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Twitch Streamers Face Permabans After String of New DMCA Strikes
Both the video game and music communities were put on alert yesterday after it was discovered that a large number of DMCA takedown requests were filed against a multitude of Twitch streamers. The requests have targeted the background music in recorded clips from streams taking place from 2017 to 2019. A popular streamer on the platform, fuslie, shared her experience with the strikes and revealed that Twitch support told her that in order to avoid a potential permaban, she should delete all of her clips. The recent developments have left many wondering what the future of livestreamed DJ sets looks like, as playing a set with any non-original songs could leave an artist vulnerable to takedown strikes. While it appears as though almost every genre is included, Dexerto is reporting t...
Kygo and OneRepublic Drop Bizarre Green Screen-Powered Music Video for “Lose Somebody”
Just under a month after the release of “Lose Somebody,” Kygo and OneRepublic shared a bizarre new video for their collaborative effort. Considering COVID-19 has made it difficult for artists to work together in person, the acts took advantage of green screen technology to simulate being together. Starting off relatively normally, the video gets progressively quirkier over time. Viewers get to witness Kygo and vocalist Ryan Tedder‘s multi-dimensional road trip featuring a wild cast of supporting characters, including a giant ostrich and robot. The track was released as a single off of Kygo’s freshly released third studio album, Golden Hour. In addition to OneRepublic, the Norwegian tropical house pioneer joined forces with Sandro Cavazza, Tyga, Zac Br...
Fundraiser Created for Chicago House Legend Adonis’ 34 Years of Unpaid Royalties
A couple of months back, Chicago acid house pioneer Adonis asked fans to refrain from purchasing his music on Trax Records. He’s stated that for 34 years he has not received a penny from the label and that they do not own his music. He then called upon distributors to stop selling music of his that was released on the label. After hearing about the story, a fan came up with a fundraiser in an effort to help Adonis out. In a Facebook post from his personal account, he shared details of the story and encouraged fans to spread the word. When asked in the comments where he suggests people purchase his music from, he shared his Bandcamp page, which is linked at the bottom of this article. The creator of the fundraising page, DJ Pure, spoke about why he started the fundraiser and...
Keanu Reeves Previews The Matrix 4: It’s a “Really Special Story”
Almost two decades later, Keanu Reeves is set to reprise his role as Neo in the upcoming film The Matrix 4. While franchise actors sometimes stick around due to nostalgia or a fat paycheck, these weren’t Reeves’ reasons to return for the upcoming sequel. In a new interview, he said it was the script’s “wonderful story” that convinced him to join the Warner Bros. reboot. “Lana Wachowski wrote a beautiful script and a wonderful story that resonated with me,” Reeves explained to Empire. “That’s the only reason to do it. To work with her again is just amazing.” The 55-year-old actor also suggested The Matrix 4 plot could provide “meaningful” modern-day lessons to fans. “It’s been really special, and the story has, I think, some meaningful things to say, and that we can take some nourishm...
R.I.P. Robert Northern, Jazz Artist Also Known as Brother Ah, Dead at 86
Accomplished jazz artist Robert Northern, also known as Brother Ah, has died at the age of 86. He passed away on May 31st in Washington, DC after battling a respiratory illness, as reported by the New York Times. Northern was born in 1934 in Kinston, North Carolina, but was raised primarily in the South Bronx area of New York City. The first few decades of his lengthy music career saw the French horn master serve as a session musician for jazz legends such as John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Gil Evans, Quincy Jones, and McCoy Tyner. He notably appeared on records like Monk’s The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall from 1959 and Quincy Jones Explores the Music of Henry Mancini released in 1964. Around this same era, Northern played as part of Sun Ra’s cosmic, ever-e...
The State Cast to Reunite for Charity Livestream
This Wednesday, the cast of MTV’s cult-favorite show The State will reunite over Zoom to raise money for the NAACP and the California Immigrant Resilience Fund. It’s the second time the ‘90s sketch comedy crew will reunite virtually in recent months, as they recreated “Porcupine Racetrack” this April to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary. The event, aptly titled “Zoom with The State”, will see The State’s cast — Kevin Allison, Michael Ian Black, Ben Garant, Todd Holoubek, Michael Patrick Jann, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, Michael Showalter, and David Wain — reading beloved sketches as well as never-before-seen scripts. Additionally, they will auction off memorabilia and hold a special Q&A with fans. “Zoom with The State” will take place June 10th ...
Daniel Radcliffe Addresses J.K. Rowling’s Transphobic Comments in New Essay
Twice in recent months, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has decided to tarnish her legacy by spouting transphobic comments on social media. The latest instance came over the weekend, when Rowling seemingly dismissed the existence of non-binary people and gender-nonconforming people. “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased,” Rowling tweeted. “I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.” Now, Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, is speaking out in support of the trans community in a new essay published to The Trevor Project. Radcliffe, who portrayed the titular character in all eight Harr...
This DJ Snake Track Reached a Billion Plays on Spotify
DJ Snake has hit the billion streams mark on Spotify, again, with his smash “Taki Taki.” The slinky bilingual hit, featuring a no scrubs lineup of Cardi B, Selena Gomez and Ozuna, was the party starter of 2018 and has kept on racking up major plays since its release nearly two years ago. This is the third time the French phenom has reached a billion streams on Spotify. His era-defining Major Lazer collaboration “Lean On” became the platform’s most streamed song of all time just eight months after its March 2015 release, with 526 million streams. (Five years later, “Lean On” is now the platform’s 18th most streamed track of all time, with a cool 1.359 billion plays.) Then, in October of 2018, Snake again made Spotify history by becoming the fifth art...
Questlove, 50 Cent, John Legend & More React to Congressional Democrats Wearing Kente Cloth to Honor George Floyd
On Monday (June 8), House and Senate Democrats donned the Kente cloth, an indigenous Ghanaian textile that’s become a ceremonial stole for Black people in the U.S., while introducing the “Justice in Policing Act of 2020” police reform bill in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and resulting protests. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Kamala Harris and more Democratic lawmakers wore the traditional cloth while kneeling for eight minutes and 46 seconds at the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall to commemorate Floyd, a Black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for the same amount of time. But artists on Twitter took the whole day to criticize and mock what’s been labeled a senseless fashion disaste...
Chika Slams ‘Selfish’ YG for Filming Music Video During Los Angeles Protest
As protests continue to rise across the nation demanding justice for George Floyd and the entire Black Lives Matter movement, YG joined the Los Angeles demonstrations over the weekend–but Chika is calling him out for misusing his platform. “YG said he here to shoot a video,” the rapper and activist tweeted on Sunday (June 7) from the crowd. “I would like to go home. this feels incredibly disingenuous. but im glad people showed up.” “shooting a music video while breonna taylor’s killers are still walking the streets is f—ing disgusting,” she continued. Last week, YG shared his protest song “FTP (F— the Police),” which features lyrics like, “F— pig, f— bacon / I don’t eat pork, I replaced...
Anuel AA’s ‘Emmanuel’ Debuts at No. 1 on Top Latin Albums & Latin Rhythm Albums Charts
“I feel just like Kobe when he won his second championship.” Anuel AA secures his second No. 1 debut on both the Top Latin Albums and the Latin Rhythm Albums charts as Emmanuel bows atop the June 16-dated surveys. His sophomore album dethrones Bad Bunny’s YHLQMDLG. “I feel blessed!” Anuel tells Billboard. “Many people ask me what I would’ve said had the album not reached No. 1. We will never know… I feel blessed, just like Kobe when he won his second championship. Grateful to all my fans, I love you with my life.” Emmanuel arrives with 39,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending June 4, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Of Emmanuel’s starting count, 3,000 were in album sales and the bulk of the remainder attributed to streams. The Top Latin Albums chart ranks the most ...
Beyoncé Delivers Powerful Speech For Class of 2020 Supporting Black Lives Matter & Denouncing Sexism in Music Industry
Source: YouTube / Youtube The high school graduating class of 2020 may have been excited to get words of wisdom from Beyoncé, but megastar also took the time to ahead light on the social injustices surrounding the protests, before speaking out about sexism in the music industry. On Saturday (Jun 6), as a part of YouTube’s “Dear Class of 2020” virtual graduation ceremony, Mrs. Carter took a moment to congratulate the class on the accomplishment, before noting that the challenge of being an adult is just beginning, adding that civil unrest and a pandemic may be stressful but their reaction and participation is making everyone proud. “Congratulations to the class of 2020, you have arrived here in the middle of a global crisis, a racial pandemic and worldwide expression of outrage at the sense...
