Eric Gasa

Start those 30-day free premium trials because SoundCloud might not be here much longer.

A death knell resounded in the halls of SoundCloud’s Berlin headquarters last Tuesday after the user-based streaming service swiftly laid off 40 percent of its staff and shuttered two offices in a closed meeting. Co-founder Alex Ljung said the decision was made in order to “ensure our path to long-term, independent success.”

Initially thought to be a rumor, reports of the site’s inevitable demise sprouted online. Sources at SoundCloud told TechCrunch that founders Ljung and Eric Wahlforss confessed that the company has only enough money to last until Quarter 4, or approximately 80 more days.

The news has left underground MCs, DJs, amateur producers, and other unsigned artists scrambling to archive their music on SoundCloud before they’re gone forever. Unlike competitors, Spotify and Apple Music, SoundCloud allows users to upload and share their own tracks and audio content.

For the independent music world, Rome seems to be burning because love it or hate it, SoundCloud served as the springboard for countless artists such as Lil Pump, Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, and Young Thug. This rise in underground viral hip hop led to a loose subculture of SoundCloud rappers; a subversive brand of amateur MCs raised on bassy beats, Percocet, and viral hooks.

As for the company’s financial ailments, experts cite SoundCloud’s inability to brand itself as a big streaming platform like Spotify (which it’s not) instead of capitalizing on the app’s truly organic uploading features for young artists and listeners alike.
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By Armando

Summerfest – 2017 Milwaukee, WI
summerfest.com

Milwaukee’s annual music festival lived up to its billing. In spite of heat, rain, and heavy traffic, “The World’s Largest Music Festival” undoubtedly delivered the fun, great food, big crowds and fantastic performances for 11 days on almost a dozen stages at the Henry Maier Festival Park lakefront.

Running from June 28 to July 2, and then continued on July 4 to July 9, great musical performers played from noon to midnight, bringing people from all walks of life to the beautiful city of Milwaukee, where they let go and lose themselves for awhile.

On Sunday, Summerfest came to a close on a high note with The Outlaw Music Festival at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater, featuring living legends Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, as well as Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, Nathaniel Rateliff, Margo Price, and Lukas Nelson.

2017 is a landmark year for the event as it marks the 50th anniversary of the festival. When it all began in 1968, the festival was an eclectic mix of concerts, film festival, air show, and even a pageant. Since then, the event has become the famous stage for some of the world’s biggest music acts from a variety of music genres.

This year continues that tradition as festival stages featured a diverse lineup, from influential music acts Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, to current chart-toppers The Chainsmokers and Alessia Cara, and rock icons Willie Nelson and Paul Simon.

There were plenty of highs and great performances that will be remembered long after the festival is over:

A Day To Remember packed the punk punch and was certainly one of the standouts. The phenomenal band’s set had all of the excitement reverberating up to the neighboring stages, performing some of their fan favorites “Mr. Highway’s Thinking About The End,” “All I Want,” “Naivety” and “Exposed” among others. Fans packed at Harley-Davidson Roadhouse were clearly enthralled, a reception that seemed to come as a surprise even to the lead vocalist Jeremy McKinnon who thanked the fans repeatedly right until the confetti came out.

Huey Lewis And The News brought their classic hits to excited crowd, and with a huge career-spanning set in their arsenal. The festival is clearly special for both the band and fans. As seen in the Summerfest museum inside the festival grounds, the renowned band and the event have a long history together. And this time around is clearly just as special. Fans were captivated as soon as Lewis arrived on stage with harmonica in hand, his voice as strong as ever, the crowd standing throughout their 9:45pm set and reveling the band’s classic repertoire.

Rapper Slug of Atmosphere worked the stage Friday night at Harley-Davidson Roadhouse, animated and in full control of the stage. The crowd reciprocated in kind. It was so deafening at the front of the stage I had to decompress and move to the corner railings to fully absorb the band and audience symbiosis. And it was a sight to behold. The Minneapolis hip‐hop duo was definitely one of Summerfest’s most exciting nights.

One artist that caught me by surprise was a local artist IshDARR, an act I wasn’t familiar with before the event, and going to massive festival as Summerfest, that is the best kind. The young rapper was sensational being in front of a hometown crowd and he came out in force to represent, keeping fans energized throughout his 10pm set. It is these moments of discovering promising new talents is what makes festival experiences truly special.

Here’s some of the performers on various stages of 2017 Summerfest.

Related: 50th Summerfest Resumes on Fourth of July

By Creative Media Times

Summerfest – 2017 Milwaukee, WI
summerfest.com

Summerfest, the yearly music festival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin kicks off tonight at Henry Maier Festival Park. Dubbed “The World’s Largest Music Festival”, Summerfest is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, making it one of the world’s longest running music festivals.

Summerfest 2017 will run from June 28 to July 2, and then from July 4 to July 9. Headliner Red Hot Chili Peppers kick things off tonight at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater at 7:30 PM. Also scheduled to perform tonight at various stages are Tesla, Spin Doctors, Flume, The Moody Blues, Frankie Ballard, Misterwives, Deerhoof, Jack Irons, Back Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Hook N Sling, Touch Sensitive, Shaed, The Cougars among others.

Conceived in the 1960s by then mayor of Milwaukee Henry W. Maier, Summerfest originally hosted various events from concerts to film festivals. It has since attracted global attention and featured artists from a variety of music genres, as well as legendary music artists.

The Summerfest Big Bang Fireworks, scheduled for tonight and presented by Menards and ABC-affiliated television station WISN 12 News, has been cancelled due to severe storms. It is now rescheduled at 9:30 p.m. tomorrow, Thursday.

To see the full lineup and schedules, please go to Summerfest.com >>

Waiting for it, that Green Light, we want it!

Lorde at Bonnaroo Festival 2017 by RobertoPulaski.

How many amazing things can you list about Lorde? Whether it is her perfectly-curated image, her hilariously opposite, bubbly personality in contrast to her dark music, or her very honest teenage narration of life, you have to admit, that girl is one of the most impressive music-making youth we have in today’s mainstream culture of pop. And speaking of pop, she seems to have embraced the inevitable American influence of it in her album. That was clearly obvious when she released her first single, ‘Green Light’, earlier this year. But take a close listen her long-awaited sophomore album, and it becomes more and more clear: there is no stopping this pop icon. And she may have just gotten much, much better.

The album bursts through your front door with the upbeat and exciting ‘Green Light’, giving an early insight as to what the album could possibly be based on. Detailing her “first major heartbreak’ it’s lyrics are brutally honest and her vocals are intense. Playing on her usual technique of upbeat songs with deeper meanings behind it, you’d immediately feel conflicted as to whether or not she is upset about this breakup or wildly excited. Either way, someone lied to her, which you immediately hear in the context of the ending first verse “She thinks you love the beach, you’re such a damn liar”, with the words ‘liar’ being echoed softly in the background.

The next track, ‘Sober’ is a quite impressive track because not only does it feature even more amazing play on relationship and teenage drama, but it makes quite the musical mark for her with the extensive use of brass horns. This is also another song where she uses the metaphor of dance being used in her lyrics, and goes on to ask an important question that many teens ask themselves but are too afraid to ask aloud “But what will we do when we’re sober?”. The brass horns come on strong, almost as if it is slapping you in the face and running away quicker than you can catch them each time. It gets to a playful and undoubtedly cool-girl moment when the lines “Jack and Jill get fucked up when it’s dark” as she nearly-raps it, without any music, and without any real break for air. And that dance beat-perfectly placed.
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