Some Depression (Nashville Scene)
MS: Not only did No Depression cultivate high-quality writing over the years, it also widened the focus declared on its masthead from “Alt. Country (Whatever That Is)” to “Surveying the Past, Present, and Future of American Music (Whatever That Is).” (Obviously, the parameters have never quite been crystal clear.) Coverage-wise, that meant it gradually cast the net a bit wider, drawing in performers more diverse in age, race and style than strictly alt-country bands.
“The editors had that conversation about what direction to take the magazine at a time when a lot of the real darlings of the first couple years were kind of relinquishing their alt-country roots,” Friskics-Warren says. “Wilco was getting experimental, and the Jayhawks were saying, ‘We’re a pop band.’ The old guard sort of moved on, or at least didn’t want to be associated too closely with the alt-country movement. Those conversations we had were really interesting. A couple of us were pushing for what folks referred to as the American Mojo. We didn’t go that direction. But the magazine did broaden to a more general roots music publication with an emphasis on American musical vernacular.”
Top 10 Rock Docs (IGN.com)
MS: 5. The Filth and the Fury
Twenty years after making The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, Julien Temple gathered together the surviving Pistols to chart the 26 months in which the band actually existed - a period shorter than the prog rock albums that punk would help eradicate - and the social and cultural misery that spawned it. The new interviews are brutally honest and often hilarious, while Temple ensures that his cinematic collage is doused in the mischievous spirit of '77. And then set on fire.
Digital music firms pay heavy price for labels' support (Reuters)
MS: "They're trying to match every dollar against a lost dollar, not nurturing new markets," Digital Media Assn. executive director Jonathan Potter said at Billboard's Music & Money Symposium in March. "That's not helping build a business. You need each party to have an equal incentive."
Yet one of the more controversial label demands -- an equity stake -- may in fact prove advantageous for services entering into such a deal. Labels receive dozens of partnership requests almost daily, many of which they don't think have any chance of surviving with or without their help. As such, they are only too happy to forget about them once the check clears.
But if the labels have an equity stake in the company, they have more skin in the game and a greater incentive to nurture the company along.
Listen to Musical Justice
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