"Ambient Music" has seen a renewed interest for reasons that we can only speculate. 2016 election? Increased atomization of individuals? The multi-headed hell-scape of pandemic + climate change + economic woes? Sure. Whatever the reason, the past decade as seen a revival of soundscapes and synths that is both helping us escape from the toils of our everyday and also, more darkly, making us more functional subjects in the service of Capital. Starting from the conceptual ideas of John Cage and Eno's late modernist visions illustrated by 'Music for Airports,' Sam and Saxon attempt to trace a history of contemporary Ambient with a look towards alternative possibilities and potentials that go beyond chill-out rooms and curated mood playlists. Also discussed: the merits of 17th century Harp Music, homemade iPhone field recordings, and the liberating benefits of being inefficient.

 

Music: Emily Sprague - "Water Memory"

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Early this year, K-pop was the site of some truly Succession level drama, as Hybe (the company that launched BTS) attempted to steal SM Entertainment (a longtime mainstay of the industry) out from under Kakao (a Facebook + Spotify level media conglomerate). The story had it all: legendary businessman refusing to go quietly, alleged stock market manipulation, patricidal nephews, alleged corruption, Wall Street know-it-alls in WAY over their head, and at least one climactic stock-offering battle. 
 
Now that the smoke has cleared, what did all the fuss tell us about Kpop? To learn more, we called Kara, host of the Idolcast, and our resident expert in all things K & J Pop. With her help, we explore the roots of this story, from Korea’s Bobby Brown being arrested on stage to the SM production machine that launched generations of dazzling stars. Ultimately, we tease out a picture of an industry in transition, as a world-conquering cultural model begins to look for the next thing—as its current structure starts to show its age. Come for the incredible saga of
Lee Soo-man, our new favorite media mogul. Stay for the commoditized communities coming soon to a fandom near you.
 
Music: James K - "Ultra Facial" 
 

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It used to be so simple. There were the major labels (all 6 of them, or whatever) and there were the independents or "the indies." Over the 80’s and 90s, a position initially adopted out of economic necessity grew into a distinctive cultural mode, with a host of aesthetic and political dimensions. Now things have changed and being "indie" no longer means the same.

To understand this shift, we take a look at the Merlin Network, powerful grouping of independent labels that banded together to grab a seat (or at least, a half-a seat) at the streaming table. Now responsible for roughly 15 percent of the modern music economy, Merlin has been a tremendous success, allowing independent labels like XL, Domino, Beggers Group and others spanning the globe to continue to thrive in an increasingly hyper-concentrated, almost entirely digital industry. But at what cost? We think through what independence can even mean within platform capitalism—and how the lessons of the past can be repurposed (if at all) to our multi-media future. 

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Everyone is talking about AI—and that includes the music biz. No one is disputing the wide-ranging potential of these new tools, but is our rapidly-approaching deep-fake future really (or at least, FULLY) being driven by technology? Sam and Saxon offer a dissenting voice to the cloud of excitement hovering around our up-and-coming machine overlords—arguing that the entertainment landscape we end up with isn't actually going to be determined by technology in and of itself. And if recent major disruptions in music tell us anything, it's that the actual power relations within the industry need to be considered when thinking about the new potentials of machine learning. Come for the skepticism, stay for the audience participation and pushback. Ignore the technical difficulties. Live from the Wavelengths Summit in Brooklyn, New York!
 

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Five years ago, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams finally lost the (musical) lawsuit of the century. Their song, “Blurred Lines,” had been an inescapable summertime hit, a wedding-DJ-standby, and the center of a very Obama-Era debate over whether it was creepy to have a song called “Blurred Lines” in the first place (it was.) Now, it was also found to have violated IP owned by Marvin Gaye’s estate, specifically the classic song “Got To Give It Up”—a brilliant track that VIBED a lot like “Blurred Lines” without sharing much, if any, direct musical DNA. It was a bombshell.

In the years since, the music industry has changed. Songwriters became more cautious, backroom deals were struck, catalogs got bought, and everyone accused Ed Sheeran of stealing their songs.  But why was the lawsuit actually decided in favor of Gaye? And what does that tell us about the legal structures that shape modern music? To get a better sense, Saxon and Sam dig into the details of the case, unpacking the epically unmoored nature of modern copyright, the invisible impact of sampling, the music biz negotiations that followed the ruling, and the AI possibilities hurtling at us all. Come to hear us try and remember what 2013 sounded like. Stay for some beautiful—and we mean beautiful—depositions.

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In the digital economy, recommendation algorithms get…a LOT of attention. To some, they’re the special sauce behind everything from Spotify’s personalized playlists to Tik Tok’s “For You” page. For others, they represent a dark, vibe-generating demiurge slowly sapping music’s social power. But for all the discussion of how these programs are transforming our world(s), there’s surprisingly little analysis of what—exactly—they are, or how they’re meant to work.

Answering these seemingly simple questions is the goal of Nick Seaver’s new book “Computing Taste,” which explores the identities, goals, and practices of the programmers behind these technologies. Far from Machiavellian manipulators, the coders he describes are surprisingly idealistic music-lovers, desperately trying to analyze an almost infinitely complex cultural practice. Their failures to do so—and the ideologies they adopted as a result—would have enormous implications for the development of digital music, remaking genres, redefining listening, and shaping the platforms at the heart of the modern industry. Put it this way—we’ll definitely never look at a "Discover Weekly" playlist the same way again.

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No one knows anything about the streaming economy. Not Really. That’s the stark message at the heart of Public Knowledge’s new whitepaper “Streaming in the Dark,” which catalogs the remarkable “wall of NDAs” operating at every level of the modern music industry. The relationship between labels and streaming services? NDA. The relationship between distributors and streaming services? NDA. and on and on and on. As a result, the most important questions about how the business works—for example... are artists making more or less money? They can’t even be posed, let alone answered. To learn more, we spoke with Meredith Rose, the lead author on the report. It’s a conversation that moves from the historical roots of our current mess (consent decrees anyone?) to what could be done to begin making a change. Come for wild facts about Lady Gaga’s contracts. Honestly—stay for them too. This system is nuts.

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For this episode, Saxon and Sam check in on Spotify, which is…not in great shape. Even in the best of times, the company was handcuffed to the majors, and threatened by mega-sized competitors like Apple & Amazon. And these, my friend, are no longer the best of times. But it’s okay! They’ll get...faster! And more efficient! And, um, remake their homepage? That’ll do it. Definitely. 
 
Meanwhile, the majors are starting to make noise about the need to change the streaming ecosystem. It used to be about the MUSIC, you know? Now it’s all playlists and independent distributors and fake musicians and false clicks…or something like that. But the more things change, the more things stay the same, financially speaking. We dig into why Universal Music is thinking about ripping up a system that it (more or less) set up in the first place, and what that tells us about the power structure of the industry—and where it might be heading. Come for Saxon’s love of Midnight Oil—stay for a discussion of how this weird, change-filled moment could open a potent space for artistic activism.

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In the '90s, a remarkable sound was being developed in Houston—its cavernous drums, booming, crawling vocals, and distinctive, hiccuping rhythms reflect the indelible influence of DJ Screw. During the latter half of the decade, the hardworking musician produced hundreds if not thousands of tapes, mixing regional classics with on-the-fly freestyles to develop a new template for southern rap. While Screw's life was cut tragically short, his musical style has lived on, influencing everything from Drake and A$AP Rocky to the entire "slowed and reverbed" digital community.
 
But what was it about Houston that made Screw's career possible? What was it about TAPES that made Screw's career possible? To find out more, we talked with Lance Scott Walker, whose astounding oral history, "DJ Screw: A LIfe in Slow Motion" stands as the definitive account of this sonic trailblazer. Digging into urban histories, analog theories, and business practices, this episode explores the world that made Screw—and the world that Screw made.
 

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Music: DJ Screw - "My Mind Went Blank"

Screwed Up Records

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The success of YouTube has been inextricably linked to the music business. Initially a remarkably effective streaming pirate, recent years have seen the site pivot to industry ally, paying out millions in royalties for the copyrighted material played on its platform. But who gets the money? And how? And…who is making sure it goes to the right people?

These are the questions opened up by Billboard journalist Kristin Robinson in her fascinating discussion of a remarkable YouTube scam that saw a handful of little-known Phoenix producers claim millions of dollars in royalties from many of Latin music’s biggest names. The mere possibility of the scam reflects the opaque complexity of a mega-system that turns user eyeballs (and the ad dollars that follow them) into artist revenue—a machine that’s designed to keep the platforms wealthy, with little regard for anyone else. Come for the Lamborghini—stay for an exploration of how tech giants have managed to remake the world (of copyright, but ovbi not JUST of copyright) to fit their needs.

Read Kristin Robinson's article on Billboard

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Music: Sauna Youth - "Modern Living"

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