Random music news for Friday, February 22, 2019

Heading out of the hemisphere for a few days, but I promise to keep on top of things with music news. Here’s what’s happening on Friday, February 22, 2019.

1. Peter Tork of The Monkees has died at the age of 77. He’d been suffering from a rare form of tongue cancer, but no official cause of death has been released.
2. Of course, Donald Trump had something to say about the Jussie Smollett situation. Which reminds me: Did Trump ever tweet about this?
3. Spotify is increasing its subscriber lead over Apple Music.
4. Now that Samsung has said it will stop R&D and manufacture of new DVD and Blu-ray players, some are talking about the slow death of physical media.
5. Now that Samsung has a foldable phone, Apple is working on one, too.
6. Props to this guy from Quebec. He’s selling cream soda to American rappers for $200 a box.
7. Before the label disappeared forever, EMI was working on a streaming music platform.
8. Could that last Guns N’ Roses tour result in a new album? Possibly.
9. Alex Lifeson + John Mayall + Jeff Healey = This.
10. The Easy-E memorial…bench?
11. Michael Jackson’s estate is accusing HBO of a $100 million breach of contract. They’re very unhappy about the Michael-was-a-pedo doc HBO will air next month.
12. Meanwhile, in Florida, the prison system is changing digital music providers for inmates. This will wipe out $11 million worth of music legally purchased by prisoners. They are NOT happy.
13. Here’s how Ariana Grande managed to conquer the charts.
14. So much for the Amy Winehouse hologram tour…
15. An executive at Live Nation Productions has been fired, which puts a project by Dave Grohl in jeopardy.