There’s a famous Warren Buffet quote that had me stumped for a while: ”The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” Far be it from me to question The Oracle of Omaha, but I think there are exceptions to this rule. That’s why by the time you read this, I’ll be deep in Israel on what’s touted as the tech trip of a lifetime. Sometimes, when the right opportunity presents itself, you just say yes. Maybe it’s a matter of moment. In entertainment, your job at the outset is to say yes to pretty much everything. As you or your artist develops, eventually becoming successful and then, hopefully, very successful, you say yes less and less. But when I got accepted to the Emerging REALITY leadership trek across the Holy Land -- even though it's the middle of summer deal-hunting season and I’m neck-deep in exciting projects -- I said YES! Now here I am: completely unplugged, surrounded by new people, creating energy and opportunity that is unique to this experience. I’ll come home a richer, more knowledgeable marketer. I’ll come home a broader complete thinker. I’ll come home a more cultured man. That’s the power of yes.
BEATS
Sonos Files to Raise Up to $100M in IPOSmart speaker maker Sonos has filed to go public.In the filing, the company says it’s aiming to raise up to $100 million in the IPO. However, that number may simply be a placeholder, or it could change as the IPO approaches. (Anthony Ha – TechCrunch)
Back To The (Analog) Future – Vinyl’s Revival is Strengthened With Sensory MarketingAs youth start (Ana)Logging Off in an effort to mitigate the effects of digital overload, brands are taking notice. Best Buy recently announced it would no longer sell CDs, yet will continue carrying vinyl records based on the category’s 12 straight years of increasing sales. Other brands are combining this vinyl-specific analog resurgence with sensory marketing to facilitate emotional experiences that resonate with young consumers.(Cassandra)
Founded in 2015, Stem.is is a unique digital aggregator which submits your music to all major streaming services and, unlike most other digital aggregators, has a more streamlined payment process, meaning you and your collaborators can earn royalties with fewer accounting hassles. (Hypebot)
Tencent Music Is About to File for a $30 Billion IPOThe Chinese streaming giant’s IPO will be underwritten by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and valued between $29 billion and $31 billion, according to Chinese tech site TechNode. Give or take a billion. (Paul Resnikoff – Digital Music News)
Billboard Finalizes Changes to How Streams Are Weighted for Billboard Hot 100 & Billboard 200Beginning with the first week of Nielsen’s third quarter of 2018 (sales and streaming week of June 29 to July 5, which will be reflected on Billboard charts dated July 14), plays on paid subscription-based services (such as Apple Music and Amazon Music) or on the paid subscription tiers of hybrid paid/ad-supported platforms (such as Spotify and SoundCloud) will be given more weight in chart calculations than plays on ad-supported services (such as YouTube) or on the non-paid tiers of hybrid paid/ad-supported services. (Billboard)
How Instagram and YouTube Help Underground Hip-hop Artists and Tastemakers Find Huge AudiencesToday, with hip-hop having surpassed rock as the most popular music genre, its independent media tastemakers have experienced a commensurate rise in popularity. This is partially due to the social media savvy and innate self-promotional streak of its stars, but it’s also a byproduct of the whims of fans. For every Lil Yachty or Post Malone that comes up squarely within the confines of the major label system, there is a Tay-K or 6ix9ine, Soundcloud superstars, whose court cases and controversies fuel their meteoric rise but who are often treated as persona non grata by mainstream publications. (Jeff Weiss – LA Times)
The Problem with MuzakThe music world continues to be exceedingly vulnerable, and there are looming questions that desperately need to be addressed. Most important: How can artists distribute and sell their work in a digital economy beholden to ruthlessly commercial and centralized interests? (Liz Pelly – The Baffler)
How Toyota’s Investment in Music Festivals Continues to Pay OffIt’s one thing to find your target audience at (what some might call) a niche event like a music festival that can draw attendance numbers of 50,000-plus for some of the more popular events (like Life Is Beautiful or Stagecoach). Toyota has always wanted to connect with younger consumers through music and festivals but wanted to find a partnership that would allow the brand to connect with even more music lovers. (Katie Richards – AdWeek)
Best Buy, Winding Down CD Sales, Pounds Another Nail Into The Format's Coffin What's especially interesting is the fact that Best Buy was at one time the largest music retailer in the United States, often using the latest CD releases as loss-leaders to get people into the store to buy higher-priced hardware. But everything evolves and as the music business headed full-steam towards digital, physical product lost favor with consumers for the cheaper and more convenient digital formats of downloads at first, and now streaming. With the CD division of the giant retailer bringing in only $40 million of the company's $4.2 billion in revenue last year, it makes sense to relegate the valuable floor space that CDs occupied to other more profitable products. (Bobby Owsinski – Forbes)
5 Tips for Integrating Audio Into a Marketing Strategy As music streaming, podcasts, audiobooks, smart speakers, connected cars and voice assistants have caught the public’s attention, the amount of audio-friendly content space is multiplying by the minute. To plant a seed in this growing ecosystem, brands need a comprehensive strategy for navigating the flourishing mediums that rely on sound, music and voice. (Mikko Matikka – AdWeek)
Dire Predictions Aside, GDPR Didn’t Kill Ad Retargeting (It’s Growing) Six weeks after the arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation, spending on retargeting is rising, according to several advertising executives. In the case of three of those executives, who all spoke to Digiday on condition of anonymity, brands cut spend on prospecting campaigns but continued to retarget ads in the wake of the regulation being enforced. (Seb Joseph – DigiDay)
YouTube Trends of the Moment for Savvy Advertisers, June 2018 For brands, relevancy means tapping into modern culture. And modern culture unfolds daily on YouTube. In this second installment of “YouTube Trends of the Moment for Savvy Advertisers,” Earnest Pettie—a YouTube trends analyst who spots videos piquing viewers’ interests—shares three kinds of videos trending now and the insights they reveal. (Earnest Pettie – AdWeek)
BYTES
Hosted by Myles Tanzer and Olivia Craighead, FADER Explains is a weekly podcast about all of the secrets of the music industry. Season 1 is about all about the infamous "song of the summer."
Diplo is the subject of a new mini documentary called Florida to California. Directed by Kyle dePinna, who’s also shot videos for Major Lazer, the 8-minute video traces the producer’s history from his early roots in Miami through his time at Temple University in Philadelphia and eventual home in Los Angeles, where he gained his reputation as a producer.
AmpMe allows you to turn your friends into a portable speaker system. Stream music or videos from YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud or your own Music Library, to play the same music or video at the same time on multiple devices.
DJ Jazzy Jeff & MICK Summertime Playlist.
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!