Willie ain't dead yet and neither am I. | | | | Today's category: Detroit rappers who are *not* running for Senate.
(Michel Linssen/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Willie ain't dead yet and neither am I.”
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| | rantnrave:// The SPOTIFY fake-artist story, which is basically about real music made by real people for real playlists heard by real subscribers, but which is otherwise entirely fake, continues to reverberate around the music internet. (Tweet of the day, from THUMP's MICHELLE LHOOQ.) Here's MUSIC BUSINESS WORLDWIDE on why it makes economic sense for Spotify to commission and/or license these pseudonymous instrumental tracks. Here's THE VERGE on why it doesn't make economic sense. You decide. Either way, you may come away with some new info on how Spotify is paying people—an elusive and ever-useful subject... But here's the real reason I'm bringing this up again. This claim, from a Spotify spokesperson interviewed by NPR MUSIC's ANDREW FLANAGAN: "A good playlist... can't be all algorithm, or have it all be human—it has to be a human curator armed with data and tools." Let me shorten that some more: "A good playlist... can't... all be human." Is this the state of the art of the music-programming discussion in 2017? Is this what we've come to? Do we not trust our own species to put together a pleasing or provocative or beautiful or inspiring flow of music? Can humans no longer be trusted to make mixtapes? I'm impressed by data and algorithms. But given a choice between TUMA BASA's ears and consumer research, or between JULIE ADENUGA's heart and click-through metrics, I'll go for the flesh-and-blood every time. No faking... Also, can we please show some respect to real fake artists? Bang-shang-a-lang to this... And bawitdaba da bang da dang diggy diggy to this. Two questions: Will the office door say SEN. KID or SEN. ROCK? And are you serious?... Noble pursuits: Trying to compile every track played at BERGHAIN last weekend. Trying to compile every track played at THE GAP between 1992 and 2006... Coming next week from STRETCH, BOBBITO and NPR. Hell yes... RIP RAY PHIRI and DAVID KAPRALIK. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| | | bawitdaba da bang da dang diggy diggy |
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 | The Guardian |
| They’re bigger than Guinness and George Bernard Shaw. So why are Bono and co so unloved in their home country? | | |
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 | Chicago Reader |
| The Beats Over Bullets partnership uses the festival to bring new converts to Everytown for Gun Safety, Mothers Against Senseless Killings, and the Wear Orange campaign. | | |
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 | Thump |
| Sorry for being correct as hell. | | |
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 | The Fader |
| After a boost from Spotify, Danny Ocean’s song “Me Rehúso” caught worldwide attention-and got the independent artist signed. | | |
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 | The Muse |
| On Allen Hughes's "The Defiant Ones," the four-part HBO series airing this week that traces the careers of Dr. Dre and Interscope boss Jimmy Iovine, hip-hop journalist Dee Barnes is positioned as an unimpeachable bearer of truth. | | |
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 | TuneCore |
| With physical music sales evaporating and an overall decline in total earnings across the entire music business throughout the last decade; many music distributors have begun entering into more extensive arrangements with the talent they sign. | | |
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 | Music Business Worldwide |
| The tall tale of three Swedish companies, with their own economic interests. | | |
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 | Afropop Worldwide |
| In January 2017 in Lagos, Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow spent a few hours with Seun Kuti at his home, talking about his career, musical life in Lagos, politics and other things. The interview was part of the research for Afropop's ongoing Hip Deep in Nigeria series. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| For a couple of days, the dumbfounding Presidency of Donald Trump was all about symphonies. | | |
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 | Detroit Free Press |
| A website, kidrockforsenate.com, appears to tout campaign material. | | |
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 | Slate |
| The goal of these kinds of challenges is not to replace the human producers of these art forms. It’s to find places for collaboration. | | |
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 | Inverse |
| A new patent reveals all. | | |
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 | Complex |
| Tyler, the Creator has long been accused of homophobia. But lines from his new album could change that narrative. | | |
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 | PopMatters |
| How Joyce Carol Oates, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen traveled out of a small town towards the great unknown. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| The author talks about listening to Soundgarden the day Chris Cornell died, the joy of hearing a song you love in a drugstore, and liking the new Selena Gomez song (and why that might be bad for Selena Gomez). | | |
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 | Salon |
| On their new album, the sisters go back to the '70s AM-radio well and surface with something thoughtful and sharp. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| All 13 of last season’s new Broadway shows, plus two revivals, produced cast recordings. Here’s our critic’s take on what to play and what to skip. | | |
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 | MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY |
| As we have reported a number of times this year, Amazon, Spotify, Google, Pandora, iHeart, Loudr and others are taking advantage of the compulsory license loophole that allows these companies to file tens of millions of address unknown “notices of intention” to rely on the compulsory license for songs in the Copyright Act. | | |
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 | The Cipher |
| The "Tom" of Tommy Boy Records takes us from the very beginnings of the label through his (and hip-hop's) Golden Age to his latest projects. | | |
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| The New Yorker |
| Rarely do you love a band with your whole heart for a decade and then turn away sharply, but that’s what happened to me with U2. | | |
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| | | | | | | From "Scum F*** Flower Boy," out July 21 on Odd Future/Columbia. |
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| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
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