I love every word of this string of ZOLA JESUS tweets about the "healing, guttural" and "spiritual" power of humans making music, written in response to an interview GRIMES did with astrophysicist podcaster SEAN CARROLL in which she expressed her belief that we're closing in on the point at which artificial intelligence is "gonna be so much better at making art than us" and potentially make human artists "irrelevant" and also, maybe, "live music is going to be obsolete soon." Zola Jesus disagrees at the most basic, cellular level. Making music isn't about stringing together notes and adding harmonies, which is a thing AI can easily do now and will be much better at five or 10 or 20 years from now. Making music is about figuring out who we are. And communicating who we are. And, well, she says it way better than I can, and I highly recommend scrolling through her feed if you could use a shot of humanity right now (and who couldn't?). Because I'd hate to see you, or Grimes, or anyone, give in to those cold, dark nights inside your head. Not now. Not ever. I take it for granted that AI will make our lives a lot easier in some ways and a lot harder in others. And we mammals will keep needing to make music for both of those reasons... Republican Senator MARSHA BLACKBURN and Democratic Congressman JERRY NAGLER have introduced the Ask Musicians for Music (AM-FM) Act, which would require U.S. terrestrial radio stations to pay royalties to artists (instead of just songwriters, as they do now). Labels and publishers, unsurprisingly, are in favor. Broadcasters, not so much. Copyright owners have sought this legislation for nearly a century; the full Congress has never voted on any such bill. What will come first: that vote or terrestrial radio's eventual demise?... Congress is also looking into "unfair and deceptive practices" in the ticketing business... COLDPLAY, whose eighth album, EVERYDAY LIFE, is out today, says it won't tour again until it can figure out how to do so in a way that's environmentally "sustainable" and "beneficial." The band is, however, playing two shows today in Amman, Jordan, which will be streamed on YOUTUBE, and another Monday at London's Natural History Museum... TAYLOR SWIFT will perform a medley of her hits and receive an Artist of the Decade award Sunday at the AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS (8 pm ET on ABC), which in any other year would be a fairly unremarkable TV listing, but this year is different thanks to events you might have heard a thing or two about. SCOOTER BRAUN, who bought Swift's old label, BIG MACHINE, earlier this year, setting this chain of events in motion, spoke publicly about it for the first time on Thursday, mostly to say he doesn't want to talk publicly about it. And then he did talk about, in an emotional open letter to Swift that's worth a read no matter whose side you think you're on... Also Sunday, KANYE WEST does biblical opera at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from TINASHE (which actually dropped Thursday), COLDPLAY, BECK, LEONARD COHEN, 03 GREEDO & KENNY BEATS, JASON ALDEAN, LABRINTH, TRIPPIE REDD, OMAR SOULEYMAN, D.I.T.C., ACTION BRONSON, T3R ELEMENTO, HANNAH DIAMOND, NASTY CHERRY, MARY LAMBERT, SHANTI CELESTE, GALCHER LUSTWERK, JESSICA EKOMANE, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, BILLY CORGAN, ROD STEWART, GRACE VANDERWAAL, LINDEMANN, BEN LEE, GIRL RAY, MARIUS NESET & LONDON SINFONIETTA, JAAKKO EINO KALEVI, PERNICE BROTHERS, OH HE DEAD, CHRISTIAN ALEXANDER, JAX ANDERSON (formerly known as FLINT EASTWOOD), ELCAMINO, YNW MELLY, COMA, RAMZI, BIG BAND OF BROTHERS, JEFFREY FOSKETT, SLAINE, an unreleased HARRY NILSSON album and the comps HANUKKAH+ (featuring YO LA TENGO, HAIM and more) and COME ON UP TO THE HOUSE: WOMEN SING WAITS (ROSANNE CASH, AIMEE MANN, PHOEBE BRIDGERS, more)... On Sunday, K-pop group EXO releases its first album since losing two members to the South Korean military.