Billboard - 24.08.2019

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BYTEDANCE EYES

A PLACE IN THE

STREAMING RACE

4

ByteDance, the parent

company of social video app

TikTok, is in talks with the

major labels to secure global

licenses to launch a new

streaming service, sources tell Billboard. The

deal, which is being negotiated alongside

license renewals for TikTok, will create a new

entrant in the music streaming race and give

Tencent another challenger in the Chinese

market. The music service, which ByteDance

has been demoing for a select group of

insiders, has been called “a whole new take

on streaming” by an industry source who has

seen it and will heavily incorporate social

networking features, according to sources.

ByteDance declined to comment.

Social networks designed around music

haven’t done well — Apple tried and failed

twice with Ping and Connect — but ByteDance

has a built-in audience of over 1 billion

monthly active users across all of its apps; it

also has access to a younger demographic

than Apple does. ByteDance initially planned

to launch the streaming service (which will

reportedly feature both free and paid versions)

before the end of the year, which could still

happen, but as negotiations continue the

launch could be pushed back to 2020.

“We’re at a point where the penetration of

a lot of these services is [already] reasonably

high,” says Russ Crupnick, managing director

at market research firm MusicWatch, about the

potentially limited audience for ByteDance’s

streaming platform in developed markets like

the United States and Europe. “The developed

world doesn’t need another streaming service

for young people, unfortunately. It makes

you wonder: What’s the problem that a new

streaming service is going to solve?”

TikTok has been operating on discounted

major-label licensing deals designed for

music startups, which were carried over after

ByteDance acquired the video-sharing platform

Musical.ly in late 2017. Now the company

will have to strike new deals that are more

beneficial for the labels if it wants its streaming

service to continue featuring content from

music’s biggest artists.

If ByteDance can become the fifth global

player in the streaming race, though, it will

shake up an industry where innovation

has largely been pushed aside in favor of

incremental improvements. While Spotify,

Apple, Amazon and Google all have somewhat

distinct features (Discover Weekly, Beats 1,

Alexa and YouTube, respectively), a service

with fresh ideas and a potential user base that

can rival streaming’s biggest companies could

throw a wrench into the market and make

innovation a top priority once again.

—MICAH SINGLETON

7

“I felt an extreme need not to

bullshit,” says Liz Phair of her

forthcoming memoir, Horror

Stories (Oct. 8, Random House).

For the indie-rock trailblazer, such

candor is nothing new: Beginning with

her groundbreaking 1993 debut, Exile in

Guyville, and throughout her career since,

Phair, 52, has favored blunt and honest

over anything rose-colored. So when it

came to writing a book, she wasn’t about

to offer anything but a collection of real-

life tales of motherhood, fame, death, love

— and all of the haunting mistakes she

made along the way.

You’ve always been very frank in your

music. Did you feel obligated to express

that same openness in Horror Stories?

I felt it, but not in an internal way. I

didn’t feel like a fan was looking over my

shoulder. But I did really feel that, what

was the point of putting out something

that wasn’t honest?

In an Instagram world, where we

constantly see curated lives, that kind

of honesty is rare.

Exactly. We’re all our own product, and

that’s not really life. I always felt grateful

to writers who would share their real lives.

I wanted to be a part of that, and I wanted

this book to feel real 50 years from now.

What’s the “horror” in these stories?

I started writing because I was so upset

with what was happening in the world,

and it was my way to feel empowered

when I felt incredibly powerless and

horrified. You see something really

traumatic, and then you just go on your

lunch break with colleagues — that

kind of cognitive dissonance between

absorbing all the stuff that’s emotionally

impactful and then carrying on as if it’s

not. I wanted to monumentalize caring. I

needed to monumentalize giving a fuck.

Horror Stories is the first of a two-book

series. What will the second look like?

It’s a companion piece called Fairytales.

It will be more about the big, flashy

career moments and big exciting things

that also are wrapped up in the lies we

tell ourselves — the way we perceive

things versus the way we really are.

The 25th-anniversary reissue of Guyville

synced up with #MeToo, and you

became a bit of a face for the movement.

Did you feel comfortable with that?

I felt a little unworthy. People were

looking to me for something, and I was

just as lost as everyone else. I realized

that everybody just needed to come

together where they could to support

something that flew in the face of what

was upsetting to them. I became a

symbol for a couple of months, and it

was weird at first, but then I embraced

it and realized I needed it as much as

they did. My music became a collective

“Fuck you,” but in a good way.

—MARISSA R. MOSS

LIZ PHAIR WRITES HER OWN STORY

What We Know About

Kesha

3

“While writing my new album,

I seemed to lose track of all

of my fucks,” says Kesha of

her next full-length. She didn’t

have many left to give on her last:

2017’s searingly personal Rainbow

was a triumphant return from a half-

decade hiatus, caused in part by a

bitter and still-ongoing legal battle

against her former producer, Lukasz

“Dr. Luke” Gottwald. (A trial date

has not yet been set.) A departure

from the giddy electro-pop that first

made her a star, Rainbow’s mix of

country, hard rock and piano balladry

earned Kesha her first two Grammy

nominations and a No. 1 album on the

Billboard 200. For its follow-up, she

has brought in producer Jeff Bhasker

(Harry Styles, Bruno Mars) for the first

time, as well as erstwhile Macklemore

cohort Ryan Lewis, who co-wrote

Rainbow’s top 40 hit “Praying.”

Meanwhile, Imagine Dragons’ Dan

Reynolds, Justin Tranter, Tayla Parx

and fun.’s Nate Ruess all appear in

the writing credits. While the as-

yet-untitled album is rumored to

be more uptempo and reminiscent

of her “TiK ToK” days, Kesha — who

also announced a second Weird &

Wonderful Rainbow Ride cruise for fall

2020 — will only say, “I have danced

a lot while making this one and cried

some tears. I’m not sure what genre it

is. Y’all will have to tell me.”

—JASON LIPSHUTZ

12

Mason Ramsey

saddles up for the

How’s Ur Girl & How’s Ur Family

Tour Pt. 2, starting Sept. 14.

In her much-anticipated memoir, the ’90s rock heroine takes an unvarnished look at her

life both on and offstage — and all of the “horror” she has faced along the way

Phair onstage in 1994.

13

It’s a season for solo albums with

Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard

(Jaime, Sept. 20) and Sonic Youth’s Kim

Gordon (No Home Record, Oct. 11).

14

Blink-182 caps a joint

tour with Lil Wayne

with its eighth LP, the oddly

titled NINE (Sept. 20).

15

Liam Gallagher reteams with writer-

producers Greg Kurstin (Adele, Sia)

and Andrew Wyatt (Miike Snow) for his second

solo album, Why Me? Why Not., out Sept. 20.

PREVIEW 2019

FAL L

Howard