| I don't sing with my eyes open typically, but I wanted to see that everyone was being safe, having a good time, taking a moment to breathe. We as artists definitely need to show more compassion for the people out there. In the end, it's our responsibility. | | | | |  | Britney Spears in San Jose, Calif., Dec. 3, 2016.
(C Flanigan/FilmMagic/Getty Images) | | | | | "I don't sing with my eyes open typically, but I wanted to see that everyone was being safe, having a good time, taking a moment to breathe. We as artists definitely need to show more compassion for the people out there. In the end, it's our responsibility." | | | | Copy Cats
UNIVERSAL, the company for whom TAYLOR SWIFT is rerecording the albums she originally made for BIG MACHINE, all of which were distributed by Universal, is putting its foot down on this whole rerecording thing. Not for Taylor Swift, because it can't, but for everyone else. In its recent contracts, Universal, which profited from the original version of RED and will profit again from the new RED (TAYLOR'S VERSION), has greatly increased the amount of time other artists will be required to wait to try the same thing, the Wall Street Journal's ANNE STEELE reports (paywall). Why would anyone who isn't trying to get vengeance on SCOOTER BRAUN want to take the time to painstakingly re-create an album she made years before? Steele's article suggests one particularly compelling reason. An artist in a standard label contract, she reports, is likely to see 20% of her music's streaming revenues while her label gets 80%. But an artist who owns her masters, which she very well might by the time the chance to rerecord her catalog comes around, will be able to keep as much as 95% of that revenue. Even before Swift went public with her plans to redo her entire Big Machine catalog, Universal had begun asking new signees for much longer waits, according to Steele's sources. Where a typical deal once prevented artists from rerecording their music until at least five years after delivering their last album to a label, Universal's current deals require artists to wait at least seven years, after which they can remake no more than two songs until another seven years elapse, at which point they'll have Swift-like freedom. In other ways, it should be noted, the newer deals are artist-friendly, with higher royalties and more transparency into royalty distribution. And the timing suggests Swift's contract battles with Big Machine and Scooter Braun weren't the primary catalyst for the change. But one wonders what it means to Swift that other artists on her current label can't do what she's currently doing with great success. Could she use her famous leverage to intervene? Would she want to? How many other artists will ever have an interest in remaking their work anyway? Or how many other artists *would have* had an interest if Swift hadn't demonstrated the possibilities? How many artists have a song they're dying to do this to? How many are harboring secret desires to create exact replicas of their songs that won't make a dime for their old labels? How many have made major pop hits entirely on their laptops that they could rerecord five or seven or 10 years hence with little more than the push of a button? And what will be the legal implications of that, should anyone actually push that button? And, finally, a question for other labels that might want to push a button of their own and copy Universal's contract terms: What would happen if you swapped out that stick for a carrot and simply made your deal terms so attractive that there'd never be a reason for an artist to rerecord her work? Silly question, as I know, um, all too well. I ask anyway.
Freedom! '21
BRITNEY!!! It had become inevitable in recent weeks and months that this would happen. But that doesn't lessen the enormity of that fact that it did happen, or the shock of how quickly everything changed. And it doesn't change the basic questions: How did this mess happen in the first place? And what about everyone else? What about the longterm conservatees who don't have reporters, documentarians and armies of fan clubs screaming on their behalf? One of the theories for why Spears' father and ex-conservator, JAMIE, changed his strategy from zealously defending the arrangement to asking the court to end it is he doesn't want investigators looking into what he was doing all those years. Here's hoping Britney and her legal team press forward with the questions they have—with the understanding that, as the victim, it's her call, not anyone else's, how to proceed from here. "Many people have asked about whether we will continue to investigate Mr. Spears," her lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, told reporters Friday. "The answer, ultimately, is up to my client, Britney.
Etc Etc Etc
MARILYN MANSON had a tiny, soundproofed "Bad Girls' Room" in his West Hollywood apartment where he locked up his girlfriends in solitary confinement for hours at a time, Rolling Stone reports in an investigation, nine months in the making, into what the magazine calls "The Monster Hiding in Plain Sight." KORY GROW and JASON NEWMAN's 9500-word report, featuring interviews with multiple women who have accused the rock star of rape and various types of abuse, is devastating and infuriating. Manson continues to deny all the accusations... BTS and ED SHEERAN were the big winners Sunday at the MTV EUROPE MUSIC AWARDS... The KID LAROI was named Artist of the year at Australia's NATIONAL INDIGENOUS MUSIC AWARDS.
Rest in Peace
Music and Hollywood multi-hyphenate JEFF WALD, who most famously oversaw Helen Reddy's career and was married to her for 14 years. His other music management clients included Donna Summer, Miles Davis and Marvin Gaye. He was also a noted film and TV producer and boxing promoter... Nine-year-old Travis Scott fan EZRA BLOUNT, who became the 10th person to die as a result of the crowd crush during Scott's performance at Astroworld.
| | | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | |  | | Los Angeles Times |
| | Travis Scott sought to uplift Houston. Did he let it down? | | by Molly Hennessy-Fiske | | Houston's long-razed AstroWorld theme park brought joy to people from across the city. Decades later, Astroworld the festival is inextricably linked to heartbreak. | |  | | The New Yorker |
| | How Britney Spears Got Free, and What Comes Next | | by Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino | | Spears fought for years to end the conservatorship she was under, and finally won. But the legal battles aren't over. | |  | | Critical Conditions |
| | Being the Billy Joel Beat | | by Wayne Robins | | A matter of trust was essential. | |  | | Billboard |
| | Executive of the Week: Rhino Records President Mark Pinkus | | by Dan Rys | | Rhino's resident Deadhead talks about "Dave's Pick's," the long-running series of archival Grateful Dead releases, how the collection has grown over time, future opportunities in the streaming space and why Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir stand up alongside more conventional pop-culture music legends as songwriters. | |  | | Music Industry Blog |
| | Tribes are the future of fandom (and that may or may not be a good thing) | | by Mark Mulligan | | Global success now depends less on how wide your message can reach, and more on how deep it can go. | |  | | Culture Notes of an Honest Broker |
| | Have Non-Musicians Taken Over Music Scholarship (and Should We Care)? | | by Ted Gioia | | One of the most important books on music history this year was written by a science writer trained as a mechanical engineer. Should I be surprised? | |  | | Clash Magazine |
| | In Her Feelings: Gracie Abrams Interviewed | | by Ilana Kaplan | | Gracie Abrams has spent the last year-and-a-half somewhere she's comfortable: in her feelings. But truthfully, she hasn't minded it. Confessional pop's next star, her resolute honesty is born from solitude, and a desire to channel the inexpressible. | |  | | Okayplayer |
| | Where Does Raging In Rap Concerts Go From Here? | | by Elijah C. Watson | | Amid the tragedy that occurred at Travis Scott's Astroworld, what does rage and raging in rap look like moving forward? | |  | | The Daily Beast |
| | Remembering Diddy's Deadly Stampede 30 Years Before Travis Scott's Astroworld Tragedy | | by Cheyenne Roundtree | | In 1991, a stampede occurred at a charity event promoted by Diddy, resulting in nine deaths. Two survivors tell The Daily Beast what went wrong there and at Astroworld. | |  | | Pitchfork |
| | Something Must Change After Astroworld | | by Quinn Moreland | | The Houston tragedy is not the first deadly crowd crush. Where does festival safety go from here? | | |  | | NME |
| | What's causing the vinyl delay? 'Adele is not the problem,' say music industry insiders | | by Andrew Trendell | | Over 500,000 units of Adele's '30' have been pressed on vinyl - but the backlog and delay problems are far more complicated and deep-set. | | | | Billboard |
| | It's Time for the Country Music Association to Show Not Tell (Guest Column) | | by Rashad Robinson | | The Country Music Association needs to make greater strides toward diversity and inclusion, says Color of Change's president Rashad Robinson. | |  | | WBGO |
| | Everybody Should 'Really Care' About Melanie Charles | | by Simon Rentner and Melanie Charles | | Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Melanie Charles joins The Checkout to talk about 'Y'all Don't Really Care About Black Women,' her major-label debut. | |  | | CNN Reliable Sources |
| | The role of documentaries in the Britney Spears saga | | by Brian Stelter and Eric Deggans | | NPR television critic Eric Deggans says the media's unearthing of "troubling facts and circumstances" about the 13-year conservatorship was a factor that "pushed the legal system" to act. | |  | | Music Ally |
| | Is there a magic formula to TikTok song success? Here's what AI analysis shows | | by Ari Katorza, Amir Graitzer and Doron Gabbay | | With over 176 different songs surpassing the one billion TikTok video view mark in the last year alone, TikTok has proven to be somewhat of a benchmark of success. | | | | Los Angeles Times |
| | Fans show in droves for Day N Vegas festival, but Astroworld tragedy not far from mind | | by August Brown | | For fans, artists and organizers, the spectre of the Astroworld tragedy loomed over the first day of the Day N Vegas hip-hop festival. | |  | | The Guardian |
| | 'It was secret and naughty': the birth of Ministry of Sound | | by Dave Swindells | | Photographer Dave Swindells was one of the few to discover the London nightclub when it opened 30 years ago - and capture its streetwear, Sloanes and giddy energy. He takes us back. | |  | | The New York Observer |
| | Funk Without Aggression: Remembering the Gap Band's Ronnie Wilson | | by Sasha Frere-Jones | | What The Gap Band did on Seventies and Eighties dance-floor jams like "Oops Upside Your Head" and "Burn Rubber" was not so different from what Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson would do thirty years later: synthesize, intensify, and smooth out the funk that came before them. | |  | | Vox |
| | Janet Jackson's Wardrobe Malfunction erased an icon of unapologetic sexuality | | by Constance Grady | | Janet Jackson was able to transcend America's misogynoir — until the Super Bowl. | | | |  | | | Music of the day | | "Keys to Creation" | | Irreversible Entanglements | | Another mind-expanding track from "Open the Gates," out now on International Anthem/Don Giovanni. |  | | YouTube |
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Another mind-expanding track from "Open the Gates," out now on International Anthem/Don Giovanni. | A video à clef, written and directed by Swift. | | | Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech | | "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in
everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" | | |  | | | Jason Hirschhorn | | CEO & Chief Curator | | |  |
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