Last week when I wrote about Coronavirus, I hoped it would end up looking alarmist. Now we know it wasn’t. I still don’t think existential dread is helpful, but there are certainly lessons to be learned from previous pandemics.What we are seeing now is a combination of highly irrational and extremely smart thinking. Somewhere in the intersection lies the truth. The cancellation of SXSW cost the city of Austin over $350 million dollars and scrapping Ultra Music is going to have huge ramifications, too. But it’s the right decision. They have, however, made the very controversial choice to not refund tickets purchased for the festival.Coachella is pushing back six months and I expect most Spring festivals and tours to follow suit or cancel outright. The wildest part is that most of these production companies and promoters don’t have insurance, which could decimate many organizations and individuals in the short-term. Live Nation stock, which was at an all-time high as recently as February 19th, is down 40%. Sadly, we’re likely in the early stages of this free fall.Of course this will reverberate across all aspects of the industry. Warner is pushing back their IPO, the latest Bond flick, No Time To Die, bumped its release, and I imagine many more films will opt to go direct-to-DSP without theatrical releases. Overall, this Spring looks like one that could be spent inside.So what will the world look like when we are all quarantined? In my opinion, new lifestyles will be created and new cultures will emerge. The streaming economy is already getting a big boost and the same will be true for video games, virtual worlds, streamed panels and concerts, and chatting via FaceTime & ZOOM. The demand for in-home entertainment is going to produce huge opportunities to innovate, experiment, and break new ground. Order that Oculus, my guy.What are you seeing? How is your company evolving to adjust? Let’s talk about it… from a respectable, entirely not panicked 5-foot distance.In all seriousness, if you think you are sick, for the good of humanity, stay your ass home.
BEATS
Does Spotify Really Help The Live Business?Whether Spotify is a savior or the devil in disguise for the music industry, the company has been on a mission to sell the service to artists, including the use of its data in marketing and promoting their music, as well as planning their tours. (Pollstar)
What’s A Hit Song Worth These Days? For ‘roxanne’ Rapper Arizona Zervas, The Answer Ends In Lots Of ZeroesZervas grew up poor-ish in Maryland; “riffraff” was the word he used to describe himself before he was kicked out of middle school for making trouble. But last year, “Roxanne” — a bubbly yet laid-back ode to a young woman obsessed with “cocaine and Whole Foods” — made him the object of an intense major-label bidding war that Columbia won when it struck a multimillion dollar deal. (LA Times)
The Real Life And Fantastic Visions Of A Digital WarriorSince 2010, Boucher has written, performed, produced, and engineered some of the century’s most exciting, hardest-to-classify, most future-shock-y indie pop as Grimes — an alias she hastily selected at age 20 and is still stuck with at age 31. (Rolling Stone)
Kendrick Lamar Announces Mysterious 'pgLang' Project: What Does It All Mean?Kendrick Lamar returned to social media on Thursday (March 5) with a mysterious announcement: He's launching pgLang, a multilingual, artist-friendly service company alongside his manager Dave Free that's a record label, movie studio and publishing house combined. (Billboard)
SXSW Disaster: Event Admits It Has No Insurance For Coronavirus CancellationOrganisers of SXSW, which was set to open this year on Friday, March 13 and close nine days later, confirmed: “The City of Austin has cancelled the March dates for SXSW and SXSW EDU. SXSW will faithfully follow the City’s directions. (Music Business Worldwide)
Spotify’s Head Of Music Explains How To Get On PlaylistsWhether it’s New Music Friday or Ultimate Indie, a Spotify playlist selection can quite literally change an artist’s career overnight and reel in significant revenue. But how does an artist get onto a top playlist? (Forbes)
An Acquisition You Should Care About: Pex Buys Music Rights Platform Dubset In $25m+ DealYou may have only heard of one of these companies, or maybe neither, but this is potentially a big deal in the world of music rights clearance, not to mention artist and songwriter royalties: Los Angeles-based Pex has acquired Dubset Media Holdings in a buyout worth $25m-plus. (Music Business Worldwide)
Drake’s OVO Label Is Suing Companies for Using Owl LogosDrake‘s clothing label OVO has started suing companies it believes are ripping off its owl logo, TMZ reports. OVO has recently sued Bellroy, an Australian company using the familiar owl design, for copyright infringement. (High Snobiety)
Will You Watch Any Of These Music-Related Quibi Shows?Quibi launches on 4/6, and The New York Times reports that the plan is to release 8500 “quick bites of content” and around 175 new shows, 35 of which will be “movies in chapters,” in its first year. Hollywood heavy hitters including Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro will be involved. Quibi has reportedly spent $1 billion on content already. (Stereogum)
Rihanna Just Bought A Whole-ass House For Tiktok Content CreatorsIn a press conference at the estate, Rihanna said that she "just wanted to create a platform for the next wave of content creators." The new videos will all live on Fenty Beauty's new TikTok account, which has been cranking out content since it launched a few weeks back. (Fader)
The 10 Most Innovative Music Companies Of 2020The music industry’s revival continues, as its digital transformation creates new opportunities for merchandising, personalization, improved audio quality, getting artists paid, and even a change in how vinyl records are made. Here are the 10 companies we felt epitomized the innovations taking place in the industry, pushing it forward once again after its long post-Napster slump. (Fast Company)
BYTES
Harry Styles stopped by the Howard Stern Show on SIRIUS XM to talk about his new album and cover Peter Gabriel’s "Sledgehammer."
Jill Malandrino was joined by Jesse Kirshbaum, CEO, NUE Agency, to discuss the future of the entertainment landscape and the streaming wars.
Slacker Radio has transformed into LiveXLive, an innovative app that lets users stream music and live performances. #BeatsAndBytes #MusicTech
Megan Thee Stallion won a legal battle with her label and was able to share her sensational new album 'SUGA' this week. Catch her on the latest addition of #CRWN with Elliott Wilson filmed in NYC yesterday!
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!