Music News 7.6.17

Project ATX6 Announces its 2017 Collective, Adds Japan Sister City to Itinerary 

At the end of last month, Project ATX6 announced its 2017 collective of Austin musicians. Project ATX6 is a documentary film and export project established in 2014 as a way to take a handful of Austin’s premiere musicians to play festivals in Austin’s sister cities and other international music festivals.

This year’s collective is made up by Mobely, Corey Baum of Croy and the Boys, Sisi Berry of Torino Black, Taylor Wilkins of Otis the Destroyer, Go Fever’s Acey Monaro, and Lindsey Verrill of Little Mazarn.

Historically, the group’s annual itinerary has included stops a week-long stop in our sister city Angers, France for “Austin Week”; Hamburg Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival in September; and M for Montreal Fest in November, but this year’s agenda has been extended to include October’s Yumeiro Music Fest in our Japan sister city Oita.

The Project ATX6 crew bookends their caravan in Austin with a kickoff showcase on August 19th at the YETI Flagship store on South Congress and a bring-it-all-home show at the Stateside ant the Paramount this December.

As always, founder and director Chris Brecht have ensured a line-up that is as brilliant as it is diverse and uniquely Austin.

Screen Shot 2017-07-06 at 10.41.44 AMPhoto by Letitia Smith / White Light Exposure

 

Spotify and the Payola Controversy

You may have heard about Spotify’s payola controversy, so let’s take a closer look and see how it may or may not affect you the consumer.

First of all, what is payola? Payola is when a record company pays to have a song played for broadcast as if it’s part of the normally scheduled programming, and it is 100% illegal unless there is full disclosure of the payola, though it is important to note that how they disclose that is a bit more ambiguous.

Spotify wants to start introducing payola tunes into your playlists, those you follow, or anywhere else in the software. The streaming service has been experimenting with “sponsored songs” for awhile, and if (really when) it deems it the right, Spotify will roll out the payola, but it will likely only affect users of Spotify’s free service. Those who pay for Premium will also experience

The streaming service has been experimenting with “sponsored songs” for awhile, and if (really when) it deems it the right, Spotify will roll out the payola, but it will likely only affect users of Spotify’s free service. Those who pay for Premium will also experience payola, but may have to option to toggle them off. Be warned, though, reputable tech outlets agree that Spotify will try to introduce sponsored content without your knowledge. And that, in essence, is payola.

Be warned, though, reputable tech outlets agree that Spotify will try to introduce sponsored content without your knowledge. And that, in essence, is payola.

spotify-sponsored-song“R&B Filth” playlist features “sponsored song” by NEIKED

-Taylor Wallace

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