Why have we heard so little about Spotify's artist-donation links?
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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 #86, published on May 18, 2020. Happy Monday!
Today’s issue spans a wide variety of perspectives on the evolution of music and tech — from the quietness around Spotify’s artist-donation links, to the future of the music avatar economy, to the littered past of mistakes around conflating celebrity appeal with user experience in media-tech apps (hello, Quibi and Luminary).
Before moving on, I wanted to share a few virtual conference/speaking engagements I have coming up: * shesaid.so (https://www.shesaid.so/) — On May 25 at 12pm ET, I will be joining Andreea Magdalina for SSSO’s weekly community streaming series on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/shesaid.so/) to talk about the role of technology in the music industry, both right now and in the long term. * Alberta Electronic Music Conference (https://www.albertaelectronicmusic.com/vem-schedule) — On June 4 at 5pm ET, I will be giving a keynote (https://www.albertaelectronicmusic.com/vems-content/fostering-a-more-diverse-digital-economy-for-music) at AEM’s Virtual Electronic Music Summit about opportunities for fostering a more diverse digital economy for music. * A2IM Indie Week (https://a2imindieweek.org/) – I will be giving a keynote at this year’s virtual edition of Indie Week about the emerging technologies and business models that have gained new ground amidst the pandemic (exact time TBD).
Also, a particularly cool thing that happened last week is that Grimes subscribed to my Patreon page (https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1261151047822700545) ! I featured her WarNymph project in my piece on the music avatar economy (scroll down for the full version), so it’s nice to have her officially in the loop now. :)
Stay healthy & safe!
- Cherie Why have we heard so little about Spotify’s artist-donation links?
The ongoing pandemic has spurred growing interest (https://www.patreon.com/posts/36247421) and investment in direct-to-consumer channels for artists, through which fans can put money into artists’ pockets more quickly than with the standard music-streaming model. Multiple tech platforms in the music industry have tried to claim their stake in this ecosystem, with vastly different levels of success.
On April 22, Spotify launched Artist Fundraising Pick (https://artists.spotify.com/blog/introducing-artist-fundraising-pick) , which allows artists to highlight a Venmo, PayPal or Cash App link on their profile pages, either to their personal accounts or to those of their peers or a social cause of their choice. The first 10,000 U.S. and U.K. artists who secured a donation through their Cash App links on Spotify also received an extra $100 donation from Cash App itself, a total commitment of $1 million in additional contributions from the payment company.
What have we heard from Spotify about the resulting activity and culture around these donation links? Relatively speaking, crickets.
Why? Turns out, none of the stakeholders involved are necessarily able or incentivized to make it succeed. Spotify has not prioritized it in the face of several other issues to think about (read: podcasts and profitability). Artists don’t have the means to promote their donation links to fans directly within Spotify, and many have opted not to share their links elsewhere for a variety of cultural and psychological reasons. As a result, Spotify doesn’t come to mind as a resource for these artists’ fans to offer direct support. The lack of activity then de-prioritizes development on Spotify’s side, and so on. Every step of the adoption process is blocked off. Click here to continue reading. (https://www.patreon.com/posts/37150705) Meet the architects of music’s new avatar economy
CGI musician and influencer Lil Miquela signing with CAA (https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/miquela-virtual-influencer-signs-caa-1234599368/) . Travis Scott performing in Fortnite (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYeFAlVC8qU) for over 27 million unique viewers. Japanese V-Tuber (“virtual YouTuber”) Kizuna AI (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4YaOt1yT-ZeyB0OmxHgolA/videos) performing in Porter Robinson’s Secret Sky Festival (https://www.youredm.com/2020/05/10/porter-robinson-secret-sky-live-sets/) . Grimes launching her new digital persona WarNymph (https://theface.com/music/grimes-warnymph-miss-anthropocene-balenciaga-volume-4-issue-003) to separate her online and offline selves — in part because she just had a baby (https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/08/entertainment/elon-musk-grimes-baby-name-pronunciation-scli-intl/index.html) .
All these developments, which took place just in the past few months, point to a groundbreaking development in the music industry right now: The emergence of a new music-avatar economy.
By “avatar,” I mean a digitally-rendered body that serves as the primary conduit of interaction, instead of real-life bodies and faces.
The music-avatar economy is a two-way street: Celebrities are becoming avatars, and avatars are becoming celebrities. In the former scenario, artists like Travis Scott and Grimes are working with software developers to build their digital doubles, often with gaming contexts in mind. In the latter, companies are building new characters from scratch, such as Lil Miquela and Kizuna AI, with their own personalities, followings and businesses. Both paradigms are possible thanks to technological advancements (https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2188238/chinas-virtual-idols-meet-their-fans-intersection-entertainment-and-technology) in 3D modeling, motion capture, facial recognition and virtual/augmented/mixed reality. Click here to continue reading. (https://www.patreon.com/posts/37033275) Celebrity appeal is not a user experience
Last week was a bad one for startups failing to deliver on their lofty, celebrity-stuffed promises to disrupt digital media.
First, there was Quibi (https://quibi.com/) . The mobile-video startup led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman decided to forge ahead with their launch on April 6, in the middle of a pandemic. With almost $1.8 billion in funding, they hoped that bite-sized content from a star-studded roster (Jennifer Lopez, LeBron James, Chrissy Teigen, etc.) would cut through the noise and boredom of quarantine. But within a week, Quibi dropped below the 50 most-downloaded apps in the iOS App Store. To date, it’s attracted only 2.9 million installs, even after opening up a free 90-day trial. Katzenberg’s defense in the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/business/media/jeffrey-katzenberg-quibi-coronavirus.html) is T-shirt-worthy: “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus. Everything.”
Then there was Luminary (https://luminarypodcasts.com/) . The paid podcast app launched in April 2019 with $100 million in funding (https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/22/18510897/luminary-podcast-app-launch-the-daily-gimlet-media-spotify) , featuring exclusive podcasts from personalities including Trevor Noah, Lena Dunham and Guy Raz. But like Quibi, celebrity appeal was not enough to support Luminary’s unproven model. As Bloomberg reported (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-13/podcaster-luminary-seeks-fresh-cash-to-buoy-struggling-business?sref=XCOyOEK1) , the company has been burning through over $4 million a month so far in 2020 on just $500,000 in monthly revenue, and has a mere 80,000 paying subscribers after a year of operation.
The struggles Quibi and Luminary are facing feel uniquely 2020. But they also speak to a pitfall that music startups have actually faced for years: Mistaking celebrity appeal for user experience.
There are countless examples of music and entertainment companies that relied too much on A-list talent for fan acquisition and retention. In many of these cases, fans didn’t end up caring enough on a deeper level to pay for a service that offered little added value in the way of access to said talent. Or, celebrity appearances failed to make a product “sticky” due to a lackluster user experience in the first place. Click here to continue reading (members only). (https://www.patreon.com/posts/37242344) Good reads 📖
On the enduring uncertainty around the music industry’s future: * Is There a Safe Way to Throw Socially Distanced Shows? (https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/is-there-a-safe-way-to-throw-socially-distanced-shows/) [Pitchfork] * Coronavirus Might Kill The Music Industry. Maybe It Needed To Die (https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a32360709/coronavirus-music-industry/) [Esquire] * What can we learn from Covid-19’s impact on China’s music industry? (https://musically.com/2020/05/18/covid-19-impact-china-music-industry/) [Music Ally]
On the business, and meaning, of creative work right now: * The Complete Statements: Why Creative Work Matters (https://www.kickstarter.com/why-creative-work-matters-complete-statements) [Kickstarter] * How YouTube Stars Are Getting Paid During the Pandemic (https://www.theinformation.com/articles/how-youtube-stars-are-getting-paid-during-the-pandemic) [The Information]
On virtual reality and the rise of spatial thinking in software development: * Spatial Interfaces (https://darkblueheaven.com/spatialinterfaces/) + Spatial Software (https://darkblueheaven.com/spatialsoftware/) [John Palmer] * I recreated my local pub in VR (https://www.wired.co.uk/article/i-made-my-local-pub-in-vr) [WIRED] * This Should Be V.R.’s Moment. Why Is It Still So Niche? (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/technology/virtual-reality.html) [New York Times]
On new, and old, hip-hop culture: * How Hip-Hop Royalty Found a New Home on Instagram Live (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/arts/music/hip-hop-instagram-coronavirus.html) [New York Times] * Outgrowing Drake Is the Generation Gap We Didn’t Predict (https://level.medium.com/growing-out-of-drake-eda9ffdbb42e) [LEVEL]
What I’m listening to 🎧 * Little Simz — Drop 6 (https://open.spotify.com/album/6QrGmXbUtjyekuW83gXBBb?si=A2mzyERyT36uepjsOk-4FA) * Se So Neon — Nonadaptation 비적응 (https://open.spotify.com/album/0LnLkLjqu2sk3i0He64odF?si=ApvdvGUuR_qGrD5PZAjZEw) * Nick Hakim — WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD (https://open.spotify.com/album/5wHIOaV0DXf73kL7i5blmM?si=XczXRBTJQ_arYRCVRIj97g) * Third Son — This Is Fine (https://open.spotify.com/album/1BUVdd6eTAXPwav9HeIbEC?si=bPMgQL_pSUesctew7gofvQ) * All the songs in the Jill Scott x Erykah Badu Verzuz battle (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX3ZKargsaFiQ?si=JVgHJNDwQ9mgdA0jV2_b1A)
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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