Unroll.me Being Super Shady

Unroll.me CEO, Jojo Hedaya, has responded to the controversy arising from revelations in The New York Times that the company does things like sell your “anonymized” receipts to third parties:

Our users are the heart of our company and service. So it was heartbreaking to see that some of our users were upset to learn about how we monetize our free service.

And while we try our best to be open about our business model, recent customer feedback tells me we weren’t explicit enough.

What a load of horse shit.

It’s Been Ten Years Since “Chocolate Rain”

YouTube

It’s been ten years since Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain” became an internet hit. BT.com spoke with Tay about the last decade and catching up with one of the first “viral” stars I remember:

Today, 112 million views would likely translate into cash, but Tay decided early on to make his song available for free download.

“I didn’t put it on iTunes,” he says, “I definitely regret that”.

Downtown Boys Pen Open Letter to Coachella Owner

Downtown Boys

Downtown Boys have penned an open letter to the owner of Coachella over anti-LGBTQ donations:

Of course, to participate in this festival at all means playing a capitalist and mainstream music venture, but we can make demands within that framework, and it is totally unacceptable that money from its owners or anyone for that matter ever goes to anti-LGBTQ organizations or any efforts that endorse hate. We need to call this all out, though it can’t end there. We need to work to redistribute the cultural and economic resources so that Coahcella no longer holds so much power. We need to increase public funding for the arts so that musicians are not dependent on people like Anschutz to pay our checks.

Kendrick Lamar Debuts at Number One

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar has the number one album in the country.

Kendrick Lamar’s Damn. blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 2017’s biggest week for an album: 603,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 20, according to Nielsen Music. That’s the most units earned by an album in a single week in nearly a year, since Drake’s Views launched with 1.04 million units in the week ending May 5, 2016.