✖️ Post Malone's streaming game 👾 Music marketing toolbox for pros 🛠️ Personal story about diversity 🦄
Hi everybody,
As announced recently, I’m experimenting with formats for this newsletter. This week I’m doing something much closer to the original format I had in mind for the newsletter when I started it two years ago. This means: no lead article. Instead, read the whole piece as if it’s my article.
You can leave feedback by using the buttons at the bottom 👍 👎. Thank you to everyone who’s been leaving feedback; unfortunately I haven’t found time to thank all of you personally, but I really appreciate it.
(by the way, the reason why I don’t use more images, is because it makes Gmail cut off the bottom of the newsletter & then it messes up my stats, so I won’t know how I’m doing)
This week I’ll be at BIME in Bilbao. I’ll be speaking about the end of the app era, and moderating a panel on blockchain with an amazing line-up.
Much love! Have a great week.
Love,
Bas
Gaming the digital landscape 🕹️
The big trending topic this week is Post Malone’s Rockstar release. What did they do? They looped the chorus in a 4 minute video on YouTube, and added a link to the description to hear the track on Spotify or Apple Music (see for yourself). This way the snippet has been counted as tracks of the full song, which has helped the track top the charts.
Post Malone’s “Rockstar” and YouTube’s value gap
“The video creates a mechanism through which anyone who has sought out “Rockstar” on YouTube must then jump to hear its complete version on another service—effectively doubling the single’s total play count across platforms.”
A bizarre YouTube loophole got Post Malone to No.1 - is the whole thing now meaningless?
“Labels are already using similar tactics to get their artists climbing up the charts. Remixes or different versions of songs (e.g. an acoustic version or similar) also count towards chart figures of the original track. Let’s pretend Drake had released a lounge version, trap remix and acoustic version of ‘One Dance’ last summer. That track’s omnipresence in the charts could have been reinforced even more by wildly different audiences and listeners.”
The question everybody’s asking is: is this really fair? I personally don’t care about that question. What it says to me is that Mark Mulligan and The Orchard founder Scott Cohen have been on-point for years about the rise of 15-30 second music formats as a response to declining attention shares. Artists like Post Malone are of that generation, and their teams are trying to figure out how to make that compatible with the current streaming landscape (which is still based on older models).
“The changing structure of pop songs to feature hooks throughout, rather than simply in the chorus, means that in many ways pop songs are already becoming a stitched together collection of mini-songs.”
musicindustryblog.wordpress.com • Share
Player 2 has entered the game 👾
Case-studies are nice, but it’s even better when you get something so you can get your own hands dirty. Welcome player 2 (that’s you!).
Hand-in-hand with the rise of the 15 second song is the rise of the new generation of social media, such as Instagram and Snapchat (particularly the Stories feature, which I’ve been quite vocal about).
10 ways to prepare for the rise of Snapchat and Instagram among teenage audiences
This article collects tips from experts across industries on how to leverage these platforms the right way.
Downtown Records’ VP of Strategy, Amber Horsburgh, compiled an amazing amount of tools for music marketing. From analytics, to merch, productivity tools, emailing, and social media. Thanks for sending this in, Amber! (check out Amber’s new fortnightly newsletter about music strategy, called Deep Cuts.)
Amber Horsburgh's Music Marketers Toolbox
“There is a lot that people can do with no budget to market their music, it just takes the right tools and some creativity!” Here’s over 200 of them.
Not yet crunching away? Here’s a bonus link with 7 marketing strategies for Facebook Messenger.
Diversity 🎈
I don’t always find it easy to speak out on these topics, but it’s necessary that we do. I was recently asked to join a conference panel about women in music, but it clashed with travel plans so I had to turn it down.
I’m not sure why they asked me (a white dude) to join, and the conversation never got to that point, but I think it’s important that the people who have it easier think about how they can shape environments to make everyone’s lives better. People in positions of privilege need to do better.
This topic is very important to me (and if I can do better, let me know). About 10 years ago, I lived in Istanbul, Turkey for a while. As a foreigner, I stood out. Everywhere. Not everyone, but a very big minority of people thought it was ok if I was taken advantage of in some way. I saw a lot of fights happen while I lived there, and I knew if someone decides to attack me it’s always going to be MY fault in everyone else’s eyes. It was so bad that I even felt that if someone invaded my flat, it would still be considered my fault for living there as a foreigner. I never felt safe and felt like I always had to be humble and suddenly normal results from interactions felt like achievements. One night a friend and I were robbed at knifepoint, so we went to the police who blamed it on us for being in the street at night (a female friend managed to escape a kidnapping and she was blamed for taking a taxi by herself). I never felt at ease in that half year, but I lived in the knowledge that I could just leave. That’s privilege. And I never experienced that in my life before that, nor have I later, even when living in Bulgaria and Russia. That’s privilege too. For many people (more than you’d think), this is a normal part of every day life from which there is no escape. We can’t accept that. This knowledge should be unbearable to everyone.
Back to the music business, Karen Allen wrote this great piece about how you can secure a spot as a conference speaker. It’s great reading for everyone, and I hope it helps to contribute to more a more diverse music business (there’s a lot of work to do).
How women can get booked to speak at conferences
Karen: “What I know is that this advice has worked for me in getting myself on panels and it’s how people bubbled up in the system when I was booking panels. It’s what I wish more people would do, because bookers can only get so far with a Google or LinkedIn search. Help us find you. Help us elevate you.”
Fun 🤘
When feminism meets music: great songs that sample radical speech
From Beyoncé and Blood Orange to Le Tigre and Ibeyi, these songs shine a necessary light on feminist thinkers.
Final note ✍️
As I don’t have a lead article this week, perhaps consider sharing this edition of the newsletter using the buttons at the bottom? Thank you!
❤️ twitter - mxtxf fb group - facebook - musicxtechxfuture.com
📰 Last week: Spotify & the Roman slave trade 🏛️ Oculus Go: a VR game-changer? 🚀 Does music still work as social glue 👯
Regular insights about the future of music, media & tech. Written & composed by @basgras.
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