Buying Concert Tickets Feels Like Saving The World
Uploading 35K Songs A Day, Billboard's Buzzy Twitter Chart, Preferred Music Podcasts
We somewhat cynically suggested a few weeks back that Live Nation’s bullish stock performance is tied to its appearance as the promoter best situated to survive the pandemic.
That idea wasn’t dispelled late last week when CEO Michael Rapino dropped a video on Twitter telling the world to “GET READY FOR THE GREATEST CONCERT SEASON IN HISTORY!” But we still couldn’t help getting a little emotional about the idea that we’ll soon be singing along together.
It can be easy to sound a little jaded when you’re analyzing the industry week after week—especially during trying times. But unlike a more mundane careers, music is a business built on feels as much as fortunes. So go buy some concert tickets this week (Hollywood Bowl, anyone?), and don’t you dare ask for guest list.
TAKEAWAYS
Salient statements from this week’s industry news.
1. Distrokid Is Now Distributing Over a Million New Tracks Every Month
If Distrokid is responsible for over half of Spotify’s 60,000 new songs every day, then it’s probably safe to assume that its closest competitor, Tunecore, picked the right time to go public.
Takeaway: DistroKid now estimates that it’s distributing “30-40% of all new music in the world”, and that its catalog holds nearly 20 million tracks, from more than 2 million artists.
2. What Next for Music as Streaming Growth Slows?
Growth looks less like streams and more like synergies as the industry exists the pandemic.
Takeaway: Until now, streaming enabled revenue growth in its own right, now it will enable growth in new adjacent markets.
3. Billboard & Twitter to Launch 'Hot Trending' Chart Tracking Music Buzz Online
Could this have anything to do with Square buying up Tidal?
Takeaway: Unlike existing Billboard charts that update weekly, Billboard Hot Trending will refresh every 24 hours to capture the latest music-focused conversations happening on the platform.
4. Chance the Rapper’s ‘Magnificent Coloring Book’ Concert Film Set for Theater Release
The industrious artist is taking smart advantage of the theater chain’s worst year ever. Kinda glad we bought some stonks.
Takeaway: As the first individual music artist to distribute a concert film at AMC, Chance continues to break new ground in entertainment.
Speaking of Music
The Fader launched a new foray into podcasting with Mark Ronson talking to ?uestlove on Uncovered.
Luminary’s The Midnight Miracle with Talib Kweli, yasiin bey, and Dave Chappelle might just be worth paying for premium.
BBC Sounds talks about the early days of Daft Punk while waxing poetic about the Glasgow techno scene that midwifed the birth of the robots.