Still in pain over the loss of his son, a British father attacks Spotify and the Swedish government. On April 7th, Rakhmat Akilov, an ISIS sympathizer, hijacked a beer truck in Sweden. The 39-year-old Uzbekistan immigrant drove down busy streets in St…
Category archives: Scandals
Why Music Venues Should Ban Stage-Diving
Stage-diving: part of every awesome performance or a lawsuit waiting to happen? As an artist, you’ve probably been there. Sweat on your arms and forehead. Music maxed out on the speakers. Hundreds (if not thousands) of cheering fans screaming at the …
Help! I’m Getting Unskippable 38-Minute Ads on YouTube
YouTube vowed to do away with 30-second unskippable ads. So, why have 30+ minute unskippable video ads appeared on the platform? Last February, Google announced that it would do away with unskippable 30-second video ads on YouTube. The decision came a…
Decapitated: Our Band Was Falsely Accused of Rape and Kidnapping
No criminal history. Two unknown female accusers. Witnesses and police reports that contradict their account. Did the Spokane Police Department jump the gun with the arrest of Polish death metal band Decapitated? Last month, Los Angeles County Sheri…
Former Songkick Publicist Now Works for Harvey Weinstein
Sallie Hofmeister once provided PR work for Songkick. Now, she’s defending Harvey Weinstein. Yesterday, in a letter sent to clients, once-promising ticketing startup Songkick finally confirmed that it would close its doors. The startup specialized in …
$130-a-Ticket ‘Gathering Festival’ Turned Out to Be a Giant Scam
Andrew Murdock managed to scam artists with a sham music festival prior to suddenly disappearing. 2017 hasn’t been a great year for music festivals. First, fans that attended Ja Rule’s $12,000-a-ticket music festival quickly found half-built tents, pil…
Bitcoin-Based Arena Music Has Been Screwing Me for Two Years
Is the music industry ready for blockchain technology? Not if executives that use the technology can’t pay up what they owe. To tackle the music industry’s complex licensing issues, startup company Blokur has raised $1.2 million. Using blockchain tec…
If Cloudflare Can Block Neo-Nazi Sites, Why Can’t They Block Piracy Sites?
A damning tweet comes back to haunt Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince. The deadly Charlottesville protests last August drew national attention on white supremacist and neo-Nazi culture in the United States. Following Digital Music News’ discovery of 37 whi…
A Research Group Says They Have Evidence That Spotify Broke the Law — and Were Bullied to Withhold It
Spotify’s lawyers are accused of leveling threats after a Swedish researcher tied the company to piracy. Over 140 million monthly active users. 60 million paid subscribers and growing. Over $3 billion in revenue. Impressive. But did you know t…
Cash Me Outside Girl’s Father Says She Doesn’t Deserve a Record Deal
Has the Cash Me Outside girl’s management team fabricated a talent that she may not have? In her first single, ‘These Heaux,’ Danielle Bregoli (aka Bhad Bhabie) proudly rapped about the money that she had. “I ain’t nothin’ like these hoes / Don’t compa…