Parliament Gets Funkadelic

This happened overnight in the UK (and late in the day for me in Brooklyn), so I'll have more to say in the coming days, but wow. The blockbuster 121-page report from the British Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, summarizing a six-month inquiry into the UK's recorded and streaming music economy, concludes—I'm paraphrasing—that artists and songwriters are f***ed by labels and streaming companies alike. Basically, what artists and songwriters themselves have been tweeting and screaming about since the beginning of time, but now with the imprimatur of the British government, and with some concrete suggestions for how to make things better. Emphasis, for now, on "suggestions." This is one part of the government asking another part of the government to consider taking action—and doing some more investigating/inquiring. It's a reason for artists to cheer ("a massive vindication," TOM GRAY, the musician who founded the #BrokenRecord campaign, told the BBC) and for music companies to prepare (GEOFF TAYLOR, CEO of the UK label trade group BPI, trumpeted "this country's extraordinary global success in music" and warned of "unintended consequences for investment into new talent"). Which is to say, it's the beginning, six months later, of a long fight.

Lawyered Up

I'm not sure the free world has ever been collectively happier about a pop star getting permission to hire a new lawyer, but here we are. A seeming breakthrough in the BRITNEY SPEARS conservatorship battle, although—caution where caution is due—it may be some time before we know how much of a breakthrough. Or maybe not. The slow march of legal process may be getting just a little bit less slow. "#FreeBritney," says Britney herself, apparently for the first time.

Dot Dot Dot

New math: BTS + BIEBER = $3.2 billion... Musician/futurist HOLLY HERNDON has created her own deepfake: an AI version of herself that anyone can collaborate with... "We don't like customers because they can walk away. We like fans because we have a relationship." IRON MAIDEN's BRUCE DICKINSON, aka zero-carbon-emission aircraft investor and aircraft maintenance innovator, gives his TEDx Talk... Can vaccine passports actually work?... Which '90s teen movie had the best soundtrack?

Correction

I wrote in Wednesday's newsletter that CHRIS BROWN—who, along with YOUNG THUG, has the year's most played song on broadcast radio in the US—had never been banned from American radio. But he was. (And from several other places, too.) My apologies.

Rest in Peace

Cinderella guitarist JEFF LABAR.