a piano ballad.
Post Malone is about to donate $1 million to a number of charities supporting front-line workers, education initiatives, homelessness help, mental health work, and he wants his fans to decide which organizations exactly, Billboard reports. He’s using the celebrity fan platform Community to round up the responses and decide where to send the $1 million, purportedly from his own personal funds. Last week he performed s Nirvana tribute show, raising over $800,000 for the United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
“Morning routines have changed significantly. Every day now looks like the weekend” - Spotify announced in their quarterly report. The change of trends in Spotify usage is mirroring, of course, the change of daily habits of workers who don't commute and listen to music on their way to work anymore, TechCrunch reports. Spotify says that it now has 286 million monthly active users worldwide (an increase of 31 percent) and 130 million subscribers (also up by 31 percent), with revenues in Q1 standing at €1.848 billion (up by 22 percent). Music Business Worldwide has put these numbers into perspective. Spotify’s ARPU – the average revenue paid each month by its Premium subscribers around the world – fell by 7% at constant currency, year-on-year, to €4.42m in Q1 2020. It’s the first time in history that Spotify’s official ARPU has fallen to less than half the €9.99-per-month subs price it launched with, in Europe, in 2008.
The news are bad, spending time indoors is getting harder and harder, so the music industry wants more uplifting music - “labels and artists are asking for more positive songs, less heartbreak”, songwriter Nate Cyphert told Rolling Stone. “Requests are coming in for more optimistic, upbeat songs for artists, and we have lots of writers that are already on it,” adds Tuff Morgan, vice president of A&R at the music publisher Peermusic.
Austra performs on ARTE Concert’s Facebook (11 a.m. Toronto time, 4 p.m. London time, 11 p.m. Beijing time)
Laura Marling is giving guitar lessons on Instagram every Thursday and Sunday (2 p.m. / 7 p.m. / 2 a.m. Friday)
Janelle Monae is doing a livestreamed performance on Facebook and YouTube (8 p.m. / 1 a.m. / 8 a.m.)
Ben Gibbard, Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, clipping., Dan Deacon, Valerie June, Vagabon and more play The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s virtual concert, 'Space Songs: Through the Distance' on YouTube. (8 p.m. / 1 a.m. / 8 a.m.)
Washed Out is doing a “magic hour” set on Instagram (8 p.m. / 1 a.m. / 8 a.m.)
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Krayzie Bone and Three 6 Mafia’s DJ Paul go head-to-head on The Faceoff at Instagram (8 p.m. / 1 p.m. / 8 a.m.)
Rolling Stone has yet another story about the power of TikTok - snippets of songs are often becoming popular on TikTok faster than the songs themselves. Fans identify those snippets with certain phrases, not necessarily the titles as labels have tagged them, which made labels start tailoring song titles to make searches on streaming platforms more effective. Or, if there's already a title that's not working, they change the title of the song to the version that the fans are most familiar with.
SiriusXM announced limited edition channels launching on Friday (May 1) that will bring some of the greatest hits and exclusive content from the likes of David Bowie, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, George Strait, Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Prince and the Rolling Stones. The personally curated channels will roll out in coordination with SiriusXM’s Stream Free period, which has been extended through May 31, allowing anyone to get free access to the streaming network's full lineup of streaming content on the SiriusXM app.
"'Thirstier' packs in monster hook after monster hook, with dense layers of crashing drums and whirring synths and bells-and-whistles that push each song to the next level" - Stereogum argues in favor of their latest choice for the Album of the week. Pitchfork gives the album 7.8, because it's "anthemic and euphoric, loaded with hooks and joyous reflections on love and self-discovery".
The highpoint of Dave’s new album is a 9-minute epic ‘Heart Attack’ which in the second half has him rapping without a beat - powerful stuff; M.I.C shares a dark grime piece ‘K*rn’ featuring JME, Nammy Was and Jawnino; Badge Epoch share a funk-rock psychedelia ‘Fruit Cocktail In Heavy Syrup’; Ólafur Arnalds goes deeply melancholic on - ‘Saudade’ from the ‘When We Are Born’ soundtrack.
"It's maybe not as dramatic as an addiction story or a fallout or a premature death, all of the things that are in other music documentaries, a fallout and a reunion. The thing with them is to exist in the business for 50 years through changing times. It's like watching two people push a boulder uphill" - director Edgar Wright says in The New Cue interview about The Sparks Brothers. "It's one of the rare music documentaries about brothers in rock where the brothers don't fall out".
Warner Music Group‘s Chinese dance label Whet Records has signed a deal with Ha Jiang, in a first major label record deal with a virtual artist. "As with any form of fame, there are stars that cross over into music. ‘Virtual idols’ won’t be any different" - Jon Serbin, the CEO of Warner Music Greater China and Head of Whet Records tells in the MBW interview.
MTV as a music television exists no more, but music videos still complement songs, create mythologies, and cause chatter and controversy - Rolling Stone says introducing their selection of the 100 best music videos of all time. Starting with The Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star' and finishing with Beyonce's 'Formation' "all of these picks are perfect examples of how pairing sound and vision created an entire artistic vocabulary, gave us a handful of miniature-movie masterpieces, and changed how we heard (and saw) music".
In the three months to the end of June 2021 (Q2), YouTube generated a whopping $7.002 billion from advertising alone – equivalent to approximately $77 million a day, or $3.2 million every hour, Music Business Worldwide reports. The rise is astonishing - YouTube’s Q2 2021 ad revenue was up by 83.7% on the equivalent figure from 2020. In the six months to the end of June this year, the platform generated $13.007 billion in ad revenues, almost double what YouTube generated in the equivalent six months of 2020 ($7.850 billion). These numbers don’t include subscription revenue on YouTube generated by those customers paying for YouTube Music and YouTube Premium each month. Looking back, the numbers impress even more - YouTube rode out 2020 having generated some $19.77 billion from ads in the year – actually up 30.5% on the equivalent annual figure from 2019.
MTV celebrates its 40th birthday this weekend, with Billboard and Stereogum looking back with a selection of the 40 best videos played on the very first day on the network. There were 116 videos played in the first 24 hours, with Stereogum and Billboard agreeing Talking Heads' 'Once in a Lifetime' and Blondie's 'Rapture' being the best.
ZZ Top's bassist of 50 years, Dusty Hill has died on Wednesday at the age of 72, on Thursday the remaining member Billy Gibbons announced that the tour they just began would resume Friday after a brief lull, with their guitar tech of three decades filling in. It's what Hill had wanted, Gibbons says in the Variety interview: "But knowing that we can take his wishes forward and give him all due respect… You know, he was adamant. He said, 'I’m going to go down and see what’s up. In the meantime', he said, 'the show must go on. Don’t forget it'. And he was pointing his finger and shaking it".
Spotify's Premium Subscriber base grew to 165 million in the second quarter of 2021, which was up 20% year-on-year. The company’s total global monthly active users grew 22% year-on-year to 365 million in Q2 2021. Spotify’s Premium subscriber growth translated into revenue of €2.056 billion in Q2. That's big numbers, there are some small numbers, on which everything depends really - the firm’s average monthly revenue per subscriber landed at €4.29 in Q2. Music Business Worldwide takes a closer look at the numbers.
Apart from their societal influence, K-pop septet is a major money-maker in their country. According to the Korea Culture And Tourism Institute, BTS is bringing an estimated 5 billion dollars to the South Korean economy each year. The group is fueling interests in all things Korean - tourism, language, films, television, fashion, and food. NPR discusses BTS' influence in the latest podcast.
