It’s finally the weekend! I hope you had a great week and an even better next couple of days.
I’ve been contemplating a bunch of things in regard to All Punked Up. And as promised, I like to give you, the newsletter subscriber, behind-the-scenes happenings for this brand and publication (or whatever you want to call it). So let’s just get to the point.
The time has come. The All Punked Up site is going to stop posting news. However, we’ll still bring you the news via this newsletter and our podcast. Why the decision to stop distributing news on the main All Punked Up site? If I’m being brutally honest, I’m the main one posting news. I’ve been the main one every day for the last 5 years. With the growth of this newsletter and our podcast, running the main site and posting news there has just gotten plain exhausting. I’ve been exhausted for the last year probably. And I just don’t enjoy doing it anymore. I’m of the belief that if you don’t enjoy doing something, then stop doing it. So I’m putting my beliefs into practice.
So what now? What will happen to the All Punked Up main site? Good question. I have some amazing contributors who have the abilities to write some amazing content. I still want All Punked Up to be a place for writers to contribute their own unique tastes on the scene we all know and love. I still want to use our space for our contributors to write opinion pieces, list type posts, reviews, etc. So we’ll continue to keep those types of posts coming. If this sounds like something you’d want to do, reach out!
Any other reasons for this decision? Another great question. And yes. There is another reason. Quite a few actually, but I’ll say this: I feel like, at times, there is just so much information out there and so many of the same type of publications that are simply just regurgitating what the other is saying. That’s fine and all. But at some point it feels saturated out there, right? I don’t want All Punked Up to be just another copied version of what the other publications are. And at times, I think that’s what APU has become. I want more for this site/brand. I know this is a risky decision, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take and see how it plays out. I’m confident it’s the best decision.
Where do we go from here? For starters, I want to say thank you for following us on this journey. The plan from here is to continue growing. If you know others that are just as much into the scene as you are, it’d be so awesome if you could let them know about All Punked Up—our podcast and this newsletter—and help spread the word as we can’t do this without you! I have big plans for both of those areas, as well as our social media channels. Plus, this newsletter shares more news weekly than our site and podcast combined! I feel like the newsletter is where it’s at.
So stay tuned…
Now it’s time for some news.
News you may have missed…
Some of the links below may be to publications other than All Punked Up.
Musicians Hold Worldwide Protests Outside Spotify Offices
The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers organized worldwide protests outside Spotify’s offices on Monday as the latest salvo in the ongoing “Justice at Spotify” campaign.
The peaceful demonstrations took place across 31 cities around the globe, with artists and other industry professionals gathering in the US and Canada, South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia…
The protests are meant to draw attention to the “Justice at Spotify” list of demands, which includes paying artists one cent per stream (Spotify currently pays some artists as little as $0.0038 per stream, which is among the lowest rates of any platform), plus transparent contracts, a more user-centric payment model, an end to payola, a switch to crediting all labor in recordings, and an end to legal battles against artists which serve to “further impoverish artists.”
Spotify Launches New Pay “Transparency” Website
In response to the above news, Spotify has launched a new site, Loud & Clear, to increase transparency and shed light on the complicated economics of music streaming.
Announcing the initiative, Spotify founder/CEO Daniel Ek said: “57K artists now represent 90% of monthly streams on Spotify—a number that has quadrupled in just six years. Our goal is to help musicians that aspire to be, or are professional to make a living.”
Charlie Hellman, the vice president and head of marketplace at Spotify, who has been with the company for a decade, tells Pitchfork the initiative aims to offer artists and songwriters more transparency about the streaming economy. “For all the time I’ve been at Spotify, artist payouts and royalties have been an everyday topic—but I think externally, we haven’t said as much as we ought to to contribute more to the conversation,” he said. “That’s really what we’re trying to do here: Share a bit more and acknowledge that artists really deserve more clarity around how this music streaming economy is working.”
Coachella Music Festival reportedly moving to 2022
Variety writes:
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is moving from October 2021 to April of 2022, two industry sources with knowledge of the situation tell Variety. It is expected that the country-music themed Stagecoach festival, which takes place the weekend after Coachella’s two weekends, will move as well.
The move, if it is officially confirmed, marks the fourth time the dates for Coachella, which takes place over two weekends at the Empire Polo Ground in Indio, Calif., have been rescheduled.
Will festivals work in 2021? We’re about to find out + Our favorite female artists
Tyler and Bailey join forces on Episode 29 of The All Punked Up Podcast. This week’s theme is Women’s History Month and the two of them discuss each of their favorite and most influential female artists from the scene. And while it’s a month to recognize and celebrate women, the crew discusses a new report showing just how underrepresented women are in the music industry. Tyler brings up a story on how the Foo Fighters accidentally called the wrong “Nick” to produce what would become one of the band’s biggest albums. Also, we’re about to find out how and if festivals will work in 2021 as one in Las Vegas is a go for September featuring Billie Eilish, Green Day and All Time Low. Finally the boys close out the show talking about Lou Ottens, the creator of the cassette tape, who died at the age of 94 and how he revolutionized the music industry.
You can listen to the episode here.
All Time Low announce new single “Once in a Lifetime”
All Time Low has announced that they will be releasing a new single “Once in a Lifetime” on March 24th. You can pre-save the song here.
The band also recently performed “Monsters” on Ellen.
Courtney Love Reveals She Almost Died Last Year From Anemia
Consequence of Sound writes:
Courtney Love has revealed in a harrowing Instagram post that she almost died last year from a battle with severe anemia. The Hole singer says she was hospitalized for the condition last summer, and at one point weighed just 97 pounds.
The 56-year-old says that she’s since made significant health strides and is feeling “so good now”, thanks to a great doctor and the magic of CBD. However, things weren’t looking good for her just six months ago.
“I was stigmatized for being an addict for 9 months by many ill-equipped drs, backwards drs and quacks,” she wrote on Instagram. At her lowest point, she was hospitalized for having a dangerously low red blood cell count (I.E. anemia) that almost took her life in August 2020. “Then I met the most empathic wise pain management dr. I’m so grateful!”, she wrote.
Chevelle Haven't Made 'Any Money' From Selling 6 Million Albums
Chevelle guitarist and vocalist Pete Loeffler has stated that despite having sold 6 million albums, the veteran hard rock band has not received "any money" from those sales. They're plotting their next move now that they've fulfilled their contract with record label Epic, who has released nine of their 10 full length records, in addition to two compilation releases as well as one live album.
Here’s what he had to say:
"Contracts are a bitch, and we've signed some raw ones. And we need to start trying to make some money off of our catalog, which is 10 albums deep, plus all the side stuff. We haven't made any money off of record sales, album sales. It's all gone to the major labels. A lot of people make money off of us; we just don't make money the way the deals are structured. We just aren't excited to get back into any kind of contract. So if we find a new home at a new label, wherever it is, it's gotta be a special deal where you get something for your hard work.
"It would be nice to do something different and actually make a buck off of an album for once; it just hasn't happened for us. We've sold six million albums for Epic Records, and they've made $50 million. It's lopsided."
Other notable news…
Tom DeLonge selling gear used on blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves albums and tours
Machine Gun Kelly teams up with YouTuber Corpse Husband on ‘Daywalker!’ video
The Maine drop new song “Sticky”. They’ve also announced that their new album will be released on July 9th with pre-orders currently available.
The GRAMMYs took place this week. And the 2021 GRAMMY Award winners are…
Tom DeLonge reveals new Angels & Airwaves single is “very Box Car Racer” (NME)
System Of A Down's Serj Tankian releases new EP & "Electric Yerevan" video (BrooklynVegan)
The Juliana Theory Share New “We’re At The Top of the World”
R.I.P. Corey Steger, Founding Underoath Guitarist Dies in Car Accident (CoS)
After initial comments: Skillet frontman John Cooper attempts to clarify comments about Cardi B, The Grammys, and Hitler (CoS)
Green Day Release 25th Anniversary Reissue of Insomniac: Stream (CoS)
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones release new video for “I Don’t Believe in Anything”
Grammy Awards Hit Record Low, Down Nearly 53% Compared to 2020’s Show (Variety)
Hayley Williams Releases Tea Collaboration (Instagram)
Hey Violet drops new song “Friends Like This”
Rise Against Announce New Album (Chorus)
Gwen Stefani says she isn’t ruling out a No Doubt reunion (NME)
Guy Who Skateboarded to 'Dreams' Selling Video as NFT for $500K (Loudwire)
Bamboozle Festival making a comeback (Loudwire)
UK planning a dozen test events for crowds with no social distancing (NME)
DE’WAYNE and Awsten Knight team up for cathartic new track “Perfume”
16 songs All Punked Up was digging this week…
If All Punked Up made an album for this past week, these are the songs that would be included on it. This week we honor women in the scene!
If you’re interested in listening to this “album”, we’ve got the playlist created over on Spotify here. Feel free to give it a listen. Maybe go ahead and just subscribe to the playlist while you’re at it. This same playlist will be updated weekly with new songs.
Thank you so much!
As always, thank you so much for reading and being a subscriber! If you have a friend or relative who may be interested in this weekly newsletter, go ahead and forward them this email and they can sign up by hitting the SUBSCRIBE button below!
Thanks again!
Tyler Winters, Founder
All Punked Up