The 404 1,495: Where we put in work with Shanon Cook

It's Friday May 20th 2014 I'm Ariel Nunez and from CBS studios in New York City welcome to the 404. [MUSIC] Welcome to the 404 show ladies and gentlemen, welcome back Ariel Nunez first and foremost you didn't know this Shannon Ariels been gone for two weeks yeah he looks. Refreshed.>> Oh man I am refreshed.>> Look at him he looks like a million dollars over there.>>He looks drunk! Maybe a little. Welcome back to the show I am Jeff Bagalar. I'm Jeff Moliux. And we are joined today by the lovely and talented Shannon Cook,a round of applause please she brings with us she brings with her rather very interesting stories that we always love to hear. But when it's time for the show, you are here representing spotify, all the new artists and trends that are happening on the Spotify service which is just Spotify's killing it. It is. Yeah we just announced that we now have 10 million. Paid. Paid subscribers. That's a lot of cash. 40 millions active users right now. So how much do you get? I get a good, 10%. [LAUGH] Wow. So you get $10 million off that. Yeah. That's pretty dope. No, wait. How did you calculate that? Because ten times ten. A hundred million. Your math is much better than mine. It's just quicker, but we're in the U.S., that's how it works. We don't have to deal with the lag of Australia, [LAUGH] you know the conversion rate. Well, even though I live in the U.S., my brain is in the southern hemisphere. That's fine, that's fine. It's way more laid back. Speaking of which, you have artists. Yeah. [UNKNOWN] Your homeland. I want to focus on Australia a little bit today if you don't mind. Yeah because we never talk about Australia so, only when you're here, so let's do that. There are two females from my homeland who are really blowing up on Spotify at the moment and, Okay. One of them is pretty much blowing up around the world at the moment and. Let's, should we start with that one, cuz i. We should. Let start with Iggy. So, this is Iggy Azalea. Iggy Azalea. With Lor-, Lord. And, just as i say that. Yeah, I won-, she's a rapper. Right, she's a rapper. I wonder if she's ever rapped, i'm Iggy Azalea, and I'm from Australia, [LAUGHS]. That's pretty top level stuff for her. Sh had to. I don't know, that's like low hanging fruit. Somewhere along the line though, she must have or must. Say that. Well, she's 23, so i, i would imagine that happened like, toward the beginning of her career. Maybe. Maybe when she was first starting out. So.[ ttt]. I think what you're trying to say is i have no business rapping. Who know i Azalea associate like, rap with Shannon Cook. No. I'm not like, oh, remember when she used to rap, you know. but. Well Iggy, Iggy Azalea is basically the most. Popular artist in the US at the moment. Really she's on top of the bill board charts with her song Fancy can you take that photo off your screen. This is literally the first image that came up when I typed in I don't want to see that. Okay lets get one thing out of the way. I have to talk about Iggy Izalia I don't need to get inside Iggy Izalia, to give you an idea of what this photo. You know what funny is that when you, look up a picture of google images they always have the category that at the top. Right. The top three categories that show are Nicki Minaj Beef, when you type in [UNKNOWN]. Right. Nicki Minaj beef, figure, there's a whole separate category for her figure. She has a great bod. And before implants, which i'm assuming refers to her **** implants. Well here's the photo of her, the most tasteful, and that we could actually pull up here. Lord have mercy She's hot She's hot her ****. Hotsy totsy. Her but looks like it's controlling things [LAUGH] like it moves satellites and stuff. Good for her. Kinda looks like it's even telling her what's happening. So wait kinda looks She had a she. I'm sorry was lord was lord also Australian right? Lord is from New Zealand but thank you Come on what's the difference. But back to Iggy. Yeah, right. Iggy, Iggy, and Lorde are in very different camps here. Iggy's got the number one song on the Billboard Charts, she has the, she had the top song on Spotify, pretty much for the whole month of May. And the song is Fancy, I don't know, you haven't heard it? You need to check out. No, can we, can we pull up Fancy? Justin is going to pull up the song Fancy by Iggy Azalea. I don't know what she's about. You're about to find out. Okay. She's so fancy. She do the music too, or is that someone else? [MUSIC]. Oh, men. I wasn't expecting that coming out of her. She's hot cool. [MUSIC]. She doesn't sound Australian. Well that's kinda of one of the interesting things is she grew up in Australia and at the age of six. She grew up listening to Missy Elliot was her big idol. Yeah I was going to say clearly American. She grew up in a town called Mullanbimby. Is that how you say it in Australia? Probably. Say it like the true Australian. Mullanbimby. Mullanbimby. Anyways at the age of 16, she decided she was going to pursue her rap career. She wanted to be a rapper, always had, so she moved, relocated to the US. She moved to Miami first and she basically educated herself in the south. If you listen she has a bit of a southern twang there. Ti was actually her mentor for a while. Really? Oh yeah you are the resident expert on this what do you think? I like yiyi I mean at first I really did not like her cuz all,you know Fake, Fake accent kind of thing. Yeah. I don't know, I think you can find influences from anywhere, you know. Sure. You can. and I mean, [UNKNOWN] she does get criticized because maybe some people think she sounds too [UNKNOWN] because when you hear her speak, yeah an Australian accent comes out. Mm mm. But, the contrast between speaking [UNKNOWN] and rapping [UNKNOWN] is pretty, pretty enormous. Right, but she's not the first artist to have a different [CROSSTALK] Of course not Exactly, yeah. Singing voice than, and talking voice. Of course not. and it, and, country singers who come from Australia Or from Britain. they adopt an American sound to them anyway. Great. And, actually. If you listen to Iggy speaking, and obviously you haven't heard her speak. Her accent isn't even true Aussie, because she's been in the U.S. for awhile, it's a bit like mine, it's a bit of a dog's breakfast. Is that what it's called? Yeah. A dog's breakfast? Yeah, it's like a mix mash, sometimes i throw out some strong r's. Yeah. How long have you been here? Twelve years [iii] twelve years and I think she has been here for eight. Waw. Yeah I mean does she have a full on Aussie accent? No, it's tainted already.[ttt] So there's all kinds of. No. No. No, it kind of goes on forever. No. No, yeah, it's cool. It's weird. It's not weird, it's cool, I like it. It's weird. Yeah, we never forced you to do an American accent for us. Now that i mean, if there was ever a time. Not happening. What? Come on you just did a Southern one for us before. Yeah, but I'm not doing that when the cameras are rolling. What? There you go. I actually lived in Atlanta for awhile. Alright, I'm sorry. And I do pick up a way. I picked up, I didn't adopt the southern accent, but I could imitate it pretty well. But come on give me like an American one, like I'm happy to be here on the 404 Show. No. You can do a valley girl. No. Come on now you can't go the other way. No, I don't want to because it's gonna sound so bad. Just say X, Y, Z then. X, y, z, then. Okay. [LAUGH] Cute. Very cute. Nah, it's not, come on you know, the listeners demand it of you We've gotten. Where are the listeners demanding it i don't see a demand this. Well, we're not live anymore, but that's what happened, last time you were here, they were like, make sure we [CROSSTALK]. I can say, I'll say one word. Because, sometimes, in order, and, especially in the beginning, the early days when I first moved here. In order to be understood, I'd, sometimes, have to. Try to put on a bit of a random accent with the word car I had to do that i will be like CAH in the what? It's in the CAH. It's in the what? It's in the Carrrrrr and they'd go ohh right.[ttt] [lll] ??You sound like a friggin' pirate over here. It feels weird it feels like there are marbles in my mouth. Yeah. Anyway back to Iggy. . Back to Iggy. I want to hear her song. She's killing it, she, then, then find something. Yeah, can you pull up her talking maybe? Yeah but, so she's killing it. She's got the most streamed song on Spotify? Most streamed song on Spotify and it's streamed about 3 million times a week, which is really big and it's only getting bigger yeah. And interestingly she has the top song on the billboard hot 100 at the moment with Fancy and she also has the number two spot on that chart with Ariana Grande. OK. Young singer, 20 year old singer has a song with Iggy called Problem, and that is the second biggest song in the country at the moment, It's also the second biggest song on Spotify. Let's play that one. So Iggy, now wait, before we get to Problem, look at those white boots, they are hot. She, she has an interesting style. But she's this is the first time since the Beatles that someone has occupied the first two positions of the Billboard's top 100. And nothing's changed. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] No that's interesting. That's a pretty big claim. Yeah. Number one and two. Arianna Grande, she's great, she's really come alive on Spotify too in the last few weeks, she's just on the up and up on our great voice, she's kind of like Mariah Carey, she gets compared to Mariah Carey cause she has that. ability to hit those high notes effortlessly. She looks 12 years old. But she's 21. But she's 21, what she's 21 now? She's about to be 21, she's almost. She's 20. She's can almost have a drink to toast this massive success. In, in a, in a month. But Iggy, Iggy,. [MUSIC] Iggy appears on this song, too, and like it or not, I think Fancy is going to be the song of the summer. and it's interesting, too, because it, it's a bit like what we this time last year, remember, we, the song of the summer was Bloodlines. Right. Oh, right. And it was a toss up really between Bloodlines and Get Lucky and those two songs were linked by Pharell and here we almost have, what's emerging, the same sort of pattern another twofer, two songs linked by Iggy. Iggy? Its amazing, that's, like that's all you have to do now is have the song of the summer, i feel like that's what all these guys are really competing for. Do you think so? I do, like songs, like that to me almost has more, you know worse than like a Grammy, I was the song of the summer in 2013, what did you do? Well usually what happens is the song of the summer means you really had the song of the year and then Grammy's and. right and awards follow. They're kinda connected [LAUGH] and by January everyone hates it. Yes, however if you were to ask me right now and I know it's only is it June yet almost soon it will be June. Yeah. I can rhyme [CROSSTALK]. [UNKNOWN] by the time the show's over we'll have enough for someone to have edited the whole rap by [UNKNOWN] Oh god. Especially with [UNKNOWN] But if you would to ask me right now what's been the biggest song of the year. Yeah. What's that? I wouldn't say [UNKNOWN] I would say. Ferrel Happy yeah I would say happy too. And even by the end of the year, oh come on. That's strong stuff. Can't handle it. No it doesn't. Oh my god. I'm sorry it's. That and get lucky but it's not because the song sucks cause I've heard it so much got ear worm syndrome thing. Yeah but like for me it's a double whammy one I don't think it's so catchy that it's nauseating and it's about positive stuff I just can't, I like get lucky get lucky is okay. Know what I've been hearing a lot this summer Is saxophones in music coming back? Yeah. That Iggy song had one. Yeah. Macklemore. Macklemore had one. Yeah. And then I've been hearing that Jason Derulo song a lot. [UNKNOWN] What is that, where did it start? Talk Dirty to Me. Tom Petty. The original thing it is coming from is you belong to the city. What? It's like that 80's weird ominous saxophone in the background. Oh god are we about to give Kenny G credit for something. Yeah all right. But think about it that was the pinnacle 80s, definition, like defining instrument. Yeah. Like whenever there was a dude in an alley with fog. Yeah. At night,he was playing the saxophone, under a street lamp, my man is playing a saxophone in like rolled up blazer. [LAUGH] Do you remember that SNL skit that had Jon Hamm in it? He was playing the saxophone. Oh yeah, sexy saxophone guy. It was the most fantastic skit, and not just because John wasn't wearing a shirt. Yeah. Pretty good sketch It's a funny instrument. It is a funny instrument. But it's a, I think it's a great instrument, But it's also inexplicably hilarious. Squeaky. [LAUGH] You think it's hilarious, I think the trombone is hilarious. I mean. It almost sounds like Yiddish. Yeah. Sounds like Jewish, you know. Hey. This song sucks. That song's been a big song on Spotify since January, it's been like, you know, top ten. Yeah. Stream. Do you, I mean. And now he's got another song, I think it's called Wiggle. Yeah. Spotify is really changing not just the way people consume music, it's changing music. You think so? I do. I think because it's more now about On Demand stuff. Great. Whereas you would, you know, it's like you're not waiting for a song to come on the radio now. Now you're just like waiting to have that instant gratification and I think that indirectly changed the way music's made. It's also having a big impact because of playlists. Yeah. And the ability to curate your own album. Right. And I think people, people now expect to be their own DJ's Hm. And they enjoy being their own DJ's. Yeah. And going back to just having to digest albums that are compiled for you is tough for listeners now cause they're like made my own album, more or less. Right It has every on this album I want to listen to, there's no filler and I don't need that. It's also doing wonders for your homeland like putting them on the map. [lll]. Yeah know, before this it was all like kangaroos and wizards and stuff. It's good for emerging artists actually because the nature of. the way listeners share things songs around they can get picked up. Yeah cause of democracy. Quickly and rise to the top. which is what happened with Lorde. Yeah you know what I've really seen lately is the social element of Spotify too. it's not getting recommendation from random website that doesn't know my taste at all,. RIght. But having collaborate playlists with my friends, we've been doing that a lot lately ever since I got Spotify account. we just have playlists that everybody has access to so they can just add whatever songs they want, and that was I can, you know, get put onto new music that's sort of a personal recommendation, i really like that. That's the best, that's absolutely he's 100% right. that's the best thing. Well, I also like that you can follow here on the right side whoever you like. Right. you get their stream's update. And I only follow people whose taste i admire. Yeah. Like I have a friend who's a DJ in the UK and every time he's listening to something and I see a song pops up that he's listening to, I always click on it and I always like it. Yeah. And I'm just so, I'm just so happy that he can introduce me to these, these cool things that I would never discover on my own. You know what's kind of tricky about Spotify? There's a trap when you first install it onto your computer because the. privacy settings make it automatically post to your Facebook profile and publicly show on Spotify. So you have to turn that off if you don't want every song you listen to to become publicly available. But that could be easy. But it could be dangerous because I didn't know this when I first installed it [ttt] and you were listening to Kenny G Right. I took a screen shot of it one of my friends took a screen shot of it and posted it to my Facebook wall and he was like are you okay man? But you know what is interesting about that is that it is a conversation starter. Yeah true And everyone on Facebook. Facebook and Twitter, they're talking about the most mundane, annoying things. Crap. Like, this morning I ate an egg. Oh, this cab driver's making me feel sick. You know? [LAUGH] Yeah. And the conversation. [CROSSTALK] Conversation. Conversations are starting based, based, starting from these really mundane observations. Yeah. Whereas. A conversation that starts from music can be really interesting. Mm-hm. Like, your friend noticed you were listening to this song. Right. Which is a beautiful song and. However embarrassing. And wondered if you were okay. [LAUGH] Yeah. Like. All right. Like is something actually going on in your life that drove you to listen to that song. Mm-hm. So he actually ,was he making fun of you, probably a little bit. yes definitely but the maybe he also actually wanted to hear what was going inside his head. And maybe if he had never heard that song before or and now he's put onto to Bonnie Rays. Maybe. Maybe I think Spotify cool because previous to this music listening was a really private experience but now it kinda opens up the conversation. It'd be one or you can be a music snob yes. And no one ever wanted to talk about music or ask hey where's this playing. shut up, Figure it out yourself. Yeah, yeah exactly and you, can you really Shazam it in your pocket. you know what I mean. Yeah. But now you can talk about it normally and not have to worry about not knowing about something. It's interesting you brought up Shazam. I'm really surprised Spotify doesn't have a built in Shazam, like why doesn't it have that? [CROSSTALK] Should I fly this up the flag pole? No, we should ask Major too, Our buddy Andrew Major who works for Spotify, but I would, I was always surprised, there's not just one Shazzam, there's a couple of them. Right. So it's like, why isn't there, and I'm you know, speaking just creatively thinking. Why is it not just built in, wouldn't it make a lot of sense? We need to put him on the board? Well, I don't know if I need to be on any sort of board. Yeah. But, I'm just here to help,the first advice is free, everything else, comes. [LAUGH] Comes at a price. I also think there should be lyrics, for every song that you pull up. [CROSSTALK] Well there's apps. You think, It's gotta be really easy. There's a bio and everything. But it's so easy to find lyrics. And there's apps that do that. like TuneWiki does that on Spotify. [CROSSTALK] Oh yeah. But, I, don't you like that its just, it's simple and it's about the music. Hear the songs, just play it, no videos, just listen to the damn song. Yeah. Listen to the damn song. You know what Spotify needs? I kinda of hacked my Spotify a bit. Oh you did? It's like a visualizer, It needs a visualizer. Do you need that? Yes, you do. because sometimes when I'm listening to music and I'm playing it like through my computer on the TV and I need to be like tranced out a little bit if you know what I mean. Right. Sort of. What are you doing? Lose myself in the music. I think he needs a two week vacation. Yeah. Ariel, where did you go? Recommend a place for our friend here. Yeah. I'm just saying I want to like, I don't want to look at a computer screen, I just want to like melt into the [UNKNOWN]. That's what your lava lamp is for. I'm not talking about getting stoned and staring at like a psychedelic rug, I'm talking about, you know what I mean? Well these days most people are coming to Spotify via their mobile phones, not so much a [CROSSTALK] a desktop experience yeah. Most of our new subscribers are coming from their, their phones. You know what I don't understand. Coming out from their phones [LAUGH]. Yeah. [LAUGH]. Spotify. I kinda of want you to explain some Spotify technology for me if you can because I don't understand [CROSSTALK]. But I, Do I look like tech support? I know, but honestly you have more insight into this. Then I do having -. But I might not. Right here is when we finally grill you. It's happening. One of the best thing's about Spotify is that you can set songs, or playlists to be listened to offline. Right. So for people that take public transportation at work or whatever, you can save a whole playlist, and even though you don't have service connection. A WI-FI connection. Yeah, you can still access that and listen to a full list of songs, albums, whatever. It's great. How does that work? Oh, I don't know how it works. You're asking me how that works. I have no idea. Yeah I have no idea it is magic. [CROSSTALK] I don't know how exactly it works 100%. I would just imagine that it is proprietary encrypted down to the app. But it doesn't save it to your phone. It does. You're not using space. Because I have saved a 100 albums onto my phone. And there's no way I have the space for that. But Justin, how is it playing? I don't know, that's what I'm saying. It's not freaking fairy dust, it's on your phone [INAUDIBLE]. Apple doesn't allow you access to the hard drive of the software developer. No, it actaully, I actually do have the answer. Huh, you do? Then stop drinking that water and tell us. She just gave the answer while drinking. Are you ready? Yeah, oh god she's gonna give something. It's magic. No, no look. Get out of here. No, but it is necessary. Don't, don't try to explain it because you don't know either. But Justin there are certain laws that, that occupy the universe. No, I understand it must save it somehow but not on to your phone's hard drive. [LAUGH] Right? Then where? I don't know. I think it does, I think, I think, it has too. [CROSSTALK]. Because there's times that when I sync my Spotify to my phone, I'll lose space on my phone. Yeah. So it has to be saved locally on your phone. Of course. But it has to be [CROSSTALK]. Child, Justin. Because you were having childish thoughts. You're having the thought that, that the music is somehow magical in the air. [CROSSTALK] It must compress it somehow. It's all compressed. [CROSSTALK] It must work. You're being the idiot, not me. You're being the moron. Oh, do't fight. No, because [CROSSTALK] Don't fight. We're here to talk about music [CROSSTALK] It's got to be downloaded on the phone somewhere, right? It must, yeah. You're right. You know how everything works, I'm just asking. No, I'm just not a com, I'm not, come on Aria, back me up here [CROSSTALK]. I'm going to find out, I'll find out. Let's find out. I'll ask my dudes. And I'll let you know. He's going to say, oh it puts a little gremlin in your pocket and it holds, he holds on to them. No, he'll tell me. My dudes will tell me and I'll I'll fill you in. Alright. Did you know you can't put tin foil in a microwave. Yes. Okay, just want to make sure. Who did that in a movie recently? Was it American Hustle? Someone did that. Oh right, Jennifer Lawrence she did it. Jennifer Lawrence. What does she call it? She's calls it like, she calls it a different machine. She calls it like Yeah, I remember. The hot machine or something, right? Which, you know? All right, so those are the Australian artists you have. No, no, no, that's just one. There's more? I thought we did two. That was just, that was just one, that was just Iggy Izelia who comes from Australia. Oh, okay. Very soon it's going to be June. [LAUGH]. I cannot sing in tunes. What's the drinking age in Australia? 18, yeah we, get, we get started with the good stuff early. [LAUGH] Sia. Have you heard of Sia? No. Sia is one of my favorite musicians and songwriters in, on the planet. Sia Furler is a woman from Australia with an amazing singing voice but her success has really come from her songwriting prowess and she's written. Hit songs for everybody. Beyonc