How Pandora Won Its Royalty Battle But Lost the War to Spotify

Pandora

 Tyler Hayes, writing for Vice:

For a few years in the late 2000s, Pandora was the on-demand DJ for tens of millions of people, creating the soundtrack to college dorm room parties, quiet coffee shops, busy kitchens, and family get-togethers. The days of building massive MP3 music collections through file-sharing was receding quickly into the past, and instead the shared experience of radio was making a comeback via the clever algorithmic matchmaking of Pandora’s endlessly customizable stations based on individual taste. Today it’s a feature we take for granted across every music service, even if Pandora’s implementation still seems like it was the best. Pandora itself, however, can feel like an afterthought. Betamax to Spotify’s VHS, or maybe more accurately, MySpace to on-demand streaming’s Facebook.

Turntable.fm Is Back From the Dead

Mitchell Clark, writing at The Verge:

It’s rare that apps come back from the dead, but it seems like that may be what’s happening with Turntable.fm, a site that let users create their own radio stations and DJ sets with music they curated before it got shuttered in 2013. Even rarer, it seems like there are two versions involved in the revival: the original Turntable.fm site is back up and running (with the involvement of its original founder, Billy Chasen), but there’s also Turntable.org, which will reportedly be launching in beta this April.

‘Party Down’ Revival In The Works At Starz

Film

Deadline:

Party Down, the comedy about a group of caterers looking to break big in Hollywood, is the latest series to get a revival.

A new version of the comedy is in the works at Starz with the original quartet of creatives, Rob Thomas, John Enbom, Paul Rudd and Dan Etheridge developing the project.

The original series ran on Starz for two seasons between 2009 and 2010 and starred Ken Marino, Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen, Lizzy Caplan and Megan Mullally.

It’s not clear whether all of the cast will return to the revival, particularly given the fact that one of the reasons it ended was many of its stars such as Lynch, with Glee, and Scott, with Parks and Recreation, went on to star in bigger shows.

After the last season of Veronica Mars and Arrested Development, I am very cautious about revivals.

SoundCloud Debuts New Payout Model

Soundcloud

SoundCloud:

Fan-powered royalties are a more equitable and transparent way for independent artists who monetize directly with SoundCloud to get paid. The more fans listen on SoundCloud, and listen to your music, the more you get paid.

Under the old model, money from your dedicated fans goes into a giant pool that’s paid out to artists based on their share of total streams. That model mostly benefits mega stars.

Under fan-powered royalties, you get paid based on your fans’ actual listening habits. The more of their time your dedicated fans listen to your music, the more you get paid. This model benefits independent artists.

More Details of Bruce Springsteen’s DWI Emerge

Bruce Springsteen

The NY Post is reporting Bruce Springsteen was arrested for a DWI due to taking one shot of tequila:

The “Born to Run” icon, 71, had been riding his motorcycle on the peninsula on Nov. 14 when he “was spotted by fans who asked him to pull over and take some pictures,” according to a source close to Springsteen. 

“Bruce stopped, took the pictures, then a fan offered him a shot of liquor, which he took, while sitting on his bike, which was stationary,” the source said.

“Park Police saw what happened and they immediately pulled Springsteen over as he drove away.”

Springsteen was charged with DWI, reckless driving and consuming alcohol in a closed area, a spokesperson for the National Park Service said.

The Asbury Park Press reported Springsteen’s blood-alcohol content was 0.02 — just a quarter of New Jersey’s legal limit — when he was arrested. 

‘Powerpuff Girls’ Live-Action Series Among CW Pilot Orders

Variety:

The “Powerpuff Girls” live-action series was first announced as being in development back in August. Based on the Cartoon Network series created by Craig McCracken, the new series sees the pint-sized superheroes as disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting. Will they agree to reunite now that the world needs them more than ever?

The project hails from writers and executive producers Heather Regnier and Diablo Cody, with Cody executive producing via Vita Vera Films. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and David Madden will executive produce via Berlanti Productions. Erika Kennair will produce. Warner Bros. Television will produce.

Hayley Williams Interview With American Songwriter

Hayley Williams

Hayley Williams talked with American Songwriter about her latest album:

For all the beauty she’s uncovered, Williams holds herself accountable, especially in her darkest, most harrowing moments—emotionally and physically. “Good Grief” plays upon far more than her psychological state, digging into the very real, often frightening, physiological effects of grief that we often ignore. There’s no such thing as good grief / Haven’t eaten in three weeks, she sings. Skin and bones when you’re not near me / I’m all skeleton and melody.

In its countless forms, grief can wreak havoc on the body, from an inability to get out of bed to forgetting to eat, and Williams’ awareness of her own cycles has been illuminating. “It’s hard for me to have perspective on my own grief when I’m going through it. I’m so thankful I’ve been home and that I have a family that’s honest,” she says. “My mom calls me out on things with love. It’s the same with my small circle of friends. We’re honest with each other. We tell each other when we notice somebody’s slipping.

“I wouldn’t go as far to say I have an eating disorder. When I’m really sad, I’m not hungry. It’s amazing what depression or various forms of grief can do to a person. You do forget how physical it is. When I’m talking about mental wellness, you have to look for physical signs, too,” she continues. “Your body is usually such a wise instrument. It’s so technical, and it can tell you things and reveal things to you. When I’m disconnected from my physical body, that’s when I’m not connected mentally either.”

This will apparently be the last interview she does for this album cycle, for now.

Read More “Hayley Williams Interview With American Songwriter”

Country Radio Quickly Removing Morgan Wallen From Playlists After Racial Slur

Morgan Wallen, who has had the number one album in the country the past few weeks, is being removed from country radio and various high-profile playlists after using a racial slur over the weekend.

Said one figure in country radio who did not want to comment for attribution: “Morgan Wallen appears in virtually every half-hour of music across 4000 stations across America right now. How’d you like to get that message at midnight, that you have to take him out of the music blocks you already set up for Wednesday? If anybody has other songs they’ve been wanting to hear in the morning, they may get to hear them tomorrow.”

DSPs also appeared to be taking action. As of late Tuesday night, Wallen, who has been called the biggest out-of-the-box streaming success in country music history, did not appear anywhere among the dozens of photos or track listings or playlists on the home page of Apple Music Country, where observers said he had been featured earlier in the day. And his songs were no longer anywhere to be seen in Spotify’s list of 50 top Hot Country songs.

New Spotify Patent Involves Monitoring Users’ Speech to Recommend Music

Pitchfork:

Spotify has been granted a patent with technology that aims to use recordings of users’ speech and background noise to determine what kind of music to curate and recommend to them, Music Business Worldwide reports. The company filed for the patent in 2018; it was approved on January 12, 2021.

The patent outlines potential uses of technology that involves the extraction of “intonation, stress, rhythm, and the likes of units of speech” from the user’s voice. The tech could also use speech recognition to identify metadata points such as emotional state, gender, age, accent, and even environment—i.e., whether someone is alone, or with other people—based on audio recording.

I’m good, thanks.

Bandcamp Expands Vinyl Pressing Service

Bandcamp

Bandcamp:

In 2019, we began rolling out the Bandcamp Vinyl Pressing Service to a small group of pilot artists. The service eliminates risk, since your fans’ orders—not you—finance the pressing. It eliminates hassle, since we coordinate production, ship the records to fans, fulfill digital, and handle customer support. It offers complete control, with the design and pricing up to you, and Bandcamp taking no ownership of the record. It maximizes your odds of success since we automatically notify your followers when you launch a campaign and they can easily use their saved credit card and shipping info. And most importantly, it works: Over the course of 50 successful pilot projects, we fine-tuned both the product and our production and fulfillment operations, and shipped 13,000 records to happy fans in 65 countries.

We’re now ready to offer vinyl pressing to the wider Bandcamp community and have just enabled and sent invites to 10,000 of you.

Ticketmaster Will Pay $10 Million for Hacking Rival Ticket Seller

Ticketmaster

The Verge:

Ticketmaster has agreed to pay $10 million for breaking into a competitors’ network. The company and its parent Live Nation admitted to hiring a former employee from rival ticket seller CrowdSurge, then using his knowledge — including old usernames and passwords — to learn CrowdSurge’s inner workings and “cut [the company] off at the knees.”

“Ticketmaster employees repeatedly — and illegally — accessed a competitor’s computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect business intelligence,” said acting US attorney Seth DuCharme. “Further, Ticketmaster’s employees brazenly held a division-wide ‘summit’ at which the stolen passwords were used to access the victim company’s computers.”

FKA Twigs Sues Shia LaBeouf

The New York Times

The New York Times:

The gas station incident is at the heart of the lawsuit that says Mr. LaBeouf, 34, abused FKA twigs physically, emotionally and mentally many times in a relationship that lasted just short of a year. Her aim in coming forward, she said in an interview, was to explain how even a critically acclaimed artist with money, a home and a strong network of supporters could be caught in such a cycle.

“I’d like to be able to raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency,” FKA twigs, 32, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, said.

Pale Waves Talk New Album

Pale Waves

Pale Waves talked with Alt. Press about their new album:

I feel like this album is childhood for me. It’s the music that I grew up with. And I didn’t want to do another record that was really ’80s-inspired synth-pop music. I was done with that. I was over it. And I wanted to move on. And this is what I know best. This is what I’ve only ever known. And now this is the core of me. This is what founded my love for music and from the earliest days. So it’s the easiest kind of music for me to write. And of course, Avril is a massive inspiration. There’s no denying that she was my childhood hero. 

Inside YouTube’s Plan to Win the Music-Streaming Wars

YouTube

David Pierce, writing for Protocol:

One easy knock on music-streaming services is that they’re all the same. Their libraries may differ slightly at the margins, but they all have about the same 60 million or so songs in their catalog. And Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” sounds pretty much the same anywhere you play it.

Except on YouTube. There you can watch the original version, but also the Carpool Karaoke version, a duet Carey did with Justin Bieber, the scene from “Love Actually” that features the song, and countless live performances, covers and remixes. Want to learn a dance to the song in time for this year’s holidays? Want to learn to play the song on the guitar or piano? Want to hear a smash-cut version of President Trump singing the song? Want to know how that song got to be so irritatingly ubiquitous? That’s all on the first page of the YouTube search results. YouTube has a corpus of unique music content that none of its rivals can touch.

Musicians on Musicians: Phoebe Bridgers & Lars Ulrich

Phoebe Bridgers and Metallica’s Lars Ulrich interviewed each other over at Rolling Stone:

It was the strangest fucking summer. Because I was most on the front lines, it left me kind of shell-shocked. It really started more as a street fight. It was like, “Wait a minute, one of our songs is playing on a bunch of radio stations in the Midwest?” It was a song we hadn’t released yet. So we started tracing it back, and it was like, “Napster, what the fuck?” The environment we were brought up in was if somebody fucked with you, we’d just go after them. And then all of a sudden the lights came on, the whole world was watching.

It left certainly a pretty crazy taste in my mouth, especially because everybody was my friend: “You’re doing such a great job. We support you. What can I do to help you? Call me.” And then, as soon as I was out there and I looked behind, there was not a single person behind me. Obviously, I had the support of the band, but it was really weird.