Melville's Salesman, Kraftwerk's Innovation, and Sony's Splurge: Link Drop

The news, podcasts, albums, and stories that I've enjoyed in the last month.

Can’t Get Much Higher’s link drop is a new monthly series for paid subscribers where I discuss art, news, and stories that have gotten me thinking and laughing in the last 30 days. This month, we dive into Hotel Cocaine, a new music game, questionable spending from the major labels, a strange speech from Bob Dylan, why Lukas Nelson rocks, and so much more.

Links, Links, Links

Musical Trends to Keep an Eye On

“For Gen Z, music is its own social media” by Henry Chandonnet (Fast Company)

Though music has always been a social activity, it’s becoming more of a social media activity for young people. Over the next decade, we will not only see music streaming services build more social features, but we will see listeners modify and share the songs that they love more frequently, especially with various tools powered by artificial intelligence.

“How Sony’s $6BN+ M&A Splurge Has Set the Pace for Music Acquisitions Over the Past Decade” by Tim Ingham (Music Business Worldwide)

Last month, I talked about how the music industry doesn’t receive enough regulatory scrutiny. When you see the billions that major labels spend on investments and acquisitions, you’ll wonder why that is. In a recent tweet,

jaime brooks

succinctly captured why the labels spend so much:

the power of record labels comes from all the old IP they own, not their ability to force new releases to do well. they succeed by sitting around and waiting for passive income to roll in, not by deciding what’s going to be popular and paying spotify to enforce it

Though this strategy seems benign, it creates issues for artists by giving a handful of labels undue power. I hope we see the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission pay a bit more attention to major labels in the coming years.

“Major Labels Sue AI Firms Suno and Udio for Alleged Copyright Infringement” by Kristin Robinson (Billboard)

Generative artificial intelligence took the music industry by storm over the last few months. Given that many of these companies likely infringed on hundreds of thousands of copyrights to train their models, everyone was expecting the major labels to sue. And they did. I expect a spate of lawsuits in this space over the next few years.

Listen & Enjoy

“The Origin of Pop-As-Genre 1976-1996” by

Matthew Perpetua

Matthew Perpetua is one of the most illuminating music writers of our time. Along with insights and recommendations that he’s been publishing online for two decades, he also builds hyper-specific playlists each week. This 17-hour playlist that starts with “Dancing Queen” and ends with “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” tells “A chronological story of how POP became codified as a hybrid genre distinct from R&B, rock, disco, [and] hip-hop.”

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real by Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

A few weeks ago, my friends and I went to the Outlaw Music Festival, a one-day concert that featured Robert Plant & Allison Kraus, Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson. On the day of the show, we were sad to hear that Willie wouldn’t be playing because he was recovering from an illness. His son Lukas would be stepping in to play his father’s set. One song in, I knew we were in for a treat. Lukas and his band were unbelievable. Though he mostly played his dad’s classics, he snuck a few of his own songs in. They were some of the best-written songs I’ve heard in a long time. Since then, I’ve been playing his self-titled LP on loop.

News from the Tech World

“AI Firm ElevenLabs Sets Audio Reader Pact With Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Laurence Olivier Estates” by William Earl (Variety)

This news, along with NBC using an AI-clone of Al Michaels to narrate its Olympics’ recaps, leaves me deeply saddened. It’s hard enough for artists, actors, and broadcasters to establish themselves these days. The last thing they need is to compete with yesterday’s stars too.

“US sues Adobe for ‘deceiving’ subscriptions that are too hard to cancel” by Emma Roth (The Verge)

Why does every technology product require a subscription these days? Even more important, if a company chooses to use a subscription model, why is it so hard to cancel? The answer to both of these questions is probably somewhere between the fact that it’s legal and that corporations love to make money. There’s nothing inherently wrong with subscription-based businesses. In fact, I work for one. But I’m glad to see the federal government keeping closer watch on if subscription models are overly extractive and deceptive.

Musical History to Write Home About

“Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain?” by Search Engine with PJ Vogt

Berghain is arguably the most famous techno club in the world. Its fame isn’t solely connected to electronic music, though. It’s connected to the fact that they turn away scores of guests each night for no clear reason. The wonderful people at Search Engine decided to do a deep dive on techno music, Berghain itself, and what it takes to get in.

Jazz Modernism: From Ellington and Armstrong to Matisse and Joyce by Alfred Appel

I haven’t read this entire book, but I came across a passage on Twitter about Igor Stravinsky coming to see Charlie Parker play that was just too good not to share: