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Streams of the Unconscionable
It’s become crystal clear this year that without touring revenue, many musicians have little hope of making a living. Streaming royalties are a pittance, and musicians have had to turn to new creative ways to stay afloat. Some sell exclusive vinyl, cassettes, and other merchandise on Bandcamp. Others have turned to the subscription service, Patreon, where fans can pay their favorite creators for access to exclusive content like B-Sides, live sessions, podcasts, and more. But their qualms seem to have fallen on deaf ears at Spotify. All year, the company and its CEO Daniel Ek, have been callous, if not downright contemptuous, towards artists that are trying to eke out a living. Complaints about Spotify revenue have been floating around for years now. Even in 2013, Radiohead’s frontman Thom ...
EDM.com Presents “Quarantini Chats” Episode #13: Deorro
Whether they’re bedazzling eggs with rhinestones, baking their own sourdough from scratch, or concocting absurd cocktails, those in the social media community at large have embraced their creativity during their time in quarantine. Harnessing that creativity and manifesting it into the dance music community, EDM.com’s Instagram Live interview series “Quarantini Chats” invites the brightest music producers and DJs in the game to join our platform and craft a custom cocktail as they sip and dive into a wide range of topics with our special guest hosts, The Hotel Lobby. As he continues to change the EDM game with his unique fusion of electronic and Latin music, dance music vet Deorro is joining EDM.com for the 13th episode of “Quarantini Chats.” To cel...
Dax Shepard’s ’67 Continental: Classic Luxury Meets Stunt Mobile
From the December 2012 issue of Popular Hot Rodding magazine: It’s called “stealing a shot,” a Hollywood term that means shooting commercial footage without a permit. Technically, anytime you whip out a camera in the L.A. Basin with the intent to publish the results (movie, print, interwebs, whatever) for personal gain, you need a permit. We’re about to “steal a shot” on a forlorn stretch of pavement wedged between scrap yards. A few cracks in the pavement are large enough to swallow small children. Broken bits of glass and metal litter the ground. If this were a movie, a car would be spewed from these fissures, a car such as Dax Shepard’s ’67 Lincoln Continental. Like some dark angel’s limo, this pitch-black Conti reeks of m...
Why Now is the Right Moment to Explore Innovations
In 2020, there was a meme on LinkedIn with a poll asking who leads digital transformation in your company. Surprisingly, the choice was not a CEO or top manager, but COVID-19. This picture perfectly illustrates how at the beginning of the pandemic many companies were forced to urgently implement new technologies or rebuild their business model to survive. But today, when many countries are experiencing a second wave of the virus and implementing social distancing restrictions again, new questions arise. Should companies invest in long-term innovations in such an uncertain and difficult period? Or wouldn’t it be better to focus on the core business and save capital on costly investments until more stable times return? In the European Summer of 2020 we, with the help of independent research ...
Up in Smoke
He looks like a guy who’s done some time and knows a thing or two. One month out of jail, he wears aviators, sounds like De Niro and often mentions God. Who else could have pulled him through almost 32 years behind bars, shafted in the injust Florida prison system? His sentence was life imprisonment. His offense, smuggling marijuana. Incarcerated in 1989 at the age of 40, he’s now 71. His son was 11 when he was locked up, he’s now 43. They just spent their first Christmas together in 31 years. Richard DeLisi is out due to the Last Prisoner Project, who discovered his case from his family’s petition page, freedelisi.com, started by his son and nephew. He sits here today to talk with me, with his attorney Elizabeth Buchanan, who had to drive to him with her computer, so that we could speak v...
This Tacky-Looking Mercedes CLK Is One of AMG’s Rarest Builds
Yikes—another AMG falls victim to the garish grips of the aftermarket. Look at those tacky wheels, Pep Boys’ fender flares, and glued-on rear wing—why couldn’t the owner just leave this poor CLK drop-top alone? I mean— Gotcha. As much as this may look like the work of some tuner shop, this red ‘vert is just as it left the factory back in 2007. If you’ve never seen such a car (even on the mean streets of Malibu or Miami), I’m not surprised—the CLK DTM AMG Cabriolet is one of the rarest and most desirable modern Mercedes-Benz, beating out even the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series for scarcity. Just 100 coupes and 80 convertibles were made between 2004 and 2006, and the majority of them were sold in the European market (Mercede...
That Time a Racing Legend Endorsed Healing Crystals for Cars
The modern wellness industry has spawned countless online influencers and personalities eager to hawk supposed cures and lifestyle tweaks to millions of fans. But even before the dawn of Instagram, kale smoothies, and chakra cleanses, it was still treacherous for any public figure to hitch their wagon to less-than-scientific methodologies. Case in point: Australian racing legend Peter Brock. For one of Australia’s biggest names in racing, the decision to go full New Age in the late 1980s proved so costly that it not only ended his longtime business partnership with the country’s largest automaker, it almost very nearly killed his motorsports career. But for a brief moment before the wheels came off, Holden performance honcho and multi-time touring car champion Brock had some cr...
6 Tech Trends to Expect in 2021
By mid-March 2020, business plans went out the window and many shifted focus from thriving to surviving. Pedro Lopes, group MD of Seidor Africa, says that “technology trends will increasingly evolve in line with our online and digital lives in 2021.” Here’s what else 2021 could bring: 1. Business management systems are more critical than ever Challenges differ from one organisation to the next, but business needs remain the same. Now more than ever, an end-to-end business management system is needed to manage and control daily activities. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_0d0.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_0d0.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } An integrated solution designed specifically for the business will help managers reach targets by cutting manual tasks and automating business-...
7 Cryptocurrency Predictions for 2021
Ongoing volatility, further progress on regulations and continued interest from institutional investors can be expected in 2021 – this according to South African cryptocurrency exchange, Luno. “Looking back at our predictions from last year – the Bitcoin halving happened without a hitch and the industry matured as institutional investors entered the market,” says Marius Reitz, GM for Luno Africa. “2020 was a proper stress test with Bitcoin hitting a low of around $5,000 in March and a high of $28,000. The new year is following the same trend with the price already reaching the $40,000 level.” Here’s a closer look at seven cryptocurrency predictions for 2021: /* custom css */ .tdi_3_da6.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_da6.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } 1. Institutional inve...
Curator Spotlight: Magic Records Emerges as Tastemaker in Trap and Future Bass
Since its inception in 2016, Magic Music has emerged as one of the most popular electronic music YouTube channels. With a pulse on the future bass and trap genres, the brand and its Magic Records imprint have pushed many young artists into the limelight and served as a launchpad for their bright careers. With more than 500 releases under its belt, the label has thrust its flagpole into the EDM scene as a bona fide tastemaker. Operating under a copyright free concept, they’ve offered creators from Youtube, Twitch, Facebook and other major platforms peace of mind by enabling them to use music from their catalog without worrying about DMCA takedown notices. Following their success on those digital music streaming destinations, Magic Music has also launched the sub-labels Deep ...
The Beat of New Orleans
Street and local musicians, some as talented as any big name in the industry, dot the French Quarter in New Orleans, filling the air with music. We wondered how these performers were surviving with music venues closed. We spoke to three musicians to get a firsthand account. Matthew Dethrow is an upright/electric bassist from New Orleans. He has been a member of the Slick Skillet Serenaders and Bayou Blues Burlesque. Meschiya Lake is a Jazz vocalist who fronts her own band called the Little Big Horns. Nathan Rivera is a vocalist and musician who plays piano and guitar. He is currently performing with his group Nathan & Jessie. Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns performing at the Spotted Cat in New Orleans CREDIT: Kimberly Reid Girl with banjo busking CREDIT: Kimberly Rei...
Celebrate National DJ Day With Freddie and Frida, the DJing Dachshunds
There is no news story here. Just a duo of DJing dachshunds named Freddie and Frida celebrating National DJ Day the only way they know how—by blasting the subwoofer (see what we did there?) with a B2B house set. Check out the video below, courtesy of Ecto Maver.
