Much of the time, it feels like almost nothing could shake up the streaming status-quo. This isn’t one of those times. Over the past week, Congressperson Rashida Tlaib (with support from the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers) released the Living Wage for Musicians Act—a fascinating piece of legislation that (if passed) would completely transform the contemporary music industry. Like…really REALLY change things, in ways both obvious and subtle.
While it’s hard to see an immediate path towards it being signed into law, the act demonstrates a genuine hunger for large-scale structural change—and helps to lay out an imaginative framework for what that could look like. We dig into the details, but also explore what this newfound sense of possibilities might mean for the future—a question that also connects to current, racially-coded attempts to ban music-biz-hotbed Tik Tok. Connecting such seemingly disparate events, we wonder what this emergent energy means, and where it could go next. Come for the 12-Million Stream Cap—stay for the beautiful dream of major label transparency.
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Music: La Sécurité - "K9 Freaks Mix (Freak Heat Waves Remix)"
Tik Tok and Music’s Mimetic Future with Cat Zhang
The Origins of the American Record Industry with Kyle Barnett
A Major #Mood: Spotify, Labels, and our Dismal Streaming Future
The Environmental Impact of Music with Kyle Devine
Who is #SaveOurStages Actually Saving?
The Music Modernization Act and the Powers That Be
Ragtime and The American Clave with Wayne Marshall
Calling Bullsh*t on the Napster Narrative
You Can't Segregate the Airwaves (but you can definitely own them)
Hipgnosis Hypnotizes the Music Industry
King Records: Rock 'n' Roll Originator, Indie Label OG and Radical Racial Integration
The Federal Music Project with Professor Kenneth Bindas
Tekashi 6ix9ine is Kind of Right: The Return of Payola
Deconstructing Prince
Live Music in Quarantine
Fiona Apple, Pitchfork, and What is a 10?
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