Random music news for Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Happy birthday, ‘Merica. But the world doesn’t stop for your Independence Day, so here’s music news for July 4, 2108.

1. Canadian music sales last week vs. this time last year: Total albums, -17.1%; digital albums, -22.1%; physical albums, -13.8%; CDs, -18.7%; vinyl, +70.2%, streaming, +53.2% (1.199 billion streams).
2. Looks like no one wanted to play Donald Trump’s 4th of July event.
3. What is this rape case involving the Backstreet Boys that everyone keeps ignoring?
4. And then there’s this #MeToo issue about Russell Simmons that just won’t go away.
5. Has Tupac’s murder been solved? Maybe.
6. Bono is really, really worried about the existence of the UN, the EU, and NATO. A Trump tweet in 3…2…1…
7. Spotify users: “ENOUGH WITH THE DRAKE ALREADY!“
8. Meanwhile, Apple Music is seeing some serious user engagement thanks to Drizzy.
9. RIP singer-songwriter Richard Swift, who worked with the Black Keys and The Shins.
10. No, Dave Grohl doesn’t want to play for Rush.
11. Panic! At the Disco sold 150,000 physical copies of their Pray for the Wicked album in its first week on sale in the US. That’s pretty good these days. Trent Reznor’s Bad Witch finished second with, er, 26,000 copies. Quite the spread, no?
12. It looks like Facebook offered up more user data than they initially told us.
13. Let’s reflect on the release of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run 40 years later.
14. A 52-room mansion with its own strip club? Fiddy likes it, but he’s disappointed with the low price.
15. Meat Loaf is going on tour, but he’s outsourcing his singing to someone else. Wait–what?
16. Netflix has ordered a music-based romantic drama called Mixtape. What’s it about? This.
17. Worried about being surveilled by facial recognition software? ICP and the Juggalos have it all figured out.
18. Creating a website for your band? Read this first.
19. A climate change mural inspired by…Wu-Tang? Yep.
20. This is an interesting approach to turntable technology.
21. What are the most popular iOS apps of all time? Here’s a list.
22. Want to turn down the volume on the world? These earbuds will do it.