Big Sean is getting ready to drop his highly anticipated album I Decided. on Feb. 3. As a result, the Detroit MC recently spoke with Zane Lowe for an Apple Music interview, and Sean Don revealed that Eminem is featured on the new album. Big Sean and Zane Lowe sit down for 45 minutes to discuss the album track by track….
Music Streaming’s New Playlist Economy
Guest Post by Bas Grasmayer on Synchblog Playlists have become the default for listening to both new and unfamiliar music. Instead of digging through complete releases and saving them to our libraries, the design choices of companies like iTunes and Spotify mean we use playlists as the interface for music collections. What are the implications on the business side and…
Why Getting Signed To A Label Shouldn’t Be Your Goal
One of the joys of being involved in the Music Industry is talking music careers with unsigned musicians, discussing their goals and giving my advice to them on what I believe they should be focusing on right now to progress. I’m all about lending my experience to help develop new talent for the good…
SONY SPENDS £86M ON 50% STAKE IN SIMON COWELL’S SYCO HOLDINGS
Sony has been an acquisitive beast in music of late – snapping up Ministry Of Sound, Essential Music and Century Media for a combined £82m since summer 2015. But its biggest buyout of recent times was more inward-looking. According to new financial filings in the UK, Sony acquired a 50% stake in Simon Cowell’s label,…
HOW ONE AWARD-WINNING PRODUCER IS TRANSFORMING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
In an industry struggling to transform in order to thrive in a rapidly changing and increasingly digital market, a young beatmaker turned renowned music producer found an opportunity to change how music artists interact with brands by becoming a disruptive entrepreneur. When Alex “da Kid” Grant began creating beats in his bedroom, he didn’t…
Apple Music Beats Spotify, Pandora To Rank 9th In Mobile App Usage, Says Nielsen
With so much music consumed on mobile devices, app downloads and usage are a major indicators of any music service’s popularity, and according to a new Nielsenranking Apple Music is entering 2017 in a very strong position. _______________________________________ Apple Music beat Spotify, Pandora and all other music services as the 9th most popular smartphone app in the U.S. in…
Travis Scott Searches for Happiness While Creating His ‘AstroWorld’ Album
Oct. 30, 2005 is a date forever burned into Travis Scott’s memory. It’s the date that Houston’s Six Flags AstroWorld shut down. Eleven years later, on a balmy late November afternoon, Travis stands in a circle with three of his close friends-slash-business associates at Fast Ashley’s photo studio in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint area for his XXL cover shoot,…
‘I Know How to Hustle’: The Jeezy Guide to Business Success
Rap tycoon. Business mogul. Entrepreneur. The media may use a variety of terms to describe Atlanta-based rapper Jeezy, but his own definition is far broader . Instead of choosing a label, he simply refers to himself as “one of the greatest hustlers there’s ever been.” Although best known for his rapping, the 39-year-old actually…
James Blake and the Pursuit of Happiness
It’s easy to understand where James Blake gets his reputation. In the six years since his career took off with a major label deal, the British songwriter has become a master of his own style of melancholy, dub-inflected songwriting. His distinct falsetto—first used sparingly amid mysterious electronic tracks, now an inimitable hallmark of his sound—is often warped…
