The rise of the virtual livestreaming "tour"
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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 #89, published on July 1, 2020. How is it July already?!!?!?!!?!
Some notes before moving on:
👉 Starting with the next issue, you’ll start to see some of the first Water & Music guest posts, which I’m super excited to share with you all! If you’d like to contribute a guest post on music and technology in the coming months, please read the full pitch guidelines and submit your idea here (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScBAeAi4nBjBSHscygIld-2jiuBLcXmgHAcJskWXp5B6ZXzGA/viewform) . I’m interested in hearing both from writers/journalists and from operators within the music industry.
👉 I’m now 1/5 of the way (i.e. 20 days) through my self-imposed challenge to write 80,000 words in 100 days for my book. Topics I’ve covered so far include early-stage artist funding, the topic of “musician readiness” and the different ways artists can open up their creative processes to fans. All past and future entries in the challenge are available to $15+/month members on the Water & Music Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/m/waterandmusic) .
👉 I’ve done interviews recently with WGBH (https://twitter.com/kis_WGBH/status/1275805884300636160) (about music on Twitch), Consequence of Sound (https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/06/artists-from-drake-to-sales-find-success-with-tiktok-dance-crazes/) (about music on TikTok), YourStack (https://yourstack.com/experts/cherie-hu) (about my favorite software apps, podcasts and newsletters), Vox’s Reset podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/video-games-are-the-new-concert-venues/id1479107698?i=1000477890038) (about in-game concerts) and Ms. Uduak’s Africa Music Law podcast (https://africamusiclaw.com/cheriehu/) (about my career and the music industry in general).
👉 I’m moderating a panel about the questions on many young music professionals’ minds right now — starting side hustles, negotiating salaries, making a career pivot in a pandemic — at Music Biz’s #NEXTGEN_NOW Virtual Summit (https://musicbiz.org/events/nextgennow/) . The speaker lineup is diverse and young, which is an anomaly in the music-conference world, so I’m super excited to see what comes out of the day’s conversations. The rise of the virtual livestreaming “tour” Artists as wide-ranging as R&B duo Lion Babe (http://tour.lionbabe.com/) , deathcore band Suicide Silence (https://ssvirtualtour.com/) , AR/VR music collective Miro Shot (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/miro-shot-virtual-worlds-tour-tickets-109986743310?ref=estw) and singer-songwriter Zach Heckendorf (https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Zach-Heckendorf-Announces-First-Leg-of-50-States-Livestream-Tour-20200618) are embracing a trend worth studying for those committed to livestreaming for the long haul: The virtual “tour.”
In lieu of the ongoing pandemic-induced touring hiatus, artists are bringing their tour plans online in interesting ways. Some of these artists are geo-fencing their performances, making each show on the tour available only to viewers in a particular city or country. Others are making appearances on multiple different Instagram accounts owned by local venues, brand partners or music curators. Still others are even building a series of virtual worlds in different games and VR apps. The business models vary, from totally free of charge on one end to $25 for a ticket-merch bundle on the other end.
Virtual and in-person tours are quite different in terms of opportunities for technological experimentation, content development and audience expansion. And even if a tour is virtual, it still requires a lot of strategic and logistical planning on the part of artists and event organizers. [Read more. (https://www.patreon.com/posts/38849362) ] How today’s podcast deals look a lot like yesterday’s music deals A growing group of podcasters — primarily women of color — are spearheading a reckoning in the podcast industry about systemic power imbalances between creators and the corporations who are increasingly interested in funding and marketing their work.
I wrote about how these deals and power struggles bear a striking resemblance to the battles that artists and major labels have been fighting for decades. It’s worth comparing how contracts work in the music and podcasting worlds — especially in the context of Spotify, which is making some of the biggest deals in the podcast industry’s history off of the massive, global audience they built on top of music. [Read more. (https://hotpodnews.com/how-todays-podcast-deals-look-a-lot-like-yesterdays-music-deals/) ] New data on the state of artist management When it comes to nurturing artists’ careers from the ground up, artist management is arguably the most crucial and influential sector of the music business. The manager is often the first person an artist adds to their team, and is the most involved in an artist’s day-to-day operations, working day and night to help manifest their creative visions while getting them the best recording, live and brand opportunities.
But surprisingly little is known about the state of the artist-management business on a higher level, at least compared to the recording and touring businesses. What is the typical makeup of artist-management companies today in terms of roster size, audience size and genre representation? Has the ecosystem gone through the same level of consolidation as labels and agencies have over the past few decades?
I was excited to find many of these previously unknown answers in ROSTR’s second annual report on The World’s Leading Artist Management Companies (https://rostr.cc/report2020) , which analyzed data from over 3,000 management companies and parsed out which ones had the biggest rosters and largest streaming audiences on Spotify and YouTube, with additional insights on breakdown by genre, gender and label. One trend that particularly stood out to me: Artist management is more fragmented than any other part of the music business — and increasingly by design. [Read more. (https://www.patreon.com/posts/38574409) ] Other stories Will voice and audio tweets rewrite Twitter’s rocky history with music? (https://www.patreon.com/posts/38536248) Earlier this month, Twitter began rolling out “voice tweets (https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2020/your-tweet-your-voice.html) ,” which allows users to record and post up to 140 seconds of audio natively within the social platform’s mobile app. Almost immediately, artists including John Legend, Lil Nas X, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B posted their own take on the feature, ranging from previews of unreleased tracks to just plain weird and in some cases inappropriate banter. This is far from Twitter’s first attempt at audio, and the company has had a rocky relationship with the music industry in the past. Success in this new iteration is far from guaranteed.
Why record labels are not like venture-capital firms for artists (https://www.patreon.com/posts/38782632) For my book-writing challenge, I debunked a popular myth in the music industry — namely, that record labels play the same role for artists as venture-capital investors play for tech founders. This is not true for three reasons: 1) Labels aren’t even investors in artists, anyways; 2) label deals often impede rather than encourage entrepreneurship; and 3) (most) labels don’t have an interest in artists’ entire careers, unlike how VC firms invest in startups’ entire businesses. Good reads from the web 📖
On racism and Black inequality in electronic music: * Dance Music Pioneer Kevin Saunderson: The Scene Is Still Failing Black Artists (https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/dance/9408240/kevin-saunderson-dance-music-scene-failing-black-artists-interview) (Billboard) * A Conversation on the Bleaching of Techno: How Appropriation is Normalized and Preserved (https://dwellerforever.blog/2020/06/24/a-conversation-on-the-bleaching-of-techno-how-appropriation-is-normalized-and-preserved/) (Dweller) * An open letter to the dance music community by Aluna Francis (https://www.instagram.com/p/CB3S5t2JVHR/?igshid=1dw4tshadff4b) * Dweller’s reading list on the history of techno (https://dwellerforever.blog/library/)
On K-pop fandom’s sudden scrutiny in the political spotlight: * Surprised at seeing K-pop fans stand up for Black Lives Matter? You shouldn’t be. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/11/surprised-seeing-k-pop-fans-stand-up-black-lives-matter-you-shouldnt-be/#click=https://t.co/E4HGNeezS6) (The Washington Post) * K-Pop Fans Are Getting Involved in U.S. Politics. Are They Activists? (https://theintercept.com/2020/07/01/k-pop-fans-bts-activism-politics-black-lives-matter/) (The Intercept) * How to Cover K-pop Fandom With the Seriousness It Deserves (https://gen.medium.com/how-to-cover-k-pop-fandom-with-the-seriousness-it-deserves-21a90874c3b7) (GEN)
On streaming economics from the artist’s perspective: * How Musicians Are Fighting for Streaming Pay During the Pandemic (https://pitchfork.com/features/article/how-musicians-are-fighting-for-streaming-pay-during-the-pandemic/) (Pitchfork) * Why do indie musicians put up with penny payouts? (https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/streaming-spotify-bandcamp-pandemic-royalties-sooper-numero/Content?oid=80707164) (Chicago Reader)
On TikTok: * The Real TikTok Challenge? Turning Influencer Status Into Hitmaker Clout (https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9402883/tiktok-influencers-music-hits-report) (Billboard) * TikTok: Disrupting music production as we know it (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tiktok-disrupting-music-production-we-knowit-dhruv-sondhi-cfa-caia/?trackingId=XyQAds3XRdinFKFvrMfz9A%3D%3D) (Dhruv Sondhi, Global CRM and Analytics Manager at Deezer)
What I’m listening to 🎧 * Khruangbin — Mordechai (https://open.spotify.com/album/06814vxpRbL5CPMk1CTvOk?si=2cg6DK-9QWekdsYBSSNSYA) . Over and over and over again. * Mndsgn & Lionmilk — Forever In Your Sun (https://open.spotify.com/album/4GLDPjnsRkaMHS5clW56B4?si=8Thx2D1FR6Wqi4gB7zi9zw) . An instantly immersive, ambient-electronic collab between two awesome AAPI producers. (I binged the rest of Lionmilk’s catalog, too.) * Salt Cathedral — CARISMA (https://open.spotify.com/album/62TQ8Q7gaq5T4eUzYr3YXQ?si=tTN0Fz86QSCyCVkk0WXCww) . First heard of them through the work they’re doing with Foundation (https://withfoundation.com/) . Favorite track is “How Beautiful (she is) (https://open.spotify.com/track/51kEZd1sQaPaGysKCfGQYs?si=DPPBzNw1S0W-i_ayHbDYAw) .” * Knxwledge — Koko (https://open.spotify.com/album/10QQZtl4s4e0lzgc61bQ0P?si=wM4v1A0RQ4WtVZbIJg_8PQ) . Five beats in seven minutes. No rhythm wasted.
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 community 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 conversations 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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