Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s move to executive chairman looks like a step back–but what happens to accountability, artist payouts, and platform power when founders ‘delegate’?
EDITOR’S PICKS:
Reporting, conversations, opinions and questions worth your time.
Wasserman Is Up for Sale After Epstein Fallout as Artists Exit
Wasserman is exploring a sale after Epstein-related documents resurfaced communications between CEO Casey Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell—prompting client departures and placing one of live music’s most important touring intermediaries into a formal auction process. As artists publicly distance themselves to manage reputational risk, the fallout is exposing how leadership scandal can cascade through the touring infrastructure that underpins the global live economy.
$90K 'Services Provided' to Firm in Carone Corruption Probe
Brooklyn Mirage: Oaktree Solutions Ltd., tied to ex-Adams chief of staff, filed claim in AGDP Holding Chapter 11 case
Against the Popularity Contest: Zoé Del Rez
Unmixed was built by people who knew the dancefloor before the guest list. Zoé comes in as both a participant and a firsthand eyewitness: a DJ shaped from the floor up, and a writer who is more interested in power structures of the nightlife than the overpolished PR decks of the mainstream scene.
The Balance Sheet Ate My Rave
In electronic dance music's neon carcass–$10.86B in 2024 to $19.13B by 2033, 55% live events–the money now flows through leveraged buyouts. Festivals rank with strip malls in portfolios, valued for ticket stubs not sweat. Risk gets gelded. Programming variance becomes "exposure." Artists harden into sponsor-ready armor.
When venues hit Chapter 11, debtor-in-possession loans kill cultural risk. The wild arc that streaked through warehouse nights now banks against financial guardrails. Who pulls the pin?
Brooklyn Mirage New Build Filing Submitted Feb 3, 2026 Under Same Architect and Ownership
If prior Mirage related issues were attributed to problems with initial drawings or plan sets, what specifically were those deficiencies and how were they identified? And if the February 3 2026 New Work filing has been submitted under the same ownership entity and Architect of Record, what ultimately prompted continuity in the design team and what if anything has changed in the plans now moving forward?
Brooklyn Mirage Saga continues..
By the time most New Yorkers heard the word “bankruptcy,” the real work on Brooklyn Mirage was already done. The dog had been buried years earlier–under term sheets, political favors, and construction shortcuts that never cleared daylight.
Ly Sas - Dusk Dance [Fiedel II]
This is the kind of track that makes your leg twitch involuntarily while you’re listening to it while sitting on a crowded bus late at night heading back from yet another all-nighter in Bushwick, cramping under a booth (because you know why), or standing still in the middle of a room. It bypasses context and goes straight to the body.
Saqib, Galactic Girl - New Me [Get Physical]
theatrical house record that radiates mental clarity. The track fuses “circus-like soundscapes, Eastern European waltz rhythms, and Hammond organs” that swirl beneath Kaycee’s breathy, cinematic delivery.
Joshwa - Out Of My Mind [Hellbent]
“a track that’ll move dancefloors, not mountains. Safe bets pay off, if that’s what you’re into after all."
The Commons
The Commons
In 2026, a culture magazine rooted in music and community cannot live on declarations alone. It has to listen. It has to respond. It has to make space.
The Commons is Unmixed’s new public forum:
A living editorial space where readers, artists, organizers, dancers, thinkers, and observers of culture can speak with us — not just be spoken to.
This is a shift in how we publish.
And it’s intentional.
