In this week’s reading list, The Guardian reviews John Seabrook’s “The Song Machine,” Facebook dips a toe into music streaming, The New York Times breaks down the emerging business of music curation, a rapper releases his album using Bitcoin, while two other rappers make a music video out of nothing but cats. What a time to be alive.
Remember last week when we pointed out that Bitcoin might have a lot to do with the future of the music industry? Well here’s another example: Talib Kweli has released his newest album on ZapChain, for $12 worth of Bitcoin. Eat your heart out, iTunes store.
http://coinjournal.net/talib-kweli-selling-new-album-indie-500-on-zapchain-for-bitcoin/
The NYT has taken a deep dive into the world of music curation, and specifically those radio stations that are doing it the best and the most. One of those is Seattle’s KEXP, who are expanding and opening a brand new complex very soon.
Facebook is kinda, sorta, trying out this whole music streaming thing. It’s called ‘Music Stories’ and it enables you to share 30-second snippets of songs on your feed. It’s powered by Spotify, Apple and iTunes, but it appears in a Facebook-branded video player.
If you haven’t read John Seabrook’s new book, The Song Machine, you should really get on that. If you need more convincing, the Guardian’s Alex Needham has written a fantastic review that’ll give you a great idea of what you’re getting yourself into.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/04/john-seabrook-song-machine-review-pop-music
Last year, hip hop duo Run The Jewels released Run The Jewels 2. Then somebody make a Kickstarter to raise the necessary funds for the album to be remixed using only cat noises. Of course the Kickstarter reached its goal, and of course the video for “All Meow Life” is comprised of nothing but viral cat videos. It’s a masterpiece meowsterpiece.