State of the #Longreads, 2014

Lately there has been some angst about the state of longform journalism on the Internet. So I thought I’d share some quick data on what we’ve seen within the Longreads community: Read more…

Lately there has been some angst about the state of longform journalism on the Internet. So I thought I’d share some quick data on what we’ve seen within the Longreads community: Read more…
A brief guide to the music business, according to Taylor Swift: Featuring the Wall Street Journal, Planet Money and The New Yorker.

Taylor Swift has done it again, this time getting Apple to change its streaming deal with artists. Here’s a collection of stories on how the pop star runs the music industry.
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In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Swift says the future of music will be saved by this—the ability of a star to make millions of real friendships:
It’s not just the emotional bonds that will matter—it’s also the ability to thrive in a fragmented world where streaming overtakes individual album sales. Planet Money reported in 2012 that Swift and her team still know the best ways to move albums:
As the New Yorker’s Lizzie Widdicombe noted in 2011, there were early signs that Swift had a keen business sense:
After selling 1.29 million copies of her new album 1989, then pulling her music from the streaming service Spotify, Devin Leonard goes to Nashville to meet Scott Borchetta, founder of Swift’s label Big Machine Records, to understand the economics of being a label in 2014:
Five stories about summer from The New Yorker, The Rumpus, Flavorwire, The Paris Review, and Autostraddle.

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.” – Russell Baker
Productivity in the summertime is a delicate equation. Everything, from temperature hikes to sunny skies to humidity, affects how much work we do and how happily we do it.

Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist.
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-Sasha Frere-Jones, in The New Yorker, on the musical genius of Brian Eno.
More music in the Longreads Archive
Photo: josephlee, flickr

-Tim Howard, U.S. men’s national soccer team goalkeeper, in The New Yorker (2010). Howard had a World Cup record 16 saves in the U.S.’s 2-1 loss to Belgium.
More New Yorker in the Longreads Archive
Photo: nathanf, flickr

-The New Yorker’s Larissa MacFarquhar, in conversation with the Boston Review’s David V. Johnson, on “extreme moral virtue.”

Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist.
Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox.
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