HOT: Swift Smack Down, Swift Response
Last year, Pop hitmaker Taylor Swift pulled her music from Spotify, saying she didn’t feel it “fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists and creators.” Outside of some online begging for her to stay, the streaming service did little in response to Swift’s (and many others’) complaints about low per-stream payouts (and no payouts for the service’s ad-supported free version) and it has been dealing with the PR headache ever since. When it was recently discovered that new streaming competitor Apple Music would not compensate creators during its free three-month trial period, independent labels made their opposition to the plan loud and clear. But it appears it took the megastar Swift’s raising her voice to actually make a change. The singer released an open letter explaining why her songs wouldn’t be available on Apple Music due to the “no pay” treatment during the trial period. Wisely sensing a chance to establish some good will (and chase away bad PR), within 24 hours, Apple changed its tune and said it would now pay all artists during the trial period (Apple also signed deals with the upset indie labels after the kerfuffle.) Taylor’s argument reasoned the music should be paid for because “we don’t ask you for free iPhones,” but given the company’s lightning-fast response, she could probably have the contents of an entire Apple Store if she wanted. An interesting controversy came up in the wake of Swift’s complaints, when a photographer pointed out that those wanting credentials to shoot Swift at concerts have to sign a restrictive contract that makes it difficult for the photographer to sell their photos. Swift’s people responded saying that photographers still owned the copyright of the photos, though each shot sold required Swift’s management’s approval (which does indeed make it more difficult to profit from the photos). She also used the excuse that such practices are “industry standard,” which seems hypocritical in the wake of her Apple complaints.
WARM: Angry Music Can Be Mellowing
When someone is involved in perpetrating a violent tragedy — like a mass shooting, for example —conservative, family-value types always love it if it’s discovered that the perpetrator is a fan of “extreme” music, because it feeds into their narrative that such music is destructive. But a recent study out of Australia’s University of Queensland published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal found that “levels of hostility, irritability and stress” decreased when fans of aggressive music (largely various forms of Metal) listened to it. The study, conducted on 39 regular extreme music listeners, found that listening to the music while experiencing anger actually mellowed the subjects and helped regulate the listeners’ emotions and “(enhanced) positive emotions.”
COLD: Pope Man > Piano Man
Billy Joel seems to play Madison Square Garden in New York City every other week. He will break the record for most MSG performances in July when he appears at the storied venue for the 65th time. Joel is on track to further shatter the record this year, with six more shows scheduled (so far) at MSG before 2016. But one of those shows was in danger of not happening. Who could get Mr. “New York State of Mind” bumped from an MSG date? McCartney? The Stones? A resurrected Sinatra? Nope, turns out Pope Francis will be in NYC on Sept. 25 and has scheduled a visit to the venue. The Pope doesn’t want an opening act, so Joel’s concert originally scheduled for that date has been pushed back to Sept. 26.
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2015.
