| I feel like any life advice that I could ever give anybody is, like, 'Should I get all the way in?' 'Yes.' |
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 | | Phoebe Bridgers at the O2 Academy, London, July 26, 2022. | | (Lorne Thomson/Redferns/Getty Images) | | |
| quote of the day |
| "I feel like any life advice that I could ever give anybody is, like, 'Should I get all the way in?' 'Yes.'" | | - Phoebe Bridgers | |
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| rantnrave:// |
Lawyered Up
In a business where "get it in writing" can mean "create and execute a clear legal agreement as soon as possible between everyone in the studio so there's no ambiguity about who gets a songwriting credit and who's owed points on the master recording when it becomes a surprise hit six months from now," what's a starving aspiring pop star supposed to do?
DAVID FRITZ and STEVEN SHIP have an app for that. They're co-founders of CREATIVE INTELL, a platform, currently in private beta, that they envision as the LEGALZOOM of the music business. They just closed a $3 million seed funding round and they've got the backing of some heavy hitters in music law, music management and others around the biz.
Creative Intell, which will be available via subscription, is an intriguing entry in the growing menu of a la carte label services and career management tools—a kind of virtual legal assistant with A.I. capabilities and music biz expertise. It's a dealmaking platform that will help anyone, not just starving aspiring pop stars, draw up and negotiate contracts for all manner of musical interactions and partnerships. It's also a music biz education tool, stuffed with tutorials that explain what everything is and advise users what to do and, just as important, what not to do as they step through their deal points. There are reporting and data mining tools, too, to track and manage deals after they're signed.
For creatives, the founders say, the platform introduces ease and transparency into a process that's long been opaque and intimidating. (While the engineer is swapping PRO TOOLS sessions back and forth over the internet, the singer can be swapping drafts of the contracts that will help monetize and protect those sessions.) But they also believe it will be an important tool for lawyers, semi-automating the creation of basic contracts and freeing them for more complex, high-value work.
"It will be a game changer for the music industry," music lawyer DINA LAPOLT, a seed investor, said.
Correlation or Causation?
BEYONCÉ rolls out her album the old-fashioned, conventional way. Beyoncé's album leaks.
Earnings
Dispelling, at least for now, any fears that music streaming might be headed for a NETFLIX-like fall, SPOTIFY's Q2 report shows big jumps in paying subscribers (188 million) and monthly users (433 million), both beating expectations, and a fourth straight quarter of growth in average revenue per user. With the company having raised the price of its family plan, its ARPU for subscribers, which had been in decline in recent years, is up to $4.59. Spotify is expecting growth to continue, but at a slower rate, in Q3. On the other hand, the company reported a quarterly of €125 million—more than six times what it lost in the same quarter a year ago—its stock is down 50 percent in 2022 and it killed its once-hyped Car Thing... UNIVERSAL MUSIC, which relies heavily on streaming revenues from Spotify and others, reported a 17.3 percent jump, year-over-year, in revenues. UMG said publishing monetization, physical sales and "initial contributions from catalog acquisitions made in prior years" also contributed to its Q2 growth. Thank you, BOB DYLAN?
Rest in Peace
Rapper JAYDAYOUNGAN ("23 Island"), murdered Wednesday in his hometown, Bogalusa, La. He's at least the 16th rapper murdered in the US in 2022; it's July... SANDY ROBERTON, a Scottish folk-rock producer (Steeleye Span, John Martyn, Iain Matthews) who enjoyed a lengthy second career (it actually might have been his third or fourth) as a manager of producers, mixers and engineers. His clients at his LA-based Worlds End Management included Nick Launay, Steve Lillywhite, Walter Afanasieff, Jack Endino and the Matrix. "He has been a pioneering champion for so many people who have written and produced many of the best songs of the past four decades," the Matrix's Lauren Christy said... British engineer/producer and Sade collaborator MICHAEL PELA... Actor PAUL SORVINO, who in his later years was able to realize his dream of being an opera singer.
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
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 | | DownBeat |
| | The Beauty of Jon Batiste's Spiritual Journey | | By Suzanne Lorge | | On the surface of things, it seems counterintuitive that DownBeat critics would name the same musician both Jazz Artist of the Year and Beyond Artist of the Year — until you learn that the musician in question is Jon Batiste, and suddenly the double billing makes sense. | | |
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 | | Pitchfork |
| | Tinashe Has It All Under Control | | By Tarisai Ngangura | | After years of major label blues, the R&B siren has settled into a sweet spot of independent bliss. What now? | | |
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 | | Twenty Thousand Hertz |
| | Twenty Thousand Hertz: Handbook for Sonic Happiness | | By Dallas Taylor, Andrew Anderson and Laurie Santos | | We spend a lot of time curating for taste, touch, smell, and vision. But too often, sound gets overlooked. We forget that we can get rid of sounds that annoy us, and surround ourselves with sounds that we love. When we do, it can have huge benefits for our mood and wellbeing. | | |
| what we're into |
 | | Music of the day | | "In Tense" | | Harish Raghavan | | With Morgan Guerin, Charles Altura, Joel Ross and Eric Harland. From the album of the same name, out Friday on Whirlwind. | | |
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| Music | Media | | | | | | Suggest a link  | | "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?'" |
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