Three Arrested, 7 Ticketed at Blink-182 Concert

Jason Tate Aug 25, 2016

The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office arrested three people and ticketed seven more at the Blink 182 concert at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, including one man being held on $1,500 bail.
Deputies arrested 23-year-old Brandon Robinson of Amherst, charging him with harassment, criminal trespass, and resisting arrest. Deputies say Robinson jumped a fence to get into the concert, then fought with security guards trying to apprehend him. He was arraigned in Darien Town Court and taken to jail on $1,500 bail.

Apple Announce Music Festival Lineup

Jason Tate Aug 25, 2016

Apple has announced their Apple Music Festival lineup: Alicia Keys, Bastille, Britney Spears, Calvin Harris, Chance the Rapper, Elton John, Michael Bublé, OneRepublic, Robbie Williams, and The 1975.

The full lineup was announced today by Julie Adenuga, the London voice of Beats 1, an Apple Music radio station that celebrates the best new music every day. Apple Music lets fans get even closer to their favorite performers during the Apple Music Festival with exclusive playlists, artist news and backstage interviews throughout September. The 10 spectacular nights of live performances will be made available live and on-demand to Apple Music members in 100 countries on their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, Apple TV and Android phones.

Reports: SpinMedia on the Block Looking to Sell

Jason Tate Aug 25, 2016

NY Post:

Perpetually struggling SpinMedia, the collection of music and pop culture websites once known as Buzz Media, is officially on the block, sources tell Media Ink.
The company, which snapped up both Vibe and Spin and promptly converted the music magazines to all-digital sites, has retained the investment bank Petsky Prunier to shop for a buyer.
The websites, which also include The Friskly, Idolator, Go Fug Yourself, Celebuzz, Buzznet, Death & Taxes and others, is estimated to be losing at least $5 million a year on revenues of around $18 million, sources said.

I feel bad because a lot of people I know are probably going to lose their jobs. But the writing has been on the wall for half a decade, at least.

A GIF of Aly Raisman’s Floor Routine Got Someone Banned From Twitter

Jason Tate Aug 25, 2016

Jim Weber, writing on LinkedIn:

I had read that the IOC was banning the press from using GIFs but I didn’t see how that applied to me. Sure, I didn’t have the rights to any footage at the Olympics — just like countless blogs and users don’t have rights to the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and NCAA footage that they create GIFs out of and profit from every day.
But I figured the worst thing that would happen is the GIF would be deleted from my account, as Twitter often does in these situations.
Boy was I wrong.

Frank Ocean’s Album Is the Straw That Broke Universal Music’s Back

Jason Tate Aug 25, 2016

Dan Rys, writing at Billboard, about how Frank Ocean’s latest release is causing all kinds of headaches over at Universal:

After an interminable wait (in music industry standards, at least), Ocean fulfilled his contractual obligations, sources tell Billboard, and increased his potential profit share from 14 percent to 70 percent of total revenues from Blond within a 24-hour period, seemingly pulling a fast one on the biggest music company in the world in the process. Def Jam and its parent Universal, stuck with an overshadowed visual album that isn’t for sale, and cut out of any revenue from the “proper” album that’s headed to the top of the charts on the strength of 225,000 to 250,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 25, were left with what amounts to a very long music video and without one of their marquee artists.

Spotify Looking to Fine-Tune Music Rights

Jason Tate Aug 25, 2016

Hannah Karp, writing at The Wall Street Journal:

Spotify is now operating on short-term extensions of its old contracts with all three major record companies, having been on a month-to-month basis with at least one of the labels for nearly a year. It is negotiating new deals that would make its finances more attractive to investors.
Spotify, which saw its net loss increase to roughly $200 million last year even as revenue doubled to more than $2 billion, wants to pay a smaller share than the nearly 55% of its revenue that it currently pays to record labels and artists, according to people familiar with the matter.
It pays roughly an additional 15% to music publishers and songwriters.
But some major label executives want Spotify to pay them as much as 58% of revenue from both its free and paid tiers. That is what Apple Inc. pays for Apple Music subscribers who aren’t on free trials, people familiar with the matter said. Apple has more than 5 million users on free trials, they said.

Samsung Shutting Down Their Music Service

Jason Tate Aug 23, 2016

Samsung is shutting down the music service that I forgot they had:

As Variety reported earlier, Samsung will shutter Milk Music on Sept. 22. It joins Samsung’s Milk Video in the Graveyard For Samsung Media Services No One Wanted Except Samsung Executives.

Mylan’s EpiPen Price Gouging

Jason Tate Aug 23, 2016

Matt Novak, writing for Gizmodo:

EpiPen, the life-saving allergy product, is now a $1 billion a year business for Mylan, a drug company that’s currently enduring a wave of bad publicity over the extraordinary surge in EpiPen pricing. In 2007, an EpiPen cost about $57. Today that price has skyrocketed to over $600 — all for about $1 worth of injectable medicine.
EpiPen is an emergency medication that’s stabbed into a person experiencing anaphylactic shock, a life-threatening allergic reaction that can be triggered by anything from bee stings to food. I’ve never used an EpiPen, but as someone with a peanut allergy who once made his own trip to the ER after a particularly unfortunate restaurant experience (“these Chinese beans sure are crunchy…”) I can tell you that anaphylactic shock is really no fun.

This is such bullshit.

Amazon Looking to Launch Two New Music Services

Jason Tate Aug 23, 2016

Peter Kafka, writing for Recode, on Amazon’s hope to launch an unlimited, ad-free, $4-$5 a month, “Echo only” music streaming service:

Amazon wants to launch a music subscription service that would work the same way services from Apple, Spotify and many others work: $10 a month, for all the music you can stream, anywhere you want to stream it.
But Amazon is also working on a second service that would differ in two significant ways from industry rivals: It would cost half the price, and it would only work on Amazon’s Echo hardware.

‘Suicide Squad’ Soundtrack Tops Charts Again

Jason Tate Aug 22, 2016

The Suicide Squad soundtrack is once again on top of the Billboard charts.

Suicide Squad earned 93,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Aug. 18, according to Nielsen Music (down 49 percent), with 50,000 of that sum comprised of traditional album sales (down 61 percent).

Apple Music Festival Announced in London

Jason Tate Aug 22, 2016

Apple:

Apple Music Festival 10 returns to London in September for 10 exhilarating nights of live music. Residents of the UK can win tickets to the gigs. Apple Music members around the world can watch the performances for free. Ticket applications will be opening soon. Follow @AppleMusic on Twitter and Snapchat for up-to-the-minute information and join the #AMF10 conversation.

Pitchfork’s Best 200 Songs of the 1970s

Jason Tate Aug 22, 2016

Pitchfork have released their list of the best 200 songs from the 1970s.

The World Really Wanted Britney Spears to Fail: She Didn’t

Jason Tate Aug 22, 2016

Issy Beech, writing for Noisey, on Britney Spears:

LeAnn Rimes also said in her interview with Metro that she admired Britney. “I look at her and think it’s really amazing what she’s overcome. It’s nice to see someone come out the other side and be successful again.”
That’s the quote that deserves follow-up articles. That’s the quote. Because Britney Spears is still one of the most successful women in pop.

Travis Barker Talks Tattoos and Pain

Jason Tate Aug 20, 2016

GQ has an extensive profile on Travis Barker of Blink-182. This passage about the possibility of a Box Car Racer reunion sure is interesting:

I think we were both under the impression in the beginning that it was going to be a Blink album. Then it was like, no let’s do this cool little side project, but we won’t put an album out. Then the label heard it and wanted to put it out. Then there wasn’t going to be a tour, but they were like ah, you can do this tour. It just spiraled out of control. . . But I don’t know. [Mark’s] not in the band, so would it cause a lot of problems? Would it not? I have no idea. It’s something I can’t even wrap my head around just because I’m so proud of this album that we’re currently supporting. But I love Box Car. It was a cool album and cool sound.