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Spotify’s Half-Priced Student Pricing Expands Worldwide

Jason Tate

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

The company announced today that its roughly half-priced version of its Premium service is now available to students who qualify in 33 new countries, in addition to the U.S., U.K., and Germany where student pricing is already offered.

The new countries where student pricing is now available includes: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey.

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Rise Against Announce New Album

Rise Against
Jason Tate

Rise Against will release their new album, Wolves, on June 9th. They’ve released the first single “The Violence” today. Tim McIlrath describes the album as such:

In many ways, a Rise Against show is a safe space for our fans, but I realised that I don’t only want to create safe spaces, I want to create dangerous spaces where misogyny can’t exist, where xenophobia can’t exist.

I want to create spaces where those sentiments don’t have any air, and they suffocate: where those ideas die. ‘Wolves’ isn’t about creating a safe space, it’s about creating a space that’s dangerous for injustice.

Pre-orders are now up.

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Steve Ballmer Unveils USAFacts

Jason Tate

Steve Ballmer has unveiled USAFacts. Here’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, writing for The New York Times:

On Tuesday, Mr. Ballmer plans to make public a database and a report that he and a small army of economists, professors and other professionals have been assembling as part of a stealth start-up over the last three years called USAFacts. The database is perhaps the first nonpartisan effort to create a fully integrated look at revenue and spending across federal, state and local governments.

Want to know how many police officers are employed in various parts of the country and compare that against crime rates? Want to know how much revenue is brought in from parking tickets and the cost to collect? Want to know what percentage of Americans suffer from diagnosed depression and how much the government spends on it? That’s in there. You can slice the numbers in all sorts of ways.

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Streetlight Manifesto and Victory Records Settle Lawsuit

Victory Records
Jason Tate

Streetlight Manifesto and Victory Records have ended their lawsuit. They released a joint statement:

Victory Records and Streetlight Manifesto have amicably settled the litigation filed by Victory in the U.S. District Court in Illinois. After a long and successful run, the parties agreed that it was in their mutual best interests to end the 15 year relationship. As part of the settlement, Victory agreed to sell Streetlight Manifesto all of their master recordings for an undisclosed sum resolving claims that were asserted in the lawsuit. No further comment will be made by either party.

Harry Styles Comments on Young Music Fans

Harry Styles
Jason Tate

Harry Styles dropped this quote in a recent interview with Rolling Stone when asked about his fan base:

Asked if he spends pressure-filled evenings worried about proving credibility to an older crowd, Styles grows animated. “Who’s to say that young girls who like pop music—short for popular, right?—have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That’s not up to you to say. Music is something that’s always changing. There’s no goal posts. Young girls like the Beatles. You gonna tell me they’re not serious? How can you say young girls don’t get it? They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans—they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act ‘too cool.’ They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick.

All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth tweeted his agreement.

When I was younger I was way too self-concious about the kind of music I liked and told my friends I liked. I was constantly afraid of being made fun of or called names. I felt judged if my pop-punk bands were too “pop,” so god forbid I tell anyone I liked Madonna or The Bangles. It’s great to see more artists speaking out about this, because we have to break this stigma that if young women like a band that’s somehow worthy of criticism.

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