The TAYLOR v. SCOOTER controversy that dominated the headlines over the hookup between SCOOTER BRAUN's ITHACA HOLDINGS and SCOTT BORCHETTA's BIG MACHINE effectively crowded out other issues that might have been worth a discussion. And might still be. Like, say, the blockbuster merger of management and label interests. Asked by BILLBOARD's HANNAH KARP how an artist managed by the same company that's signing her to a label deal can know she's getting a good deal, Borchetta said artists "love" not having "a wall between artist, label and management," which sounds super duper we're-all-in-this-together awesome until you think it through for three or four seconds and remember who the wall is there for. (Spoiler: It's not for the label.) He also tells Karp the record business has reached a singularity of transparency in which "artists, managers and lawyers know what the industry standards are," which maybe, I don't know, means artists no longer need either managers or lawyers and can stop giving away all those percentages? What say you? And how is this similar and/or not to the ongoing spat between Hollywood writers and their agents? Where do we stand on the appearance of conflicts of interest, not to mention actual conflicts of interest, in 2019?... In un-hooking-up news, VIVENDI has selected investment banks as it pursues the sale of up to 50 percent of UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP—whose revenues are booming thanks to the usual suspect, streaming... WOODSTOCK 50 is looking more and more like SHA NA NA and less and less like JIMI HENDRIX every day. Having failed to secure a permit for a three-day anniversary fest in upstate New York, organizers have set their sights on the MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION in Columbia, Md., for a show in three weeks for which there are apparently no artists, no tickets sold and a venue that doesn't know on which days the festival would take place but "we are ready to do a show if they have one"... Those Woodstock organizers say the fest, if it happens, will be a benefit for voting and climate change nonprofits, which is at least on brand for music fests in summer 2019. It isn't just about plastic bottles and littering anymore. Festivals are paying attention to everything from what kind of tent you bring to what brand of glitter you wear, and other corners of the business are starting to watch their carbon footprints, too. Are they doing enough? MusicSET: "Green Days: The Music Biz Tackles the Environment"... Teenage climate change activist GRETA THUNBERG is now singing for the cause, with help from the 1975... DRAKEO THE RULER acquitted of murder... A$AP ROCKY formally charged with assault... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from CHANCE THE RAPPER, YBN CORDAE, BURNA BOY, CUCO, YOUNG DOLPH & KEY GLOCK, JUSTIN MOORE, FOUR TET, FLORIST, CLARK, SUGAR RAY, ONLY CHILD TYRANT, OF MONSTERS AND MEN, CAAMP, DUDE YORK, BJ THE CHICAGO KID, NF, JAUZ/BITE THIS!, THY ART IS MURDER, MINI MANSIONS, BILL RYDER-JONES, KAISER CHIEFS, ANDY GRAMMER, HOT SINCE 82, DELBERT MCCLINTON, HOUSTON PERSON, VIOLENT FEMMES, LLOYD COLE and E-40... And the best of SPOON.. RIP BEN JOHNSTON, YAO LI and STEVE MITCHELL.