From Thanksgiving to Black Friday, from Small Business Saturday to Giving Tuesday, I leaned into this holiday week bigtime and I hope you did, too. Now, I'm boarding a plane to Miami for Art Basel. The Art Basel Miami Beach Fair is the place to be this week. Celebrating its 18th anniversary, this international intersection of art, culture, and commerce never disappoints. The massive event features 269 exhibiting galleries. This year there’s even more space which allows for a lot more artists and galleries...and parties ;) I have a power-packed schedule thanks to our wonderful clients. We’re sponsoring some hot events and I’ll of course be dipping in and out of many others to see friends and find out what the future of fine art looks like. This conference, more than most others, has a level of whimsy and exoticism that really charges me up. It’s the kind of immersive learning experience you can’t get anywhere else. Alex and Sam will be joining me, so keep an eye out for team Nue. Let’s connect! - Jesse K.
BEATS
Art Basel Miami, Where Big Money Meets Bigger Money As the global art world descends on South Florida for next week’s Art Basel fair, which is celebrating its 17th anniversary, it’s worth remembering how truly small the art world once was. (NY Times)
A Brief History of Martin Scorsese References in Music Videos It’s worth remembering that one of Martin Scorsese’s first professional film credits was on the original Woodstock documentary. He was an assistant editor then, but as Scorsese emerged as one of the 20th century’s great American directors, he continued to make music—specifically the rock’n’roll of his generation—a crucial part of his work. (Pitchfork)
Spotify Is Launching Its Own Music Awards, Based on Streaming Data Spotify has set plans for its first-ever music awards — with the winners based entirely on user-generated data. It’s essentially Spotify’s in-house version of the Billboard Music Awards, for which most finalists and winners are based on sales, streaming and user-engagement data. The other big music-biz kudocasts are the industry-voted Grammy Awards and the American Music Awards, which are determined by open fan polling. (Variety)
Lil Wayne announces weed brand GKUA Ultra PremiumLil Wayne has launched his first official weed strain. GKUA Ultra Premium is now available in select Los Angeles stores as a flower and concentrate, as well as vape batteries and cartridges. A wider release is due in 2020. (Fader)
40,000 New Songs Are Uploaded To Streaming Services Every Day – How Do You Stand Out From The Pack?Technology has forced the music industry to evolve. The arrival of online streaming services not only challenged the former physical music distribution model, but also shook up the once dominant roles of certain industry players. (The National)
A New Tool From Spotify Walks the Line Between Advertising and Pay-For-PlayAt the end of October, Spotify nearly formalized a rate for labels willing to pay to increase their artists’ streams. Spotify will now make full-screen notifications — a pop-up prompting you to listen to Taylor Swift’s Lover, for example, on its day of release — available for purchase as part of a new initiative called Marquee meant to boost advertising revenue. (Rolling Stone)
Against The Algorithm: Going Viral on Social Media Isn’t The Only Path to a Music Career While some artists chase viral fame, others have found more creative ways to stand out. By staying true to their vision, these three acts have proven there are alternatives to the social media slog. (Complex)
Patreon Has Paid Out $1 Billion From 4 Million FansPatreon has paid out $1 billion to creators since launch, the fan funding and patronage site announced this week. That milestone comes from the direct support of the 4 million patrons using the platform – an increase of a million patrons in less than a year. (Hypebot)
Vevo Artists To Watch 2020: Lilly, Riles, Cautious Clay, Arlo Parks & GuyanaaParul Chokshi, Senior Director, Talent Booking, says: “To fully understand the musical genius of Cautious Clay, you must see him perform. He plays multiple instruments including saxophone, flute, guitar, keys, drums, and probably more that we have yet to see.”
Billboard Announces New Rules For Merchandise/Album BundlesMoving forward, in order for an album sale to be counted as part of a merchandise/album bundle, all the items in the bundle must also be available for purchase concurrently and individually on the same website. In addition, the merchandise item sold on its own will have to be priced lower than the bundle which includes both the merchandise and the album. (Billboard)
Lil Nas X, Normani, Maluma And The 30 Under 30 Music Class Of 2020This year’s list was selected by a panel of alumni judges including the aforementioned 21 Savage, electronic duo the Chainsmokers, manager Adriana Arce and songwriter Michaela “Mickey” Shiloh. To be eligible for the list, candidates must be under age 30 as of December 31, 2019, and must not have appeared on a previous Under 30 list. (Forbes)
Scooter Braun's Raised In Space Helps Lead Audigent Data Company's $6.7M Funding RoundAudigent touts itself as “the first all-in-one solution tackling the biggest challenge in entertainment -- audience ownership growth and first-party data monetization.” The company notes that the new funding round will allow it to “aggressively expand” its sales and marketing efforts while continuing to develop its data platform and proprietary data products. (Billboard)
At Decade’s End: Q’s With Marc Geiger WME Partner & Head Of MusicThere may be no better person on the planet than Marc Geiger, WME partner and head of music, to discuss the live business over the past decade. His comprehensive understanding of the industry and ability to synthesize macro and micro, trends, economic forces, disruptive technologies, changing consumer behavior and then identify market shifts before anyone else knows they’re happening is unparalleled. (Pollstar)
BYTES
Adam Alpert manages the Chainsmokers and runs Disruptor Records, a joint venture with Sony Music. Listen to how a whip-smart millennial has navigated the music business...from nightclubs to number one.
Her career-spanning medley also included hits "Blank Space," "Love Story," "I Knew You Were Trouble" and "Shake It Off," where she was backed by friends and fellow pop stars Camila Cabello and Halsey. She closed out the set with title track "Lover," her solo-written nominee for the Grammys' song-of-the-year award, and was accompanied onstage by ballerina Misty Copeland. (USA Today)
Amazon is making its music streaming service free. The company previously offered free, ad-supported streaming only to customers who owned an Amazon Echo device. Now it’s rolling out free streaming to anyone using the Amazon Music app on iOS, Android, Fire TV and Amazon Music on the web in the U.S., U.K., and Germany.
In typical Fab fashion, his new release is packed heavily with quality features from the likes of Meek Mill, Lil Durk, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Teyana Taylor, Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz, Tory Lanez, Ty Dolla $ign, YFN Lucci amongst others over 16-tracks that is sure to provide more than enough for all in Fabolous’ diverse fanbase, clocking in at just over an hour. (The Source)
This week's newsletter was carefully curated by the Nue Agency staff and our editor Rachel Meisner If you think we missed something this week or have any suggestions/comments for next week's newsletter, let us know!