49a correction form new

Photo: Rob DeMartin/Spotify It’s been just over two years since Spotify cannonballed into podcasting, marking its spendy February 2019 acquisitions of Gimlet Media and Anchor as a splashy first step in the company’s expansionary transition from a music streaming platform towards something that’s significantly more than that. It was a scaling up of ambition, one that founder and CEO Daniel Ek conceptually outlined in a blog post titled “Audio-First” published at the time. As has been chronicled at length in this newsletter, that transition went on to include a string of further acquisitions (Parcast, The Ringer, Megaphone), a steady drumbeat of buzzy content partnerships (Joe Rogan, the Obamas, Kim Kardashian, etc.), and a bevvy of product experiments that poke at the edges of the current on-demand audio experience (playlists, vodcasts, talk-music mixes, etc.). The past two years are abundant with Spotify-filled headlines, and they collectively exert the feel of a show of force. But the piecemeal nature of the story also sometimes led to a lack of clarity over how the company intended to structurally reshape the digital audio business as we know it and reinvent itself as a platform that, in Ek’s words, will “begin competing more broadly for time against all forms of entertainment and informational services, and not just music streaming services.” I keep seeing the shiny individual pieces, but I’m curious as to how they think it’s all supposed to fit together. Yesterday’s hour and a half-long livestream presentation didn’t quite give me that full picture I was hoping for, but it does feel like we’re getting closer. Plus, the event also gave me the opportunity to jump on the phone with several executives at the company who I could pelt a few questions at. There was a lot that was announced yesterday, but I’m going to organize this write-up around three main buckets and lump a bunch of remaining threads in a miscellaneous section. Spotify’s already … [Read more...] about Key Podcast Takeaways from Spotify’s Big Event

HoodCelebrityy Photo: Rick Kern/WireImage In the cultural spaces from which dancehall music gets its name, women are usually the center of attention. The Jamaican genre’s digital rhythms are calibrated to inspire female bodies to wine , as the vigorous gyration of the waist is known across the Caribbean, and the lyrics to gyal tunes like Tony Matterhorn’s “Dutty Wine” and Mr. Vegas’s “Bruk It Down” echo this connection, calling out ladies-only instructions. The living embodiment of this culture, as seen through the years in music videos from Chaka Demus & Pliers’ “Murder She Wrote” to Rihanna’s “Work,” are the so-called dancehall queens: acrobatic dancers in go-go boots, fishnets, and “batty rider” shorts who run the floor at Kingston street parties and diaspora nightclubs with splits, head-top plants, and other feats of flexibility. Yet dancehall, the music genre, has long minimized female voices, relegating women artists to a peripheral role. This, finally, is changing. In Jamaica, where the current generation of male dancehall acts have struggled to replicate the crossover appeal of aughts icon Sean Paul, or the cult status of the currently jailed but still hugely popular and influential Vybz Kartel , women like Spice, Shenseea and Ishawna are keeping the genre fresh, provocative and relatable. “Females are definitely taking over this male-dominated business,” says Grace Hamilton, better known as Spice, the brash, blue-wigged diva behind bashment party essentials like 2014’s “So Mi Like It” and a new addition to the cast of VH1’s Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta . (She’s recently taken up part-time residence in Georgia, while maintaining her home, and presence, in Jamaica). “Back in the days, you only had one female that was reigning. But it’s not like that now. If you called Jamaica and [asked] who are the top artists right now, I’m sure my name has to come up. And a lot of other females, who are doing extremely well.” Kingston isn’t … [Read more...] about Women Are Keeping Dancehall Fresh

February 19, 2016 - 10:25 GMT hellomagazine.com Nicky Hilton has given the first glimpse of her baby bump, one mother after confirming her pregnancy Nicky Hilton Rothschild has given a glimpse of her baby bump while attending New York Fashion Week. The 32-year-old heiress stepped out in a form-fitting blue lace dress that hugged her burgeoning tummy – the first time it has really been on display. Nicky Hilton gave the first proper glimpse of her baby bump at the J. Mendel fashion show Nicky, who is herself a fashion designer, confirmed her pregnancy in mid-January, with a source telling People that she is " very excited to become a mum ". James Rothschild . The couple tied the knot at The Orangery in Kensington Palace Gardens in July 2015, and they are both "over the moon" at the prospect of becoming parents. Paris Hilton . Speaking at the amfAR Gala in New York last week, the 35-year-old said she can't wait to become an auntie, but said she couldn't reveal the sex of the child because she is totally in the dark. Her tummy was barely visible just a few days earlier, on 16 February "(Nicky) is so tiny right now, you can't even tell (she's pregnant)," Paris told People . "Usually you can tell with the size if it's maybe a boy or a girl, but we have no idea – and they want it to be a surprise." "They’re like a prince and princess." … [Read more...] about Nicky Hilton shows off her baby bump

More musicals should end with a megamix. Photo-Illustration: by Vulture; Photo by Really Useful Films There is only one way for any musical to possibly begin: the sounds of an orchestra tuning to A, backed by the crinkles of the crowd unwrapping their Werther’s. From this place of reliable uniformity, there are any number of possible directions a musical can go, from commercial to experimental, from horny cowboys , to horny newsboys , to horny convicts in a Jazz Age women’s prison . And because Broadway is as a diverse art form as any — because there is an endless (pun acknowledged) variety of “I Want” songs and 11 o’ clock numbers and love ballads — composers and playwrights assumed they could just go ahead and end a musical any old kooky way too. But that is incorrect. Not to sound too much like some sort of scoldy Henry Higgins, but what I’ve come to realize is that there are only two acceptable ways for any musical to end. Comic or tragic, mainstream or weird, old or new, there are a ton of musicals that fall into the format of the Only Two Good Possible Ending Types. They cover the spectrum of human emotion and energy. Sometimes they encompass a reprise or encore, although they don’t have to. You might find that your favorite musical’s ending does not qualify as acceptable. The Sound of Music , for example, does not fit into either category. Its ending is therefore bad, even though it features the objectively Good Thing of its protagonists escaping literal Nazis. Les Misérables , as well, does not meet the Good Ending criteria; apologies to that ghost chorus. Since Broadway isn’t opening any time soon, I expect producers to take notes on this and adjust their shows accordingly, so that they can end in the only ways that matter: We’ve Come Full Circle Back to the Beginning But Now It’s Really Poignant As Hilary Duff once said, “Let’s go back, back to the beginning, back to when the earth, the sun, the stars all aligned.” Many musicals … [Read more...] about There Are Only Two Types of Musical Endings That Matter