The story of Mr Scruff and vinyl, Radio 1’s playlist secrets uncovered and the breakdown of talks between labels and YouTube.
The story of Mr Scruff and Vinyl. Manchester’s Andy Carthy, aka Mr Scruff, introduces some of his favourite ever tunes whilst showing us around his incredible record collection and revealing the roots of his musical obsession in the latest episode of Fuse‘s Crate Diggers series. Stream it above.
Bootlegs and Prince’s anti-music-sharing militancy. Following a new deal with Warner Brothers, will Prince‘s army of online lawyers – who comb the web on a regular basis for unauthorised videos and audio – stand down, now that the revenue stream is flowing in the right direction? Funkatopia explores the function of the bootleg in the music industry with this article.
Machine Love Live: Karenn. From London Electronic Music Event, RA presents the transcript of Blawan and Pariah’s illuminating discussion of their live setup and the work which goes into creating their blistering sound. A must-read for fans of hardware-driven techno. Check it out here.
Radio 1’s playlist secrets uncovered: the battle of the ‘brands’. How does the BBC’s flagship youth station, Radio 1, decide which songs to get behind? Nadia Khomami of the Guardian is granted a rare pass into the station’s playlist committee meeting and finds it’s as much about YouTube hits as good tunes. Her report is a fascinating, if slightly depressing, insight into what determines a radio hit.
Breakdown of talks between labels and YouTube. Independent labels from around the world have scolded YouTube over the “unnecessary and indefensible” licensing terms of a forthcoming music streaming subscription service. The Worldwide Independent Network (Win), which represents indie labels, claims YouTube is approaching labels directly, attempting to strong-arm them into non-negotiable contracts with the threat of being removed from the service. Read all about it here.
“My ideal day off? Nature, massage, some soft smells. Actually, when I think about it now, it would be riding a horse on the beach. But I need to learn to ride horses for that first I guess.” Berghain resident Ben Klock speaks to XLR8R about Michael Jackson, 13-hour sets and working as Santa Claus in the site’s latest 20 Questions feature.