It’s Advertising Week in New York, so you can imagine how busy it is. It feels like every brand marketer in the game is in town. Everyone has their agenda and is pushing their current platform or thesis. I'm listening, taking notes and, of course, hustling on behalf of our clients.But it feels like music is way undervalued -- and definitely underrepresented -- in the conversations this week. At Nue, we believe that every brand should have a music strategy. That clearly is not the case. Advertising Week’s official programming barely touches on the power of music and all of its impactful verticals.There’s no question that having a robust music and culture strategy makes a brand stronger. Since these spaces are consistently underleveraged, there is a big opportunity here. Unfortunately, there is no clear way to create a music strategy that works across all of the DSPs, labels, and agencies.Sure, you can call Spotify and get a music strategy that works on Spotify or dial something in for one major labor or a specific talent agency. But how can brands easily buy into a robust strategy that is transparent and all-encompassing in the always-expanding music space?Drake himself can sell out basketball arenas, yet the brand money invested in music pales in comparison to what is poured into the NBA. That’s dissonance. It’s a lot easier and cleaner for a brand to invest in the NBA or All-Star Weekend than in Drake or OVO but music, in my opinion, is more impactful than basketball. That, too, is dissonance.Part of the problem is labels not recognizing the tremendous value in brand partnerships. Their brand businesses are growing but still represent a small piece of overall revenue. They remain focused, too focused perhaps, on hit records and recorded music. I think their respect level will grow as a system is built that more easily funnels brand dollars into music, the impact of which will make a clearer mark on their bottom lines.We need a programmatic solution. We’re constantly batting ideas around and would love to hear your thoughts. Let’s keep the conversation flowing so together we can fill this value vacuum.
BEATS
Will Tencent’s Hunger to Own the Music Business Stop at Universal and Spotify?The music-streaming company may be trying to own the international music business in China by accumulating minority stakes in the most powerful music-related companies in the U.S. and Europe. (Rolling Stone)
The Future of Music: A Vision of Post-FormatFormats have shaped and dictated the evolution of recorded music. The constraints that formats set have, in turn, become the creative frameworks within which music has operated. Now, in the internet era, formats are becoming a thing of the past – and yet the way in which music is made and distributed still conforms to the old physical world. It is time for a change in how we think about music, right from the creation process through to what a song actually sounds like. Here is a vision for what the future of music could be. (Music Industry News)
Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Acts 2019: Kanye Tops Jay-Z To Claim CrownBack in 2007, Kanye West released a song called “Big Brother”—an ode to Jay-Z. Indeed, catching on with the mogul’s Roc-A-Fella Records two decades ago was West’s first big break. Jay-Z even had a hand in coining West’s nickname, Yeezy, which now graces his eponymous shoe line with Adidas. (Forbes)
How Megan Thee Stallion Grew Her FanbaseHot girl semester is officially in session. Megan Thee Stallion is in her final year at Texas Southern University. After graduation, she plans to use her healthcare administration degree to launch assisted-living facilities in Texas. “You got your people taking care of your people… this is what I’m gonna do,” she told Vulture in April. (Trapital)
A Track’s Journey through PlaylistsArtists and their teams understandably have many playlist performance questions:“Given the current status of my track, what are the best playlists to target?”“Given that my track got added to Breaking R&B on Apple Music, what other playlists usually happens to tracks on Breaking R&B around the same time?”“Given that my track is currently on Hits of the Moment on Deezer, what are the odds of it getting on Les titres du moment?” (ChartMetric)
Pop's need for speed: 'You Have To Drop New Stuff Constantly'The music industry in 2019, says Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis, could be compared to a Pez dispenser. He is not talking about big heads – rather, the seemingly endless, instantly gratifying stream of new songs that drop each week, like tiny pieces of Pez candy. (The Guardian)
Every Artist Manager Should Master These SkillsWhen you say the words “music manager”, I no longer have any idea what you’re talking about. Because the thing is, the role of music management has changed so much over the last 5-10 years—this is especially true for managers that work with emerging artists. The roles are constantly varying. (Symphonic Distribution)
6 Ways To Make A Career In Music TechnologyOne of the big draws about being interested in music gear and production is that – from the very outside, at least – it looks like a fairly exciting gig. You’re making music with banks of bits of hardware and tonnes of plug-ins and it looks like quite a fun hobby. The trouble is, though, for many of us, it’s just that: a hobby. An expensive, time-consuming, gear-hoarding, divorce-baiting one at that. (Music Tech)
How Odd Future’s Tumblr Tore Up The Rules Of Music MarketingWhether it was their lo-fi musicality, reckless humour, or their DIY aesthetic – for which demonic cats and Earl Sweatshirt’s indifferent glare were logos for t-shirts – in their early days Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All were proudly out-of-sync with the rest of hip-hop culture. (The Face)
Sonic BrandingBrands are increasingly spotlighting unique and bespoke sounds in their campaigns and activations.Whether it reflects the phenomenal rise of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response)—the spine-tingling sensation caused by hearing certain sounds—or the quest for yet another medium through which to define a product, distinctive sound is becoming an important part of brands’ repertoires. (The Fader)
The New Consumer Gatekeepers: Inside the Hidden Power Of The DJ Industry 2.0Music is such a common element in our everyday lives that we often lose track of the vital role it plays in deeply connecting people. Back in the day, the main bridge for such connection was that of the DJ, whether via radio or at a party. Yet even with the advent of streaming technology, social media and more, somehow the DJ not only still plays extremely vital parts as both disseminator of music and overall tastemaker but is now increasingly playing a stealth and impressive role in driving actual consumer sales in real time. (Forbes)
DIY Radio App Stationhead Now Lets Users Record and Archive BroadcastsLast month, Vic Mensa accepted DJ Miss Milan's offer to drop by Stationhead headquarters in Brooklyn and appear on her do-it-yourself streaming broadcast. For 45 minutes, they discussed his punk project with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, his Chicago upbringing and his fondness for Caribbean accents. But you can't listen to the show. Nobody can. It's lost to history. (Billboard)
Spotlight: Forest Hills' Becca Leifer Keeps the Stadium Lights On, Under Any CircumstancesOn any given night, Becca Leifer juggles as many tasks as there are fingers on her hands. At a recent concert at Forest Hills Stadium, where she’s assistant general manager, Leifer collaborated with the local New York Police Department precinct to navigate two Ubers through complex street barricades surrounding the venue at showtime, before persuading the non-English-speaking drivers to wait an unexpected extra two hours for the headlining artist to be ready to leave (“Not naming any names,”) (Billboard)
Human vs. Algorithmic RecommendationsI grew up listening to 97.7 WOXY in Oxford, Ohio. I’d tape my favorite shows and make mix tapes dubbing one tape to another. DJs would tell you what was coming before the commercial break and I’d time the 2 minute commercial break and *hit record* at exactly the right time to preserve the 30 mins I had per side of a cassette. There was an art to creating mixtapes. The DJs were people you could trust. (Medium)
How The Man Behind K-Pop Sensation BTS Is Reinventing The Music BusinessBig Hit Entertainment founder and co-CEO Bang Si-Hyuk may be best known in the music world for creating Korean boy band BTS in 2013, but his ambitions stretch far beyond building K-pop sensations. In addition to producing music and managing bands, Big Hit, which reported a revenue of profit of more than $52 million on sales of about $175 million in fiscal 2018, is pushing into technology. (Fast Company)
Music Listening In 2019: 10 Takeaways From The IFPI’s New ReportGlobal music-industry body the IFPI has published its latest ‘Music Listening’ report, for 2019, based on a survey of 34,000 people in 21 countries. Whereas the body’s annual Global Music Report focuses on revenues, this study is all about people’s music habits: how much they’re streaming and buying music; what devices they’re doing it on; and whether they’re still getting it from unlicensed sources at least some of the time. (Musically)
BYTES
Hosted by Elliott Wilson and Brian 'B.Dot' Miller, Rap Radar is the home of hip-hop’s most revealing interviews. Both Wilson and Miller are true journalists who do an immense amount of research, know how to listen and are driven to get the answers to the questions hip-hop fans want to know.
Veteran music executives Kevin Liles and Lyor Cohen open up about their work running Def Jam and 300 Entertainment and working with a roster including Jay Z, Beastie Boys, RUN DMC, A Tribe Called Quest, Ja Rule, Mariah Carey and Public Enemy. The executives also tackle issues of class, race, gender, technology and the challenges of balancing business and art in the latest episode of “Mavericks with Ari Melber,” a series of interviews with artists, musicians and cultural icons.
You can host your own radio station from your phone - about anything - at any time. You decide what you say & what you play.
Buzzy singer/songwriter, CAL has released the official video for his new single “So Cal”. Featuring Google Earth’s 3D imagery, the video takes viewers on an aerial tour throughout picturesque Los Angeles, the city that inspired the song.
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!