Ed Sheeran has the number one album in the country this week:
No. 6 earned 78,000 equivalent album units in the week ending July 25 in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. That’s down 55% compared to its debut of 173,000 units.
The Dirty Nil have dropped the third installment in a series of cover sets, You’re Welcome III, on all streaming platforms today.
Fall Out Boy now have some official merch on Amazon.
Dami Lee, writing at The Verge:
Etsy, the e-commerce platform for handmade goods, is acquiring music gear marketplace Reverb for $275 million in cash. The site, which sells new, used, and vintage musical instruments and accessories, will continue to operate as a standalone business.
On March 10, 2009, a case was filed in the U.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois, where I grew up. Rothstein v. American Airlines, Inc. starred my father, Plaintiff Steven Rothstein, and the Defendant, then the world’s third-largest airline. With $23 billion in annual revenue, American Airlines had nothing to lose. For my father, it was a last-ditch effort to save his life.
Here’s how it all took off. In the early 1980s, American rolled out AAirpass, a prepaid membership program that let very frequent flyers purchase discounted tickets by locking in a certain number of annual miles they presumed they might fly in advance. My 30-something-year-old father, having been a frequent flyer for his entire life, purchased one. Then, a few years later, American introduced something straight out an avid traveler’s fantasy: an unlimited ticket.
Fascinating story.
Andy Newman, writing at The New York Times:
On my first DoorDash shift, a lunch run in Brooklyn, I learned about the company’s interesting tipping policy.
DoorDash offers a guaranteed minimum for each job. For my first order, the guarantee was $6.85 and the customer, a woman in Boerum Hill who answered the door in a colorful bathrobe, tipped $3 via the app. But I still received only $6.85.
Here’s how it works: If the woman in the bathrobe had tipped zero, DoorDash would have paid me the whole $6.85. Because she tipped $3, DoorDash kicked in only $3.85. She was saving DoorDash $3, not tipping me.
Ed Sheeran has the number one album this week:
The set, which was released on July 12 via Atlantic Records, bows with 173,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending July 18, according to Nielsen Music. It marks the largest week of the year for a pop album by a male artist. Of that starting sum, 70,000 were in album sales.
The recording, which would have been legal to make without one party’s consent under both New York and Texas state laws, offers an unprecedented view into how thousands of concert tickets for major tours have been sold first on the secondary market — where resellers can mark up prices — without being offered to the public at face value. It also shows the extent to which the rise of online ticket sites has put pressure on artists and promoters to capture more of the profits resellers are making — and how Live Nation is uniquely positioned to help solve the problem, as the owner of the world’s biggest ticketing platform that even its rivals use.
Stereo Confidential’s latest podcast series is all about Hellogoodbye. I stopped by to guest on the latest episode about the classic, Would It Kill You? — all these years later I still think is the most shocking 180 turn I’ve ever done on a band in the span of one album. (Overcast link.)
Jonah Matranga has launched a Kickstarter for his new Halfway to a Hundred project.
Dreamville have the number one album in the country this week:
Revenge of the Dreamers III opens at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, earning 115,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending July 11, according to Nielsen Music.
Of that sum, 23,000 were in album sales. The multi-act 18-track hip-hop project boasts the Dreamville label’s roster of acts, including Dreamville chief J. Cole on eight songs.
The singer R. Kelly, already under indictment in Chicago on state charges of aggravated sexual assault and abuse, was arrested Thursday night by federal agents on charges related to child pornography and other federal crimes, officials said.
Mattel have announced a limited edition David Bowie Barbie doll.
