SoundExchange smashes its record for annual distributions in 2016 – with annual payouts to labels and artists up 10.1% to $883.9m. Speaking to MBW last year, the US organization’s boss Michael Huppe suggested that high single-digit annual growth might be on the cards if it enjoyed a good Q3 and Q4. In fact, SoundExchange’s…
5 Tips To Supercharge Your Spotify Marketing Strategy
Accepting the challenge of the fast changing music market is no longer an option. Spotify is becoming the key player in this game more and more and you really should build up a strategy to get as many plays as possible. Here is a distillation of the experiences I made in the last months:…
VEVO NOW BOASTS ALMOST 100M ACTIVE USERS IN THE US MARKET
Some 97 million Americans watched at least one music video on Vevo in October 2016, according to comScore’s first ever release of Video Metrix with YouTube mobile viewership included. And that’s not the only intriguing stat to come out of the new research: apparently, 43% of all YouTube viewers in the US watched a Vevo video…
Lil Wayne launches Hulu’s new virtual reality music series ‘On Stage’
Hulu’s new virtual reality music docu-series has arrived, and the premiere episode is an immersive glimpse into the world of rap star Lil Wayne. The series, called “On Stage,” debuted Thursday through the streaming service’s VR app. Episodes can also be viewed traditionally on Hulu. In the premiere episode, Wayne takes cameras along as he…
How 6LACK Went From Atlanta Battle Rapper To Budding Superstar
It’s not easy for young artists to stand out. Great music is the first requirement, but it also takes something else—something beyond just the music—to makes fans gravitate towards an artist. In 2017, a personal connection has become a necessity as well. By looking at the rabid fanbase he’s amassed (his recent No Ceilings show with Pigeons…
‘TRADITIONAL MUSIC PUBLISHING DOESN’T HELP ARTISTS AT A CERTAIN LEVEL’
A decade ago, Sentric Music founder Chris Meehan was studying at Liverpool’s Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) – while trying to make a decent fist of chaperoning the careers of local bands. One day, he got hold of the publishing contract of one of his acts – and it blew his mind. “We looked through…
How To Use Pandora AMP To Score 50,000 Video Views In 3 Days
This is a story about how my band Smalltown Poets used artist data to leverage success for our music. Over the course of five days, a simple video post on Facebook netted us over 55,000 views, 806 shares, 500 new followers, 150 song downloads, 20 album downloads, and thousands of streams on Spotify and Apple Music. It was so simple! There was…
LIVE NATION ACQUIRES LYTHAM FESTIVAL OWNER CUFFE & TAYLOR
The business, which was founded in 2009 by Daniel Cuffe and Peter Taylor, is focused on festivals and promoting artists in novel and non-traditional outdoor venues. Michael Rapino, Live Nation Entertainment President and CEO, said: “Our mission at Live Nation has never been clearer. We want to connect fans with the artists they love,…
Who Really Benefits From Competition in Music Streaming?
Let’s talk about business for a minute, or more specifically, competition within it. Let’s define competition in business like we’re writing the introduction to a boring high school graduation speech: the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines competition (as it relates to business and economics) as “the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure…
Sprint Purchases 33 Percent Stake in Jay Z’s Tidal
Nearly two years after first denying a rumored investment, Sprint has announced its acquisition of a 33 percent stake in Jay Z‘s competitive streaming service Tidal. The partnership will provide Sprint’s 45 million customers with “unlimited access” to exclusive artist content. Anyone with a preexisting Tidal subscription, meanwhile, will experience no change in their service. “Sprint shares our…
