In a clip from the forthcoming American Idol season, Kanye West successfully auditions for the show. It helped that he rapped his hit “Gold Digger,” which name-drops judge Jennifer Lopez. The new season — the show’s last — begins on Wednesday night, and expect a lot of media this time around.
https://youtu.be/mulvnLin22g
A young man’s love of rock and roll told through secretly recorded conversations with his parents, and animates it 30 years later. Mike Cohen turns a weighty sense of history, and surely a frustrating time into one that’s incredible, after all these years.
The Brother Mike Tapes: 1985 from rodd perry on Vimeo.
Photo by Eva Murray
Mantinicus Island is a community off the coast of Maine, population 51. It sounds like the start of a Steven King novel, but it’s an actual town – they don’t have a high school or a doctor, or a mall, or lights or expedited delivery or drive-through eateries. But they do have a public library. It’s housed inside an 8 by 20 foot utility shed. Eva Murray, a resident of the island, writes about this awesome little library in the Penobscot Bay Pilot.
We have no dignified stone building and we will be doing without a pair of lion statues out front, an antique map room upstairs, or the classic stern and tweedy librarian shushing children from behind a marble desk. In the usual style of journalism about Matinicus, there is the list of what we don’t have: we don’t have the Dewey decimal system or library cards or late fees or any chance at a hushed and reverent silence. There will surely be no need for that. We hope to have our nascent library recognized by the Maine School and Library Network, and to eventually have our Internet through them. This was in fact the initial impetus for the whole library project. Last year Matinicus had no school-aged children on the island. In June of 2015, despite firm assertion on the part of our Superintendent of Schools that there would be enrolled students the following year (and indeed, there now are,) MSLN disconnected service to our school. Reconnection was, for some reason, an exceedingly drawn-out and laborious process. The connection provided by MSLN is much more than household subscriber Internet; it supports the school’s Tandberg videoconferencing unit, useful for meetings such as fisheries and energy-related informational workshops organized by the Island Institute, University of Maine courses for professional development and adult continuing education, special services or counseling that may be required by community members including students, and routine inter-connectivity among all of Maine’s one-room island schools. This level of service would not be affordable without MSLN.
-via Jessamyn West
It dominated the dancefloor throughout last year; and today OfficialCharts.com can reveal that Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk is the biggest song of 2015.
The track, which features Bruno Mars, notched up a combined sales and streaming total of 1.76 million to finish at the top of the end of year chart. The song’s total combined sales since its release in November 2014 stand at 2.25 million.
Uptown Funk has proved unstoppable throughout 2015. As well as spending a total of seven weeks at Number 1, the track logged 39 weeks in the Top 40 before finally exiting in October.
Finishing at Number 2 is OMI’s Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix). The summer smash first entered the Official Singles Chart at Number 96 in January and steadily scaled the tally for 14 weeks until its April impact date, eventually reaching the summit in May for four consecutive weeks. Cheerleader finishes 2015 with a combined sales total of 1.52 million.
Taking third place on 2015 biggest songs list is Hozier’s Take Me To Church with 1.25 million combined sales. The stirring soul-blues track racked up huge sales over the last 12 months despite never reaching Number 1, peaking at 2 for four consecutive weeks after a 20-week climb inside the Top 40.
At Number 4 is Ellie Goulding’s Love Me Like You Do. The 50 Shades Of Grey movie song topped the chart for four weeks (holding Hozier off the top spot for three of them!) back in February. By the end of 2015, the song notched up 1.19 million combined sales.
Rounding off the end of year Top 5 is Wiz Khalifa’s See You Again. The Fast & Furious 7 tribute to actor Paul Walker, which topped the Official Singles Chart for two weeks in April, finishes close behind Goulding on 1.17 million sales and streams. It’s also the first of two entries for the song’s guest star and co-writer Charlie Puth, who places at 34 with his Meghan Trainor collaboration Marvin Gaye.
| 1 | UPTOWN FUNK | MARK RONSON FT BRUNO MARS |
| 2 | CHEERLEADER (FELIX JAEHN REMIX) | OMI |
| 3 | TAKE ME TO CHURCH | HOZIER |
| 4 | LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO | ELLIE GOULDING |
| 5 | SEE YOU AGAIN | WIZ KHALIFA FT CHARLIE PUTH |
| 6 | HELLO | ADELE |
| 7 | LEAN ON | MAJOR LAZER FT MO & DJ SNAKE |
| 8 | HOLD BACK THE RIVER | JAMES BAY |
| 9 | WHAT DO YOU MEAN | JUSTIN BIEBER |
| 10 | SORRY | JUSTIN BIEBER |
| 11 | KING | YEARS & YEARS |
| 12 | THINKING OUT LOUD | ED SHEERAN |
| 13 | SUGAR | MAROON 5 |
| 14 | HOLD MY HAND | JESS GLYNNE |
| 15 | WHERE ARE U NOW | SKRILLEX & DIPLO/JUSTIN BIEBER |
| 16 | WANT TO WANT ME | JASON DERULO |
| 17 | ARE YOU WITH ME | LOST FREQUENCIES |
| 18 | FOURFIVE SECONDS | RIHANNA/KANYE WEST/MCCARTNEY |
| 19 | SHUT UP & DANCE | WALK THE MOON |
| 20 | HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE | CALVIN HARRIS & DISCIPLES |
| 21 | CAN’T FEEL MY FACE | WEEKND |
| 22 | FIRESTONE | KYGO FT CONRAD SEWELL |
| 23 | TRAP QUEEN | FETTY WAP |
| 24 | LOVE YOURSELF | JUSTIN BIEBER |
| 25 | THE HILLS | WEEKND |
| 26 | EARNED IT | WEEKND |
| 27 | BLACK MAGIC | LITTLE MIX |
| 28 | WISH YOU WERE MINE | PHILIP GEORGE |
| 29 | PHOTOGRAPH | ED SHEERAN |
| 30 | THE NIGHTS | AVICII |
| 31 | RUNAWAY (U & I) | GALANTIS |
| 32 | ELASTIC HEART | SIA |
| 33 | BLOODSTREAM | ED SHEERAN |
| 34 | MARVIN GAYE | CHARLIE PUTH FT MEGHAN TRAINOR |
| 35 | UP | OLLY MURS FT DEMI LOVATO |
| 36 | NOT LETTING GO | TINIE TEMPAH FT JESS GLYNNE |
| 37 | SHINE | YEARS & YEARS |
| 38 | AYO | CHRIS BROWN & TYGA |
| 39 | DON’T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF | JESS GLYNNE |
| 40 | HOTLINE BLING | DRAKE |
Via Official Charts
See? Even 30 years ago, Star Wars was a very big deal. In 1984, the story about the galaxy far, far away made its television debut on CBS and this was a very big deal. Here’s the intro to that moment in history where Mark Hammill even wore a tux.
On December 15, 2015, the Copyright Royalty Board issued its decision establishing non-interactive webcasting royalty rates for sound recordings in the 2016-2020 period. These rates represent a partial increase over the amount currently paid by digital radio services transmitting music via the Internet. In 2016, the rate for nonsubscription services is $0.0017 per performance, and for subscription services, it is $0.0022 per performance. For the remainder of the term (through 2020), the prices will be adjusted according to the Consumer Price Index.
Future of Music Coalition CEO Casey Rae made the following statement:
These rates aren’t exactly a lump of coal. Over the past decade, we’ve seen billions of dollars in revenue generated by the explosive growth in webcasting. The new rates will allow artists and independent labels to participate in this success at a higher level. The fundamental value of popular Internet radio services comes from music creators, and we are glad this has been recognized in a healthy rate increase for non-subscription Internet radio services. Creators can feel good about how payout is structured under the statutory license, where revenue splits between artists and labels are fair and transparent, and payment to artists comes direct from SoundExchange.
We are concerned, however, that there does not appear to be a distinction in rates for small commercial webcasters. Digital music benefits from diversity, and services with more modest operations often help developing talent and niche genres find audiences while contributing to the overall revenue pool. If there isn’t an option for new entrants to perform music from a broad range of artists, we may end up with a less diverse digital landscape.
It also appears that by combining pureplay and commercial rates, incumbent broadcasters will receive a sizable reduction in royalty obligations for their digital transmissions. Commercial terrestrial radio already gets an unfair advantage due to the fact that they are not required to pay performers a dime for over-the-air broadcasts. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the developed world. Congress should take swift action to close this loophole to support a positive global balance of trade and the equitable treatment of American creators. And artists and their allies should push back on consolidated corporate FM getting yet another unfair advantage.
SoundExchange issued the statement below in response to the decision:
SoundExchange presented a strong case on the fair market rate for music played by webcasters utilizing the statutory license. Our rate proposal used data from dozens of marketplace deals and was based on what willing buyers and sellers would agree to.
“Music has tremendous value and is the core foundation of the webcasting industry. It’s only fair that artists and record labels receive a market price when their music is used. We believe the rates set by the CRB do not reflect a market price for music and will erode the value of music in our economy. We will review the decision closely and consider all of our options.
“Additionally it is deeply disappointing to see that broadcasters are being given another unfair advantage. In their terrestrial business they do not pay a dime for the recordings they use and now this $17B industry will receive an additional huge subsidy on the music they use in webcasting.
“As music advocates, SoundExchange represents the entire recorded music industry and we remain united on the principle that recording artists and rights owners deserve a fair market rate when their music is used.
“SoundExchange appreciates the efforts of the CRB judges and staff throughout this process.
The National Association of Broadcasters Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton released his statement, too:
We are reviewing the CRB decision, but are pleased that streaming rates have begun to move in the right direction. Broadcasters want to expand into new distribution platforms; the challenge has been that rates are too high for thousands of local stations. We hope today’s decision alleviates some of the rate burden and will enable more radio stations to stream music, which will benefit artists, songwriters and our millions of listeners.
Last Week Tonight host John Oliver helps you revise the New Year’s resolutions you’ve already failed to keep.
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Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.
Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com
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