Jan Wenner has sold a 49% stake of Rolling Stone to Bandlab Technlogies. Bloomberg reports:
After a five-decade run full of interviews with pop stars and presidents, the founder of Rolling Stone is selling 49 percent of the iconic magazine to an Asian billionaire’s son. It’s the first time Wenner has admitted an outside investor, a deal that encapsulates the plight of an industry fighting to stay relevant in an online age. Wenner Media LLC also owns Us Weekly and Men’s Journal.
Today is “National Voter Registration” day. You can check if you’re registered and get signed up at a variety of websites. And don’t forget this video series about how to vote in every state.
It’s easy to keep putting this off, but the election is only a few more weeks away, and early voting is starting in many states already. So, yeah, make sure you’re registered, and vote.
Frank Iero and the Patience have debuted their new song “Remedy” on BBC Radio 1.
Drake is back at number one on the charts this week. Mac Miller is at number two, the Suicide Squad soundtrack is at three.
Views maintains the most weeks at No. 1 for an album by an artist since Adele’s 21 notched 24 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 (March 12, 2011-June 23, 2012), and the most weeks atop the list for a man since Billy Ray Cyrus’ Some Gave All ruled for 17 straight frames in 1992 (June 13-Oct. 3).
Eriq Gardner, writing at The Hollywood Reporter, on record labels starting to sue some of the YouTube to MP3 ripping websites:
On Monday, the plaintiffs filed a copyright lawsuit in California federal court, stating, “Stream ripping has become a major threat to the music industry, functioning as an unlawful substitute for the purchase of recorded music and the purchase of subscriptions to authorized streaming services.”
With a few simple mouse clicks, the lawsuit reports, infringing copies of sound recordings are made available in MP3 format. The plaintiffs suggest that “tens, or even hundreds, of millions of tracks are illegally copied and distributed by stream ripping services each month.”
Bon Iver premiered “8 (circle)” on Annie Mac’s BBC Radio 1 show.
Bloomberg is reporting that the Walt Disney Co. is looking at making a bid for Twitter:
The Walt Disney Co. is working with a financial adviser to evaluate a possible bid for Twitter Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. After receiving interest in discussing a deal, Twitter has started a process to evaluate a potential sale. Salesforce.com Inc. is also considering a bid, working with Bank of America on the process, according to other people, who declined to be named because the matter is private.
So Disney could own the happiest place on earth, and one of the biggest collections of hatred the world has ever seen.
G.L.O.S.S. have broken up. A message from the band can be found below.
Seth Stevenson, writing for The Wall Street Journal, on Snapchat’s new hardware product, “Spectacles.”
What initially appears to be a normal pair of sunglasses turns out to be Spectacles, the first hardware product from Snap Inc., as the firm has been newly christened (Spiegel is refreshing the company name because its offerings now go beyond the Snapchat app). When you slip Spectacles on and tap a button near the hinge, it records up to 10 seconds of video from your first-person vantage. Each new tap records another clip.
They’re hideous and I expect to see them at concerts in the not so distant future.
Casey Crescenzo of The Dear Hunter was the most recent guest on Mike Herrera’s podcast:
Casey is a singer/song writer and is most notably known for his work in bands The Dear Hunter, and The Receiving End of Sirens. In episode 170 Mike and Casey cover a wide variety of interesting topics that range from head transplants to video rotoscoping. So kick back, enjoy yourself, and maybe even learn some stuff.
Matt Healy of The 1975 sat down with Rolling Stone:
You chose to do without a shirt for Saturday Night Live.
I wanted to be particularly obnoxious that night. I thought I was being kind of post-ironic and subversive, but it turns out that people in Kansas thought I was an absolute dick.
Dwight Garner, writing at The New York Times, reviewed Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography:
The book is like one of Mr. Springsteen’s shows — long, ecstatic, exhausting, filled with peaks and valleys. It’s part séance and part keg party, and then the house lights come up and you realize that, A) you look ridiculous dancing to “Twist and Shout” and, B) you will be driving home in a minivan and not a Camaro.
His writing voice is much like his speaking voice; there’s a big, raspy laugh on at least every other page. There’s some raunch here. This book has not been utterly sanitized for anyone’s protection, and many of the best lines won’t be printed in this newspaper. Most important, “Born to Run” is, like his finest songs, closely observed from end to end. His story is intimate and personal, but he has an interest in other people and a gift for sizing them up.
A Kickstarter has launched to press a reproduction of the Golden Record that was included on the Voyager space probes:
The Voyager Golden Record contains the story of Earth expressed in sounds, images, and science: Earth’s greatest music from myriad cultures and eras, from Bach and Beethoven to Blind Willie Johnson and Chuck Berry, Senegalese percussion to Solomon Island panpipes. Dozens of natural sounds of our planet — birds, a train, a baby’s cry — are collaged into a lovely sound poem. There are spoken greetings in 55 human languages, and one whale language, and more than one hundred images encoded in analog that depict who, and what, we are.
Weezer have posted up reissues for six of their albums on vinyl.