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Taylor Swift and Kanye West Again Dominate The News

BuzzFeed
Jason Tate

I can’t believe that with everything going on in the world right now the internet is parsing words about if Taylor Swift knew, or didn’t know, about specific words in a Kanye West song. But, that’s what the internet is doing. It’s newsworthy enough that I feel it’s worth covering – even if I don’t feel great doing it. Jemima Skelley, writing for Buzzfeed, details what’s happened now that Kim Kardashian has uploaded to Snapchat a phone call Kanye had with Taylor Swift discussing his song “Famous,” a video that does not ever mention the specific portion Taylor Swift apparently had a problem with in the song, but has still tossed the internet into pure chaos:

Though Taylor never denied that she had a conversation with Kanye, it does seem weird that she would publicly call the song misogynistic when she told Kanye that it was a compliment. It does prove, however, that Taylor never actually heard the lyric where Kanye calls her “that bitch”. On the other hand, Kim should have released this right at the beginning of all this drama, instead of holding it to promote her show. Kanye also shouldn’t have recorded Taylor without her permission.

The song bugs me, the video bugs me, and the internet reaction bugs me. Nothing about this feels right.

Behind the Playlist Professionals

BuzzFeed
Jason Tate

Reggie Ugwu, writing at Buzzfeed, with a really great profile on the professional playlist creators at Apple, Spotify, and Google:

We’ve come to expect that virtually all of our problems can be solved with code, so much so that we summon it unthinkingly before doing almost anything: from choosing what movie to watch, to finding a doctor, to deciding where to wake up the next morning and who with. But what if music is somehow different? What if there’s something immeasurable but essential in the space between what is now called “discovery” and, you know, that old stupidly human ritual of finding and falling in love with a song? Algorithms excel at the former, but the latter is stubborn heritage: It’s your father’s old record collection, your sister’s stash of mixtapes, a close friend’s desert island soundtrack of choice.

Mötley Crüe Singer Sued by Assault Victim

Jason Tate

Kimberly Lawson, writing for Broadly, on Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil being sued for physical assault:

Guerrero said Neil and Cage were engaging in “horseplay”—Cage had put Neil in a headlock—as she attempted to catch Cage’s attention.”My son loved you in Ghost Rider and City of Angels,” she called out to him as the group passed by.

“Then,” the suit contends, “as Mr. Cage let go of Vince Neil and was walking away, Vince Neil attacked Kelly without warning or provocation. Neil grabbed Kelly’s hair from behind, yanking her down to the pavement on her back.”

Spotify Adding Two New Radio Shows

Jason Tate

Rich McCormick, writing for The Verge, on Spotify’s two new radio shows:

Swedish streaming service Spotify is launching two new radio shows today, both of which feature musicians talking about the kind of music that they like listening to while they’re making their art. The first, AM/PM, will feature artists like electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre and Terry Hall of ska icons The Specials talking about the music they listen to in the mornings before work, and in the evenings after a day spent creating. The second, Secret Genius, speaks to the songwriters and producers behind major songs, and features the actually-pretty-well-known James Blake, among others.

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Warped Tour’s Pro-Life/All Lives Matter Tent Drawing Criticism

Warped Tour
Jason Tate

Zac Gelfand, writing for Stereogum, on the controversy over a pro-life/all lives matter tent appearing on Warped Tour this year:

Over the weekend, I noticed my Twitter feed begin to light up with photos of a tent in the middle of the Warped Tour dedicated solely to pro-life/All Lives Matter organization Rock For Life. Many tweeters were appalled that Warped Tour, whose target demographic consists mostly of individuals still in their teens, would allow this tent — which, it has been noted is being run by mostly men — to ask young, impressionable festival-goers when they think rights should begin for a fetus.

And from Caitlin White, over at Brooklyn Mag:

[I]t does raise the question why a festival that puts so little effort into booking women to play their stages feels comfortable bringing along an organization that will eagerly tell their young teen audience members what to do with their bodies.

I’ve seen quite a few bands posting about this on Twitter, and I gotta say, at the very least, selling “all lives matter” shirts is flat out disgusting. And for those that keep wondering why I have an issue with this phrase, this article from the New York Times does a good job explaining why:

When some people rejoin with “All Lives Matter” they misunderstand the problem, but not because their message is untrue. It is true that all lives matter, but it is equally true that not all lives are understood to matter which is precisely why it is most important to name the lives that have not mattered, and are struggling to matter in the way they deserve.

Claiming that “all lives matter” does not immediately mark or enable black lives only because they have not been fully recognized as having lives that matter.

Update: It looks like the organization is not actually selling their “all lives matter” shirt at Warped Tour stops, just at the other festivals they attend.

Ontario Opens Second Largest North American Vinyl Pressing Plant

Jason Tate

Kerry Doole, writing for FYI Music News, looks at a new vinyl pressing plant opening in Ontario. The plant will be the second largest in North America:

The company has been pressing vinyl in Prague since January, filling orders for Universal and Sony Canada plus some independent labels. “In phase one we can do 4.5 million units out of the Burlington plant plus 2 million from the Czech plant,” says McGhee. “We’ve already put phase two into motion and that is adding five new automated presses. That’ll put us over the 11 million mark, making us the second largest plant in North America. We’ve already bought a plant in the US based in the Midwest and there’ll be a west coast plant so we’ll have three in North America.”

US Record Industry Sees Album Sales Sink to Historic Lows

Jason Tate

Ed Christman, writing for Billboard:

It’s the worst year (so far) for music sales since the 1991 debut of SoundScan (now Nielsen Music). Album sales, including track-equivalent albums (TEA, whereby 10 track sales equal one album unit) are down 16.9 percent in the first half of this year. But sales figures no longer tell the whole story of the record business.

Not great, Bob.

Marvel Announces New Iron Man

Marvel
Jason Tate

Time has announced that Riri Williams will be taking over the Iron Man suit for Tony Stark.

Riri is a science genius who enrolls in MIT at the age of 15. She comes to the attention of Tony when she builds her own Iron Man suit in her dorm. Creator and Iron Man writer Brian Michael Bendis spoke exclusively to Time about the creation of Riri Williams with book artist Stefano Caselli and Marvel’s increasingly diverse cast of characters.

Read More “Marvel Announces New Iron Man”

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Dozens of Sexual Assaults Reported at Swedish Music Festivals

Jason Tate

Associated Press:

Police Inspector Leif Nystrom said there had been 32 reports of attacks by boys or young men at a three-day festival in the city of Karlstad, 300 kilometers (190 miles) west of the capital, Stockholm. The youngest alleged victim was 12. Police identified seven young men they wanted to question.\

And:

In neighboring Denmark, where the annual weeklong Roskilde rock festival attended by 130,000 people wound up on Sunday, police said they had reports of five cases of alleged rape or sexual assault, which police officer Carsten Andersen described as “nothing out of the ordinary at such a big event, although every single case is too much.”

Searching for a Good Reason to Remove the Headphone Jack

Headphones
Jason Tate

Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors:

I have a point of view on all this, but I’m trying very hard not to get mad about something that hasn’t happened. This is a tech unicorn, an unannounced feature on a nonexistent product, and it’s important to keep that in mind. Still, it’s not a bad intellectual exercise to ponder why Apple might make such a move, and what the ramifications might be.

The speculative conclusion at the end about the rumored “AirPods” sounds right to me. What I really hope for is that any wireless headphones that Apple ship don’t use Bluetooth, but instead use a new, maybe proprietary, technology along with Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a massive pain in the ass to use with multiple devices and flaky as hell.

One thing I have seen when I’ve talked about this with some non-techy friends: they either don’t care at all and just use whatever headphones come with their phone or they really care and find this to be an absolute abomination. I don’t see much middle ground. We discussed this whole thing in more detail on this week’s episode of Encore because it really does fascinate me to no end. The tradeoffs seem almost unbearably negative, but yet it seems so inevitable at the same time.

Apple Exploring Tidal Acquisition

Apple
Jason Tate

Daisuke Wakabayashi, Hannah Karp, and Patience Haggin, writing for the Wall Street Journal on how Apple is apparently looking into buying Tidal:

The talks are ongoing and may not result in a deal, these people said. Apple is exploring the idea of bringing on Tidal to bolster its Apple Music service because of Tidal’s strong ties to popular artists such as Kanye West and Madonna.

I’m not sure if this makes much sense, but Nick Heer nails what has to be the thinking:

One of the ways they differentiate themselves is to swoon artists enough for them to make their newest releases exclusive to a platform for a short amount of time before it’s generally released. A bunch of these exclusives over the past year went to Apple Music, but those they didn’t get — the newest albums from Kanye West, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and other high-profile artists — all went to Tidal. If Apple were to maintain those relationships post-acquisition and keep the ones they have, they’d have the exclusive release market effectively cornered.

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Alicia Keys Not Allowing Phones at Concerts

Technology
Jason Tate

Speaking of ways to avoid phones at shows, Alicia Keys has been using the Yonder pouch at her shows. The Washington Post reports:

Dugoni says the pouch serves two purposes. The artist can try out new material without worrying about it being leaked. Fans will also realize that they actually enjoy a show more without constantly filming, texting and Tweeting.

“If you haven’t been to a phone-free show, you just don’t know what you’re missing,” he says. “There’s something about living in real life that can’t be replicated.”

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