Gerard Way Blogs About 2017 Plans

Gerard Way
Jason Tate

Gerard Way has posted an update on his website for his plans in 2017. It looks like we’ll be getting some new music along with all the other creative shit Gerard always thinks up:

Music—I’ll start with my music. I am always writing music, I am very lucky that way—there is always an idea and something that inspires me, even if it takes me a minute to figure out what I want to say, which is what really creates the space between releases. I am about to convert a structure on our property into a recording studio, which actually won’t take a lot of work as the space is already pretty perfect. Great drums sounds and church ceilings. Secret echo chambers. I look forward to making some really weird stuff here, and mine for the really hard to get diamonds.

Terrence Malik to Release ‘Song to Song’ in March

Jason Tate

Terrence Malik’s new film, Song to Song, will be released in March of 2017:

In this modern love story set against the Austin, Texas music scene, two entangled couples — struggling songwriters Faye (Rooney Mara) and BV (Ryan Gosling), and music mogul Cook (Michael Fassbender) and the waitress whom he ensnares (Natalie Portman) — chase success through a rock ‘n’ roll landscape of seduction and betrayal.

Ok, I’m in.

Subscription Streaming Grew in 2016

Headphones
Jason Tate

BuzzAngle have released their annual report that tracks U.S. music consumption:

The continued explosion of audio stream consumption, which increased 82.6% to 250B streams, fueled this increase. Both album sales and song sales continued to decline but the transition to these new access methods has shown to provide overall growth and a sustainable business model for the future. Breaking down the tremendous streaming growth shows what is perhaps the most important stat of the year: the percentage of subscription streams rose from 62% of the total in 2015 to 76% of the total in 2016. The number of 2016 subscription streams grew over 2.25x the 2015 subscription streams amount.

I’m not sure I agree with the premise that this proves streaming is a “sustainable business model for the future,” but the trend lines are in the right direction and I think more artists and labels are figuring out how to use the streaming services to their benefit.