Britney Spears was freed from her conservatorship during a landmark court hearing on Friday, where a Los Angeles judge decided to grant her request for termination of the 13-year-long conservatorship, the New York Times reports. Judge Brenda Penny's decision came after Spears and both of her parents, Jamie and Lynne, filed petitions in support of the dissolution of the conservatorship.
R.E.M.'s frontman made a list of music that was crucial to him at certain points in his life. The list is eclectic, folding in bubblegum pop, unvarnished folk, grunge, electronic music, and more. Pitchfork brings Stipe's music time-line.
Independent US label, distributor, and publisher EMPIRE has paid a $1 million advance entirely in Bitcoin to Atlanta-based artist and cryptocurrency investor Money Man ahead of the release of his new album 'Blockchain', which is out on Friday. EMPIRE says its payment to Money Man marks the first advance paid entirely in Bitcoin to an artist, by a record label. The transaction was made via mobile payments platform Cash App, which also recently launched Cash App Studios, an initiative aimed at funding artists’ projects. Music Business Worldwide has the whole story.
British collector Steve Goldman, who owns about 300 records that can lay claim to having some of the world’s worst cover art, is staging an exhibition of the Worst Album Covers in the World. Goldman is raising money for charity with his exhibition. Guardian reports on the funny story.
Mehdi Moussaïd, a research scientist in Berlin who studies crowd behavior at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, came up with tips to survive a dangerous crowd situation:
Keep your eyes open for danger signs
Leave as soon as you sense the crowd getting too dense
Stay standing, and don't put a backpack on the ground
Lack of oxygen is the killer in crowds, so preserve space around your chest
Don't push. Move with the crowd
Avoid walls and solid objects
Learn to detect crowd density
If a crowd gets unsafe, look out for others
John Coltrane’s album 'A Love Supreme' has reached one million sales in the United States, 56 years after its release, Variety reports. 'A Love Supreme' is the first jazz LP of the 1960s to achieve platinum certification, also the first Coltrane’s platinum record. 'A Love Supreme' was recorded in one session on December 9, 1964 at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Coltrane enlisted drummer Elvin Jones, pianist McCoy Tyner, and bassist Jimmy Garrison for the iconic recording, which was originally released by Impulse! in 1965.
"One specific thing I’d like to change though is throwing money at viral moments which I think is proving to not work more than it does. I wish we could focus more on building long-term artists the traditional way but it’s a TikTok world that we live in right now" - Henry Allen, hit songwriter for The Weeknd, Beyoncé, Maroon 5, Justin Bieber and Major Lazer says in the Music Business Worldwide interview. When Covid-19 struck, he found the outsides: "Luckily, we moved to Nashville mid-Covid and to a place where we have two acres of forest and we can walk to this nature reserve where there’s deer, animals and a lake. Getting outside is important, and it sounds cliche, but nature is great".
Trapital's Dan Runcie looks for reasons for the Astroworld Fest tragedy which left eight people dead, and many injured:
Runcie also has a few predictions: "In the future, we’ll likely see better-positioned security, medical staff, and police officers, and more care put into logistics and spacing. That will translate to higher costs, higher insurance premiums for future events, and higher ticket prices for consumers".
"Almost since it first emerged on the streets of the Bronx, audiences have expected hip-hop to express a revolutionary purpose. But perhaps this music shouldn’t have to take a political stand" - music critic Kelefa Sanneh argues in his latest Guardian podcast about the expectations from hip-hop. "Rapping often makes people self-conscious" - Sanneh points out. Reads the text version here.
Adele's '30' was turned into manufacturers more than six months ago in order to combat the recent worldwide vinyl shortage — caused by unprecedented, pandemic-related demand, supply-chain disruptions and an increase in manufacturing prices — that has left many artists waiting months after an album's digital release for vinyl records - Variety reports on the curious case. Adele's choke-hold on the music industry meant she was able to book up already-overbooked vinyl plants in order to rush-order pressings so that they would arrive alongside '30''s digital release. Sony also made the decision to "push catalogue titles off its overseas pressing plants to ensure there won't be any shortage of Adele LPs going into the holidays". Over 500,000 copies of '30' were pressed and will now be hitting stores on November 19, while pressings from smaller artists and imprints — who often rely on vinyl sales in order to survive — are now delayed even further (some until 2022) in order to accommodate the blockbuster release.
"The creator economy is growing much more quickly than the music streaming economy right now, by multiple measures" - music/tech analyst Cherie Hu argues in her latest post. She continues: "For instance, while the number of audio creators on Spotify roughly doubled from 2018 to 2021, the overall number of creators using Stripe grew by 8x over the same time period. In terms of revenue, certain subsectors of the creator economy are growing as much as 8x faster as music streaming. According to Stripe, community platforms like Luma have seen a 150% increase in revenue year-over-year in 2021 — far outpacing the 25% year-over-year revenue growth that Spotify reported this quarter, and the 17% year-over-year growth that the IFPI last reported for the entire global music streaming market in 2020".
"A new wave of Kashmiri musicians are giving voice to their reality, with artists like Ali Saffudin, Alif and Ramooz bringing rock into the fray. The hip-hop scene especially has seen tremendous growth in the last couple of years with the advent of rappers like Qafilah, Ahmer, SXR and the duo SOS (Straight Outta Srinagar), who sing about living in the shadow of violence" - the Independent looks into the new wave of protest music from the unstable region.
Andy Barker, the longtime member of Manchester electronic music group 808 State, has died at the age of 53, NME reports. The band confirmed the news on social media, saying he died “after a short period of illness”. 808 State achieved commercial success when their song 'Pacific State' was played on BBC Radio One. 808 State continued their music career by releasing five more studio LPs, collaborating with numerous artists like Guy Garvey, Bernard Sumner, James Dean Bradfield, and Björk. Adding to that, the group is also renowned for hits including 'In Yer Face', and 'The Only Rhyme That Bites'.
Ed Sheeran scores his fourth No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart as his latest studio album '=' bows atop the with 118,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. Album sales of '=' comprise 68,000, making it the top-selling album of the week, SEA units comprise 46,500 - equaling 61.69 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs, and TEA units comprise 3,500, Billboard reports.
Rolling Stone looks for the warning signs that showed what might happen, and what in the end did happen at the Nov. 5 Astroworld Festival in Houston’s NRG Park where eight people died. Travis Scott has a history of enticing fans to dangerous behavior - in 2017 he encouraged a fan to jump from a second-floor balcony at Terminal 5, in the summer of 2015 Chicago police arrested him after he urged fans to climb over barricades to go onstage at Lollapalooza. There were warning signs at the venue as well - at 2 p.m. on Nov. 5 fans stampeded by the dozens through a V.I.P. security entrance at Astroworld, knocking over metal detectors, which suggests they weren’t prepared for the kind of crowd they were going to get. NRG Park itself had just experienced what could have been a cue to beef up security: Outside the very same venue on the night of Oct. 24, less than two weeks before Astroworld, young fans of Playboi Carti also reportedly knocked over metal detectors and moved metal barriers outside the venue before the concert — which organizers canceled due to the chaos. Travis Scott and other organizers of the Astroworld music festival in Houston are already facing at least one lawsuit over Friday’s deadly crowd surge, filed by an injured concertgoer who called the incident a “predictable and preventable tragedy”, Billboard reports.
Terence “Astro” Wilson, longtime member and “toaster” in the British reggae band UB40, has died at the age of 64, Brookly Vegan reports. Wilson joined UB40 shortly after the band’s formation in late-1978; with the group, Astro served as their “toaster”, delivering spoken word or rap-style vocals over the band’s brand of reggae music. UB40 had the biggest hits with 'Red Red Wine', '(I Can't Help) Falling in Love With You', and 'Kingston Town'.
Latin American countries are the top consumers of music worldwide, by a wide margin, according to data culled from the IFPI's recently released "Engaging With Music" report, Billboard reports. In Mexico, people consume most music per capita - 25.7 hours per week, compared to an average of 18.4 hours per week across the globe. At No. 2 is Brazil, where fans listen to 25.4 hours of music per week. Finally, Argentina -- the third Latin American country included in the study -- is at No. 6, consuming 22.6 hours of music per week. It's not a new thing - these stats have remained relatively stable since IFPI began doing this particular research several years ago. The report surveyed music consumption habits of 43,000 people in 21 countries.
"Lesbian separatists and gay male misogynists might grumble, but most of us relish ABBA’s unmatched gender parity and equality. Being strong women and sensitive men who love and respect one another is central to the group’s alchemy as well as its enduring LGBTQ appeal" - LA Times argues in its article about how two Swedish hetero couples became gay icons.
At least eight people were killed and hundreds more injured Friday night following a crowd surge during Travis Scott’s set at the rapper’s Astroworld festival in Houston, CNN reports. More than 300 people were treated for injuries following the incident, with 23 people taken to area hospitals, 11 in critical condition, including a 10-year-old boy. The incident occurred around 9 p.m. during Scott’s set, with the crowd compressing toward the stage, causing “total chaos,” KHOU reported. Scott’s set at the sold-out festival was streamed live on Apple Music. Scott briefly paused his performance as ambulances streamed into the venue, with the concert being ultimately stopped by organizers and authorities. The Saturday lineup of the two-day festival was also canceled.
World’s largest concert promoter, Live Nation returned to profit last quarter after about two years of losses, citing the return of summer shows following Covid-19 lockdowns, Bloomberg reports. Adjusted operating income amounted to $305.7 million in the third quarter, rebounding from a $319.2 million loss a year earlier. Revenue soared to $2.7 billion.
'Bread Song' by Black Country, New Road is a slow-burning, mighty transoid psych song; Robert Plant and Alison Krauss conquer with beauty and style with 'It Don't Bother Me', a Bert Jansch cover.
Actor and musician Fred Armisen showed off his musical impersonations of alternative music from bands from the beginning of the 1970s to the 2000s on Jimmy Fallon. Funny stuff...
Stereogum picks out 40 musicians "that make us most excited about the future", which includes Bruiser Wolf, Olivia Rodrigo, Enumclaw, For Your Health, Indigo de Souza, Horsegirl, Mustafa, PinkPantheress among others. The criteria is that "all of them are doing something worth hearing right now, and deserve to have your ears on them going forward". Check out the full list.
Flavor Flav, Riff Raff, Ne-Yo, Vic Mensa, Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee, Sean Kingston, Randy Jackson and many more are among 184 musicians that can currently be found on Cameo, a website offering personalized videos. Musicians, actors, models, reality stars and YouTubers greet their fans by their name, and maybe even throw in a couple of personal touches, like their birth date or favorite food. The clips are usually gifted for special occasions, like a birthday, engagement, job promotion for a price ranging anywhere from $5 to $999. Billboard reports on it.
Rolling Stone covers the story of R&B and disco star Johnnie Taylor whose family claims Sony hasn’t been transparent with royalty payments for his music. Music royalty manager Tim Langridge gives a simple albeit shocking explanation: "Nobody knows royalties; even people [who work in] royalties don’t understand it”. The system, he says, is “so convoluted and crazy so artists don’t understand it. Of course heirs don’t understand it, and most people in the music business don’t even understand it”.
Mick Jenkins shares southern-psychedelic ‘Gucci Tried to Tell Me’; Eels delve into synth-pop/rock with 'Good Night on Earth'; Tendai combines r’n’b and hip-hop on ‘Infinite Straight’; Marissa Nadler shares the mystical 'Couldn't Have Done the Killing'.
Music Business Worldwide is pretty much impressed by the latest YouTube revenue numbers: the world’s largest video platform generated $7.205 billion in revenues from advertising in Q3 this year, up 43%, or by over $2 billion, year-on-year versus the same quarter of 2020. In the first nine months of this year, YouTube generated $20.21 billion from advertising, more than it generated from ads in the entirety of both 2020 ($19.77bn) and 2019 ($15.15bn). To put that in perspective - in 2019, the global record industry generated $20.2 billion in global wholesale revenues. In 2020, it generated $21.6 billion.
Jazz guitarist Pat Martino, revered for the fluid precision and blistering speed of his playing died on Monday at the age of 77. In 1980, after undergoing neurosurgery that saved his life, he was forced to relearn the instrument. Regardless of the setting, Martino played the guitar with an intensity of focus and impeccable clarity at even the most dizzying pace, NPR insists.
Vevo has unveiled its 2022 DSCVR Artists To Watch list, featuring 21 exciting new artists in the US, UK, Europe and beyond. The Vevo list which has in the past spotlighted the likes of Billie Eilish, Lewis Capaldi and Sam Smith early in their careers. MBW presents this year's cohort:
Elbow's new record 'Flying Dream 1' features ten ruminative, lushly-orchestrated ballads with intimate and melancholic sound. Band's frontman Guy Garvey walked to The New Cue about it: "I think that’s probably the case with a lot of bands that do both, that do drama as well as subtle. I think subtler music is easier to work on and doesn’t require energy. In some ways, it’s like having a warm bath". Garvey also describes the process of writing that album: "When everyone in my house was asleep at the end of every day, the relief was, as you can imagine, just fucking tangible every single day. I’d go to the back door, spark up a fag, pour myself a large one and listen to what the lads had sent. It was a proper lifeline".
The low barriers to entry for podcasting made it harder for exclusive premium podcasts to stand out over free alternatives that are ad-supported and widely distributed" - Dan Runcie argues in his latest memo about why the exclusive audio strategies have struggled in the past. However, all is not lost - "as local language music continues to rise in the streaming era, we may see more wins from digital streaming providers that aren’t based in the western world. In podcasting, paid products have found value in the right circles. Ben Thompson’s Stratechery has evolved into a paid podcast network, which was tied to his subscription-based media business".
Warner Music Group has announced Rhythm City - “a first-of-its-kind music-themed social roleplay experience” on kids gaming platform Roblox. The experience lets users choose from a variety of roles including music producer, DJ, dancer, and many more “to explore, dance, and bond with friends while enjoying the world’s hidden gems and competing in mini-music challenges”. It will be available on the Roblox platform on February 4, 2023, across Android, iOS, Mac, Windows PC, and Xbox One.
Singer and songwriter Jaafar Jackson is to portray his uncle Michael Jackson in the upcoming biopic 'Michael,' directed by Antoine Fuqua, Deadline reports. Lionsgate movie is expected to depict the complicated legacy of King of Pop, “including his most iconic performances that led him to become the greatest entertainer of all time.” The film is being made with the cooperation of the Michael Jackson estate. 'Michael' will be the first major film role for the 26-year-old Jaafar Jackson, the second-youngest son to songwriter, producer, and Jackson 5 member Jermaine Jackson, Michael Jackson's brother. John Logan, who wrote 'Gladiator,' 'Skyfall' and 'Spectre,' is penning the screenplay.
"When did you become a Hallmark card hippie? Joy, love, peace. Puke! Where’s the rage, anger, hatred?" - a fan named Ermine asked Nick Cave. He responded on his Red Hand Files blog - "things changed after my first son died. I changed... Sitting around in my own mess, pissed off at the world... contemptuous of beauty, contemptuous of joy, contemptuous of happiness in others, well, this whole attitude just felt, I don’t know, in the end, sort of dumb... I felt a sudden, urgent need to, at the very least, extend a hand in some way to assist it – this terrible, beautiful world – instead of merely vilifying it, and sitting in judgement of it".
SZA’s SOS racks up a seventh consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 111,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 26, Billboard reports. 'SOS' is also the first R&B/hip-hop album by a woman, or R&B album by any act, to spend its first seven weeks at No. 1 since Whitney Houston’s 'Whitney' in 1987. The last album by a woman with seven weeks at No. 1 was Taylor Swift’s 'Folklore', more than two years ago.
Barrett Strong, singer-songwriter, and a pivotal figure in the history of Motown, has died at the age of 81, the Associated Press reports. He sang the label's first major hit, 'Money (That's What I Want)', in 1959. Peaking at No 2 on the R&B singles chart and No 23 on the Hot 100, 'Money' came to define the early years of Motown, and was later recorded by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Strong went on to co-write classic songs like 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine', 'War' and 'Papa Was a Rollin' Stone'. Those hits were "revolutionary in sound and captured the spirit of the times", Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a written tribute to the musician.
A woman named as Jane Doe in court papers has accused Marilyn Manson — whose real name is Brian Warner — of sexually assaulting her when she was a minor, in a new lawsuit filed Monday in the Nassau County Supreme Court on Long Island, New York. The woman, alleges in the suit that when she was 16, she was invited onto Manson's tour bus after a 1995 show, where he "performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon Plaintiff", Rolling Stone reports.
Virtual girl group MAVE debuted on metaverse with a video for their song 'Pandora’s Box', taken from an EP of thew same name. The four members of the K-pop group — MARTY, TYRA, ZENA, and SIU — were unveiled at the beginning of the year. The group has an eccentric fictional storyline that centers around the members coming from the future and crash landing on Earth, trying to find the freedom of emotions.
This week’s special edition of Music Journalism Insider is bringing interviews with nominees for the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes. MJI talked with four nominees - Gareth Murphy, who earned his nomination for the notes to the important Irish album 'Andy Irvine Paul Brady'; Fernando Gonzalez who is nominated for the notes to 'Astor Piazzolla: The American Clavé Recordings' about the tango master; Bob Mehr, the liner notes author for the important Wilco album 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot'; Ted Olson who wrote liner notes for 'Doc’s World: Traditional Plus'.
Consequence has rounded up a list of "20 of the most bleak, grim, melancholic albums out there for the most efficient commiserating", because "sad songs are so cathartic". The interesting list starts with Greet Death’s 'New Hell', at No. 20, to reach the catharsis with Mount Eerie's 'A Crow Looked at Me' at No. 1. Check out the full list.
