While Art Basel celebrates its 20th year in Miami, it’s really Miami Art Week as a whole that has everyone’s attention. It feels like the early days of SXSW down here and it’s so much bigger than Basel now.Don’t get me wrong: the main events – Basel, Scope, Miami Art Design, Untitled – and hot-button galleries are still doing their thing. But what’s most exciting is how many brands are showing up and how much Web3’s presence is being felt. For someone who believes brand x art collabs are under tapped culturally, last week was a dream.Brands turned up to engage with commercial, tastemaker, and luxury consumers, and did so effectively and authentically. Shouts to Alo, whose glow up continues apace. Their brand was everywhere this week, helping people refresh and recenter. Macallan premiered its new M Collection whisky, which costs more than $8,000 a bottle, and gave us an intimate James Blake performance on the lawn of the Bass Museum of Art. Meta (thee Meta) launched its new NFT marketplace and catered to creators but, perhaps most important for me personally, did it at the new Miami Soho House which opened blocks from my house :) We outside!While there’s definitely a world out there that doesn’t know the difference between crypto and web3, that’s not the crowd that was in Miami last week. These folks were savvy and undeterred by the SBF x FTX fiasco. Web3 comprised about 20% of the events, much more than last year, and is, I believe, on its way to a 50/50 share of the focus in traditional art spaces.Other memorable partnerships included Hennessy and FWB’s speakeasy called Cafe 11; Nike’s RTFKT premiere of their insane physical sneaker; and endemic star, Gmoney’s awesome clothing drop where you minted your apparel to the blockchain in true one of one fashion. Porsche even opened up about their Web3 plans at nft now’s activation, The Gateway. New brands were popping up too like ARKIVE which is building a virtual museum using a DAO structured community. They “won” this year at Art Basel by showing how partnerships and relationships are the way “in” to the traditional artworld as a Web3 brand. There were also plenty of examples of ticketing done on-chain and, although some of it was still faulty, it was much easier and more ubiquitous than I’ve seen at past events. Baby steps, baby.The convergence of IRL and URL, in my humble opinion, is the future of both the art world and the brand identity industry. Miami Art Week 2022 was a testament to the blockchain entering the physical world and impacting the way people interact with intellectual property and each other.
BEATS
Tony Fadell Is Trying to Build the iPod of CryptoThe product guru made Ledger’s new hardware wallet—a tiny vault for digital cash—flashy and fun. Plus, with this gadget you’ll never get FTX’d. (Wired)
What The Future Sounds Like, And Who Makes It HappenThis year’s 30 Under 30 lineup is out.
SKIMS Inks Holiday Branding Campaign with Snoop Dogg’s Entire FamilyLoungewear and underwear brand SKIMS has announced the launch of its 2022 holiday campaign, featuring the legendary rapper and entrepreneur Snoop Dogg and his wife, children, and grandchildren. (Digital Music News)
Roland: The Brand Defining The Sound Of Music For 50 YearsGenres from post-punk to hip-hop to acid house would not sound the same without the equipment produced by Roland. Rolling Stone UK goes deep into the iconic Japanese brand’s history as it marks its 50th anniversary. (Rolling Stone)
Deadmau5 And Richie Hawtin’s Metaverse Platform Pixelynx Acquired By Animoca BrandsAnimoca Brands, the parent company of The Sandbox gaming metaverse, has doubled down on its investments in the metaverse space after acquiring a majority stake in Pixelynx, a music metaverse gaming platform. (Music Business Worldwide)
The Music Industry Isn’t Ready For The Ai RevolutionTraining a neural network and learning capability isn’t linear – it’s exponential. It is therefore reasonable to assert that we will soon see AI-generated music becoming an increasingly cost-effective alternative to human creativity. (Music Business Worldwide)
The Mariah Carey Christmas Machine Expansion Continues — This Time With Peloton Classes and a Roblox ConcertAbout five weeks after the Mariah Carey Christmas machine began revving up, Peloton has moved to get in on the action with a “highly anticipated” artist series featuring the “All I Want for Christmas Is You” singer-songwriter’s music. (Digital Music News)
Foot Locker is Showcasing Staffers, Popular Musicians through Social Media and Digital Out-Of-Home to Appeal to Gen ZFor the holiday season, Foot Locker is leveraging social media and digital out-of-home to showcase its employees. The shoe store chain is doing so in order to strengthen the relationship between the company, its employees and its consumers, all while celebrating and driving sneaker culture globally. (Digiday)
Are Broadway Audiences Ready For A K-Pop Musical?The first Broadway show celebrating Korean culture hopes to show there’s ‘more to K-pop than just Gangnam Style’ (The Guardian)
A$AP Rocky Just Launched His Own Furniture Design StudioIt’s no surprise that he’s decided to make a foray into the world of interiors, parlaying his keen eye into a “furniture interior design studio” called Hommemade, which made its debut at the Design Miami/ fair in Miami Beach on Thursday. (GQ)
Why Spotify Makes Wrapped its Annual Marketing MomentSpotify Wrapped, one of the streaming platform’s biggest marketing campaigns of the year, is the gift that keeps on giving, both for users and Spotify’s marketing goals. (Digiday)
10 Music Marketing Commandments To Consider For 2023In 2023, scaling your online profile based on any new social media algorithm rules will remain the key strategic direction to focus on. (Forbes)
"Artists Are About To Go On Strike": Youtube's Lyor Cohen On His Plans To Save The Music IndustryLyor Cohen has dominated the music industry since the rise of Run-DMC and Def-Jam records. Now he's all-in on YouTube Shorts, can he teach TikTok a thing or two? (GQ)
FBI Director Warns of TikTok Security Concerns, Says Chinese Government ‘Doesn’t Share Our Values’Wray said that China has the ability to control the app’s recommendation algorithm, enabling them to “manipulate content, and if they want to, use it for influence operations.” He also voiced concern that China could use the app to collect user data, which could be used in traditional espionage operations. (The Guardian)
BYTES
In this episode of Switched On Pop, we interview genre icon DJ Jazzy Jeff on the concept of flow: what it is, how it applies to all music – not just hip-hop – and how any rapper’s flow can be analyzed under his guidelines. Taking his word for it, we put our magnifying glasses on to look at the bars of our favorite rappers, from Megan thee Stallion to Babytron.
Allen Grubman, a founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, changed the music business. He has represented rock & roll’s biggest stars, including Bruce Springsteen, U2, Sting, John Mellencamp, Madonna, Lionel Richie, Elton John, Lady Gaga, and many more.
The “JR:murals” app allows you to experience JR’s artwork in a new and interactive way. Using augmented reality, you can hear what every person in the mural has to say, giving life to each portrait.
The House of Lipman will land the Top 3 this week as Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains (Boominati/Republic) opens at #1 and Taylor Swift’s Midnights and Drake & 21 Savage's Her Loss each move down one spot. (Hits Daily Double_
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!