Blink-182 Achieves Its Highest Alternative Songs Debut

Mark Hoppus

Kevin Rutherford, writing for Billboard, points out that Blink-182 just had their highest alternative song debut ever with “Bored to Death.”

All three chart positions mark the highest debuts on each tally in the band’s two-decade career. On Alternative Songs (the only chart of the three that predates Blink-182’s first album, Cheshire Cat, in 1995), the No. 18 opening of “Bored” bests the band’s previous top entrances of No. 25 logged by “First Date” in 2002 and “Up All Night” in 2011. (Those songs went on to peak at Nos. 6 and 3, respectively.)

Don’t Knock CGI: It’s Everywhere, You Just Don’t Notice It

Film

Andrew Whitehurst, writing for The Guardian:

The anti-CGI backlash, which is really a reaction against poorly conceived CGI, rather than the form itself, stems from such overuse and misapplication. No one complains about the mountain of well-planned and well-executed CGI, because no one’s attention was drawn to the fact that it was CGI in the first place. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the studios’ publicists are now frequently keen to emphasise how much of a film was shot “for real”, and play down the use of CGI on a production. A cursory glance through the credits of the film will tell you how true those claims are.

How Much Music Fits on an LP Side?

I saw this question posed in our forums and found a really good answer from the mastering engineer Scott Hull:

It’s a simple question with a complex answer. Many websites publish charts explaining how much music fits on one side of a vinyl record. The main purpose of those guidelines is to make it easy for the cutting engineer to do his job. But do you want to have an average record or an extraordinary one? Ah, I thought so. You need to read on.

Apple Music Connect Expected to be Demoted in iOS 10

Mark Gurman, writing for 9to5Mac, on how Apple Music’s Connect is expected to be “demoted” in iOS 10:

In the iOS 10 Apple Music redesign, the Connect feature will follow Ping’s lead and will be demoted. Apple Music Connect currently exists as its own tab across the Apple Music interface, but multiple sources say that the feature will lose its tab and become integrated into the “For You” recommendations page. Connect will still exist within applicable artist pages as it does today, but its demotion from the set of Apple Music tabs indicates that the feature has not lived up to Apple’s expectations from last year. Along with the demotion, Connect is unlikely to see notable new features this year.

Streaming Now Warner Music’s Biggest Business

Peter Kafka, writing for Recode, on how streaming music has now become Warner Music’s biggest business:

The company announced that money from services like Spotify and Apple Music was the single biggest source of recorded music revenue in the first quarter of the year, surpassing both physical sales and sales of digital downloads. That’s the first time any of the big music labels has hit that inflection point.

Warner’s streaming music revenue increased $72 million for the quarter — more than half of which came from sales outside the U.S. — while downloads declined by $17 million and physical revenue dropped by $6 million. Warner’s recorded music sales increased by 10 percent overall, and the company’s total revenue also increased 10 percent.

Apple Music Gets Student Membership

Apple Music have announced a new student membership option that discounts the service by 50%.

That means in the U.S., where an individual membership to Apple Music costs $9.99 per month, the student membership will be $4.99 per month instead.

The option isn’t just arriving in the U.S., though. Students in other countries, including the U.K., Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, will also be able to take advantage of the new membership option.

The Shift of TV

@WorldOfStu: Ally McBeal was cancelled for having 9.4 million viewers. It would currently be in the top 10 with those numbers. In 2002 it was #65.

The Ultimate Jimmy Eat World Setlist

For this week’s playlist I’m putting together what I call “The Ultimate Setlist.” This is a concept that my friend Mike came up with back when people still made mix CDs. The idea is to give someone a starting place in a band’s discography, basically a jumping off point to the artist’s best songs and biggest hits. The rules are fairly simple: arrange the playlist in such a way that emulates the perfect setlist for the band, and make sure that the playlist comes in under 80 minutes (that was the length for CD-Rs — remember those, from another life?). This week, I’m jumping in with Jimmy Eat World and you can find my picks on Apple Music and Spotify.

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