jason hirschhorn's @MusicREDEF: 11/03/2022 - Age of Abundance, Can't Afford to Tour, Takeoff, Jimi Hendrix, Becky G...

There are [musicians] who might say, 'No, I'm not an activist.' OK, fine, but what you're doing is going to make an impact in one way or another, it will generate something in whoever hears it. Open in browser Thursday November 03, 2022 Nilüfer Yanya in Madrid, Oct 29. 2022. (Mariano Regidor/Redferns/Getty Images) quote of the day "There are [musicians] who might say, 'No, I'm not an activist.' OK, fine, but what you're doing is going to make an impact in one way or another, it will generate something in whoever hears it." - Natalia Lafourcade, whose "De Todas Las Flores" is out now on Sony Music Entertainment México rantnrave:// Whole Lotta We're living in the age of hundreds of thousands and hundreds of millions of songs and it's too much, according to the chief executive of the world's biggest music company, which is responsible for a fairly large number of them. "When music platforms are ingesting 100,000 tracks a day, the net result of this is a confusing experience for all of us, consumers, everyone," UNIVERSAL MUSIC chairman/CEO LUCIAN GRAINGE said on the company's earnings call last week. There's a good chance you agree even if your reasons aren't quite the same as his. For him, those thousands and millions are pulling music fans away from the hits he'd prefer they hear. For you, maybe they're clogging your search results and giving you headaches. But your interests and his would seem to be aligned. A hundred million is a hundred million is a hundred million, and one day it's going to be a hundred billion and we're all going to drown under the virtual weight of all those overlapping titles and sloppy metadata. You wouldn't mind if you never had to see or hear 99 percent of them. For a label boss like Grainge, the problem with all those tracks is they create more and more ways for streaming algorithms to steer users away from his high-earning superstar artists while making it harder for his newer artists to break through and eventually become superstars themselves. Death by dilution. And, he seemed to be telling analysts and investors, it's unfair: "We supply more of the superstars, classic catalog and career artists than anybody else [and] we continue to invest in the future," he said. But users are being "increasingly guided to low-quality content" by algorithms that are as confused as the users are. On the same call, Universal EVP MICHAEL NASH complained that a lot of those songs are delivered to streaming services by "content uploaders... They're not artists in the sense that we traditionally think of artists. These are hobbyists that are playing to an essentially empty house." But what to do about it? Who's to decide who are the hobbyists and who are tomorrow's stars doing everything they can today to find a footing and get noticed? Isn't that how almost everybody, including Universal's current-day superstars, got started themselves? Was the 2006 version of DRAKE a hobbyist or an artist with room for improvement? Are the artists I've been listening to for years who still have no more than 100 or 200 SPOTIFY followers "content uploaders" or DIY musicians making good, worthwhile art for small audiences? And who's to decide where the algorithms should direct users? Do the three major labels need more influence than they already have in that arena? Or would subscribers prefer actual smart, free-thinking, unbiased humans, like the mythical radio DJs of yore, to do the curating in place of the algorithms, contracts and rules that do it now? Do we want SPOTIFY and APPLE to be a kind of musical TWITTER with nobody but blue checkmarks on it? Or do we want upstarts and outsiders to be in the conversation, too? Does the money to pay for those kinds of human curators exist? Does it come from the services? Their users? The labels? All of the above? What are the incentives needed to make that happen? Rest in Peace Recording engineer and studio owner JOE TARSIA, whose Sigma Sound studios in Philadelphia and New York recorded countless soul and pop classics starting in the 1960s. The vast majority of the Philly soul records produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and their Philadelphia International label were made at Tarsia's studio, with Sigma's house musicians. - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator stir fry Toronto Life Musicians like me can no longer afford to tour. Live music won't survive unless the industry changes By Rollie Pemberton "Bands don't get in the tour van because they think they're going to get rich--but lately most of us aren't breaking even." Twenty Thousand Hertz Twenty Thousand Hertz: Synth War By Dallas Taylor, Andrew Anderson, Ryan Gaston... In the United States, the East Coast and West Coast have rivalries across food, sports, music and more. But there's another rivalry that's just as important. This standoff created sounds that were unlike anything that had been heard before. It redefined what a musical instrument could be. And it changed the sound of pop music forever. Rolling Stone The Story of How Migos Met Drake and Changed Rap Forever By Joe Coscarelli In this excerpt from his book 'Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story,' music journalist Joe Coscarelli tells the story of Migos' 2013 crossover hit 'Versace.' Vulture Takeoff Was the Glue By Craig Jenkins It's beyond shocking having tragedy strike a group that forced fair-weather listeners and staunch old-heads alike to appreciate the craft. Billboard Obscure Copyright Rule Change Might Be Big Win for Songwriters By Bill Donahue Regulators want to clear up uncertainty about who gets paid streaming royalties when songwriters take back their music rights -- a trickier question than it sounds. Crosscut Jimi Hendrix at 80: Reimagining the guitarist's Seattle legacy By Charles R. Cross In two new plays, the rock 'n' roll icon is celebrated as a creative inspiration for Black youth. Los Angeles Times Becky G: L.A.'s homegrown, go-to Latin pop star By Suzy Exposito Fresh off four Latin Grammy nominations for her work with Karol G and Christina Aguilera, Becky G says, 'We have to be championing one another.' Penny Fractions Recession Looms Over the Music Industry (Part 1) By David Turner How inflation, central bank interest rate increases and quantitative tightening, and sell-offs in tech stocks are further reshaping the music industry that was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.  Musonomics How Streaming Has Impacted the Value of Music By Larry S. Miller The transition from music purchasing to subscription and advertising supported streaming has had an enormous economic impact on the music industry, including an increased interest in music royalties as an investment opportunity and the reduction (and even reversal) of the traditional decay curve for music releases. The Current Bob Dylan riffs and rants in new book dissecting rock 'n' roll history By Michaelangelo Matos A historical and critical dive into 66 songs by Elvis, the Temptations, and many more, 'The Philosophy of Modern Song' is Dylan's first book in 18 years. t-shirt The Daily Beast The Best Music Festival You'll Never See Again By Todd Plummer As an average Joe from Boston who has trundled my way through my fare share of European "Must See's" and "Must Do's" this was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done. Resident Advisor How One Man Scammed Nyege Nyege Festival By Whitney Wei Unfinished accommodations, sanitary issues and security concerns converged into what one attendee described as "Fyre Festival—on steroids." And the swindler behind it all, Arthur Jirunda, is still at large. Vulture 'I Couldn't Believe the Things I Was Aspiring to Be' By Rachel Handler For Selena Gomez, watching herself through the lens of "My Mind & Me" documentarian Alek Keshishian was shocking, upsetting, and necessary. Music Business Worldwide 'The hardest thing in the world isn't writing your first hit, it's writing your second' By Mark Sutherland The first song Evan Bogart wrote, before he even considered himself a songwriter, was SOS for Rihanna. All he had to do then was follow it up. Music Ally Tidal talks profiles, fandom and why there's more to music than streaming By Stuart Dredge Tidal's launch of a new profiles feature feels like a step in the right direction in terms of how streaming services talk about the value they create for artists, and their role in the process – including the fact that they don't need to try to control or take a piece of this financial, off-platform support. The Trap Set The Trap Set with Joe Wong: Questlove By Joe Wong and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson We return from hiatus with Academy Award-winning filmmaker, author, and entrepreneur Questlove to discuss mental health, race, religion, vulnerability, self love, the hip hop ethos ("Hustle, survive. Hustle, survive."), J Dilla, and more! The Jazz Session The Jazz Session: Terri Lyne Carrington By Jason Crane and Terri Lyne Carrington Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington recently released two albums, two books, and curated an exhibit at Detroit's Carr Center. In this interview, we talk about her Jazz Without Patriarchy project; New Standards, a book and album featuring jazz tunes by women; her live album with Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding; and the many-layered exhibit. The New York Times Steve Reich, Busy as Ever, Enters His Late Period By Joshua Barone At 86, this eminent composer takes a surprising but still searching direction in his music, while recent projects look back on six decades of work. Texas Monthly Fifty-five Years Later, the 'Harper Valley P.T.A.' Is Still in Session By Glenn Hunter Jeannie C. Riley celebrated her seventy-seventh birthday with a bash in Burton, where she reflected on the irony of her megahit "Harper Valley P.T.A." what we're into Music of the day "The Journey" Tom Skinner From "Voices of Bishara," out Friday on Nonesuch/Brownswood/International Anthem. Video of the day "Migos Carpool Karaoke" The Late Late Show with James Corden Music | Media SUBSCRIBE 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?'" Jason Hirschhorn CEO & Chief Curator HOME | ABOUT | SETS | PRESS Redef Group Inc. 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