What Is Dynamic Pricing and Why Is It Hiking Ticket Prices for Oasis, Taylor Swift and Your Favorite Artist?
Northeastern Global News (2024). Dynamic pricing was meant to stabilize the market; instead, fans have been hit with spiking ticket costs. How do we fix concert ticketing? A Northeastern music industry expert weighs in.
Could Fyre Festival happen again? Billy McFarland thinks so, but experts have their doubts
Northeastern Global News (2024). The disgraced founder behind the original Fyre Festival is out of prison and announced his plans to run a second iteration of the failed music festival in April 2025. His intentions to bring back the festival, which led to him doing jail time for wire fraud charges, was shocking to people in the music world.
Music Festival Chaos: Inside the Deadly Risks at Concerts
Newsweek (2024). Music festivals like AstroWorld, Route 91 in Las Vegas, and Woodstock '99 have turned from parties to tragedies over the years, raising serious concerns about safety and security. These deadly stampedes, shootings, and riots, leave festival goers continuing to question if there are enough safety measures in place to protect attendees.
Young Thug—and His Rap Lyrics—Are on Trial. Northeastern Experts Say the Case Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Northeastern Global News (2024). The trial of Jeffery Lamar Williams, better known as Young Thug, has made headlines not just because the defendant is a celebrity rapper. It is already the longest trial in Georgia history, with no end in sight. But Northeastern University law and music experts say the case also raises legal and ethical concerns based on the prosecution’s use of the state’s RICO Act, as well as its strategy of using the defendant’s rap lyrics to implicate him in an alleged crime.
How can you stay safe during a music festival?
Northeastern Global News (2024). Safety has always been an issue when it comes to music performances, according to Andrew Mall, an associate music professor at Northeastern University. Whether it be an outdoor concert, a traveling event like Lilith Fair in the ’90s, or the destination festivals of today, organizers have had to contend with issues like crowd crush, equipment collapse, fires, interpersonal violence and shootings.
Musi, a new, free music streaming app, begs the question: Can anything compete with Spotify?
Northeastern Global News (2024). A new music streaming service –– Musi –– is turning heads with its free, silent ad-based platform that runs on audio from millions and millions of YouTube videos. Musi isn’t like major streamers like Spotify or Apple Music, but its entry into the streaming wars begs the question: Can anything compete with the likes of Spotify, or is the music streaming landscape set in stone?
Live Nation and Ticketmaster face an impending federal antitrust lawsuit. Will the government finally break up the monopoly?
Northeastern Global News (2024). The 2010 merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster is “essentially unfixable,” says a Northeastern antitrust expert. But could the Justice Department take the incredible step of breaking up the two companies?
Taylor Swift keeps releasing different vinyl editions of “The Tortured Poets Department.” Is this wasteful?
Northeastern Global News (2024). Billie Eilish recently called out artists who make multiple variants of the same vinyl like Swift does. But Swift is not the first artist to do this, said Andrew Mall, an associate music professor at Northeastern University. Swift is part of a larger trend of those “gamifying” vinyl collecting, where consumers will buy every variant of a record — whether they offer a different cover, record color, or bonus tracks — in order to complete their collection.
Sound not found: The disturbance within TikTok
The Arkansas Traveler (2024). From Ariana Grande to Zach Bryan, TikTok has prevented many artists' music from syncing onto the social media platform. Reporter Mark Garcia quotes Andrew Mall’s insights recently published by the Associated Press.
Here’s Why Millions of Your Favourite Tik Tok Videos Have Fallen Silent
The Quicky (podcast, 2024). Mamamia podcast house Claire Murphy speaks with Andrew Mall about the emerging licensing standoff between Universal Music Group and TikTok.
Why Taylor Swift’s Album Announcement During the Grammys Is Unusual
Northeastern Global News Magazine (2024). Swift had been dropping hints about new music leading up to the Feb. 4 ceremony, but using an awards show to announce a new project isn’t an industry standard, said one Northeastern music expert.
CBC Talks with Andrew Mall about Universal Music vs. TikTok
CBC (television broadcast, 2024). On the night of the Grammys, CBC's Deana Sumanac of CBC Newsroom talks with Andrew Mall about Universal Music vs. TikTok.
Songs by Taylor Swift, Drake and More Are Starting to Disappear from TikTok. Here’s Why
Associated Press (2024). TikTok may look (or sound) a little different when you scroll through the app going forward. Earlier this week, Universal Music Group — which represents big-name artists like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Drake — said that it would no longer allow its music on TikTok following the Wednesday expiration of a licensing deal between the two companies. Avid TikTokers are already seeing the effects. Here’s a rundown of where things stand.
From Kate Bush to Glass Animals, How TikTok and TV Help Give Music a New Life
Northeastern Global News Magazine (2023). Whether it be reviving a decades-old holiday classic or breathing new life into an older release, TikTok, television and movies hold great sway. Where DJs and dance clubs once influenced people’s musical tastes, social media and entertainment are the new tastemakers as they introduce or resurrect music. This leads to songs released years ago hitting charts in a way they didn’t upon release.
How this class is preparing students for the world of music festivals
Northeastern Global News Magazine (2023). Want to try your hand at a designing a music festival or learn about the history of these events? These Northeastern experiential learning courses help create the next generation of festival organizers.
Is Beyoncé’s Renaissance concert film a sign of things to come for movie theaters and the concert experience?
Northeastern Global News (2023). Part concert film and part behind-the-scenes tour documentary, “Renaissance” promises to give fans a glimpse into the famously private superstar’s life during her recent Renaissance tour. It also promises to be a bright spot for movie theaters in the post-Thanksgiving box office doldrums. But could “Renaissance” be something more: a sign of things to come for the movie theater business and the theatrical experience?
Rock That Doesn’t roll, “Bookstore Guys”
Rock That Doesn’t Roll podcast (2023). Who could a 1990s Christian rock aficionado turn to in order to find the latest and greatest releases? For mainstream music fans, tastemakers included record store clerks of 1990s indie music stores, or retail juggernauts like Tower Records and Wherehouse - the kind of superfans depicted by Jack Black in High Fidelity. But for many evangelical teens of the 1990s, record stores were not the place to find kid-tested, parent-approved music. For that, Christian teens usually had to go to Christian bookstores.
Taylor-made: A Swiftie’s guide to the best ‘Eras’ movie experience
The Washington Post (2023). Deciding which movie theater to watch the upcoming “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” in might be as difficult as choosing which Swift era you want to represent. The concert film, which will start showing Thursday night, will bring Swifties, concert fans and the general public right into the middle of a Swift concert. And 3,850 theaters across North America are planning to show the film in myriad formats, giving Swifties an array of choices for how they want to experience the concert film.
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie is a lesson for other artists and the music industry
Northeastern Global News (2023). Taylor Swift will soon extend her pop culture dominating reach to the big screen, with the release of a concert film of her record-shattering Eras tour set to hit theaters on Oct. 13. It is Taylor Swift’s world –– we’re all just living in it.
The Voice at 60: On Whitney Houston’s Immortal Instrument
Entertainment Weekly (2023). Houston would have been 60 years old today, Aug. 9. Of course, she's no longer with us and while I, and many others, feel her absence everyday, her voice — that magnificent voice — still elicits joy.
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