Here's a different kind of value gap than the one record companies are used to talking about. The global music business is booming, according to the IFPI's annual report on recorded music sales. Those sales totaled $19.1 billion last year. It was the fourth straight year of growth and best year since 2006. Literal sales, as in downloads and CDs, continued free-falling, but streaming revenues, especially from paid subscriptions, reached new heights. Streaming now accounts for 47 percent of the business, with no signs of slowing and plenty of room for growth. There is caution amid the optimism ("There is always another round of disruption coming around the corner," SONY MUSIC EVP STU BONDELL told MUSIC ALLY), but mostly there is optimism. Meanwhile... It's no secret that artists, songwriters and producers don't always share in all that growth, especially those who aren't in the top 5 or 10 percent. But here's a newish twist. Established artists like Grammy winner STEPHEN MARLEY and songwriter/producer SEAN GARRETT, who's worked with USHER, BEYONCÉ and NICKI MINAJ, are increasingly seeking cash advances from outside interests to cover their expenses in the long months between royalty checks. Not wanting to sell their copyrights, more and more are turning to a company called SOUND ROYALTIES that pays advances against future royalties. It's not widely known, BLOOMBERG reports, that the company is owned by hedge fund manager JAMIE DINAN and that its opaque, complicated contracts can lead to artists paying interest rates as high as 30 percent. Or more. And if the royalties aren't as high as expected during the contract term and the artist still owes money to the patron, the rates can go up. MILES WEISS' article explaining exactly how the scheme works (and it does sound like a scheme), why it's as legal as it is outrageous, and why it's been successful, is today's must-read. In the middle of it, Weiss slips in a reminder that musicians "regularly live paycheck-to-paycheck for months at a time." Even when their record companies are basking in a $19 billion year... This GOOGLE spreadsheet of '80s and '90s alt/indie bands covering other '80s and '90s alt/indie bands, with YOUTUBE links and footnotes, may be the best thing that's happened on the internet so far this spring. It's the work of the NY TIMES MAGAZINE's NITSUH ABEBE, who writes that he wanted to document "the way so many bands used covers to stake out a whole audience and canon and set of shared references around what was still called 'alternative' music." PAVEMENT, meet the WEDDING PRESENT. PALE SAINTS, meet RIDE. Thank you, Mr. Abebe... KAMASI WASHINGTON's new short film, now available at APPLE MUSIC... TROY CARTER's new venture... RIP KIM ENGLISH, JENNY PAGLIARO and MAGGIE LEWIS WARWICK.