Link - PAGE 59

MusicSmart Puts the Spotlight on Music Credits

Apps
Jason Tate

Federico Viticci, writing at MacStories, about the new app MusicSmart:

Here’s the amazing part – the “aha” moment that brought back the same feelings I had as a kid when reading through liner notes: in the Tracks section, you can tap any of the listed songs to view detailed credits for the selected song. These go beyond the standard “written by” credits you see in Apple Music: MusicSmart lists engineers (including mixing, mastering, and assistant engineers), producers, and even the name of the label and studio where the song was mastered. But there’s more: MusicSmart can show you the names of all the artists credited for the creation of a song even if they’re not core members of a band, including backing vocalists, percussionists, keyboard players, saxophonists – you name it.

I’ve been playing around with this app for the last couple of weeks and it’s a really nice addition for those that want to dive deeper into the credits of a song. In past I’d be listening to something and often wonder who was playing one of the backing instruments, or trying to figure out if the strings were real or fake, and end up Googling around and hoping I could find the information or a photo of the album credits. This is much nicer.

Read More “MusicSmart Puts the Spotlight on Music Credits”

Dave Grohl Talks With Entertainment Weekly

Foo Fighters
Jason Tate

Dave Grohl was interviewed over at Entertainment Weekly:

You know years ago I was at a barbecue and I met a book agent, and he said, “Have you ever considered writing a book?” and I said, “Well, of course, someday.” And he said, “It’s really easy — you’ll do four or five hours of interviews and someone else will write it in your voice and it will be great.” And I thought, “F— that!”

I come from a family of writers, and granted I’m a black sheep but I’m not that bad, my God. So I figured you know if I were to ever write a book, it would be in my hand. I’ve considered it for f—in’ years but A, I never had the time, and B, I never felt like I was ready because every day something happens that I’d love to write about, and I’d hate to write sort of a typical autobiography. So years ago I thought, “Well maybe it will just a collection of anecdotes — maybe instead of it just being my life in 300 pages it could be just funny stories.”

NAV Tops the Charts

Jason Tate

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

NAV nabs his second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as Good Intentionsstarts atop the tally. The album was released on May 8 via XO/Republic Records, and earned 135,000 equivalent album units in the week ending May 14, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Of its total starting unit sum, album sales comprise over half of that figure — 73,000, with nearly all of the sales driven by merchandise/album bundles sold via NAV’s official webstore.

Music Journalism Insider Interview With Jason Tate

Chorus.fm Logo
Jason Tate

There’s an interview with me in the latest issue of the Music Journalism Insider newsletter. You can read the full thing here. There’s a lot of talk about the early days of AbsolutePunk.net, what the website has transitioned into, and some of my thoughts on music journalism in general:

At the time, I was starting to think that it didn’t make sense for there to be like 3000 individual band pages and fan pages. There would be a New Found Glory fanpage and an MXPX fanpage and a Blink-182 fanpage. I wanted to write about all of those bands, but I didn’t want to make individual sites for every single of them. So there was a little bit of backlash from people who just wanted to see Blink-182 wallpapers or whatever. But it was the early 2000s, so it didn’t really matter that much to me—I was 18 and I was just goofing around online in my dorm room. I didn’t know that it was ever going to be an actual job.

Phoebe Bridgers Profiled in The New Yorker

Phoebe Bridgers
Jason Tate

Amanda Petrusich profiled Phoebe Bridgers for a new New Yorker piece:

But the commercials bought her enough time to write and record “Stranger in the Alps.” “I would have had to work at Starbucks full time to make the record that I made, and then I wouldn’t have had time to make it,” she said. “The fact that I was able to work five days in one year and basically gave myself my own trust fund—my rent was paid, and I could go to the studio like it was my job—gave me the freedom to explore. Which makes me think a lot of dark shit about privilege.”

The Streaming Model During a Pandemic

Money
Jason Tate

Mark Mulligan:

This model worked fine when live and merch were booming because more than three times as many monetised fans meant three times more opportunity for selling tickets and t-shirts. This of course is the ‘exposure’ argument streaming services are fond of, which works until it does not. Now that live and merch have collapsed, as the trope goes ‘exposure does not pay the rent’. The previously interconnected, interdependent model has become decoupled.

Stuart Dredge:

All of this is being driven by streaming (and particularly by paid streaming subscriptions), yet this growth is accompanied by a resurgence in unrest from the musicians whose work has made that growth possible. Many are worried that streaming royalties aren’t providing a sustainable income.

The contrast between these fears and the rosy industry figures is sharpened now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the live music industry having shut down entirely in many countries, with an anticipated hit to public performance royalties to come.

I’ve seen a lot of interesting articles popping up about how the current model for the music industry was (kinda) working … right up until live shows were removed from the equation. I’m afraid we’re going to see quite a few smaller to mid-sized bands just not return after all of this is over.

Read More “The Streaming Model During a Pandemic”

Apple Releases Big Logic Pro X Update

Apple
Jason Tate

Apple:

Logic Pro X 10.5 represents the biggest update to Logic since the launch of Logic Pro X, with powerful new tools that will inspire every artist — from those just getting started with Logic, to those already using it to produce Grammy Award-winning albums. We can’t wait to hear what these artists create next.”

Event Safety Alliance Releases Reopening Safety Guide for Venues

Jason Tate

Billboard:

So Adelman and Worek, the operations director, spent the past month crowd-sourcing more than 400 tour promoters, managers, Ticketmaster employees, caterers and Irish-fair organizers and released a 29-page guide on Monday. Given contradictory, confusing and evolving state stay-at-home restrictions — bars in Kansas are allowed to open as of May 18 at half capacity, while live concerts resume in Branson, Missouri, this coming Friday — organizers of the non-profit concert-business group decided to add expertise and clarity.

The Day the Live Concert Returns

Foo Fighters
Jason Tate

Dave Grohl, writing in The Atlantic:

In today’s world of fear and unease and social distancing, it’s hard to imagine sharing experiences like these ever again. I don’t know when it will be safe to return to singing arm in arm at the top of our lungs, hearts racing, bodies moving, souls bursting with life. But I do know that we will do it again, because we have to. It’s not a choice. We’re human. We need moments that reassure us that we are not alone. That we are understood. That we are imperfect. And, most important, that we need each other. I have shared my music, my words, my life with the people who come to our shows. And they have shared their voices with me. Without that audience—that screaming, sweating audience—my songs would only be sound. But together, we are instruments in a sonic cathedral, one that we build together night after night. And one that we will surely build again.