What a year this has been, and it’s only the first quarter.January felt like the slowest month ever, with the LA fires and the inauguration ushering in a dark new reality. February flew by with cultural tentpole events like The Grammys, the Super Bowl, SNL 50, and NBA All-Star weekend back-to-back-to-back. March was a manic month with massive macro trends coming into play, affecting all facets of the world.All in all, Q1 brought some things to light and helped paint the picture of what the future of entertainment and brands is going to look like. Beyond the data – which is still trickling in over the next few weeks – here are some cultural changes that we picked up on:Vibe Shift: This is all over the culture reports, and my fellow trend lovers are feasting on it. Is this era called a Dark Shift? The Boom Boom? The era of the villain guy? The WWE era? We’re hearing it all, but clearly 2025’s vibe is different from the year before.IRL is the New Luxury: Meeting up in person is the new glory. We are all very busy and, thanks to social media, very distracted. Meeting up in person is the new luxury, whether it be at a retreat, an event, or even for coffee. If you look in someone’s eyes and exchange rogue saliva, that’s more flossy than a Balenciaga shirt.Smaller, Purpose-Driven Communities: 2025 has been all about community. The desire for smaller, more intimate, specialized communities is undeniable. People are abandoning massive platforms in favor of tight-knit groups where trust and shared values flourish.Viewership Numbers Vary But Clips are King: With award season behind us, we learned something important: even with the Super Bowl ratings up, the Grammys viewers down, the Oscars holding steady and SNL doing solid, viewership stats are skewed. What’s clear is that people don’t want to sit through a 3-hour movie, podcast, or award show. The water cooler moments all gather around the clips.Health Is Wealth: CPG is an exciting place again. Everyone is looking at health and wellness differently. New stars are emerging; new conversations are happening; and new products are going to define this moment. I’ve never heard so many people talking about Expo West. The future of health and wellness will be commercialized and I'm seeing so many great new brands and products coming out.The 30-Second Ad is the Trailer: I really noticed this at The Super Bowl, but the 30-second ad doesn’t do justice to the real intricacies and message of the commercial. The new format is to launch a longer piece of branded content and let the TV ad be the teaser’s teaser.Spectacle Marketing: It’s the only way to cut through the noise. The more outrageous, the more attention you can grab. That’s the game we are playing now.Degenerate Economy: Unfortunately for the people, Crypto, gambling, and Zyn are in. We might not be drinking as much, but there are new vices that have the mainstream in a chokehold.Restivals > Festivals: I’m enjoying being a homebody these days. I can get great insights and downloads from watching the livestream. What’s more important? The 10K people in the room, or the millions of people you can reach online?AEO: The clearest consumer use case for AI is the enhancement it gives search. In 2025, we are all asking our AI agents to tell us the answers, which are opening the door to a new era. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is starting to eat SEO’s lunch and is the next frontier for brand integration, offering a greater ability for users to personalize their music experience.YouTube Takes The Crown: Maybe it was self declared, but the 20th anniversary of YouTube campaign sealed the deal that YouTube is more powerful than cable television and the biggest platform in the game for content.Ideas That Spread, Win: The #1 metric in the attention economy is how shareable the idea is. “Influencers” aren’t paid to post, they are paid to create posts that are shared.M&A Is Starting To Happen, IPOs are Coming Next: Dealmakers are adopting a cautious approach due to market volatility and geopolitical uncertainties. The first two months of the year saw the slowest M&A activity in over two decades, with only 1,172 deals worth $226.8bn. But with big deals like Poppi Soda, Niantic Labs, Napster, and Google buying Wiz in the past few weeks, the tides are finally starting to shift. There are big IPOs coming from Discord, StubHub, and Klarna, to name a few in the news.Live Albums are Back In Fashion: Listening to a studio album is less exciting, less raw, and less real than the live album experience. Live concert albums are heating up again.SXSW & CES Are No Longer Where The Trends Begin: But they are still a great place to get out of the house for a few days, if that’s what you’re looking for.LinkedIn FTW: This has quickly become my favorite platform for connection, storytelling, networking, content, and to cheer on my peers. LinkedIn is in fashion and an underutilized resource for artists, creators, and the music industry.Sobriety: I never thought I’d see sobriety championed like it is now. This was Kendrick’s quarter with the Grammy’s sweep, the most watched Super Bowl performance of all time, and his in-house creative agency winning Fast Company’s Most Innovative Company in Music, all as he gears up for a massive tour. But what was most striking to me was the understory that he has never smoked or drank in his life. Meanwhile, massive party DJ John Summit has been chronicling his sober touring life and loving it. This is a big wave in pop culture. Cue Athletic Brew being big at festivals this year after announcing their partnerships with Live Nation. Watch out for the hashtag Soberchella this April in Indio.This trend report is more of a gut feeling than our typical offering. We do stew deep in the data and bring a different version of our trends & insights for clients on a weekly basis. The trends aren’t always your friends, but it’s beneficial to have the lay of the landscape. Hit me up if you want to discuss that service.What’s on the horizon for Q2? Record Store Day, festival season, Wrestlemania, F1, Possible, Frieze, Tribeca Film Festival, NY Music Month, and a whole slew of eagerly anticipated album releases and brand campaigns. Polymarket is an interesting world if you want to see probabilities and possibilities in action.Now it’s your turn: what did I miss?
BEATS
5 Reasons Why Live Music Stays Thriving During RecessionsRecession talk is getting louder across Wall Street. But even if the US slips into full-fledged economic downturn, one industry is well-positioned to weather the storm: live music (Business Insider).
Spotify Debuts ‘Concerts Near You’ Playlists For Discovering Nearby Shows The playlist, titled “Concerts Near You,” is updated every Wednesday with 30 songs from artists performing nearby, along with full event details and ticket links. Spotify partners with ticketing platforms like AXS, DICE, Eventbrite, and Ticketmaster (TechCrunch).
Jonascon Celebrates the Launch of the Jonas Brothers’ Massive Jonas20: Living the Dream TourOne-day fan event Jonascon celebrated the Jonas Brothers’ legacy and the launch of their massive Jonas20: Living the Dream tour, kicking off in August (Digital Music News).
How ZYN is Championing New Music in the UKZYN’s nicotine pouches offer something genuinely useful for adult festival and gig-goers who smoke or vape – the ability to consume nicotine in a discreet way without impacting others. Just place a small pouch under your lip, and you’re sorted. No smoke, no vapour and no equipment (Rolling Stone).
Hip-Hop To Take Over Street (Signs) In MiamiAccording to The Miami Herald, a proposal by District 3 Commissioner Keon Hardemon to the Miami-Dade County Commission was approved March 18 to rename several streets in Liberty City after some Miami hip-hop legends’ song titles and/or phrases from recognizable songs (Black Enterprise).
Timbaland’s AI Reinvention: ‘God Presented This Tool to Me’Labels and artists have lined up against AI music — but the legendary producer is convinced it’s the future (Rolling Stone).
Music Revenues Rise Again In 2024, Boosted By Streaming Subscriptions, Report ShowsSubscription streaming boosted global recorded music revenues for a tenth straight year in 2024, by 4.8% to $29.6 billion, an industry group said on Wednesday, while urging policymakers to protect artists from copyright threats by artificial intelligence developers (Reuters).
Margo Price's New Signature Gibson Guitar Was Inspired by This 'Good Omen' She Frequently EncountersThe "Hurtin' (On the Bottle)" singer, 41, recently unveiled a stunning new collaboration with Gibson which reinterprets their iconic J-45 model with some truly personal motifs. But to Price, her journey with the iconic instrument manufacturer began long before the brand tapped her for a signature guitar (People).
Did Playboi Carti Finally Drop Music Because He’d Already Sold the Merch?To the delight of hip-hop fans (and the chagrin of middle-school teachers) everywhere, the wildly popular Atlanta rapper Playboi Carti dropped his long-awaited third album, simply titled Music, last week—his first official project since 2020’s Whole Lotta Red (GQ).
Charli XCX: The Pop Star moving into ActingCharli XCX is proving she’s more than just a pop star—she’s building an empire. Fresh off the success of her ‘Brat Summer’ era, which reportedly pulled in a staggering $10 million, Charli is now making her mark in the film industry with her newly launched production company, Studio365 (CEO Today).
New Partnership Between UMG + Heat Will Bring Lil Wayne Music to Game DevelopersFirst announced at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, the partnership will offer game devs the ability to seamlessly license emotes into their projects. Think of Fortnite’s character feature packs—Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, and Travis Scott have all been featured (Digital Music News).
Wrangler Celebrates Stagecoach Partnership With Pre-Festival SaleStagecoach Country Music Festival has announced its official denim partner: Wrangler. Included in the savings event is the Wrangler x Staud collection, the denim manufacturer’s buzzy collaboration with the celebrity-coveted L.A. lifestyle brand (Hollywood Reporter).
In Warning Sign for Hollywood, Younger Consumers Are Choosing Creator Content Over Premium TV and MoviesA new Deloitte study shows that Gen Zers are choosing social and creator-driven content over big-budget entertainment, as consumers overall feel a price pinch over streaming (Hollywood Reporter).
A Record 100 Million Americans Now Pay For A Music Subscription — Is Streaming The Final Format For Fans?Just last week, Spotify announced that it paid the music industry $10 billion in royalties across 2024, in what the company said was the biggest annual payout from a single retailer in history. Now, new data from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) shows that the relationship between streamers and the music business is very much a two-way street (Sherwood).
A Decade of Tokenization Experiments in MusicOriginal Works aims to revolutionize music royalty payments through blockchain technology, addressing decade-old industry inefficiencies with a registry that enables faster payments, clear ownership verification, and access to advances without surrendering IP rights (TL;DR).
STATS
"Build It Up": How TikTok’s 'Residuals Challenge’ Is Helping Shape Chris Brown’s Next Big Hit 2024 marked a standout year for R&B and hip-hop. According to Luminate’s 2024 year-end report, R&B/Hip-Hop led all genres in on-demand audio (ODA) streaming volume, accounting for more than one in every four U.S. streams. While the genre's overall share of ODA streams declined by 1.7 percentage points compared to 2023, early indicators in 2025 suggest a renewed momentum—particularly for R&B—driven by social platforms like TikTok. This resurgence is gaining traction as Q1 of 2025 wraps up, fueled by the viral “Residuals Challenge,” an open-verse trend centered around Chris Brown’s emotional ballad “Residuals” from the deluxe edition of his Grammy-winning album 11:11.
BYTES
Music and Brands! Jesse Kirshbaum, CEO of Nue Agency, reveals how companies can leverage music to create deeper consumer connections. Drawing from his experience at the intersection of music, technology, and brand marketing, Jesse shares insights on creating authentic partnerships that deliver exponential results. Learn why music is a universal connector and discover practical strategies for measuring ROI beyond traditional metrics.
More than 25 years ago after throwing the music industry into disarray, Napster is being purchased for $207 million. The acquirer is Infinite Reality, which plans to create virtual 3D spaces that allow music fans to enjoy concerts or listening parties together (CNBC).
Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco are teaming up to celebrate the release of their new joint album, I Said I Love You First, with an exciting collaboration with Linktree. The album, set to drop on Friday, March 21, is already generating buzz, and this partnership gives fans an exclusive way to connect with the artists and get involved in the album rollout (What’s Trending)
Benson Boone, Ivan Cornejo, Megan Moroney, and Rema star in this year’s Future of Music special, and the Future 25 list runs through the artists who have us most excited now — from a U.K. rock band to a South Korean girl group to Atlanta’s hottest rapper to a party-starting duo from Argentina to an unforgettable voice from Nigeria, and much more. Plus: How musicians are using AI like never before.
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!