Before you buy tickets to a show, have you ever looked up the name of the town/city and then 'racism'? I have. | | | | Berry Gordy Jr. shooting the Supremes in Paris, 1965.
(Gilles Petard/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Before you buy tickets to a show, have you ever looked up the name of the town/city and then 'racism'? I have.”
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| | rantnrave:// So what did you do the day after Blackout Tuesday? On, let's call it, Wake Up Wednesday, WARNER MUSIC woke up and announced a $100 million (!!!) fund to support social justice causes. And then the smallest of the three major labels went public and raised a reported $1.93 billion (!!!!!) in a matter of hours. I'll leave the math to others. But an asterisk on both halves of that: The fund, which Warner CEO STEVE COOPER said "will support the extraordinary, dedicated organizations that are on the front lines of the fight against racism and injustice, and that help those in need across the music industry," is being established by Warner in partnership with the family foundation of its majority owner, LEN BLAVATNIK. And the IPO windfall will go entirely to Blavatnik's ACCESS INDUSTRIES and affiliated stockholders, not to the record company it owns. The prevailing view from analysts is that between the IPO and dividends paid out over the past few years, Blavatnik and Access will end up getting back all or nearly all of the $3.3 billion they paid for Warner (in cash) nine years ago, while still owning most of the company, including 99% of its voting stock. An enormous payout for an enormously risky investment. When Blavatnik bought the company and took it private in 2011, the industry was pretty much at its nadir, with revenues having bottomed out and the streaming-fueled revival still several years away. But the payout comes at a tricky time, in the middle of nationwide protests in the middle of an economic crisis in the middle of a global pandemic. The protests are about police brutality and racial justice, but there's a wider list of grievances behind the movement. One of them is economic inequality. In the record business, there's historic inequality between artists and label owners and between white artists and black artists, and it's hard to process a nearly $2 billion windfall for a major label owner without all of that in mind. The LA TIMES reported that Warner Music Group "declined to comment on what Access Industries plans to do with the money" raised on Wednesday. There are artists across Warner's family of labels who probably have some ideas on that; their music is why the company exists. There are record company staffers who spent Blackout Tuesday watching "movies and documentaries chronicling the struggles of black Americans" and who might have used the time to think about the notorious struggles of black musicians to get their fair share of money for their work; they might have some ideas, too. There are managers like TY STIKLORIUS, who has suggested labels give masters back to artists, who'll have ideas of their own. As of Wednesday night, Warner Music is a $13.8 billion company. The IPO was planned, obviously, long before the police killing of onetime rapper GEORGE FLOYD that set in motion the week of protests that in turn led to the music industry's call for a day of reflection on racial injustice. The IPO was originally supposed to happen Tuesday. "Out of respect for Blackout Tuesday, we moved the launch date, but bringing the train to a full stop was not possible,” Steve Cooper told Bloomberg. "We did what we could to be respectful." But it might be too soon to say that. The things that can be done to be respectful, in light of all that we have seen and experienced in the past 10 days, and in light of the reflection the music industry promised to begin this week, may lay entirely ahead... Here are some things you can do protest racial and economic injustice in the music business. And here's the MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES' weeklong protest agenda, with resources and action items... Shoutout the WEEKND, who donated $500,000 to BLACK LIVES MATTER and other organizations and urged labels and streaming services to "go big and public" with their own donations... Tired: Well-meaning but ill-informed participants in Blackout Tuesday drowning out the #blacklivesmatter hashtag on social media on Tuesday. Wired: K-pop fans purposefully drowning out the #whitelivesmatter and #bluelivesmatter hashtags on Wednesday... You know about the struggles of black artists trying to navigate the country music machine. But what about the struggles of black country fans who simply want to go to a show? RACHEL BERRY doesn't worry about other fans telling her and her friends to "Sit down!" She worries about this: "What if someone were to throw in an extra word at the end, just for me?" Kudos to the Nashville artists who rushed to Rachel's side, virtually speaking, after her INSTAGRAM post went viral... RIP CHRIS TROUSDALE. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| Record labels have known about these issues since long before it became radioactive behavior to stay quiet. | | |
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| Awash in the ghastly video mosaic shot by black people’s cameraphones, I found myself doubled over the kitchen sink. Then a lyric gave me strength. | | |
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| Warner Music Group Inc. rose in its trading debut after shareholders raised $1.93 billion in an upsized initial public offering, the biggest U.S. listing this year. | | |
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| After the latest police killings of black citizens, music business vets Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang asked the industry to take a long look at itself - a message arguably overshadowed by black squares. | | |
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| The New York Police Department kept musicians of color from the stage for almost three decades by revoking their cabaret cards, a license required to perform for pay in nightclubs. | | |
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| From the moment DeFord Bailey stepped onto a stage in Nashville, country music would never be the same. It was decades after his death before he finally got his due. | | |
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| Black Lives Matter is exposing a flawed industry predicated on the abuse of Black talent at the hands of white executives, publicists, and newsrooms. | | |
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| Black Swan Records rose, then fell - and popularized the kinds of songs it set out to defeat. | | |
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| Tuesday's music industry blackout and other recent shows of support from country artists emboldened Rachel Berry, a country music fan who is black, to speak out. | | |
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| Listening to “Alabama” in the days following a nation-shaking murder. | | |
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| Facebook, Instagram and record companies should let the music play. | | |
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| We look at how, when, and in what form live music might return after the silent stages of the COVID-19 lockdown. | | |
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| Artists have been sharing music that stands against police brutality and racism following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. | | |
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| Terrace Martin sits for an interview about his fearless new song "Pig Feet," which features Denzel Curry, Kamasi Washington, G Perico, and Daylyt. | | |
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| I have been in the music industry for over 45 years and in that time I have experienced both direct and indirect racism. | | |
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| Regardless of your stance on Black Out Tuesday, it's clear that the music industry is plagued by inequality. That has to change. | | |
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| People get John Lennon’s protest lullaby all wrong. Radical change isn’t something you can just close your eyes and wish for. | | |
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| The HBO Max documentary details sexual-assault allegations against the rap mogul Russell Simmons--and shows how sexism shatters brilliant careers in the making. | | |
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| The blues were forged at a time of deep distress and racial oppression, and they continue to be a howl of protest about the evil of racism. Josh White speaks the truth in Free and Equal Blues: “Every man, everywhere is the same, when he’s got his skin off…That’s the free and equal blues!” | | |
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| As we learn more about the virus SARS-CoV-2, there are more discussions in the news, social media, blogs, and other places that cite scientific research. Some research is relevant, some is not; much is misinterpreted. | | |
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