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Spotify Announces More Layoffs

Jason Tate

Spotify has announced they are laying off 1,500 people:

This brings me to a decision that will mean a significant step change for our company. To align Spotify with our future goals and ensure we are right-sized for the challenges ahead, I have made the difficult decision to reduce our total headcount by approximately 17% across the company. I recognize this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions. To be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us.

Meanwhile, the stock spiked on the news so the CFO cashed in.

Pale Waves Working on New Album

Pale Waves
Jason Tate

Pale Waves are working on a new album:

So all of my attention and energy is going into writing and recording our best album yet. Ultimately, that’s about building a world that feels like Pale Waves, while also feeling completely different to anywhere we’ve inhabited before. We’re creating another universe for our fans to explore, and for us to live in for a moment.

The Joys of Last.fm

Technology
Jason Tate

John Voorhees, writing at MacStories:

There are a million questions that could be answered by Apple Music that aren’t, and that’s a shame.

Spotify does a better job at surfacing interesting data with Wrapped, but if you’re like me and prefer other aspects of Apple Music, sign up for Last.fm, use one of the many excellent indie apps, like Marvis Pro, Soor, Albums, Longplay, Doppler, and Air Scrobblethat support the service, and then enjoy your weekly, monthly, and annual reports in Last.fm’s app or on its website.

I 100% agree. Not only does Last.fm let you look into the data whenever you want, but you can also have your entire year of listening history at your disposal. And past years. There’s never a better time to start scrobbling than now, and the end of the year is a great time to begin collecting the data.

I use Marvis on iOS and Neptunes on the Mac and am happy with both. Passed the 100k scrobble mark this year and set a new personal record for number of songs listened to.

Gym Class Heroes Drummer Donates Rockefeller Tree

Gym Class Heroes
Jason Tate

The 2023 Rockefeller Christmas tree was donated by the drummer for Gym Class Heroes:

Matt and Jackie McGinley knew the Norway spruce that towered over their Vestal home near Binghamton was impressive.

They just didn’t know how impressive. Try good enough for the Rockefeller Center.

Matt, a Geneva native, founding member of rock-rap band Gym Class Heroes and a music composer, and his wife, Jackie, a professor at Binghamton University, donated the massive tree that will begin shining over the New York City plaza this week.

Read More “Gym Class Heroes Drummer Donates Rockefeller Tree”

It May Be Time to Backup Your Bandcamp Purchases

Bandcamp
Jason Tate

David Rutland:

You can’t rely on other people or organisations to hold onto your media forever, and it’s a tired but true maxim that the cloud is just someone else’s machine.

If you’ve spent your hard earned cash supporting independent artists through Bandcamp, a series of ownership changes and layoffs suggest that now might be the best time for audiophiles to download their audio files to secure offline storage.

And:

While we’re not saying that Bandcamp is going to disappear into nothing (MySpace is still around after all), we think it’s perhaps prudent to download your albums from Bandcamp and store them offline. You never know – that’s all we’re saying.

The Bandcamp UI isn’t really designed with massive downloads in mind, and there are a lot of boxes to tick.

Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to download all of your Bandcamp music using the excellent Batchcamp extension which is available as both a FireFox addon, or as a Google Chrome extension.

KC Rae Track-by-Track of New Album

Now Now
Jason Tate

KC Rae did a track-by-track breakdown of her latest album:

This was the track that made me realize I wanted to release my own music. It didn’t feel like anyone else’s, it felt like it was mine. I had never had that feeling before. It sits in that sweet spot for me of a hopeful melancholy. Sonically and lyrically. Things not turning out how you expected them to, but knowing it couldn’t and shouldn’t have gone any other way.  And the release as a result of that.

Jimmy Irvine Accused of Sexual Misconduct

Rolling Stone
Jason Tate

Rolling Stone:

A woman is filing a lawsuit against music executive Jimmy Iovine, alleging the Interscope Records co-founder sexually abused her and forcibly touched her, according to court documents. Iovine tells Rolling Stone he’s “shocked and baffled” by the claim. 

A Jane Doe plaintiff filed a summons and notice on Wednesday in New York and alleges Iovine, 70, engaged in “multiple instances of sexual abuse and forcible touching of her, including a specific incident of sexual misconduct” that occurred in New York City in August 2007. The legal filing contained little additional information regarding the woman’s specific claims, but a lawsuit is expected by the end of the year. The woman also alleges that she faced sexual harassment and retaliation, and is seeking an unspecified amount of damages. Doe’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, declined to comment further on the case. 

Justin Sane Sued Under New York’s Adult Survivors Act

Legal
Jason Tate

Anti-Flag’s Justin Sane has been sued in New York:

A statement from Sarhadi reads, in part, “Justin Geever used his platform as a celebrated, self-proclaimed ‘punk rockstar’ to groom and lure vulnerable girls into feeling safe in his presence. While he sang about protecting women and standing up to abusers, it appears he was hiding an addiction to power and control, harming countless women who have been unable to speak up before now. Today I hope to encourage his survivors, and survivors of other predators in the music industry, to feel hope again. What sexual predators take from us cannot be restored, but we are no longer the silent victims they want us to be.”

Spotify Announces New Royalty Policy

Jason Tate

Spotify has officially announced their new royalty system:

However, as the royalty pool and catalog on Spotify have surged, three particular drains on the royalty pool have now reached a tipping point. So, we’re working in close collaboration with industry partners — artist distributors, independent labels, major labels, label distributors, and artists and their teams — to introduce new policies to (1) further deter artificial streaming, (2) better distribute small payments that aren’t reaching artists, and (3) rein in those attempting to game the system with noise.

Report: Blink-182 to Headline Reading and Leeds

Blink-182
Jason Tate

Yahoo! UK is reporting that Blink-182 will be headlining next year’s Reading and Leeds:

The ‘All The Small Things’ rockers have reportedly left a gap in their touring schedule to accommodate the gigs, which take place over the August Bank Holiday weekend, and will receive a cool £1 million for the shows.

A source told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: “Blink-182 is a huge get for Reading and Leeds, given the band’s recent surge in popularity.

New Interview With Travis Barker

Travis Barker
Jason Tate

Travis Barker of Blink-182 talks about the band, and life, in a recent interview:

Not only does Barker consider it their most personal record yet, but he also feels that the time they spent apart has resulted in them making some of their strongest work to date. “We had a lot to say, to write about and to experiment with after not being in the same band for however many years,” he says. “It was really exciting.”

“Everything has just been really organic,” he affirms. “If you’re just doing album cycle after album cycle, you do lose inspiration. For me, I’ve got to get out and live and experience something. I need some ups and downs. I need some of the best days of my life, and I need some tragedy.”