MUSICMETAMORPHOSE

blogging about the ever changing music industry

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Kanye West makes history as ‘The Life of Pablo’ becomes the first streaming-only LP to go Platinum

Kanye West LP is the first streaming only album to earn a platinum certification. The rappers seventh studio album has been certified by the RIAA following its release last February. In total, the record has been streamed over three billion times. It comes after it became the first streaming-only record to hit number one in the Billboard charts. The musician made it clear that he would no longer be releasing music in CD form last year. His 18 track LP was only made available through Jay-Z’s streaming service TIDAL and Kanye stated that the album will never be available through Apple music.

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Is Drake’s ‘More Life’ Playlist or Album?

The GRAMMY winners latest work follows a long line of creative album releases from the likes of Beck, Chance the Rapper and Radiohead

Drake has been all over the music world this week with the debut of his latest playlist via Apple Music. The Grammy to have invented a new category of release with his latest work, the 22 track ‘More Life’ is apparently a “playlist”. The release has caused some debate about the difference between a playlist, a mixtape and a traditional new album. Providing fresh bewilderment for anyone already struggling to work out the difference between albums and the mixtapes that proliferate in the world of hip-hop and R&B. While the questions linger, More Life is the latest demonstration of how artists have unprecedented flexibility in how they release music, thanks to streaming outlets such as Apple Music, Spotify and TIDAL. However, Drakes playlist differs from a mixtape – as he has already released four of those. Drake has previously announced he is “off mixtapes” and vaguely suggested that a playlist is different to a mixtape because it is a “collection of songs that become the soundtrack to your life”. By choosing to call it a playlist, he is fully acknowledging the importance of curated list of songs to the music industry right now. Spotify editorial playlists are the centre of the brand and are tailored around the moods and tastes of “Rap Caviar” and “Good Vibes”. This could be a very modern development redolent of short attention spans in the digital age; a kind of musical equivalent of “always on” marketing or to coincide you could see this as old fashioned with a return to the music industry of the 60’s and early 70’s where even big artists were expected to create a couple of albums and a brace of singles every year. For anybody who thinks Drake work’s rate is impressive, may want to consider the release schedule of James Brown who in 1966 alone, released six albums and 12 singles. Perhaps the new pop landscape is more familiar than it first appears! ‘More Life’ could be seen as the beginnings of a new template for this maturing era of digital distribution; an artist driven format for churning out the level of content that being a relevant artist in the streaming era demands! It is not hard to imagine how More Life’s Playlist model could evolve in the future. Seeing an album come together in real time via frequent updates or artists including songs by their peers in their projects without having to worry about conflict from record labels. The question remains of how much power Spotify, Apple and their rivals can hold on to as they negotiate and renegotiate their access deals with labels. The rise of the playlist could be the thing that gives streaming platforms an advantage over labels or it could be the final straw for labels who decide to pull the access to their music. In the sunniest vision for the future, playlists offer a future where labels, streaming services and artists all share the power and money in the room, even though there might not be that much of it to go around.

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Advanced Online Music - The Life Stages Of The Music Business

With the running theme of this blog being about the music industry I felt that it was necessary to dedicate my first post to the different life stages of the music business and how it has evolved into the digital business model that we know today. The history of the music business can be broken down into the following stages:

Music 0.5 - The Precursor Business Music

1.0 -The Original Music Business Music

1.5 - The Suits Take Over Music

2.0 - The Digital Age Music

2.5 - The Digital Music is Monetised Music

3.0 - The Dawn Of The Artist/Fan Communication Music

3.5 - YouTube Becomes The New Radio

4.0 -Streaming Becomes profitable