Money 4 Nothing

Much of the time, it feels like almost nothing could shake up the streaming status-quo. This isn’t one of those times. Over the past week, Congressperson Rashida Tlaib (with support from the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers) released the Living Wage for Musicians Act—a fascinating piece of legislation that (if passed) would completely transform the contemporary music industry. Like…really REALLY change things, in ways both obvious and subtle.

While it’s hard to see an immediate path towards it being signed into law, the act demonstrates a genuine hunger for large-scale structural change—and helps to lay out an imaginative framework for what that could look like. We dig into the details, but also explore what this newfound sense of possibilities might mean for the future—a question that also connects to current, racially-coded attempts to ban music-biz-hotbed Tik Tok. Connecting such seemingly disparate events, we wonder what this emergent energy means, and where it could go next. Come for the 12-Million Stream Cap—stay for the beautiful dream of major label transparency.

 

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Music: La Sécurité - "K9 Freaks Mix (Freak Heat Waves Remix)"

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Is rock dead? Not according to Imagine Dragons. You know the band with 10 different billion-streamed songs? The one that’s sold 46 million records? You’ve definitely heard of them, but....have you ever really HEARD them? Probably not. And that’s because despite being the most successful band of the past 25 years, Imagine Dragons has received next to no critical attention. Not even a proper 0.6 take-down, let alone a serious examination. 

And that’s honestly a mistake. Because the group has a tremendous amount to tell us—about our changing musical tastes, about the psychic landscape of modern America, and about the trajectory of rock in a post-genre future. Come for Sam listening to the entirety of the ID catalog for the sake of science. Stay for a new perspective on the merits—and singular focus—of an act that’s defined an era of angst.

 

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This past week, negotiations broke down between Universal Music—the biggest and most powerful of the three major labels—and Tik Tok, the world’s most viral social media platform. The result: Universal’s music has been pulled—almost entirely—from the mimetic app. It’s a show of raw muscle the likes of which we haven’t seen for years, and the implications are fascinating. But how did it come to this? Why are two of the biggest forces in the music business in a battle that neither should have wanted?

To better understand the story, we dig into the payout structures that define the conflict, the inter-sectoral strategies that shaped it, and the negotiations that led to everything falling apart. Once again, it’s a fight about the future of sound—and which type of business is going to own it. Come for everyone talking about AI without anyone talking about AI. Stay for a KILLER data-science research project.

 

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Like the rest of the increasingly small world of music criticism, we were shaken by the news that Pitchfork had not only been more-or-less gutted by publisher Conde Nast, but pulled into GQ. Gentleman’s Quarterly. Of all possible things. G-freaking-Q...?

We’re not gonna lie—this one feels grim. But, what kind of grim? Events split the team, with Saxon spinning out a narrative of corporate confusion and brand-based failure, while Sam tried to pull some (desperate) fragments of sense from the seemingly nonsensical plan. Is music criticism lifestyle reporting? Is there an economic base for the record review? Will a thousand newsletter flowers bloom? This week we have questions, not answers. And definitely no good vibes. Insert your own "Wintour is the cruelest season" joke here.

 

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New year, same old music business. To get things kicked off right, we circle back to check in on two of our favorite industry players, and things….well, we hate to tell you, but things aren’t GREAT, you know? Regarding Hipgnosis, the once high-flying music fund is very much in hot water—conflicts of interest flying, shareholders revolting, and board-members unceremoniously shown the door. Who could have possibly seen this coming? Certainly not us…

And then Spotify, where the times—or at least the streaming payout structure—are a-changin’. On the surface, new rules regarding monetization (under 1000 plays? No cash for you!) might seem relatively minor, but they reflect a more fundamental set of shifts within the power-structures of the industry. Everyone is gearing up for a fight about the next 25 years of music—moves like this are the first steps towards a new world order. And if recent events are any indication, Spotify doesn’t seem like it’ll be the one calling the shots…

Music: Black Lips - "Bone Marrow"

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When we heard that BMI, an organization designed to collect money on behalf of songwriters, had decided (on its own?) to drop its non-profit status and go for the cash, our response was confusion. Like—can they even do that? What does that even MEAN? But then BMI sold themselves to a private equity fund. Backed by Google. And now...we’re concerned.
 
To get a better sense of what’s going on, we dig into the history of BMI—exploring how it emerged from battles between publishers, Hollywood, and the rising forces of radio, and what role it has played in the  industry ever since. A fair and neutral arbiter, with no interests of its own...but of course. Then we try to understand what impact the privatization might have on the future of music. Bundling other people’s copyrights? Maybe. A foot in the door for AI legislation? Probably. Come for an argument about why songwriters should borrow tactics from the mob. Stay for tomorrow’s IP battles today. 
 

Re-Listen: "Consent Decrees" Episode 

 

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This time Sam and David Turner dig into the financially rocky patch in which Patreon—the name that launched a thousand podcasts—has recently found itself. Looking at the longer trajectory of the fan-funding platform, they try to piece together how it moved from a replacement for YouTube ads to a supposed panacea for the value collapse of musical (and cultural) production—and try to understand the broader implications of the division it (implicitly) draws between the filthy-lucre of commerce and the pure connection of community. Come for Sam not knowing the basics of indy-streamer cultology. Stay for the fundamental question of whether fandom is a zero-sum game. 

 

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Over the summer, New York’s premier EDM festival Electric Zoo descended deep into the Fyre Fest zone—that magical place combining blatant rip-off and profoundly unsafe conditions. Purchased by by owners of Brooklyn mega-club Avant Gardner the previous year, the latest edition of the three-day rave took the Bold and Forward Thinking step of mixing abrupt cancellations and incredibly poor crowd control with rampant overselling, producing a potentially deadly crowd-crush and an NYPD investigation. Fascinated and horrified, we decided to dig a bit deeper to figure out…who ARE these guys? And what in the name of Frankie Knuckles is their deal? As we dug into the often insane specifics (Superfund Halloween Rave, Best Friends With Mayoral Staffers, Etc.), we realized that the question shed light on a deeper issue: as dance music and nightlife become big business, how do are events and venues balancing the desire for profits and the demand for safety? And could the finance money pouring into the space change things for the worse?

Read:  Clubbing is Becoming Big Business. What Does This Mean for Dance Music?  - Resident Advisor 

 

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Hi folks! As part of our collaboration with Penny Fractions, we are bringing you the first episode of a new format—David, Saxon, and Sam, thinking through our moment in an off-the-cuff convo about current events. We hope you like it! 

The music industry was recently shaken by news around beloved marketplace/web-magazine Bandcamp, where half of the staff was recently let go (or, as press release from definitely-not-shady new owners Songtradr put it "After a comprehensive evaluation...50% of Bandcamp employees have accepted offers to join Songtradr”). It’s…not great. Unfortunately, it’s also not entirely unexpected. To try to get our heads around what’s happening, we talk union-busting, the decline of music criticism, the death of tech optimism, the rise of the influencer economy, the zombie-like survival of grifting, and what the future might hold for a synch-happy tech-bro Bandcamp. Somedays, it feels like it's their world, and we just live in it. Today might be one of those days. 

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First off—big news in Money 4 Nothing-land. We’ve just OFFICIALLY joined forces with the amazing Penny Fractions newsletter to create a new and almighty Voltron (Sailors Moon?) of critical coverage on the music industry. We’ll be rolling out exciting new projects over the next few months, so please stay tuned! And now, on with the show… 
 
When news broke that a wave of Scott “Scooter" Braun’s clients were leaving him—including mega-names like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber—it seemed like it might be the beginning of the end for the most successful music manager of the 2010s. But…who is Scooter exactly? And why should anyone care?
 
While most know Braun for his era-defining beef with Taylor Swift, we decided to go a bit deeper, exploring his remarkable ascent amid the shell-shocked chaos of the music biz during the early Obama Era. As we dug in, we realized that Scooter’s success actually provided a fascinating vantage-point through which to understand the distinctive era that ran from early Youtube to the launch of Tik Tok—a moment of disruption, change, and platform power that we might just be coming out of. Come for the Asher Roth (yeah, THAT Asher Roth). Stay for the T-Swift conspiracies. 

 

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