This week, commentators shared their thoughts on why unpaid internships are such a problem, if rock radio can afford to not play Ed Sheeran's new song, whether or not major labels can weather another indie music revolution, and more!

This week on MusicThinkTank, our contributors shared insights on how Instagram influencers earn money, how artists can sustain their energy while on tour, what exactly a trademark/trademark rights are, and more.

In this look back on the past seven days of music industry news and events, we check back in on how Spotify Lite's first week went, what's next for the wreckage of PledgeMusic, Ed Sheeran's latest streaming milestone, and more!

This week on Hypebot, some of our most popular covered the preservation and return of Aerosmith's first touring van by 'American Pickers' Badash's edging out of BTS curtesy of Google AdWords, how Spotify runs the numbers on an artist's monthly active users, much more!

Broadcast radio is still one of the most used sources of media and a top vehicle for music discovery,  but it won't maintain this top spot for long if the current trend holds, according to two major listenership studies

Last year's MIDiA survey of musicians was groundbreaking. Now, the music industry consultancy is back with a  new edition of the survey that every musician - big or small, indie or major label  - should take part in.

What you communicate in your social media posts is of course important, but almost as consequential is the time at which you post. Here we look at optimal posting times for the major social media platforms in the contemporary media environment.

When just starting out on an instrument, it's inevitable that some mistakes will be made, but this is only a problem if you don't learn from these errors in order to ultimately become a more successful artist. Here we look at six common pitfalls that aspiring musicians often fall into when starting out on the instrument.

Last year, the band Filter had announced that original members Richard Patrick and Brian Liesegang were reuniting to record a new album, their first since the band's 1995 debut, 'Short Bus.' The reunion has now been canceled and the band is blaming PledgeMusic.

T he largest radio conglomerate in the US, iHeartMedia,  became a publicly-traded company again on Thursday, are launching its direct listing.  Shares of the company, which just recently emerged from bankruptcy, are listed under the ticker “IHRT” on the NASDAQ.

In this piece, Emmanuel Legrand breaks down a recent report suggesting a massive overhaul of the framework through which sound recordings are licensed, and that rights holders need greater autonomy in order to negotiate more equitable contracts.

FRIDAY 7.19.19

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YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscribers can now seamlessly transition between a song and its music video.  Users will now see a video button at the top of the screen as they start listening to a song, and with a tap, they can watch the music video or flip to the audio at the same point in the track.

Earlier this week, Hypebot published an important Music Biz Weekly podcast interview with Attorney Chris Castle delving into the demise of PledgeMusic and its legal ramifications for artists, vendors and the music industry. Because of the importance of this topic, we've had the full interview transcribed.

Spotify monthly active user counts are one of the most important metrics used by the music industry - radio, media, A&R and more -  to judge how hot an artist is and the size of their fan base. But how does Spotify calculate monthly active users? Is it unique listeners or total listens? Is it calendar monthly or last 30 days?

Gibson Guitars will relocate their global  HQ to the heart of Music City. The company will open new offices at Cummins Station at 209 10th Avenue South, a historic property in downtown Nashville.

While internships can be a great way to put you on the road to industry success, unpaid internships can often class out promising candidates by not offering the support necessary for them to get their foot in the door.

Billionaire investor Haim Saban, Chairman of Saban Capital Group, is teaming with music industry veteran Gustavo Lopez to launch Saban Music Group with a promised $500 million investment. SMG is positioned as a record label, international A&R, and artist development company built around offering ‘360 deals’ to artists.

THURSDAY 7.18.19

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Sony Corporation chief Kenichiro Yoshida has announced that the company will bring together its recorded music and music publishing businesses outside of Japan under the umbrella of Sony Music Group  Sony Music Entertainment CEO Rob Stringer will now run Sony Music Group as well as Sony Music Entertainment.

When it comes to the pursuit of your music career, it's guaranteed that not all your plans will come together - but having a backup plan in place when failure inevitably hits can help keep you on the track to success.

The deadline to submit proposals to the SXSW PanelPicker is this Friday. July 19th. This online process gives attendees a voice in conference programming including presentations, panels and at SXSW. Competition is fierce with 6100 proposals submitted in 2018.

In this piece, Scott McCormick digs into the process through which the Crosby, Still & Nash song 'Southern Cross' was converted from a discarded leftover into a what ultimately became a smash hit.

In this third part in a series exploring music "trigger cities", Jason Joven pf Chartmetric takes an in-depth look at Latin America's music consumption stats to explore how listeners there are precipitating the exponential growth of Latin music's global popularity.

If you've entered the difficult world of music PR, you've doubtless faced the bone-chilling silence which greets most of your pitch emails. Getting a response to your carefully crafted email can largely hinges on finding just the right person to contact - here we look at some helpful tips for finding cold contact you want.

For the third time, organizers of the Woodstock 50 festival had their proposal for a permit to produce the event at  Vernon Downs race tack rejected Tuesday evening, this time by the town's Planning Board.

WEDNESDAY 7.17.19

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In this piece, Fred Jacobs weighs in on the state of rock music, and what a new cut from Ed Sheeran and friends could mean for the future of the genre on radio moving forward.

It didn’t take long for other hip-hop and R&B artists to join in on a party started by Lil Nas’ “Old Town Road.” Now Blanco Brown has hit the country charts with “The Git Down.”