HOT: Dead Man Streaming
One of the few holdouts on the bigger streaming services will reportedly have music available on those services by the night of the Grammys, Feb. 12. Though it feels a little gross to have the work of a music legend who seemed to dislike streaming featured again on platforms like Apple Music and Spotify less than a year after he died, that won’t stop Prince fans from streaming away when his back catalog goes live later this month. Prince got ownership of the music from his years on Warner Brothers Records (1978-1996) in 2014 and promptly yanked everything off of all streaming services except Tidal, with which he had an exclusive deal.
WARM: “Oh Yeah,” He’s Rich
In a recent profile, The Wall Street Journal did its own sort of Behind the Music, only this time there were no traumatic drug-overdose deaths or destructive band infighting. The paper caught up with Dieter Meier of the duo Yello, who co-wrote “Oh Yeah,” a minimalistic Electronic track from 1985 that took off when featured in 1986’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The song went on to be used in innumerable other films and several commercial campaigns, which alone would net a big profit. But thanks to wisely investing the money (in ventures ranging from a railway company to a watchmaker), Meier is reportedly worth $175 million today. Oh yeah, indeed.
In the wake of this news, someone needs to do a mental-health check on the dudes from Sigue Sigue Sputnik:
COLD: The Trump Bump
The massive, undeniable influence President Donald Trump has on popular culture (full of losers, mostly) manifested itself on the recent Billboard album chart. After performing as part of what was absolutely the biggest welcome concert for what was unequivocally the most-watched inauguration in the history of probably not only the U.S. but the universe, 3 Doors Down’s The Greatest Hits (“Hits”? Plural?) and Toby Keith’s more modestly titled 35 Greatest Hits re-entered the Top 200 chart at No. 94 and No. 159, respectively (and with a bullet!). Ha! Now I bet you wish you performed, Beyoncé!
Major loser Beyoncé singing to a tiny, microscopic crowd at President Obama's 2013 inauguration:
