In COVID-19's wake, livestreaming is the new normal
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View this email in your browser (|ARCHIVE|) http://hotpodnews.com/presents.... The fine print of innovation in the music business. This is issue #81, published on March 13, 2020. Happy Friday! I feel kind of strange writing those two words, though, given that President Trump just declared a national emergency (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/world/coronavirus-news.html) .
It’s hard not to feel a bit paranoid about how this whole COVID-19 situation is unfolding — especially working in the music industry, given that the entire live-events sector seems to be screeching to a halt. My heart goes out to all the artists, managers, promoters, venue owners and others who are facing unprecedented amounts of lost revenues and opportunities amidst these major festival and tour cancellations, and who need all the support we can give them right now.
The top article in this week’s newsletter is a document I spent a long time researching and compiling, in an effort to play a small part in offering that support on a higher level. Hope you find it helpful, and in any case hope you’re staying healthy, safe and sane, wherever you are!
- Cherie In COVID-19’s wake, livestreaming is the new normal. Here’s how you can prepare
SXSW was supposed to start today. Isn’t that crazy?
As more and more major festivals and tours get cancelled in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, I wanted to do my part in sharing helpful tools and resources for anyone who wanted to put on their own virtual/livestreamed events as an alternative solution.
I originally planned to flesh out my thoughts in the form of a static article, but changed my mind yesterday and decided to make a living, regularly-updated Google document instead: a Virtual Music Events Directory.
In the link below, you’ll find a 16-page document consisting of three main sections: * An introductory foreword discussing how the music-industry mindset around livestreaming is slowly shifting from dismissing the format as a “niche” or “nice-to-have,” to embracing the format as an imperative for ensuring global accessibility and reach amidst extreme conditions such as the COVID-19 outbreak. * A directory of tools that artists and speakers can use to host virtual shows, panels and meetups, in the wake of major festivals like SXSW, Ultra, Miami Music Week and Coachella getting postponed or cancelled. * A calendar of virtual/livestreamed events that artists and music organizations are hosting in the coming months, as alternatives to major events that are postponed or cancelled such as SXSW and Coachella.
My goal with this document is to build the most comprehensive and up-to-date resource for anyone seeking guidance and inspiration on how to move their performing activity online and at scale, in this moment of significant upheaval for the music industry as a whole. If you would like to contribute to the doc, and/or if you think I’m missing any crucial tools or upcoming events, please reply to this email with more info! Click here to access the document. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/11wWL_7I4BG76t0V2kw1a4yIeWxUSfGwMQFYdUWAgSnA/edit?usp=sharing) Tencent Music isn’t actually a Chinese company. Why should the global music business care? My latest column for Music Business Worldwide dives into a little-discussed, heavily-loaded fact about Tencent Music: it isn’t actually a Chinese company, and doesn’t actually own any of its own services.
That’s because it’s incorporated in the Cayman Islands — a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean Sea, over 8,100 miles away from Beijing. In general, incorporating offshore is the only way any Chinese music/streaming/internet company can legally get foreign investment & go public in the U.S.; Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com and Sina Corp are also incorporated there.
Because of its offshore incorporation, Tencent Music doesn’t actually own any of the music services it operates — namely QQ Music, Kugou, Kuwo and WeSing — and, crucially, neither do its shareholders.
Instead, Tencent Music merely maintains a series of “contractual arrangements” with said music services through a legal structure known as a variable interest entity (VIE) — which gives the parent company effective operational control over the services and the ability to consolidate their financial and operational results in quarterly financial statements, but does not give Tencent Music’s shareholders any voting rights.
Moreover, many legal sources have (https://www.omm.com/resources/alerts-and-publications/publications/omelveny-myers-publishes-paper-vie-structures-in-china-what-you-need-to-know/) previously (http://www.chinahearsay.com/the-vie-meta-narrative/) claimed (https://www.chinalawblog.com/2019/04/chinas-new-foreign-investment-law-does-not-resuscitate-vies.html) that due to the relative underdevelopment of securities law in the Cayman Islands, the contracts that Tencent Music holds with its services through VIE arrangements may be unenforceable — or, in legal terms, void ab initio (“to be treated as invalid from the outset (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Void_(law)) ”). If accurate, this would leave little to no protection for Tencent Music’s investors, which include major music-industry stakeholders like Spotify, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. The Chinese government has yet to speak out in formal endorsement of VIEs, nor in confirmation of their enforceability.
Why is no one in the music industry talking about this — and what could it mean for their own future? Click here to continue reading. (https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/tencent-music-isnt-actually-a-chinese-company-why-should-the-global-music-business-care/) The startups trying (and failing?) to disrupt booking agents: Exclusive database The latest members-only database on the Water & Music Patreon page features a list of startups building online marketplaces that connect artists with event organizers and performance opportunities.
My impression is that most of these startups are trying to “disrupt” or disintermediate booking agents and other key players in the booking process, at least on the level of independent and unsigned artists.
I’ve found 14 such startups, and have included the following information for each in the database: * Their geographic focus (most of these companies focus only on a specific country or market) * Their business model (most of them take a minority commission on the final artist booking fee) * The extent to which artist fees are immediately transparent, i.e. whether an artist’s starting price and/or a venue’s budget is listed clearly on their own profile or gig listing (this is split 50/50 among the companies on my list) * Whether the platform offers hands-on concierge services for artists and/or venues (at which point they arguably become the very company they initially tried to “disrupt”)
My initial tl;dr takeaway? Booking agents are here to stay. Click here to continue reading (members only). (https://www.patreon.com/posts/34609692) Good reads
To be honest, a lot of what I’ve been reading online lately has been related to COVID-19. Your inboxes are probably flooded already with coronavirus-related content, so apologies if this adds to the clutter.
But I wanted to share a few articles that really stood out to me, in terms of understanding how the spread of the disease has affected 1) the music industry, 2) everyday people and 3) technological innovation.
Does Music Touring Insurance Cover Coronavirus? It’s Complicated (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/music-concerts-tour-insurance-coronavirus-965288/)
Musicians Were Depending On Those Jazz Nights And Senior Living Gigs (https://www.npr.org/2020/03/13/815254508/musicians-were-depending-on-those-jazz-nights-and-senior-living-gigs)
Coronavirus Exposes Workers to the Risks of the Gig Economy (https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-exposes-workers-risks-gig-economy/)
The rush to deploy robots in China amid the coronavirus outbreak (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/02/the-rush-to-deploy-robots-in-china-amid-the-coronavirus-outbreak.html)
Everybody Ready for the Big Migration to Online College? Actually, No (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/upshot/coronavirus-online-college-classes-unprepared.html) What I’m listening to
Also doing something a bit different this week: sharing recommendations for podcasts instead of songs.
I’m one of the featured guests on Let Creativity Flow (https://www.osirispod.com/podcasts/let-creativity-flow/) , a new show from music podcast network Osiris Media (https://www.osirispod.com/) about how technology is changing creativity and collaboration among modern musicians.
I’ve been listening a bunch again to the Longform Podcast (https://longform.org/podcast) , which features interviews with renowned authors, journalists and other writers, and absolutely loved the episodes featuring Ronan Farrow (https://longform.org/posts/longform-podcast-380-ronan-farrow) , Ashley C. Ford (https://longform.org/posts/longform-podcast-378-ashley-c-ford) and Cord Jefferson (https://longform.org/posts/longform-podcast-374-cord-jefferson) .
Anthony Pompliano’s interview with Austin Rief (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK8YkYRStLs) , co-founder of Morning Brew (https://www.morningbrew.com/) , on the Off The Chain podcast (https://blockworksgroup.io/off-the-chain-podcast) is one of the most interesting and eye-opening conversations I’ve listened to recently about the future of media, particularly the future of free and paid email newsletters. If you’d like to support even more thoughts and conversations on music and tech, I encourage you to become a paying member of the Water & Music ecosystem on Patreon (http://patreon.com/cheriehu?utm_campaign=Water%20%26%20Music&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter) .
For as little as $3/month or as much as $200+/month, you can access a wide range of perks including: * A closed, members-only Discord server, consisting of regular updates and analysis on the most important music and tech news * Exclusive essays and article previews * Updates on my book research * Monthly video hangouts with me
…and much more! Thanks so much for reading! ❤️
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