A weekly update on all things music, advertising, and technology coming straight to you from Anthony Vanger at MassiveMusic. #TWIM
ARTIST OF THE WEEK: TOURIST
English electronic musician hits the big time with his latest release.
I shamelessly took this recommendation from a colleague at work who has been playing this track non-stop all week. I cannot remember the last time a piece of electronic music shook me to the core like this song, Kin, the first single of Tourist’s new album, Wild. Tourist is the brainchild of William Phillips, 32, an English electronic musician and songwriter. But Phillips is no ingenue. In 2015, he won a Grammy for Song of The Year for co-writing Sam Smith’s “Stay with Me”, but this cohesive and spectacular album will surely launch him into the mainstream as a solo artist.
From the opening bars, you are sucked into an alternate universe, painted with broad strokes of samples, chords, and textures. There is space for vocals and beats to propel the song towards its heroic conclusion. You can hear echoes of Moby’s seminal album Play and Portishead, but Phillips is his own man. Expect to hear Kin on lots of soundtracks, trailers, and ads over the next few months. Get your copy of the album here.
AD OF THE WEEK: M&S GO JUMPERS
Why the high street retailer will have shopper jumping for joy this Xmas
When so many retailers are tapping into a Dickensian vision of Christmas, it is refreshing to see M&S take a totally different approach. I love the choice of the song, but mainly, it is the pure pleasure in watching some of the dancers that transforms the film from an ad into a great piece of content. It’s diverse, fun and above all, watchable. The ad also has a signature dance move; the shoulder roll. And I love the dog.
MOBO AWARDS TO RETURN IN 2020 AFTER TWO YEAR BREAK
“We are returning with even more determination and energy.”
The MOBOs will return with their biggest event yet in 2020, after the awards ceremony took a two year break.
The ceremony will return to London’s SSE Arena Wembley on November 12 2020, with organisers promising “more determination and energy” than ever before.
It comes after the ceremony took a break in 2018 and 2019, with organisers teasing the “evolution” of the event.
MOBO founder Kanya King said “The evolution of the MOBO Awards is always at the forefront of our mind and we want to ensure that we continue to build on the strong foundation of the brand and its heritage for a wider purpose and bigger impact,” organisers said at the time.
Tickets for the event are on sale now
SOUNDCLOUD ARTISTS CAN PAY TO BOOST THEIR TRACKS
Following on from Spotify’s latest venture.
When SoundCloud became a distributor in February with the launch of its Premier monetisation program, it promised that it would be adding more functionality in the coming months.
SoundCloud has introduced a new self-service promotional tool for SoundCloud Premier creators called, Promote.
The new tool will allow creators to pay to boost their original tracks to the top of listeners’ feeds and mobile homepages. The move comes a couple of weeks after Spotify announced that, for the first time, record companies (and other industry players) will soon be able to pay to have their artists promoted to targeted fans within the Spotify ecosystem via a ‘Brand New Music For You’ pop-up visual ad.
HARD ROCK HOTEL OPENS WORLD’S FIRST GUITAR-SHAPED HOTEL
Costing $1.2 billion!
Hard Rock Hotel has just opened a 638-room hotel and resort that resembles a giant guitar. Standing 450 feet tall, the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood is located in South Florida and features a 13.5-acre pool, a lagoon for water sports, and a concert hall that can seat 7,000 spectators.
The entire project cost $1.2 billion USD to complete, and will also contain a Hard Rock Casino that’s equipped with bars, restaurants, a night club, and a host of gaming tables.
Check out the image above for this one-of-a-kind skyscraper that resembles a giant guitar made from glass.
MASTER & DYNAMIC HAVE MADE A WIRELESS VERSION OF ITS ICONIC MH40 HEADPHONES
The company’s first headphones gets a much needed update for 2019.
Master & Dynamic’s MH40 was first set of headphones the company designed, and it released it in 2014. In many ways, that model set the standard for what would become M&D’s trademark design style: a refined mix of metal and leather. It makes sense that the company would go back to the beginning to celebrate its five-year anniversary, and it’s doing so with a $299 wireless model of the MH40.
Written by Anthony Vanger
Additional reporting by Adam “Badger” Woolf
Artwork by Gustav Balderdash
To join This Week In Music please send me an email: anthonyvanger@gmail.comZ