Spotify has made millionaires. Almost none of them are musicians.
Spotify's Serfs: A new report breaks down the Black Box of Streaming and the brutal financial realities of the music industry's streamonomics.
Spotify, which pays little, wants to pay artists even less
Spotify's last money-grab from artist royalties alarmed government investigators. Now they're grabbing even more.
Unbowed by past apologies, Tulum superspreader event Art With Me is coming to America
Meditation is free but the enlightenment will cost you.
The house that Frankie Knuckles built for us
How we keep Frankie a part of our lives and the soul of the architect in the house he built for us.
Right Wing Dance Squads
UK dance music has always been about freedom. But are we really going to march with the far right?
Namaste Bros: superstar DJs and plague raves in paradise
The party never ended for the rich - or the superstar DJs capitalizing on slack lockdowns in Mexico.
Save Yourself
Nobody is coming to save our scene, especially not the ticket brokers who launched the hashtag.
In 2021, support people. Screw the brands.
If we say we care about the history of this music, we need to stop enabling the ones that fucked it up.
#PassTheMic – Why dance music needs its singers
Why have the vocalists become almost invisible in dance music coverage these days? The answer (probably won't) surprise you.
Why is Pioneer paying everyone to write about the CDJ-3000?
All discussion of the "industry standard" on the largest dance music media sites has been paid for by Pioneer itself.
Purged: How a failed economic theory still rules the digital music marketplace
A discredited economic theory is still guiding the decisions of most digital music labels today - even if they don't know it. This is the dumb theory of the Long Tail and how a tsunami of shitmusic destroyed it.
Boiler Room Is Changing
Boiler Room - the broadcasting platform which brought the party (and DJs turning knobs) into living rooms around the world - is changing. The company has unveiled parts of a new business model involving "brand fee/royalties" and a quasi-franchised version of the Boiler Room experience coming to a town near you.
Why Are All the Nightclubs Shutting Down?
It's gone global. From London to New York we're hearing the same thing: where the fuck are all the nightclubs going?
Everything Has Changed and the Industry Hasn’t Noticed (Yet)
Will Sumsuch went to the Brighton Music Conference, and what he saw was "an industry suffering from an identity crisis."
5Chicago.com is Now 5Mag.net
A bit of meta for our readers who may have followed us to this site from an old link or post: 5 Mag has moved from our historic domain at 5chicago.com to our new...
Chicago Is Becoming the Tiny Town from Footloose Where It’s Illegal To Dance
Another day, another closure. Who would want to open a nightclub in Chicago?
Inside the Social Media Bubble
Inside our heads where it's 72 degrees and sunny and it always plays music we already like.
MUST READ!
Brutal layoffs at Bandcamp as new owner slashes 50% of staff
A week after promising to preserve many of the site's most beloved features, Bandcamp's new owner has gutted the company's staff. The writing team at Bandcamp Daily is reportedly down to just 3 people.
