Melinda Newman, writing for Billboard:
Grammy album of the year nominee Lorde, Kacey Musgraves, Bleachers, Shamir, Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner of The National and Britt Daniel and Alex Fischel of Spoon have all signed on for The Ally Coalition’s 4th annual Talent Show, to take place Jan. 24 at New York’s Town Hall.
Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff will curate the Grammy week event, which will also feature comedians Aparna Nancherla and Phoebe Robinson, with more artists to be named.
The Spotlight team at The Boston Globe have posted the first part in a series on racism in Boston:
Google the phrase “Most racist city,” and Boston pops up more than any other place, time and time again.
It may be easy to write that off as a meaningless digital snapshot of what people say about us, and what we say about ourselves — proof of little beyond the dated (or, hopefully, outdated) memories of Boston’s public and fierce school desegregation battles of the 1970s.
Except that Boston’s reputation problem goes much deeper than an online search. A national survey commissioned by the Globe this fall found that among eight major cities, black people ranked Boston as least welcoming to people of color. More than half — 54 percent — rated Boston as unwelcoming.
I’d call this a must read.
SoundCloud have released their 2017 year-end data:
We’ve amped up this year’s list for a total of 17 categories that touch every corner of the SoundCloud ecosystem, from hip-hop, pop, dance and rock, to what’s new, now and next in music culture. This year’s list celebrates the diverse creativity on the platform and within our community–everything from the buzziest tags in 2017 like ChillHop and Vaporwave, to the year’s most creative cities (welcome to the list Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Seoul!).
The documents, which were reviewed by The Times, indicate that E.P.A. enforcement officers across the country no longer have the authority to order certain air and water pollution tests, known as requests for information, without receiving permission from Washington. The tests are essential to building a case against polluters, the equivalent of the radar gun for state highway troopers.
One of my favorite YouTube channels, Every Frame a Painting, has decided to call it a day. The two creators have shared a postmortem on Medium that’s full of some advice and a look behind-the-scenes at what went into making the videos:
Every Frame a Painting is officially dead. Nothing sinister; we just decided to end it, rather than keep on making stuff.
The existing videos will, of course, remain online. But there won’t be any new ones.
The following is the script for what was supposed to be the final episode, voiced by both Taylor and myself. We were never able to make it. But we think it may be useful to some of you making your own work on the Internet, so we’re publishing it here.
“We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple,” Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS. Today, it’s used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, across multiple platforms.”
I like this move for Apple as there’s lots of places Shazam’s technology can be used across their platform.
Jon Brodkin, writing at Ars Technica:
Because advertised prices often don’t reflect the full cost of service, the Federal Communications Commission in 2015 forced ISPs to be more transparent with customers about hidden fees and the consequences of exceeding data caps. The new requirements were part of the net neutrality rules—and are therefore going to be eliminated when the FCC votes to repeal the rules next week.
While FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is proposing to keep some of the commission’s existing disclosure rules and to impose some new disclosure requirements, ISPs won’t have to tell consumers exactly what everything will cost when they sign up for service.
Sigh.
Brian Fallon recently at down with Upset Magazine to talk about his new album:
Due for release in February, Sleepwalkers was recorded over the summer of 2017 with ’59 Sound producer Tedd Hutt. Despite the familiar faces, Fallon is still trying to push the way he writes songs in new directions. “I had these handclaps loops like drum loops. So I would start out with that kind of shuffle and look at it through the eyes of the punk rock that I grew up on and then add the Vox Continental [organ], writing riffs on that and almost using that riff as a loop, which I’ve never done before.”
“The record flipped a little bit from the more folk-oriented thing on Painkillers to a more R&B, punk-leaning thing. It’s such a drastic shift that you’ve got to get some different people and some new blood sometimes to do that because it requires a different finesse and a different perspective.”
Spoiler: I’m a fan, I think it’s a nice, confident step up from Painkillers.
Lucas Shaw, writing at Bloomberg:
YouTube plans to introduce a paid music service in March, according to people familiar with the matter, a third attempt by parent company Alphabet Inc. to catch up with rivals Spotify and Apple Inc.
The new service could help appease record-industry executives who have pushed for more revenue from YouTube. Warner Music Group, one of the world’s three major record labels, has already signed on, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private talks. YouTube is also in talks with the two others, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, and Merlin, a consortium of independent labels, the people said.
YouTube is already the de facto music service for a pretty large number of people. Can you get them to start paying for their music consumption? Seems like it’s not a new service those people are looking for, they like browsing and listening to music on YouTube.
According to a profile in Architectural Digest, Nate Ruess is currently writing a Broadway musical:
Ruess, who is currently writing a Broadway musical, frames the success of the project in terms of the apartment’s mood rather than the individual elements that create it. “The loft is civilized and comfortable. It’s not about a flashy moment or a photo op. It’s about real life—our life,” he says. Ronson adds, “Nothing feels overly modern or heavily traditional. The look is simply classic.”
Also, the basis of the article, his family’s home, is a pretty incredible sight.
Matt Melis, writing at Consequence of Sound:
There’s a glaring, Brand New-size hole in our year-end coverage. Many of you have noticed it. Indeed, anyone who has followed our take on the musical narrative of 2017 can tell a significant plot point has been torn out. Over the past several months, we’ve delved into the Long Island rock band’s legacy, celebrated their return on the suddenly dropped Science Fiction, and praised the band for their commitment to going out on their own terms. Hell, until allegations of sexual misconduct were brought by multiple women against frontman Jesse Lacey in early November, Brand New were set to place high on both our year-end albums and songs lists and even appeared on our shortlist for Band of the Year. None of which, given our coverage of the band, should surprise you, and all of which, despite allegations against Lacey, might disappoint, if not outright anger, some of you.
I thought this article, and the conversation within, does a good job of distilling where I’m at right now as well. The band won’t be on my end of the year list and a statement about why will be. The main reason is that I want two things at this point: To not use my platform and voice to promote this kind of behavior (the accusations themselves and the subsequent silence while women were harassed), and to make sure that this history is part of the band’s legacy as well. It can’t just be swept away and forgotten.
This passage in particular left me with a lot to think about as well:
Geffen believes it’s a personal choice to stop listening to a band’s music, but she doubts the legitimacy and value of separating music from its creators. “I don’t think artists and music are necessarily separate; it’s on a continuum. A huge part of the music economy in this country comes from live shows. It’s the physical presence of these artists,” explains Geffen. “If they can’t be given a stage or platform without abusing that power, they shouldn’t get to play. It seems pretty simple to me. Playing shows is part of the art, part of the story of the artist, so I don’t see what’s useful about drawing a line.”
Pandora have released a playlist of the top 100 songs from 2017.
Instagram will now allow you to automatically save your “Stories” in an archive that only you can see. Casey Newton, explains at The Verge:
Instagram is rolling out a private archive of the ephemeral stories you have posted in the app. Starting today, Instagram will begin to add your expired stories to the archive feature, which until now has been used only to house photos and videos you no longer want to display on your public profile. The stories archive, which you will be able to opt out of, is being introduced globally on Android and iOS.
I like this so I don’t have keep my old stories on my phone, which I was doing because they do tell a nice little, um, story about whatever I was doing that day. Usually involving beer and the cats. Nice update.
Jon Christian, writing for The Outline:
People involved with the payoffs are extremely reluctant to discuss them, but four contributing writers to prominent publications including Mashable, Inc, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur told me they have personally accepted payments in exchange for weaving promotional references to brands into their work on those sites.
And:
An unpaid contributor to the Huffington Post, also speaking on condition of anonymity because, in his words, “I would be pretty fucked if my name got out there,” said that he has included sponsored references to brands in his articles for years, in articles on the Huffington Post and other sites, on behalf of six separate agencies. Some agencies pay him directly, he said, in amounts that can be as small as $50 or $175, but others pay him through an employee’s personal PayPal account in order to obfuscate the source of the funds.
Amazon Prime Video is now available on the Apple TV. MacStories writes:
The timing of Prime Video’s release coincides with Apple’s release of tvOS 11.2 earlier this week, which adds a new Sports tab to the TV app. This enables tracking and watching games from various sports, and is a perfect complement to Prime Video’s release due to Amazon being the rights holder for Thursday Night Football games. Starting tomorrow night, users will be able to watch NFL games using the TV app and Prime Video.
I’ll take this moment to plug The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is fantastic.
