#37: Accelerating the future of music 🛫 | Music streaming profits 🏄 | Record labels of the future 💻 | Much more!
Hey everybody,
I’m getting ready for Amsterdam Dance Event. My laptop is being repaired, so I’ll be without one for the duration of the conference. Interesting experiment to see how much can be done on a mobile phone.
If you’re in town and know of interesting dinners or semi-private events I should join, give me a shout.
Love,
Bas
From me, for you
6 questions I wish music startup founders asked more often – MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE
Keeping a close eye on the music space, I encounter a lot of startups and fledgling products. Unfortunately, a lot of them are misguided…
Projecting trends: accelerating the future of music
I take a look at the types of accelerator programs that exist for music startups and artists, the underlying trend, and where it’s all leading.
Are donations becoming a viable part of artists’ business models? – MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE
For some reason this piece dropped to the bottom of the mailing last week… In case you missed it: with the rise of live streaming and new media models, donations deserve another consideration.
Digital Music Space
One of the most interesting pieces of insight I’ve seen in a while is Mark Mulligan’s new piece about Amazon Music Unlimited. It’s refreshing, because it delves into pricing strategy - which is an underappreciated topic in music, or at least among the people who regularly write about it. And there’s so much to talk about.
Amazon: reverse pricing, and the rise of zero UI
The piece also delves into product design and ‘zero UI’ - the concept of being able to control a service without a visual user interface.
musicindustryblog.wordpress.com • Share
One of the most difficult things about running a music streaming service, is that you’re always asking for more time. We need time to develop the market, greater revenues will come, etc. Now, a study has given the label relations staff at music services a great number to spar with:
Imagine a music industry with 950m mobile listeners by 2022
That’s double the amount of mobile listeners there are today.
Meanwhile, Spotify is gradually becoming profitable in some markets:
Spotify UK is profitable - but advertising revenues fell last year
www.musicbusinessworldwide.com • Share
The Future of Labels
Somewhat of a theme this week are new models for record labels: not only are streaming services starting to behave like labels, so are brands like Red Bull, and Adidas:
How Adidas is setting itself up to be the next big record label
Adidas’ creative partnerships with musicians open up a world of opportunities in a world where record labels are no longer kings.
The next generation of music companies is already here. 10 years ago, we used to talk about how blogs were the new labels, and in the meantime YouTube channels have turned into the exemplary model, like Monstercat.
And it doesn’t end there: companies like AEI are pioneering a new type of model, with brands like UKF (and if you’re curious to hear more about that, come see the panel I’m in with Luke Hood, UKF’s founder, at ADE this week).
The Monstercat label model: from YouTube channel to one million record sales
Monstercat CEO and founder Mike Darlington never intended to make a record label.
To wrap it up, Cherie Hu did a great round-up of the new types of business models and activities labels are pursuing. Great read:
The record labels of the future are already here
By thinking and acting more entrepreneurially, emerging independent record labels are paving a more sustainable and relevant future for themselves.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Kevin Kelly updated his classic 1,000 True Fans essay - which argues you don’t need millions of fans to sustain yourself.
Investor guide. Does this “cool project” truly need blockchain?
Conference tip: walk into a room, say blockchain, now everybody wants to talk to you. Startups have figured this out, too, so read this article to learn how to cut through the nonsense.
Google acquires FameBit to help YouTubers cozy up to brands
Google announced that it has acquired FameBit, an “influencer marketing platform for branded content.”
This guy is teaching Syrian refugees in Greece how to make electronic music
Making music with Ableton is making life a little better.
Sunglasses with bone conduction speakers! That’s right - it sends vibrations through the bones near your ears to simulate sound.
10 data art projects by Spotify analysts & designers
Geek out! :-)
That’s all for this edition. Music tip: Danny Brown’s new album.
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Regular insights about the future of music, media & tech. Written & composed by @basgras.
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