On the heels of receiving Billboard’s “Woman Of The Decade” award, Taylor said in her speech that she was held back by “toxic male privilege” in the music industry.

“Women in music are not allowed to coast,” she observed. “We are held at a higher, sometimes impossible-feeling, standard.” “I’ve seen a lot,” she added.

Taking credit for her own success she ads other people didn’t see it that way- “critics had speculated that “a male producer or co-writer” was the real reason for her success; or that a “savvy record label” was responsible for making her a star. “It wasn’t,” she said pointedly.

She also brought up Scooter Braun in her speech telling how she was blindsided with the sale of her masters. Both Scott Borchetta and Braun claim she was aware that her masters were for sale, yet she passed on the purchase.

Look out for Daniella Mason. She just released Steady – the second single from Mason’s forthcoming Physical State EP. The alt pop singer-songwriter has written with Nick Jonas and has shared the stage with DNCE and Demi Lovato, as well as performing at Bonnaroo last summer.  Spotify Wrapped reveals that the Nashville based artist clocked 2.4 million streams over the year with nearly a million listeners. Give it a stream!

Taylor Swift is blocking sync uses of her previous recordings under Big Machine. Since Scooter Braun owns the masters, Taylor Swift won’t give the green light. Swift also said she plans on re-recording the older songs at the end of next year.

Swift said today, “The reason I’m re-recording my music next year is because I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies, I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it.”

Big Machine Label boss Scott Borchetta said, “Taylor had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings, but every video, photograph, everything associated to her career. She chose to leave.”

Borchetta also said Swift has “admitted to contractually owing millions of dollars and multiple assets to our company”.

On the heels of releasing “The Best Of Playlists” Spotify just rolled out Fresh finds class of 2019 highlighting some of the best over the year. The list includes the highly talked about REI AMI and many others including Dua Saleh, blackmidi. Fresh Finds had its beginnings in 2015, that curates and playlists tracks from emerging artists and independent labels across various genres.  Of course, Fresh Finds has always been one of my favorites.

Indie pop singer-songwriter Nicole Millar releases Favours. “I had a bit of a rough year with a lot of changes,” she reveals. “‘Favours’ is a song about how I’ve got no praise, or money left for this person.” She is best known for the hit “Blindfolded” that has garnered 8 million+ streams. The Australian first made waves as the voice of Peking Duk’s single High. She also has EDM cuts on Emoh Instead’s “Out to Dry” Cosmos Midnight’s “Phantasm” the Golden Features’ “Tell Me”.  Give it a listen.