A weekly update on all things music, entertainment and technology, coming straight to you from Anthony Vanger at MassiveMusic. #TWIM
ARTIST OF THE WEEK: POOLSIDE
The nice thing about working in the music business is that your colleagues are always recommending music that slipped under your radar. That’s what happened when Roscoe Williamson, Head of Branding at MassiveMusic turned me on to a band I had never heard of before. Poolside, a Los Angeles-based duo, Filip Nikolic and Jeffrey Paradise make music the describe as “daytime disco.” The track Harvest Moon from their album Pacific Standard Time, featured below, is the perfect soundtrack to a perfect summer. Enjoy!
OLD ROCKERS NEVER DIE, THEY JUST SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL
Rolling Stones Tour
Can you believe that the Stones are still touring!!!! “It’s incredible to think about working with the same band for fifty years,” Mick Jagger says. “Of course, members have come and gone over the years, but it is still the Rolling Stones.” Some critics find it difficult to look beyond the success of the band, calling them a nostalgic money-printing machine. But social media reviews have not just been positive, many people write that it was the “best show they have ever seen.” Much younger support acts like Liam Gallagher and Florence + The Machine did not raise pulse rates much above 70bpm. And Jagger is not even hiding his age, posting dad jokes and cringey comments on his son’s Instagram account. Nothing sticks and nothing stops the band’s continued popularity. Check out a really interesting interview with legendary drummer Charlie Watts below.
APPLES NEWEST EXPANSION PLAN: LURING SONGWRITERS
Apple has launched a new music publishing division that will be led by longtime legal and licensing specialist Elena Segal, according to a report by Music Business Worldwide and Rolling Stone.
According to Rolling Stone, Apple Music now boasts more than 50 million paying users and based on projections, it may surpass Spotify’s 75 million paying users by the time we head into the new school year.
Apple’s move into publishing makes strategic and economic sense. The tech giant will an easier time striking licensing deals for artists’ music. It may move further into competition with the suppliers of its product and start signing and developing songwriters directly. Many analysts have pointed out the practicality of Spotify or Apple Music starting an in-house record label, as such a move would offer the tech companies more control over their content alongside potentially scoring more money for artists. Lastly, there are rumours circulating that Universal Music might soon be bought by a streaming service.
Anytime an industry is growing by 40% a year, there will always be major players manoeuvering to get a piece of the pie.
STREAM BEATPORT’S ENTIRE CATALOGUE INTO DJ SOFTWARE “BY 2019”
Could this herald the “stream whilst you DJ era”
Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store primarily geared towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be used for remixes.
The online store will soon be allowing users to stream their catalogue to DJ software. After failed attempts in previous years to move into the streaming industry, Beatport believes it may have cracked it this time around by using software that allows DJs to stream directly into Serato, Rekordbox and other DJ software – it means that Beatport’s focus would most likely shift from consumer-based listening services to professional DJ platform streaming through apps and potential hardware. This is definitely the right way to do it and could potentially set the standard for the fast approaching “stream whilst you DJ” era.
In case you think this a niche market, the EDM global market was worth nearly $7billion in 2015. Digging deeper, Beatport’s sales of sample packs and remix stems grew from an annual revenue of $600,000 in 2010 to $39.1 million in 2015. Looking ahead, any platform that allows DJs to stream songs and stems live in their sets is going to attract the attention of the big players.
AD OF THE WEEK
The Colonel returns to our television sets after a 40 year break.
The KFC ad team clearly wanted to address THAT chicken crisis in hilarious new TV advert. And now, the fast-food chain has brought in the Colonel for a new advert that takes a stab at the epic disaster that forced more than than 600 chicken shops to close. A really good example of taking a negative and turning it to positive…Finger lickin’ good.