The Cadence 2020 - 2024
Some final thoughts on the things that have kept us interested.
As we prepare to wrap up The Cadence next week, we’ve been reviewing the archives. One hundred and seventy-eight is a lot of weekly newsletters, but looking at them all, two things stand out.
First, we’ve been wrong — a lot. This comes with the territory when covering any dynamic industry. Trends that seem salient one year can become laughable the next (Clubhouse, anyone?).
Meanwhile, things that do move the needle start slowly and keep going until meaningful changes are made — like Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge’s New Year’s memo that led to Spotify’s new royalty model.
The point isn’t always to be right. The point is always to be aware.
One thing we’ve always been aware of is our luck in being able to showcase frequent illustrations by David J. Weissberg. Starting with The Cadence #9, David has provided us dozens of excellent illustrations in his inimitable style — often on less than 24 hours’ notice. We’re incredibly grateful.
So today, we’re setting our Wayback Machine to Feb 2021 to see where some of the stories we’ve covered ended up. And looking back at some of David’s awesome images in the process..
1. Daft Punk Is Playing At My Clubhouse
FEB. 23, 2021
Things were grim when we kicked off The Cadence. COVID had the world stuck at home, the Jan. 6 insurrection had the country freaked out, and the George Floyd protests had the streets riled up. Then something really bad happened — Daft Punk broke up.
We couldn’t go out and dance our blues away (clubs were still closed(, but we could do the next best thing—share memories of the robots on a fun new app called Clubhouse. What started as a spontaneous chat amongst a few friends became something extra when the audience swelled to 700 listeners and some of the Frenchmen’s friends and colleagues like Chris Holmes and Tommie Sunshine showed up to share the love.
Takeaway: At this moment, we started taking The Cadence much more seriously, realizing that people out there wanted to have the same conversations we were interested in having.
2. WTF are NFTs!?
MAR 03, 2021
No sooner had we closed the Daft Punk party line than we were compelled to get back on the horn to discuss the new NFT craze that was beginning to bubble up in the mainstream. It wouldn’t be long before the token craze was lambasted by SNL and drove off a cliff. But for a brief moment, some working musicians we knew were able to make some real money.
Takeaway: It’s not hard to hear the conversations NFTs started about scarcity and value echoing in everything from today’s fight to raise streaming rates to tomorrow’s threat of generative AI washing all human creators away.
3. Lawsuits Over Song "Stealing" Aren't Going Away
OCT 14, 2021
It’s been a while since we’ve heard of any big new legal cases about what is or isn’t plagiarism (or interpolation). Maybe that’s because everyone is too busy talking about whether or not AI training represents copyright infringement on a scale that has been unimaginable since the heyday of Napster.
Takeaway: Hipgnosis has had a rough go lately, but it looks like Blackstone will cover them. As for UMG, first they spent a 12-months getting Spotify to finally do something about fake streams. This year, they’re focused on monetizing super fans. Will it work? We know better than to bet against Lucian.
4. The Concert Comeback Is Complete
DEC 08, 2021
Of all the recent history we’re still struggling to comprehend, the biggest WTF must be how we all went so long without concerts. The week after we published this optimistic outlook, our next headline read “COVID Keeps Coming For Our Concerts,” a reminder of how start and stop things were for at least two years.
Takeaway: COVID hasn’t been a concern for a while (thank heavens!), but the economic fallout is still being felt by many touring acts and venues as they face the higher cost of everything. We’re past making predictions, but after ruling the world with her 2023 tour, wouldn’t it be cool if Taylor Swift set up shop somewhere like The Sphere for all of 2025? The Vegas Tourism Board would surely appreciate it.
5. Could Fans Become The Keepers Of Catalogs?
JAN 13, 2022
One thing that’s kept us interested throughout The Cadence's run has been the rise of music catalogs. Although our dream of an artist’s oeuvre being managed by a DAO-driven collective of invested fans seems farther off than it did in 2022, we’d still like to see it someday.
Takeaway: Big catalog buyouts have cooled off as interest rates have risen, but the concept of songs and recordings as an asset class is still a solid bet. And we know people are still committed to building grassroots monetization solutions for artists who don’t fit into the streaming mold. They’re just doing it without the hype of Web3 consuming all of the oxygen.
6. Should DJs Pay Producers With Gig Money?
APR 14, 2022
We were looking for an example of 21st-century DIY music monetization tech that didn’t require millions in VC funds to get off the ground. And we found it in Alice, a solution to pay discrepancy problem between DJs and producers that plagues dance music. The solution was so simple; we couldn’t believe it took this long to figure out. Just ask the DJs to share the wealth, and make it easy for them to do the right thing.
Takeaway: As of Dec. 2023, tracks in the Aslice system paid an average of $2.14 per play, with some earning as high as $16.65 per play. That’s exponentially more money than streaming pays, and it could represent a meaningful new revenue stream for producers whose tracks get rinsed in da club.
7. Kate Bush Was Always A Stranger Thing
JUN 10, 2022
The Cadence has generally concentrated on the business of music, but that doesn’t mean we are not fans first. We were as thrilled as any Gen Xers to see Kate Bush come back in a big way via Stranger Things. And we were thrilled that one of our friends and readers, UK journalist Dominic Mohan, delivered our first guest op-ed.
Takeaway: Kate’s 2022 comeback was a classic music sync story. But two years later, another one of her songs is going viral on TikTok — the same platform introduced a new generation to the genius of Fleetwood Mac, Nelly Furtado and many others. Whatever is in store for TikTok’s future, we hope the virality slot machine keeps coming up classics.
8. The Music x Brand High-Wire Act
MAR 03, 2023
In the very first issue of The Cadence published in December 2020, titled “The New Endorsement Age,” reflected on Pepsi’s decades-long sponsorship of the Superbowl halftime show and how that early example of music-driven branding became a fundamental part of modern musician’s monetary calculous.
We didn’t spend as much time discussing brands over the next 3 1/2 years as we first imagined we would — probably because the practice is less volatile (if you ignore Yeezy of it all). But we were still stoked to talk to some real music branding experts when the opportunity arose.
Takeaway: Usher pretty much perfected the art of the diversified artist brand portfolio when he performed at the Super Bowl this year. We’ll send out an emergency Cadence update as soon as someone tops him. ;-)
9. Will Spatial Come To Spotify?
Another conversation with colleagues we were honored to host. What started as an op-ed by Grammy-nominated producer/engineer Dean Reid became a roundtable discussion with two more of our award-winning friends and readers, Kevin “Daddy Kev” Moo and Steve Genewick. We recently unlocked the paywall that held that full convo, so we encourage all of our readers to enjoy this enlightening conversation.
Takeaway: In January, AppeMusic announced that it would start paying higher royalties to tracks mixed in Dolby Atmos, a sure sign that the tech will remain at the forefront for the foreseeable future.
10. Schrödinger's Bandcamp
OCT 20, 2023
When you spend too much time on music business Twitter, every day can feel like a crisis. There’s no denying that the past 18 months have seen plenty of good people in music tech lose their jobs, but we’ve always tried to refrain from the sky is falling discourse and reframe it as a sober analysis that would be useful to our readers. We hope we did a good job.
Takeaway: Like everything from Pitchfork to Coachella, rumors of Bandcamp’s demise seem to have been grossly exaggerated.
10. An Economic Theory of Everything
MAR 02, 2024
If you need any more proof that the rubber is finally hitting the road regarding the value of music in our modern digital ecosystem, consider the fact that no one in the entire world could use Taylor Swift in their TikToks for two whole months! Clearly, things are afoot at the Circle K.
Takeaway: If The Cadence can leave you with one thing, dear readers, it’s that the tribal divides between artists of any size and the platforms we all share do little to improve anyone’s fortunes. There are booms and there are busts and there are times to play hardball in business. But there are also opportunities to work together to support this art form we all love. Music brings people together. It’s nice when the music business brings people together as well.
TAKEAWAYS
Salient statements from this week’s music news.
1. New Penalties for Artificial Streaming
DSPs have begun imposing penalties on parties they believe are artificially inflating streams. But artists are concerned their legitimate streams might be caught up in the process.
Takeaway: At the end of the day, our DSP partners want to be able to rely on the content we provide them, and in turn provide non-fraudulent content to the music lovers who consume it. They also want to ensure that legitimate, hardworking creators like you are compensated properly for your work, and that the bad actors who do engage in improper activity are not rewarded for their unfair actions that hurt your legitimate efforts as an artist.
2. Sony Music Warns AI Companies: Don’t Harvest Our Data
The majors are going on the offensive, telling developers to ask for permission — and warning them not to expect forgiveness.
Takeaway: Although these cases will likely set a precedent for AI training practices in the U.S., the courts typically move at a glacial pace. In the meantime, some technology companies seem set on training their genAI tools on large troves of recordings without permission.
3. U.S. House of Representatives Passes TICKET Act to Create Transparency in Pricing
The bipartisan bill has earned praise from indie venue organizations and Live Nation. Maybe we can all get along.
Takeaway: Bipartisan support for these reforms show that protecting fans and artists is in everyone’s interest.
