The Verge has a pretty good roundup of the Apple announcements today:
After a busy fall announcement season, Apple has unveiled what’s expected to be the last of its hardware refreshes this year with the introduction of a new iPad Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini. All new devices are available for preorder today with a ship date of November 7th. Here’s a look at them all.
That new iPad sure looks great.
The A Star is Born soundtrack is still the top selling album in the country:
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born soundtrack holds steady at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a third week, earning 109,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Oct. 25 (down 24 percent) according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 61,000 were in traditional album sales (down 30 percent).
Allie X has released the new single “Girl of the Year.”
Dami Lee, writing for The Verge:
Facebook is rolling out more music features today, bringing more ways to integrate its licensing partnership with all three major labels into Stories, user profiles, and its Lip Sync Live feature.
Starting today, users will be able to add music stickers to their Facebook Stories. You can search for songs, pick out the part you want to share, and add the sticker with the artist and song name. It works exactly the same way as it does on Instagram Stories, which introduced the feature in June.
A few months ago, we unveiled a beta feature in the Spotify for Artists tool that gives artists, labels, and teams the ability to share new music directly with our editorial team for playlist consideration. Since the feature became available in July more than 67,000 artists and labels have submitted music and now we’re excited to announce our playlist submission feature is officially out of beta.
Two years ago, Kickstarter acquired Drip, an indie musician crowdfunding platform, on the eve of the service’s untimely demise. After relaunching Drip last year, Kickstarter is again reinventing the Patreon-like artist platform.
We the Kings will release a holiday album called Season’s Greetings From The Sandbar on November 16th. Pre-orders are now up.
The A Star is Born soundtrack is once again the top album in the country:
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born soundtrack spends a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as the set earned 143,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Oct. 18, according to Nielsen Music (down 38 percent compared to its opening frame a week ago). Of the latest tracking week’s unit sum, 86,000 were in album sales — down 47 percent.
The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law.
I am constantly left speechless by just how cruel and fucked-up this administration is. If you’re feeling helpless, you can donate to the Trans Lifeline if you’re able, and this thread from Parker Molloy is a good read.
Alkaline Trio’s latest album, Is This Thing Cursed?, is now available on vinyl.
Avril Lavigne sat down to talk with Billboard:
After cranking her cover of favorite Nickelback song “How You Remind Me,” Lavigne searches YouTube for her and Whibley’s performance of Sum 41’s “In Too Deep.” “What a great song, right?” asks Lavigne. (I have to admit, it is.) She joins her 23-year-old self in harmonizing: “’Cause I’m in too deep, and I’m trying to keep/Up above in my head, instead of going under.”
Mike Duffy, writing at Fender:
The research found that the guitar players of today are more diverse than ever before. Women continue to define the emerging guitar market, accounting for 50 percent of all beginner and aspirational players – begging the question, is the future of guitar female? The growing diversity of players expands beyond gender, as well. Both African-American and Hispanic consumers now represent a significant and growing share of new players: African-Americans account for 19 percent of aspirational players, while Latin players make up 25 percent of beginners.
Nick Corasaniti, writing at The New York Times:
Since it opened in 1974, the club, the Stone Pony, has been the beating heart of Asbury Park, a beacon for musicians and fans alike. But its survival, much like that of its host city, has been a constant battle, a story of resilience and revival, of sold-out shows and shuttered windows.
Here is the renowned club’s history, as told by the owners, musicians, staff and fans who have called its dark black interior and low-slung stage home.
Robert Crawford, writing for Rolling Stone:
“Forty years ago, us three teenagers started a little band to play a musical style that had long since passed and most folks had never heard of,” Setzer says in a statement. “Forty years later, we stand together and still get that same thrill and exhilaration from the music. That feeling is what makes the fireworks go off and the sparks fly. It makes the world go around.”
The A Star is Born soundtrack is the number one album in the country:
The set, which was released via Interscope Records on Oct. 5, starts with 231,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Oct. 11, according to Nielsen Music — the biggest week for a soundtrack in more than three-and-a-half years. Of Star’s overall starting sum, 162,000 were in album sales.
Twenty One Pilots came in second:
The set starts with 175,000 units, of which 135,000 are in album sales — the act’s biggest sales week ever (stepping past its previous high, logged when Blurryface sold 134,000 in its first week back in 2015).