BossREDEF, aka JASON, wonders why the same issues that prevented some classic TV content from being available circa the turn of the century (spoiler: music clearances are high on the list) are still keeping plenty of classic TV content out of reach in the age of streaming. "One would think 20 years was enough to fix," he tweeted the other day. There are so many things that one would think. In music, one would think a major label in 2020 wouldn't have to take 24% off the top of an artist's royalties for distribution services including trucking physical product. And yet, even at a time when most music distribution involves neither trucks nor physical product, that remains a standard deal point, major-label-turned-indie A&R exec CHRIS ANOKUTE tells Variety. Anokute went indie, he says, because "you're either part of the solution or the problem, and... I was part of the problem." You can plug those 24 percentage points into this fun little Record Deal Simulator, designed to show how various deal points, splits and upfront costs affect an artist's ability to profit. If, for example, you have a 20/80 royalty deal (20% to you, 80% to the label) with a not unreasonable $1 million budget ($400,000 advance, $200,000 in recording costs and $400,000 for marketing), you'll need to generate 1 billion streams before you make your first dollar in royalties. The label will have made a $3 million in profits at that point. The simulator, made by the startup CREATE/OS, is an oversimplification, presumably designed as a conversation-starter as much as a business tool. And it did start some conversations on Thursday, around the same time KANYE WEST's manager, ABOU THIAM, was beginning to make the rounds of the music media to argue that it's time for change. His and West's next step will be to move from Twitter to a manifesto that will be shared with labels. "We're no longer in the times that labels have to actually drive to a plant and physically make the records," Thiam tells Rolling Stone. "In 2020, you can put up a record on ITUNES by yourself for free. So, why are you charging me a fee for that when I can do that myself?" Put *that* in your record deal simulator, label execs. Everybody else, the previous 400 words were basically my way of saying you should play around with the tool, too. It's fun. And a little shocking... KCRW has released season three of its longform music storytelling series LOST NOTES. Each season of the podcast has a different host and a different tilt; this one is a series of half-hour-ish essays by poet and cultural critic HANIF ABDURRAQIB about artists and moments in the pivotal year 1980, including the SUGARHILL GANG's attempt to followup "RAPPER'S DELIGHT," HUGH MASEKELA and MIRIAM MAKEBA's return to South Africa and the deaths of JOHN LENNON and DARBY CRASH in the span of 24 hours... MICHAEL KIWANUKA wins the MERCURY PRIZE... This may be the best cease-and-desist letter ever written. The challenge to its recipient won't be about ceasing, desisting or paying up for his use of the DOOBIE BROTHERS' "LISTEN TO THE MUSIC" in an ad for a WILLIAM MURRAY GOLF shirt, but responding in kind to the Doobies and their lawyer, PETER PATERNO. One would like to think the golfing fashion entrepreneur better known as BILL MURRAY is up to that task... Rule #3 (of 5) for How to Enjoy a Virtual Festival, per Afropop Worldwide's BANNING EYRE: "Cook and eat food you love. You could always order out, but cooking fills the air with atmospheric aromas such as might waft your way from the various food stalls on the festival grounds." Hard agree... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND, MOOR MOTHER, LYDIA LOVELESS, SPILLAGE VILLAGE, MACHINE GUN KELLY, SUPERM, DEFTONES, IDLES, SAD13 (aka SPEEDY ORTIZ's SADIE DUPUIS), A$AP FERG, PUBLIC ENEMY (album title of the week), ELZHI, NAPPY ROOTS, MARIE DAVIDSON & L’ŒIL NU, SYLVAN ESSO, CARRIE UNDERWOOD (Christmas album), SUFJAN STEVENS, ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF, SVALBARD, KATAKLYSM, BOB MOULD, THURSTON MOORE, CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE BIG BAND, DIANA KRALL, CHARLES MCPHERSON, MICHAEL WOLLNY, ADAM KOLKER, A CERTAIN RATIO, HEN OGLEDD, ACTION BRONSON, STALLEY, JOJI, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, the WAR AND TREATY, WILL BUTLER, BLUE HAWAII, DROPDEAD, YVES JARVIS, the MENZINGERS, RITUALS OF MINE, BAND OF HEATHENS, FILMORE, the late EARL THOMAS CONLEY, GRANGER SMITH, TIM HEIDECKER, the JIMMY CHAMBERLIN COMPLEX, the NEIGHBOURHOOD... SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS...Plus also too BLUE NOTE RE:IMAGINED, featuring SHABAKA HUTCHINGS, NUBYA GARCIA, EZRA COLLECTIVE and others paying homage to Blue Note jazz classics, a TRAVIS SCOTT/YOUNG THUG/M.I.A. single, and, last but not least, quite the opposite in fact, a voluminously expanded version of the greatest album ever made... Wait, it turns out we also have the worst concept for a surprise album ever, a 17-track album by the ONLY ARTIST WHO COULD HAVE WRITTEN the soon-to-be-immortal line "How the f*** you get shot in your foot, don’t hit no bones or tendons?," which doesn't mean he should have written it, never mind released it... RIP STERLING "MR. SATAN" MAGEE, IRA SULLIVAN, S.P. BALASUBRAHMANYAM and MAX MERRITT.