June is New York Music Month, the official citywide celebration of New York City’s music industry, artists, and fans. This new tradition brought on by the De Blasio administration provides a great time to shine a spotlight on NYC’s music scene.As their press release reads - "Organized to coincide with other major NYC music events in June, the month’s calendar boasts both public and industry facing events, including Governor’s Ball, the Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, the National Music Publishers Association Annual Meeting, A2IM Indie Week, the Northside Festival, Live Nation’s Ford Amphitheater series at Coney Island, SummerStage and BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival opening weekends, and many more!”June started off with a bang at Governor’s Ball this weekend. It’s always one of my favorite festivals of the year and once again it lives up to the hype although, I will say the crowd seems to keep aging younger or maybe I just keep getting older or both. Chatted with so many friends old and new & saw some great performances (photos by the talented, Setor Tsikudo) including the world premiere of Mark Ronson and Diplo’s new DJ duo, Silk City. The weather is always hit or miss in June in NYC and lucky for my friends at Founders the weather gods were mostly in their favor and they pulled through it with flying colors and a completely sold out extravaganza.This weekend is Summer Jam… the biggest hip-hop show of the year! You never know what’s going to happen and with all of this great new music dropping, you can only bet who will show up.It’s exciting to see a reason for NYC to celebrate the music scene. I’ve been feeling like with the death of CMJ New York is would benefit from yet another great music conference. This will have to do for now. Come hang out, connect, support the music community and join the conversations. Here are some of the events I’m speaking at over the next few weeks. I’m happy to invite you. RSVP below or drop me an email and let me know you want to come kick it!June 6 - Northside Innovation Festival — I go on at 4 pm and discussing Tech and the Next Golden Age of Music.June 7 - Doing a live podcast talk with Honey Pie: Music Industry SessionJune 12 - Nue Sounds at Soho House (RSVP @ [email protected])June 13 - Beats, Bytes & Beta powered by Belaire Rose - Discussing innovation in Summer Festivals
BEATS
Apple Music Launches Global Publishing DivisionTo better manage its relationships with music publishers, Apple has launched a new music publishing division that will be led by longtime legal and licensing specialist Elena Segal, an Apple rep tells Billboard. (Billboard)
Spotify Officially Scraps "Hateful Conduct" PolicySpotify has officially walked back the ‘hateful conduct’ policy, which is believed to have originally been the brainchild of its public affairs boss Jonathan Prince. However, the firm has stood by a provision, introduced at the same time, which will see music containing ‘hateful content’ – ie. lyrics which incite hate – removed from its service. (MBW)
Sony Music & Jonathan Master Partner for SamePlate Joint Venture: ExclusiveSony Music Entertainment and former Empire A&R/marketing entrepreneur Jonathan Master are partnering in a new joint venture, SamePlate. Master will head the New York-based imprint whose staff includes vp, operations Alex Ciccimarro. (Gail Mitchell – Billboard)
Why Brands Should Be Using Facial RecognitionBrands are always looking for ways to make their advertisements more engaging. Well, what’s more engaging than having the customer play a central role in the advertisement? (Jean Yap-McNamara – AdWeek)
Musical.ly is singing a remix to advertisers. After being acquired by Chinese media company Bytedance last November, the lip-syncing app is stepping up its ad sales effort in a push to attract more ad dollars beyond small influencer-based campaigns. Representatives from Musical.ly have met with ad agencies over the last few weeks to discuss three ad products, which they described as formalizing its pitch. (Kerry Flynn –Digiday)
Ticketfly, Major Venues Still Offline 2 Days After Hack, Ransom Demand [UPDATE 3]For more than 50+ hours and in the midst of a busy Spring concert weekend, Ticketfly and the sites of the major venues and promoters it services have been offline. Ticketfly, which is owned by Eventbrite, was hacked before 6 AM ET Thursday and went offline with the tweet: "To protect our clients and fans, and to secure the website and related data, we have temporarily taken all Ticketfly systems offline." (Hypebot)
Drake and Pusha's Feud Proves the Internet Has Changed Diss Tracks ForeverOf all the fascinating tidbits—embarrassing old photos, ruined sneaker deals, secret children—to have emerged during the Pusha-T/Drake beef, perhaps nothing is quite so interesting as the pressure put on both participants to respond quickly to the latest insult. (Shawn Setaro – Complex)
Soundcloud CEO Kerry Trainor: 'We're In a Much Clearer Place Now.'This time last year, SoundCloud was in hot water. Having posted yet another hefty annual loss ($82m) in 2016, the streaming platform spent the summer of 2017 simply trying to survive – cutting 40% of its worldwide headcount and closing offices in London and San Francisco in order to stay afloat. (Tim Ingham – MBW)
Pop, Passion and Enemas: How Online Forums Created a New Musical CultureMusic attracts conversation like a magnet pulls iron filings, and the form that talk takes changes according to where music lovers hang out with one another. Milk bars in the 50s; “head shops”, fuggy student digs and record stores in the 60s and 70s; fanzines in the 80s and 90s. These days, the word gets spread via memes, like those earnest pleas for 10 Facebook friends to share their favourite teenage albums. And in the early 00s, there were music forums: Drowned in Sound, my own I Love Music, Barbelith, Dissensus, Hipinion and dozens of others, fierce little enclaves of snark, in-jokes and bubbling enthusiasm. (Tom Ewing – The Guardian)
iOS 12: Everything You Need To Know About New iPhone FeaturesApple has unveiled all the new features heading to iPhones and iPads at its developer conference in San Francisco on Monday, including speed boost for even older devices, improved privacy and a host of new features. (Samuel Gibbs – The Guardian)
BYTES
At Recode's 2018 Code Conference, Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka interview Spotify's CEO Daniel Ek on working with music labels, Spotify's direct-listing IPO and taking R. Kelly's music off the platform.
Spring is in full bloom, and in New York there's something else in the air: In parks and gardens, on boardwalks and street-corners, pianos are popping up like wildflowers.
Create your own YE album cover
Black Thought & 9th Wonder return with "Streams Of Thoughts."Lyrical rap will never die, not so long as Black Thought remains in the fold. The sheer prowess of this man's vernacular is unparalleled (though Aesop Rock proves a worthy challenger).
This week's newsletter was carefully curated by the Nue Agency staff and our editor Maria Tejada If you think we missed something this week or have any suggestions/comments for next week's newsletter, let us know!