• Apple promised us everything—even the Taylor Swift catalog that she pulled from Spotify—but they couldn’t deliver. Apple execs and Swift’s label both confirmed to Buzzfeed that 1989 will not be offered on Apple’s new streaming service when it launches June 30. Now, don’t get too upset. Swift’s back catalogue will be available on Apple Music, so you can still listen to “You Belong With Me” while torrenting “Shake It Off.”
• Although I’d really love to see a straightforward follow-up to Body Talk (Can “Indestructible” be my wedding song?), in my book, any Robyn we can get is good Robyn. Once her collaborations and tour with Röyksopp finished, she announced a new project called La Bagatelle Magique with keyboardist Markus Jägerstedt, featuring the work of late producer Christian Falk. Falk, a longtime mentor of Robyn’s, passed away from pancreatic cancer last July. She and Jägerstedt are currently mixing a mini-album featuring tracks they worked on with Falk before his death. They’re hoping to release it in August and just yesterday premiered a new track, “Love Is Free,” on BBC Radio 1 with Annie Mac.
• Have you heard of Spotify’s new feature Taste Rewind? It’s a handy-dandy website where you can go pick three artists off a list that includes Skrillex, Diplo, and Jack Ü (which is, um, the DJ duo project of Skrillex and Diplo) so that Spotify can choose a playlist for you that encompasses tracks from the last four decades. Or something. It’s been rather glitchy, and it seems people have had issues acquiring these carefully curated lists of songs handpicked just for them. After choosing Nicki Minaj, Mark Ronson, and Carly Rae Jepsen four times out of sheer desperation (I’M SORRY, NICKI), I gave up all hope of seeing my picks. In other Spotify news, they got a new CFO—Barry McCarthy, formerly of Netflix—and changed up the color of their logo. No, you were not imagining things. It’s a different green now.
• What else do I got before sending you off into the weekend? I will not be embedding that Wilco cover of Pavement’s “Cut Your Hair.” You can click on it if you want to, but I’m going to try and ignore its existence. I will, however, suggest reading this interview with Stephen Malkmus where he discusses the upcoming Pavement release The Secret History, Vol. 1, coming out August 11 via Matador. (Hint: He doesn’t seem to know or care much about it and it’s rather hilarious.)
Happy Friday, TGIF, etc.