Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are both literally and figuratively red-hot, in that they’re trendy and also contribute to global warming. In the last few months, environmentalists have slammed blockchain enthusiasts for catapulting a technology into the mainstream that requires a whole lot of energy, but are they right in doing …
Read More »Here's Why Dwight Yoakam Is Suing His Old Record Label
Fans who try to stream Dwight Yoakam‘s “Honky Tonk Man” and “Miner’s Prayer” on Apple Music found the songs removed from the service, with Warner Music Group (WMG) allegedly taking down the music to, according to a legal complaint filed on Monday, “spite” the country star. Section 203 of the …
Read More »Indie Publishing Is Heating Up. What Does That Mean for the Music Business?
Last week, the ASCAP Pop Awards — a major songwriting awards show, closely watched by the entire music business — awarded Publisher of the Year to independently owned music company Kobalt. Considering that Kobalt’s songwriters helped write smash hits of 2019 like Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” and Lil Nas X …
Read More »More Than 800 Music Venues Join Together to Ask Congressional Leaders for Aid
A new coalition of independent concert venues from across the country has issued a letter to Congress asking legislators for further assistance to cushion the blow they’ve faced as live music has shuttered in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The National Independent Venue Association, made up of more …
Read More »Coachella Isn't Happening This Weekend, But There's Still Some Good News for Live Music
Members of the live music industry are celebrating an agreement that was reached today on pending amendments to the recently introduced gig economy law in California, Assembly Bill 5 (AB5). AB5 was created as a response to rideshare services like Uber and Lyft, attempting to make it harder for gig-based …
Read More »SXSW Canceled Over Coronavirus Concerns
Amid attendance cancellations from major companies across the technology, film and music industries in light of health fears from the ongoing coronavirus, representatives for the city of Austin announced that it would be cancelingthe South by Southwest festival in a press conference on Friday afternoon. With hundreds of thousands of …
Read More »RS Charts: Lil Wayne's 'Funeral' Beats Out Roddy Richh, Eminem for Number One
Lil Wayne’s 13th album, Funeral, debuted at Number One on the Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart for the week of January 31st through February 6th. The album racked up 138,000 album-equivalent units and 118.2 million streams, outpacing the debut from Compton rapper Roddy Richh, which fell to Number Two. …
Read More »Future 25: Dominic Houston, Head of Music at Netflix
Watch a few Netflix titles back to back and you’ll notice a common theme: They tend to be peppered with good tunes. Stranger Things made waves for its brooding electronic-Eighties score; the rom-com Someone Great cast a Lorde song before it cast any actors; and Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Bruce …
Read More »Amazon and Google Are Making Music Free — And That Could Be a Big Headache for Spotify
Spotify‘s free tier is one of the modern music industry‘s most controversial talking points — and one of the Swedish company’s strongest competitive advantages. Spotify has regularly proffered the following justification for its “freemium” model: In a world where YouTube and piracy sites allow any of us to access most …
Read More »R. Kelly Hasn't Really Been 'Dropped' by Anyone in Music
In the short time since Lifetime’s release of a bombshell documentary detailing R. Kelly‘s alleged years-long history of sexual assault, everything has changed for the R&B singer — and nothing has. Around 20 million TV viewers watched the six-part series, titledSurviving R. Kelly,within thefirst week of its January 3rd debut, …
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