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Today’s Music News: Record Store Day sets 12-year sales high for independent record stores

by Staff

April 23, 2015

Last week, which included Record Store Day, independent music retailers accounted for 22% of overall physical album sales, which meant 12% of overall music sales when digital downloads are included. That's the highest share of the market that independent record stores have held in any week since 2003. (Billboard)

Lauren Mayberry of CHVRCHES is fighting back against abusive messages, including rape threats, she's received online. "These people never learn that violence against women is unacceptable," she wrote on Instagram, sharing an example of the hateful messages she's received. "But they also never learn that women will not be shamed and silenced and made to disappear." (NME)

If you've been waiting for an "intimate and fascinating" book about the life of John Oates, you're in luck. It's coming out next year, and it's being written by the Hall & Oates singer himself. (Billboard)

No surprises at the top of the Sunday Times's list of the U.K.'s richest musicians: Paul McCartney is number one, with a fortune of $1.1 billion. The former Beatle edges out theater composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (number two) and the band U2 (number three). (Billboard)

Jack Bruce's final recorded performance will appear on a forthcoming Beatles tribute album: the Cream bassist covers "Eleanor Rigby" on Keep Calm and Salute the Beatles, which will be released on April 28. Also on the compilation: Ann Wilson of HeartTodd RundgrenKC of KC and the Sunshine BandJudy Collins, and more. (Rolling Stone)

José Gonzalez appears in a cute-creepy new video for Calexico's "Falling From the Sky." The video is being described as the first part of a two-part story that will be concluded in a forthcoming Gonzalez video. (Pitchfork) Listen to Gonzalez's recent performance in The Current's studios, and read Andrea Swensson's essay about his performance at the Cedar Cultural Center.

The long-rumored joint album between Jay-Z and Beyoncé will reportedly be released sometime soon, exclusively via their struggling Tidal streaming service. (NME) Music insiders watching the struggles of the much-hyped service have noticed, meanwhile, that investor Kanye West has deleted all his tweets about the service. Once they noticed, though, he tweeted about it again, saying "the love of music is louder than words." (Consequence of Sound)

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