to own the rights to her music

 Taylor Swift rereleased her Red album recently in an affort to own the rights to her music.

Taylor Swift 

Back in November of 2020 Taylor talked about a sale of her masters to a third party. This transaction occurred without her knowledge or permission. Taylor started rerecording those albums and Red is the second one.  

Red is raking in the streams.

A post on morningbrew.com was the source for this post.

netflix and transformation

Netflix is diversifying into games. In taking this bold meta bet, Netflix finds itself in good company with Meta (Facebook). 

Netflix has always been an attention driven business due to its all-you-can-consume monthly pricing model. The pivot into digital across all media verticals has raised the pressure for the company to maintain high levels of engagement.

problem with being a producer

A group of lawyers and music producers are working toward reforming the payment system. Modern albums come out fast. This catches producers by surprise. Once the music is released, it's difficult to get paid.

Great things get lost in the sauce. Royalties make up a lot of the money. Producers won't get paid royalties until the artists make back the costs and advances are paid back or met.

Major labels use third-party accounting systems. That doesn't help much for the producer. The only option is to follow up.

A solution is out of reach for young producers. The music industry's building blocks are being neglected.


To learn more, read the post from Rolling Stone: You Produced a Hit! Now Good Luck Being Paid

15 great double albums

Bold statements from artists. We get them from time to time. They are double albums.

Here is a link from goliath.com about 15 great double albums.

The 15 Greatest Double Albums in  Rock History 

More on the coronavirus:

Why coronavirus is so successful

What we know keeps changing on coronavirus

suspension of large music events urged

Live Nation, AEG, CAA, WME, Paradigm and UTA have joined together to recommend a worldwide postponement of large live music events in March.

 

A growing number of film releases, including Fast & Furious 9, No Time to Die and A Quiet Place Part II, have also been postponed.

Here the link to the story on The Guardian: Urge Suspension of Music Events 

Summary of Today's Events from The Guardian

forging heavy metal

Ever take a trip back to find music that help define "heavy metal"? This can be a journey that gives us memories of our days gone by and a chance to discover music that we're not all that familiar with.

I came across a post on guitarworld.com that has 20 heavy songs that may be on a playlist or two of yours. If not, you might consider adding them.

Here's the link to the post: 20 Heavy Songs Before Black Sabbath

wine: what to buy

There are thousands and thousands of wines on the market.

No wonder it’s so hard to know what to buy.

 

Shouldn't wine be easier to understand? Not really, thanks to a wealth of options.

Catch up with this story from Vox: How to learn more about wine.

 

led zeppelin history

I came across a nice history of Led Zeppelin. It is a post in rollingstone.com that gives us a view from the beginning.

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Circa 1968.  (Getty)

Their first show was in Denmark.
Here's the link to the post: HOW LED ZEPPELIN CAME TO BE

streaming plus vinyl

There has been a slip in sales of music CD's. Music stores are getting rid of CD space and making room for vinyl sales product. Vinyl has strummed a nostalgic chord.

As the chart above shows, the decline in sales has been on a steep slide. CD's are still viable with consumers going for certain genres like country and soundtracks. It does boil down to less CD sales.

Vinyl has made a comeback. Vinyl sales started to climb in 2006. Vinyl sales hit a 25-year high in 2017. Vinyl is seen as the medium of the den and the living room.

 

Streaming has increased among consumers. The car and the kitchen are the most popular streaming locations. 

CD's are still needed, especially for touring acts. It's so much easier to sell CD's at the merch table.

This Rolling Stone article is the source for this post.

35 movies Martin Scorsese likes

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is one of the most respected movie directors in all of cinema. He is gearing up for the release of The Irishman. One thing I admire about Mr. Scorsese is his knowledge of film history.

Scorsese in Search and Destroy

I came across a post on 35 films that Scorsese likes. I like some of them too. Some I hadn't heard of, but that's what I like from Scosese - I learn from him. This post I discovered was no exception.

Here's some I like too that are on the list of 35.

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Changeling

The Exorcist

Johnny Guitar 

Johnny Guitar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

udiscovermusic rates bass players

I came across udiscovermusic.com with thier list of 50 best bass players. These lists generally interest me. I decided to share it. Take a look, and come up with what you think. It lists 50. Find the link to the article at the end of this post.

Number 50 is Mel Schacher from Grand Funk Railroad.

Schacher

Number 47 is Gail Ann Dorsey

Dorsey

Number 39 is Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead

Lesh

Number 36 is Cliff Burton of Metallica

Burton

Number 21 is John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin

Jones

The bass players carved out signature sounds. Here's the link to the story.

netflix alternatives

Services that offer totally free, totally legal movies to watch online. 

I came across this post from cnet.com about 10 alternatives to Netflix. These alternatives have some great offerings. Here are some that interested me:

Crackle

Pluto TV

Internet Archive

There are 7 more services. Here is the link to the cnet story.

the mood machine

The tech industry is in the business of quantifying our emotions.

Mining emotional states to give A.I. projects something to go on is big business. Measuring human emotion has given rise to new facial recognition programs. The list goes on to include "emotion AI" to measure human emotion.  

Put this technology in a platform like Spotify to manipulate human emotion and we see a powerful tool for mining data given to advertisers. Apparently Spotify touts itself as a mood-boosting platform. 

Spotify also touts that it is a platform for brands. This means that it is good for business, or we are at least being told that. Spotify tells us that it is a place to feel good. 

So if you need a lift in the morning, you know where to go. Personalization is key. Personalization is how Spotify sells users its product. This is how Spotify gets listening data to sell to corporations. Your listening data. 

As we move forward with newer and newer technologies to track people's habits and predict what they'll do next, we must remain aware of what;s really going on.

This post from The Baffler was the source for this post

quantity rules, for now

With 3.9 million "creators" on Spotify, and 40,000 tracks uploaded to that platform daily, is it any wonder why we get the notion that there is too much music? Major record labels are signing artists at a rapid pace. Large labels keep signing new artists to keep market share going them and not to the smaller labels. Smaller labels will sign more and more new artists. Does this mean the major labels will sign more artists? Probably. In 5 years new music will most likely spike. Will this  be too much music? One could argue that there is too much music now.

There is a post on musicbusinessworldwide.com that states 18.8 billion dollars was generated in 2018 by the global record industry.

Of the three majors, Universal Music was the biggest winner over the course of the year, pocketing 31% – or $5.82bn of the total $18.8 billion earned by the recorded music industry, seeing its market share increase by 0.6 points to 30.3%.

Major record labels enjoy a combined 69.2% market share. On the other hand, the market share for artists releasing music by the Artist Direct method grew 35% to earn 643 million dollars in 2018.

Artist Direct and independents accounted for 30.8% of market share in 2018. 

More artists will be signed by major labels because of market share.

In 2018 streaming became the majority of record label revenue. Revenue came in at 9.6 billion dollars, up 30%. Streaming is the avenue of growth. The overall engine for growth is streaming. This shift alone is giving artists new ways to market themselves. New, custom-built models are needed to aid artists in development. 

The major record labels will continue signing new artists. New music galore. Why? The major labels do not want to concede market share. 

Quantity not quality. 

This is an old notion that has stood the test of time. I can remember the Mercury Nashville artist roster in 1991. Small. The quality was superb. Some other labels had larger rosters and the quality seemed layered. Their major artists got more attention. That's predictable I know, but some of the second layer artists that had excellent material, were ignored to a degree. This meant several options within a record label's structure as far as single releases, promotion, and marketing.

This "layered" way of doing things is alive and well in the large-rostered record labels. It will continue for about another 5 years. A new model, using more platforms, will be initiated to promote more artists. New platforms will be created. Some will be real good and others not so much. But there you are.

Keep listening. Enjoy.

 

 

 

composing music with a.i.

Dan Tepfer taught himself coding. He found programming to be powerful. He is an excellent pianist. He has used computer programming to compose music. He has 11 different algorithms he uses to help him compose music.

Dan Tepfer

Will this method of creating music with artificial intelligence become more common? He hopes it opens up artistic horizons. If that keeps occurring, more music will be created by A.I.

When visiting Dan's website, check out Natural Selections. Click on "music" in the heading and "Natural Selections" in the dropdown box.

Here's the link to the source story from NPR.

dylan's nashville skyline

Bob Dylan's 9th studio album Nashville Skyline has turned 50 years old.

No one was anticipating a traditional country music album from Dylan.

"These are the types of songs that I always felt like writing when I've been alone to do so." 

The album was a different vocal style for Dylan. He created a new vocal persona to match his style of music. 

Nashville Skyline was recorded in 4 days

Here is the link to the Rolling Stone story about the album.

Nashville Skyline was a vocal change for Bob Dylan. https://t.co/nsuuN90SUo via @RollingStone The album turns 50. It opened up country rock. #savingcountrymusic #BobDylan #musichistory

— Mike Bertelsen (@mikebertelsen) April 12, 2019

matt carpenter music

Matt Carpenter of the Saint Louis Cardinals uses the Turnpike Troubadours song Long Hot Summer Day as his walk up tune as he goes to the plate.

Carpenter

The Turnpike Troubadours play this song and it is one of the favorites of fans everywhere. It was featured in The World Series in 2013 when the Cardinals went. The song being played by Carpenter has help grow The Troubadours fan base in the Midwest.

Long Hot Summer Day was put on the album Diamonds and Gasoline. It was their second album and was released in 2010.

Turnpike Troubadours

Here is the complete story from Saving Country Music

Let's hope that new music with roots gets discovered all the time.

Cody Jinks, Band of Heathens Join Turnpike Troubadours in Matt Carpenter Walk Up Rotation https://t.co/FHMe4lvPoa

— Saving Country Music (@KyleCoroneos) April 11, 2019

honky tonk time machine

Congratulations to George Strait. His album Honky Tonk Time Machine is number 1 on the Billboard Album Chart. His 27th album to do so.

The single is Every Little Honk Tonk Bar is showing promise on the country airwaves. 

Saving Country Music has an excellent story on George's latest effort.

Let's enjoy this.

 

George Strait Is Back On Top with “Honky Tonk Time Machine," and In More Ways Than Onehttps://t.co/K4wwTxT0eL

— Saving Country Music (@KyleCoroneos) April 9, 2019

reba mcentire's new album

Stronger Than the Truth is Reba McEntire's new album.

Reba has gotten back to her roots. Two songs stand out with me. Tammy Wynette Kind of Pain and No U in Oklahoma.

Reba

 No U in Oklahoma is a western swing tune co-written by Reba. This album is full of strength and emotion. It also has variety. 

Reba's No U in Oklahoma

Reba's Tammy Wynette Kind of Pain

Here's the full album review from Saving Country Music

Reba's contribution to country music is pure and full of feeling. She keeps that going with this album.

Album Review – Reba McEntire’s “Stronger Than The Truth”https://t.co/54J34VuI5S

— Saving Country Music (@KyleCoroneos) April 5, 2019

10 types of content

I came across an article from The Social MS. It's about the 10 types of content for your blog or posts to social media platforms.

Good content helps with search engines. Use content in your email newsletters. Content can help build a relationship with your audience.

10 types of content:

• • Interviews
  • Webinars
  • List Posts
  • How-To-Guides
  • Product Guides
  • Infographics
  • Resource Collections
  • Podcasts and Videos
  • Guest Posts
  • Report