You can’t beat summer weekends in New York, especially when friends, family, and great music are in town. Panorama might have been pounded by thunder and lighting on Friday afternoon, washing away The Weekend, Dua Lipa, and Father John Misty, but we all know summer festivals are a big gamble. Luckily, Sunday’s weather was on point, so I headed out to Randall’s Island.My first stop was a Panorama staple, The Lab, a multimedia experience sponsored by HP and produced by my buddy JB over at Meta. I saw mind-blowing visuals paired with spiritual soundtracks from St. Vincent and ODESZA. I also finally got to see one of my all-time favorites, David Byrne, and even pow-wowed with his bassist after their set (FULL DISCLOSURE: I geeked out a little). The Killers shut sh*t down with “Mr. Brightside” to close out the weekend and everyone left in high spirits, the rainouts all but forgotten.The highlight of my weekend, though, was my brother Alex’s surprise birthday party at Zac Brown Band on Saturday night. What a stadium show that band puts on! But what made it really special was seeing the beautiful people in Alex’s life together in one place. It was a surprise party orchestrated by his wife, and catching up with all of our close friends reminded me just how many amazing times and important events share one red thread: music.Music is the backdrop of our ups and downs, it connects us when we’re in different places and points in our lives, and it’s the DNA of the cultural landscape we inhabit. In that moment at Citi Field, it all clicked; I realized just how lucky I am to work in this business, doing something I love so dearly with people I care so much about. It was clearer to me than ever before that the red thread of life’s adventures -- music -- will continue to spread and create impactful memories for us all.Or maybe it was the drugs ;)
BEATS
Spotify: 7 Things You Need to Know About The Company's Financial Health and It's Q2 Results The MBW Review offers our take on some of the music biz’s biggest recent goings-on. This time, we take the magnifying glass to Spotify’s earnings call today (July 26) to get a flavor of how the company is equipping itself against some tough competition in the marketplace. The MBW Review is supported by Instrumental. (Tim Ingham – MBW)
Troy Carter to Leave Spotify in SeptemberTroy Carter, who has served as Spotify's global head of creator services since June 2016, will be leaving the company in early September, Spotify confirmed today (July 30). Following his departure, Carter will remain as an advisor with the world's largest streaming service. (Dan Rys – Billboard)
Pop Music Eats Itself: A&R is Facing a Data Driven CrisisIt is no secret that data now drives who gets signed, with record labels chasing stats in search of the next streaming friendly hit. But analyst Mark Mulligan and some label execs are wondering how music can evolve when A&R is a reflection of current trends rather than as a tastemaker; and how an out of the box music can find a place with an increasingly closed loop of statistics. (Hypebot)
In an era of constant behavioral transformation, increasing marketing complexity and absurd political theater, tapping into the wisdom of the crowd can often help to provide a calming source of inspiration for even the most progressive brand marketers. (Gian LaVecchia – AdWeek)
Artists With Longevity Are Like Athletes – They Always Want to See How They Can Get BetterIt’s a good time to be Joie Manda. In the first half of 2018, the Interscope Geffen A&M EVP oversaw the release of a landmark album by his friend, J. Cole – KOD – which shattered US streaming records on both Apple Music and Spotify. (Tim Ingham – MBW)
The Death of Don DraperAdvertising, once a creative industry, is now a data-driven business reliant on algorithms. The implications are deeply sinister – not only for the consumer but for democracy itself. (Ian Leslie – NewStatesment)
You Don’t Need to Be a Musician to Get a Record Deal in 2018With streaming services and other digital platforms spewing out so much real-time data on rising artists, record labels are getting creative with what that “potential” looks like. Take the case of Bhad Bhabie. In 2016, a Dr. Phil interview with Florida teenager Danielle Bregoli went viral, spurring that teenager’s seemingly out-of-nowhere rap career – which grew into an Atlantic Records record deal and several hundred million streams. (Elias Leight – Rollingstone)
How Music Has Responded to a Decade of Economic InequalityCulture, especially popular culture, always has some relation to the conditions that surround it, and these days, there is no shortage of music that reflects our economic reality. But that reflection isn’t always quite what you’d expect. During the Great Depression, which saw widespread homelessness and US unemployment reaching 25 percent, popular films showed the very rich drinking cocktails in formal dress; cheery songs like “Pennies From Heaven” charted. And in the post-2008 decade of recession, instability, and income inequality, blockbuster acts spent a lot of time telling us the incredible time they were having. (Scott Timberg – Vox)
Why This Music Industry Expert Predicts a New York RenaissanceFrom pop producers to indie rock bands, it seems like everyone in the music industry has been moving to L.A. or Nashville. In fact, it's been difficult to find anyone at all willing to defend staying in the Big Apple. Fortunately, I met Jenna Rubenstein who heads up Insieme Music Publishing, an arm of Glassnote Entertainment Group. She walked me through her New York background, and how she turns songwriter demos into Grammy-nominated radio hits. She talked quickly and with authority on all things music publishing, and I hung onto every word. (Danny Ross – Forbes )
YouTube Expands Music CreditsYouTube seems to be working harder to give credit to those artists and publishers featured in their videos by not only providing details related to the featured content, but also links to its official source, all made possible by YouTube's metadata rich Content ID system. (Hypebot)
How The Global Music Copyright Business Grew by $1.5BN in 2016 (and Why That's Amazing News Today)What is the entire music industry actually worth? Such a seemingly simple question went without an answer for years until I published analysis, via Music Business Worldwide, in 2015 and 2016. Better late than never: now we can present the latest analysis for calendar year 2016. (MBW)
'The Discourse is Unhinged': How the Media Gets AI Alarmingly WrongSocial media has allowed self-proclaimed ‘AI influencers’ who do nothing more than paraphrase Elon Musk to cash in on this hype with low-quality pieces. The result is dangerous. (Oscar Schwartz – The Guardian)
Is the Era of Hotel-Trashing Rock Stars Over?In more recent times, as the idea of rock star hotel mayhem has further hardened into a cliché, artists have taken the songwriting concept of hotel-as-metaphor to places simultaneously surreal and hilariously mundane. (Larry Fitzmaurice – Pitchfork)
Everfest Launches Cross-Festival Rewards ProgramThe pilot program will feature C3 Presents festivals including Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza. Festival editorial and membership platform Everfest is launching a rewards program for festival-goers. The platform will allow fans to earn points on their purchases across festivals similar to the way Fandango provides special offers for movie tickets. (Taylor Mims – Billboard)
Beauty Is in the Eye of These BeholdersThousands of cat-eyed, contoured-cheeked, glitter-doused women — and more than a few painted men — descended on the 347,000-square-foot South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center earlier this month, gathering at the makeup mecca that is Beautycon. For two days, as they wandered among more than 200 elaborately festooned booths sponsored by brands like Maybelline and Lime Crime, they searched for samples and stars. (Elizabeth Holmes – The New York Times)
BYTES
In this age of streaming, the road to number one can be pretty insane. Myles and Olivia attempt to bust some chart myths with the help of iHeartMedia's Chief Programming Officer Tom Poleman. His answers about what makes a radio smash might blow your mind. Recorded at Red Bull Arts in Manhattan.
Tame Impala released a song with the mysterious electronic producer ZHU called “My Life” back in March. Now there’s a video, starring Willow Smith as the survivor of a car crash. She leaves the scene to find help, and wanders into a series of pleasant memories involving old friends and sunny days at the skate park. It’s a fitting accompaniment to the bittersweet dance track.
A free utility for Windows or Mac that lets you align your music, movies, or gaming with your lighting setup.
“1997 DIANA” and “DON’T BE FAMOUS” are the newest tracks from the group’s release spree
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!