The Marshall Project
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Ear Hustle’s Antwan Banks Williams Goes Deep on ‘Like Father, Like Son’
Two years after the podcast’s co-creator’s dad died, he used hip-hop to celebrate their bond.
Two years after the podcast’s co-creator’s dad died, he used hip-hop to celebrate their bond.
Ike White’s “Changin’ Times” spans soul, rock, pop and jazz. On its 50th anniversary, it’s finally getting its due.
The AT Protocol has the potential to shift power dynamics in the realm of music streaming. To get indie artists and labels on board, we can avoid the mistakes of Web 2.0 streaming platform by using standard music industry data points in our lexicons.
Pondering “You Get What You Give,” the one-hit wonder recorded by a guy smart enough to realize that it would be a one-hit wonder. It’s a survival story.
Why the single version of the cassette didn’t feel as worthy of a purchase as, say, a 45. Or, perhaps, even a digital download.
Why children’s radio—a format once important enough that Disney undermined a competitor to dominate the radio dial—has largely disappeared from the airwaves.
A few copy-protection schemes, of varying levels of success, you’ve possibly run into over the years. Don’t lose your code wheel.
Musicians selling out isn’t really that big a deal anymore—except when it’s done really poorly, as in the case of Beck’s odd NFL ad that made Neil Young mad.
Pondering the issue of repetition in four different ways, in an effort to not repeat myself. Ever feel like you’re repeating yourself? Read this.
Why the superfan will become ever more important to the music industry over time, or why $1,200 box sets exist despite appealing to only a few people.
For people who have spent their youth touring the world in death metal bands, trying to transition to normalcy is where things get tough.
The DualDisc format, which combined CDs with DVDs, led a fleeting and ephemeral existence, despite a heavy push from the music industry. What happened?
Being a collector of physical media (mostly vinyl) in the digital age changes the experience to some degree. Much of it comes down to the all-knowing algorithm.
Pondering the surprising number of musical acts that have official members that don’t actually play an instrument or sing. You know, like Coldplay.
Ticketmaster pulled a fast one on the concert-going public by making it impossible to redeem free tickets in a class-action settlement. We should boycott.
How Danny Elfman's Oingo Boingo permeated popular culture, especially in the early '80s, thanks in no small part to the rise of movie soundtracks.
How a famed guitarist best known for working with Frank Zappa and King Crimson scored a hit with his daughter, mocking his semi-successful music career.
The defining debate of the early compact disc era centered around the longbox, a wasteful form of packaging pushed by retailers and paper manufacturers.
Lessons from the music industry’s initial consumer-hostile reaction to the Napster saga. Going from $16 CDs to unlimited streaming is really hard.
What it’s like to experience The Tragically Hip’s catalog for the first time, as a complete outsider, in 2017. Long story short: The U.S. really missed out.
For a while, hidden tracks were everywhere, especially during the CD era. But thanks to streaming music, there’s nowhere to put them. Is that good or bad?
DRM, one of the internet’s dark arts, was already in the works—complete with epic patents—years before the existence of Napster gave it a business case.
From 8-Track to Laserdisc to CD+G to ISDN lines to YouTube, the different technologies that made karaoke possible. (Alcohol helps, too.)
What the story of Bob Seger's decision to keep most of his albums off of music services teaches about the nature of stubbornness.
The Shins could make a talented band’s life a little easier by giving away their old touring van. But how much of a deal is freecycling an old van, really?
When AllMusic launched 25 years ago, it wasn't an obvious big data play. But it became one. Hidden in its millions of entries is music's collective history.
Most guitarists don't tend to think it's a good idea to put foreign objects on their prized rock instruments. But some do, and they make the craziest music.
When Prince died, he left behind a massive legacy of music. He left behind an equally massive legacy of copyright enforcement. Here's why.
Being gatekeepers, music charts have a massive influence on the songs we hear on the radio. And that influence isn't exclusive to Billboard, by the way.
If Stone Temple Pilots were to continue on in the wake of Scott Weiland's death, it wouldn't be an unheard-of phenomenon. Just ask The Doors and Sublime.
Laserdisc, anyone? How about HitClips? And what's the deal with slotMusic? All these media formats were made for some reason. We're not sure why.
Vinyl records are getting all the buzz these days, but what about magnetic tapes? They're just as quirky—whether we're talking VCR or reel-to-reel.
In the early '90s, a UK acid house duo called The KLF briefly became the country's biggest act. Then, they threw it all away and burned the money for art.
Why rich people really love to pretend to be poor every once in a while, just like in Pulp's \"Common People.\"
In the 1980s and 1990s, Columbia House could do no wrong—as a way to get music, the mail-order service was cheap and easy at first. Then, the bills came.
Lists of the worst album covers ever have been around forever, but often it's the images that spread—not the stories behind the albums. Let's fix that.
People will always push the edges of creativity when they can—that's why we have Marilyn Manson. Today's issue analyzes art and decency.
The traditional song \"Happy Birthday\" is definitive proof that just because a song is traditional doesn't mean it isn't copyrighted.
Guitars, bass, piano, and drums aren't the only way to make a tune. Check out the story of these unusual musical instruments—and the folks who played them.
Before Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Lou Reed became an rock icon, he cut his teeth on producing soundalike recordings. People are still making 'em today.
From \"Disco Sucks\" to a jilted city turning on its own team, baseball riots are among the most entertaining you'll find.
There's a chance that the song you're hearing on the radio isn't saying what you think it is. Today, we dig into pop music's oddest contradictions.
Bootlegged movies and music are fairly common online these days, but it was a guy who worked at an opera who got things going.
The late Leonard Nimoy may have been shoehorned by fame a bit, but he never let that get in the way of his creativity. Nor should you.
Hannah, my sister, set up shop on Bandcamp this afternoon in order to sell her album, Pre-Apocalyptic Love Song. I set up hannahwerdmuller.com for her and put together a simple header graphic based on something she drew a while ago – and in the process, totally fell in love with Bandcamp. This is how a music service should be. Here are some reasons why: It makes it easy for fans to share. I bought the album, of course. I also shared it with my friends on Facebook and Twitter from her page. And
There were some great comments on this weekend’s guest post for Media140 about Lily Allen and sharing, so I’ve written a follow-up, exploring some ideas (and the arguments left in the comments) in a little more detail. However, after at least a decade without tangible participation from the media industries, illegal file sharing has become mainstream. Companies, rights holders, device manufacturers and digital distributors have been engaged in difficult and important conversations for that time
I’ve written a guest post over at the Media140 blog about Lily Allen’s file sharing stance, and the wider place of traditional record labels in the Internet economy. If the Internet has brought us anything, it is individuality. We have the ability to publish, share and consume the media of our choice, based upon our own preferences. We are no longer happy to adhere to the conventions of broad demographic groups. This change is not just occurring in the record industry; it is happening in politi