Independently Wealthy

"[T]his deal allows the three major music companies to continue to dominate the indie distribution sector" is how BILLBOARD, without any apparent ironic intent, reported Monday's news that KOBALT is selling its independent label services and distribution business, AWAL, to Sony (along with its neighboring rights division, KNR). This is the biggest deal of music's hot stove season since BOB DYLAN sold all his songs to MR. JONES for a not dissimilar number of hundreds of millions of dollars. Sony seemingly grows its recording and distribution roster and, perhaps more significantly, digital toolbox, while a streamlined Kobalt Music Group narrows its focus to publishing and related businesses, including its Kobalt Capital song investment fund.

As for the artists, TRAPITAL's DAN RUNCIE didn't miss the chance to note the irony that AWAL, now owned by the world's second biggest label, "literally stands for Artists Without A Label!" BOB LEFSETZ sees it as more bad than ironic, at least from the artists' perspective: "the people who left major label distribution to go to AWAL... are back where they started, and there's no viable alternative." There's always an alternative, though. Just one less than there used to be. There will be two stories, at least, going forward. Follow the money. And follow the artists. But in the short run, Sony does indeed appear to have become a much bigger independent music force, which is a sentence I can't believe I just wrote, while Kobalt, if you follow the numbers here, may well be more profitable than it was 24 hours ago. (Trapital's Runcie, I should add, does a nice job of quickly laying out what both sides might be looking for.)

Also, Kobalt still exists. BLOOMBERG reported in September that the company, said to be worth north of $1 billion, was considering cashing out and that all three major labels were potential buyers. After news broke Monday of the partial sale, believed to be for about $430 million, the company said it's healthy and no longer for sale. "Our team and capabilities," founder and chairman Willard Ahdritz said, "will only grow stronger and play a continued role in making the industry better for creators."

Future Games

One more thing about SOPHIE, prompted by a Facebook thread in which a bunch of older critics and industry types were trying to figure out what it means that many of them had either never heard of the late electro-pop musician or had heard of her but never heard her. It struck me that Sophie was exactly the kind of artist who could have, even should have, connected with the very audience who never got the chance to hear her. Though she started in a literally faceless, bubblegum-adjacent subculture, she brought an auteurist touch to everything she did. She wrote and produced her own music (as well as for several other artists), and was obsessive about her musicianship. She had a strong point of view and a life story to (eventually) share through her music. She was concerned with notions of authenticity even while understanding how slippery and subjective those notions can be. She was interested in art and literature. Not unlike, say, MADONNA, with whom she worked, she was a pop artist who rock fans could have loved.

PITCHFORK's PHILIP SHERBURNE on the radical futurism embedded in Sophie's musical choices: "Culture’s ability to see past the horizon has become increasingly eclipsed by its addiction to the past. But Sophie... was not afflicted with that myopia." And from the RINGER's JUSTIN SAYLES: "Sophie’s impact extended beyond the borders of music—Sophie, a trans icon, challenged people to reimagine the concepts of gender, identity, and what the future itself could look like."

Etc Etc Etc

MARILYN MANSON's label, LOMA VISTA, has dropped him after EVAN RACHEL WOOD wrote on Instagram that he "started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years." Manson, who has been similarly accused by other women in the past, called Wood's allegations "horrible distortions of reality"... UK royalty collector PRS FOR MUSIC has decided not to go through with a controversial plan to impose a flat fee on artists and venues doing small livestreams. The fee would have made it more expensive to license your own livestream—in the middle of a pandemic—than a live show in front of an audience... Art rock: JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT's punk and no wave influences... A song from MA RAINEY's BLACK BOTTOM with music by BRANFORD MARSALIS and lyrics by the long-deceased playwright AUGUST WILSON and Delta blues singer CHARLEY PATTON is ineligible for a Best Original Song OSCAR nomination because of those credits... TONY BENNETT was the first artist I interviewed who simultaneously made me feel in awe and completely out of my depth. He was gracious to a fault, which is to say I assume he pretended not to notice. Songs are a kind of temporary defense against this cruel, cruel disease and so I'm sending him every love song in my heart.

Rest in Peace

Photographer RICKY POWELL, celebrated for his work with the BEASTIE BOYS and other hip-hop artists... SIBONGILE KHUMALO, South Africa's "First Lady of Song"... New Zealand bluegrass fiddler COLLEEN TRENWITH.