I wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a safe New Year’s Eve tonight. I hope everyone has a fun evening. If you’d like to join the community as the clock strikes twelve, our forums are the place to be.
Thank you to everyone that visited this website over the past year. Here’s to 2020.
Aric Toler, writing at Bellingcat:
The first and most important piece of advice on this topic cannot be stressed enough: Google reverse image search isn’t very good.
As of this guide’s publication date, the undisputed leader of reverse image search is the Russian site Yandex. After Yandex, the runners-up are Microsoft’s Bing and Google. A fourth service that could also be used in investigations is TinEye, but this site specializes in intellectual property violations and looks for exact duplicates of images.
Harry Styles once again has the number one album in the country.
Harry Styles’ Fine Line album leads the Billboard 200 chart for a second week, as the set earned 89,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 26, according to Nielsen Music.
Hayley Williams of Paramore has announced she’ll be releasing some new music next year that she’s going “to call her own.”
Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes. 30 was a very important year. 31 will be too.”
“I’m putting out some music next year. With the help of some of my closest friends, I made something I’m going to call my own. It’s a really special project and you’ll get a taste of it in January.
Happy New Year, friends. Hayley Williams
Hype train, activated.
8tracks has had a long run and its day in the sun. We’re sad to announce, however, that the company and its streaming service will wind down with the end of the decade, on December 31st, 2019.
We have mixed feelings as we round out this decade and the life of 8tracks. We served many listeners and DJs well, at important times in their lives, for more than a decade, introducing adventurous listeners to new artists they may never have otherwise discovered, and for that we’re proud. On the other hand, we recognize we’ve disappointed many listeners and DJs, employees, investors and partners. We all wish we’d had the opportunity to continue to innovate in the music sector and serve our community and other stakeholders well, just as we had in our earlier years.
Every Time I Die will head into the studio in 2020 with Will Putney to record their new album.
The last few weeks of the year are always a little strange in the music industry and online, everyone is basically in hibernation. This week’s newsletter is a recap of my holiday week so far and has some recommendations, a few brief music thoughts, and my weekly media diet rundown. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.
John Feldmann talked with Alt Press in a new interview:
Look, without The Used, I don’t think we’d be talking. The Used were definitely the catalyst that started my career as a producer. Goldfinger had a pretty good run, but we never did become Green Day. Ultimately, the Used are the one band that I knew I could help as a songwriter and as someone who can both arrange music and record music, I knew I could help them. So it is awesome to have come around full circle. There were years that went by where I thought, “Why wouldn’t I have done a label when I first discovered the Used?” [all] those years ago instead of signing them to Warner [Records]. Everything happens for a reason: I don’t look back and think, “Goddamn it, what I should’ve done was…” I always look forward. What’s next?
Bring Me the Horizon have released a new EP called Music to Go To on all streaming platforms. It features a new song with Halsey.
It’s the last Friday of 2019. If you hit read more you can see all the releases we have in our calendar for the week. Hit the quote bubble to access our forums and talk about what came out today, what albums you picked up, and to make mention of anything we may have missed.
The National released a new live album to all streaming services called Juicy Sonic Magic.
Vampire Weekend are the latest guest on the Song Exploder podcast. They break down the song “Harmony Hall.”
I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and enjoying some good food and drinks. We will be on a more relaxed posting schedule over the next few days, as the music industry is basically in hibernation right now. All of us are working on finalizing our best of the year lists and we’ll have those to share with you the week of January 6th.
I know the holidays can also be a difficult time for many, just know that our community is here for you and there’s a bunch of resources online if you need someone to talk to.
