Month: February 2021

Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood Writes Op-Ed About Post-Brexit Touring

Radiohead
Jason Tate

Colin Greenwood of Radiohead penned a op-ed for The Guardian:

What will playing in Europe be like now, after Brexit? I spoke to several old friends who’ve had years of experience planning Radiohead tours. Adrian, our touring accountant, said it will be more clunky and expensive. Before Brexit, a carnet (a list of goods going in and out of the country) was just needed for Norway and Switzerland. Now it would be more like playing South America, where each country has its systems for dealing with “third countries” like us. Adrian said a £10,000 guitar would need a carnet that would cost about £650 plus VAT. The costs of travel and accommodation are already high, and the extra paperwork and expenses would rise quickly for a touring orchestra.

SoundCloud to Let Fans Pay Artists Directly

Soundcloud
Jason Tate

Bilboard:

SoundCloud is preparing to introduce a new payment system that would allow fans to pay artists directly, multiple sources close to the situation tell Billboard, setting what could be a game-changing precedent for the streaming world.

The move would make SoundCloud the first major music streaming service to embrace a direct payment model, a strategy that has been popular with Chinese streaming services like Tencent Music’s QQ Music for years, and one that subscription services like Patreon and OnlyFans have built their businesses around, as musicians and fans around the world clamor for bigger digital music distributors to do the same. A source close to the company says SoundCloud is still exploring several alternative streaming payout models and will announce its plans before the end of the first quarter of 2021. 

Liner Notes (February 6th, 2021)

Flowers
Jason Tate

This week’s newsletter is pretty music heavy with thoughts on the new releases from Hayley Williams, The Night Game, Pale Waves, and discovering Matt Maeson. There’s also my usual commentary about the entertainment I consumed last week, a playlist of ten songs I enjoyed, and this week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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Review: Foo Fighters – Medicine At Midnight

Foo Fighters
Adam Grundy

On the 10th studio album from Foo Fighters, they clearly are having a blast. Their latest record is called Medicine At Midnight and is one of their most accessible albums to date. The nine song set clocks in 37 minutes and was produced by Greg Kurstin and the band as well. While the past few Foo Fighters records never had a long lasting impact with me, Medicine At Midnight is one of those “lightning in a bottle” type of moments that feels like something important right from the first listen. In recent interviews, Foo Fighters front-man Dave Grohl likened the direction of this album to David Bowie’s Let’s Dance record by stating, “It’s filled with anthemic, huge, sing-along rock songs. It’s almost like a dance record—not like a EDM, disco, modern dance record. It’s got groove, man.” It’s hard to not share the same optimism for the record after hearing these tracks that are filled with vibrant pop elements that are still fully enriched in Foo Fighters’ long history of making solid rock songs.

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