music industry
Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too
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.
Cassingle Culture
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.
Tuned Out
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.
Floppy Copy Classics
A few copy-protection schemes, of varying levels of success, you’ve possibly run into over the years. Don’t lose your code wheel.
Sell Out With Me, Oh Yeah
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.
Repetition, In Four Parts
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.
Rock Of Age$
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.
Life After Death Metal
For people who have spent their youth touring the world in death metal bands, trying to transition to normalcy is where things get tough.
Compact Disc Duality
The DualDisc format, which combined CDs with DVDs, led a fleeting and ephemeral existence, despite a heavy push from the music industry. What happened?
Virtual Crate Digging
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.
Members Only
Pondering the surprising number of musical acts that have official members that don’t actually play an instrument or sing. You know, like Coldplay.
Unsettled
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.
Mystic Knights of the Movie Soundtrack
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.
Literal Dad Rock
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.
Ban The Box
The defining debate of the early compact disc era centered around the longbox, a wasteful form of packaging pushed by retailers and paper manufacturers.
Primitive Streaming Gods
Lessons from the music industry’s initial consumer-hostile reaction to the Napster saga. Going from $16 CDs to unlimited streaming is really hard.
Behind By A Century
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.
Hide And Seek
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?
Let’s Lock Information Down
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.
Sing Your Heart Out
From 8-Track to Laserdisc to CD+G to ISDN lines to YouTube, the different technologies that made karaoke possible. (Alcohol helps, too.)
Like A Rock
What the story of Bob Seger's decision to keep most of his albums off of music services teaches about the nature of stubbornness.
This Van Could Change Your Life
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?
The Big Data Jukebox
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.
Bizarre String Theories
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.
Purple Copyright Eater
When Prince died, he left behind a massive legacy of music. He left behind an equally massive legacy of copyright enforcement. Here's why.
Chartered Waters
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.
Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart
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.
Format War Footnotes
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.
Tape Deck Heart
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.
A Tale of Creative Destruction
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.
I Want to Live Like Common People
Why rich people really love to pretend to be poor every once in a while, just like in Pulp's \"Common People.\"
The First 12 Cost A Penny, But …
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.
In Front Of The Music
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.
Livin' on the Edge
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.
Worst. Birthday. Ever.
The traditional song \"Happy Birthday\" is definitive proof that just because a song is traditional doesn't mean it isn't copyrighted.
Searching For The Perfect Tones
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.
Walk on the Vinyl Side
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.
Take Me Out To The Riot
From \"Disco Sucks\" to a jilted city turning on its own team, baseball riots are among the most entertaining you'll find.
An Unexpected Murder Ballad
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.
Bootleg This Issue
Bootlegged movies and music are fairly common online these days, but it was a guy who worked at an opera who got things going.
Vulcan Creativity
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.