Facebook is adding new features to their livestream to help artists raise money during the current pandemic:
To support creators and small businesses, we plan to add the ability for Pages to charge for access to events with Live videos on Facebook – anything from online performances to classes to professional conferences.
But the pandemic and its impact on the music community aren’t over, so on May 1, June 5, and July 3 (the first Friday of each month), we’re waiving our revenue share for all sales on Bandcamp, from midnight to midnight PDT on each day
Hayley Williams talked with Billboard about releasing and promoting an album during a pandemic:
“We wanted to approach this differently from anything Paramore had done,” says Mercado. “The truth is, the material necessitated it.” While the band has long released its music through Warner Music Group-owned punk label Fueled By Ramen, Williams set Petals For Armor apart by releasing it on Warner’s Atlantic Records, where chairman/COO Julie Greenwald assembled an entirely new, nearly all-female team for the project. “When it’s a new set of eyes, it’s all fresh thinking,” Greenwald says. “Every part of this campaign is reading, ‘I am Hayley Williams.’”
The gradual rollout has also allowed the team flexibility at a time when that’s proven especially crucial. Amid the pandemic, Williams was able to make the last-minute decision to release the Part II tracks piecemeal instead of all at once, offering fans in lockdown something new to look forward to every week. With each song, she has released treats like behind-the-scenes clips, Instagram dance tutorials and cinematic music videos, several of which build on a storyline in which Williams enters and escapes an insect-like chrysalis.
DaBaby has the number one album in the country:
DaBaby collects his second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as Blame It on Baby bows atop the tally. The set, which was released on April 17 via SouthCoast/Interscope Records, earned 124,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending April 23, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
The rapper previously led the list with his last album, Kirk, which launched at No. 1 with 146,000 units (Oct. 12, 2019-dated chart).
Megan Rose Dickey, writing at TechCrunch:
“It is unclear how long this economic uncertainty will last and therefore, to prepare accordingly, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with 13% of Patreon’s workforce,” a Patreon spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch. “This decision was not made lightly and consisted of several other factors beyond the financial ones.”
Ashley Carman, writing at The Verge:
Kickstarter announced in an internal memo today that it’s likely going to lay off employees. CEO Aziz Hasan writes that the crowdfunding company has already seen a significant drop in crowdfunding projects being listed on the site, which is how Kickstarter makes its money. Projects are down by about 35 percent, the memo states, with “no clear sign of rebound.
Bert from The Used talked with Alt Press about their upcoming album:
We make music because we love to write songs. It’s not only fun for us, but we’ve been doing it for so long, we feel like we’re pretty good at it. Then we get to have even more fun taking it out on the road and seeing how the songs translate live. All of the other stuff can be a distraction and get in the way. But we’re not a brand-new band, so we get to avoid all the perils and traps of social media because we already have an established place in the music industry. It’s nice [that] we don’t really have to concern ourselves with so much of the horribly depressing parts of what’s really special. Good music will always shine through all of the horrible things that surround the music industry. Punk rock has always been for those who take a chance. Punk rock is meant to be the alternative to what is popular. I think everybody should take their lives back and quit billionaire social media programs. But that’s just me.
Scott Sellers shared a video of him working on a new song on Facebook.
Hawthorne Heights have launched a new letter club.
Join us on an adventure like we have never offered before. Let us correspond with one another, as if cell phones didn’t exist. Let us scribble our hearts onto pages, and send them across the world to each other.
Pete Wentz talked with NME about life in quarantine:
I have a space in my head that’s always been more of an album. I have a concept for it, I have a lot of time on my hands and I kinda want to do it. Are we going to be in our houses for another six months? If we are, there’s going to be an album. I also have one other song I want to do with Cheap Cuts. Sonically, it’s an expansion on ‘Check Your Phone’ but thematically it’s about that first five minutes in the morning when you wake up and you’re in that post-dream state.
The Weeknd still has the number one album in the country:
The Weeknd makes it a full month at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, as his After Hours album holds atop the tally for a fourth straight week. It has refused to budge from the top spot since its debut at No. 1 a month ago. It’s the first album to notch four consecutive weeks at No. 1 since Drake’s Scorpion spent its first five weeks at No. 1 in 2018 (July 13-Aug. 11).
Hawthorne Heights have released a quarantine bundle that includes lounge pants and a face mask.
Silverstein have added a puzzle and face mask to their store.
Plex have updated their music player app:
Applications should have a raison d’être. For Plexamp v3, it came down to: play music fast, don’t stop.
I’m all in on Apple Music, but still use Plex for my video library; however, I am always interested in what else is going on in the music player space.
Over 20 artists are coming together this Thursday, April 23rd, to cover the Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These.”
The cover of Foo Fighters’ Times Like These, using “phones, pots, pans and acoustic guitars”, according to producer Fraser T Smith, features artists spanning pop, rock, rap, soul, dancehall and R&B, including Dua Lipa, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Rita Ora and Ellie Goulding.
It will be released as a single, with profits from UK streams and downloads going to Children in Need and Comic Relief to help British people affected by the coronavirus crisis. Profits from international listeners will go to the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Read More “Various Artists to Cover “Times Like These” for Charity”