A weekly update on all things music, entertainment and technology, coming straight to you from Anthony Vanger at MassiveMusic. #TWIM
ARTIST OF THE WEEK: ALOE BLACC
With the heatwave continuing to make living in London feel like we have been miraculously transported to Santa Monica, California, it seemed like a good idea to get a head start on the hols and offer a taste of what I think could be the summer smash. Check out Aloe Blacc’s new track “Brooklyn in the Summer.” I love it! What a chorus!
Check out his official website, and follow him on Facebook.
STAND BY ME GETS A 30% BUMP IN STREAMS FROM ROYAL WEDDING.
One of the highlights of the Royal Wedding last weekend – admit you watched it! – was the Kingdom Choir’s gospel rendition of the soul classic Stand By Me by Ben E King. It made such an impact on the viewers that the London choir was invited to repeat the performance on Good Morning Britain.
And in a demonstration of the newly minted Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s influence on all things cultural, the song experienced a 30% bump in streams on Spotify.
INSTAGRAM ENTERS THE GROWING MUSIC STREAMING MARKET
Instagram is now looking to stake its claim in the music side of things with their upcoming app functions.
Users will be able to search and add songs to Story posts thanks to licensing deals recently acquired through Facebook. In addition, Instagram is now testing auto-detecting songs playing in the background of Stories and posts, which will eventually allow users the option to display the song title and artist name. This could represent a huge boost to artists and another platform to market songs, videos and anything related to an artists’ output.
UNBUNDLING THE SONG: THE NEXT WAVE OF MUSIC’S DISRUPTION?
In the beginning, Napster and iTunes ungrouped albums into individual tracks for sale and exchange; streaming platforms like Spotify then regrouped these “unbundled” tracks into the newly-ordered format of a playlist, which has become one of the primary units of audience development and engagement for music.
The next natural step in this technological evolution is unbundling the individual song itself into isolated vocal and instrumental parts (“stems”) and bite-sized samples and loops (“sounds”), for interactive transformation by artists and fans alike.
The stem market alone – targeting the market of over five million professional and amateur DJs around the world, eager to remix their favourite songs – is projected to contribute $2 billion to the recorded music industry by 2020, without cannibalising existing revenue sources.
Ed note: I was speaking to a global music superstar this weekend and asked him what he thought about the idea of putting out all the stems from his more than 20 smash hits and making each individual stem available for remixing. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows quizzically. “Not sure,” came the reply. And that was the end of that. I think there is going to be some resistance to this, mainly from the artists and composers. But in the end, like all disruptive game-changers, it may become the norm. Thoughts…?
AFTER NEARLY 20 YEARS, FL STUDIO FOR MAC IS FINALLY HERE!
The 20th anniversary edition of the popular DAW features seamless Mac-PC integration.
FL Studio 20 has been announced by developers Image-Line. Celebrating 20 years in the business, the latest major update to the popular software features the long-awaited Mac compatibility that allows users to seamlessly transfer projects between Mac and PC, with one license for both. It has been on the cards for a long time, with beta testing occurring over the past few years, but it has finally been integrated and seamless. (Ed: The world rejoices!)
AD OF THE WEEK
In our inaugural “ad of the week” series where we celebrate the best advertising work, this week’s award goes to BBC Sport for its marketing campaign for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to be held in Russia. The campaign, created by BBC Creative with BBC Sport Marketing and animated by Blinkink, journeys through World Cup history via the skill of Diego Maradona, the flair of Zinedine Zidane and the emotion of Paul Gascoigne, to a preview of the most exciting talents of this year’s finals including Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Harry Kane. If you are one of the few people who has not managed to see it, you can enjoy it here.