Random music news for Friday, July 20, 2018

Today is the 50th anniversary of the start of the first-ever Special Olympics. It was held in Mexico City. As for music news on July 20, 2018…

1. After 42 years, Seymour Stein (head of Sire Records and the guy who signed the Ramones, Talking Heads, Madonna and many more) is stepping away from Warner Music.
2. This latest music-related Internet meme is just plain stupid. And dangerous.
3. Into smart speakers? According to this report, the revolution is expanding.
4. Pussy Riot has won another case with a European human rights court. Putin must be pissed.
5. Bowie fans will be pleased with this new box set that coming.
6. Another plea for proper metadata with streaming files.
7. Do you go to concert music events a treat? And are these the reasons you treat yourself?
8. And now, for fans of SCOTUS, here’s a song about Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
9. Friday timesuck: A history of some legendary recording studios.
10. This could come in handy: Free online resources for creating an album cover.
11. Interesting: Predicting the end of the digital age.
12. For the first time ever, revenue from streaming has overtaken revenue from CD sales in Germany. Given that Germany was one of the few countries where the CD was still doing well, this is a big deal.
13. Here’s how TV is changing with technology: 10% of the global audience uses an OTT service at least once a month. Services like Netflix are exploding.
14. And now Walmart is getting into the video streaming game with a service called Vudu.
15. R&B yoga? Why not?
16. Have you ever been harassed through Spotify? It’s possible–but you can’t block people.
17. Speaking of Spotify, how does one get a song on one of the service’s 4500 in-house playlists? Read this.
18. This is a minor (yet necessary) improvement to your Spotify experience. Go ahead and clear your cache.
19. Only Ozzy would try to keep cool during a heat wave by doing this.
20. Peter Gabriel is the latest musician to invest in a blockchain startup. (Via Andrew)
21. If you’re headed to Burning Man this year, you’ll be asked to poop in a bag.
22. Love stories of old synthesizers? Then read this.