✖ Livestream tech breaking down
And: OneOf music NFT Platform gets $63m funding; EXIT Festival offers vaccines; Audio livestreams for India; Japanese tech and dance music; Soundcloud and Spotify get into A&R
We don't hear about the livestreams that don't go well so much. However, technology breaks down and breaks down quite often. This can happen to an artist playing a Twitch show for 50 people, but also to Glastonbury and Driift working on one of the biggest livestream events of the year. While the Glasto issue was due to an internal error at Driift related to ticket code verifications, the most common problem with livestreaming is server capacity. Today, I explain why livestreaming is especially vulnerable to this problem and provide three solutions.
TECH
🐤 A really cool visualisation, South Park inspired, to show how blockchains work. Here’s the one for Ethereum. There’s also this excellent ‘bull case for Ethereum’ by Packy McCormick in his Not Boring newsletter. He sees Ethereum as a future way to own the internet.
🎛️ How Japanese technology shaped dance music (Attack Magazine)
How did Japan go from the butt of jokes – ‘Made in Japan’ used to be a pejorative, much like ‘Made in China’ is today – to the global leader of dance music electronics? To get to the bottom of this, we assembled a world-class group of experts, including Japanese engineers and a synthesizer documentarian and Japanologist, and asked them, “How did Japanese music technology come to dominate the dance music world?”
🥗 OneOf raises $63M in seed funding to build music NFT platform on Tezos (Coindesk)
“Primarily, a large part of the funding will go towards working with artists to secure rights to their art in the form of music that could potentially be collectible,” said Dai. OneOf is marketing its business as environmental, social and governance (ESG) friendly and targeting environmentally conscious music consumers. It was co-founded by Dai, alongside digital media executive Joshua James and music industry veteran Adam Fell, in partnership with Quincy Jones and Quincy Jones Productions. [emphasis mine]
💕 Streaming services moving into artist development double-whammy
SoundCloud wants to develop more artists with A&R deals (Music Ally)
It’s one of the interesting differences, mainly down to its historical focus and structure, between SoundCloud and other big audio streaming services. It can double down on its work direct with artists in ways that would (and, indeed, have in the past) cause an almighty rumpus with rightsholders if it were Spotify.
Inside Spotify's new Fresh Finds program for Indie artist development (Billboard)
According to the DSP, after an artist appears on Fresh Finds their average monthly listeners increase by 108% in the 28 following the placement compared to the 28 days before. And for artists whose first Spotify editorial playlist is Fresh Finds, over 44% are later added to another editorial playlist, leading to increased exposure over time.
🔟 Reviews Explorer (Pitchfork)
Choose an artist and we'll show you related artists whose albums we've reviewed. Discover new albums and read reviews of your favorites. Start typing an artist, then select from the dropdown.
But
X
Indian music distribution and monetisation platform OKListen and UK-based audio-only livestreaming platform Gramrphone have come together to give independent artists a means to engage with their audiences in a meaningful way in these challenging times.
Using Gramrphone’s audio live-streaming tool and OKListen’s monetisation services, these artists will host their very own live radio show and raise funds for a charitable organisation of their choice. Both, OKListen and Gramrphone, will match the revenue from ticket sales and donate the total amount, which becomes almost 3 times the ticket sales, to the organisation chosen by the artist. OKListen and Gramrphone's contribution will be capped at INR 5,000 per stream. The livestream will be curated entirely by the artist - it can feature new tracks, unreleased music, best hits, and more!
👩🏫 4 lessons from the pandemic that artists need to learn (Haulix)
There is no point in working yourself to death. Take breaks.
Just because you’re ready to tour doesn’t mean your audience will be at the show.
Nobody wants to hear your song about COVID.
Livestream concerts are here to stay.
🦠 Taiwan was a haven for performers. Then cases flared (NYT)
Taiwan’s experience is a reminder of the ongoing uncertainty of life in the pandemic, the threat posed by the virus and its power to upset even the most carefully crafted of plans.
🧪 Covid: No detectable spread of virus after Liverpool pilot events (BBC)
[S]cientists and Liverpool City Council had identified room for improvements, which included maximising ventilation even in large indoor spaces, incentives to return PCR tests for research purposes and issuing tickets only after an assured negative test in the day running up to an event.
🎫 EXIT Festival to offer coronavirus vaccine to international artists and festivalgoers (NME)
EXIT, who are also offering 3000 free festival tickets to medical workers this year, has partnered with the Serbian Ministry of Health to organise”a few thousand” coronavirus vaccine doses for international artists and visitors to the festival “as a way to aid countries that currently have vaccine shortages”.
MUSIC
I love MoMa Ready. He makes music that veers from House to Breakcore and from Techno to Deep House. All the while, he’s got an excellent ear for melody and makes amazing use of soulful vocals. He’s been massively prolific and just released another record a couple of days ago. Try listening to Simple as a Song and Flashbacks right after another to hear the scope of what MoMa Ready brings.