Bandcamp Daily has an interesting article about an experiment in giving African bands a more direct income stream and empowering them in the worldwide monetization of their own art. It's a work of Sahel Sounds label , which has been documenting the music of the Southern Sahara Desert for a decade, which released its 60th record two weeks ago on a new principle. Label's head Chris Kirkley invited musicians from southern Sahara to record a short session using a cell phone, dispatch the results through WhatsApp, and let him sell it online on a pay-what-you-will basis for a month before replacing it with the next batch. All profits would be wired directly to the band.

Hot Pod notices a shift in music marketing - releasing a podcast about an album seems almost antithetical to other hot marketing tactics in the music world today, like TikTok and Triller campaigns, that are meant to maximize virality and rack up surface-level metrics with ever-increasing velocity. Producing a podcast that tells a compelling story in its own right, and that extends an artist’s world and brand in a cohesive way, takes a lot of time that not everyone may be willing to commit. Yet, artists from all genres and at all career stages are now creating podcasts to promote their albums, the demand and the resources - at least from bigger companies fighting for market share - are certainly there.

"It looks as if the days of the pop fan death cult are about to come to an end" - Mark, My Words writes in his column after attending a private Circa Waves gig for super-streamers. What happened? - "The gig, it turned out, was put on for those couple of hundred fans who had streamed the bands’ songs most on Deezer. But it could also finally mark the end of the hardship of the superfan. If this becomes common practice, all of your superfanning can be done from the comfort of your own Styles-den... Now you can gain priority access to your favourite band’s gigs by sitting up all night in your home-made altar to Lewis Capaldi and streaming your way to the front".

"We take the ugliest parts of the world and make them beautiful" - the free-jazz/hip-hop band Irreversible Entanglements say about their new song 'Who Sent You'; Ash Koosha has released a cool new video for his meditative and intense track ‘Dive’, Perfume Genius is back with "music to both fight and make love to" with 'Describe'; R.A.P. Ferreira goes into trippy, jazzy territory in 'Leaving Hell'; Nordic dark folk band Wardruna combine modern and traditional on 'Gra'; Body Count go political again on 'Bum-Rush'; P.E. mix post-punk and electronica on 'Pink Shiver'; Welsh producer and vocalist Kelly Lee Owens samples the sounds of glacial ice melting on ‘Melt!’ to impressive effect; similarly, Field Works turns the echolocations of endangered bats into ambient on 'Ultrasonic'; singer/producer Velvet Negroni released a hard-hitting, psychedelic R&B song 'Bagette'; 'Crunch' is a noisy indie rock song by Jordana; It Only Ends Once is an interesting blend of screamo, black metal, and post-rock; Injury Reserve continue their avant-rap path with 'Hoodwinked'; Dirty Projectors described their new song 'Overlord' as "Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ for an Amazon Prime world”; White Stones go in psychedelic prog-death metal direction on 'Drowned In Time'; XL Recordings co-founder Richard Russell released a Ghostface Killah collaboration '03:15AM/Caviar'; Elder present their concept album about the lifespan of a civilization with 'Embers'; Disclosure go to the dancefloor with 'Tondo'; 'Sandwiches' by Gordi is a usual-sounding song, but there's a special kind of wormth to it; Methyl Ethel go into sympho-indie territory with 'Majestic AF'; The Magnetic Fields don't need much explaining with a song titled 'The Day the Politicians Died'.

The U.S. recorded music business generated $11.1 billion in revenue in 2019, a 13% year-over-year increase from the $9.8 billion it reached in 2018, and the fourth straight year of double-digit growth for the sector. Streaming revenue grew 19.9% year-over-year to $8.8 billion from 2018's $7.4 billion, accounting for 79.5% of all revenue. On the other side, digital download sales revenue dipped below the $1 billion mark, falling 18% year-over-year to $856 million, CD sales fell 12% to $615 million in 2019, but vinyl rose a whopping 19% year-over-year to $504 million, the format's highest revenues in 32 years and its 14th straight year of growth.

Earlier this month, an ad agency space150 shared a song and music video called 'Jack Park Canny Dope Man', credited to an A.I. called “Travisbott”, based on Travis Scott’s original music and lyrics. The song was lousy, but it raises a serious question: How do we deal with the sampling and reproduction of an existing artist’s musical likeness when someone completely unrelated stands to profit from it? Holly Herndon, who collaborated with A.I. on her last album, raised the issue: A.I. is getting better at sounding like human beings, so what will the humans controlling the A.I. do with that power? Herndon told the Fader that she saw something like Travisbott coming: “I think we're going to see a flood of automated compositions, people using neural nets to extract the logic from other people's work and a lot of appropriation. We're going to see big issues around attribution”.

Nick Cave has opened up on how the death of his son Arthur inspired the 2016 track ‘Girl In Amber’, and how the song relieved him and his wife of their pain. He described on his The Red Hand Files blog how he was "numbly sitting" in a studio a few months after “Arthur, my son, had died", existing "in a kind of fugue-state... and as I listened to the version of ‘Girl in Amber’, I was completely overwhelmed by what I heard. It was suddenly and tragically clear that ‘Girl in Amber’ had found its ‘who’. The ‘who’ was Susie, my wife - held impossibly, as she was at the time, within her grief, reliving each day a relentless spinning song that began with the ringing of the phone and ended with the collapse of her world". Cave goes on to explain that the early live performances of the track on the ‘Skeleton Tree’ tour made him feel like he was singing to his “wife, [who was] still trapped in the amber of her grief”, but he continued to perform it and that has “released" his wife Susie "at least in part, from the suffocating darkness that surrounded her”.

Eminem managed to outpace himself in his new song 'Godzilla' to deliver what may be his fastest rap verse to date - his speed run through the end of his third verse on 'Godzilla' clocks in at around 31 seconds, during which he raps 224 words containing 330 total syllables. This comes in at 10.65 syllables per second and 7.23 words per second. Yesterday, he called his loyal followers to partake in the #GodzillaChallenge, rapping that third verse as fast as they can. They were quick to hop on the trend, and they nailed the rapid-fire challenge

Spain’s Constitutional Court overturned a previous verdict by the country's Supreme Court that found rapper César Strawberry guilty of exalting terrorism and humiliating victims of attacks in tweets. César Montana Lehmann of the Def Con Dos rock band had been sentenced to one year in prison for a series of tweets in 2013 and 2014 in which he talked about sending a cake bomb to former King Juan Carlos I on his birthday and said that some politicians made him long for a former armed leftist group. César was also banned from holding any public position for more than six years. The Constitutional Court said Tuesday that the guilty ruling violated the singer’s free speech rights.

One of the biggest annual K-pop concerts in the U.S., The Korea Times Music Festival scheduled for April 25 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles has been postponed due to fears over coronavirus, CBS LA reports. The annual musical festival, which is in its 18th year, had already announced the likes of K-pop girl group MOMOLAND, solo singer and former Wanna One member Ha Sungwoon and rock band No Brain. Coronavirus also led to cancellation of the Korean Music Awards and Stormzy has postponed tour dates in Asia, as NME reported.

David Roback, producer and Mazzy Star co-founder, has died aged 61. Roback co-founded the seminal West Coast band Mazzy Star alongside Hope Sandoval in 1989. The alt-rock group unveiled their debut album, 'She Hangs Brightly', in 1990, before going on to release three more records and two EPs. Mazzy Star’s best-known song, 'Fade Into You', was produced and co-written by Roback. A key figure in the Los Angeles Paisley Underground scene of neo-psychedelia in the 1980s, Roback also played in bands such as Rain Parade and Opal. LA Times wrote a lovely obituary for their fellow Californian.

New technologies have made planning and booking a tour easier than ever, as well made it quite simple for fans to find out about tours. Latest edition of radio & podcast show The Future of What was about these new technologies: BandsInTown - a website listing shows; RoadNation - a platform where band can generate revenue in advance of their tour, and identify where to play by giving fans the power to choose the cities; Parlour Gigs - brings artists fo their fans' homes; Show4Me - allows fans to interact with artists in a sort of social media fan club.

Canadian cellist and eco-activist Rebecca Foon released her first solo album 'Waxing Moon', with a little help from members of Arcade Fire and Godspeed You Black Emperor. The album is about "our beautiful world... facing mass extinction", but "full of hope, beauty, and perseverance", PopMatters writes in a review. All royalties from 'Waxing Moon' will go to Pathway to Paris, the non-profit climate action organization Foon co-founded.

"As the market becomes saturated with songs-as-content and A.I. being able to compose entire pieces without a human even touching it, I think our relationship to music will shift toward extracting it from digital spaces" - Pitchfork reviews editor Jeremy D. Larson says in an excellent Music Journalism Insider interview. He explains further on - "This trend makes me more drawn to artists who are more ambitious, ornate, technical, or jammy. A drummer who’s working, a particularly expressive guitar line, analog techno, live-band R&B, this spiritual jazz revival. It kind of reallocates the primacy of music creation back to the human, music as a feat, as proof of life".

"There's a lot of people and entities out there who are deathly afraid of a world that is less vanilla and more chocolate" - soul singer Zeshan B told the Fader about his new song and video 'Brown Power'. He explains further on - "but no matter what, I feel that no one - no matter how hard they try - will have the power to halt this 'caramelization' of vanilla and chocolate. Whether it be interracial marriages, business partnerships, artistic collaborations, elections, sports-people are slowly starting to embrace a more brown paradigm that is more inclusive, more dynamic and more accountable to the complexities of the human race". In the Adeel Ahmed-directed video, several politicians and celebrities like Hasan Minhaj, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Hari Kondabalu make cameos.

When Eli Hewson started a band Inhaler his parents weren't that supportive - "I mean, they wanted me to go to college, you know, like all of our parents" - especially since his father, him being Bono from U2, knew from the inside how it works. "I think they just kind of saw that I loved it and that we were good. I think if we weren't good, they would have instantly told us to give it up and go to school. They've been supportive now, they really have” - Eli (20) told GQ. He admitted that growing up as Bono's son was "a strange spectacle", and now "experiencing a band through this way is very, very interesting for me. And it's a lot more fun”. About parents' influence on the band, bassist Robert Keating says - “I mean, I don't listen to my dad, let alone Eli's”.

The popular YouTube stream "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to", the constant live stream starring an anime girl doing her homework, was banned from YouTube over the weekend without explanation but in the meantime, the channel was restored and the chill beats returned in a brand new stream. YouTube issued an apology - "Our teams confirmed that this was a mistake on our side and your channel has now been reinstated". According to The Verge, the original "lofi" stream amassed over 218 million views, and ran for over 13,000 hours, making it one of the longest videos in YouTube history.

"I thought it was the drugs and the alcohol that made it all work" - Ozzy Osbourne told about his recording career, as Rolling Stone reports. "But it's not true. All I was doing for years is self-medicating 'cause I didn't like the way I felt. But then this ['Ordinary Man'] is the first album I've co-wrote and recorded fucking completely sober". He says he likes having a clear head - - "Cause at least I can remember the fucking thing I did yesterday". In an earlier NME interview, he said he "now rates his greatest achievement as simply 'staying alive'".

Plant enthusiasts are opening channels of communication with their plants through bio-sonification devices like Music of the Plants and PlantWave, conducted in the trending language of ambient noise. The resulting plant music is used in a variety of ways – mixed into songs, as background sounds in yoga studios, or as installations in art galleries. NPR is wondering what does it mean to have plants "playing music", and, indeed, should we take it as music, since these sounds aren't made intentionally by the plant to communicate. The article suggests people should try to stay away from anthropomorphizing the plants too much - the imposition of a human scale and pitch allows us to be more aware that plants are living, but it might make us think they feel like us, even when they don't.

Concert promoter and ticketing company Live Nation shares fell 8% on Monday, over fears the coronavirus is not contained, Billboard reports. Ryman Hospitality - the owner of Grand Ole Opry and Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium - was down 5.8%. The Madison Square Garden Company fell by 2.4%.

DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall, who unexpectedly died last week, has a new 12'' released under his name - 'Unknown Plunderer' is chill and danceable, with deep bass, a cool guitar riff, and a distinct dub sound. The b-side, 'End Times Sound', is even dubbier with more guitar and echoey melodica. Two remixes and more electronic and clubby.

At the end of 2019, Spotify was worth $27.57 billion, with 65% of it being owned by just six parties: the firm’s co-founders, Daniel Elk and Martin Lorentzon have 30.6% between them, Tencent Holdings Ltd. has 9.1%, and a run of three asset-management specialists holding hold 25% - Gifford has 11.8%, Morgan Stanley has 7.3%, and T.Rowe Price Associates 6.2%. Sony and Universal continue to jointly own between six percent and seven percent of Spotify.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse are planning a tour in support of their latest album 'Colorado', so they started booking some "barns". As they explain on the Neil Young Archives website - "many of the old places we used to play are gone now, replaced by new coliseums we have to book year in advance and we don’t want to go to anyway". Apart from that, "largely soulless, these new buildings cost a fortune to play in... We don’t like the new rules. So we asked for the old arenas where we used to play, and we learned [that a huge amount of them are demolished, but many are also still standing]. Among those on their list of arenas still standing: MSG, Forum, Nassau Coliseum, Long Beach Arena, Cow Palace, Chicago Arena, Nashville Municipal Auditorium".

Philadelphia City Council has renamed the East Passyunk Avenue (between South Street and Bainbridge Street), to Avenue of The Roots. Band's drummer Questlove shared the news on Instagram and claimed the city made the decision to make the change recently but he thought the announcement would come later in May - “Cats was like “NOAP!!! WE FINNA PUT THIS JAWN UP NOW!!!!!”.

Pop Smoke was such a sensation to witness because, while hip-hop continues to expand, he fed off that cultural diffusion while remaining quintessentially New York. His Caribbean flair, Brooklyn bravado, and trademark tone swiftly became the new voice of the city. He was a familiar, yet fresh archetype of what New York feels, looks, and sounds like. When we listen to Pop Smoke, we hear DMX, we hear 50 Cent, we hear Shyne - the Fader says in an obituary to Pop Smoke, NY-to-LA rapper killed last week in his Hollywood Hills home.

The full arc of Miles Davis’s sound, and life, forms the basis of 'Birth of the Cool', a two-hour film created for the PBS series American Masters, but at the center of it stands 'Bitches Brew', Davis' pivotal album that altered the trajectory of jazz, messed with the boundaries of funk, and pushed psychedelic rock to new heights of exploration. Docu covers everything from Davis’s ravenous creative development to his ever-evolving fashion sense, to his complex relationship with women.

William Close is the inventor of the Earth Harp, the world's longest string instrument, which has strings dozens of meters long, and it uses architecture or landscapes to stretch the strings, creating a unique sound. This also means that the audience in a concert venue is actually inside the instrument.

Melodicka Bros are two Italian brothers making unusual covers, preferably funny. Last one they made is an acoustic cover of Pantera's 'Walk' recorded while - running. Previously, Melodicka Bros remade Korn's 'Freak on a Leash' in Christmas style, Radiohead's 'Creep' in happy style...

Justin Bieber's 'Changes' earned 231,000 equivalent album units in the U.S last week (126,000 in album sales, 101,000 are in SEA units, and 4,000 are in TEA units), which landed him on top of Billboard's album chart. At 25, Bieber is the youngest solo artist to achieve seven No. 1 albums (previously, the record was held by Elvis Presley, who was 26 at the time of his 7th No. 1 album). Three more albums reached the top 10 at Billboard 200 - A Boogie Wit da Hoodie’s 'Artist 2.0' debuts at No. 2 with 111,000 equivalent album units (nearly all from streaming activity), Tame Impala achieves its highest charting album ever on the Billboard 200, as 'The Slow Rush' bows at No. 3 with 110,000 equivalent album units (with 80,000 of that in album sales), and Monsta X rounds out the new arrivals in the top 10, as the six-member South Korean vocal group makes its Billboard 200 chart debut at No. 5 with its 'All About Luv', sold in 52,000 equivalent album units (50,000 of that sum comprising album sales).

"The uncomplicated nature of the music gives his voice the space it needs to shine. His emotive, glowing vocals are the heart of every song, and the production stays true to that ideal" - PopMatters says in a review of 'No Future', new album by Irish singer EDEN. Pop really does matter, in this case: "The album is full of subtle adornments and alterations. Similarly, how he builds rich textures from multiple vocal tracks is often jaw-droppingly effective - at one point slowly shifting until it resembles a full gospel choir... 'No Future' is an understated, soulful pop gem that seems to exist in its own time and place".