✖️ Postinternet music is the future 💻 AI music is already mainstream 🔥 Internet's post-text era is here 🤳
Hi everyone!
MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE is 2 years old! 🎂 Thank you all for your positive energy - the first edition went out to just 51 people and by now each newsletter reaches over 2000 people. (and you can meet some of them online here)
I have been doing a lot of thinking about the future of this newsletter, which I’ve laid out in the lead piece of this edition. That thinking concentrated around my role in “moving the conversation forward” around music, which is my main goal for MxTxF.
I’m going to move the emphasis from the boardroom to the (metaphorical) bedroom. Because what musicians and techies do there is what created some of the most important moments for music: from peer-to-peer networks to Soundcloud culture, to YouTubers, and now algorithmic music and art. [read more]
Meanwhile, we have been making some great progress at IDAGIO, the classical music streaming service where I’m Product Director: onboarding major label partners and greatly expanding our catalogue, releasing desktop and Android apps, and now working on completing our feature set and improving what we already have. Here are some of the cool roles that we are looking to fill here in Berlin: product manager growth, customer success manager, online marketing manager, and plenty more.
Have a lovely February!
Love,
Bas
From me, for you
The third internet generation for music is here.
(READ THIS to find out what is next for MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE)
What people in music tech would tell their 18-year-old selves
I had been thinking what I would tell my 18-year-old self, so before answering, I decided to ask a few people I know the same question. Thanks for your answers Cherie Hu, Ed Peto, Jim Griffin, Steinunn Arnardottir, Bruce Houghton, Jim Griffin, Amber Horsburgh.
Streaming music
RIP Facebook: how musicians can thrive in 2018
Downtown Records’ VP of Strategy, Amber Horsburgh, answers: how can you maintain a successful Facebook strategy after the algorithm is destroyed?
The fascinating rise of YouTube music reaction videos
Popular music reaction channels are racking up millions of views, forcing the rest of the industry to pay attention.
Can fine art thrive on Spotify? Sofia Ek tests waters with new audiovisual project
Cherie Hu about how “Spotify faces the challenge of telling a coherent brand story that veers in opposite directions across multiple axes – niche versus scalable tastes, undivided versus fragmented attention, unlimited versus bounded options, driving versus lowering the value of recorded music – without being pulled apart into pieces in the process.”
Beyond streaming
Sammy Andrews does a very deep dive into voice-activated devices and their implications for the music business.
www.musicbusinessworldwide.com • Share
Spotify's scientist: artificial Intelligence should be embraced, not feared, by the music business
Did you know Kiesza and Stromae put out an AI-composed song last December? One of the people behind it is Spotify’s Director of the Creator Technology Research Lab.
www.musicbusinessworldwide.com • Share
The Techstars Music class of 2018 unveiled
This year’s group consists of 10 startups and spans a range of music-related fields. In addition to audio playback (Mighty), biometrics (Blink Identity, Endel); artificial intelligence (Edison.AI, SecondBrain, Spark.DJ); ticketing (Hello Tickets, Seated); and streaming (Gimme Radio, Soundcharts).
Wide view
Imverse’s groundbreaking mixed reality renders you inside VR
I’m very interested in blurring ‘real world’ and 'virtual’. This piece opens with the question: what if you could look down and see your actual arms and legs inside VR, or look at other real-world people or objects as if you weren’t wearing a headset?
In the land of internet subcultures, try not to look like a tourist
An internet platform like YouTube or Reddit is more than just an app or URL; for some users, it can be an identity that informs everything they do online.
Welcome to the post-text future
“There’s the [basic] question of how pictures and sounds alter how we think. An information system dominated by pictures and sounds prizes emotion over rationality. It’s a world where slogans and memes have more sticking power than arguments.”
Fun
Dissecting the Buddhist spirituality of German dance legends Scooter
A tongue-in-cheek satirical piece which I wrote to break out of writer’s block.
❤️ twitter - mxtxf fb group - facebook - musicxtechxfuture.com
📰 Previously: Music & innovation in 2018 ⚡ Spotify’s IPO for dummies 💸 YouTube’s AI drives 70% of views 💭
Regular insights about the future of music, media & tech. Written & composed by @basgras.
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