David Letterman will induct Pearl Jam into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“Due to illness, Neil Young is regrettably no longer able to induct Pearl Jam at this Year’s Induction Ceremony,” the Rock Hall said in a statement Wednesday. “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is thrilled that David Letterman has agreed to induct Pearl Jam this Friday night at the 32nd Annual Induction Ceremony.”
Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo has gone platinum:
An album typically goes platinum after selling 1 million copies. But last year the RIAA announced guidelines that would let streaming number contribute to an album’s certified status. They decided that 150 streams of a song would equal one song download, and 10 song downloads would equal one album download. That means an artist’s songs would have to be streamed 1,500 times for it to be counted as an album sale.
So if 1,500 streams equals one album sale, and you multiply that by the 1 million album sales needed to go platinum, you get a minimum requirement of 1.5 billion steams needing to get an album certified platinum.
Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! is on the latest episode of NPR’s Fresh Air podcast.
It was a form of expression, in a way, that I couldn’t express myself how I wanted to otherwise. And it also served as a form of armor, because when you’re wearing a big leather jacket with spikes on it and you’re charging out your hair with Knox gelatin, I mean, you’re like, arming yourself. I got beat up a lot, so that was something to kind of hold onto.
Outside Lands have announced their 2017 lineup. You can find the artists below. The festival takes place August 11th-13th at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
The demo version of Lorde’s “Green Light” can be heard on MTV’s new Rookie podcast.
The new digital media devision of Verizon that will include Yahoo, AOL, and The Huffington Post will be called Oath, The New York Times reports:
The brand will apply to the digital media division of Verizon after it buys Yahoo’s internet assets for $4.48 billion, a deal that is expected to close by the end of June. But do not count the legacy brands out just yet: Yahoo, AOL and The Huffington Post will continue to exist and operate with their own names — under the Oath umbrella.
Sort of a who’s who of internet companies from two decades ago. Maybe they should buy MySpace too?
Spotify has agreed to a new licensing agreement with Universal Music Group, the companies announced today. As part of the deal, Spotify has agreed to allow new albums from Universal artists to be restricted to its premium service for up to two weeks moving forward, confirming our report from last month. Spotify will also pay slightly less to UMG in royalty fees, according to sources close to the situation.
Punchline have released the new song “Darkest Day” to backers of their Kickstarter.
John Gruber, writing at Daring Fireball:
Apple is currently hard at work on a “completely rethought” Mac Pro, with a modular design that can accommodate high-end CPUs and big honking hot-running GPUs, and which should make it easier for Apple to update with new components on a regular basis. They’re also working on Apple-branded pro displays to go with them.
And:
Regarding iMacs, Schiller also said that new iMacs are in the works, slated for release some time this year (no specifics other than “this year”), including “configurations of iMac specifically with the pro customer in mind and acknowledging that our most popular desktop with pros is an iMac.”
Nice. I love my 5K iMac, it’s the best desktop computer I’ve ever owned. (And now we have fodder for all the tech podcasts for the next six months in anticipation, and for the six months after when the results aren’t perfectly tailored to each individual.) I’m just glad that the rumors of the Mac’s demise seem to have been greatly exaggerated.
Dead Swords will be releasing their two EPs on vinyl on May 5th.
Drake once again has the top album in the country.
More Life continues to be a streaming powerhouse in its second week, as traditional album sales equaled 43,000 while it collected another 169,000 SEA units (the second largest streaming week ever for an album, behind only More Life’s debut). The rest of the title’s units came from TEA (13,000).
Cove Reber (ex-Saosin) has launched a GoFundMe page for his new music project’s debut album. The band is called Dead American.
Marco Arment has published his mega-review of Bluetooth headphones:
My criteria for this review is what someone seeking good all-around headphones today probably wants:
- Bluetooth
- Closed-back for isolation, ideally with active noise cancellation (ANC)
- Portable enough to fit in a small bag; suitable for listening at a desk, bringing on an airplane, and wearing outside
- Definitely under $500, and ideally under $300
For everyday use I’ve been using AirPods for the past few months and absolutely love them. I listen to almost exclusively podcasts or audiobooks with them, but they’re fine for music.1 If you’re looking for where to start with Bluetooth headphones, this is a good resource.
Most of the time if I’m listening to music it’s playing via speakers or I’m at my computer where I use a wired pair of headphones.↩
Matt Skiba of Blink-182 talked with Ultimate Guitar:
“But mostly, I’m very happy and grateful to say that Alkaline Trio fans have been very, very supportive even when they do get a little homesick missing the band. It’s still very supportive and it’s not like I’m not Alkaline Trio for some selfish or no good reason.”