As the year comes to a close, year-end recaps are everywhere you look. With so much content about so much content, how do you know what to pay attention to?One of the top curators of our generation, Tuma Basa, Rap Caviar’s own and now Youtube Music’s finest
answers that question with new thinking, using a concept he coined called “Curativity.” With virtually unlimited access to information and assets, choice can be stifling. People need reliable, trustworthy sources more than ever. Taking it beyond entertainment, the fake news phenomenon demands the same. Social media and many long-trusted news outlets are experiencing a reliability crisis. That’s where the role of the “curatives” comes in. You might even argue that curation is now as important as creation. Where would we be without curative direction!?Back in the day we used say, ‘if you hear a new artist’s name three times in a week, stop what you’re doing and get in touch with them.’ Now we apply that logic to marketing with the “three touchpoints” approach. You have to reach people in multiple places in multiples ways to get on their radar. How content lands in the hands of curators is both art and science, and people are building massive new empires around trust and curation. I hope you look at Beats & Bytes, and the Nue Agency in general, in that way. We stay ahead of the game and don’t take anything at face value. It’s in our nature to ask tough questions and dig deeper as we search relentlessly for the best of the best.Needless to say, we’re making our year-end lists and checking them twice. You’ll find out soon if you were hella sus or nice ;)
BEATS
Women in Music 2018: The Most Powerful Executives in the IndustryBillboard’s annual celebration of more than 120 female industry leaders, veterans and next-gen talents. (Billboard)
The World's Highest-Paid Musicians of 2018All in all, the 10 highest-paid musicians pulled in $886 million, about the same as last year’s combined tally. But this year’s list is more top-heavy, featuring four centimillion-dollar paychecks (the aforementioned names as well as Bruno Mars) as opposed to last year’s two (Diddy and Beyoncé). (Zack O'Malley Greenburg – Forbes)
The 2018 SoundCloud Playback We crunched the numbers and now we’re playing them back. Check out the results from our year-in-review based on actions from our community (AKA listeners like you). Of note: for the second year in a row, Two Friends released your favorite DJ set – and “synthwave” and “phonk” continue to be top genres you’ve tagged. (SoundCloud)
The 100 Best Albums of 2018 The Noisey staff's favorite releases of the year. (Noisey)
Pitchfork Names Best Songs of 2018 Pitchfork has released its 100 Best Songs of 2018 and “Love It If We Made It” by The 1975 with Robyn’s “Honey” at #2, followed by Rosalía’s “Malamente.” (Hypebot)
Why Artist Managers Are Getting Into the Label Game As streaming's healthy growth pumps money into the recorded-music business, Udell is one of an array of artist managers launching their own independent record companies or joint ventures and, in some cases, moving away from traditional management deals altogether. (Jewel Wicker – Billboard)
Canada's legal market still in its infancy, aligning with a major celebrity like Khalifa is an effective way of accelerating brand awareness in a limited media environment. (David George-Cosh – BNN Bloomberg)
Lyor Cohen: The Album Is On Its Way OutThe music industry is not just rebounding; it’s “going to be in a boom time” very soon, according to Lyor Cohen. The YouTube Music head and venerated music industry executive spoke candidly about his expectations for the future of music in a fireside chat at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law in New York on Wednesday night, predicting, among other things, that streaming services are going to drive the business into a new “golden age” that we’ve only started to see. (Amy X. Wang – RollingStone)
Fortnite Videogame Star Ninja Drops an Album, and a Peek Into the FutureBlevins came to Studio A to help launch Ninjawerks Vol. 1, an album released on Capitol's Astralwerks label that features 13 tracks of electronic dance music curated by Ninja. Several tracks have already been released, but the full album hits Dec. 14. The songs are all electronic music or EDM, and help boost Blevins when he's gaming. (David Bloom – Forbes)
Mixcloud Rolls Out ‘fan-to-creator’ Subscription ServiceMixcloud , the audio streaming platform that is popular for long-form content, such as radio shows and DJ sets, has launched a “fan-to-creator” subscription service in a bid to find new ways of monetizing and ensuring both artists and curators get paid. (Steve O'Hear – TechCrunch)
Rae Sremmurd Star in Debut Episode of Luc Belaire's New 'Belaire It Out' Video Series: PremiereYou'd be hard-pressed to find a duo having more fun with their careers in hip-hop than Rae Sremmurd. The Mississippi-bred pair puts a stamp on their banner 2018 by starring in Luc Belaire's new Belaire It Out game show series. (Michael Saponara – Billboard)
Pusha-T Fosters Next Generation of Hip-Hop Talent to Release New Breakthrough Album 1800 Seconds Passion, hard work and honesty are three things every rising hip-hop artist must have to succeed. Today, 1800® Tequila and hip-hop legend Pusha-T have partnered to find 10 aspiring hip-hop artists with those values to launch 1800 Seconds (:1800), a new recording and artist discovery platform that gives unsigned artists a chance to write and release one new three-minute track with the full production and marketing support of a record label. (PR Newswire)
BYTES
The All Songs gang looks back at this year's anthems and unmissable milestones, from Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer to Childish Gambino's mind-blowing video for "This Is America," Rosalía, Mitski and more.
Rosalía's "Bagdad" is the standout from the Flamenco artist's album El Mal Querer that interpolates "Cry Me A River" by Justin Timberlake into a modern avant-pop earworm. The song's music video takes literal inspiration from the song that helped inspire it, placing a distraught Rosalía in a bathroom stall that fills to the brim with her sadness.
Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers are pleased to announce Bloom: 10 Worlds – a developed, augmented and expanded new edition of 2008’s game-changing original Bloom app, which explored uncharted territory in the realm of applications and was dubbed “The First Great iPhone App” by Gizmodo. Requiring no musical or technical ability, the egalitarian and user-friendly Bloom app enabled anyone of any age to create music, simply by touching the screen. Part instrument, part composition and part artwork, Bloom’s innovative controls allowed users to create elaborate patterns and unique melodies by simply tapping the screen.
Checkout Playback's 2019 Artists to Watch playlist to hear 19 creators who will be storming the scene next year and beyond.
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!