Money 4 Nothing

The podcast discusses the merger of Pitchfork and GQ, raising concerns about the future of music journalism. It explores the challenges faced by music publications, the impact of digital media on the industry, and the changing landscape of music criticism. The conversation also touches on the rise of Substacks and potential new music platforms, as well as the necessity of financial support for music journalism and the preferences of the millennial generation.

Hypnosis Song Fund faces conflicts of interest and shareholder revolt, while Spotify changes royalty payout rules sparking a fight for the future of the music industry.

The podcast explores the recent sale of BMI and its implications for songwriters. It discusses the history of BMI and ASCAP, the concept of consent decrees, and the complex nature of licensing rates. The podcast also delves into BMI's filtering system, the importance of support in the music industry, and the flow of money within the industry. It raises concerns about a tech company owning a major player in music and the influence of a record label CEO on streaming services.

The podcast discusses Patreon's financial struggles and its role in the music industry, as well as the impact of battle passes on video game players. It explores the sustainability of Patreon, technological advancements, and the pandemic's impact on projects and trends.

Over the summer, New York’s premier EDM festival Electric Zoo descended deep into the Fyre Fest zone—that magical place combining blatant rip-off and profoundly unsafe conditions. Purchased by by owners of Brooklyn mega-club Avant Gardner the previous year, the latest edition of the three-day rave took the Bold and Forward Thinking step of mixing abrupt cancellations and incredibly poor crowd control with rampant overselling, producing a potentially deadly crowd-crush and an NYPD investigation. Fascinated and horrified, we decided to dig a bit deeper to figure out…who ARE these guys? And what in the name of Frankie Knuckles is their deal? As we dug into the often insane specifics (Superfund Halloween Rave, Best Friends With Mayoral Staffers, Etc.), we realized that the question shed light on a deeper issue: as dance music and nightlife become big business, how do are events and venues balancing the desire for profits and the demand for safety? And could the finance money pouring into the space change things for the worse? Read:  Clubbing is Becoming Big Business. What Does This Mean for Dance Music?  - Resident Advisor    Subscribe to our newsletter!   Follow us on Twitter!   Subscribe to Penny Fractions!

The podcast discusses recent changes at Bandcamp, including layoffs after its sale to Songtradr. They talk about challenges faced by tech companies, Bandcamp's longevity and editorial impact, stock price impact in the song catalog industry, and Songtrader's licensing issues.

First off—big news in Money 4 Nothing-land. We’ve just OFFICIALLY joined forces with the amazing Penny Fractions newsletter to create a new and almighty Voltron (Sailors Moon?) of critical coverage on the music industry. We’ll be rolling out exciting new projects over the next few months, so please stay tuned! And now, on with the show…    When news broke that a wave of Scott “Scooter" Braun’s clients were leaving him—including mega-names like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber—it seemed like it might be the beginning of the end for the most successful music manager of the 2010s. But…who is Scooter exactly? And why should anyone care?   While most know Braun for his era-defining beef with Taylor Swift, we decided to go a bit deeper, exploring his remarkable ascent amid the shell-shocked chaos of the music biz during the early Obama Era. As we dug in, we realized that Scooter’s success actually provided a fascinating vantage-point through which to understand the distinctive era that ran from early Youtube to the launch of Tik Tok—a moment of disruption, change, and platform power that we might just be coming out of. Come for the Asher Roth (yeah, THAT Asher Roth). Stay for the T-Swift conspiracies.    Subscribe to our newsletter! Follow us on Twitter! Subscribe to Penny Fractions!

If you listen to essentially any piece of contemporary music, you’re likely—more than likely—to hear the influence of Bob Moog. Moog invented the first modular synthesizer, a device for creating electronic sound simultaneously more powerful and more accessible than anything that had come before. Initially adopted by the avant-garde, Moogs were quickly scooped up by the elite of rock and pop, laying a heavy sonic signature on the 1970s—and pretty much much everything that has come since. Think...Floyd. Think Stevie.    To learn more, we talked to Albert Glinsky, the author of “Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution,” the definitive biography of the man behind the tones. And the story? It’s wild. Featured topics include: home-grown Theremins, electronics stolen from Con-Ed, Japanese industrial conglomerates, hippy rip-off albums about the zodiac, open-faced breadboards, John Cage & Co, and the determinative power of the keyboard. How an inveterate tinkerer, ensconced in upstate New York, remade the world.      Subscribe to our newsletter! Follow us on Twitter! Music - Panic Girl - "Washed Ashore"

Machine Learning. It’s in the news, and increasingly, it's in our tunes. Somehow. Maybe? Given the ravenous hype cycles of tech, it can be extremely difficult to separate the real, the potentially real, the squint-and-maybe-you-can-see it, and “the SEC wants to speak to you now” of it all. To try and get a better sense of how AI is factoring into the present-day music industry as it actually, you know, exists, we talked with Cherie Hu of Water and Music. We discuss production tools, major label plots, social media possibilities, and push-button production, and tried to figure out the ways these technologies could be revolutionary—or more of the same. To put it another way? Come for the change—stay for the continuity.  subscribe to our newsletter!   Follow us on Twitter!   Music - Man Rei - "I Don't Want Money"

On Nov 5th, 2021, the first night of Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival collapsed into horror—a terrible crowd crush at the Houston event killed 10, and reportedly injured thousands. In the wake of the catastrophe, fingers were pointed at Scott, at Live Nation, at the Police, at Rap music, at “the kids.” And then? Silence. We didn’t really know what happened, and no details emerged for a long, long time. Until now. Coinciding (suspiciously, perhaps) with the release of Scott’s new album “Utopia,” a grand jury decided that no one was criminally liable for the deaths—and the Houston PD released their entire investigative report. How did this happen? Who was at fault? And what would stop it from happening again? To try and answer these questions, Sam and Saxon dug deep into the documentation, trying to understand the fatal breakdown. And the answers…well...they aren’t reassuring. Far from a riot or a panic, Astroworld seems like it mostly went according to plan. The problem was that the plan was fundamentally flawed—dependent on inexperienced workers, unfamiliar collaborators, and shaped by a fear of the crowd it was supposed to protect. Ultimately, Astroworld seems increasingly like a microcosm of the rotten, financialized state of American life. And while a slight sliver of hope might exist in antitrust activity, it doesn’t seem like things are going to get better anytime soon. The opposite of Utopia.   subscribe to our newsletter! Follow us on Twitter!