✖ Streaming services: it’s time for Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
And: Fan investment for African music; Beggars & Ninja Tune go carbon negative; EarthPercent launches music climate fund; Superfans and merch fatigue
Scams, fraud, bots and theft: the ugly side of streaming provides a stark contrast to that beautiful feeling of having the world’s recorded music at your fingertips. In this article, find out:
👉 Why streaming services are reluctant to adopt two-factor authentication (2FA);
👉 About the thriving black market for Spotify & Netflix accounts;
👉 How these accounts fuel fake plays and other forms of streaming fraud;
👉 And a type of SEO-fraud that involves falsely reporting playlists;
✖ How 2FA addresses all these issues.
TECH
🤗 Digital kinship: how people are finding intimacy with digital creators, belonging is replacing status, and digital economy is becoming more social:
Roblox remains the most underrated social network out there—daily active users spend almost 3 hours a day in Roblox. Framed differently, that’s about 1 of every 5 waking hours. Roblox games are built for socializing and connection.
📝 The above post also introduced me to Bilibili: a platform that started out as a fan community for vocaloid avatar Miku (written about before) and has notoriously high admission standards to the fan communities it now hosts. Lillian Li has a deep dive and describes Bilibili as:
Grossly simplified, it's the Chinese equivalent of Youtube. Except it's not. It's like if Youtube, Twitch, Steam, Patreon, TokyoPop and Netflix had a CRISPR-baby, and that baby was a weeb, but that weeb is also super down with Chinese Gen Z and is listed on the Nasdaq with a market cap of $15bn. That is Bilibili.
🛍 What happens when merch fatigue sets in? Fan blowback for BTS, Taylor Swift, and other stars leveraging collectibles.
💲 PopRev is a new fan investment vehicle launched by the African music service uduX and fintech company PiggyVest.
📺 Here Before A Million is a curated streaming site that features the best music videos with less than one million views on YouTube.
X
🗣 CORONA: The NYT caught up with the Skagit Valley choir who last sang together on March 10, 2020 and became one of first documented superspreader events, with 53 members getting sick and 2 passing away.
💚 GREEN: Eamonn Forde has created an overview of some of the latest initiatives by indie labels to be more environmentally friendly. Beggars Group & Ninja Tune are going carbon negative.
🌱 GREEN: A new charity titled EarthPercent aims to get music companies to pledge part of their income to fighting climate change. It’s co-founded by Brian Eno. Here’s Mike Smith, Global President of Downtown Music Publishing, introducing EarthPercent in an op-ed in MBW.
🦁 SOCIAL: Interesting read in the Financial Times about how 1970s reggae stars were deprived of their revenue shares of music they created. Has a background in the local music culture in Jamaica where singers would be hired for a session and producers would retain all the rights, but the issue mostly stems from international exploitation.
🖇 SOCIAL: The Electronic Music Inclusion Initiative was just announced with support from scene heavyweights like AFEM, Mixmag, Beatport, and many more. They’re running an anonymous survey:
“If you’ve experienced harassment or discrimination at any time whilst working in the Electronic Music industry, we want to hear from you.”
MUSIC
I’ve been listening to algorithmic, infinite acid techno that generates automatically from virtual 303s and a 909. Enjoy: the Endless Acid Banger by Vitling.
