Reports are that Spotify has confidentially filed for an IPO:
Both Silicon Valley and Wall Street are paying close attention to this one, given that Spotify is pursuing a direct listing instead of a traditional float. That means no road show or other typical IPO accoutrements (including some of the Wall Street fees, although several investments banks are involved). The quiet period does seem intact, however, as a Spotify spox declined comment.
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, like a lot of us, think it’s time for Donald Trump to be impeached:
This isn’t funny. This is our president acting like a madman drunk on power THREATENING to kill innocent starving people by way of nuclear war. The 25th amendment needs to be enforced. This man is sick and unfit for office. I don’t care if your liberal or conservative.. this has to stop.
Tom Breihan, writing for Stereogum:
The answer, of course, is that nobody at Coachella wants to see any fucking bands. (One exception might be Tomlinson’s old band, which only fits the loosest possible definition of the term “band.”) If you’ve been to the festival in recent years, you already know that rock bands basically don’t move the needle at all when it comes to that festival.
Taco Bell is officially adding nacho fries to their menu for a “limited time.” Delish reports:
Nacho Fries start at $1 and come with a side of the brand’s bright orange cheese sauce. They can be upgraded to a supreme or Bell Grande status (for $2.49 and $3.49, respectively), and topped with beef, sour cream, and pico de gallo. And, of course, more cheese.
Stray Cats will be reuniting on April 21st in Las Vegas at The Orleans when they headline “Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend.”
Eriq Gardner, writing for The Hollywood Reporter:
As the new year begins, the music industry could be set for an epochal moment. Hopes are running high for the first significant reform of music licensing rules in decades. The coming year may also see Spotify go public. But before any of this happens, the Stockholm, Sweden-based streaming giant must now contend with a massive new copyright lawsuit from Wixen Music Publishing, which administers the song compositions by Tom Petty, Zach De La Rocha and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, David Cassidy, Neil Young, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, Stevie Nicks, and many others.
Taylor Swift once again has the number one album in the country:
Taylor Swift’s Reputation returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a fourth nonconsecutive week, as the set steps 2-1 in its seventh week on the list. Reputation earned 107,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Dec. 28, according to Nielsen Music (down 19 percent). Of that sum, 79,000 were in traditional album sales (down 24 percent).
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Padawan is a word that is being used more and more in a generic way to refer to learners, followers, or anyone just starting out. It was used in Star Wars: Episode I, the first of the prequels made by George Lucas and released in 1999, and refers to aspiring Jedi knights whose education is overseen by a Jedi master. […]
At any rate, what’s notable is that they are creating a new category of skilled pre-professional positions, and have found a word that corresponds to it. Whether or not the name sticks is a good question: it will take several years of gathering evidence to see whether or not this is the word we’re looking for.
Nichole Manna, writing for the Wichita Eagle:
Online gamers have said in multiple Twitter posts that the shooting of a man Thursday night by Wichita police was the result of a “swatting” hoax involving two gamers.
Swatting happened when someone makes a call to a police department with a false story of an ongoing crime – often with killing or hostages involved – in an attempt to draw a large number of police officers to a particular address. […]
Officers went to the 1000 block of McCormick, preparing for a hostage situation and they “got into position,” he said.
“A male came to the front door,” Livingston said. “As he came to the front door, one of our officers discharged his weapon.”
Jack Antonoff was profiled by Entertainment Weekly:
No artist shaped the sound of pop music in 2017 more than Jack Antonoff — if only because Jack Antonoff practically was the sound of pop music in 2017. Whether he was putting out music with his solo project, Bleachers, or writing with artists such as Taylor Swift, Lorde, and St. Vincent, the prolific producer was all over your favorite records this year.
Bandcamp have released some of their 2017 stats, there’s some fun gems in here:
17,872 tapes were released on Bandcamp this year. That’s an average of almost 50 tapes per day, or one every 29 minutes. If you’re anything like me, you will now be feeling an uncomfortable combination of shock, confusion, and heart-warming joy. Don’t panic—it’s normal. That’s your brain carving out new neural pathways to accommodate the realization that you’re more mainstream than you thought you were.
And:
Ever since I found out that “Atlas” is the most popular band name on Bandcamp (still – 77 and counting!) I’ve been intrigued by common band names. They’re always words that are short and generic enough to be statistically probable names, but still somehow meaningful to the bands using them.
BTS’ remix of Fall Out Boy’s “Champion” has hit number 18 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
Michael Clifford of 5 Seconds of Summer sat down with Billboard to talk about the band’s upcoming third album:
It’s coming along really well. It’s taking a really long time to perfect the new sound and direction we’re taking. I think the reason it’s taken so long is because we haven’t just wanted to get it to a place where we’re, like, happy… We want it to be perfect. I think when all the new stuff comes out, it’s like a departure of our old sound but it still keeps elements of all of the things we liked about it. It was just time for us to change. The studio’s been awesome. We’ve just been slaving away, living in there. We’re at a point now where we’re almost ready to put out our first single.