This whole industry is designed to destroy. Managers, business managers, agents, attorneys: they are all focused on working you because that is how they make a living. | | | | Unidentified Cuban percussionist on the streets of Havana, Aug. 22, 2018.
(Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images) | | | | | | “This whole industry is designed to destroy. Managers, business managers, agents, attorneys: they are all focused on working you because that is how they make a living.”
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| | rantnrave:// Like TOM CRUISE in A FEW GOOD MEN entering evidence in court of a nonexistent military flight, two U.S. senators are seeking answers to questions that weren't quite raised in the TORONTO STAR/CBC investigative series on TICKETMASTER resales, and Ticketmaster is denying engaging in tactics the series doesn't accuse the company of engaging in. Where are AIRMEN O'MALLEY and RODRIGUEZ when we need them? There are two basic steps to scalping concert tickets: 1) Buying them. 2) Marking them up and selling them. The heart of the series is largely about step 2, describing how Ticketmaster employees encouraged undercover reporters posing as scalpers to use its TRADEDESK platform to unload a high volume of tickets. The employees are shown telling the reporters they don't care how they got the tickets or if they used bots, and they have no interest in sharing any unusual account information with the primary-sales side of the company. "It's church and state," one TradeDesk sales executive said. And TicketMaster, despite its public opposition to professional, bot-based scalping, profits from those TradeDesk resales. Those are explosive revelations, worth further inquiry. In a bipartisan letter to TicketMaster CEO MICHAEL RAPINO, SENATORS JERRY MORAN (R-Kan.) and RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-Conn.) write that the series says TradeDesk "provides a web-based inventory for scalpers to effectively purchase large quantities of tickets from Ticketmaster's primary ticket sales website," which is literally not what the series says. The senators follow up with some questions that are worth asking, though I suspect at least one of them, which they probably consider a hardball, is very much a softball. Ticketmaster, for its part, has outright denied "selling software to help scalpers buy tickets ahead of fans," which it wasn't accused of doing, and adds, "That's simply not what TradeDesk is." As we knew. There is lots, however, that we don't know, and lots of fodder for additional questioning. If anyone in here can handle the truth... In related/unrelated news: BMI wants a piece of ticket resale income, as well as revenue from live sponsorships and VIP packages, for its songwriters... Car radio meets internet radio and sparks fly. Perspectives continue to roll in on the $3.5 billion SIRIUS–PANDORA deal. Will this be the first "full-stack" music company? Was this mostly a way to make sure no one else bought Pandora? MusicSET: "Sirius Unlocks Pandora's Box"... LIL WAYNE—are you sitting?—is releasing THA CARTER V this week... ALMOST FAMOUS is being turned into a musical. Which it kinda sorta already was. (And this is the tweet of the day)... JON PLATT officially taking over at SONY/ATV. Which you kinda sorta already knew... MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT unanimously passes US HOUSE, heads to WHITE HOUSE for presidential signature. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| He was ambitious, stubborn, unaware how much his body could take... and it was in no one’s interest to make him stop. | | |
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| Author Tim Mohr talks about East Germany’s dissident punk rock scene, and its role in bringing down the Berlin Wall in 1989 - the story behind his remarkable new book, "Burning Down The Haus." | | |
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| Car radio meets internet radio and sparks fly. Perspectives on a $3.5 billion deal, a rapidly shifting industry and the turbulent history that led to a major music marriage. | | |
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| Although K-pop has been an international phenomenon for two decades, debates about the precise definition of the term "K-pop" are still raging. It's difficult to resolve because it is not always entirely clear what is so Korean about K-pop. K-pop is K-pop because it is music performed by (mostly) Korean artists, but what about beyond that? | | |
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| Women like DJ Paulette, Lucy Scher, and Ang Matthews were vital to the Haçienda and nightlife culture at large, but their story is rarely told. | | |
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| An interview with David Buick & Roe Peterhans. | | |
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| U.S. senators seek answers after CBC reveals program that helps scalpers resell millions in tickets. | | |
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| In this video, Mark runs through the history of fuzz pedals in four minutes or less. Electro-Harmonix, Solasound, Arbiter and Maestro are all here! | | |
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| Bad Bunny and J Balvin, two of reggaeton’s biggest names, talk about their upcoming joint album and how Latin trap revitalized the genre. | | |
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| Five years ago, we lost the mighty Jeff Hanneman. We asked his former Slayer bandmate Dave Lombardo to pay tribute to a friend, icon and one of metal’s greatest ever guitarists. | | |
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| When Daniel Ek founded Spotify, he did what no disruptor had done before: He worked WITH the industry he was trying to reinvent. By hacking shortcuts to trust with all his constituencies (users included), Ek built long-term relationships – and a 140M-user strong music-streaming platform. | | |
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| The acts redefining music -- sonically and ideologically -- picked by experts. | | |
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| When Matty, George, Ross and Adam set out to make ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’, it set them on a course of discovery and introspection that would change their lives. Dan Stubbs heads to LA to hear how friendship, addiction and two weeks with a noble horse has resulted in The 1975 making not one but two new albums that might just change the world, too. | | |
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| Timothy Anne Burnside is a seasoned museum curator and started the hip-hop collection for the museum in 2006. | | |
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| FRKO has made artwork for Gucci Mane, Action Bronson, EarthGang, and Ugly God. Now, he's working on his own comic book series. | | |
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| What's it like to have the Boss play with your band? | | |
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| Brooklyn Wildlife is the New York art collective putting on weird shows in weird places. We catch up with founder Chris Carr about why it's so important to recontextualise the way we experience music. | | |
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| Many deaf people enjoy going to concerts as much as people who can hear, which is why a growing number of festivals and venues now provide ASL interpreters. | | |
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| The New England singer-songwriter on the contradictions behind her great new album, ‘For My Crimes.’ | | |
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| As the music publication celebrates a decade of editorial independence, founders John Doran and Luke Turner reflect on the highs and lows of their tumultuous tenure -- from stealing Mick Hucknall’s clothes to launching their own label. | | |
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| © Copyright 2018, The REDEF Group |
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