Artist Profile: Jessica Downs at Illuminate StudiosNestled in the heart of Studio City, Illuminate Studios stands as a beacon of ingenuity in the entertainment industry. This hidden gem, known for over 22 years for delivering production and post-production excellence to the major studios and independent producers alike, recently called upon visionary artist Jessica Downs.

Owners Steven Wiener and Jim Hardy, the driving forces behind Illuminate, recognized the need for a fresh perspective during their studio's remodeling phase. A quest for inspiration led them to a Music Connection Magazine article titled "She Paints with a Knife," featuring the upcoming artist Jessica Downs.

Jessica's unique painting style, employing a palette knife to blend colors and textures, had already earned her accolades in the art world. Now, she was poised to bring her artistic talents to illuminate. Jessica rose to the challenge of blending and balancing the studio's Feng Shui catering to the furnishings Wiener and Hardy had just installed. Her artistry resulted in eight original canvas pieces that breathed new life and creativity into the space.

Illuminate, Studio City's best kept secret, is not just any space. It boasts a turnkey Broadcast Studio and Sound Stage complete with a vast 60-foot green cyc, ideal for shooting music videos, talk shows and other creative endeavors along with a post production finishing division second to none. As one of only two studios located in Studio City, Illuminate shines as a one stop shop for both Television and Feature Production.  Now, as her artwork graces Illuminate's walls, it welcomes creatives from the entertainment industry.  Jessica Downs and Illuminate Studios promise a brighter, more vibrant arena for all who enter their doors, all while remaining Studio City's best-kept secret.

For more info on Jessica's art and Illuminate Studios, contact Sammy Oriti at 310-985-5511

Artist Profile: She Paints With A Knife... Meet  Jessica Downs―Artist / Model

Sub Pop Records Launches 18th Annual 'Loser' ScholarshipSub Pop Records has announced the return (for its 18th year!) of the Sub Pop Loser Scholarship. Further details on the scholarship are below, and even further below is some clarification on what they mean with all this “Loser” business.

Sub Pop Records is offering a grand total of $18,000 in college scholarship money to three eligible high school seniors. There are three scholarships—each for $6,000! As longtime, proud losers ourselves, we’re exceedingly happy to be able, in some small way, to help further the education of art-enthused misfits from the NW. Individuals from all cultures and communities are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be residents of Washington or Oregon, and graduating seniors on the way to full-time enrollment at an accredited university or college. We are looking for applicants who are involved and/or interested in music and/or creative media and arts in some way. However, you do not need to be pursuing an education in the arts.

To apply: you must submit an essay, one page or less, using any combination of the following questions as a guide (or write something completely your own, be inspired and creative!). Please list the school you are graduating from and the school you plan to attend in the fall at the top of your essay, along with your contact information.

- What are you doing in the arts/music field in your community?- What does being a Sub Pop ‘Loser’ mean to you?- What are your influences and/or who inspired you to become involved in the arts?- Describe your biggest failure and explain how it has brought you closer to your goal(s).- Discuss a special attribute or accomplishment that sets you apart.- How has your family or community background affected the way you see the world?- Why should you be the Loser winner?

The deadline for applications is Tuesday, March 19th, 2024. Please send all submissions and attachments to scholarship@subpop.comby Tuesday, March 19th. We will announce the scholarship winners during the first week of April.

From Warner’s best-ever quarter to Spotify’s $9bn payout to the music industry… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days…
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85% of TikTok and 84% of YouTube videos include musicA new analysis shows just how high the stacks are in the battle between TikTok and UMG and reinforces how important music is to TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram...
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Why are playlists so important?Mathilde Neu of Reprtoir looks at how crucial playlists are to today's music ecosystem and how to get your fair share of placements...
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How do musicians make money on TikTok?UMG tracks accounted for 35% of the TikTok Top 50 last week, so pulling all their music off the platform has presented a unique opportunity for independent musicians to fill the void...
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66th Annual GRAMMY Awards Audio Team Collaborates for Live BroadcastPhotograph courtesy of The Recording Academy®/Getty Images. © 2024 Photograph by Kevin Winter.

Only minutes before the start of the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards®, members of the 2024 audio team gathered for a photo at the foot of the stage at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Held on Sun, Feb. 4, 2024, the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards showcased an amazing collection of musical performances and tributes and utilized the latest in technology to provide television viewers worldwide with a cutting-edge, high-definition immersive sound.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 04: on February 04, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

The GRAMMY Awards® technical staff consists of audio pioneers who continually strive to employ the latest in technology to enhance the show. Prominent members of the Recording Academy® Producers & Engineers Wing® were part of the audio team, including GRAMMY® Co-Broadcast Music Mixer Eric Schilling, GRAMMY Broadcast Production Mix Audio Advisor Mike Clink, GRAMMY Broadcast Music Mix Audio Advisor Glenn Lorbecki, GRAMMY Broadcast House Mix Audio Advisor Leslie Ann Jones, and several others.

RecordingAcademy.com

Killer Mike – and a host of top execs – joined ‘Award Season’ Grammy Week party, hosted by Milk & Honey and ReservoirMBW co-sponsored event alongside Splice, SoundCloud, Mark Music + Media Law, BMI, UBS, and Endurance Artist Management.
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Killer Mike – and a host of top execs – joined ‘Award Season’ Grammy Week party, hosted by Milk & Honey and ReservoirMBW co-sponsored event alongside Splice, SoundCloud, Mark Music + Media Law, BMI, UBS, and Endurance Artist Management.
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Reservoir generated $35.5m in calendar Q4 2023, up 19% YoYThe company has raised its outlook for full-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA, in the wake of "strong revenue growth"
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Spotify paid the music industry $9 billion in 2023Apparently, passing 602 million monthly active users was not the only big stat Spotify wanted to share this week. Two days after a solid report to investors that sent its stock up 8%, Spotify announced it had paid more than $9 billion to musicians and the music industry last year, its highest payout ever...
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What Was AI Made For? AI’s Place in the Music IndustryJoseph Perla, the Founder & CEO of Hangout FM by Turntable Labs, cuts through the clutter to offer a music tech insider's look at the good and the bad of music AI...
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13 Social Media Tips for Musicians [Bobby Borg]If your social media efforts have yet to be the fruit you'd hoped for, these 13 tips from Bobby Borg are the perfect place to start...
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Music subscriber market shares 2023: New momentumWith UMG leading the charge to reshape the music industry into a more label-friendly form, 2023 may, with hindsight, go down as the year before everything changed. Whatever lies ahead though, new models will take time to deliver benefits. Music subscriptions are therefore going to remain the bedrock of music rightsholder revenues for the foreseeable future. So, it is a good thing that music subscriptions had such a good year in 2023.

As of Q3 2023, there were 713.4 million music subscribers globally, which was 90 million up on the 623.4 million one year earlier in Q3 2022. This matters for two reasons:

We are already nearly three quarters of the way to having one billion music subscribers globally. That is no small achievement. For context, as recently as five years ago, we had only just passed the quarter of a billion subscriber mark

The 90 million subscribers added in the 12 months to Q3 2023 was more, yes more(!), than the 83.5 million added one year earlier. In fact, the number added was nearly as many as those added in 2020. Not bad for a maturing category with key markets hitting near-saturation

However, there is a bit of a problem with looking at the global market: it is increasingly no longer a global market, but instead, one of two halves: the West and the Global South, with each region throwing off dramatically different metrics and growth narratives.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the market share rankings:

Spotify dominated the global music subscriber base in Q3 2023 with 31.7% market share. More than that, it actually increased its share from 0.4 points from Q3 2022. So, for all the flak Spotify has thrown at it, it outgrew the market in 2023. Newer, emerging market territories were central to this growth, but it was Spotify’s traditional heartland (North America and Europe) that drove the majority (59%) of its subscriber growth. Compare and contrast this with the all-DSP picture, where North America and Europe drove just 29% of subscriber growth, with Asia Pacific accounting for nearly two thirds of all non-Western subscriber growth

China, a market in which only Apple of the Western DSP operates, underpins this non-Western growth, and the clearest manifestation of this is Tencent Music Entertainment (TME). With 102.7 million subscribers in Q3 2023, TME represents 14.4% of all global subscribers, despite this being an effectively China-only number. NetEase Cloud Music (6.1% share and China-only) and Yandex (3.4% share and Russia-only), further represent the dynamic growth from regions where Western DSPs largely do not operate. This is the new, bifurcated nature of the global music subscriber market

Apple Music (12.6%), Amazon Music (11.1%) and YouTube Music (9.7%) represent the remainder of the leading Western DSP pack. Along with Spotify, these three DSPs represent 65% of the global market, but only 59% of 2023 growth. Western DSPs are still the core of the market, but they are collectively losing share. But, even within these four, there is a diverging picture, with YouTube Music and Spotify gaining share in 2023 while Amazon and Apple lost share. Between Q3 2022 and Q3 2023, Spotify added more subscribers than all three other leading Western DSPs combined

2023 was a strong year for music subscriptions, delivering more growth than perhaps had been expected in such challenging macro-economic and geo-political circumstances. Even North America and Europe grew slightly faster in 2023 than in 2022. But, as commendable as squeezing more growth out of otherwise mature markets is, the inescapable paradigm shift is the emergence of the Global South as the growth driver of tomorrow’s music subscriber base.

Want even more detail? Check out the full music subscriber market shares report and data set, with data for more than 20 DSPs across more than 40 territories, with data for every quarter from Q4 2015 to Q3 2023.

For more info email stephen@midiaresearch.com

WMG has strongest quarter ever, tips 10% layoffs, Uproxx & HipHopDX sale to invest $200M in core music businessWarner Music Group just announced its strongest quarter ever, with revenue rising 17% for the period ending Dec. 31, 2023, to $1.75 billion...
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