From audio reactions on Spotify to the latest streaming scam, we’ve gathered the need-to-know music news of the week.
Welcome to the thirty-third Friday of 2022. We are over 3/5 of the way through the year for those keeping count. While kids head back to school and temperatures begin to cool, the music industry is preparing for an incredibly busy fall release and tour season. We feel for you if you’ve got dates or records to promote. It’s a warzone out there, but still—we wouldn’t do anything else.
We’re working hard on exciting new developments for Haulix that will be revealed in the coming weeks. These changes completely rethink our business and how we can help the music community connect. You probably have a lot of questions, but that’s all we can say for now.
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 the end of the month.
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 Music News Stories Of The Week
Spotify Testing Audio Reaction In Vietnam
Swedish music streaming platform Spotify is working on a new feature to let users post audio comments or reactions to music playlists.
A Reddit user in Vietnam first spotted this Spotify experiment, reports The Verge.
“So what do you think? Record an episode to share your thoughts on the playlist,” read the interface.
Below the notification is a record button to start the audio recording.
There are also some simple editing options like being able to add background music and tags.
The reaction feature seems to be accessible via a microphone icon on the playlist’s page, the report noted.
“We are currently running a limited test of in-app audio creation, but have no further details to share at this time,” the company was quoted as saying.
Audiomack Introduces ‘Premier Access’ For Fans
Artist-first music streaming and discovery platform Audiomack announced the debut of Premiere Access, a industry-leading feature that allows artists to reward their biggest fans by making a unreleased projects available on Audiomack before the general release.
“Artists deserve the most powerful tools possible to build their work into financially thriving enterprises,” Audiomack VP of Product Charlie Kaplan said. “Music companies have the opportunity and obligation to enable creators to explore diverse means of monetization and help realize their work’s financial potential.”
For musicians on Audiomack, Premiere Access offers a brand-new revenue stream that goes beyond standard streaming. Now that they are signed up for the Audiomack Monetization Program (AMP), artists can upload their work to Audiomack, use the Premiere Access function, and choose the duration of exclusivity for their release’s backers.
Bad Bunny Tops 2022 Billboard Latin Music Awards Finalists
Puerto Rican hitmaker Bad Bunny leads the list of finalists for the 2022 Billboard Latin Music Awards, with a staggering 23 nods across 13 categories. (The only other artist to ever score that many is Ozuna in 2019.)
Bad Bunny is up for artist of the year, tour of the year, Hot Latin Songs artist of the year, male, and top Latin album of the year for his chart-topping album Un Verano Sin Ti, which is back at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart this week for an eighth nonconsecutive frame on top.
Following Bad Bunny is Colombian star Karol G with 15 entries in 11 categories, a record number of nods for a female artist. (The old record was held jointly by Jenni Rivera, who had 12 nods in 2014, and Shakira, who had 12 in 2018.) Karol G’s categories include artist of the year and Hot Latin Songs artist of the year, female, as well as Hot Latin Song of the year, vocal event, for her Becky G collab “MAMIII.”
Artists Are Manipulating Metadata To Game Spotify’s Algorithms
What if tagging the wrong artist pages was not just a headache to resolve but also a money-making scheme?
What if obscure artists were profiting by purposely tagging big-name artists as primary collaborators, thus reaching said artists’ fanbases via algorithmic music delivery systems like Spotify’s Release Radar?
This is the story of an artist/record label, variously known as Diversify and Variegate.
SONG OF THE WEEK: Chuggaboom – “Should Have Been”
