Random Music News for Tuesday, December 12, 2017

I had some terrible Vietnamese vodka here in Hoi An yesterday that resulted in a headache after just two shots. I bought two bottles to serve people I don’t like. And now, music news for December 12.

1. Josh Homme has doubled down on his apology for kicking a reporter.
2. U2 sold 180,000 physical copies of Songs of Experience in the US in its first week, more than any other album.
3. A number of artists have published an open letter to Donald Trump about his decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
4. This chart gives you an idea as to why Apple bought Shazam.
5. There is a fascinating audio project going on at NASA involving tapes from the Apollo missions. Details here.
6. Why everyone–musicians, composers, fans, labels, publishers–should care deeply about proper metadata.
7. Demand for vinyl is so high that indie artists are running into supply issues.
8. Is there something special about Mick Jagger’s genes? Let’s take a look.
9. Amazon has made some great strides in catching up to Spotify and Apple Music in the streaming sphere.
10. From Greggory: “When you’re watching Christmas movies and you get to Lethal Weapon (if Die Hard is a Christmas movie, so is Lethal Weapon!) it’s Anthony Kiedis’ dad that takes Mel Gibson hostage on the Christmas tree lot in the drug buying scene.
11. So how effective are ads within podcasts? Pretty effective, as it turns out.