30 June

Pick a Day

30 JUNE

In Music History

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2020 John Prine, who grew up near Chicago, is named the first honorary poet laureate of Illinois. Prine died of coronavirus three months earlier.

2017 Jay-Z releases his album 4:44, which addresses the infidelity accusations his wife Beyoncé leveled at him in her album Lemonade. "Let the baddest girl in the world get away," he raps on the opening track, "Kill Jay-Z."

2015 Apple launches a new streaming service, Apple Music.

2012 In Kiev, Queen launch their first tour with American Idol alumnus Adam Lambert on lead vocals. The band had previously toured with Paul Rodgers.

2009 U2 launch their 360 tour with a show in Barcelona. 109 shows later, the tour finishes with $735 million in earnings, blowing away the $558 million record set by The Rolling Stones on their 2005-2007 A Bigger Bang tour. Ed Sheeran breaks the record in 2019 when his ÷ (Divide) tour rakes in $775 million.

2008 Olivia Newton-John marries Amazon John Easterling, a TV producer and entrepreneur.

2006 Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey divorce after three years of marriage.

2006 US president George W. Bush and Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visit Graceland in Memphis.

2004 Dave Davies of The Kinks suffers a massive stroke while walking out of a BBC building in London. Completely incapacitated for a few days, he gradually recovers, re-learning how to walk and play guitar over the next few years.

2001 The Rockabilly Hall of Fame opens in Jackson, Tennessee.

2001 Chet Atkins, a country guitarist and forerunner of the burgeoning Nashville sound of the '50s, dies of cancer at age 77.

1998 System Of A Down release their frantic self-titled debut album. The singles "Sugar" and "Spiders" earn airplay on rock radio and MTV, and as the band builds a following through touring, it goes on to sell over a million copies in America.

1995 Phyllis Hyman commits suicide by drug overdose at age 45. Known for the 1979 hit single "You Know How to Love Me," among others.

1994 Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam testify before congress to make their case against Ticketmaster - the band couldn't keep ticket prices for a planned tour under $20 because of Ticketmaster's fees, so they decided to cancel it. The hearing draws attention to the issue but nothing comes of it.

1993 Six days after falling off a 10-foot platform during rehearsal for a game show, 31-year-old Wong Ka Kui (lead singer of Beyond) dies of his head injuries.

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Taylor Swift Catalog Sold In Her "Worst Case Scenario"

2019

Taylor Swift's former label, Big Machine, is sold to Scooter Braun's company for an estimated $300 million, giving him control of her back catalog, including the master recordings. In response, Swift accuses Braun of bullying her and says she will re-record all her old albums to devalue his purchase.


Swift was 15 when she signed with Big Machine in 2005, soon after the label formed. She released six albums on the label, selling 42 million copies just in America. Like most record deals, Swift's contract gave Big Machine ownership of her master recordings, meaning they can decide where the songs are sold or streamed and if they are sampled. Big Machine can recycle the songs by putting them on compilations or releasing any flavor of "remastered" or "deluxe" editions of the albums. (Because Swift writes her own songs, she can still decide if they are used in commercials, movies or TV shows.) In November 2018, Swift left for Republic Records in a deal that gave her control of her masters moving forward. In a Tumblr post, she explains that she didn't re-up with Big Machine because she knew they would turn around and sell the label, "Thereby selling me and my future." She writes: "I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past." Selling Big Machine, and by extension her back catalog, to Braun's company, is what Swift calls her "worst case scenario." In a counter-offensive, Swift says she will re-record and re-release her first five albums, pitting the new versions up against her old albums on streaming platforms and points of purchase. There is little doubt Swifties would support her by streaming and buying the new stuff, which she would control. The news comes weeks before the release of Swift's seventh album, Lover, an upbeat and empowered collection of songs in high contrast to her last Big Machine release, Reputation, which was in many ways her response to Scooter Braun's client Kanye West, who turned on her by degrading her in his song "Famous," then gloating about it in an Instagram post with Justin Bieber, another Braun client. The last song on Lover is "Daylight," which recalls something she wrote in the Elle article 30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30 shortly before its release: "I've come to a realization that I need to be able to forgive myself for making the wrong choice, trusting the wrong person, or figuratively falling on my face in front of everyone. Step into the daylight and let it go."

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