✖ NFTs are blockchain’s hottest new use case for music. They should not come as a surprise.
And: Turntable.fm returns; SoundCloud's artist-to-fan payments; The Weeknd's halftime safety measures; Beijing reintroduces crowd restrictions; Publishing simulator.
🍰 A slice of cake for everyone - MUSIC x has turned 5 years old. 🎈
For fans of time travel, take a dive through the archives on Revue, to the very first edition which went out to just a few dozen people. Other good reads from that first year: gamers as music’s largest subculture, sustainability in music, and platform unbundling.
For those who want to remain fully rooted in 2021 and beyond, I’ve got just the piece for you, as Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda auctioned off a work as an NFT through Zora, which prompted the questions:
Why are NFTs surging in popularity right now?
What do they have in common with gaming?
How do they intersect with the wider crypto-space?
What does it mean for music & art’s role in the metaverse?
👉 Answered here: NFTs are blockchain’s hottest new use case for music. They should not come as a surprise.
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TECH
👴 Remember Turntable.fm? The social music startup launched a decade ago and then quickly collapsed. One of its original team members is preparing a reboot with a beta scheduled for April 2021.
🚗 Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in January (10% of their cash reserves) and plans to let customers buy cars using the cryptocurrency.
⛅ SoundCloud is exploring several alternative streaming payment models. By the end of the first quarter of 2021, they’ll announce new plans to supposedly “let fans pay artists directly.”
🧮 Remember the Record Deal Simulator? CreateSafe have now made a a Publishing Simulator (details) to calculate recoupment, claims, and splits.
🔬 Rex Woodbury, an investor at Index Ventures, has written an interesting piece about business model innovation preceeded by an interview with one of the top 0.2% earners on OnlyFans: Jasmine Rice. The link is SFW.
CORONA
🏈 There were some Super Bowl related gigs by Steve Aoki and 50 Cent… that didn’t exactly look pandemic-friendly… As a European who’s been in some stage of lockdown since early November, it’s wild to see something like this even happening in a country that doesn’t have the virus under control.
🏟 Details about the Covid-19 safety measures around The Weeknd’s halftime show have emerged: more than 300 cars were hired to transport workers, staff was tested every 48 hours and key people daily, and crucial staff had understudies who could replace them in case of quarantines.
😷 Experiments to research safer events are moving forward in The Netherlands. Fieldlab’s ‘Back To Live’ initiative has revealed details of their 1,500 people outdoor concert experiments with dates to follow next week.
📽 In China, restrictions are being reintroduced for the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations with Beijing being the first (and so far only) city to introduce a 50% capacity cap for movie theatres.
🇳🇴 Norway is the latest country to create a festival cancellation fund.
JOBS
Every week, Christina Osazuwa (WMG’s Director of Data & Insights - Global Marketing and founder of Measure of Music) creates a round up of new openings in the music & entertainment business on LinkedIn.
This week:
Part 1 | Patreon, Twitch, YouTube Music, Twitter, more.
Part 2 | XX Artists, Beatport, WMG, Live Nation, more.
Part 3 | TikTok, Disney, Nickelodeon, more.
Part 4 | UMG, Linkfire, Facebook, Wavo.me, more.
Click on each part to open the relevant LinkedIn posts.
MUSIC
I’ve updated the playlist formula I use to scout the most energetic music on Spotify’s New Music Fridays from around the world. It now includes way more regions and has a blacklist that’s a bit more restrictive. Enjoy!
If you missed last week’s piece: here’s how you can build playlists like apps.
✍️ Today’s newsletter was written by Bas Grasmayer.