✖️ Be so good they can’t ignore you 🍾 2016's flopped predictions 🤐 Essential 360° VR music videos 👓 Machine learning 101 🤖
✖️ Be so good they can’t ignore you 🍾 2016's flopped predictions 🤐 Essential 360° VR music videos 👓 Machine learning 101 🤖
✖️ Be so good they can’t ignore you 🍾 2016's flopped predictions 🤐 Essential 360° VR music videos 👓 Machine learning 101 🤖
Happy new year!
Thanks for all the responses last week. Also, in case you missed last week’s edition: welcome to the new layout. This week’s lead piece may provide you with a useful new year’s resolution.
Enjoy the reads & may your dreams come true in 2017.
You deserve it! 🍾
Love,
Bas
“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
These 7 words, a quote from Steve Martin, deserve to be an article of their own, on their own. It has come to be one of my favourite quotes for ‘making it’ in the music business.
I attend a lot of music business events and sometimes give lectures at schools, and I end up meeting a lot of artists who are asking the wrong questions. Questions like:
“How can I get this signed to a label?”
“How do I find a good booking agent?”
“How do I get people to buy my music?”
The successful artists I know obsess over one question alone:
“How do I make this better?”
They invite feedback and listen with attention when getting it. Even when that feedback is not coming from a label representative, but an industry outsider, because they realize that in the end most of their fans will be industry outsiders.
So if you’re still looking for a new year’s resolution, then make it this:
I will focus on improving myself and the art I create.
I will make it so good they can’t ignore me.
I will be critical of myself and invite feedback so I may learn.
I will find people who can teach me how to be better, either by direct feedback or by being positive role models.
Because once you get really good, people will find you. People will share your music. People will want to collaborate with you. You’ll get your opportunities. You’ll be able to surround yourself with skilled people who can worry about those other questions.
Focus on yourself, because that’s where change is easiest to make.
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Digital music space
3 music industry predictions that flopped in 2016
One of my favourite music biz writers, Cherie Hu, looks back at some of last year’s music industry predictions. Cherie very consistently triggers that “Oh, I wish I had thought of that” feeling with me. Once more with this one. Read it.
Facebook builds content ID system to take down copyrighted music
The implications for fan-made cover versions and live videos will be interesting. Perhaps it could drive people back to YouTube, who already have their licenses sorted, kind of.
The essential VR music videos of 2016
All of them 360° videos, with OneRepublic, Run The Jewels, Redfoo and many others.
It's about the relationship: how I got to 1.5 million YouTube followers
YouTube star Peter Hollens breaks down what he’s learned releasing his first full holiday album, from planning a release to connecting with fans.
Music streaming hailed as industry's saviour as labels enjoy profit surge
An good wrap-up of the year streaming took over. Spoiler alert: the author is the only person in the article who talks about streaming services as the industry’s ‘saviour’.
Beyond digital
DJ memoirs are telling a different version of dance music history
Moby, Laurent Garnier and Billy ‘Daniel’ Bunter have all offered off piste insights
Creative conferences to watch in 2017
A top 5 to get inspiration in the first half of the year.
Wide view
What is machine learning and why is it important?
A good primer on artificial intelligence, written by the founder of Jukedeck, a service that generates music using AI. Includes a warning about the societal implications of automation.
Expect deeper and cheaper machine learning
All trends enabled by machine learning will accelerate.
More than a message: messaging means business
Facebook shares some data about messaging between consumers and businesses in an infographic. Important trend, as messaging platforms are slowly becoming app platforms.
How Facebook learns about your offline life
You probably know that the social network uses your profile to serve ads it thinks you’ll like—but it also draws on a lot of information it gathers from offline data brokers. Yep, Facebook knows much more about you than you tell them.
www.technologyreview.com • Share
Fun
Music video: Quibus - Breathe (feat Anne Bakker)
An artist I’m helping out a bit just released his second video. Quibus is a new project from Martijn Holtslag, searching for subtle dreamy soundscapes that make you dance and vibe. Enjoy!
Church service prints Tupac rap lyrics by accident
Christmas carols aren’t supposed to have lyrics like “revenge is like the sweetest joy, next to getting p***y.”
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