Streaming evolution; Redefining genres; Microculture memberships; and Web3's music comeback
Edition 05
Hi folks
Happy Wednesday!
This week I dive into impending significant shifts in the streaming landscape, the need for the industry to rethink genre definitions, subscription memberships driving microculture, and web3's second coming in music.
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There's a third culture American-South African dude from Michigan creating some unique sounds with Indian samples (lo-fi desi beats) - check out Moonlit Lover by November Rose. Producing music is one thing, but he's also curating these exclusive (fashion X music) social club experiences that are sophisticated, diverse, luxurious. His latest album 'Required Tastes' is delicious.
Now, let’s get to it.
SONIC SHIFTS
Nearing the end of ad-supported free streaming - 5 Big Changes Coming for Streaming [Streaming] [Biz]
We have always paid for video; whether it be cable, OTT, or rentals; so how did music become free? The freemium model might have been necessary to induce listeners to move from non-legal piracy-based sharing to a legal platform but that’s no longer the case now. Label execs are calling for recurring subscription price increases or abolition of the free-tier altogether. DSPs are seriously mulling over this - after years of subscriber growth at all costs, it’s finally slowing down, and they need to find ways to become profitable. Conceptually I agree with this move, but I would be careful to not get too excited - there is a risk of artists getting squeezed out again, as we have seen in the past. Where are the artist industry/trade bodies when you need them!
Genre categorization has a colonialism problem - Hip hop hasn’t definitively declined as industry will tell you; Genre lines are blurring with international sounds [Culture] [Fandom]
Ever wondered how artists from outside of Western regions are forced to separate themselves from umbrella terms like “hip-hop” by adding regional terms like “Latin” or “African” — unlike artists from the US who are rarely required to use terms like "American hip-hop" or "American rap"? The Eurocentric nature of music and pop culture devalues and diminishes artists from non-western countries, and as an industry, we critically need to start rethinking the way that we define genre.
Related: Genre isn’t dead, it just smells funny! Is “genre” really dead, dissolving, or disappearing?
Future of Live Music - Subscription-supported microculture? [Culture] [Live]
This is the kind of stuff I wanna see the industry experimenting with. Elsewhere is a music venue in Brooklyn started by a diaspora dude Dhruv Chopra. It’s more than a venue, they are on a mission to address loneliness. They launched a membership plan (see graphic below) last year and it’s working! The reasons are simple - people want to be part of a club, a community of music lovers, not just ‘attendees’. Elsewhere does not work with Ticketmaster/Live Nation - they worked with an independent product agency to bring their digital membership platform to life. Absolutely love it.
Web3/Blockchain is not done with music yet - its second coming is more focused on the economic engine than speculative asset bubbles [Tech] [Biz]
There is good chatter in the industry of Web3 making a comeback. I think the industry is at an interesting stage (see graphic below) - WMG and Polygon Labs launched a web3 music accelerator earlier this year, underfunded artists are turning to Tune.fm’s Web3 platform to support their craft, Audius has been monetizing superfans since its inception and they have been steadily growing its user base, last week I wrote about Opulous AI doing the same with royalty payments - all of them are essentially creating a decentralised economic system that supports creativity and equity in compensation.
READ THIS SHIT
Music Spending Is Hitting New Highs and DSPs Need To Catch Up - Milana Lewis as a thought leader and music tech entrepreneur is ahead of the curve. Last year she wrote how DSPs must catch up and increase the value of music (the last decade the value has only reduced) - her ideas are refreshing cause she’s talking about raising the bar when most folks (including myself lol) are talking about reducing the monopolistic power of algos. Perhaps her argument is what will do the trick that makes DSPs change their playbook rather than only lamenting DSPs are eroding the cultural value of music.
TikTokification of Music Industry - Despite Tiktok not present in India, we are facing the effects of this macro trend. “Influence the algorithm, not the audience” is killing music culture (imho). A comment on a very vibrant reddit on this trend had a different view which I respect -
“Is Tiktok bad for music?...Was MTV bad for music? Was radio bad for music? How about the radio? Or CDs?...It's the medium, man. That's all Tiktok is.. It's neither good nor bad. It's the water popular music swims through now. Sure the music changes to suit the medium, as it should. The cool thing about music is it can be shaped to thrive in any medium. Tiktok is the medium now. Period. The art will rise to the occasion. It always does.”
Artists are speaking out about the content treadmill — is it too late to slow down? Back in the day, the delivery mechanism was albums — but the majority of consumers do not listen to full albums anymore. Press is no longer a major route to discovery, either. Playlists have been steadily replaced by TikTok as the crux of music discovery. The only way to be discovered is to ruthlessly release ‘content’ on social media so that you get discovered. This begs the question, are we missing a platform that drives discovery journeys more than driving discovery moments? In last week’s newsletter I talked about how evolving music tech has skipped on social elements - some say YouTube or Soundcloud could be that platform if they decide to be. Time will tell.
KEEP TRACK OF
Cassette Tapes are mounting a comeback - The inevitable revival of analog is bringing even cassettes back. Standalone speciality cassette tape stores are opening up in Japan, folks are reinventing the cassette player - mixtapes are coming back.
WMG is launching its own superfan app - “I’ve assembled a team of incredible technology talent who are working on an app where artists can connect directly with their superfans, who are generally the people that consume the most and spend the most… and we’re focused on making sure that artists get data on these superfans.” . Important to keep track of this though. This might have something to do with their partnership with Polygon (read above in Sonic shifts)
INTERESTING STUFF
Breaking free from Dopamine Culture - This is gold. One of the recommendations is to pursue immersive experiences, such as listening to longer music tracks, something like 10 mins in duration. It completely changes the way one engages with sound and pulls you in, that’s why raving is a culture not just an ‘activity’. Here is one of my fav 10-min long tracks - November by Facundo Mohrr.
GAP in-store music playlist (1992-2006) - We’ve heard Zara’s store music being bangers, GAP was the OG in this regard. In the pre-streaming world, someone was curating the GAP retail stores’ music. No algos to guide the programming. At a later date, someone painstakingly pulled together the tracklists and shared it with the world.
That’s all for today. We’ll be back in your inbox next week.
Thanks for reading,
Rohit