Your Media Business Will Not Be Saved

Joshua Topolsky, writing on Medium, about the struggles the media industry now faces:

A second thing happened alongside those foundational publishing challenges: this industry which had controlled its ability to reach a populace through ownership of things like printing presses began to cede its power in the delivery and distribution process to other people. People who didn’t care about or understand the media business. People who told them the answer wasn’t the best of something, it was the most of something.

Partially this was done out of fear, but mostly it was done out of ignorance.

Obviously this is a topic near and dear to my heart. It’s why I’m trying something different with this website. And, well, this first month has been a rollercoaster. So far we’ve had one of the biggest unique visitor months a website I’ve run has seen in quite a while, we’re going to go past 4.5 million pageviews, our time on site and retention numbers have been fantastic, and a few hundred have already signed up to support this website, the content we are putting out, and the community we’ve been building. I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback from our sponsors and advertisers about the new model we’re trying out and they seem to be loving the exposure they’re seeing. I’ve heard from a lot of members that love how fast the site loads, love how quickly they can find what they are looking for, and have enjoyed our features, community, and even the advertisements themselves. But mostly they seem as excited as I am about the course we’re headed down.

Is this going to work long-term? I’m still not sure. But it’s a start. I hope we’re making the “good shit” that Topolsky writes about here. I think we are. There’s still a very long road to self-sustainability, but this time I at least feel like we’re in the right vehicle and it’s pointed in the right direction.

MTV to Bring Back “Unplugged”

MTV

Steven Zeitchik, writing for the LA Times:

“Unplugged,” which could be on the air in coming months, will stoke the interest of those who came of age with artists such as Nirvana, Eric Clapton and Arrested Development breaking down their music to its acoustic basics, often with some added atmosphere.

“It won’t be carpets and candles,” Erik Flannigan, executive vice president of music and multiplatform strategy, said of the new show. “And it won’t be rock legends playing their catalog. “What we want to do,” he said, “is take the attributes that made ‘Unplugged’ such a success for so many years and reimagine them for 2016.”

The Lack of Diversity at Bled Fest

Bled Fest have posted a blog on their website discussing, kind of, why they don’t have more diverse roster at this year’s festival:

Is there a responsibility on us or other event producers like us to even pay any attention to races, genders, etc.? Is there a quota? Let’s just roll with an estimate of 10%. If 10% of applications represent minorities, should I book 10% of acts featuring minorities? 15%? 20%? Should we specifically attempt to go outside of who submitted and the agents we work with (defined earlier as almost entirely white males) to make sure that there’s a fair % of minorities represented? and what’s fair? Do we focus more on race and gender than we do on skill, promotional value, achievement, professionalism, etc.?

I think this is a false choice. I don’t think looking at the reasons for why certain music scenes lack diversity means you need to ignore other metrics. Using phrases like “affirmative action” and “quotas” misses the entire damn point: do better than you’re doing right now. Let’s start there.

Study Says Dyson Hand Dryers Spread More Germs

Beth Mole, writing for Ars Technica, on how Dyson hand dryers spread viruses in bathrooms:

Researchers have long known that warm air hand dryers can launch bacteria into the air—compared to dabbing with paper towels, which unleashes virtually none. But new jet air dryers, made by Dyson, are significantly more problematic—they launch far more viruses into the air, which linger for longer periods of time and reach much farther distances, researchers recently reported in the Journal of Applied Microbiology. This is particularly concerning because viruses, unlike many infectious bacteria, can easily maintain their infectiousness in the air and on surfaces, and just a few viral particles can spark an infection.

Harriet Tubman Will Replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 Bill

Micah Singleton, writing for The Verge, on how Harriet Tubman will be replacing Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill.

In a surprise move, Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, one of the most heavily circulated bills in the world, according to a report from Politico. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will announce the change later today, according to the report. This marks a big win for Woman on 20, the movement to put a woman on the face of US paper currency for the first time in nearly a century.

Press a Button, Play a Chord

Josh Constine, writing for TechCrunch, looks at a new digital guitar where can basically press a button to play a chord:

You can also freestyle, playing whatever you want. Rock band Muse’s lead singer Matt Bellamy is an investor, and he told me he uses it to write songs since it’s so easy to recreate what’s in his head without fumbling to find where to put his fingers. The guitar automatically records your last 30 minutes of playing so if you discover the perfect riff, you won’t forget it.

Concert ‘Merch’ Comes of Age

Robert Cordero, writing for the Business of Fashion, on how concert tour merchandise is becoming not just a way for artists to make money, but also a player in the fashion world:

“Obviously, the sales [of concert ‘merch’] are big and significant,” says Jerry Lorenzo, the Los Angeles-based founder and designer of Fear of God, who worked closely with Welch to create some of Justin’s Bieber’s looks for his current tour. “But they’re just as important as a branding asset to an artist,” he continues. “It’s the new CD. It’s as important as the sound, a part of the vision.”

Is YouTube a Music Industry Devil or Buzz-Making Deity?

YouTube

Eamonn Forde, writing for The Guardian, looks at manager1 Peter Mensch’s claim that YouTube is the devil.

Perhaps part of Mensch’s attack on YouTube stems from him, and many others, in the 1980s handing the keys over to MTV before realising what a huge mistake it was. Cliff Burnstein, his long-standing management partner, has been quoted in the past saying that MTV was key in breaking Def Leppard, who they managed at the time and made them into, for a period, the biggest band in the world. MTV happily played expensive music videos but paid no broadcast royalties in the US, allowing its parent company Viacom to become one of the biggest media companies in the world. There are echoes here of what is happening with YouTube, and Mensch is understandably not keen to be bitten for a second time.


  1. Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Muse, and more.

YouTube Launch 360-Degree Live Streams

YouTube

YouTube have announced they’re bringing 360° video to their live offerings. They’ll be streaming some of the second weekend of Coachella in this new format.

We first launched support for 360-degree videos back in March 2015. From musicians to athletes to brands, creators have done some incredible things with this technology. Now, they’ll be able to do even more to bring fans directly into their world, with 360-degree live streaming. And after years of live streaming Coachella for fans around the world who can’t attend the festival, this year we’re bringing you the festival like never before by live streaming select artist performances in 360 degrees this weekend.

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Bands Who Bemoan Their ‘Teenage Girl’ Fans Are Missing the Point of Music

Alexandra Pollard, writing for The Guardian, looks at the myth that a band needs to have male fans to gain credibility in the music scene. I enjoyed the entire piece, but this really stuck out to me:

As a reviews editor, I’ve lost count of the number of times writers have – while bemoaning a gig’s drawbacks – referred derisively to the amount of “teenage girls” in the crowd. It’s as if that phrase itself is a code that needs no further explanation, no elaboration as to why a young woman’s fully paid-up presence at the gig is, unquestionably, a bad thing. It isn’t. Their judgments are just as legitimate, their enthusiasm just as credible, even if their screams are a little louder. And if you think their taste is indiscriminate, you’d be wise to remember that for every One Direction, there’s a thousand other bands who tried and failed to gain even a fraction of their success.

I remember making comments just like that in the past and it was ridiculous and stupid. We talk a little bit more about looking back on our past selves and why we think the term “guilty pleasure” is outdated in this week’s podcast.

Netflix’s Plan to Conquer the World

Brian Barrett, writing for Wired, with a behind the scenes look at Netflix:

The instant Daredevil premiered, Netflix greeted its users with eight header image variations of Matt Murdock and friends, shown to customers in eight identically sized chunks. Netflix immediately began tracking which top shots inspired the most streaming.

By now, those eight images will have given way to the best-performing two or three. After 35 days, one of those will become the default. The rest will vanish. This happens now for every Netflix original show. It’s survival of the clickest, all around the world.

Grimes Talks With Rolling Stone

Grimes

Grimes talked with Rolling Stone about new music in the works, sexism in the music industry, and how rock music could work in 2016.

I personally really love [British bands] like Bring Me the Horizon and Foals. There’s definitely a future in rock, but it will probably be more fusion-oriented, like rock that uses 808s. Twenty One Pilots is kind of like that – it’s sort of rock, but the sound is hip-hop. You know all those songs on [the Smashing Pumpkins’] Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness that almost sound like Lorde or something? I feel like that vibe has not been explored.