Etsy Is Acquiring Reverb

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Dami Lee, writing at The Verge:

Etsy, the e-commerce platform for handmade goods, is acquiring music gear marketplace Reverb for $275 million in cash. The site, which sells new, used, and vintage musical instruments and accessories, will continue to operate as a standalone business.

The Man With the Golden Airline Ticket

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Caroline Rothstein:

On March 10, 2009, a case was filed in the U.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois, where I grew up. Rothstein v. American Airlines, Inc. starred my father, Plaintiff Steven Rothstein, and the Defendant, then the world’s third-largest airline. With $23 billion in annual revenue, American Airlines had nothing to lose. For my father, it was a last-ditch effort to save his life.

Here’s how it all took off. In the early 1980s, American rolled out AAirpass, a prepaid membership program that let very frequent flyers purchase discounted tickets by locking in a certain number of annual miles they presumed they might fly in advance. My 30-something-year-old father, having been a frequent flyer for his entire life, purchased one. Then, a few years later, American introduced something straight out an avid traveler’s fantasy: an unlimited ticket.

Fascinating story.

My Frantic Life as a Cab-Dodging, Tip-Chasing Food App Deliveryman

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Andy Newman, writing at The New York Times:

On my first DoorDash shift, a lunch run in Brooklyn, I learned about the company’s interesting tipping policy.

DoorDash offers a guaranteed minimum for each job. For my first order, the guarantee was $6.85 and the customer, a woman in Boerum Hill who answered the door in a colorful bathrobe, tipped $3 via the app. But I still received only $6.85.

Here’s how it works: If the woman in the bathrobe had tipped zero, DoorDash would have paid me the whole $6.85. Because she tipped $3, DoorDash kicked in only $3.85. She was saving DoorDash $3, not tipping me.

Interview: Duddy of Dirty Heads at Warped Tour (Video Interview)

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Today’s video interview is with Duddy of Dirty Heads.

Dirty Heads are about to release their new album Super Moon on August 9th, but just because the band recorded the album in Nashville, doesn’t mean the band has suddenly gone country. Dutty explains how recording live to tape in the music city created a unique vibe. Enjoy this interview at the East Coast 25th Anniversary of Vans Warped Tour.

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Ed Sheeran Tops the Charts

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Ed Sheeran has the number one album this week:

The set, which was released on July 12 via Atlantic Records, bows with 173,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending July 18, according to Nielsen Music. It marks the largest week of the year for a pop album by a male artist. Of that starting sum, 70,000 were in album sales.

Live Nation Helped Metallica and Other Artists Place Tickets Directly On Resale Market

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Billboard:

The recording, which would have been legal to make without one party’s consent under both New York and Texas state laws, offers an unprecedented view into how thousands of concert tickets for major tours have been sold first on the secondary market — where resellers can mark up prices — without being offered to the public at face value. It also shows the extent to which the rise of online ticket sites has put pressure on artists and promoters to capture more of the profits resellers are making — and how Live Nation is uniquely positioned to help solve the problem, as the owner of the world’s biggest ticketing platform that even its rivals use.

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