Music streaming isn’t just a big part of the record business: It basically is the record business. According to RIAA data, streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube contributed 85% of all record industry revenue in the United States in the first six months of last year, …
Read More »Without Shows, Lizzo's Audio Engineer Is Twitch Streaming, Trading Stocks, and Writing a Book
This is the latest of Rolling Stone’sMusic in Crisis series, which looks at how people all across the music industry — thousands of whom have been out of work for months due to the global concert shutdown — are coping with the coronavirus pandemic. When the U.S. government first gave …
Read More »The Music Business Is Holding a 'Blackout.' But No One Seems to Know What That Means
As protesters and industries react to the killing of George Floyd and other black victims of police brutality, artists, executives, and companies from across the music business will participate in a day of silent protest on Tuesday — though a lack of clear messaging from the major labels makes its …
Read More »No Recording Equipment? A Music Manager and Engineer Built a Professional Studio in a RV
Recording studios are still closed along with all other “non-essential” businesses. That hasn’t derailed music-making for huge stars with home studios or bedroom pop purveyors who rely entirely on laptops. It does, however, present a problem to everyone in between. But what if artists could order a sound-proofed RV — …
Read More »Will Coronavirus Cancel Coachella and Other Music Festivals?
Concert season is coming at the worst possible time this year. As the global coronavirus outbreak creeps into major cities across the U.S., the music business — which depends on large-scale festivals for billions of dollars in annual profit —is weighing the costs of canceling lavish events against the economic …
Read More »It's a Taylor Swift World and We're All Forcibly Living in It: A Timeline
Did you know Taylor Swift released an album today? If not — how are things, living as you do under a seven-ton rock inside your mossy cave in Xilitla? Swift’s 18-track Lover dropped at midnight Thursday, yet the record has been undergoing a months-long slow release — à la the …
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