Malcolm Gladwell picks up the microphone

Canada’s best-selling author living in NYC has been pouring his time into a new podcast focusing on ‘overlooked’ history — Eric Geiger Smith, NYT

Apple now releasing Podcast tracking data

Apple has announced that starting with iOS 11, changes to the Apple Podcasts app will allow creators to track aggregated data about when users start, stop, and skip within an episode. Podcasters will also be able to choose how listeners encounter their shows — Charlie Locke, Wired

Longtail Music provides an alternative to the on-demand algorithm

Founder Gabe Kangas said of Longtail Music, "While everybody is listening to the same songs over and over via their on-demand platform of choice, there are music experts of every genre sharing deep cuts, unknown artists and forgotten favorites 24 hours a day for free" — Digital Journal

While commercials air on TV, viewers flock to Facebook

The latest evidence of the power held by the so-called “second screen” comes from Facebook. The social media leader has published a report that details the degree to which its mobile traffic spikes during the commercial breaks of popular TV shows. Spoiler alert: It’s a big jump — Tubefilter

What you need to know about artist advances

Inevitably you will need some type of financing, be it a credit card, a loan or an advance. No shame here, it’s called life. The problem is, as a self-employed music professional without significant assets (and probably some credit challenges), the banks won’t do squat for you and the finance companies and royalty advance companies will flat out take you to the cleaners. If you’re lucky enough to have a good relationship with your publisher, label, PRO or distributor, it’s still a big hassle to get an advance out of them and it always comes with strings attached — Kevin Cornell, Tunecore

Why rock fans are loyal to the brand – not the band

The return of Guns N’ Roses and Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow underlines how logos and audience loyalty are more crucial to a group’s success than who is on stage —  Michael Hann, The Guardian

Noisography’s perfect 10 

A decade of hard work from Tiffany Naugler and Dan Nightingale has resulted in a priceless Halifax music archive —  Nzingha Millar, The Coast

Affordable-housing project in Regent Park envisioned just for musicians

Co-op building on now-vacant spot in Toronto would include performance and recording spaces —  Ben Rayner, Toronto Star

After years of criticism, Ticketmaster hopes to be hero in fight against bots

Ticket-selling giant states its case —  Alan Cross, Globe and Mail

Shaken it off! Taylor Swift ends Spotify spat

Singer ends three-year boycott of streaming service over royalties and makes entire back catalogue available to celebrate 10m sales of 1989 album —  Mark Sweney, The Guardian

When we walked a magic street

Remembering Toronto's Summer of Love, 50 years ago —  Mike Crisolago, Zoomer

Best country music albums of 2017 to date

Canadians on list include Colter Wall, Whitney Rose and Lindi Ortega — savingcountrymusic.com

Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ being released as a deluxe edition, with previously unreleased tracks

The 30th anniversary reissue of the iconic album comes out June 23 and includes a four-disc version — Jem Aswad, Variety

How on God’s green earth is P. Diddy the highest earning celebrity in 2017 

Forbes places him ahead of Taylor Swift and Drake, thanks to his Sean John clothing line —  Sadaf Ahsan, National Post