Random music news for Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Hang on. Only two more weeks until the official start of spring. Distract yourself with music news for March 7, 2018.

1. Arcade Fire will be presented with the 2018 Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award at Canadian Music Week in May. Well-deserved.
2. Ireland is going to try an outright ban on secondary ticket sales.
3. Meanwhile, don’t even think of dancing and swaying at this pop concert in Saudi Arabia.
4. There’s been another raft of announcements regarding artists appearing at CMW 2018.
5. What if Beavis and Butthead were to pick the ten best music videos of all time? Then the list might look like this.
6. Speaking of lists, what do you think about this list of the 25 best frontwomen of all time?
7. Why can’t there be a proper technological solution for the distribution of music?
8. Are the good times for streaming coming to an end? Maybe.
9. Take a look at how this underground club in China manages to survive.
10. Madonna apparently knows how to throw an Oscar party.
11. The inventor of the wind-up radio has died. (Via Gordie)
12. Podcasts made by radio people are good for business. (Hey, I knew that.)
13. Maybe all those musicians who took LSD were onto something important. (Via Larry)
14. More smart speaker activation: Amazon Alexa can now control Deezer.
15. U2 has some product coming for Record Store Day.
16. Remember the Fyre Festival fiasco last year? Organizers spent $150K on a yacht for blink-182.
17. If you’re a musician, this is a good time to update your official bio. Here are some tips on how to do that.