SCOOTER BRAUN's $300 million purchase of Nashville's BIG MACHINE will be the "biggest recorded music buyout" since WARNER took over PARLOPHONE for $765 million in 2013. That not-so-trivial bit of trivia comes from ROLLING STONE, which ventures to look past the deal's impact on Big Machine's most famous former artist with a pair of stories on how the deal could change the pop landscape and how it might affect country music and Nashville. It isn't just about who owns whose masters, it turns out. But it also sort of is. In an excellent piece on the Nashville angle, MARISSA R. MOSS notes that Big Machine is a radio-driven label that has perfected the art of building careers off radio hits while struggling to find a path for artists like DRAKE WHITE and LAUREN JENKINS who aren't quite suited for that route. A boutique label it is not. But Braun has long experience navigating other avenues to commercial success, including online campaigns, cross-promotions and international outreach, and he's in a position to bring new energy not only to Big Machine but to Nashville in general. The city, Moss writes, operates largely on one strategy: "release a single, do radio promo, drop the album (granted the single doesn’t tank), tour, repeat." How might Music City look when all sorts of new options come into play? How might it sound? In the other piece, TIM INGHAM drills into some strong financials for both the buyer and the seller. Braun's empire, through his ITHACA HOLDINGS, extends into publishing (VAN HALEN's catalog is in house), management and recording, with direct connections to fashion (specifically, SUPREME) and TV/film. Ithaca will be one of the world's largest indie music companies and the opportunities for synergy will be seemingly endless, without anyone having to leave the building. One caveat, though, on the metrics that make the record company itself so valuable: Its main source of income is six albums by the famous former artist whose interests might not be aligned with the company's anymore. In a bit of, let's call it, interesting timing, Big Machine on Wednesday announced a limited-edition vinyl reissue of her 2007 single "TEARDROPS ON MY GUITAR" (her 2006 debut, "TIM MCGRAW," got the same treatment three weeks ago). Her fans had some thoughts. Will they keep buying the product?... Are they really *not* going to call this stretch of road in Detroit the Freeway of Love? Everyone else is no doubt going to call it that so maybe the state of Michigan should get out in front of the issue and make it official now... JAMILA WOODS breaks down "BALDWIN" for SONG EXPLODER... STING and SHAGGY at the TINY DESK... #TBT: Two STRANGER THINGS-inspired remembrances of the music of 1985, per the RINGER and the NEW YORK TIMES, and a review, courtesy MIXMAG, of how the show itself hears that year.