REWIND: The new music industry’s week in reviewIt was a busy week by any definition, and the music industry was no exception with the launch of a new superfan app called “EVEN,” ShowUp announced its yearly activism. Continue reading
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OPPS: CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL MUSIC COMPETITION AND FESTIVALWe are thrilled to announce that the 7th Chicago International Music Competition and Festival will take place from July 17 to 25, 2024 in Chicago, USA. Musicians from all over the world are encouraged to apply and participate at Ganz Hall for a chance at $35,000 in total prize money. Our competition provides young musicians with the most unique and affordable platform to learn from the world's top artists and be immersed in an inspiring environment. Deadline for competition entry is April 15, 2024. Apply at https://www.cimcusa.org/index.mhtml

Taylor Swift has a laudable history of standing up to Big Tech in the name of artist compensation. By embracing TikTok in 2024, she’s broken ranks with that narrative.When Swift grappled with Apple in 2015, she noted that the fight was "not about me" – it was about other artists. The TikTok situation is the exact opposite.
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Many radio stations actually helped to form
a sense of taste as well as clubs. Record labels are cutting their radio 📻 promotion. What's next? #MusicBusiness

From Taylor Swift’s return to TikTok to Spotify’s move on manipulated audio… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days…
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Spotify to help fans edit, speed up songs and promises to pay artistsAccording to a new WSJ report, Spotify will add tools that allow fans to speed up, mash-up, and edit songs without prior permission.....
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Will you actively support WIN’s Global Values for Independent Music?Music trade group WIN (Worldwide Independent Network) has announced a new set of Global Independent Values as part of its ongoing campaign to unify and clarify the sector's positions.....
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Last Minute Tax Advice for Musicians and SongwritersThe federal tax filing deadline in the US is this coming Monday, April 15th, so this week's Hypebot Flashback Friday post offers links to three articles that offer practical advice.....
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Can’t cross the moat? Walk around itThe music business is bifurcating. On one side, a new AI, fandom, and creation centred business is coalescing. On the other, the traditional business is pulling the draw bridge over its moat by pushing up streaming royalty thresholds to ensure the soon-to-explode long tail knows it is not welcome. AI has arrived at just the right time, acting as the change catalyst that will propel the consumerisation of creation to the fore. The news of music AI start up Udio’s $10 million raise is just another piece in the puzzle.

The traditional music business has a long tradition of building moats. The genesis of the recorded music business was the first moat. Until the phonograph, everyone and anyone could be a performer and take part in music. Then suddenly, a business was built around those deemed ‘good enough’ to be able to record. The music business’ moat was thus dug, with the audience on one side and the artists firmly on the other. In later years, the moat was widened with a succession of developments, such as record label marketing budgets, TV appearances, exclusive licensing deals, expensive recording technology, and so forth.

The rise of the creator economy, AI, and consumer creation will probably not drain that moat. High quality music and artists are not going to be replaced – that is simply not the point of AI. Virtual artists are an entirely different proposition (!) but AI and consumer creation open up another, entirely new path. Instead of having to swim across the traditional industry’s century-old moat, this new, parallel movement / industry can, and will, simply walk around it and carve out its own space. This will be a good thing for both sides of the future industry and mirrors what already happens in video.

No one confuses a TikTok short for a Netflix original because they operate in entirely different lanes. Right now, both sides of music occupy the same places (streaming and social). For as long as it was only the long tail of single millions of independent artists, that awkward cohabitation just about worked. But not for much longer. Now, we have tens of millions of creators uploading music to social (but not streaming) and we face the prospect of hundreds of millions of consumer creations, perhaps even a billion, according to Bandlab’s Meng Ru Kuok.

And as much as this consumerisation trend will largely happen outside of the moat, some of it will happen inside it too. Look no further than the reports that Spotify is planning to allow users to modify songs. So, perhaps the demarcation will be modification within the moat and fully fledged creation outside of it.

What is fast approaching in the music industry’s rear view mirror is what MIDiA termed ‘Music’s Instagram Moment’, where making music becomes just as accessible to the average consumer as photos and video are now. Thom Yorke might have uttered the words ‘anyone can play guitar’ but in practice, most people don’t – either because they do not have a guitar or the will to learn. But anyone can write a text prompt. The traditional music industry’s moat kept the accomplished safely clear of the enthusiast. AI changes all of that.

Of course, the counter argument is that all this consumer creation will likely be garbage. But that misses the point. This is not about music as consumption, nor even fandom. It is music as expression and identity. Professional photographers did not look at Kodak and call them merchants of garbage because they enabled millions of consumers to take overly exposed holiday snaps with fingers obscuring the lens. 

The current fear around AI is it creating million stream songs, but that is not the point either. Don’t worry about the one AI track with a million streams, worry about the million AI tracks with one stream.

After all, who is going to listen to all this consumer creation? The friends and family of those who make it.  If each consumer creator has, say, ten people who will listen to what they create, and they make a track a month, that results in 120 streams minimum per year (assuming each person only listens once). Turn that one consumer creator into 100 million people (15% of Spotify’s current user base) and you end up with 12 billion streams. Now imagine that 25% of those 100 million consumer creators make two tracks a month, have more than 30 friends that listen, and that their music is good enough for those friends to each listen twice, then the total annual streams becomes 45 billion. Now imagine if those consumer creators make music every single day….

It is when you consider this sort of scale that it becomes clear why it is good for both sides of the business that they occupy different spaces, because they serve different purposes. 

Yes, consumer creation will compete for time. It will turn a considerable amount of time that is currently spent listening into time spent creating. Surely that is only a positive thing. Music as a form of expression and creation. It can – and should – be for everyone. 

If this kind of thing interests you, then keep an eye out for a major new report coming from MIDiA: Bifurcation theory: How today’s music business will become two. More on that soon!

Gibson Gives and 1500 Sound Academy Partner for Music Scholarships Across Los Angeles, CA, Beijing, China, and Taipei, TaiwanFor over 130 years, the iconic and leading American instrument brand Gibson has been shaping sound across generations and genres. Gibson, and its charitable arm Gibson Gives believe in the power of music, and that getting instruments into the hands of those with a desire to make music is a life-changing event. A state-of-the-art music school in Inglewood, CA, 1500 Sound Academy offers comprehensive courses to music students and aspiring professionals who want to learn the craft of Music Production, Engineering, Songwriting, Mixing, Music Business, and Artist Branding. Gibson Gives is proud to announce it will partner with 1500 Sound Academy this year to give five music scholarships valued at$25,000. in addition to instruments and gear totaling over $12,500 across the program inLos Angeles, California,  Beijing, China and Taipei, Taiwan.

"Music has the power to transform lives, and at Gibson Gives, we believe in amplifying that transformative potential. We're thrilled to announce our partnership with 1500 Sound Academy, a beacon of excellence in music education. This collaboration extends our commitment to fostering talent globally, reaching students in Los Angeles, Beijing, and Taiwan.”

--Erica Krusen, Senior Director, Global Cultural Influence and Gibson Global Executive Director, Gibson Gives

“1500 Sound Academy and Gibson Gives share a tireless commitment to providing musicians with the education, resources and support that is vital on their journey. We couldn’t be more excited this partnership and the opportunity the Gibson Gives Scholarships will afford to young, bright minds as they pursue their dreams in the music industry.”

--Twila True, Co-Founder, 1500 Sound Academy and CEO, True Family Enterprises

Students can apply through April 19, 2024 AT 5PM PT for the Los Angeles area program of the Gibson Gives Scholarship HERE, the Beijing program HERE, and the Taipei program HERE.

Recipients will be announced on May 8.

Having spent over $200m on catalogs to date, South Korea’s Beyond Music eyes Latin Music market with Yandel music rights dealLatin Music star Yandel strikes music rights deal with Beyond Music
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Taylor Swift’s music is back on TikTok, despite no resolution in its dispute with UMGIt’s likely no coincidence that Swift’s music has reappeared on TikTok little more than week before the April 19 release of her new albu
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To build a fanbase, you need to reach every level of fandomLearn how to target different kinds of fans in order to drive engagement and get the most out of your content.....
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Spotify wants to use podcasts to help market musicSpotify intends to explore an untapped marketing strategy that would marry podcasts and music streaming for years to come. by Rutger Rosenborg of MIDiA Research Last summer, Variety published an article. Continue reading
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Record labels have some bad news for radio [Bobby Owsinski]Radio is still an important medium, but it is not as popular - particularly with music fans - as it once was. So many record labels are cutting their radio promotion teams.....
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