Random music news for Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Hang in there. The days will start getting longer again really, really soon. Meanwhile, distract yourself from the darkness with some music news for Tuesday, December 18, 2018.

1. Weekly Canadian music sales and streaming numbers vs. this time last year: Total albums, -22.7%; digital albums, -19.6%; physical albums, -24.5%; CDs, -28.1%; vinyl albums, +22.0%; streams, +47.0% (1.329 billion audio streams last week).
2. Ringo joined Paul onstage in London. John and George remain unavailable.
3. Don’t worry about Brexit. Damon Albarn will fix it.
4. Shakira has officially been charged with tax evasion in Spain.
5. The Route 91 Festival, the site of the worst mass shooting in American history, might return to Las Vegas in 2019. But should it? Discuss.
6. Why nostalgia was a driving force in media in 2018.
7. Time for some predictions for the future of radio in 2019. Here are some good ones.
8. Apple’s CarPlay continues to come on strong with auto manufacturers.
9. Apple Peanuts.
10. This is gonna be one weird music documentary.
11. Goddo has officially called it quits after 43 years with a final concert.
12. Confused about music royalties? Read this.
13. Counterfeiting of vinyl records is back. Who could have predicted that ten years ago?
14. This is fun: Vinyl records with locked grooves.
15. How Janelle Monae and Aretha Franklin affected the dictionary in 2018.
16. Did you binge on Netflix this year? Here are the most-binged shows of 2018.