Three random routes to a 2020 pop hit: YOUTUBE reaction videos (recommended if you are a 39-year-old pop song looking for a third or fourth chance). TIKTOK (recommended if you are a savvy and talented teenager whose song was released 20 or 30 minutes ago). Sending MP3s to fans who ordered CDs or LPs (recommended if you are a savvy pop superstar's new album that came out before the physical stock was ready, though maybe not anymore, since BILLBOARD just changed the rules, so scratch that one all you upcoming new superstar albums)... FACTORY RECORDS legend TONY WILSON had a complicated route to launching an MP3 store in 2000—while NAPSTER was still a cultural force and APPLE was three years away from opening the ITUNES STORE—and it's not all that shocking that he never made it to launch day with a store that wanted to deliver MP3s inside password-protected PDF files. "I'm still trying to understand it even now," one of his early employees tells the GUARDIAN. But h/t MICHAEL DONALDSON, aka Q-BURNS ABSTRACT MESSAGE, for flagging Wilson's proposed royalty model: one-third of every 33-pence sale to the artist, one-third to the store and one-third to "these s***s," by which Wilson meant the label. It's unclear how he expected labels to go for that (they didn't) or how he expected to compensate songwriters and publishers. But it's intriguing for the way it proposed a completely new economic framework for the digital future instead of trying to square-peg the old framework into that round-hole future. The one-third-to-the-store idea wasn't that far off from what became the standard for MP3 sellers and subscription services. As for the other two-thirds, that part has remained, shall we say, complicated... Speaking of new financial models, VULFPECK is selling track 10 of its upcoming album on EBAY. As in, you can buy the space on the album and supply up to two and a half minutes' worth of music to fill it. You don't get the right to earn any of your money back, though: The winner has to assign all royalties to the band and "will receive no financial remuneration, like ever," warns the listing. The top bid as of Monday night was $50,100... Musicians confront JEFF BEZOS re: AMAZON-owned TWITCH. File those musicians under people who will never have a podcast on AMAZON MUSIC... BEN SHAPIRO reads the lyrics to "WAP"... DJ IMARKKEYZ remixes Ben Shapiro reading the lyrics to "WAP"... A short, random list of things that can't be done between now and Sept. 15... RIP SALOME BEY and JAN STEWARD.