BONUS TRACKS: Kacey Musgraves’ Plea for ‘Big Download Energy’ and More

Zach Bryan released a new album last Friday, and it features some pretty great collaborations with The War and Treaty, The Lumineers, Sierra Ferrell, and Kacey Musgraves (read our review here). The Musgraves collaboration in particular, “I Remember Everything” has been catching fire this week, already racking up more than 15 million streams on Spotify. On the App Formerly Known as Twitter, Musgraves expressed gratitude for the streams but reminded fans that BDE (that’s “big download energy”) goes even further for artists. Downloads are fewer in number, but weighted much more heavily when it comes to artists making money from their songs online. (A flurry of downloads helped push Oliver Anthony‘s “Rich Men North of Richmond” to the top of the charts a couple weeks ago.) Learn more about that calculus in this piece from Rolling Stone, and go ahead and download some of your favorite songs today. (NOTE: One great place to do that for indie artists is Bandcamp, and today is an especially good day to do it — it’s Bandcamp Friday, which means the platform waives its cut of revenues, putting more of your purchase price directly in artists’ pockets.)

There’s nothing like a question of concert etiquette to get people riled up. We all agree that you shouldn’t talk during a concert (right?), though there have been many heated debates over beers after the show about how best to deal with someone who breaks that sacred rule. (The correct answer, obviously: right to jail.) But what about standing during a show in a venue with seats? It’s hard to be too mad at someone who gets so into the music they just have to dance. But also it sucks to be seated behind that person and have your view of the stage blocked all night. Pop singer Adele, at least, has a firm opinion on this matter — though, granted, she’s formed that opinion from the moral and literal height of the stage. At a recent show in her Las Vegas residency, she came to the defense of a fan who’d been asked by venue staff and fans behind him to sit down. According to a discussion of the matter on NPR, Adele inquired about what was going on, then said into the mic: “Can you leave him alone please? They won’t bother you again, my darling. You enjoy the show.” Which he did … according to footage of himself he’d been collecting the whole night with the aid of a selfie stick. Which is a whole ’nother point of etiquette to discuss. Just not, obviously, during the show.

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO

Here’s a sampling of the songs, albums, bands, and sounds No Depression staffers have been into this week:

Our Best of August 2023 playlist
Amanda Palmer and The Righteous Babes – “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance” (Sinéad O’Connor cover); proceeds from the song will be donated to Irish Women Survivors Support Network
Silo Sisters (Melody Walker, Phoebe Hunt, and Bonnie Sims) – “The Missing Stair”
Malin Pettersen – “What a Start to a Morning”
Tray Wellington – Moon in Motion 1
Lydia Loveless – “Sex and Money,” from her new album, Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again, coming Sept. 22

Jason Hawk Harris – “Jordan and the Nile,” from his new album, Thin Places, coming in October
Cruz Contreras – “Stop Giving Your Heart Away,” from his debut solo album, Cosmico, coming Sept. 15
Allah-Las – “Right on Time”
The Clements Brothers – Dandelion Breeze
The Barefoot Movement – “Let It Out”