This weekend, the US Women’s National Team won the World Cup for a record fourth time. On the heels of Independence Day, the victory brought with it a rousing political debate about equal pay and gender discrimination.In March, 28 members of the USWNT sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for discrimination. The athletes claim to generate more revenue than the men’s team while garnering higher TV ratings, but say they are paid less simply because they are women. The prize money for the 2018 men’s World Cup was $400 million while the female players this year will receive $30 million. In 2015, when the USWNT won the cup, the team was paid $1.725 million while the previous year’s U.S. men’s team was awarded $5.375 million after losing in the round of 16.During Sunday’s victory celebration in France, the crowd started chanting, “equal pay!” But the die-hards aren’t the only ones chanting. Monday morning, Snoop Dogg took to Instagram to stand up for the women, saying, “pay them girls what they worth.”Soccer may be having an awakening on the issue, but what’s happening in the music business? Have we let our guard down? Gender discrimination was a hot topic last summer when Haim revealed that they were paid 10x less than a male counterpart to headline a similar festival. They fired their agent, a lot of research was done, and it was discovered that the ‘Big 3’ labels had significant pay gaps in terms of industry employees: 23% at Sony, 30% at Universal, and 49% at Warner. Women also fill only 31% of leadership positions at those same companies.But there are bright spots. When Atlantic Records, a label run by a woman, Julie Greenwald, crushed it at the 2018 Grammy’s, it was widely publicized that she keeps a 50/50 gender distribution among label staff. There are also amazing music-adjacent companies, such as the female-founded Yola mezcal company, doing the hard work of gender equality. They’re hosting an all-woman festival in L.A. on August 18th. Who else is making these kinds of strides? And what more can the music business do to right these wrongs?The USWNT may not be heading to the White House anytime soon, but you can greet them this Wednesday in NYC when the victory parade takes over Broadway, aka the Canyon of Heroes. The festivities end at City Hall Plaza where Mayor de Blasio will present the champs with keys to the city. As team captain Megan Rapinoe said on IG, quoting the late, great, Nipsey Hussle: “Ain’t really trip on the credit, I just paid all of my dues. I just respected the game, now my name all in the news. The Marathon Continues.”
BEATS
Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun: A Crisis PR Expert’s Take on ‘Scootergate’It’s a salutary lesson in the bad blood that will always emerge at the bitter crossroads of money and relationships. (Variety)
Kidz Bop Is a Juggernaut of the CD Age. Can It Survive the Streaming Era?The series of children’s cover records has scored 24 Top 10 albums since 2001. But kids’ listening habits have shifted, too. (NY Times)
Ben & Jerry's Honor Big Freedia with Bouncing Beignets FlavorBig Freedia bounced into the elevated dairy heights over the weekend, joining such superstars as Stephen Colbert, Bob Marley, Jerry Garcia, Phish and Jimmy Fallon as the face of a special Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor. (Billboard)
UnitedMasters Launches iOS App for Distribution & Artist ServicesIndependent artist services and digital distribution platform UnitedMasters has announced the launch of its new iOS app, allowing artists to upload their music to major streaming services and more on the go. (Billboard)
6 Things Every Crowdfunding Campaign Needs to SucceedTrust in crowdfunding platforms is at an all-time low these days considering the historic melt-down of PledgeMusic recently. (Soundfly)
Amazon Snags Taylor Swift to Headline Its Prime Day 2019 Concert In addition to expanding its popular sales event to two days instead of one, the retailer is also planning to host a Prime Day Concert headlined by Taylor Swift, exclusively for Prime members. (Tech Crunch)
TIDAL's New Credits Pages Highlight Songwriters, Producers & MoreAs songwriters, producers and engineers demand more recognition for their musical contributions, TIDAL is giving those behind-the-scenes creatives individual profile pages on the streaming platform. (Billboard)
Is Your Song Going Viral? These Guys Would Like to TalkAt a time when the music industry has become increasingly focused on viral hits, managers Danny Kang and Daniel Awad pride themselves on finding — and amplifying — viral talent. (Rolling Stone)
What Content Dominates on YouTube?YouTube is the most popular video hosting platform on the internet. Billions of people watch billions of hours of content. Tens of millions of users upload content to it every year. (Blog Pex)
Streaming Services Finally Care More About Old* MusicDespite having a reputation for prioritizing new music discovery, the majority of streams on services like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music still come from older rather than newer music. (Water and Music)
Spotify, Apple Music and Rivals Are Secretly Fixing Your Mainstream Taste In SongsThe world's most-streamed artists are a parade of major-label household names: Ariana Grande, Post Malone, Billie Eilish. But hidden below the top rankings are the independent artists and labels taking over a greater share of the music in your headphones. (CNET)
SoundCloud, Repost & The Case For Doubling Down On DistributionA few weeks ago music distribution platform Stem announced it would be dropping the majority of the tens of thousands of artists who distributed through its system due to a change of services and yesterday, Spotify shared it will be discontinuing its direct upload beta at the end of this month. (SoundCloud)
BYTES
For the past year, NPR has been taking a deep look at American anthems and all the forms they can take. These are the songs that unite us, inspire us or say something about what it means to be an American
A$AP Ferg Talks New "Floor Seats" Album, His Relation To Bad Boy & Becoming A Businessman
LÜM is a 100% ad-free social music streaming application where you discover the best new music you’ve never heard. Stream new music seamlessly.
10 straight summers of that retro, soulful, cool out, bbq eating, suntan getting, beach chair sitting, rosé drinking, two miles an hour, so everybody can see you music. Straight from DJ Jazzy Jeff & MICK
This week's newsletter was carefully curated by the Nue Agency staff and our editor Rachel Meisner If you think we missed something this week or have any suggestions/comments for next week's newsletter, let us know!