Today in rock history, like, literally today; Spotify — a free-to-use 12-year-old music streaming service with premium subscription options — goes public on the New York Stock Exchange. Analysis on shares of the company (SPOT) paint a very mixed bag of ideas from stock market observers. The Guardian points out that the music streaming business was, at launch, a free-to-use service, funded by advertising. Spotify now has 157 million customers, and has managed to convert 72 million of those into paying users of its premium subscription service. Recode, however, says that the company has "never been profitable" and points out that last year it posted an operating loss of $461 million. That's on top of having to compete with similar services provided by Apple, Google and Amazon. Users have enjoyed access to much of the major label offerings (with a healthy, but still too tiny, offering of music from independent and boutique labels), and artists have been plagued by the low returns on streams of their music. The Swedish company's IPO is non-traditional as well in that Spotify is not issuing any new stock and has not set a price for its shares in advance (The Verge points out that shares are expected to begin trading at a reference point of $132 each). Instead it is selling shares currently held by its private investors, rather than handling it in the usual way with the process managed by investment bankers. It will save the Swedish company money but it is likely to create volatility when the shares go live on Wall street as investors try to settle on a price. —Ray Roa
Today in rock history: on this date in 1956, up and coming performer Elvis Presley made an appearance on comedian Milton Berle’s weekly comedy television program. Presley, who hadn’t appeared on a television show of this stature or popularity up to this point, was a huge hit on the program. Elvis performed his hits of the day, “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Blue Suede Shoes” and drew plenty of attention for his guest appearance on the show. At the time, it was estimated that one out of every four television viewers tuned into the program to see the new singing sensation from Tupelo, Mississippi do his thing. Ratings for the episode were so high that Milton Berle invited Presley to return to the show two months later in June of 1956.
Today in rock history: on this date in 1993, soul and R&B legend Ray Charles became the very first performer to ever achieve the feat of having hit singles on Billboard’s singles charts for five consecutive decades. Charles enjoyed chart hits in every decade from the 1950s through the 1980s and, on this date in 1993, Ray’s cover of the Leon Russel-penned classic “A Song For You” entered Billboard’s R&B singles chart. Charles passed away in 2004 at the age of 73.
FAME IS SHIT
Interview: Richard Thompson talks Tweedy, new album, fame and more
Today in rock history: on this date in 1949, folk and rock musician Richard Thompson was born in London, England. Thompson made his musical debut with British folk band Fairport Convention in the late 1960s and was instantly recognized for his outstanding guitar work despite being only 18 years old at the time. Thompson left the band in the early ‘70s and embarked on a solo career that would land him many accolades and critical praise for several years to come. Thompson’s most recognized and admired work is his 1974 collaboration with his wife Linda entitled “I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight” which is often referred to as an absolute masterpiece. The highly respected musician and songwriter has earned several awards throughout this career for his fantastic musical achievements and is still writing, recording and touring to this date. Thompson will be in the Bay area again on April 17 when he opens for Jason Isbell at Ruth Eckerd Hall. More info on that show is available via rutheckerdhall.com, and you can read our review of his last Bay area stop here.
Today in rock history: on this date in 1976, the very first platinum sales award (commemorating sales exceeding one million copies sold) was granted to a 45 RPM single. Previous to this date, Billboard magazine was only awarding gold sales awards for sales of more than 500,000 copies sold and was not commemorating the million mark like it was for album sales. The first single to receive a platinum award was the suggestive, seductive song “Disco Lady” by longtime blues and R&B performer, Johnnie Taylor. Taylor was best known for his 1968 smash hit, “Who’s Making Love” but, as disco ruled the airwaves and was the preferred genre of the day, he too found a way to capitalize on the craze. “Disco Lady” was the No. 1 song on the pop charts for four weeks and topped the R&B singles chart for six weeks and became Johnnie’s biggest selling single with a total of 2.5 million copies sold. “Disco Lady” was also the very first single to ever reach No. 1 on the pop charts to have the word “disco” in its title.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 5, 2018.