Music Biz Headlines, Aug. 21, 2019

By FYI Staff

Honey Jam is the concert showcase that gave Nelly Furtado and Jully Black a boost

Now, as Honey Jam prepares for the Aug. 22 concert featuring female musicians from across Canada, mainly aged 14 through 24, the event has grown into an annual showcase at which the industry is known to scout for rising talent. The event originally focused on women in hip hop but now welcomes all genres. – Ryan Porter, Toronto Star

Neil Young’s lonely quest to save music

He says low-quality streaming is hurting our songs and our brains. Is he right? – NYT

Bryan Adams teases new music from Vancouver recording studio

Just a few months after releasing his latest album, the Canadian music legend might have more new music on the way. On Sunday, the singer posted a picture of himself posing with a 1953 Gibson ES295 guitar at The Warehouse, a recording studio in Vancouver he owns. "Rocked the weekend at @thewarehouse studio in beautiful Vancouver," he wrote. – Andrew Weichel, CTV News Vancouver

Nettwerk’s Terry McBride talks content quotas for streaming playlists

 ‘I think it’s a terrible idea’ says the Nettwerk Music Group co-founder ahead of his visit to Brisbane for BIGSOUND next month, where he will give a keynote address. – Lars Brandle, Industry Observer

Flohil sets up the Edmonton Folk Music Festival … as only Flohil can

Amazingly, I’m not music-ed out after five festivals in five weeks — Mariposa, Winnipeg, Calgary Folk, Calgary Blues, Canmore and now Edmonton. This festival road trip has been about personal discoveries. – Richard Flohil, Roots Music Canada

How ‘bundling’ sells you that new CD, whether you want it or not: Alan Cross

At some point, we really, really need to admit that album sales charts just don’t matter. No one is buying physical products anymore. Bundling involves including a CD with the price of a concert ticket. The result inflates the numbers for a CD treated this way, giving it a better chance of reaching the top of the charts. – Global News

What's In Your Fridge: Devours

TheVancouver-based synth-pop gaylien reveals a love of Edgefest, '90s Can rock, and Missy Elliott. – Mike Usinger, Georgia Straight  

20 years later: How an arena helped transform downtown Kelowna

In the early days, it attracted some big stars, like David Bowie, Cher, Elton John, Bryan Adams, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Alan Jackson, Shania Twain, Santana and Rod Stewart. There have been RCMP musical rides, monster truck shows and Cirque du Soleil. But most of those big name acts were in the early years of Prospera Place. –  Infotel

Tom Macdonald: Bio and net worth in 2019

Born in Edmonton and based in LA, Tom Macdonald is another white rapper causing ripples on airwaves as he claims a stake of the hip-hop music industry.– Tuko

International

HMV opens up in-stores to unsigned bands

HMV has been busy since Doug Putman took over the business earlier this year. As well as a major vinyl expansion plan – revealed in Music Week – the chain is relaunching its website to drive pre-orders and has big ambitions for increasing in-store performances.  – Andre Paine, Music Week 

What happened when Spotify raised prices by 10 percent in Norway?

Spotify is not keen on the idea of raising its subscription prices. This much we know, because every time the firm’s CFO, ex-Netflix exec Barry McCarthy, is asked about the prospect, he gets palpably vexed. – Tim Ingham, MBW

The 30 best films about music, chosen by musicians

Anna Calvi, Neil Tennant, Nadine Shah, Wayne Coyne, Nitin Sawhney and Anna Meredith pick their top five music movies.  – Interviews by Jude Rogers and Killian Fox,  The Observer

Bruce Springsteen reflects on past mistakes, performs new album in 'Western Stars' trailer

The documentary marks the musician's directorial debut and was co-helmed by longtime collaborator Thom Zimny. Here's the trailer. – Katherine Schaffstall, THR

Woodstock 50 had nearly every resource a festival could ask for: storied brand name, massive financial backing and industry goodwill. Where did it all go wrong?

A month before Woodstock 50 was announced, the festival was already in deep trouble. Last December, Michael Lang, the co-founder of the original 1969 event who had become its bemused-hippie symbol in subsequent decades, was in talks with an upstate New York racetrack for a fest that would mark the anniversary of the historic, if chaotic, cultural milestone he had overseen. – David Browne and Kory Grow, Rolling Stone

Bethel Woods celebrates Woodstock’s 50th anniversary with John Fogerty, Santana, Tedeschi Trucks Band, more

Over the weekend, Bethel, NY, hosted a special three-night musical celebration in honor of the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. The three-day event saw musical performances by Woodstock alumni Santana and John Fogerty, along with sets from Tedeschi Trucks Band, Ringo Starr, The Doobie Brothers, The Edgar Winter Band, Blood, Sweat, & Tears, Grace Potter, and more. – Sam Berenson, Live For Live Music 

If you're a feminist, you have to take the allegations against Katy Perry seriously

What happens when a famous woman is accused of the sexual misconduct that we’ve been taught to expect from powerful men? In the aftermath of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, Katy Perry looks set to find out. – Victoria Gagliardo-Silver, Independent

K-Tune, a company founded by a financial specialist, a serial entrepreneur and a renowned K-pop producer, has created a platform of the same name designed to overcome the prevailing issues in the music-making industry. And the key solution is blockchain technology. – Ilker Koksal, Forbes

RIAA alleges rampant sale of fake CDs on Amazon, eBay

The Recording Industry Association of America says counterfeit sales of CDs are running rampant online, including expensive box sets that are fakes, and “best-of” compilations that were not put out by the artist’s label. The RIAA says in a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce that in a recent test sample purchase program, “100% of new high-quality box sets offered for sale through eBay or AliExpress in the U.S. were counterfeit.” –  P.J. Bednarski, Media Post

Slayer’s NASCAR sponsorship pulled over “long-time sponsor concerns”

The thrash metal band Slayer is currently on their final world tour and partnered with Rick Ware Racing for the car. Over the weekend, the band shared an update saying their sponsorship had been pulled “due to reactionary concerns from long-time participating partners.”  –  Ashley King, Digital Music News

Amazon, UMG, Paradigm Execs Join Troy Carter Startup Q&A

Troy Carter's new music & technology company, Q&A has named industry veterans Clarissa Reformina as Vice President of Creator Services, Ray Kurzeka as Vice President of Digital Strategy and Austin Hurwitz as Vice President of Music Operations.– Hypebot

Elvis Presley's last motorcycle is up for auction: May set world record

A plethora of Presley vehicles is coming up on the auction block, most notably the last motorcycle he owned and rode, a 1976 Harley-Davidson FLH 1200 Electra Glide with only 126 miles on the odometer. Some say it might fetch anywhere from $1,750,000 to $2,000,000 -  making it the most expensive motorcycle in history. – Josh Max, Forbes

Something you don't want to hear about earbuds 

Young adults are experiencing hearing loss and experts say earbuds are to blame. But there are ways to jam out safely.  – Ashley Laderer, Elemental

Al reveals how Old Town Road became the biggest song ever

Did any of us expect the Song of the Summer to come from a completely unknown 20-year-old rapper named Lil Nas X, prominently feature Billy Ray Cyrus, and be based around a sample from Nine Inch Nails? It's the hit that won't die. Science explains why. – Courtney Linder, Esquire

Shaggy is winning the mission to win over everyone

At 50, the Gulf War veteran responsible for such cartoonish pop-dancehall smashes as Oh Carolina, Boombastic and It Wasn’t Me around the turn of the millennium has stuck around long enough to overcome most resisters. – Ben Rayner, Toronto Star

Ezra Furman – Twelve Nudes

A 26-minute blast of ‘passionate negativity’ proves highly therapeutic. When the world around us goes to shit, Furman suggests, screaming is sometimes the only sensible response. – Erin Osmon, Uncut

With Billie Eilish and ‘Euphoria’ co-signs, rapper $not is a Gen Z star in making

After two years of uploading music online, the 21-year-old, born Edy Edouard, has found himself on the brink of rap fame, wth a cult Gen Z following $not’s woozy emo raps. – Gerrick D. Kennedy, LA Times