Music

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Kendrick Lamar bans all cameras during his latest tour (update: no)
You've likely heard of big-name musicians banning smartphones at concerts, but Kendrick Lamar is taking things one step further. The superstar isn't allowing any cameras during the European stint of his latest tour, including pro photographers. Yes, you won't even have the opportunity to share official shots, let alone record the show with your phone. Lamar had allowed some pros during his North American gigs, but that's apparently as far as he was willing to go.
Best Buy will stop CD sales as digital music continues to take over
There's not much reason to shop for CDs when you download or stream all your music, and big-box stores are reacting to that decline. Billboard sources have learned that Best Buy has told suppliers that it will remove music CDs from its stores as of July 1st. The chain was only making $40 million per year from the plastic discs -- a drop in the bucket for a retailer this size. Vinyl aficionados will still find records on sale for the next 2 years, according to the insiders, although they may have to be sold next to the turntables themselves.
Apple Music could overtake Spotify in the US this summer
Spotify's lead in paid music streaming might not be as impregnable as it looks. The Wall Street Journal has obtained industry figures suggesting that Apple Music is growing faster than Spotify in the US, adding 5 percent to its base every month versus 'just' 2 percent for Spotify. If that rate continues, Apple could surpass its rival in the country during the summer. There are other numbers to suggest Apple is catching up, for that matter.
Spotify teams with Discord to soundtrack your gaming chats
Spotify and gaming chat app Discord are joining forces so your entire channel can bump to the same music during a raid. Starting today, you can link your Spotify Premium account to your Discord account and keep the beats rocking for your entire community. "All users are now able to instantly highlight and share their favorite tunes with their friends across Discord," Spotify writes.
Apple Music adds exclusive DJ mixes from Steve Aoki and more
Spotify and Apple Music partnered up with Dubset, a rights-management and distribution platform for DJs and remixers, a couple of years ago. Sony Music and independent record company Merlin also partnered with the company to make sure samples in remixed songs are monetized, as well. Dubset's MixBANK system makes sure both artists being sampled and those creating mixes get the royalties they deserve. Now, the company is bringing hundreds of DJ mixes to Apple Music, with three exclusive DJ sets from Steve Aoki, Sigala and DJ Suss One.
Spotify is testing a Pandora-esque standalone Android app
Spotify apparently has plans to launch another music app -- one that's more like Pandora's original service, or like a radio, if you will. The company has begun testing a playlist-based app called "Stations" for Android, and according to its Google Play listing, it plays music as soon as you launch it. You'll have to "like" tracks in the app so it can create personalized stations for you, but like Spotify's main app, Stations learns what music you prefer the more you listen. All you need to do to switch stations and automatically start playing other music is to scroll through your playlists.
Streaming services must give songwriters a 44 percent pay hike
Songwriters just claimed a major victory in the fight for better pay from streaming giants like Apple and Spotify. The US Copyright Royalty Board has ruled for an increase in songwriter rates that will give them a 43.8 percent pay raise over the next 5 years. They also won't have to jump through hoops to figure out how much they're owed: they'll claim either a percentage of revenue or the total content costs, whichever pays the most. There are no longer caps on writer rates, for that matter.
Recommended Reading: The making of Elton John's VR retirement party
How Elton John's VR retirement announcement hit your headset Emma Grey Ellis, Wired If you haven't heard, music legend Sir Elton John announced his retirement and final tour this week in the most 2018 way possible: VR. Wired goes behind the scenes to get the details on how that montage was made before it beamed out to your headset.
Jack White is the latest musician to ban phones at shows
We hope you weren't planning to document your next Jack White gig as it happens. White is following the lead of Alicia Keys, Dave Chappelle and other performers by banning the use of phones during his next US tour, which starts in April. When you get to the venue, you'll have to put your phone and other camera-equipped devices in a Yondr pouch that stays locked until the end of the show. You can unlock your phone if there's a call you need to make, but you'll have to go to a designated zone in the concourse or lobby first.
Drake breaks single-day streaming records on Apple Music and Spotify (updated)
Poor Tay Tay. The queen of pop music has just been deposed on the streaming service she fought with most by none other than Drake himself. According to Pitchfork, the artist's latest song, "God's Plan" now holds the title for the most streams in a single day ever.
YouTube reportedly curbing musician criticism with promotion deals
YouTube has always had a rocky relationship with the music industry, and the struggle looks set to continue following reports that the video streaming service is effectively bribing artists to keep their criticisms to themselves. According to sources cited by Bloomberg, YouTube has given a number of musicians several hundred thousand dollars for promotional support, on the promise that they don't say negative things about the site.
Pioneer's new iOS app can power your next DJ livestream
Pioneer's DJ mix recording app is now available for your iPhone and iPad. Cleverly named DJM-REC, the free-to-download app connects to any mixer with a USB send/return channel to record, archive and even livestream your mixes. The app gives you a 30-day trial, after which you'll need to purchase the full app for $10.
YouTube's unified artist channels clean up its music mess
If you treat YouTube like a jukebox, you know how confusing it can be when your favorite artists have multiple channels. You may have to go to one channel to get the pure album cuts, and another to watch the music videos. Mercifully, YouTube is reducing that clutter -- it's launching unified Official Artist Channels that put all of a musician's content in one place. In theory, you just have to search for an artist by their name to find everything they've posted to the site.
Apple Music now offers artists detailed streaming and download info
As a musician, knowing how your songs are performing on streaming platforms is important. Spotify brought real-time stats and demographic information to a dedicated app for artists this past October, while Pandora and YouTube have had similar dashboards for a while now. Finally, Cupertino is catching up with the beta launch of Apple Music for Artists, a dashboard that lets users drill down into various statistics on song performance from now to as far back as 2015, when the Apple Music service launched.
Recommended Reading: Please bring back 'NBA Jam'
How the silver anniversary of 'NBA Jam' could resurrect the franchise Law Murray, ESPN Will the iconic basketball game NBA Jam be revived for its 25th anniversary? EA already rebooted the franchise once, but the original voice of the game wants to bring it back once more. ESPN caught up with Tim Kitzrow, the man behind the legendary "BOOMSHAKALAKA!" catch phrase, to get the latest details -- complete with additional backstory from creator Mark Turmell.
Def Leppard albums you might actually listen to are now streaming
The list of streaming holdouts just got shorter. British rock outfit Def Leppard has made its catalog of older albums available on streaming services for the first time. Until now, only the band's more recent releases were on the likes of Spotify and others. In other words, the material from the band's glory days -- like Pyromania and Hysteria -- weren't included in music services' catalogs. Of course, it's also a nice bit of promotion ahead of the group's summer tour with Journey.
Korg finally has a mixer to link up those tiny Volca synths
Korg has been producing a ton of little synths in its Volca series over the last several years. Announced back in 2013, the initial Volca Beat, Bass and Keys started a run that eventually included an OK Go sample box, an '80s-style FM synth and an oscillator-driven drum sequencer, the Volca Kick. Now the company wants you to be able to chain a few of these tiny devices together for live performance with a new four channel mixer, the Volca Mix, announced at NAMM this year. According to FactMag, the Mix will run $170 and will release later this month.
SiriusXM adds streaming-style features to its in-car radio service
In-car listening has come a long way in the past decade. Where satellite radio used to be one of the few ways to get live digital shows in your car, it's now trivially easy to bring your phone into the car and stream virtually anything. And SiriusXM knows it -- the company has launched a new platform, 360L, that brings some of the creature comforts of internet streaming to in-car satellite radio. To begin with, there's simply more to listen to -- you can listen to on-demand shows, not to mention channels that were previously online-only.
Japan's latest sensation is a cryptocurrency pop group
If you're starting a pop group in Japan, where giant rosters and virtual superstars are par for the course, how do you stand out? By tying yourself to something trendy -- and in 2018, that means cryptocurrency. Meet Kasotsuka Shojo (Virtual Currency Girls), a J-pop group where each of the eight girls represents one of the larger digital monetary formats. Yes, you're supposed to cheer for bitcoin or swoon over ethereum (what, no litecoin?). The group played its first concert on January 12th, and naturally you had to pay in cryptocurrency to be one of the few members of the general public to get in.
Facebook strikes music licensing deal with Sony
Facebook has signed a deal with Sony that will let you upload videos containing its music without worrying about them being taken down, Variety reports. Users will be able to upload and share videos on Facebook, Oculus and Instagram that with music licensed from Sony/ATV Music Publishing's vast catalog. Copyright infringement has become a big problem on the social network, and Facebook has been working hard to strike deals with music labels to avoid takedowns and fines.

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