Spotify boss Daniel Ek is a man who's apparently got used to the good times. For many years now, Spotify's share price has kept going up, the major labels have been happy with what they're getting and subscriber numbers have continued to rise. For a while, it seemed like he could do no wrong - except to the artists whose music is on the site, of course. How different things…
Over the past few days, I've written a bit about the end of the Belleville Three. The myth, which was created by journalist Neil Rushton in the 1980s, speaks a fabled tale of three black men from the poorest areas of Detroit coming together and changing the world with their new brand of music from the future. It would be an incredible story of rags to riches if it were…
Yesterday, a rather disturbing video emerged on social media. The roughly one minute long clip contained a picture of a woman who appeared to have been assaulted, and included audio of what I will simply term a disturbing conversation between a man and a woman. The video has since been removed by the account which uploaded it. A man - who is understood to be the 20-year old Manchester United…
Nearly four years ago now, Daniel Ek had more idealist ambitions than he does today. Whereas the Spotify boss nowadays seems to care more about investing his money in defence tech startups and trying to buy football clubs, there was a time when he did appear to have some interesting ideas for his streaming site. In March 2018, Ek gave a speech where he confirmed he wanted Spotify to pay…
The myth of the Belleville Three had a good life, but now it’s time for the final nail in its coffin to be well and truly hammered down. With Derrick May now having effectively been disgraced, it has brought about the revelation in Detroit that they will now never see the three men who perform under this fictional name together again. Nearly a fortnight ago, I published a not terribly…
This blog makes no pretence of objectivity. I have opinions and I use this blog to express them. I don’t run a news wire service - anyone who comes onto the blog and encounters a story they weren’t aware of will know my opinion will be inside it somewhere. And one company I absolutely do not claim to be objective on is Spotify. Quite simply, I loathe the company. I…
For a while there, I was beginning to come to the conclusion that having a go at Nervous Records and their boss Michael Weiss is a little bit like spanking a man in a gimp suit. You’re ultimately using your own time and energy to carry out the act and you suspect that the gimp secretly likes the punishment being doled out. Such was the near total indifference to the…
Dance music producers from the 80s and 90s come in three different varieties. You have your Danny J Lewis types who produced music many years ago and still do to this day - they occasionally mention their archive, but are typically more about the here and now. You have your Carl Craig types who produced good music in the 90s and now milk the archive due to not being as…
The relationship between dance music and classical has never been an easy one. Many in the classical world look down on dance music, mostly due to the fact it's mostly made with machines and samples rather than "real" instruments. Hence why the two worlds didn't mix much for a long time. But things are changing. In an age where it's harder than ever to get listeners, crossing genres up is…
Much has been said over the past few days about musician Neil Young demanding his music was taken off Spotify due to false Covid information allegedly being broadcast by their $100million podcaster Joe Rogan. A few of you have asked what my view is on it - so I'll tell you. I have never listened to a single podcast from Joe Rogan. Running this blog alongside everything else I do…
