onfocus

Perhaps Spotify understood the stakes—that when it removed real classical, jazz, and ambient artists from popular playlists and replaced them with low-budget stock muzak, it was steamrolling real music cultures, actual traditions within which artists were trying to make a living.

Spotify has been a huge success at extracting money from artists and making a few people very rich. Platforming hate speech while stealing from artists is them giving the middle finger while doing it. No shame exists for Spotify, only financial consequences of some kind will change how they operate.

Tommy Cappel, who co-founded the group Beats Antique, says the Archive is “hugely valued in the music community” for its preservation of everything from rare recordings to live sets. “This is important work that deserves to continue for generations to come, and we don’t want to see everything they’ve already done for musicians and our legacy erased,” he added. “Major labels could see all musicians, past and present, as partners — instead of being the bad guy in this dynamic. They should drop their suit. Archives keep us alive.”

Yes, I listen to all my Frank Sinatra through The Great 78 Project rather than buying CDs. It really is the most convenient way to listen to music despite the pops and scratches of digitization process. « This is sarcasm. And this lawsuit is more out-of-control copyright enforcement. We need the Internet Archive.

Music League makes music social in a way that social media algorithms, ironically, do not. Every league I am in has a group chat that erupts when a new playlist drops, and again when the votes are in. The comments on the songs are often very funny and might be my favorite part of the game.

I've been playing Music League with friends for a while and it has been a great way to hear new music. Lots of conversations about music and sharing memories about music that wouldn't happen otherwise. Highly recommended!

That being said: She’s a billionaire, her tour is taking over the world, she’s transforming the music industry in real time, and very few living celebrities have her scale of cultural influence. With all the love in the world, shouldn’t someone be, at least, attempting to look without fear or favor to see if she’s truly keeping her side of the street clean?

The kinds of stories that could shed light on the music industry if they looked with a critical eye.

Breaking news from Spotify: starting in 2024 (less than two months from now), they will no longer pay any royalty on tracks that fall below a minimum 1,000 streams a year. These tracks will still earn royalties, in theory – but those royalties will not be paid to their rights holders. Instead, they will go into a pot to be divided among accounts that garner more plays.

Happy holidays from Spotify, artists!

Update (12/4): Happy holidays from Spotify, employees

The star’s comments come amid a wave of anti-trans legislation in the U.S., specifically targeted at restricting gender-affirming care for trans youth. While right-wing politicians claim that the risks of this kind of care do not outweigh the benefits, peer-reviewed research disagrees. Multiple studies show that gender-affirming care reduces the rates of depression and suicidality among transgender kids.

Guys like Carlos Santana think they're taking a lone wolf stand but they're really just joining an angry mob. If you're raising yourself up by dumping on vulnerable people you're on the wrong side.

Statement from Brewster Kahle, digital librarian of the Internet Archive: “When people want to listen to music they go to Spotify. When people want to study sound recordings as they were originally created, they go to libraries like the Internet Archive. Both are needed. There shouldn’t be conflict here.”

Argh, still mad about this. Scratchy 78s are not competition for Sony or Universal. These companies should be helping the Internet Archive preserve music.

The labels' lawsuit filed in a federal court in Manhattan said the Archive's "Great 78 Project" functions as an "illegal record store" for songs by musicians including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday.

Yes, because everyone today signs up for streaming services to listen to old 78s and if this history project is online it means no one will sign up for streaming. WTAF? These companies think they can lock up all of our history and culture behind a paywall. This makes me want to never buy anything from these music companies again.

I’ve been returning to this site frequently. Getting a playlist right is an art that humans are better at than algorithms, and I’m enjoying these curated mixes more than the big streaming service offerings.