THIS WEEK IN...
paul's investment advice, instagram's feed freakout, sxsw breakout brands, the slow death of genre

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THIS WEEK IN...
paul's investment advice, instagram's feed freakout, sxsw breakout brands, the slow death of genre
THIS WEEK IN...
new iggy 🔥, 25 songs that matter, sxsw standouts, remembering george martin
kendrick's untitled unmasteredpiece, the case for tidal and ephemera
THIS WEEK IN...
surprise prince shows, kesha's dilemma, steinway's major keys
THIS WEEK IN...
kanye doing things, cultural branding, old men vs the kids
THIS WEEK IN...
MUSIC & INDUSTRY
What goes into making a platinum record? Literally, how does RIAA certify a record as platinum? You sell a million records, right? Not that simple as it turns out. When Rihanna released ANTI last week, it was certified platinum on the day of its release, as Jay-Z promised. But per the RIAA's rules, albums are only eligible 30 days after the release date. Then it was revealed Samsung "bought" a million copies to give away to the first million fans who asked for it, guaranteeing the platinum tag before a single sale. Now RIAA is saying that they'll include a formula to count streams into their sales count. Such is the industry in 2016.
MUSIC & BRANDS
Pepsi is the official sponsor of the Superbowl 50 Halftime Show, a presumably pricey designation given the NFL's unrelenting monetization machine. We won't speak to the value of that investment (as Chris Martin goes off script before the show even starts). However, this delightful spot featuring Janelle Monae is a great example of how to play an artist's strengths to a brand message, and it's slotted to air immediately before the halftime show.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Why do we love music? Brian Resnick at Vox looks at some of the latest research investigating how our emotional connection to music evolved. Music engages the brain's same reward system as essential survival behavior (food, sex), despite its seeming lack of evolutionary utility. Research points to two main reasons. Music is, at its most basic, a pattern, and humans love patterns. It is also intertwined with, and perhaps an exaggerated form of, speech. Humans are highly attuned to deciphering emotional cues in speech, which might explain music's emotional weight.
OTHER GOINGS ON
Want your own branded emoji for twitter? They can be yours for a one time payment of $1 million. How Netflix acquires content and pays rightsholders. Sia's hidden wonders. Is Hollywood holding Snapchat back? Modular synth... made out of LEGOs.
THIS WEEK IN...
MUSIC & INDUSTRY
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis released "White Privilege II," diving head first into the turbulent waters that are race relations in the United States. Debate exploded over whether the song represents genuine soul searching, white guilt catharsis, or a self serving attempt to create distance from clear benefits received from being a white act. Where does this song, and the reaction to it, fit in the continuing legacy of white privilege? If nothing else, it has indeed stimulated discussion within the industry.
MUSIC & BANDS
Suberbowl Ad Season! Hat tip to Acura and Mullen for using the previously unlicensed "Runnin' With The Devil" in their spot for the 2017 NSX. They even managed to work in David Lee Roth's isolated vocal track from the song, a much beloved and timeless meme.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Let's take a look at a few interesting trends in Nielsen's 2015 Music U.S. Report. Frequent readers of this newsletter won't be surprised by the big trends; unit sales down across the board (digital / phyiscal), streaming (way) up, overall consumption up. Roughly half of all dollars spent on music go toward some form of live experience. Terrestrial radio leads all categories on how fans discover new music. Wait, what? That number (61%) is actually up from the previous year. The Pop Machine is alive and well.
OTHER GOINGS ON...
Rihanna covered Tame Impala. All-time epic Twitter meltdown. Some very in-depth reporting on AEG's moves to enter the New York market with a new music festival. "Inside Facebook’s Decision to Blow Up the Like Button." "Inside the FCC's audacious plan to blow up the cable box." (c'mon headline writers...) Tower Records stands tall in Japan. LA to NY and back again (and again).
THIS WEEK IN...
MUSIC & INDUSTRY
On Monday Amber Coffman (Dirty Projecters) published a series of tweets accusing Heathcliff Berru, founder and CEO of Life or Death PR, of sexual harassment and misconduct in an incident a few years ago. Action was swift as ten other women came forward with similar accusations, including Bethany Cosentino (Best Coast) and Yasmine Kittles (Tearist). Heathcliff promptly resigned and checked into rehab, Life or Death PR shuttered as it lost nearly all its clients and staff, and the industry reckoned with a problem that might extend beyond just one bad apple.
MUSIC & BRANDS
M.I.A. trolled Emirates Airline in her most recent video, then trolled them again by leaking a document sent to her team threatening legal action. Business as usual for M.I.A., but as Fader reports, this incident is indicative of larger issues as brands saturate music. Music has always been deeply subversive and satirical. As brands look to leverage the popularity of an artist, they should always factor message in their metric equation... and watch out for brandalism.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Cuepoint put together a handy "Old People’s Guide to DJ Khaled," and if you're asking how this constitutes "research" or "insights," read this guide immediately. Khaled runs the most popular account on Snapchat, even cited by the White House on their Snapchat debut. What's more, Khaled drives development of social memes and the greater cultural lexicon at large. Don't ever play yourself.
OTHER GOINGS ON
Remembering Glenn Frey, with Irving Azoff, Cameron Crowe and Rob Tonkin. Review of HBO's (and Mick Jagger, Martin Scorsese) "Vinyl." On the data your "wearable" collects while you sleep. Inside the rise of Periscope. Is there a music tech bubble?
THIS WEEK IN...
MUSIC & INDUSTRY
A healthy bit of competition is heating up between Spotify & Apple Music, and it looks like consumers are the big winners. Apple announced that it hit 10 million subscribers (compared to Spotify's 25 - 30 million subscribers), and both services are racing to develop new improvements to their user experience (touring and ticketing integration, embedded lyrics). Now that the economics of streaming are set, consumers will reap the benefits as services fight for their share of listeners.
MUSIC & BRANDS
Red Bull has been at the vanguard of content driven advertising for a very long time, and we'd like to commend them on something new we noticed this week. A well-written piece titled "Party Gods: The World's Most Successful DJ's" appeared on their lifestyle media site "RedBulletin" , and has the credibility on the topic as if it were Pitchfork. Nice work Red Bull.
RESEARCH & INDUSTRY
Streaming services create oceans of data on users' listening habits, giving them first glimpse of changing trends and habits. Spotify & Pandora are converting this into a substantial business, providing targeted ad solutions for brands and data solutions for labels, artists and managers. The power of the data is illustrated by the story of Major Lazer's "Lean On", now Spotify's most-streamed track ever. The team spent over a year in development on the track, using data to maximize its streaming potential. Read the story here.
OTHER GOINGS ON
Vinyl Backlash #1! Vinyl Backlash #2! Who the heck bought the Offspring's entire catalog for $35 million? DJ Khaled: Essential. Ticketmaster needs to reconcile with the secondary market problem. Ad Age's Digital Predictions 2016.
THIS WEEK IN...
MUSIC & INDUSTRY
Festival "season" is already in high gear, with Coachella and Gov Ball rolling out their lineups this week. Between these two festivals you get a pretty clear picture of the acts on the festival circuit this year, and (unsurprisingly) everyone is talking about the LCD Soundsystem reunion. The reaction followed a pattern that became familiar in 2015; enthusiasm followed by backlash, then backlash to the backlash.
MUSIC & BRANDS
Reports of the death of EDM are greatly exaggerated. So much so, in fact, that brands are lining up to partner with DJs and push partnerships into new territory; see Avicii's combination music video / Volvo XC90 ad spot (with 11 million views) as an example. Look for partnerships to continue to rise as pop EDM further entrenches itself in youth audiences' listening habits.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Priceonomics looks at the "American Time Use Survey" and breaks down how young adults spent their time in 2004 vs. 2014. See the full report here, but some key points are worth mentioning; a substantial decrease in time spent watching TV / movies for people aged 20 - 29 (despite an overall increase in the category for all other age brackets) and a substantial decrease in time spent shopping or traveling. The latter is likely due to increased reliance on the Internet, while the former points to an increase in other leisure activities for the age group, including computer use (ie Facebook), reading (including online articles) and games (including mobile). Advertisers targeting this demo should take note.
OTHER GOINGS ON
Weaponized K-POP. Adele & Springsteen v. ticket scalpers. Snapchat's working on its ad API. Here comes the VR concert experience. The Technics 1200 returns! "What do the Huffington Post, “The Simpsons,” Minecraft, and Led Zeppelin’s first album have in common?"
THIS WEEK IN...
The only photos from our party fit to print. Big thanks to Atlas Genius, Capital Cities and everyone else who came by. Even bigger thanks to Will And The People for their terrific performance. Check out their latest video here.
THIS WEEK IN:
MUSIC & INDUSTRY
This week the Copyright Royalty Board raised the rate non-interactive streaming services pay to labels. The service with the most at stake was Pandora, who hailed the decision as "balanced”. Pandora's shares jumped as, despite the increase in the amount it must pay, the service's viability and profitability is secure moving forward. With that last piece of the puzzle, 2015 will perhaps be remembered as the year we figured out how to stream.
MUSIC & BRANDS
Whether or not they realize it, retailers leverage music this time of year to strengthen their brand. How? Through Christmas music of course. Brands with little experience in the field might fail to appreciate the extraordinary influence music can have over customers. Luckily AdWeek has a handy guide on how to hit the sweet spot.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
What says more about a year than a "Top 50 of 2015" list? A list of the best lists, naturally. "The Best Lists of 2015" Enjoy.
OTHER GOINGS ON
Rob in the hot seat with Larry LeBlanc. What 30-Times Multi-Platinum looks like. Google's 2015 Year In Search. Nice roundup of 100 good podcasts. A look at Halsey, digital obsession and new paths to artist success.
MEDIA DIET
Will And The People
"Trustworthy Rock"
Ravi Shankar & George Harrison
Vox's The Weeds "Ben Bernanke"
SNL "Santa Baby"
See ya next year...
THIS WEEK IN...
MUSIC & INDUSTRY
Pandora acquired Rdio this week (or at least Rdio's leftovers, after they filed for bankruptcy), shutting down the service and firing the CEO. Examining why Rdio failed is a useful and educating exercise; much more interesting is what Pandora's plan indicates to the larger landscape. The Rdio acquisition gives Pandora a platform to serve on-demand content to listeners (at a higher premium), while the acquisition of TicketFly gives Pandora a platform to integrate a live experience to listeners. Importantly, these new assets provide a richer listener data profile to sell to advertisers - something they've achieved big success with of late, particularly with their Serial distribution deal.
MUSIC & BRANDS
Red Bull Sound Select is in the middle of their "30 Days in LA", a series of subsidized club shows across LA every day in the month of November. The shows are ostensibly free to attend (assuming you join RBSS and RSVP online) and feature highly coveted, highly hip talent (compensated by Red Bull rather than ticket sales). This promotion checks off all the boxes; well-curated talent, high FOMO factor, builds a community of followers and strong brand development. Be sure to check out a show if you're in LA anytime in November.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
MIDIA released a report this week on digital music spends. The takeaway: average consumer spend on music fell in 2014. So why is this important? It signals an acceptance among consumers of advertising in their listening experience. Brands can rest assured that ad development in places like Spotify and Pandora will garner huge audiences for the foreseeable future. While digital music spending dropped, spending on live music continues to rise, as consumers continue to place more value on music experiences over music recordings.
OTHER GOINGS ON
Lefsetz on Pandora / Rdio. Always great. On Vevo and the strong emotional connection music creates. Major Lazer: #1 All-Time on Spotify. Tend to agree that Apple has really, really fallen behind w/ the iTunes user experience. Bill Simmons interviews Obama.
THIS WEEK IN...
THIS WEEK IN MUSIC & INDUSTRY
1. This week YouTube rolled out their strategy for virtual reality content. "Today, YouTube is unveiling 360-degree virtual reality videos and a virtual movie theater for all YouTube videos, available to anyone with a Google Cardboard headset. The features launch today for its Android app, and are coming “soon” for iOS. The goal is to “democratize virtual reality” and “bring VR to everybody, no matter who you are or what your favorite piece of content is,” YouTube says. “Virtual reality makes the experience of being there even more awesome and immersive.””
2. Virtual reality is a technology that's always just over the horizon, the requisite hardware prohibitively expensive and technical. Well... it turns out that the accelerometer and gyroscope in your smartphone tracks movement with exceptional precision. Turns out all you need is some well folded cardboard to suspend your disbelief. "It’s cheap, it’s easy, it works with your phone. It’s still a million miles away from the best VR demos out there; Oculus, HTC’s Vive, and Project Morpheus all blow Cardboard out of the water—which they should, because they’re not made of cardboard.But Cardboard more than accomplishes what it’s supposed to: It transports you. Download the roller coaster app, and you’re flying through the air. Download the Paul McCartney app, and suddenly you’re perched on the edge of his piano."
3. And with what looked like a campy cardboard DIY VR gimmick, YouTube / Google's jump start on the future of content emerges. Enter the New York Times, whose skill in distributing paper to people's doorstep comes in handy for something like this... The one stumbling block is that not that many people have the equipment to experience VR. Google says some 1 million folks already own the Cardboard viewer, but that’s not nearly enough to satisfy the scope of YouTube’s enormous ambitions. So it’s convenient that the company is launching these virtual reality features right before The New York Times ships 1.3 million Google Cardboard sets this weekend, as it debuts its new VR documentary, “The Displaced.”
4. Check out the Times' new app NYT VR if you're not convinced yet. This is not the future this is now.
MARKETING FACTORY NEWS MFI & Honda have been nominated for a Billboard Touring Award in Concert Marketing & Promotions for the 2015 Honda Civic Tour!
Rob will be speaking at a FestForward panel, "Activating Sponsorships at a Festival.” More info here.
OTHER GOINGS ON Willie Nelson v. Big Marijuana. Adele profiled and Adele empowered. Interesting distribution deal b/w Serial and Pandora. John Seabrook in the Guardian. ...and of course, the new Vice channel.
THIS WEEK IN...
THIS WEEK IN MUSIC & INDUSTRY 1. Let's start by deconstructing a prototypical Top 40 pop track. "Most of the songs played on Top Forty radio are collaborations between producers like Stargate and “top line” writers like Ester Dean. The producers compose the chord progressions, program the beats, and arrange the “synths,” or computer-made instrumental sounds; the top-liners come up with primary melodies, lyrics, and the all-important hooks, the ear-friendly musical phrases that lock you into the song. “It’s not enough to have one hook anymore,” Jay Brown, the president of Roc Nation, and Dean’s manager, told me recently. “You’ve got to have a hook in the intro, a hook in the pre-chorus, a hook in the chorus, and a hook in the bridge.” The reason, he explained, is that “people on average give a song seven seconds on the radio before they change the channel, and you got to hook them.”
The top-liner is usually a singer, too, and often provides the vocal for the demo, a working draft of the song. If the song is for a particular artist, the top-liner may sing the demo in that artist’s style. Sometimes producers send out tracks to more than one top-line writer, which can cause problems. In 2009, both Beyoncé and Kelly Clarkson had hits (Beyoncé’s “Halo,” which charted in April, and Clarkson’s “Already Gone,” which charted in August) that were created from the same track, by Ryan Tedder. Clarkson wrote her own top line, while Beyoncé shared a credit with Evan Bogart. Tedder had neglected to tell the artists that he was double-dipping, and when Clarkson heard “Halo” and realized what had happened she tried to stop “Already Gone” from being released as a single, because she feared the public would think she had copied Beyoncé’s hit. But nobody cared, or perhaps even noticed; “Already Gone” became just as big a hit."
2. The homogeneity of substance and style (despite a wide diversity of performers) stems from more than just formulaic composition. A staggering number of hits originate from one place; Max Martin and his fellow Swedish protoges. "Among the stranger aspects of recent pop music history is how so many of the biggest hits of the past twenty years—by the Backstreet Boys, ’NSync, and Britney Spears to Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and the Weeknd—have been co-written by a forty-four-year-old Swede. His real name is Karl Martin Sandberg, but you would know him as Max Martin, if you know of him at all, which, if he can help it, you won’t. He is music’s magic melody man, the master hooksmith responsible for twenty-one No. 1 Billboard hits—five fewer than John Lennon, and eleven behind Paul McCartney, on the all-time list. But, while Lennon and McCartney are universally acknowledged as geniuses, few outside the music business have heard of Max Martin.
Presumably this is because Martin writes all of his songs for other people to sing. The fame that Lennon and McCartney achieved by performing their work will never be his, which no doubt is fine with Martin. (He still gets the publishing.) He is the Cyrano de Bergerac of today’s pop landscape, the poet hiding under the balcony of popular song, whispering the tunes that have become career-making records, such as “… Baby One More Time,” for Britney Spears, “Since U Been Gone,” for Kelly Clarkson, and “I Kissed a Girl,” for Katy Perry. The songs he co-wrote or co-produced for Taylor Swift, which include her past eight hits (three from “Red” and five from “1989”), transformed her from a popular singer-songwriter into a stadium-filling global pop star. (The “1989” tour recently passed the hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar mark.)"
3. Lefsetz contrasts Max Martin's legacy with that of the industry's current front runner, Taylor Swift. "That’s right, I can strongly argue that Taylor Swift is what’s wrong with music today. She took a huge country career, built upon her personal story married to hooks and melody, and turned to the world’s greatest hitmaker, Max Martin, to make her into a pop star. Pop stars come and go, the legends are forever. And today there’s really only one pop star, Mr. Martin, his fingerprints are all over not only Taylor Swift’s music but the Weeknd’s too, never mind… Furthermore, Martin has a coterie of apprentices who churn out more hits, and you’ve got to give him credit, but if you’re looking for honesty and innovation from a fortysomething Swede, you’re looking in the wrong place. We’ve never had a Swedish Bob Dylan, and if you’re a legend, you write not only your own music, but your lyrics too."
4. Now it should be evident why SPIN tasks the creators, not the performers, with telling us in what direction the future of pop music is going. They are the ones with the hands firmly on the steering wheel. "Nobody decides the sounds of the future quite like the producers and songwriters of the present. We saw the standard for present-day pop set last year with the synths and production depth of Taylor Swift’s 1989, which used a dream-team of producers and writers (Max Martin, Ryan Tedder, Shellback) to blend familiar sounds and emotional beats with modern-day lyrics and studio advancements. It captured the world’s imagination with a very 2015 blending of nostalgia and current innovation — throwback pop no longer has to sound plainly “retro”; even the past can pick up future sheen."
MARKETING FACTORY NEWS MFI & Honda have been nominated for a Billboard Touring Award in Concert Marketing & Promotions for the 2015 Honda Civic Tour!
Rob will be speaking at a FestForward panel, "Activating Sponsorships at a Festival" More info here.
OTHER GOINGS ON Ken M., internet comment troll maestro. More on Nielsen's new ad metric system. The sound and the fury; Florence Welch. Different paths from post-Disney stardom. The scourge of the peer rating boss.
THIS WEEK IN...
1. This week YouTube rolled out the red carpet for their new ad-free paid subscription service. Let's examine.
"YouTube generates billions of dollars a year running ads in its vast repository of music, video game and how-to videos. Now the video site and its parent company, Google, are hoping users will pay for the privilege to watch the same videos without ads. YouTube executives on Wednesday introduced YouTube Red, a long-anticipated subscription service that will cost $10 a month for the same videos ad-free. The company simultaneously announced YouTube Originals, a slate of original programming that will be available only on the paid service."
2. The broad numbers on viewing habits support YouTube's ambitions. "Across all audience segments under 50, television engagement is declining rapidly. The amount of time Americans aged 18 to 24 spend watching traditional TV (inclusive of live, VOD and DVR) is down 37% since 2010 – or 46 fewer hours per month. For 12-17s, TV time is down 31% (or 36 hours). 25-34s are down 28% (or 42 hours). Granted, Nielsen’s figures don’t capture TV Everywhere, but Adobe (the primary TV Everywhere authenticator) reports that only 13M of 250M+ Pay TV watching Americans used TV Everywhere in 2014 (and Q4 actually showed a 2.5% drop in users). Furthermore, had every one of 2014’s 2.1B authenticated streams lasted a full hour[1], it would have increased 2014 TV viewing time by a mere 0.41%. This time is not simply evaporating. Instead, it’s moving to services such as Netflix (each of the company’s 43M US accounts watches more than 2 hours a day), Twitch (15M American viewers watching 30 minutes a day), YouTube (163M watching 35 minutes a day) and scores of other low cost (if not free) digital-first brands and services."
3. As do specific anecdotes. Case in point; a Jags - Bills game in London sold out of ad space... as the first exclusive online stream of an NFL game, via Yahoo. "The company is pulling out all the stops, including launching a dedicated website and Twitter hashtag, #WatchWithTheWorld. Despite the early-morning game time (9:30 a.m. on the East Coast) and a pair of teams that don't garner much national attention, Yahoo was able to sell out its inventory, booking major brands including Toyota, American Express, Citi and Microsoft among the more than 30 advertisers that signed up."
4. Comparisons to Netflix are appropriate, but YouTube has something unique - homegrown superstars like "PewDiePie", with his 40 million followers and 10 billion views. "“It’s been a certain group that knows about me, for sure. A lot of people are still like, ‘What is a PewDiePie?’ But it really is interesting to see, as one of the bigger names on YouTube, that right now there’s a transition phase where YouTube is becoming more popular and accepted as a medium by itself,” said Kjellberg. The online fandom for its stars extends to the offline world too: 1,400 fans turned up to Kjellberg’s book signing in London last weekend, while he has been mobbed when appearing at online-video industry award ceremonies. “I see the numbers that are there online: a lot of people watching and commenting. But you go to these events and think, ‘Oh shit! It’s actually real.’ It’s a really big transition,” he said."
5. Will this hurt their ad business? Doubtful. "On the face of it, YouTube’s new ad-free subscription service seems like an existential threat to the advertisers the service has spent a decade courting. Kyncl, ever the salesman, argues that Red could boost creator earnings without cannibalizing the ad business. "We believe in the advertising business. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the content on YouTube will be free, as it always has been," he explained. "So the world that all of our advertising partners are used to remains alive and well and [watch time]continues to grow at an astonishing 60 percent year over year. There is nothing we are taking away from there, merely adding onto it." If everything plays out as Kyncl hopes, there will be more money, more content, and more viewership overall. Still, if the most passionate fans stopped looking at ads, wouldn’t that make the service less appealing to marketers who want their brands associated with YouTube stars? "Let’s take it to the extreme," said Kyncl. Say every paid television customers in the United States — 100 million individuals — sign up for YouTube Red. That would still be less than a tenth of YouTube’s total audience, barely making a dent in the number of eyeballs that would be available to advertisers. Kyncl laughed — "and we have a very long way to go to that kind of number.""
OTHER GOINGS ON...
Will VR's "big moment" really come via cardboard and a 164-year old print media company? Terry Gross, profiled. Pompous tech-bro bus ads a failure. Shocking. The throat maestro. Evolution of electronic music in 26 records. Insta-gifs. Finally! Is Nielsen catching up with the times?
THIS WEEK IN...
1. This week we pick back up on a familiar story; the so-called devaluation of music. The Music Managers Forum published "Dissecting The Digital Dollar", a report on digital dollar flows in the industry. It's also just a fancy gripe from artists on revenues.
"The Music Managers Forum (MMF) has published its new Dissecting the Digital Dollar report, calling for greater transparency around the money musicians earn from digital music services.The report was announced earlier this month but published this morning, with a press conference in London featuring manager Brian Message, the MMF's Jon Webster and the report's author, CMU's Chris Cooke.Based on qualitative research with 50 managers and 30 digital-music experts in five countries, the report digs in to managers; views on issues from digital royalties to safe harbour legislation, but transparency was the key word judging by the launch."
2. Some go even further, bemoaning the larger cultural cheapening music devaluation apparently signals. "Less obvious are a number of other forces and trends that have devalued music in a more pernicious way than the problems of hyper-supply and inter-industry jockeying. And by music I don’t mean the popular song formats that one sees on awards shows and hears on commercial radio. I mean music the sonic art form — imaginative, conceptual composition and improvisation rooted in harmonic and rhythmic ideas. In other words, music as it was defined and regarded four or five decades ago, when art music (incompletely but generally called “classical” and “jazz”) had a seat at the table."
3. So why bother revisiting this story? To illustrate how crucial brand partnerships are today for artists. They are no longer just a cash bonus for big acts, instead brand partnerships are an essential piece to the success of any act. Managers, give us a buzz to discuss. "When it comes to music and brands it feels like there's a genuine opportunity for both parties to benefit. The two need each other like never before. Today's artists have been raised in a branded world. They benefit from brand support and income and really engage when campaigns are creative. Meanwhile brands benefit from access to large, passionate audiences and an association with music and celebrity."
OTHER GOINGS ON...
Check out John Diaz's book Caught Up In The Fable and John himself on the Oprah Winfrey Network this Saturday 10/17 at 10PM! Live Nation TV launched. #content On the future of music performance. Behind the scenes on Pepsi's 30-year product placement campaign. Profile Anxiety.
THIS WEEK IN...
1. This week VEVO released a report on the viewing habits of millennials, showing off the value of their viewing data to brands.
"Within this report, we have identified four different tribes of music fans based on data from quantitative research, in person interviews, and in-depth behavioral analysis. We look at this report as a framework for how we understand the complexities and intricacies of Millennial behavior. It has been built with passion and respect for the music fan, a sentiment which continues to be at the core of everything we do at Vevo."
2. At the same time, YouTube is planning the launch of their 'ad-free' subscription service, potentially alienating both brands and creators.
"“Most folks don’t have any issue with this,” said the exec. “Some folks cannot do it because they have pre-existing restrictions, so some carve-outs are inevitable. At the end of the day, this is critical for YouTube and they will ram it through, although clearly it hasn’t been easy for them. My understanding is that the most vocal ‘no’ vote has been amongst folks that manage the talent.”"
3. The important takeaway for brands remains the same; watch the changing tides and remain nimble.
"Imagine consensual advertising: “Listen,” the media company says, “unless you want to pay for what you’re now enjoying for free — and let’s both be honest, we know you won’t — we need to serve you advertising. Sorry about that. But we will give you considerable choice and control over that advertising so you can improve your experience and keep us and our advertisers honest. Willing to try?” Imagine what such a system of customer control would do for the quality of advertising — if customers themselves fire bad advertisers and reward good ones with their consent and perhaps attention and business. Advertisers will be motivated to improve their quality and they will also know who is willing to connect with them. Media could enable that."
OTHER GOINGS ON...
LCD Soundsystem rumors are flying. The rise of the synth. What SFX means for EDM as a whole. Excellent Nicki Minaj profile in the Times.