Music Biz Headlines, June 3, 2019
Steven Page (pictured) gets political, Rihanna’s superstardom is analyzed in economic terms, and Drake's plane is reported to be a freebie. Also in the headlines are Hot Shots Lounge, Merritt murals, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Beastie Boys, Apple Music, royalties, AI, generative music apps, Trans World, and Primavera Sound.
By Kerry Doole
Ex-Barenaked Ladies' frontman hits back at racism, xenophobia
Steven Page, former Barenaked Ladies frontman, kept a low profile when he moved to the United States, but all that has changed. He poured every bit of vehemence at his disposal into his latest album’s first single and video, White Noise. – Mike Devlin, Times Colonist
The four best Canadian albums in the world right now
A look at new work from Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lucette, and Rich Aucoin. – Brad Wheeler, Globe and Mail
Music Notes: The Fox and the Fiddles
Matt Olson recommends some concerts to see as the weather starts to get hot for the summer. – Saskatoon Star-Phoenix
‘One last hurrah’ at Hot Shots Lounge in Charlottetown
For the past 12 years, Kathy Tweel has provided a gathering place for locals and a performance venue for musicians at Hot Shots Lounge in Charlottetown. Al Tuck regularly played there, but the space has just closed down. – Sally Cole, Journal Pioneer
New mural to feature local athletes instead of country stars
Due to an ongoing ownership dispute involving Merritt’s country music murals, the city will paint the next piece on their own walls, with a new theme to boot. Council unanimously agreed to scrap plans to paint a new country music artist mural on Quilchena Avenue at a regular meeting on May 28. – Dara Hill, Merritt Herald
Toronto's music community throws a picnic in honour of these Gardiner pillars
The concrete monoliths are not an obvious choice for civic celebration, but to the artists playing the Pillars Picnic, their demolition represents how we treat our concrete heritage. – Samantha Edwards, NOW
International
The economics of Rihanna’s superstardom
Studying the music industry helps shed light on one key factor: the role of superstar markets in our winner-take-all economy. – Alan B. Krueger, NY Times
'Still Ill,' a short Beastie Boys documentary celebrating 'Ill Communication" is now out
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Ill Communication — and, of course, its classic single "Sabotage" — Diamond and Horovitz appear in a documentary short called Still Ill. The film weaves together several of their interviews to paint a picture of the circuitous path that led to that classic album. – Stephen Thompson, NPR
‘Rocketman’: Fact-checking the Elton John biopic
Historical accuracy isn’t the point of the fantasy musical, but there are still numerous spots where the creators veered from the facts. – Andy Greene, Rolling Stone
Elton John says Brexit makes him ashamed to be British
Sir Elton, 72, had criticised Brexit before, but delivered his most stinging rebuke yet to U.K. leaders who campaigned to leave in the 2016 referendum at a concert in Verona, Italy on Wednesday. – Noise11.com
Songwriters and publishers are 'fundamental' to Apple Music, says publishing exec Elena Segal
Global Director of Music Publishing Elena Segal reiterated Apple's hardline stance on songwriter and publisher royalties in a new interview, calling those parties "fundamental" to the service's ecosystem. – Roger Fingas, Apple insider
Drake's massive private plane reportedly cost him nothing
Drake recently took sky -based luxury to even greater heights with the reveal of his aptly named Air Drake plane. Now a report has surfaced that got the plane for free thanks to Cargojet, who made the thing and are certain anytime someone sees it will constitute a nice example of free publicity. – Trace William Cowen, Complex
Royalty free vs. royalty based music explained
If you’re a person in a creative line of work, then odds are that audio and video play an important role in your output. – Michael Dowson, Digital Music News
An AI pioneer explains the evolution of neural networks
Geoffrey Hinton is one of the creators of Deep Learning, a 2019 winner of the Turing Award, and an engineering fellow at Google. Last week, at the company’s I/O developer conference, we recently discussed his early fascination with the brain, and the possibility that computers could be modeled after its neural structure—an idea long dismissed by other scholars as foolhardy. – Nicholas Thompson, Wired
Trans World's challenges mount amid flowing red ink, board tension and possible stock delisting
The management of the heritage record store retailer has been on a high wire, trying to navigate a tide of red ink, a shrinking pool of cash, a going-concern crises, disappearing market capitalization, a potential Nasdaq stock delisting and an internally launched board of directors takeover attempt engineered by the son of the company's deceased founder. – Ed Christman, Billboard
Generative music apps let your phone write songs for you
Endel, for iOS and Android, builds on the concept of generative music to create sound environments based on your surroundings. – Rielle Pardes, Wired
How Primavera Sound partnered with the U.N. for 2019's most globally conscious music festival
The Barcelona fest's gender-equal lineup - featuring major acts like Miley Cyrus, Erykah Badu and Rosalía - will host a Gender equality activation in partnership with the United Nations. – Jason Lipshutz, Billboard
