Random Music News for Tuesday, February 27, 2018

The Rolling Stones almost came to an end because on this day in 1977, Keith Richards was arrested for possession of heroin at a Toronto hotel. He could have faced years in jail but got away with playing a charity concert. In music news for February 27…

1. At least 45 festivals have signed up for a “gender balance pledge” when booking acts.
2. Interesting album sales stat from the US: The #1 record on the SoundScan charts (i.e. physical sales) sold just 40,500 copies last week. Brandi Carlisle’s By the Way, I Forgive You narrowly beat out the Black Panther soundtrack by 148 copies.
3. Canadian music sales last week vs. last year at this time: Total albums, -28.4%; digital albums, -19.6%; physical albums, -33.5%; CDs, -27.5%; digital tracks, -19.9%; vinyl +31.3%; streaming, +58.9%.
4. The slow death of AM radio continues.
5. Will we soon be able to buy concert tickets using Alexa? It looks like it.
6. Remember those audio attacks on diplomats in Cuba last year? They still don’t know what happened.
7. Muse’s Matt Bellamy has an interesting take on what’s become of the guitar.
8. Madonna is going to act as manager for her kids so they can be famous, too.
9. Nice to see The Breeders get a big feature in the New York Times.
10. Here’s a list of phones that have dumped the 3.5 mm headphone jack.
11. Will the success of the Black Panther soundtrack lead to a resurgence in the popularity of movie soundtracks?
12. Vanilla Ice is having a bad divorce.
13. Why are Taylor Swift’s fans sending death threats to Dua Lipa?
14. Should Spotify become a hardware company, too? Let’s examine that prospect.
15. A great look back at the making of 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love,” which for its time was a technological masterpiece.