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Travis Barker Runs to His Own Tempo

Travis Barker
Jason Tate

Travis Barker talked with Uproxx about running:

If I can find the flow state where I’m not thinking, then that’s the best show or the best run. For me, especially on tour, playing is one thing, and it’s very intense, and running is my escape, but it also helps me. I have to run. I have to jump rope in order to be able to play the way I want to play, and whatever comes to my head that I want to try and do for how long, I pretty much can do because I train every day and I work out every day. Some people look at it like it’s grueling, it’s painful. It’s all the things that I practice to be good at. I know it might be the hardest part of my day, but I’d rather initiate it. I’d rather start my day like that and run toward those things then have those things creep up on me. Running has been that for me. I love challenging myself, and I love the hard workouts. I love being sore. I love the blisters that come with playing drums and the bloody hands. I love the blisters that come with running. They go hand in hand, and I feel like they both train me to be a better person, drummer, and runner.

RIAA Singles Out Discord and Telegram

Legal
Jason Tate

The RIAA has singled out Discord and Telegram as “notorious markets” for pre-release piracy:

“Messaging platforms Telegram and Discord have become the primary mechanisms through which pre-release music is distributed without authorization,” wrote the RIAA. “Through private and semi-private communities, organized, global groups engage in hacking, social engineering, and other methods to obtain pre-release music and, in many cases, sell this illegally obtained material for thousands of dollars.”

The Queen of Selling

Taylor Swift
Jason Tate

Taylor Swift’s new album brought in over $33 million at the box office and 2.7 million day-one album sales.

Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl launch has shown once again that it’s Taylor’s world and the rest of us are just living in it. The special album release event dwarfed the competition at the box office over the weekend, debuting to an impressive $33 million domestic and $13 million overseas. That’s a record-breaking number for what is neither a concert film nor a documentary, but a timed promotional event for the release of her new album.

The album dropped on Friday and is already setting records. After just one day, The Life of a Showgirl has secured the second-highest weekly sales for any album since tracking of such things began in the early 1990s. Billboard’s Luminate reported that the album sold 2.7 million copies on Friday alone.

Thrice Talk New Album With Yahoo!

Thrice
Jason Tate

Thrice talked with Yahoo! about their new album:

Yeah, it was fun, especially lyrically. We decided to split the record partway through making the last record, Horizons/East. It was just Horizons at the time, and so I didn’t have a ton of time to end up theming /East as intensely as I wanted to. But knowing /West was coming, I had a couple of years to really ruminate and distill some of that. So it was actually a lot of fun, and I feel like it’s the most thematically rich, dense record we’ve done other than The Alchemy Index.

And, because the Asana shoutout made me laugh:

We use an app called Asana to share at the points that we feel like something is in a shareable spot. In the past, we’ve passed Dropbox files around, but we haven’t done that in a little bit. That was when we weren’t living in the same place, and it was harder to jam in person. So, now, it’s a bit more of, like, “Here’s this idea,” and then we jam on it.

Daniel Ek to Step Down as Spotify CEO

Jason Tate

Variety:

As of Jan. 1, 2026, Ek will “transition” to the role of executive chairman of Spotify, the company said Tuesday. At that time, Gustav Söderström, currently co-president and chief product and technology officer, and Alex Norström, co-president and chief business officer, will become Spotify’s co-CEO. Söderström and Norström will report to Ek and both will also serve on the company’s board of directors (subject to shareholder approval).

Travie McCoy Breaks Down Gym Class Heroes Record

Gym Class Heroes
Jason Tate

Travie McCoy breaks down the tracks on Paper Cut Chronicles for Alt. Press:

My version of GZA’s “Labels.” He flipped label names into a whole verse — I wanted to do the same but with band names. Real talk: I was literally on the toilet with a stack of AP magazines, reading through all these long-ass band names: You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Every Time I Die, etc. Wrote the whole thing sitting there. No shame.

AI “Artist” Signs Million-Dollar Record Deal

AI
Jason Tate

Billboard:

Monet is actually an AI-powered creation of a Mississippi woman named Telisha Jones, who writes her own lyrics but uses the AI platform Suno to make them into music.

The deal inked by Jones — a multimillion-dollar agreement signed by ex-Interscope exec Neil Jacobson’s indie music company Hallwood Media — marks the latest advance of AI into every corner of American life. But the buzz surrounding the deal, which some of the major labels ultimately backed away from, highlights the legal limbo that music companies and creators face as they adopt the new tech. 

The Return of The Starting Line

The Starting Line
Jason Tate

Kenny from The Starting Line talked with The Aquarian about their new album:

Those three records were made in a five- or six-year time span. It’s really messed up to think about. Then it took us 18 years to record another one! Time seems to be a weird accordion. In that very short amount of time a lot happened in my life. Then in the next 18 years it got spaced out in terms of events. Making Say It Like You Mean It memories are attributed to being in a professional studio and working with a professional producer for the first time. Also, I was working with one of my idols [Mark Trombino] who had made so many of my favorite records up to that point. It was hard not to be intimidated by it. 

A lot of that process I was going with the flow. It even frustrated Trombino a little bit. I remember there were times he would say, “How does this sound?” I would say, “Sounds really great!” Then he would say “What do you think of this?” And I’d say “That sounds so good!” [laughs] “Okay just get the fuck out of here and I’ll actually do work” because I was no help at all. I guess I have to start having opinions about these things. 

It was just big wide eyes taking it all in! I wanted to sound like Blink 182 and Jimmy Eat World! This would be cool if we could have a record that sounded as good as Clarity. I remember I was listening to very little pop-punk by the time we got to making Based On A True Story. I was trying to fit more of that style into the songwriting and moving away from general punk aesthetic. It was closer to our philosophy now. This is who we are and this is what feels good on the stage. Let’s try and concentrate on that good stuff. 

Vimeo Acquired

Jason Tate

Vimeo has been acquired by Milan-based app developer Bending Spoons:

Vimeo, once the internet’s most prestigious stage for independent filmmakers and animators, is being acquired by Milan-based app developer Bending Spoons in a $1.38 billion all-cash deal. The sale, expected to close later this year, will end Vimeo’s turbulent run as a public company.

For the creative community, the news is hardly shocking. Vimeo’s cultural influence has been fading for years, its pivot away from entertainment and towards enterprise software leaving behind the innovators and filmmakers who built its reputation.

More Than 400 Artists Announce “No Music For Genocide” Boycott

Spidey-Protest
Jason Tate

Over 400 artists have signed on to the “No Music for Genocide” project:

No Music For Genocide is a cultural boycott of Israel. Over 400 initial artists and labels have geo-blocked and removed their music from that territory in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza; ethnic cleansing of the Occupied West Bank; apartheid within Israel / ’48; political repression of Pro-Palestine efforts wherever we live; and the music industry’s own ties to weapons and crimes against humanity. 

Nine Inch Nails to Soundtrack Disney Ride

Nine Inch Nails
Jason Tate

Nine Inch Nails will soundtrack the upcoming Tron: Aries overlay at Disney World.

The striking red hues in Tron: Ares within the digital realm contrast sharply with the classic blue tones of the Grid. Adding to the immersive visuals, the pulsating industrial sounds of Nine Inch Nails will drive the ride’s energy, pushing your experience between the Grid and reality into a fully immersive, futuristic symphony of light, speed, and sound.

Spotify’s New DM Feature Has a Doxxing Vulnerability

Jason Tate

Digital Music News:

Spotify’s new messaging feature—which is actually the newest iteration of a social messaging feature the streaming giant killed off in 2017 due to low engagement—wants to give users more control. It features encryption “in transit and at rest,” an option to reject message requests from others, and the option to opt out completely. But anything short of opting out of the feature will inadvertently introduce a doxxing risk by linking you to people with whom you’ve shared music in the past.

New Interview With Hayley Williams

Hayley Williams
Jason Tate

Hayley Williams talked with The Face about her new album and the future of Paramore.

“Do we ever know where we’re at?!” she laughs. ​“We always take huge breaks. In order for us to metabolise shit that we go through as people, it takes the amount of time it takes between albums.” But Williams can confirm that the band are on a break, rather than broken up. 

“There are no better musicians in the world than Zac and Taylor,” she says. ​“There are no better performers than [the touring musicians affectionately known as the] Parafour. It’s just magic, man,” says Williams. 

“I feel such a vindication in knowing that nobody can discount Paramore,” she continues. ​“But it’s also really important for me to strengthen other muscles and these parts of myself that I deflated because I was scared that people were going to notice me too much.”

Bandcamp’s Update on Tariffs

Bandcamp
Jason Tate

Bandcamp has updated their policy page with how tariffs will impact their customers. From an email sent out today:

Significant changes are coming to global tariffs (import taxes imposed by a government) that may impact how packages enter the United States.

In practice, this means fees may be applied to some types of merchandise on US-bound shipments, and some Bandcamp sellers may choose to temporarily pause shipments to the US.

Also, several international postal carriers are temporarily suspending delivery to the US. These restrictions do not come from the artists or labels but from global carriers.