Music Biz Headlines, June 12, 2019
Martin Scorsese's new Dylan rock doc (pictured) is reviewed, Tin Machine explored, and controversy over a UMG archives fire. Also in the headlines are NXNE, Gordon Lightfoot, John Doe, video games, Courtney Love, Lil Nas X, music catalogues, and Radiohead.
By FYI Staff
The third resurrection of David Bowie: Building Tin Machine
When David Bowie found himself in a creative funk in the wake of the disappointing album Never Let Me Down, he built himself a machine. The Tin Machine. – Barry Walsh, PleaseKillMe
He the North: FxckMr makes his Toronto debut at NXNE
The young Inuk rapper hasn’t played a huge number of gigs, but he’s still put in enough time onstage to know when he’s killin’ it. – Ben Rayner, Toronto Star
Review: American Football brought a lot of feelings to the first weekend of NXNE 2019
Plus: more early NXNE reviews of Haviah Mighty, Dizzy and others. – Staff, NOW
International
The day the music burned
The 2008 blaze was in a sound-recordings library, the repository of some of the most historically significant material owned by UMG, the world’s largest record company. n historical terms, the dimension of the catastrophe is staggering. – Jody Rosen, NY Times
Universal Music disputes severity of 2008 fire cited in New York Times article
In response to a New York Times article recounting a 2008 fire described as “the biggest disaster in the history of the music business” in which thousands of Universal Music Group master recordings were destroyed, the company has issued a statement disputing the characterization of the damage it caused to the company’s archives. – Jem Aswad, Variety
Gordon Lightfoot is still following that carefree highway
He scored timeless hits, befriended Bob Dylan and made the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. But even at 80, the veteran troubadour can’t bear the thought of slowing down. – David Browne, Rolling Stone
What happened when LA punk splintered apart? John Doe and friends tell tales in ‘More Fun in the New World’
The X stalwart curates a trip through the legacy of the scene in his new book. – Daily News
Review: ‘Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese’
Martin Scorsese has turned Bob Dylan's legendary floating carnival of a 1975 rock 'n' roll tour into the rock doc that never was: a time capsule that keeps on giving, even if at times it's too much of a good (indulgent) thing. – Owen Glieberman, Variety
E3 2019: Is the video game industry ready for pop-culture saturation?
In the days leading up to the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which has now opened at the Los Angeles Convention Center, a key theme for the video game industry has emerged: accessibility. – Todd Martens, LA Times
20 Questions for Courtney Love, The Queen of Grunge
Somehow, in 2019, Courtney Love is a practicing Buddhist who, in her spare time, reads Susan Sontag and watches Netflix while being Rolfed with her girlfriends. And yet, sanity has done nothing to diminish her spark. – Interview
A short history of country music’s multicultural mishmash
Or everything that came before Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus walked down that “Old Town Road.” It is conceivable that a deeper union of country and hip-hop may come in the wake of the smash track. – David Hajdu, The Nation
Selling a legacy: Considerations for buying, selling and administering music catalogues
Sales are currently one of the hottest topics in the music business as larger companies rapidly buy the catalogues of smaller companies, and songwriters and heirs sell their rights for large amounts of upfront cash. These days, everyone wants to know, “What multiple did you get?” – Erin Jacobsen, Synchtank
Going live with Pollstar
A look at Pollstar's LIVE75 Chart—now in its third month of publication—suggests a considerable divide between the streaming world and the live world. Hip-hop as a genre is known for its stream-heavy success, and yet the only hip-hop act to make the Top 20 was Post Malone at No. 7 – Hits Daily Double
Radiohead to release stolen music for climate campaigners
Radiohead says a trove of unreleased music has been stolen for ransom — but instead of paying up, the band will release it in aid of environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion. Jonny Greenwood tweeted that about 18 hours of material from around the time of Radiohead’s 1997 album OK Computer was stolen from Thom Yorke’s minidisc archive last week. – AP
