Both George [Harrison] and Eric [Clapton] had an inability to communicate their feelings through normal conversation. I became a reflection for them. | | | | King Oliver (third from left) with the King Oliver Band in California, 1922.
(JP Jazz Archive/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Both George [Harrison] and Eric [Clapton] had an inability to communicate their feelings through normal conversation. I became a reflection for them.”
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| | rantnrave:// Move over, LEBRON, there's a new free agent in town. You may have 31,000 career points, but he had 1,000,000,000 streams—last week. You may have averaged 27 points a game this season, but he has 27 songs on the BILLBOARD HOT 100—24 of them in the top 50. You just signed a $153 million deal. What do you think he's worth? VARIETY lays out some options for the world's most popular TORONTO RAPTORS fan, who apparently is telling the plain truth when he raps "Soon as this album drop I’m out of the deal" on "IS THERE MORE" (currently #36 in Billboard, which makes it the 19th most popular Drake song in the country this week). Does he re-sign somewhere in the UMG family? Does he do a deal with APPLE or SPOTIFY? Does he seek a 360 deal? Does he get more money than LeBron? Or, one wonders, what if he doesn't do a deal with anybody? Not even a one-off. What if he uploads his next album (which Variety suggests is already done or not far off) to Apple and/or Spotify and/or YOUTUBE and/or FORTNITE and/or INSTAGRAM and/or the Sunday edition of the GLOBE AND MAIL, all on his own? Does he need an advance? Does he need to share most of his royalties with people in corner offices? Can he negotiate his own royalty rate with anyone he gives his music to? Who would say no to him? Can he hire any and all help he needs a la carte? Can he a la carte his entire career? Can he be the next FRANK OCEAN or CHANCE THE RAPPER, only bigger? Does anyone have more clout than he does right now? Does he trade that clout for money? For freedom? For a few key slots on Spotify's INDIE PARTY and AMBIENT CHILL playlists?... Speaking of Billboard's Drake 100 chart, ROLLING STONE's ELIAS LEIGHT wonders what we lose, and who gets hurt, when a single artist takes over the chart as thoroughly as Drake is doing. While the chart aims to reflect what actual people are actually listening to at any given time, it has always been subjective, the result of an ever-changing formula that emphasizes certain kinds of listening and discounts others. How is that formula working now? Should album tracks be separated out from singles (or can anyone even tell the difference anymore)? Should having more artists on the chart be a goal? Is the occasional complete takeover an acceptable, even necessary, acknowledgment of the current music economy? What would you do differently?... TAYLOR SWIFT has some questions for legendary rock muse PATTIE BOYD—nine months after MusicREDEF contributor COURTNEY E. SMITH all but suggested it... "Patriotism Took a Hit This July 4th," Billboard reports, noting reduced airplay for staples including LEE GREENWOOD's "GOD BLESS THE USA" and BROOKS & DUNN's "ONLY IN AMERICA" compared to July 4 a year ago... Meanwhile, KIM JONG-UN still doesn't have his promised "ROCKET MAN" CD, GREEN DAY's "AMERICAN IDIOT" is having a timely resurgence on the UK singles chart, and former WHITE HOUSE lawyer TY COBB was rocking out to (I am not making this up) punk band COPSTABBER at the D.C. club SLASH RUN Saturday night... One more RUSSELL SIMMONS accuser... ARIANA GRANDE headlines an AMAZON PRIME concert that will stream live from New York at 8 pm ET tonight. ALESSIA CARA, KELSEA BALLERINI and JULIA MICHAELS are also on the bill... RIP LEO SARKISIAN. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| | | three lions (football's coming home) |
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| There weren't a lot of people online in the early 1990s. Mark Kelly, keyboard player for the English band Marillion, early internet adopter and self-titled "co-inventor of crowdfunding," was an exception. One night after a concert someone handed him a stack of papers--printouts from an email list of Marillion fans. | | |
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| A hip-hop writer became the target of superfan ire - and the rapper’s own fury - after she posted a message about Ms. Minaj’s musical direction. | | |
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| Pattie Boyd opens up to Taylor Swift about what it was really like being married to two of rock ’n’ roll’s biggest legends. | | |
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| All tea, no shade-straight from Crime Mob. | | |
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| “You have these record companies that are making so much money off our culture, our art form, but they’re not investing or even believing in us.” | | |
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| “Three Lions” has become a phenomenon that you don’t have to be English to appreciate. | | |
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| MP Andrea Jenkyns sang her own song, Bropera was born -- and the ex-singer of Pigface rocked out. So did our writer want to leave or remain at the Big Brexit Party? | | |
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| No album? No problem. Charli XCX has a solution-just keep releasing songs. But she begs a question: Does pop music need to be, well, popular? | | |
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| After the recent Jase Harley-Childish Gambino controversy, we asked industry experts where the line falls between imitation and inspiration. | | |
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| Streaming services have helped the recorded-music industry bounce back to growth. Now the data that they are generating can help music companies finetune their strategies to build on that comeback. | | |
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| Drake’s latest chart feat illustrates the difficulty of tracking music consumption in the streaming era | | |
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| “We’ve always seen our role as being the CEO of an artist’s businesses and their life, and to do that, I think the experience of being in these other businesses is invaluable,” Azoff says. “As a manager, you’re not going to do a great job for your artists if you don’t have clout.” | | |
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| The Atlanta rapper is back like he never left with the release of his latest mixtape, ‘BEASTMODE 2.’ It's a reminder that he is prolifically consistent. | | |
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| What killed smooth jazz radio? Why aren't there any commercial classical stations any longer? And, why do radio stations have a "format" to begin with? Matthew Lasar joins us to explore these questions about the fundamental organizing principle of most music radio. | | |
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| This article questions the value of YouTube to unsigned artists. Why are YouTube still not paying unsigned artists for every stream? There are 400 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every day, driving projected net advertising revenues of $3.96 billion in 2018. Google are starting to look evil. | | |
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| Competitors like Apple and Amazon -- booming from profitable non-media products and services that fill increasingly deep wallets for music and other content -- have already gained significant ground against Spotify in the music streaming wars. The secret word, which Spotify itself has yet to master: bundles. | | |
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| Meg Remy discusses her magnificent new U.S. Girls album, “In a Poem Unlimited,” and much more. | | |
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| Tortured and imprisoned under Saddam Hussein's regime, composer and oud player Rahim Alhaj -- who resettled as a refugee in New Mexico -- uses his work to tell true stories of Iraqis living through war. | | |
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| Directors at Toronto's Wavelength concert series and Ottawa's Arboretum Music Festival have recently resigned, leading to questions about how these scenes can move forward. | | |
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| ‘Clarity from the government is a win, but we can go even further. Let’s make it a requirement that festivals and, if possible, nightclubs, have to ensure there is drug safety testing available.’ | | |
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| © Copyright 2018, The REDEF Group |
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