Apple Music Classical, a dedicated app for classical music, will be released on March 28th.
Apple Music Classical Coming
Saosin Down Under
Mary Varvaris interviewed Saosin:
Oh, man, at the very beginning, it was like the wild, wild west. For bands like us, it was huge. You mentioned AbsolutePunk – that was one of the things where it was like being on a billboard in Times Square. People would go to AbsolutePunk to find out about cool music, at least at that point in time, right?
It was like, you either had to have an older sibling in high school, who was super cool and knew about all the cool bands. Or you had to know somebody that worked at an independent record shop, and they could get the cool music for you. Or you had to scour the internet and find someone who had really good taste in music, or a website, like AbsolutePunk where people could recommend things that were kind of cool, and you can trust the reviews.
Spotify HiFi Was Announced Two Years Ago — Where Is It?
Chris Welch, writing for The Verge:
At this point, it’s fair to assume that something went wrong with Spotify HiFi. Two years ago today, during the company’s Stream On event, Spotify announced a new streaming tier that would let customers enjoy lossless, CD-quality audio from the leading subscription music service.
Spotify felt the news was worthy of some star power and filmed a promotional video for HiFi with Billie Eilish and Finneas. It remains on the company’s YouTube page, and you can still read the blog post saying upgraded sound would arrive “later this year” — meaning by the end of 2021.
Record Store Day 2023 Announces Exclusives
The exclusives for this year’s Record Store Day have been announced.
An Oral History of AbsolutePunk.net
Over at the other AP:
Andrew McMahon emphasizes AbsolutePunk’s role in covering artists that other media outlets largely ignored. The former frontman of Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin, two acts that were popular amongst the community, explains “when the traditional music press was not very interested in covering my bands and other bands from our scene, AbsolutePunk was always there carrying the torch.”
Many thanks to Kelly, and to all the people that contributed to this article. Warms my little emo heart.
Jack Antonoff Wins Producer of the Year
Jack Antonoff has won the 2023 Grammy for producer of the year:
His production credits within the eligibility window were for Florence and the Machine’s Dance Fever, the soundtrack to Minions: The Rise of Gru, Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault),” Diana Ross’ “I Still Believe,” and the 1975’s “Part of the Band.” His records with Lorde and St. Vincent qualified last year, while his work on Taylor Swift’s Midnights and the 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language are eligible next year.
Netflix Hasn’t Confirmed Its Plans to Stop Password Sharing Just Yet
Emma Rot, writing for The Verge:
Based on info sourced from Netflix’s support pages, The Streamable reported on Tuesday details about its upcoming anti-password sharing efforts. But now Netflix tells The Verge it hasn’t confirmed what its setup could look like for US streaming subscribers.
Universal Music in Talks With Big Platforms to Overhaul Streaming Model
Universal Music Group is in talks with big streaming platforms to overhaul the industry’s economics and direct more money towards artists, according to people familiar with the matter. The shake-up, which stands to revolutionise the way musicians make money, comes as the world’s largest music company is increasingly concerned about the proliferation of songs on platforms such as Spotify, where 100,000 new tracks are being added each day.
The industry is also contending with growing manipulation of the system, including using bots to inflate listening figures and the uploading of 31-second clips that are just long enough to qualify as a “play”.
Dustin Kensrue Talks ‘TAITA’ Revisited
Dustin Kensrue of Thrice talked with Spin:
“We’ve had enough space from [the anniversary albums] to where I think you get some objectivity,” Kensrue says. “You’re able to appreciate the great things that are happening without as much squirming and being like ‘Oh, that was weird’ or ‘That’s not what I would do now.’ Enough time has passed that we can just see that it was cool that we did this thing and — even though we’re all different now — there’s stuff on those albums that’s kind of cool, even if we don’t remember what was going through our heads to get there. Moving on to whatever we record next — Horizons/West, I guess — I think we’ll take some lessons from coming back and revisiting these.”
An Interview About Life in the Elder Emo Scene
I sat talked with the Human Pursuits newsletter about growing up in this music scene, the history of AbsolutePunk, and what I’d tell my younger self:
It’s funny, I think about it and it’s exactly the type of advice younger Jason wouldn’t listen to… But it would be that you should be more willing to admit that you are wrong. Like, to understand that what you are thinking right now is not what you are going to think for the rest of your life. The convictions you have are not universal absolutes, they are not things that are going to be steady forever… To be malleable with that, and to always be questioning your own prior beliefs.
Younger Jason needed to be the best, needed to be huge, and needed to have a giant audience following everything he was writing. It took me until 8 years ago to realize that was a dream I had when I was 15. I was sitting here at 35 thinking “I don’t want that at all.” There’s no part of me that has that goal, no part of me that wants to be driven by that. But I was still allowing myself to be driven by that idea I had as a kid… Letting myself be brought down because I thought it was “a goal of mine.” I wish I would’ve realized earlier that I did not need to be stuck to these ideas that I had, and that I should always be evaluating these things. Like, what do I want to do now? What do I want to do moving forward? I hope Jason of now can take that advice and try to apply it on a more regular basis.
Fall Out Boy on Zane Lowe
Fall Out Boy are on the latest episode of Zane Lowe’s Apple Music show.
Paramore Profiled for Billboard
The band wrote the album’s closing track, “Thick Skull,” a marked sonic departure from After Laughter, on day one. “It had these shades of a few different eras of us being music fans, loving heavy, drone-y, almost shoegaze-y moments,” says Williams, also citing York’s clashing guitar patterns, Farro’s thunderous bursts of drumming and even her own rare piano playing on the song. “I was like, ‘Man, this sounds like a band I would love.’ ”
And:
“We don’t want to be a nostalgia band,” Williams says today, reflecting on that speech. “But I think what I felt was a mixture of vindication and also a lot of anger. I was really surprised that I had so much anger well up in me because I was like, ‘Wait a minute. They’re treating us like a prize now,’ but like, Fat Mike [of NOFX] used to tell people that I gave good rim jobs onstage when I was 19 years old. I do not think that that’s punk. I don’t think that’s the essence of punk. And I feel strongly that without young women, people of color and also the queer community, I just think we would still be where we were then.
“It felt like justification to be able to have the mic and to be one of the last bands that played,” she continues. “We hung out with My Chem a few minutes before we went on [on] the last weekend, and I think they feel very similarly about how they were received. And what it comes down to is that the fans are the ones with the power because otherwise, us and My Chem wouldn’t have been headlining that thing. And I think that’s beautiful.”
Inside Twitter’s Dumpster Fire
The Verge with a behind-the-scenes look at Twitter’s collapse:
It’s an open secret that many employees who remain at Musk’s “hardcore” Twitter are actively looking for other jobs. Even the most publicly cheerful Twitter workers can’t fully mask the despair. On December 29, one tweeted a selfie, smiling in front of an empty office, with the hashtags #solowork, #productivity, and #findingperspective.
Musk himself is starting to appear defeated. Tesla shares started 2022 trading at nearly $400. By September, Tesla’s stock price had dropped by 25 percent. It plummeted again after Musk bought Twitter and ended the year at $123. Investors are begging Musk to step away; Tesla employees are too.
A real shame.
iTunes for Windows Being Replaced
Andrew Cunningham, writing at Ars:
Today, as part of a new Windows 11 preview build for Windows Insiders, Microsoft has announced that previews of new Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Devices apps are available in the Microsoft Store for download.
The Apple Music and Apple TV apps handle iTunes’ music and video functionality, just as they do on macOS, and provide access to the Apple Music and Apple TV+ subscription services. The Apple Devices app is what you’ll use to make local device backups, perform emergency software updates, sync local media, and the other things you can do with an iDevice that’s plugged into your PC (in macOS, similar functionality was added to the Finder, rather than being broken out into its own app).
Rise Records Clearance Sale
There’s some really good deals going on over at Rise Records’ clearance sale.