Have you been to a museum recently?A few weeks back, I was lucky enough to see the KAWS exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, which documents his remarkable rise. KAWS is an artist that epitomizes how to break into the art world “through the kitchen.” As a graffiti artist, he created his buzz and demand through collectibles, mostly in Japan, flipping and remixing pop culture with his lens and artistic POV.Now, KAWS’s brand collaborations are instant classics. The lines for his drops are longer than any exhibit I’ve seen, and everyone is leaving with a bag.Going into a museum for the first time in a year felt great! Brooklyn Museum was the same spot I went the night the world shut down. That was for the Studio 54 exhibit. What I would pay for a night at Studio 54 right now.As the NFT market continues to emerge as the most exciting, explosive art and commerce development in modern times, utility becomes a bigger question. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the best venue to show them in; what is the right forum for them to be celebrated, traded, collected, and reviewed?When music is attached, things change. How can you listen to them? It won’t be on Spotify or Apple Music for now. So the platforms that figure out how to play and display NFT’s will undoubtedly have a leg up in capturing this audience.Digital museums sound interesting. After a year of “going” to virtual events and museum tours, I think a world where there are virtual museums sounds realistic. When you layer in VR and Oculus Rift, it’s even more enticing. With 35% of the storefronts in NYC empty (plus 12 hotels closed during Covid), the pop-up possibilities are plentiful.A new immersive Van Gogh VR exhibit is nearing a sell-out, but I’m talking specifically about NFTs. Once we identify the types of venues that can share and display these pieces, I believe the art and music being created will change in kind.We’ll see this soon. “The NFT Museum of Art” has a ring to it, but I imagine the most legendary NFT’s will live in the MoMA’s of the world.On a sadder note, as the covid pandemic subsides, a pandemic of hate is taking its place. What’s happening to the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community is tragic. It goes without saying that these cultures are a vital part of the American fabric. The hate they are experiencing is a real problem that requires attention and action. With the world still forced to stay in and look inward, it’s a great time for everyone to check themselves and ensure we’re all doing everything we can to make continued progress toward social justice. We certainly want to shine our light on that mission.
BEATS
Snoop Dogg and Lionel Richie Jump in on NFT Craze as Crypto.com Launches a Token MarketplaceSnoop Dogg, Lionel Richie and Boy George are moving into the world of non-fungible tokens, having signed up to produce work for cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com's new NFT marketplace.It is the latest example of the craze for the crypto technology, following the sale of a $69 million NFT artwork earlier in March and the popularity of the NBA's Top Shot token market. (Business Insider)
New First On Soundcloud Accelerator Program To Make 'Multi-Phase, Year-long Investment' In Emerging Artists SoundCloud has introduced nine emerging artists to headline First on SoundCloud’s new artist accelerator program. According to SoundCloud, the new program is “focused on dedicated investment in co-creating each artist’s career milestones to help drive their long-term success” and will feature a “multi-phase, year-long investment” in the selected artists. (Music Business Worldwide)
Cassettes Are Having a Moment: What It Means for the Format to Have Big Artists Joining the RevivalRegister is hoping cassettes will follow suit. He says ThinkIndie, which was founded by the Coalition of Independent Music Stores in 1999, has already had some success distributing the format, and believes things are heading in the right direction for a similar resurgence. Perhaps the biggest indicator? Many stores he works with can't keep boomboxes in stock, old or new, likely because they come with a cassette deck. (Billboard)
Live Music Is About to Get Its Grand Reopening When the stage lights rose before the show on March 14, 2020, at Saint Vitus, a cramped New York City heavy metal bar, the venue felt a little more on edge than normal. In its near decade of shows, dance parties, and drinking, the intimate, dimly lit bar and concert venue. (Patrick Sisson)
Spotify Says Over 13,000 Artists’ Catalogs Earned At Least $50k In Royalties Last Year Musicians aren’t thrilled with Spotify — they say the streaming platform undervalues their work and they deserve to be paid more per stream. So today, Spotify’s trying to address those concerns with a new website called Loud & Clear, which offers more insight into how much the platform pays artists and how that money is distributed. (The Verge)
Cardi B Aspires To Be Like Rihanna And Jay-Z: 'I Want To Be A Billion-Dollar Woman' Cardi B has two new music industry role models. During her Wednesday appearance on Stationhead, the hitmaker, 28, revealed that she's had a change of heart when it comes to looking up to other stars. (People)
The Case For Protecting Hip-Hop's Founders Music Led by figures like LL COOL J and Swizz Beatz, there is a small movement happening to ensure hip-hop’s founders aren’t just getting their dues but getting paid for their contributions. (Okay Player)
Spotify Launches “Loud & Clear” Transparency Initiative Spotify has launched Loud & Clear, a new web portal that presents data on how Spotify streams are determined and paid out. Months in the making, the website launched today following a series of protests outside Spotify offices by the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers. (Pitchfork)
Post Malone, Ariana Grande, And More Release Hour-Long Sleep Remixes The Calm app creators partnered with Universal Music Group for its new ‘Sleep Remix Series.’ The series features original 60-minute remixes of songs from some of the world’s top artists. Essentially, these are hour-long, drawn out remixes intentionally designed to be snooze-fests. (Digital Music News)
Post Malone To Mix NFTs, Experiences In Revamped Music Streaming Platform Rapper Post Malone’s concert streaming service, AUX Live, will begin minting Fyooz-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that blur the line between art and experience. The collaboration, Malone’s second in the NFT space, is set to take off on March 18 with a series of NFTs meant to memorialize concert experiences. In a world where attending concerts in person is still out of the question for many, Malone and his manager, Dre London, are hoping NFTs can bring some of the magic back. (Coin Desk)
Hip-Hop Professor Looks To Open Doors With World's First Peer-Reviewed Rap Album The situation is similar in academia. That is, in order to establish oneself as a serious scholar, an academic must get their work – typically some sort of written product – published in a peer-reviewed journal, which is a journal in which works are evaluated by others in a given field to ensure their relevance and quality. (The Conversation)
Matthew McConaughey: Giddy Up to Give BackA week after millions of Texas residents were forced to endure record-breaking temps without power and homes were destroyed due to busted pipes, Longview ISD alum and Academy Award-winner Matthew McConaughey said he, his wife, Camila McConaughey, and the just keep livin Foundation, were working to put together a virtual benefit to raise money for winter storm victims.
BYTES
In this special episode, previously recorded for Boardroom University, Iovine talks about his first music job as a janitor in a recording studio, the time Steve Jobs diagrammed the hardware business for him on a dinner table, his admiration for former Disney exec, Bob Iger, and why the program he and Dr Dre are launching is poised to empower under-served high school students by emphasizing the importance of both technology and design.
The future of virtual concerts is here. Epic Records singer songwriter Madison Beer is debuting her groundbreaking new immersive reality music experience in its entirety exclusively on TikTok LIVE. An ultra-realistic digital avatar of Madison so incredibly lifelike she has to be seen to be believed, performed songs from her debut album, Life Support, in a dazzling, special effects filled showcase premiering on Madison’s TikTok account late last week.
Much of the most spirited conversations around NFT’s have centered on a pre-launch project called BitClout, a social crypto-exchange where users can buy and sell tokens based on people’s reputations. The app, which launches out of private beta tomorrow morning, has already courted plenty of controversy inside the crypto community, but it’s also amassed quite a war chest as investors pump tens of millions into its proprietary currency.
Clocking in at just under 30 minutes, the nine-track project just dropped by Benny the Butcher and Harry Fraud (“The Plugs I Met 2”) features guest appearances from 2 Chainz on “Plug Talk,” Fat Joe on “Talkin’ Back,” French Montana and Jim Jones on “Longevity,” Rick Hyde on “Survivor’s Remorse” and the late Chinx on “Overall.” The release follows Butcher and Fraud’s 2019 collab.
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!