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iOS 11.3 is bringing music videos to Apple Music:
Apple Music will soon be the home for music videos. Users can stream all the music videos they want without being interrupted by ads. They can also watch the hottest new videos, the classics or ones from their favorite artists back-to-back in new music video playlists.
Pete Wentz, transcribed in Variety:
Today, you can’t necessarily think, “Rock music has to be this and it can’t be that.” We’re challenging the notion of what rock music can be. Listening to a playlist might mean going from a Beatles song into Twenty One Pilots into Lil Yachty. Kids are going to arenas to see Imagine Dragons and to hear those big songs. But they’re also checking out Bleachers and Jack Antonoff; he’s one of the biggest pop producers — one who clearly approaches songs as a kid in his bedroom listening to punk rock.
Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio sat down with Noisey to rank the band’s albums:
Crimson is one of my favorite Trio records. It’s the last record we made with Jerry Finn and, for a while, I couldn’t listen to it. There was so much of Jerry Finn in the production. Now, when I listen to Crimson, sometimes I think about Jerry, and I miss him, but for the most part I’m just really grateful that we had the opportunity to work with the most amazing producer for our genre that there’s ever been. I’m really thankful for that album, and I’m really thankful for Jerry’s friendship. He was one of my best friends.
Lucas Shaw, writing at Billboard:
In recent months, YouTube has given a handful of musicians a couple hundred thousand dollars to produce videos and promote their work on billboards, part of a larger campaign to improve the site’s relationship with the music industry.
Yet such support comes with a catch, with some musicians required to promise the won’t say negative things about YouTube, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private business transactions. Non-disparagement agreements are common in business, but YouTube’s biggest direct competitors in music don’t require them, the people said.
Over the weekend Alt Press ran a story headlined with, “Are My Chemical Romance planning a tour?,” based on the following evidence:
The band’s site was updated with an “MCRX TOUR” announcement, and the description reads: “Check back soon for more details on the upcoming tour.”
Upcoming tour?
We’re freaking out a little bit. (OK, we’re freaking out A LOT.)
This damn line on their website causes a freakout every few months.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the website has had that same blurb on it for years. Here it is in October of 2016.
If and when My Chemical Romance return, given everything we know about the band, I’d have to imagine it’ll be a well thought out and produced announcement.1
And I am a believer that it’s a when, not an if, I just don’t know when.↩
Pop Etc. have debuted their new song “Losing Yourself” on Noisetrade.
Sam Schube, writing for GQ:
This is new. Antonoff, now 33, used to be a secret weapon. He started touring the country at 15, was signed to legendary pop-punk label Drive-Thru at 18. And then he linked up with some old touring pals to write world-eating pop jams as Fun. You remember the songs—“We Are Young,” “Some Nights”—because they destroy at weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduation parties, and bars. Along the way, he became something of a pop guru—not a gun for hire, but the rarest kind of collaborator. Armed with his own sonic signature, forged in vans and clubs and small theaters and bedrooms, he also had a willingness—a need—to be a true partner.
Jack White has banned cellphones from his upcoming tour:
We think you’ll enjoy looking up from your gadgets for a little while and experience music and our shared love of it in person.
Upon arrival at the venue, all phones and other photo or video-capturing gizmos will be secured in a Yondr pouch that will be unlocked at the end of the show. You keep your pouch-secured phone on you during the show and, if needed, can unlock your phone at any time in a designated Yondr Phone Zone located in the lobby or concourse.
Melinda Newman, writing for Billboard:
Today Apple launches Apple Music for Artists, a dashboard designed to provide acts with hundreds of data points giving deep analytical insight into their fans’ listening and buying habits. […]
The easily navigable dashboard’s home page provides artists with their current number of plays, spins, song purchases and album purchases. The user can specify the time period ranging from the past 24 hours to the 2015 launch of Apple Music.
An Insights panel showcases key milestones via bullet points that highlight such information as all-time number of plays and purchases for specific songs or cumulatively.
Travis Barker of Blink-182 revealed on Kevin & Bean that he is working on a new documentary as a counterpart to his autobiography. He also mentions this is why he was hanging out with Tom DeLonge recently:
So four people were interviewed to create this trailer. It was Mark Hoppus, my dad, and Tom Delonge.
I haven’t really said anything. It’s been in the works. It’s the same people who did Steve Aoki’s documentary. We started talking with them a while back about being inspired by the book but then digging deeper.
Camila Cabello has the number one album in the country this week:
Camila Cabello debuts atop the Billboard 200 chart with her first solo effort, Camila, earning 119,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Jan. 18, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 65,000 were in traditional album sales. Cabello is the first woman in three years to hit No. 1 with her debut full-length album.
The Color Morale have announced a hiatus:
This is where you start to assume that this is The Color Morale announcing it’s break-up. When Steve and I started this band the goal was never to sell thousands of records, be on magazine covers, or even leave the midwest. The goal, along with the rest of my band mates was to have fun making art with my best friends. It always started there, in a garage across a field from a little restaurant in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of nowhere is exactly where you discover who and why you are. Within the expanse of that idea, The Color Morale could never break up. If it broke, it was only because it wasn’t ours anymore.
Veep will be returning in 2019 and Julia Louis Dreyfus will be returning to work in August after completing chemotherapy:
“Veep is on hiatus, we’ll start filming in August and it will air in 2019,” Walsh said. “We’ve known for about a month. We’ve seen [Julia], she’s done some table reads, she’s doing well, she’s finished her last chemo, she’s in recuperation. Her prospectives have remained excellent throughout. She’s very well loved; she’s a tremendous person.”