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Nick Heer on Apple Music and Last.fm

Jason Tate

Nick Heer nails what I’ve been thinking for a while about what Apple Music should learn from Last.fm:

So: Last.fm. There are a few things I like about it. First, it seems to take into account my entire listening history, though it does give greater weight to recency and frequency. Second, it shows me why it is recommending a particular artist or album. Something as simple as that helps me contextualize a recommendation. Third, its suggestions are a blend of artists I am familiar with in passing and those that I have never heard of.

Most importantly, it feels free of artificial limitations. Apple Music only shows a maximum of eight similar artists on my iPhone, but there are pages of recommendations on Last.fm. Echo and the Bunnymen has twenty-five pages with ten artists each. I can go back and see my entire listening history since I started my account there. Why can I only see the last forty things I listened to on Apple Music?

There are so many things Apple could learn from Last.fm’s recommendation approach, and I wish it would. Right now, its approach is somewhere between inconsequential and unhelpful. It does not have to be this way, and it should not be this way.

Maybe part of my appreciation comes from my nostalgia for the mid-2000s internet era. They are memories of shiny, colourful logos, wet floors everywhere, and new social networks for every conceivable interest. These websites encouraged centralization and many were ultimately destructive to privacy, but there were also gems like Last.fm. It was built around a simple premise: track your music listening history for better recommendations.

Sorry for quoting so generously, but this really gets to the heart of one of the reasons I dove back into Last.fm with such vigor last year. Being able to see what I’ve been listening to, get the stats behind it, visualize that data, and get recommendations based on my entire streaming history is a cherry on top of it helping me with my weekly newsletter. There’s a whole lot I think Apple Music should be doing to make their service better.

‘Nevermind’ Baby Lawsuit Dismissed

Jason Tate

The Nevermind baby lawsuit has been dismissed.

Elden’s team had until 30 December to respond to Nirvana’s motion to dismiss, but missed the deadline.

As a result, Judge Fernando M Olguin dismissed the case “with leave to amend” – meaning his team have until 13 January to refile the case with appropriate changes.

David Bowie’s Catalog Acquired by Warner Chappell Music

David Bowie
Jason Tate

Jem Aswad, writing for Variety:

After months of negotiations, David Bowie’s estate has sold the singer’s formidable publishing catalog to Warner Chappell Music for a price upwards of $250 million, sources confirm to Variety. The catalog spans six decades and includes such songs as “Heroes,” “Changes,” “Space Oddity,” “Fame,” “Let’s Dance,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Golden Years,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “All the Young Dudes,” his 1981 collaboration with Queen “Under Pressure” and hundreds more.

The agreement comprises songs from the 26 David Bowie studio albums released during his lifetime, as well as the posthumous studio album release, “Toy,” which comes out on Friday. It also includes the two studio albums from Tin Machine, along with tracks released as singles from soundtracks and other projects.

Weekly U.S. Vinyl Album Sales Break Modern-Era Record

Jason Tate

Billboard:

Weekly U.S. vinyl album sales hit a modern-era record high, as 2.11 million vinyl albums were sold in the week ending Dec. 23 according to MRC Data. It’s the single-largest sales week for vinyl albums.

Pitchfork:

Adele’s 30 has continued to sell well on vinyl, becoming the best-selling vinyl album of the year. 30 was also the top-selling vinyl album during the record-breaking week, moving 59,000 copies, according to Billboard.

Adele Still #1

Jason Tate

Adele still has the number one album in the country:

Adele’s 30 racks up a third straight and total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The set earned 193,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 9, according to MRC Data (down 33% compared to the previous week).

The Vinyl Resurgence Continues

Jason Tate

Zachary Crockett, writing at The Hustle:

For modern-day indie artists, it’s a welcome boom. A vinyl record costs ~$7 to manufacture, and a band typically sells it directly to fans for $25, good for $18 in profit. By contrast, streaming services only pay out a fraction of a penny for each listen. A band would have to amass 450k streams on Spotify to match the profit of 100 vinyl sales.

TIDAL Has Unveiled New Membership Options

Tidal
Jason Tate

Tidal:

TIDAL now offers three membership options for you to choose from: TIDAL Free, TIDAL HiFi, and TIDAL HiFi Plus. With access to the same catalog of over 80 million songs, each membership has its own set of perks to empower your music experience.

And, one of the more interesting portions:

Not only does TIDAL HiFi Plus offer access to innovative listening experiences, but through the Direct Artist Payout program, it also allocates up to 10% of your monthly subscription towards your most-streamed artist. This means that your top-streamed artist of the month can benefit immediately and directly from the success of their work on TIDAL

Colin Farrell to Reprise Penguin Role in ‘The Batman’ Spinoff Series for HBO Max

The Batman
Jason Tate

Variety:

Colin Farrell has officially signed on to star in and executive produce a series spinoff of “The Batman” in which he would again play The Penguin, Variety has learned exclusively from sources.

Farrell will first portray the villainous character in “The Batman” starring Robert Pattinson, which is due to be released on March 4, 2022. The series would then reportedly delve into The Penguin’s rise to power in the Gotham criminal underworld. Variety first reported the series was in development back in September, though Farrell was not attached at that time.

Adele Still Tops the Charts

Jason Tate

Adele still has the number one album in the country:

Adele’s 30 spends a second week atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, as the set earned 288,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 2, according to MRC Data. That’s down 66% compared to its chart-topping debut sum of 839,000 units a week earlier.

Tom DeLonge Reflects on ‘Neighborhoods’

Blink-182
Jason Tate

Tom DeLonge talked with ABC Audio:

DeLonge now feels that he may have been “too heavy-handed” in trying to change Blink’s sound for Neighborhoods, something he admits Barker and Hoppus were “probably rightfully hesitant” to do. Should he ever return to the band, though, DeLonge believes he’d be able to strike a better balance between what all band members want from a Blink record.

“Knowing that I’ve gotten so much out of my system with this type of music with Angels & Airwaves, I don’t need Blink to land here, like I might’ve 10 years ago,” he says.

Keith Buckley Profiled in Revolver

Jason Tate

There’s a new profile of Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die in Revolver:

Spoiler: The hero lives. But the last half-decade of Buckley’s life that Radicalchronicles — spiritually dying only to be resuscitated, then rejuvenated and finally built back stronger than ever — really begins at the start of it all. Buckley’s unique upbringing in Western New York, the trajectory of his life throughout his teens and twenties, and how he lost himself in his thirties only to rediscover his purpose just when he thought all hope was already in the rearview. This is Keith Buckley’s life story.

Mark Hoppus Profile in GQ

Mark Hoppus
Jason Tate

The full Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 profile for GQ is now online:

The diagnosis had prompted him to revisit other things too. When we initially spoke in September, he told me that he’d recently been going back over old Blink tracks—songs he’d played thousands of times—discovering that they’ve suddenly taken on new meaning. Of note was “Adam’s Song,” a somber number that Hoppus wrote in his 20s, from the imagined perspective of someone who felt suicidal but ultimately made the decision to carry on the hard work of living. “I’ve had a lot of thoughts about my own mortality, a lot of thoughts about what happens when I’m gone,” he said. “And so I’ve been listening to ‘Adam’s Song,’ thinking, Yeah, tomorrow holds such better days.”

Adele Tops the Charts

Jason Tate

Adele has the number one album in the country this week:

Adele’s new album 30 blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, debuting with the largest week of 2021 for any album, while the set is already the biggest-selling album of the year. It’s the third No. 1 for the superstar, following 25 (10 weeks on top in 2015-16) and 21 (24 weeks in 2011-12).

30 starts with 839,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 25, according to MRC Data. That’s by far the largest week of the year for any album by units earned, surpassing the debut of Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, which earned 613,000 units in the week ending Sept. 9.

Adele Is Top-Selling Album in U.S. After Only Three Days

Jason Tate

Billboard:

According to initial reports to MRC Data, the album, which was released Nov. 19, has sold more than 500,000 copies in the U.S. through Nov. 21. That makes it 2021’s top-selling album, surpassing sales of any album over the past 11 months combined. It beats the year’s previous top-seller: Taylor Swift’s Evermore, with 462,000 copies sold through the week ending Nov. 18. (Evermore was released in December 2020 but has continued to sell well in 2021.)

Summer Walker Tops the Charts

Jason Tate

Summer Walker has the number one album in the country this week:

Summer Walker earns her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as the singer’s second studio LP, Still Over It, arrives atop the list. The 20-track set was released on Nov. 5 and launches with 166,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 11, according to MRC Data. Over 90% of the album’s first-week units were driven by streaming activity. Still Over It marks both the first R&B album by a woman to top the Billboard 200 in more than five years and the largest streaming week ever for an R&B album by a woman.