From Spotify’s headline-grabbing sponsorship to TikTok’s latest feature, its been another wild week in the music business.
The third full week of March 2022 did not disappoint. While thousands gathered in Texas for South by Southwest, the biggest companies in music made moves that will shape the future of our business. From new ways to connect with fans to the latest billion-dollar valuation, the stories we’ve gathered this week showcase an industry very much in a state of evolution.
We cannot ease your workload or give you more hours in the day, but we can help you stay informed. Below you’ll find the biggest stories of the week, all covered by the best outlets in tech and entertainment. Click around, learn what’s happening, and use the weekend to prepare for what the end of the month will hold.
But let’s be honest. There is no way we can hope to cover everything that happens. If you see a headline we missed that people need to know, please do not hesitate to send james@haulix.com an email. We’ll include your links in the next update.
The biggest stories in music this week
Spotify’s $310m Barcelona sponsorship is more than it ever paid an artist in royalties.
This week (March 15), Spotify announced that it had struck a major four-year sponsorship agreement with Barcelona. The deal will see Spotify’s logo splashed across the Spanish football/soccer giant’s shirts from July 1, resulting in the world-famous stadium, the Camp Nou, being rebranded with Spotify’s name.
The cost of this sponsorship? $310 Million.
Our friends at MBW decided to see which, if any, artists had made that much money from streaming their music on Spotify. The answer may (not) surprise you.
Linktree valued at $1.3billion (and its worth every cent)
Linktree, the company that makes landing pages that can provide a host of links to other sites and is most popular on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, has been valued at $1.3 billion.
Who knew that websites that only allow users to put one URL in their profiles (think Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok) would end up spawning a startup worth over a billion dollars? While it is entirely reliant on these services retaining this limitation, it hasn’t stopped Linktree’s continued success at finding funding at incredible valuations for a company with what is basically one subscription-based product.
That said, Linktree claims it has helped 1.7 million people drive 1.2 billion clicks to commerce-related websites in the last year alone.
TikTok is rolling out a Snapchat-style Stories feature
Snapchat’s stories feature has revolutionized social media. The short-lived update feature for friends and followers has been copied by virtually every other social media platform in existence, including—as of this week—TikTok.
In a statement provided to TechCrunch, TikTok noted that “Currently, we’re expanding a pilot test, which provides creators with additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the TikTok community,” although that doesn’t say how many users are currently included in the test or what the future rollout of the feature will look like.
Adding a video or photo to a story works extremely similarly to taking a photo or video for TikTok’s standard feature, with the same editing tools, effects, filters, and sounds. Unlike a regular TikTok video, though, stories won’t show up directly on your profile or feed and disappear after 24 hours.
Global Recorded Music Revenue Hit $28.8 Billion in 2021, According to Midia
Global recorded music revenues are estimated to have grown by 24.7%, to $28.8 billion in 2021. That’s according to a new report from Midia, published today (March 18), a few days ahead of the release of IFPI’s Global Music Report. Midia says that the 24.7% increase in 2021 represented the market’s “largest annual growth in modern times”.
WinAmp joins the NFT marketplace, and its founder hates it
Announced to widespread derision on Wednesday, Winamp will auction off the media player’s original skin as a one-of-one NFT on OpenSea, with bidding to start on May 16 and run until May 22. It then intends to sell 20 more artworks starting from May 23, all of them duplicated around 100 times to create 1997 NFTs in total (a nod to the year the program launched). Each will cost 0.08 ETH, which is approximately $225 at the current conversion rate, so if all 1997 NFTs are sold it would total almost $450,000.
SONG OF THE WEEK: Bad Wolves – “If Tomorrow Never Comes”
