The holiday season looms large after Halloween weekend, signalling the start of a very impactful time of year: gala season. For some, it’s nothing but a tax write off. For others, it’s a way to truly give back and connect.Last week, I had the honor of attending the 10th annual POP Gala. Pencils of Promise is an organization built by Adam Braun, brother of music mogul, Scooter Braun. The first time I attended this event, Justin Bieber was honored. They auctioned off a game of 2-on-2 where the winning bidder got to play Justin Bieber and Shaq at Shaq’s house in L.A.This year, the event was at The Brooklyn Navy Yard. MASSIVE! Tori Kelly serenaded the crowd and Zane Lowe manned the decks. The room was filled with top-notch entrepreneurs and the big debate was which is worth more: a mentor’s lunch with Scooter Braun or an hour in the studio with Usher? Scooter and Lewis Howe ended up buying the lunch themselves ;)Pencils of Promise alum, Brad Haugen, was also in attendance. His company, ATTN:, is taking the Internet by storm with their difference-making viral video content. If you haven’t seen the Zooey Deschanel-starring Your Food’s Roots, check it out.I was invited to sit at Joe and Christie Marchese’s table this time around. Christie was reliving the early days of POP and how she helped build one of the program’s first schools. Cut to 2018 and they’re auctioning off the naming rights to their 500th school. “If your dreams don’t scare you,” Adam Braun told the crowd, “you don’t dream big enough.”Still reeling from the inspo of POP, I attended the Sing for Hope gala last night. This is a non-profit organization founded ten years ago by opera singers Monica Yunus and Camille Zamora. The two Juilliard grads established Sing for Hope as a resource for New York artists who want to give back to their communities. Its volunteer-driven outreach programs reach several thousand people each year at various under-resourced schools, community centers, and healthcare facilities in the five boroughs.The Sing for Hope Pianos project, one of NYC’s largest public art projects, brings painted pianos to the city’s parks and public spaces for the enjoyment of all. The pianos are often the site of formal and impromptu concerts. They’re musical watering holes, if you will, for our city’s limitless population. After a two-week public residency, the Sing for Hope Pianos are donated. As CBS News put it, Sing for Hope is "reminding us all of the power of music to inspire and unite.”If you too want to contribute to either of these wonderful organizations, info is available here:Pencils of Promise https://pencilsofpromise.org/donate/Sing for Hope: https://www.singforhope.org/donate/
PS: A couple articles below mentions e-sports, on that note, we are also working with one of the fastest growing e-sports companies and we believe is the future for advertisers/brands looking to engage with the lucrative gamer audience. The platform is called PlayVIG.PlayVIG is a free to use, gaming application for e-sports/gamers that rewards users with prizes and cash for achievements within their favorite games (i.e. Fortnite, PUBG, League of Legends, Rocket League, etc). This platform provides a unique opportunity to get in front of this elusive demographic with a 100% opt in, premium ad experience that places your brand at center stage and engages gamers directly where they play!We haven’t seen anything this exciting and unique in e-sports/gaming.
BEATS
Drake And Scooter Braun Invest In Esports Company 100 Thieves100 Thieves announced Tuesday that it completed its Series A funding round, which was co-led by SB Projects founder Scooter Braun and Grammy-winning artist Drake, who both become co-owners. Braun, who represents artists like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, also joins the company's board. Included in the round is Sequoia Capital, WondrCo, Marc Benioff, Drew Houston, Green Bay Ventures, Tao Capital and Advancit Capital. (Matt Perez – Forbes)
Why The Intersection Of Music And Esports Is Bigger Business Than EverWhy are music and esports merging and gaining more momentum now than ever before? It’s a two-way exchange: on one hand, esports leagues and game developers are blooming into full-fledged media brands, and are looking to the music business for both financial and cultural capital. Recorded music generated $17.3 billion globally in 2017, while esports revenues are projected to reach $906 million by the end of 2018—far behind music but likely not for long. (Cherie Hu – Forbes)
A&R 'Moneyball' Is Hotter Than Ever. But Will It Actually Improve The Music Business? Apple’s recent acqui-hire of A&R analytics startup Asaii is the latest milestone in a brief, crowded and as yet inconclusive history of data-driven ‘Moneyball’ in the music business. (Cherie Hu – MBW)
As indie artists escape predatory label contracts, streaming services may be offering something just as bad (Dani Deahl, Nilay Patel – The Verge )
The Live Music Industry Will Be Worth $31 Billion Worldwide by 2022Expect concerts and music festivals to capitalize on the growing demand for “synergy” between events and brands in the live concert industry. Here’s the latest research from PwC. (Daniel Sanchez – Digital Music News )
The Event Marketing Evolution: An Era of Data, Technology, and Revenue ImpactNew study proves events drive ROI for enterprise brands rapid revenue growth is fueled by event marketing, according to study by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. (Harvard Business Review)
Facebook Is Building Lasso, A Video Music App To Steal TikTok’s TeensFacebook is working on a new app that it hopes could win back the attention of teens while capitalizing on its recently attained major label music licenses. Facebook is building a standalone product where users can record and share videos of themselves lip syncing or dancing to popular songs, according to information from current and former Facebook employees. (Josh Constine – TechCrunch)
Dash Radio Closes $8.8 Million Funding Round, Names New Board Members Dash Radio announced several landmarks on Wednesday. For one, the company now reaches over 10 million monthly listeners. It also announced the addition of several board members: Kevin Tsujihara (Chairman & CEO of Warner Bros.), John Burbank (Founder & Chief Investment Officer of Passport Capital), and Michael Zeisser (former Chairman U.S. Investments, Alibaba Group, Liberty Media, McKinsey & Co.). And finally, the company announced the close of its seed round with $8.8 million in funding from top firms & individuals including Nimble Ventures, Slow Ventures, Lazerow Ventures, Muzik, Arab Angel, G Ventures, Lindzon Capital Partners, Lava Records founder Jason Flom, Orin Snyder, Ian Schaefer, and more as well as from new board members Kevin Tsujihara and Michael Zeisser. (Variety)
Facebook Is Looking More Like MySpace And That's Good News For Musicians, Labels Facebook is rolling out new music features, after recent deals with the major labels. The results feel a lot like a modern version of MySpace Music, which veteran Hypebot readers may remember was once the #1 marketing platform for indie and diy music. (Hypebot)
Exclusive: Rae Sremmurd Tell Us 'SremmLife 4' Will Drop Early Next Year and Does Big Deal to Launch Belaire GoldWhile in Miami on a shoot for their business partnership with Luc Belaire — Lee and Jxmmi have partnered with the company on Belaire Gold — HYPEBEAST got a chance to discuss with the southern duo about their forthcoming projects and being a part of the Belaire family. (Emmanuel Maduakolam – Hypebeast)
How Hip-Hop Media Has Changed Rap Beef Podcasts and video series offer more approaches for artists to play to their strengths and take shots at each other. (Dan Runcie – Trapital)
The Lyst Index: Q3 2018 The Lyst Index is a quarterly ranking of fashion’s hottest brands and products. To compile the results, global fashion search platform Lyst analyses the online shopping behaviour of more than 5 million shoppers a month searching, browsing and buying fashion across 12,000 designers and stores online. The formula behind the Index takes into account global Lyst and Google search data, conversion rates and sales, as well as brand and product social media mentions and engagement statistics worldwide over a 3 month period. (Lyst)
BYTES
WHAT'S GOOD WITH STRETCH & BOBBITO: The Beastie Boys On Their Hip-Hop Journey And Missing Adam Yauch
Ad-Rock and Mike D stopped by the Stretch and Bobbito studio for a conversation about the making of Beastie Boys Book, about their early years in New York City, how they found their way as white kids in hip-hop and how they keep the memory of Adam Yauch alive today.
The MIT Open Music Legal Hackathon is the culmination of a distributed network of creative open media legal hack events taking place around the world through the month of October. Jesse Kirshbaum sits down with Open Media to talk about the reinvention of media and music, new forms of monetization & rights and new possibilities for artists.
GREATER THAN brings content, community, and discovery together in one platform built for the creative class. Browse our curated content and get recommendations on new connections, music, opportunities, experiences and events to attend, or valuable information for inspiration.
Spooky tunes brought to you by your friends at Nue Agency. Happy Halloween!
This week's newsletter was carefully curated by the Nue Agency staff and our editor Maria Tejada If you think we missed something this week or have any suggestions/comments for next week's newsletter, let us know!