Music

A federal judge in Los Angeles has dismissed a lawsuit brought by several musicians and estates last year, following a New York Times Magazine article about a fire that destroyed huge numbers of original recordings.The Times Magazine reported that the fire, on a Hollywood backlot in 2008, destroyed over 100,000 audio recordings containing as many as 500,000 songs controlled by the Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest recorded music company.Among the artists that had lost “single and album masters” in the fire, according to the article, were Tom Petty, Tupac Shakur and Steve Earle, as well as the bands Soundgarden and Hole. Representatives of those artists or their estates sued Universal in June, arguing that the company had been negligent in protecting their tapes and that the company had a duty to share with artists any income it received from an insurance settlement over the fire.Since the case was filed, all plaintiffs had dropped out except Jane Petty, a former wife of Mr. Petty, who said she had an interest in his recordings through a divorce agreement. On Monday, Judge John A. Kronstadt of the United States District Court in Los Angeles dismissed Ms. Petty’s claims.The dismissal was made “without prejudice,” giving Ms. Petty the ability to refile her case. But Judge Kronstadt’s 28-page ruling found her claims legally deficient, and in one crucial passage said that MCA — Mr. Petty’s former record label, which is now part of Universal — owned the rights to his original recordings, known as masters. Since Mr. Petty did not own them, the judge ruled, Ms. Petty could not sue under a claim for “bailment,” or safekeeping.A lawyer for Ms. Petty did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on Monday.Universal has long maintained that the Times Magazine article, by Jody Rosen, exaggerated the extent of the damage in the fire, and in a statement on Monday called the original piece and a follow-up article “stunning in their overstatement and inaccuracy.”In a statement, Jake Silverstein, the editor of the Times Magazine, said: “We stand by Jody Rosen’s reporting. This ruling does not refute or question the veracity of what we reported: that, contrary to UMG’s continued effort to downplay the event, thousands of recordings were lost in the 2008 fire.” More

On a recent Saturday night, Derrick Jones, a D.J. who performs under the name D-Nice, live-streamed himself working his turntables from his home in Los Angeles, where he was self-isolating. He started early in the afternoon and played deep into the night, pausing only to sip his drink, take the briefest of bathroom breaks and change into a new flamboyant hat. Despite all the chaos outside, here, online, was a safe harbor. The only thing contagious was the mood, which was jubilant. As names of friends — and increasingly, famous people — floated across his screen, he would grin and call out their names in greeting: Rihanna. Dwyane Wade. Michelle Obama. Janet Jackson. As the night stretched on, the party shifted into something more meaningful than a celebratory distraction. Time and space collapsed as tens of thousands of people experienced the same song, the same shared spirit, no matter who or where they were. Kind of like Covid-19 itself.At one point, apparently inspired, Jones shouted out thanks to all the nurses, doctors and hospital workers. His eyes drifted to the number of people in the “room,” surging toward 150,000, and paused, amazement shaping the contours of his eyes and mouth. “We should raise some money or something,” he said.What D-Nice seemed to realize in that moment was something many people have realized since Covid-19 gripped the country: Social media could be mobilized for something far greater than self-promotion. Artists have taken to You-Tube or Instagram to provide some relief, to allow us to gather together and listen to an opera, or hear a standup set, or watch a poetry reading, all of us separate but still together. But more remarkable, it has become the medium by which people have organized to help others. More

The Weeknd’s new album, “After Hours,” lost 69 percent of its sales in its second week out, but in another slow week for new music it still had enough to stay atop the Billboard 200 chart.“After Hours” had the equivalent of 138,000 sales in the United States last week, according to Nielsen — down from its opening of 444,000, which was the biggest debut for any album this year. The latest tally for “After Hours” included 47,000 copies sold as a complete package and 119 million streams (down from 221 million). Its total was helped by the addition of three new songs to the album, as well as what Billboard counts as more than 90 deals on the Weeknd’s website offering copies of the LP with sales of merchandise.For about a month now, the coronavirus epidemic has been changing online listening patterns. The effect is complex, and may be tied to shifts in people’s listening habits. Some genres, like classical and children’s music, are seeing gains, as are older hits, perhaps as listeners seek solace in their favorites.But one change is clear: Streams of the top 200 songs on Spotify have been sliding. Last week, listeners in the United States streamed those songs 530 million times, according to publicly available data from the service. That is the third straight weekly decline in this metric, and its lowest for the entire year. It is even lower than the 554 million recorded for the last week of 2019, a period when listening usually drops. How much lower will it go?Also on this week’s chart, the Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer reached No. 2 with its latest, “Calm,” and Lil Uzi Vert’s hit “Eternal Atake” dropped one spot to No. 3. “Future Nostalgia,” the new album from Dua Lipa, the pop singer who won the Grammy Award for best new artist last year, opened at No. 4, and Pearl Jam’s “Gigaton” opened at No. 5. More