#41: Moving Forward with Blockchain ⏩ | Facebook as a media company 📺 | IoT & the battle for the living room 🛋 | Plenty more
Hi everyone,
This week’s lead piece is about blockchain. In it, I attempt to illustrate a strategy to get wider industry adoption. In short: we need more example cases and strong branding & PR of initiatives to create a carrot. With wider buy-in, that carrot becomes a stick. Read it here.
Bonus piece about something more fun: rhyming. We’ve all deserved something lighter after last week’s rollercoaster.
The line-up for Saturday’s panel in Ghent is now complete: Bas, Basto, and Sebastien. 🙃
Enjoy all the reads.
Love,
Bas
From me, for you
Breaking out of the circular blockchain music discussions – MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE
The strategy of a thousand small steps to blaze trails while negotiating the music industry’s next big leap.
Written in response to a recent discussion with a big group of music industry stakeholders and veterans.
Multis, inners & rhyme schemes: how to rhyme better and the lost art of textceeing
In the midst of last week’s drama, I decided to finally publish this piece I’ve been sitting on. I expect a lot of protest rap in the next 4 years, so let this function as a guide to better appreciate the art form. Not a MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE post, but hope you enjoy either way.
Digital Music Space
Facebook is finally ready to become a media company
Mark Mulligan discusses Facebook’s ‘plan B’: to become a media company by shifting from curation to licensing.
musicindustryblog.wordpress.com • Share
How Boiler Room went from one webcam to broadcasting the global underground for everyone
Ahead of the Ray-Ban X Boiler Room Weekender, founder Blaise Bellville explains how he grew his live-streaming series while keeping his vision intact.
The making of an interactive album: Daedelus' Labyrinths
Whitestone’s Roey explains the thinking behind Daedelus’ Labyrinths album’s interactive release. Compares the experience to games, in the sense that the listeners is encouraged to participate and explore.
SEO for musicians: it starts with the fan journey
A must-read. This is the type of thought that you should be putting into your digital strategy.
Internet of Things
Amazon launches Music Unlimited streaming service in the UK
Stephen O'Reilly nails it on Twitter: it’s all about the battle for the living room and music is the hook. The tech giants are trying to find their way into our living rooms, with Google, Amazon and Apple all having voice-activated devices to help manage our households and daily lives.
Your next friend could be a robot
With the rise of bots, we see a new generation of conversational interface design. In the case of voice-interface, this is referred to as ‘zero UI’. Amazon has found that people talk to its voice-controlled Echo speaker as if it’s a person.
Money & Success
Recorded music revenues could double in 10 years
Recorded music revenue will rise on the success of streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora. Meanwhile, Universal has already made $1B revenue from streaming this year, and Live Nation’s just had a record quarter.
uk.businessinsider.com • Share
K-Pop’s global success didn’t happen by accident
A look into the way the Korean music industry’s strategic talent management, building customer relationships via social media, and localized product offerings.
Instagram will let businesses tag items in images, so people can buy them. Could be promising for artists who place a lot of emphasis on merchandise, like Yellow Claw.
CASH Music, a non-profit organisation that builds tools for artists, is launching a ‘revolving fund’ which will make no-interest loans to help artists fund their activities. They’re still determining the details. Funds provided by MailChimp.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Injection moulded records - vinyl of the future?
About Green Vinyl Records who are on a mission to guarantee a durable record with a sound quality better than vinyl, that is made in a more environmentally friendly way.
DeepRhyme (D-Prime) – generating dope rhymes with deep learning
Using recurrent neural networks to generate rap lyrics. That awkward moment where your computer can rap better than you.
swarbrickjones.wordpress.com • Share
Building ‘Google for the Economic Web’ on the Ethereum blockchain
Interesting story about the ‘Web 3.0’, enabled by blockchain technology. It’s very early days and this startup explains its quest to become the Google of the 'Economic Web’.
The complete guide to virtual reality – everything you need to get started
Very thorough walkthrough of the VR landscape by Stuart Dredge.
What does Trump mean for startups?
Fred Wilson, a famous VC who also invested in Soundcloud, recommends entrepreneurs to be cautious, but don’t panic.
This week I’ve been listening to Chilean Londoner Kamixlo’s new EP, “influenced by everything from Japanese wrestling to metal to industrial to dancehall.” Listen ▶️
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Regular insights about the future of music, media & tech. Written & composed by @basgras.
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