Entercom Teams Up With Musicians for Suicide Prevention Campaign

Rolling Stone

Jon Blistein, writing for Rolling Stone:

Metallica, Logic, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and pop singer Halsey are among the various musicians set to participate in a new mental health awareness and suicide prevention campaign, “I’m Listening.” The broadcast company Entercom organized the initiative, which will include a two-hour radio special airing live from Seattle on World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th, at 10 a.m. ET on all Entercom platforms. […]

Other musicians set to participate include Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos, Alice in Chains’ William DuVall, Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff, Khalid, Disturbed’s David Draiman, country star Gary Allan and Phantogram’s Sarah Barthel. Seattle-based radio DJ, BJ Shea of KISW FM, will host the show.

Apple Music Festival Ends After 10 Years

The annual Apple Music Festival will end after ten years:

However, the cancellation of the festival doesn’t signal a move away from live events by Apple Music completely.

The brand was recently a partner of shows by Haim and Skepta in London and Arcade Fire in Brooklyn and it had a heavy presence at SXSW in Texas earlier this year – where it backed shows from Lana Del Rey, Vince Staples and DJ Khaled.

In addition, Apple Music also sponsored Drake’s 32-date Summer Sixteen Tour in 2016 and it supports regular live sessions from its ‘Up Next’ artists.

The closure of the Apple Music Festival is likely because Apple is concentrating its resources on one-off events like these, in addition to its original content efforts in video – which have recently included a Carpool Karaoke spin-off series and a behind-the-scenes documentary on Harry Styles.

Kanye West to Produce New Pusha T Album

Kanye West

Complex is reporting that Pusha T’s new album will be produced by Kanye West:

Before performing “Crutches, Crosses, Caskets,” he confirmed that King Push is produced top to bottom by Kanye West.

“I had done this album like three times,” he says. “[Kanye] comes in and he picks all the beats and shit. And then, he hear the beats, and he scraps ‘em and says ‘I can do better.’”

A Serf on Google’s Farm

Google

Josh Marshall, writing at Talking Points Memo:

Now Google can say – and they are absolutely right – that every month they send checks for thousands and millions of dollars to countless publishers that make their journalism possible. And in general Google tends to be a relatively benign overlord. But as someone who a) knows the industry inside and out – down to the most nuts and bolts mechanics – b) someone who understands at least the rudiments of anti-trust law and monopoly economics and c) can write for a sizable audience, I can tell you this: Google’s monopoly control is almost comically great. It’s a monopoly at every conceivable turn and consistently uses that market power to deepen its hold and increase its profits. Just the interplay between DoubleClick and Adexchange is textbook anti-competitive practices.

Scenes From a Debacle in Phoenix

Dave Eggers, writing on Medium:

In downtown Phoenix, in the space of a few blocks, there were 15,000 Trump supporters and 10,000 anti-Trump protesters. There were Bikers for Trump and a platoon from the John Brown Gun Club, an anti-fascist group carrying loaded handguns and semiautomatic weapons. There were roving packs of weightlifters wearing pro-Trump attire. There were men in sleeveless Confederate flag jackets, and there was a giant inflated chicken made to look like Donald Trump. There was a man with a megaphone who asserted throughout the afternoon that homosexuals were going to hell, drunk drivers should die, and women who wore skirts deserved to be raped. There were anarchists, antifa, and hundreds of heavily armed police officers. This was a week after Charlottesville, the country grieving and boiling in the madness of its most irrational era, and in Arizona, it was more than 105 degrees and felt far hotter.
That no one died that day in Phoenix is miraculous.

Force Friday Toy Lineup and Details

Star Wars

Star Wars fans know today as “Force Friday.” There’s a whole bunch of new toys out, and Star Wars News has the full list:

Hasbro has been kind enough to set us up with some details and images on all of the toys, games, and retailer specific releases hitting shelves today to aid in your search for everything that is offered. We’ve of course got the new The Last Jedi figures, but also everything else you’d expect from a major Force Friday release. We’ve got Black Series releases, ForceFX sabers, board games, nerf guns, and of course…Porgs!

Lots of fans are talking about their haul in our forums. I’m definitely eying that Rey Funko POP.

Flavor Flav Sues Chuck D, Public Enemy Camp Over Profits

Legal

Althea Legaspi, writing for Rolling Stone:

In the lawsuit, Flavor Flav (real name William J. Drayton) claims that he and Chuck D (real name Carlton Ridenhour) had a long-established agreement that profits from their music, merchandise and concerts would be split between them. Despite that alleged arrangement, Flavor Flav claims that Public Enemy’s business management firm Eastlink has not been sending the earnings he is owed, which have “diminished to almost nothing, and Drayton has been refused accountings, even on the items bearing his likeness,” according to the lawsuit.

‘The Simpsons’ Composer Fired

The Simpsons

Alf Clausen, the composer for almost all of the episodes of The Simpsons, has been fired. Variety reports:

Two-time Emmy winner Alf Clausen has been fired from “The Simpsons” after 27 years of providing music for Bart, Lisa, and company.

Clausen told Variety that he received a call from “Simpsons” producer Richard Sakai that the company was seeking “a different kind of music” and that he would no longer be scoring the longtime Fox hit.

World Air Guitar Championships

Air Guitar

Jacob Pinter, writing at NPR:

Great rock guitarists need great nicknames. There’s Slash, Slowhand and The Edge.

Meet a new one: Airistotle. No, that’s not a misspelling. The nom de rock belongs to Matt Burns, a waiter and world-class competitive air guitarist living in New York City. He decided to try air-rocking almost a decade ago when he saw the documentary Air Guitar Nation.

And:

But his creative niche is air guitar. Competitors generally use the same routine for a year, then create a new one in time for the start of a new air guitar season.

Burns’ creative process involves a couple of months of listening to pop-punk songs — he grew up with Green Day and Sum 41, he says — and narrowing it down to a song he likes. Then he crystallizes his performance routines with the help of a few friends.

You can watch all of the performances here. Today is better because I learned this exists.

Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett Talk With Rolling Stone

Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about their upcoming collaborative album:

“It’s a scary process, taking a half-written song to someone,” Barnett says. “I didn’t want him to be like, ‘God, this sucks. What have I gotten myself into?'” But they hit it off immediately. “The vibes were strong,” says Vile. “We discovered we could finish things on the quick, like an outlaw country singer, or Neil Young.” Adds Barnett, “We were mucking around, eating pizza, and we had all these songs all of a sudden.”

The album, Lotta Sea Lice, will be out in October.

Kendrick Lamar Joins Nike

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar has officially left Reebok and joined Nike. GQ reports:

And while Reebok sneakers are having a moment right now, there’s no arguing that the Nike Cortez has been a bigger staple of hip-hop style, particularly in Lamar’s hometown Los Angeles. And now it looks like K.Dot has decided to leave Reebok in favor of Nike, taking to social media to post a photo of himself in a pair of Nike Cortez kicks with the caption “Cortez. Since day 1. #teamnike.”

Tesla Working on Own Streaming Service?

Tesla

Fred Lambert, writing for Electrek:

A friend of the site and Tesla tinkerer known as Green, who brought us Tesla’s new maps and navigation engine and the Autopilot debugging mode, has found a new client in Tesla’s most recent updates for the new streaming service.

It’s called ‘TTunes’, which could likely only be a placeholder name for the actual service.

Taylor Swift’s Gamification of Ticket Sales

Taylor Swift

HitsDailyDouble:

“Taylor Swift Tix,” her newly unveiled promo with Ticketmaster, requires you to register on TaylorSwift.com to put you on a wait list for tickets. You can then pre-order the album, share her pitch on social media.

You can buy the album at different retailers and get a boost each time, with a limit of 13 items to boost your chances (or spend the same amount on StubHub—not that we’re endorsing such a gambit). And if you buy a CD or a T-shirt—or multiple albums and merch—from her site, each buy ups you in the queue for tickets. But it doesn’t actually guarantee that you’ll get them.

In essence, Swift’s strategy leaves open the option for a bundle at some point closer to release date without cannibalizing her Target exclusive or iTunes now.

This entire strategy for selling tickets, and boosting album sales, is fascinating to me. The gamification of music. It’s kinda brilliant.

Why Indie Bands Go Major Label in the Streaming Era

Pitchfork

Marc Hogan, writing at Pitchfork:

Scott Rodger, who manages Arcade Fire, Paul McCartney, and Shania Twain, points me to various artists’ pages on Spotify. Arcade Fire have 5 million monthly listeners on the streaming service. Radiohead have 6 million, while Grizzly Bear, the War on Drugs, and LCD Soundsystem all have more like 2 million. But Imagine Dragons, while critically scorned, have 30 million-plus. And the most popular artists right now, like “Despacito” hitmakers Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi, along with Ed Sheeran and Calvin Harris, have upwards of 40 million. “With the world moving towards streaming, most indie or alternative acts simply don’t stream as well,” Rodger says.

Google Search Uses a Medical Quiz to Help Diagnose Depression

Google

Jon Fingas, writing for Engadget:

Only half of Americans who face depression get help for it, and Google is determined to increase that percentage. As of today, it’s offering a medically validated, anonymous screening questionnaire for clinical depression if you search for information on the condition. This won’t definitively indicate that you’re clinically depressed, to be clear, but it will give you useful information you can take to a doctor. And importantly, the very presence of the questionnaire promises to raise awareness and promote treatment beyond what a basic information card would offer.