There's 30,000 songs that come out a day, pre-COVID, on Spotify. | | | | Sam Fender performs at a new venue designed for the pandemic in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Aug. 11, 2020.
(Thomas M Jackson/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "There's 30,000 songs that come out a day, pre-COVID, on Spotify."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// It's so easy to see what we want to see, isn't it? Young British songwriter with a social conscience and a bit of a critical headwind plays a new open-air venue in Newcastle upon Tyne, designed (rather cleverly) for the pandemic, and it's a "whole new world" of almost universally approving coverage of venue vs. virus. "Patrons were asked to wear masks and not intermingle between sections, with a high compliance rate seen in photos," VARIETY reported in a story about SAM FENDER's gig at the VIRGIN MONEY UNITY ARENA accompanied by a short video clip of maskless attendees and a photo in which not a single mask is readily visible. "Audience members wore face coverings as they walked about the site and bought drinks," chimed in BBC NEWS below a photo in which a server's face shield is the only face covering in sight. I wasn't there and it's possible the photos aren't representative—I hope they aren't—but I thought the coverage made an interesting contrast to that given one of the easiest-to-make-fun-of bands in America when it played for a crowd of bikers in South Dakota two days earlier. That venue, too, had social distancing rules that not everybody followed, and the coverage of SMASH MOUTH's performance was vicious. Maybe justifiably vicious, maybe not—this is solid reporting by ROLLING STONE's JON BLISTEIN on how a campground called BUFFALO CHIP prepared for the arrival of Smash Mouth, BUCKCHERRY, TRAPT and several other bands this week—but it's hard to avoid the thought that the age/genre/identity of the band onstage played into what the outside world saw and heard. As if all nineties rock fans who ride motorcycles must be Covid-denying outlaws and all twenties singer/songwriter fans are responsible, rules-following citizens, no matter what our eyes tell us. But hey now, maybe there are all stars where we least expect to find them... That Newcastle venue does look pretty smart though. Square pods made out of scaffolding and spaced a couple meters apart make it appear like a flattened version of the HOLLYWOOD BOWL in which every group of ticketholders has their own private box. TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB is playing Saturday, and future bookings include the LIBERTINES and VAN MORRISON... Speaking of outlaws who coastal elites like me have rather strong feelings about, HANK WILLIAMS JR. at the MEADOWLANDS ARENA was, if my ringing ears weren't deceiving me, the loudest arena show I've ever seen. Louder than AC/DC. Louder than METALLICA. Louder than SCORPIONS. Playing some deep electric blues at lord knows how many decibels. He wrote, and has lived, this. And he's said some heinous things, and I mean that objectively. Welcome to the COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME, Bocephus. He's joined in this year's class by DEAN DILLON, best known as the writer of more than 60 GEORGE STRAIT songs (he also co-wrote the country standard "TENNESSEE WHISKEY"), and the ageless traditionalist wonder MARTY STUART... Too many notes? The SPOTIFY team behind the service's genre-bending POLLEN playlist gets 20,000 submissions a week from artists who want to be on it... BRANDY, ANTHONY HAMILTON, LEELA JAMES, RAHEEM DEVAUGHN and INDIA.ARIE are part of a mass exodus of R&B singers from major label deals, ROLLING STONE reports from behind its new subscription paywall. "Major labels are not gonna do anything for me," artist manager MICHAEL PARAN says. "The only thing I would want is for them to go work mainstream radio, but that's not gonna happen." Instead, the artists can license albums for four or five years to a label like BMG for a 70/30 or 75/25 profit split, with the artist getting the bigger share... BECK in space. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | |  | Complex | | Behind the scenes at Spotify's genre-less experiment, Pollen. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will likely draw hundreds of thousands to the Black Hills, and one campground/venue is hosting bands like Smash Mouth, Lit, the Guess Who and more. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Musicians have complained about politicians playing their music at events for years. Now, with Mr. Young suing for copyright infringement, they are trying a new strategy. | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | After fighting through what her friend Sia calls a "real breakdown," a resilient Katy Perry is set to deliver her first child and a new album, "Smile." | | | |  | The Ringer | | New releases from Jason Molina, Pop Smoke, and Juice WRLD aren't easy listens, but they're all true to their respective artists. | | | |  | The Tennessean | | A son who found his voice in boisterous country rock, a troubadour for traditionalism and George Strait's most trusted songwriter each earn a place among the greatest to perform country music. | | | |  | Music x Tech x Future | | Forget the usual suspects: venture capital firm BITKRAFT is easily one of the most interesting funds to watch in the entertainment space. Since the start of June, they have participated in 5 funding rounds totalling over $44 million into companies pioneering possible futures for digital media. | | | |  | NPR Music | | Three longtime members of the Minneapolis music scene are trying to start a new venue aimed at fostering art from marginalized communities there. | | | |  | The Jump | | Few people can make, or take, a hit like Liz Phair. "6'1" was just the beginning. | | | |  | Village Voice | | "James Brown, probably the most influential black musician of all time, will turn 56 in prison - and then 57 and perhaps 58 as well." | | | |  | Music Business Worldwide | | NMPA plays down impact of Court of Appeals decision, noting: "We believe these things are easily done by the CRB. | | | |  | Music Industry Blog | | The #brokenrecord debate continues to build momentum and new models such as user-centric are getting increased attention, including at governmental level in the UK. But as Mat Dryhurst correctly observes, there is a risk of the market falling into streaming fatalism; that the obsession with trying to fix a model that might not be fixable. | | | |  | Paper | | Inside the Twitter phenomenon of "clearing the searches." | | | |  | The Forty-Five | | Nine years after their last record, Bright Eyes are back with the aptly-for-these-times titled 'Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was'. | | | |  | Vulture | | This year, the singer known as the "vocal Bible" steps out from under the dark clouds that long plagued her career. | | | | | The New York Times | | A new compilation of music released on Black Fire Records is a vital link between jazz and go-go, the city's official genre. | | | |  | Cheddar | | The Star-Spangled Banner is played before every sporting event in the United States of America, from little league to the NFL. But most other countries don't play their anthem before games unless it's for international play. So how did this turn into such a spectacle and why might things change today? | | | |  | SPIN | | Zola Jesus and Holly Herndon respond to Spotify CEO's comments on creativity and engagement. | | | |  | Penny Fractions | | User-centric streaming wasn't designed to solve all economic injustices in the record industry but likely isn't going to make it any worse. Or if/when things do get worse, the finger of blame shouldn't point to musicians who sought to make the system they were handed ever so slightly better. | | | | | Vulture | | From Beyoncé being that good to how Brandy is basically Nostradamus. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | Smashing Pumpkins cover, from the 49-track album "7G," out now on PC Music. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
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