"If you were to put together a perfect black metal book, one that captures that essential complexity while also providing historical and personal insights, it would be 'Black Metal Rainbows', a sprawling collection of essays, interviews, band and label profiles, and all kinds of art for both the true kvlt and the curious. It sets the new standard for how we should think about this music” - The Creative Independent reviews the new book which shows the true colors - antiracist and pro-diversity - of black metal.

'Swarm', created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover, is a "bizarre new... thriller" about a young woman's obsession with a pop star that takes a dark turn which "serves as a spikey admonishment of celebrity worship." "It expresses a discomfort with and cynical attitude toward social media and fame to sometimes frustrating results" - NPR expresses in awe of the new Prime TV series. It is "at its best when it leans into the absurdities of social media and the ease of slippage between internet selves and 'real' selves". There are some interesting cameos as well - Paris Jackson plays a stripper who claims to be Black on her dad's side, whereas Billie Eilish shows up in a commune made up of woo-woo influencer types.

the beginnings of rock'n'roll. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a Black queer gospel singer and guitarist from Arkansas who emerged in the 1930s, daring to mix gospel with secular music, laying the foundations for rock and roll. Memphis Minnie was a blues musician from the 1930s with a master finger-picking guitar style. Barbara Lynn was the R&B guitarist and singer who came to prominence in the 60s. Beverly Watkins was one of the first women to be recognised as a lead blues guitarist. A few of the representatives of the new generation are: Stephanie Phillips, guitarist and singer of Black feminist punk band Big Joanie; artist Lava La Rue who came to play guitar through a government scheme to support music tuition for lower-income families; vocalist/guitarist Amy Love is one half of English rock duo Nova Twins, together with bassist Georgia South.

There were 589 million users of paid subscription accounts at the end of 2022, according to IFPI, the organization that represents the recorded music industry worldwide, MBW reports. This means that 7% of the world's population has a paid music subscription account. Global recorded music revenues grew 9% year over year in 2022, to reach $26.2 billion, IFPI's also noted in their Global Music Report 2023. Streaming continues to be the driving force behind the overall growth. Subscription audio streaming revenues increased by 10.3% year over year to $12.7 billion in 2022, with total streaming - including both paid subscription and advertising-supported - grew by 11.5% YoY to reach $17.5 billion in 2022, and accounted for 67% of total global recorded music revenues. Last year marked the global music market’s eighth consecutive year of growth.

"As a result of the upheaval, 2022 became one of the most creative and prolific years ever for Ukrainian culture and the country's music scene. The achievement was a significant one: preserving the country's unique identity" - Resident Advisor presents its selection of the best Ukrainian electronic music released since February of last year. It begins with John Object who released his ambient compilation 'Life' the very same day he joined the army ("I guess there was a good chance that was it—my life—and I'd be killed tomorrow"), and finishes with a dark electronic album 'Katakomba' by Chaosy.

According to Spotify's latest Loud and Clear report, 14,700 DIY artists generated $10,000 across recorded music and publishing royalties on the service in 2022, MBW reports. This means that DIY artists comprised approximately 25.8% of the subset of 57,000 artists who generated $10k+ on Spotify in 2022. However, compared to the previous year, the news isn't that good. In 2021, Spotify helped 15,140 DIY artists generate over $10,000.

"On 'Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)', they share some of their catchiest and most openly introspective songwriting yet" - Guardian reviews the new album by Yves Tumor. Pitchfork highly recommends the "ecstatic fusion of alt-rock and R&B, seeking the mysterious nexus where 'Loveless' meets 'Purple Rain'" (tagged it Best new music, rated 8.4). Consequence insists "they’ve turned themselves into a ravenous rock deity, a masterful songwriter", whereas NME hears as "evidence of how brilliant rock can be when ambition and talent are met with a creative who isn’t afraid to be strange".

A new moment in the developing story of artificial intelligence being used in making music. Complex reports about fans of Lil Uzi Vert and Juice WRLD making full songs out of snippets recorded by the two artists, all made with the help of AI, and of course knowledge about how to use exciting new tool. Fans had taken low-quality snippets they found on the internet - mostly Instagram and Snaphat - and used AI technology to turn them into full songs with much higher audio quality. Songs went viral on Twitter.

Human Artistry Campaign coalition, representing 40 different entertainment industry groups, has drawn 7 principles detailing the need for using the new technology to “empower human expression” while also asserting the importance of representing “creators’ interests… in policymaking” regarding the technology, Billboard reports. Principles are aimed at ensuring that AI developers acquire licenses for artistic works used in the “development and training of AI models”, and that governments refrain from creating “copyright or other IP exemptions” for the technology.

Here they are:

Technology has long empowered human expression, and AI will be no different

Human-created works will continue to play an essential role in our lives

Use of copyrighted works, and use of the voices and likenesses of professional performers, requires authorization, licensing, and compliance with all relevant state and federal laws

Governments should not create new copyright or other IP exemptions that allow AI developers to exploit creators without permission or compensation

Copyright should only protect the unique value of human intellectual creativity

Trustworthiness and transparency are essential to the success of AI and protection of creators

Creators’ interests must be represented in policymaking

"Starting about 12-18 months ago, something shifted in music consumption patterns" - music writer Ted Gioia takes notice of a change, underpinned by six recent studies showing an unexpected increase in classical music listening. How did this happen? "Maybe that old orchestral and operatic music now sounds fresh to ears raised on electronic sounds. Maybe the dominance of four-chord compositions has created a hunger for four-movement compositions. Maybe young people view getting dressed up for a night at the opera hall as a kind of cosplay event. Or maybe the pandemic had some impact on music consumption... And it’s true, the pandemic did cause a major increase in the purchase of musical instruments. People got serious about music—so much so that they wanted to play it themselves. Perhaps it changed listening habits too".

"A lot of the discussion on music being under-monetized has focused on streaming rates, Spotify’s pricing, and equity stakes in streaming services. It’s all valid, but it’s one piece of the broader opportunity" - Trapital's Dan Runcie points out in his latest memo, adding that artists "have more opportunities to buy and sell products at every level of the demand curve. An artist can release music on Spotify, promote their tour with AEG Presents, sell tickets on Ticketmaster, perform at Rolling Loud, sell an NFT on OpenSea, sell VIP access on Patreon, and host members-only live streams on Twitch. For most artists, each part of their demand curve is supported by a different company". Runcie sees opportunities in gamified features and collectibles, user-generated content, A.I. as a service, and in-app purchases in digital environments.

Carliz De La Cruz Hernández, the ex-girlfriend of Bad Bunny, is suing the performer for using her voice recording of uttering the now-famous catchphrase “Bad Bunny Baby” in two of his songs without her consent. The lawsuit claims that she never legally agreed for her voice recording to be used in Bad Bunny’s songs, live performances, radio, television or any other form of media. De La Cruz Hernández is arguing in the $40 million lawsuit that the unauthorized use of the recording commercially exploits her voice and identity.

A great read in Guardian by singer, musician, and frontwoman Courtney Love about "sexist gatekeeping... purposeful ignorance and hostility" of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: "If so few women are being inducted into the Rock Hall, then the nominating committee is broken. If so few Black artists, so few women of colour, are being inducted, then the voting process needs to be overhauled. Music is a lifeforce that is constantly evolving – and they can’t keep up... If the Rock Hall is not willing to look at the ways it is replicating the violence of structural racism and sexism that artists face in the music industry, if it cannot properly honour what visionary women artists have created, innovated, revolutionised and contributed to popular music – well, then let it go to hell in a handbag".

Music writer Jay Papandreas visited a soup west, bumping into "the best record store in the midwest" on the way. In his latest memo, he tries to identify what constitutes the best record store in general - "it’s a function of care. It’s about the selection and knowledge of buyers. It’s about the effort that goes into making a daunting collection feel as inoffensive as a grocery store. It’s about organizing and breaking the mold of the judgmental record store guy trope but still having a higher taste level than any other store. The care for the music, as well as the customer, is what makes a space different from others in the same industry."

Meta has "excluded" the music repertoire by tens of thousands of Italian songwriters from Facebook, in a "shock move", as reported by MBW. The Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE) says that “Meta presented a ‘take it or leave it’ economic offer, threatening to remove the content if the offer was not accepted by SIAE”. SIAE didn’t accept this offer, so Meta “suddenly and unilaterally” started to remove its content.

"Don’t underestimate the power of songs. They are change agents in human life, with more transformative impact on society than any weapon system or policy initiative" - music writer Ted Gioia looks into the issue of protest songs and the place of music in today's society. Gioia collected recent news articles about various acts of suppression and censorship of music, as well as about the inhumane use of music.

Kaytranda has remixed Sam Gellaitry’s single 2021 ‘Assumptions’, adding a new flavour. Canadian producer colors the dance song with his signature groove, making for a much warmer and thicker sound. Speaking of the mix Gellaitry said - “I’ll never forget the first time I heard Kaytranada’s music 11 years ago, a true innovator and inspiration to my music ever since that point."

“[In clubs] You see people in various states of ecstasy, loneliness to connectedness, boredom. A club or a rave is a very concentrated, condensed space where you can live out all these purely human emotions” - German photographer Werner Amann explains in MixMag the idea behind his photographs taken in 1990s techno clubs, collected in a new photo book titled 'Kein Morgen' ("no tomorrow"). Amann frequented now-legendary techno spots like E-Werk, Tresor and the annual Love Parade in Berlin, and he would also travel out of town to other parts of Germany and beyond – partying at the likes of Mayday in Dortmund, Omen in Frankfurt, underground parties in North-Rhine Westphalia, Limelight and Sound Factory in New York, to parades in Zürich and Paris.

Global recorded music revenues grew 6.7% year over year in 2022 to reach $31.2 billion, according to a new report from Midia Research. This marked a significant drop in estimated 24.8% YoY growth for 2021 versus 2020, MBW reports. Streaming accounted for 64.1% of all recorded music industry revenues in 2022, with revenues estimated by Midia to have grown 8.3% YoY, or by $1.5 billion, to $20 billion in 2022.

"Uniquely memorable record, encapsulating its creator’s restless spirit" - Mojo reviews the new album 'Oh Me Oh My' by the avant-garde jazz/electro artist Lonnie Holley. Uncut points out it's "his most substantial and accessible album yet," as well as an "act of spontaneous divination, revisiting past traumas with pained understanding, yet also hopeful and celebrating the wonder of life." Pitchfork argues it's Holley's "most ambitious and approachable album: an extraordinary aural memoir that tells a cosmic story of survival" (rated 8.5, tagged Best new music), whereas Treblezine is confident that the album "will be deeply treasured". "This album is a report of loss, deep and personal and historic, yes, but most importantly, tangible and true" - Sputnik music writes enthused.

"I just think this whole idea of changing words and books because they make one uncomfortable or taking the rape scenes out of the 'Metamorphoses' — this is, to me, it’s not just dangerous. You start there, and where do you finish?" - Patti Smith talks about historical context of works of art in The Active Voice podcast. She also shares a few thoughts on cancel culture: "I’m always optimistic. I just refuse to be pessimistic. Pessimism breeds nothing. A pessimistic person does not create anything. A pessimistic person does not envision anything. It’s not that I feel pessimistic. I just feel that people are moving too quickly via social media, not examining everything in a cubistic way, not examining all the facets of things, not trying to understand how certain things fit in the context of the history that happened or when they happened."

"The market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) may have collapsed over the last year, but independent musicians are still minting. Is this because the... other revenue options for musicians in a post-pandemic, inflationary economy, in which media is free for everyone with a data connection, have dried up?" - composer and strategist Marc Moglen asks in his FWB piece. "NFTs hold great promise — especially for musicians looking to supplement existing or dwindling monetization opportunities, and especially if enterprising companies manage to crack the code of usability, standardization, and bridging the 'one-way chasm'.”

"No matter how much cost cutting Spotify and the other streaming companies do, there’s likely only one way for them to increase revenue to a point where significantly higher streaming payouts would be possible: raising prices... Artists need consumers to pay more for streaming, but here’s the question that even the harshest streaming critics often refuse to ask: what if they don’t want to?" - music writer Shawn Reynaldo asks the ultimate question in his latest newsletter. "Consumers didn’t create this system, but in 2023, they are accustomed to it, and if their current spending habits are any indication, they don’t seem terribly bothered by how streaming has negatively impacted artists or larger musical landscape."

It's definitely not a definitive list, but rather an interesting perspective by the rock journalism institution on the history of heavy metal (which they believe started with 'Black Sabbath' by, ahem, Blach Sabbath). The list starts with Venom's 'Wellcome to Hell' at No. 100, and reaches the high-point with, well, guess which song!?! A great lead of the article by the way - "Thousands of years after the Bronze and Iron Ages, the true Metal Age dawned half a century ago"!

Music theorist Adam Neely in his latest video is paying homage to jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who recently passed away. The YouTuber analyses his favorite shorter song 'Infant Eyes' and the style of "jazz impressionism" he hears there. Neely builds three pillars of Shorter's compositional style:

Impressionistic harmony that creates tonal ambiguity

Elegant melodic construction that invites improvisation
Deep use of the blues

"The scene Def Leppard and Judas Priest helped consolidate 40-plus years ago has never had this much talent, or represented as many disaffected voices, as it does today" - Guardian argues in its piece about the current British heavy metal scene. Some of the important names the G is picking out are Bristol post-hardcore collective Svalbard, black metal trio Dawn Ray’d, masked prog-metal Londoners Sleep Token, noise-punk duo Nova Twins, anti-fascist metalcore fivesome Ithaca...

Indie-rock supergroup boygenius - the trio of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus - performed at the baggage claim area at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, upon arriving in the city for their SXSW set, Stereogum reports. In two weeks, they’ll release their debut album 'The Record'.

You enjoyed our hummus. You enjoyed our shawarma. You enjoyed our falafel. Arab music is about to take over, you motherfuckers” - rapper, curator, and strategist Suhel Nafar says in the Pitchfork piece about Arabic music which is supposedly "on the brink of a global breakthrough". Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna is to become the first artist to sing her entire set in Arabic on the biggest stage at Coachella. Egyptian artist Wegz, the most-streamed Arab artist on Spotify across Southwest Asia and North Africa in 2022, has recently sold out London’s 2,000-capacity O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and became the first Egyptian artist to perform at the World Cup. The P mentions others - 25-year-old UK-based Palestinian-American artist Lana Lubany, the collective Laylit which hosts parties in New York, Montreal, and Washington D.C., and DJ Nooriyah, who grew up in Saudi Arabia and Japan.

Metalica have bought Furnace Record Pressing, a vinyl pressing plant based in Alexandria, Virginia, in order to keep up with demand for their back catalog on vinyl, in addition to meeting their needs for their forthcoming album, '72 Seasons', coming put in April. The band first started working with Furnace, one of the largest vinyl pressing companies in the U.S., in 2008, Loudwire reports. The company has helped keep Metallica’s catalog in print along with expansive box set reissues of 'Metallica', 'Master of Puppets', 'Ride the Lightning', 'Kill 'Em All', '...And Justice for All', and others. The plant will continue to press non-Metallica projects.

Directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, the team behind 'Everything Everywhere All At Once', won three Oscars in a single evening - Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. At 35 years old, they’re two of the youngest Best Director winners in history, and also the first Best Director winners ever to come from the world of music videos. Stereogum had a tough time selecting only five of their videos as the best ones.