'Bad Dreams' is the stand-out song from Indigo Sparke's new album 'Echo'; NoName shares funk/jazzy groove-banger 'Rainforest'; Hannah Jadagu shares some happy melancholia with 'Think Too Much'; The Armed go raaawk on 'All Futures'; Francis of Delirium share rock'n'cool song 'Let It All Go'.
Music streaming increased 13.4% in 2020 in the US compared to 2019, generating $10.1 billion last year compared to $8.9 billion in 2019, according to RIAA. Music streaming is accounting for 83% of the total revenue of the industry now. Vinyl sales have increased a whopping 29.2% to $619.6 million, compared to $479.5 million in 2019. Streaming has driven the industry to grow for the fifth consecutive year, with revenues increasing 9.2% in 2020, generating $12.2 billion in total.
George Clooney performed a lyrical improv reading of BTS' biggest hit 'Dynamite'. With a straight face Clooney says "hello, I'm Brad Pitt", and reads the lyrics. Amusing stuff!
Spotify CEO and cofounder Daniel Ek said the company paid out $5 billion in royalties in 2020, Spotify reports. Chief content officer Dawn Ostroff announced that over the last four years, the number of recording artists whose catalogs generated more than $1 million a year across recording and publishing is up over 82% to more than 800 artists (the majority of money is still going to the labels), and the number generating more than $100,000 a year is up 79% to more than 7,500 artists. Spotify this week also announced that it will be introducing a hi-fi option later this year.
Mogwai have landed their first-ever chart-topper in the UK as their latest release 'As the Love Continues' debuts at the No. 1 spot, UK Official Charts reports. It's the Scottish rock group's first No. 1 in 25-year career. Mogwai beat out grime artist Ghetts for the top spot.
ReWrapped is a new AI which analyzes your Spotify favorites in order to discover new artists influenced by your musical taste, Engadget reports. It works by linking directly with your Spotify account and identifying the most popular music via the Spotify Wrapped feature. Once recognised, this innovative A.I. audio analysis engine then examines key elements of each audio track and compares them against the community of artists, with suggestions then made based on the similarities.
Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds bandmate Warren Ellis made a new album in lockdown - their first non-soundtrack album as a duo - called 'Carnage' and it was just surprise-released today. Warren says "making 'Carnage' was an accelerated process of intense creativity. The eight songs were there in one form or another within the first two-and-a-half days and then it was, ‘let’s just make a record!’ There was nothing too premeditated about it". Cave calls it "a brutal but very beautiful record nested in a communal catastrophe". Read the lyrics here.
Tickets for Reading and Leeds festival have been sold out, two days after organizers confirmed the event would go ahead this year, NME reports. One of the UK’s biggest outdoor events has been confirmed for this year after the announcement of the UK government’s roadmap to reopening the country from Covid lockdown. Two city weekender is due to happen in August, and it will share a lineup which includes headliners Stormzy, Liam Gallagher, Post Malone, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Disclosure and Queens of the Stone Age.
Daft Punk’s catalog brought in $6.4 million in revenue annually over the last four years, which would make $1.883 million in artist royalties for the band, according to Billboard estimates. Parisian duo's catalog averaged around 317,000 album consumption units a year; also their last tour of 2007 has made them $20-40 million. Billboard also makes interesting estimates on possible earnings: a two-weekend headliner set at Coachella would have easily netted them $12 million minus costs, while at least 10 other major global festivals would have likely paid $5 million to $6 million per set. Pairing those festival appearances with a select stadium tour could have grossed the duo $3 million a night allowing them to surpass the $100 million mark by playing 35 to 40 shows in a single year.
Former Q editor Ted Kessler and staff members Chris Catchpole and Niall Doherty are launching a weekly music newsletter The New Cue. The first issue comes out on 26 February with new interviews with St Vincent, Arlo Parks and Tony Visconti, along with playlists and recommendations. The first few editions of the New Cue would be free, followed by a monthly subscription fee of £5 or an annual rate of £55 with occasional free weeks.
Filmmaker R.J. Cutler talks to Spin about his latest documentary 'Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry', which he started filming in 2018 and finished 2020 on the night of the Grammys (it's out today). While filming he got an insight into her family: "She and Finneas have this arrangement where, if they disagree, one of them will win and the other will lose... They believe that one of them should be right, one of them should be wrong and when the other one agrees to let the other one be right". About their parents: "And you see them living in denial. You just see them hoping that she’s never gonna grow up. Not because they don’t want Billie Eilish to grow up, but because parents don’t want their children to grow up".
"Morgan Walenn's second studio album, 'Dangerous: The Double Album', is at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. His singles have been bobbing in the country-music top 10 and the cross-genre Hot 100. Billboard’s ranking of the most popular artists in the United States had him in the top spot for five straight weeks" - The Atlantic writes trying to understand/explain how a racial slur helps somebody's career. It isn't the first time. Michael Jackson's catalog became even more popular after child-molestation allegations, a similar thing happened to R. Kelly after criminal charges of sexual assault were filed against him, Chris Brown and Tekashi 6ix9ine - convicted abusers - still hold places on pop charts.
An amusing article in the Quietus about 'Nick Cave's Bar', a new book by Aug Stone about a bar in Berlin in the 1980s which was a "home from home" for many creative people - musicians, filmmakers, painters, poets, and punks. Risiko stood at 48 Yorckstraße in West Berlin, on the border between the Kreuzberg and Wilmersdorf-Schöneberg sections of the city. It wasn't really Nick Cave's bar (although some in Europe did call it that back then), but Blixa Bargeld bartended at Risiko during Einstürzende Neubauten’s early years, and Cave would come to visit it with the rest of The Birthday Party.
"It is rare to find an album that is so much more than just music and even rarer to find Black Metal that ventures as wide as Spire do so to be in a position whereby both happen at the same time and work so brilliantly is not only refreshing but also extremely enjoyable" - Rock N' Load writes in a review of Australian band's second full length. Grizzly Butts appreciates the sonics of the album: "Spire aren’t yet demanding hard rock hooks or hand-holding rhythmic statements to cling to but they have presented a welcoming, frightfully deep chasm of somewhat original vocal applications that characterize mildly dissonant, epic black/death metal architecture".
Across the course of this year, approximately 22 million tracks will be added to Spotify’s catalog, which is approximately 60,000 tracks per day, meaning a new track is uploaded to its platform every 1.4 seconds, Music Business Worldwide reports. Spotify confirmed in November last year that its platform played host to around 70 million tracks.
"Athens was key in taking this punk idea that anybody can play and showing that anybody can do it anywhere. I think that Athens is the place that makes it clear—mostly through the career of R.E.M. but not entirely—that you can make music that reaches an underground or even a mainstream national audience anywhere. And that these kinds of cultural transformations and bohemian cultures we think of as really only occurring in certain urban spaces can actually flourish anywhere" - author Grace Elizabeth Hale tells in Please Kill Me interview about her latest book 'Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture'.
A nice tribute at the NPR to the 500,000 Americans that have died from Covid-19 - the National radio presents live stories of some of the victims and their favourite songs. Check out the sad collection - here.
Bobby Shmurda was freed from prison on Tuesday after he spent six years there on illegal firearm and conspiracy charges. While he was still in prison, Complex released a short documentary questioning whether his success in the music business led to his current incarceration. Hip-hop police's chief also suggested he should have turned his back on his friends when he reached fame
A great read in the Quietus about the legendary singer-songwriter Jake Thackray: "When an attempt is made by the artist to self-mythologise or distance themselves from biography, a la Tom Waits or Frida Kahlo, I see it as becoming part of the work. For someone who worked so hard to distance himself from attention, it seems fitting to give a summation of Jake Thackray’s music through his life. Indeed, his work often ended up echoing or anticipating what he later became".
"The style Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo minted on their 1997 debut album Homework – house music heavy on the filter effect, which involved the bass or treble on the track gradually fading in and out, mimicking a DJ playing with the equalisation on a mixer; drums treated with sidechain compression, so that the beats appeared to punch through the sound, causing everything else on the track to momentarily recede – is now part of pop’s lingua franca" - Guardian's Alexis Petridis argues in his article.
Lovely and sad The Natvral's 'New Moon' is about when love just isn't enough; nasimiYu steps into big-sounding R'n'B territory with 'Watercolor'; Visionist share a dark industrial pop 'Form'; J.I.D. raps about the syphilis experiment at the American south on 'Skegee'.
A thought-provoking article in Loudwire about the age rock musicians were at when they wrote their classic albums/songs. All Black Sabbath members were at the age of 20/21 when they wrote their debut, Kurt Cobain was 23 in 1990 when he wrote Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', as old as equally left-handed Jimi Hendrix was when he wrote 'Are You Experienced'. Metallica were 21, 22, and 23 when they wrote their masterpiece 'Master of Puppets', while Silverchair members, at the time of their multiplatinum debut 'Frogstomp', were just children - 14 years old!
"America is a slavocracy: it is a nation founded on bigotry, and those principles continue today. People might think racism no longer exists because there is no longer a slave system, but they don’t realise the laws that enabled the slave system still put us in a position where we have to jump over insurmountable handicaps to just become equal” - composer Adrian Younge said to the Guardian, talking about his new album 'The American Negro', and a new podcast – 'Invisible Blackness'. There's an irony in the latter title - “I use the phrase of the show’s title to illustrate that we all have invisible blackness, this sense of ‘otherness’ inside us, because we are all descended from the first human being in Africa".
The 10-year-old wunderkind Nandi Bushell shared her version of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1991 hit 'Under The Bridge'. This time, she played the guitar, drum, bass, and vocal parts. Bushell operates a looping machine for her instrumentals while simultaneously putting on her Anthony Kiedis impersonation.
Iggy Pop opened this year's virtual Tibet House Benefit with a dramatic reading of Dylan Thomas' classic poem 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night' against a soundscape created by Noveller and Leron Thomas. Directed by Simon Taylor, it features Iggy Pop staring straight into the camera lens and reciting for 1 minute 47 seconds.
Bob Dylan has sold his entire songwriting catalogue to Universal Music for $300 million; Beach Boys sold their masters and brand to Irving Azzoff to $100 million; Taylor Swift is re-recording her older records; Round Hill has bought some Beatles The Rolling Stones, and Backstreet Boys classics for $282 million; Neil Young has sold 50 percent of his catalogue for $150 million - these are only some of the deals in the music business last year. Music business podcast Money 4 Nothing talks to Cherie Hu of Water & Music and David Turner of Penny Fractions about whether this makes any business sense, and how will it shape the future of music.
Huck tells the story of the LA punk scene which survived the pandemic with dozens of backyard gigs. The magazine argues "this attitude – of taking personal responsibility for yourself and your actions, despite what the rules say – is a common one in the DIY punk scene". Beko, the singer and frontman of punk band Lazy Dream, explains the attitude: “Our whole method is do-it-yourself. We were tired of waiting for people to do the recording thing, so we just did the recording ourselves… With the shows, we did that as well. We were like, ‘Ok, we have this backyard right here, might as well throw a show. Because if no one’s going to hire us or invite us anywhere, might as well do it ourselves’”.
Pussy Riot shared 'Toxic', a new collaborative single with Dorian Electra, produced by 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady who adds plenty of hyper-pop sonics. Nadya Tolokonnikova said “‘Toxic' is political, because personal is political. The single reflects on the importance of self-care, cherishing your mental health and staying away from relationships that poison you", according to Pitchfork.
"I'm a girl from a cotton field that pulled myself above the destruction and the mistakes. And I'm here for you" - Tina Turner says in the official trailer for the documentary 'Tina', which is set to follow her early life and childhood, People reports. The brief interview clip refers to Turner's youth. At 11, Turner's mother Zelma left her family and the abusive relationship she had with Turner's father Floyd. The documentary also features interviews with Tina in her hometown of Zurich, Switzerland and shows new footage, audio tapes, and personal photos.
NASA's Perseverance rover has recorded the first audio clips captured on the surface of Mars, and beamed it back to Earth, Space.com reports. The microphone picked up the low growl of a wind gust, marking the first sounds recorded from the Martian surface. The microphone was designed by Jason Achilles Mezilis, a Los Angeles–based rock musician, and composer.
Alewya released her new video for 'Zuggy', a guitar-ornamented afro-beat song, shot in an industrial setting. A solo dancer is surrounded by Alewya's works. 'Zuggy’ is taken from her EP ‘Panther in Mode’.
Today, Aldous Harding released her new album 'Warm Chris', a strange collection of minimalist baroque folk songs. Recently, she talked to Pitchfork about it (The P tagged it best new music, gave it 8,2), and her personality: "For me, taking identity too seriously is really detrimental to my music. People say to me, 'Why don’t you use your real voice?'. But what people don’t understand is that I don’t know what my normal voice is anymore. In a lot of ways, I feel like the songs are like secrets that the muse is keeping from me. I have to listen, and then it tells me where the gaps in the universe are, and then I try to fill them with good intentions".
"Every time I pop out, I keep running into fools talking on the dancefloor. Just standing around, chitty-chatting" - Michelle Lhooq is frustrated and angry in her latest post. She also gives the oblivious a scientific explanation of the dancefloor: "The key to a popping dancefloor is ENERGY CIRCULATION. The DJ opens the portal and radiates nrg through the speakers, which disseminates through the dancers and twists into an atmospheric vortex. So when Chatty Kathys cluster by the DJ booth, ya’ll create ENERGY BLOCKS right at the power source, siphoning radiance with your black hole of self-absorption. This is not your aunty’s tea party. We out here exorcising demons. Out here for dissolution, for relief, for fucking feeling something—not networking!!!".
Last year 52,600 artists generated over $10,000 on Spotify, the platform has announced, the MBW reports. 15,140 of these 52,600 artists – around 28% – uploaded their own music. Of the 52,600 artists who generated more than $10k last year:
Spotify paid out $7 billion (across publishing and recorded music) to music industry rights-holders.
"In recent years, experimental musicians have been steadily building Ukraine’s reputation as a crucial node in Europe’s electronic underground. The country’s scene began coming into its own after 2014’s Maidan Revolution, in which protestors seeking closer links with Europe ousted a pro-Kremlin president and ushered in a new era of democracy and reform. In the wake of those events, young ravers clad in secondhand ’90s fashion began carving out a new future underneath the slogan “poor but cool.” Since then, parties and clubs like CXEMA, Closer, and ∄ have helped Ukraine establish a reputation as one of the most stylish (and hedonistic) electronic scenes in the world" - Pitchfork points out introducing the besieged country's electronic scene.
An awesome bassline, some seriously great grooves and a killer melody on Dublin post-punk band's new song. 'Skinty Fia' is taken from the new album of the same name, out 22nd April on Partisan Records.
The global recorded music industry saw its wholesale revenues increase by USD $4.0 billion in 2021 to $25.9 billion, according to IFPI. That sum is the largest in history, MBW reports. Also, that $4 billion year-on-year increase was much higher than in the previous years - YOY growth in 2020 was $1.5bn, and in 2019 it was $1.5bn. Annual paid-for streaming revenues bounced up by $2.2 billion to $12.3 billion last year. Revenues from physical formats – CD and vinyl combined – grew to $5.0 billion in 2021, up from $4.3 billion in 2020. Ad-funded streaming platforms or free streaming, including video services, generated $4.6 billion in 2021, up 31% year-on-year.
A lovely interview by The New Cue with Kae Tempest who is releasing their new album 'The Line Is A Curve' in April. They talk about recording vocals in one take - "really what I want, to get the most amount of truth in the vocal and to get the best vocal is I want to do one full pass of the whole record, a live take. There’s something about the endurance of it that creates this feeling in the lyric that you can’t get if you do 150 takes at each verse"; about all the songs on the album being connected - "all of that stuff that happens as one track leads into another that gives you this sense of propulsion and forward motion and movement"; about how music for them is an outer-physical experience - "when I go to the music and I go to the poetry, I go with my soul, it’s not really about my physical experience in the world, it’s another place that I go to when I’m making music or when I’m on stage so it didn’t affect it like that I don’t think".
“I left at the end of last year, after the new record was complete. There was no acute reason beyond that I’ve changed—and the band has changed—over the last almost 20 years. Time for new things” - Arcade Fire longtime multi-instrumentalist Will Butler and the younger brother of bandleader Win Butler, broke the news on Twitter. Will Butler joined Arcade Fire in late 2003 and first appeared on Arcade Fire’s debut album, 2004’s 'Funeral', and has contributed to every album since then, including the band’s upcoming studio LP 'WE'. Butler announced he is working on music for a David Adjmi play.
"The process of turning music into notation and then back into music is hazardous, and while it's still a very useful tool, we should really talk more about the things we lose along the way" - music theorist 12tones points out in his latest video.
