Hot on the heels of their critically-acclaimed new album, Vatican chats with Haulix about their fast rise through the metal underground.
Ask any four metalheads about the state of their favorite genre, and you’ll probably get five distinct answers. Some will tell you that metal has never been more alive, but another will just as quickly say that everyone is ripping off some all-time great. Maybe one will speak of underground European acts with fervent followings who “will never be taken seriously in the states,” while another says EDM crossovers are the future.
Everyone is right and everyone is wrong. None of it matters. All that ever matters is the music, and lately, one band has taken the global metal scene by storm.
Vatican takes a very literal approach to being the future of metal. Their music knows no bounds, combining elements of practically everything to concoct short bursts of metal goodness that go down smooth. The band’s new album, Ultra, is one of the few 2022 releases seemingly everyone can agree on, and it has quickly launched the band into the international spotlight. Ultra offers the most fun you’ll have listening to metal this year, and today, we find out how it all came together.
Marking our first video in nearly 3 weeks, music biz host James Shotwell returns with a fast five interview featuring Vatican member Michael Sugars. Speaking from the band’s van while on the road, Sugars shares the stories behind Ultra, landing a deal with UNFD, and how the band’s marketing strategy played a role in their current success. Check it out:
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
What’s in a video view, and how long does it take to earn one? The answer is more complicated than you might expect.
Everywhere you look online, video content is king. Blame the influence of TikTok on culture, but each social platform is now promoting a video feature that—for the time being—offers more views and higher engagement than traditional content.
But what is a view?
Unfortunately for artists and music marketers, A “view” isn’t a standardized unit of measurement. Each platform has a unique set of rules that define how views are counted, and knowing the differences can help you measure the success of your campaigns. For example, a video receiving 100 views on Youtube could hold as much—if not more—value than a video receiving thousands of views elsewhere. The opposite can also be true.
Why does the math behind view counts matter?
Knowing how views are measured provides a greater understanding of how your content is performing on various platforms. If plays are counted instantaneously, like with TikTok or Instagram Reels, you’re likely to have incredibly high view counts regardless of how much engagement (Likes, Comments) you receive. Anyone who even glimpses at your post will be counted as a “viewer,” but how much did they see? Did they even see your name? What, if anything, will they retain?
Receiving 50,000 views on a clip is a cool talking point that sounds good in conversation and looks good buried three paragraphs into a press release, but how many viewers are engaging with that content? Of them, how many followed you?
Understanding the value of a view helps us better gauge the success of our promotional activity. The more we create and share, the better our understanding of what people like and what moves them to take action.
So, what counts as a view?
On TikTok, a view is essentially an impression—meaning, the very millisecond your video starts to play, it’s counted as a view. In addition, the platform also measures repeated views.
Instagram Reels follow the same logic as TikTok. A view is counted the instant a video is viewed. The amount of time watched beyond that initial split-second interaction does not matter.
Over on Facebook, a view is counted after a video autoplays for 3 seconds consecutively. Unlike TikTok and Reels, replays are not counted, so the same viewer watching a video repeatedly will not increase your view count.
Twitter, meanwhile, claims the ‘total video view’ metric is calculated by the sum of “any views which are at least 50 percent in-view for 2 seconds.” That means that to count as a view, at least half of the video has to be visible and playing on a user’s screen for at least two seconds.
Professional networking site LinkedIn counts video views after 3 seconds as well. According to a post from John Espirian, that short wait time “means a quick thumb-scroll past a video isn’t going to count, but if you pause and give the content even brief attention, that will count.
The grandaddy of them all, YouTube, counts a view after 30-seconds of continuous viewing and only when the viewer elects to play the video. Autoplay does not count toward views. YouTube also manually reviews all videos after passing 301 views to ensure the authenticity of viewership.
We will update these numbers are new information becomes available. Follow Haulix on Twitter and Facebook for updates.
From Stranger Things’ Metallica moment to Irv Gotti selling his masters, we’ve gathered the week’s biggest music news.
Another wild week of music business is in the books! The last seven days have seen legacy acts brought to the front page of virtually every entertainment publication while other icons sold their masters for big-time bucks. Elsewhere, tech companies continued plotting the industry’s future as crypto bros panicked over the ongoing devastation to the NFT marketplace. It was absolute chaos, but what else would you expect? Nobody gets into this business for a calm and relaxing existence.
Whether you’re toiling away on a new release or helping your favorite artist plot their global takeover, we know how difficult it can be to stay abreast of everything happening in music. 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.
According to Billboard, the title track off the metal legends’ 1986 album has seen a 400% increase in streams since it was used in the season four finale of the Netflix sci-fi series.
While that certainly is a major bump, “Master of Puppets” still has a long way to go if it hopes to match the resurgence of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” which soared all the way to the top five of the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 after its use in an earlier episode of “Stranger Things” during the fourth season.
Metallica previously commented on the show’s use of “Master of Puppets,” which is heard during a significant scene involving the Dungeons & Dragons-loving character Eddie Munson, sharing that they were “beyond psyched” about the song’s placement.
“We were all stoked to see the final result and when we did, we were totally blown away,” the band said.
Irv Gotti has sold his stake in Murder Inc’s master recordings in a deal worth a reported $300 million.
Irving Lorenzo founded Murder Inc in 1999 following his success at Def Jam Records. The label helped launch the careers of artists like Ja Rule, Ashanti, Charli Baltimore, and many others. The deal sees Irv Gotti sell a “50% ownership stake of his masters, with additional funding for various film and television projects.”
Gotti sold his stake to Olivier Chastan’s acquisition vehicle, Iconoclast. The Los Angeles-based firm entered the music rights acquisition space in February 2022 following the purchase of Robbie Robertson’s music publishing, name, likeness, and recorded music interests.
In data shared exclusively with Bloomberg, the social media site said artists are using Shorts, its TikTok competitor, to rapidly grow their subscribers. In addition to JVKE, others benefiting from the product include singers Madilyn Bailey, Cooper Alan and Emeline, who increased their subscriber counts by 480,000, 290,000 and 150,000, respectively.
“It is a very important opportunity that both the fans and the artists have,” Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s global head of music, said in an interview.
Cohen is excited about the music industry’s opportunity in the short-form space, though he’s also “deeply concerned” some viewers might only watch short-form content without exploring an artist’s deeper, longer-form work, like music videos and interviews. He called short-form videos that don’t link to long-form content “junk food.”
“I think short-form video could help crowdsource and make it easier for kids to find the soundtrack of their youth, but then you have to be prompted, and it has to lead you [to long-form content], so it’s not empty calories, but it leads you to learning and discovering and becoming a fan,” Cohen said.
Their music is available via Spotify as of Saturday (July 2). CSN will donate proceeds from streams to COVID-19 charities for at least a month, a source tells Billboard.
In February, the band members commented, “We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast. While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music — or the music we made together — to be on the same platform.”
SONG OF THE WEEK: Parkway Drive – “The Greatest Fear”
Twitch is making a strategic play to be the future home of music discovery, and a new report suggests the streaming giant is already well on its way.
A new Luminate study says that a third of 13 to 40-year-old listeners in the US discover new music on Twitch. The survey was conducted in Q4 of 2021 among 2,300+ US consumers in the US aged 13-40.
But there’s a catch.
Twitch also sponsored Luminate’s study.
We are not crying foul play or claiming payola is taking place. When a company sponsors a report that finds that the company is performing favorably, we must step back and consider the possibility of outside influence on the final results.
While the survey was conducted by a trusted source – Luminate (formerly MRC) provides all the Billboard chart data – it was funded by Twitch.
The survey admits to “a particular focus on both Twitch users and those who use Twitch specifically for music or music-related content.”
The stated objective of the study was “to quantify the value and influence of Twitch users on the music industry.”
In other words, Twitch paid for someone to find data that presented the company in a positive light, and that person did their job.
You can’t believe everything you read on the internet. For instance, if I told you this blog is the best blog for anyone wanting to work in music, it would make sense to question my motivations. After all, I write the blog, so I have some skin in the game. It benefits me if you believe this is the best blog for music professionals anywhere on Earth. It definitely is that, but it also helps if you believe me. Get it?
Twitch does matter.
The report from Luminate presents a lot of information that helps argue the company’s influence on pop culture.
Music discovery on Twitch
1-in-3 music listeners in the US discover new music through Twitch
54% have discovered new music from streamers actively calling out songs or artists / recommending them in the middle of a live stream
Twitch music engagers are eager to discover new and emerging artists via Twitch (62%)
Twitch houses valuable music fans
Twitch users spend 21% more time per week listening to music than the average music listener.
Twitch users spend 46% more of their hard-earned cash on music (per month) than the average music listener.
Twitch users make over 10x more direct-to-artists payments (per month) than the average music listener.
Twitch users are genre-agnostic enthusiasts
Hip-Hop/Rap is the #1 genre for Twitch’s music fans (70%)
Twitch users are 84% more likely to listen to EDM than the average music listener
Twitch users are far more diverse in weekly genre listenership than the average music listener — Heavy Metal (+61%), Classical (+51%), Jazz (+38%), K-Pop (27%)
Additionally, at any given time of day there are at least 2.5 million people watching streams on Twitch.
“Gaming and music are intrinsically linked, and much of the culture and fan behavior of our gaming community has resonated and found success with our music community,” said new Twitch Head of Music Geetha Mathews. “We are fueling the passion of this leaned-in audience by surfacing a diverse range of creators who are incredibly talented but still under the radar, driving discovery of emerging artists. We aim to help these creators break through the noise by bringing their authentic selves to a massive global user base eager to connect and contribute.”
At every level of the industry, musicians are leaving millions on the table because they won’t market to older listeners. Whether you’re scared or unsure where to start, we can help.
A popular sound on TikTok jokes about an entire generation of always-online, pop culture obsessed humans with disposable income. “Don’t get me wrong, being an adult and living on your own is pretty great,” goes the sound. “The only problem is, I now have access to adult money, which means I can buy whatever I want—which means I end up buying shit like THIS and having zero regrets about it. As the video plays, adults share their arguably ridiculous purchases. For example, someone might show off a full-size pinball machine inside a one-bedroom apartment, or perhaps they have several hundred Funko pops lining the walls of their home.
Another sound asks people to share items they bought with adult money that they probably shouldn’t have purchased.
It’s easy to watch these videos and think these fans are making irrational purchasing decisions. Still, there’s another, more beneficial angle.
There is a growing marketplace of childless adults with lifelong fandoms who will spend top dollar to support their favorite entertainment icons and IP regardless of cost as long as the product caters to their specific interest.
If you love Mario Kart, for example, go-karts adorned with Mario Kart branding. You can even visit an entire theme park dedicated to all things Mario that includes a Mario Kart ride.
Or, if you prefer single-player games, you can purchase meticulously crafted (and pricey) deluxe editions featuring everything from replica weapons to custom dice, maps, mini-figures, plushes, vinyl records, and beyond. Here are two examples from the upcoming God Of War: Ragnarok.
Movie fans have similar options to express their fandom. If you love horror films, you can purchase replica masks that look identical to those worn by villains on screen. Those who love the Marvel and DC cinematic universe, not to mention Star Wars or Star Trek or Harry Potter or the Minions, also have bountiful options to express their love of the IP well into adulthood. Products are made and specifically marketed to those with money to spare.
Music fans, unfortunately, are often left behind.
Think about it for a moment. Despite ample evidence that people of all ages enjoy every style of music imaginable, most merchandise is still geared toward people under the age of twenty-five. That’s true for any modern pop act vying for that demographic’s adoration, but the same can be said for legacy acts. Go to any Target, Wal-Mart, or Meijer near you, and you’ll find classic rock and hip-hop shirts throughout the teen and young adult section. A few items may also exist for adults, generally men, but they are the same logos reprinted in the same style on larger fabric.
Point being: The adult market is an afterthought, and it’s leaving untold millions on the table.
It’s not hard to understand why this happens. As artists progress in their careers, they must make choices that align with their target demographic. Though exceptions exist, most artists have to choose whether to market to young people or grow with their audience. The reason is simple:
Adults are notoriously hard to reach.
After all, it’s easier to know what adults dislike than what they want.
Your adult demo doesn’t want an all-over print
Your adult demo doesn’t want a giant logo tee
Your adult demo doesn’t want another t-shirt unless it’s game-changing.
Your adult demo has no use for stickers or patches and only minimal use for pins
Your adult demo doesn’t want digital downloads. They don’t want digital content, period.
Your adult demo doesn’t buy many hoodies, especially those adorned with giant logos.
Your adult doesn’t want an NFT.
Your adult fans don’t need merch with your face on it.
But it is possible to reach your adult fans without alienating the youth. They’re people, after all, and identifying their needs is as simple as starting a conversation.
If you’ve been making music for any time, you likely have fans older than your target demographic. These fans have the most buying power, and you can capitalize on that by catering to their grown-up needs.
For specific answers, you will have to communicate with your fans (duh), but here are some ideas to get you started:
Your adult demo will buy limited-time and date-specific merchandise. Show posters unique to each tour—or better yet, each date—create a sense of “buy now or forever miss out” that people find hard to resist. That poster may go on to live in a home office or cubicle, reminding that individual of a special night.
Your adult demo will buy minimal merchandise, such as socks or clothing featuring one-to-color designs.
Your adult demo will buy alcohol and alcohol-related products (koozies, bottle openers).
Your adult demo will buy coffee and coffee-related products.
Your adult demo will buy lifestyle items, including grinders, mugs, candles, DND sets, concert prints, commemorative lanyards, etc.
Your adult demo will buy experiences, including VIP upgrades, meet-and-greets, photos, coffee with the band, etc.
Your adult demo will commit to a fan club as long as they receive quality content (presale access, exclusive merch, early music, etc.).
There is no reason any artist with a sizable fan base should leave their adult fans behind.
Virtually every album now comes with multiple pre-order bundles featuring any number of items, so why not make one for the grown-ups among your audience?
Start simple. Ask your fans what merch they want and experiment with their responses until you find something that works. There is no penalty for trying.
From Usher’s Tiny Desk Concert to Frank Zappa’s eye-popping catalog sale, it’s been another wild and unpredictable week for music news.
Welcome to July! 2022 is half over, and the industry is moving faster than it has in years. If you are feeling the heat, you’re not alone. Take the holiday weekend and recover. You’re going to need your strength for everything that the months ahead have in store.
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.
“We celebrate Black Music Month. This has been Black magic.” Truer words may have never been spoken behind the Tiny Desk as R&B goliath Usher caps off our month-long celebration of Black music, highlighting a catalog chock-full of hits spanning 25 years. It’s been over two years since NPR headquarters was abuzz with chatter of a legend in the building. After an early morning rehearsal for his set at the Something in the Water Festival in Washington, D.C., he made his way over to deliver an unforgettable performance.
A radio station in Vancouver, Canada played Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” for hours on end beginning on Tuesday. The 1992 track was played on loop until at least Wednesday – but it is unclear who is behind the mysterious music marathon. The radio station has since announced it was “saying goodbye.”
R. Kelly has been placed on suicide watch at the federal detention facility in New York where he is being held after he was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison on racketeering and sex trafficking charges, his lawyer said Friday.
But the disgraced R&B singer is not suicidal, attorney Jennifer Bonjean told CNN she believes, adding Kelly had been fearful of being put on suicide watch.
“The irony of putting someone on suicide watch when they’re not suicidal is it actually causes more harm,” Bonjean said.
Anyone whose ever tried to do karaoke at home without the use of a karaoke machine will tell you there isn’t a good karaoke app. The best karaoke app is actually YouTube, where saintly people have done the work of removing vocals and creating lyric videos so you can poorly belt basically any song that has ever existed. Tech companies are famously good at filling unnecessary voids in the market, and it’s shocking that Spotify didn’t fill the karaoke app void years ago, especially because the app already displays lyrics or music videos alongside songs.
UMG has acquired Frank Zappa’s recordings, publishing catalog, film archive, and the complete contents of The Vault, the storage facility that houses the late Zappa’s life’s work.
The acquisition also includes Frank Zappa’s name and likeness. UMG hasn’t disclosed the price of the deal.
As we cross the halfway point in a year filled with unpredictable twists, let’s look back at what we’ve learned by revisiting our most viewed content.
If you’re reading this—congratulations! You have survived six months of modern history’s wildest and least predictable year. Look at any corner of our industry, and you will likely find businesses in varying states of painful but necessary evolution.
Touring is back, but it has lost all uniformity. Do we still ask for vaccination cards? Do we offer shots for anyone who hasn’t gotten one? Do we care who does and doesn’t get sick?
Physical media is having a moment, but pipeline delays have ruined vinyl production for the foreseeable future. More plants are opening, but that won’t solve problems related to raw materials. CDs are also back, but good luck finding a car or Bluetooth speaker built to play them.
Several reports say streaming may be plateauing after a decade of constant growth. Other reports claim the exact opposite. Regardless, artists and DSPs are still at odds over royalties, data, and activations in a war that shows no signs of ending.
Nonetheless—We would not change our careers for anything, and we’re willing to bet you feel the same.
Making a living in music is a calling. You feel it in your bones and taste it on your lips. You get a sense when encountering a great song that no other sensation in the world can match. It’s as if your entire body is overrun with electricity, pulsing to the rhythm as your mind picks apart the melody. The pure high of music is worth chasing, and we support those who give their all to make music or make it available to others.
But people in music need help.
Our industry is evolving faster than ever, and those already overwhelmed with work are having difficulty keeping up.
That is why we created Haulix Daily. We believe that the key to a better, more inviting, and accessible industry for all is education. Those in a position to learn must also make it their mission to educate. We have to help one another, and this blog is our way of doing that.
We have created thousands of articles over the last decade, including more than a hundred this year. With 2022 now halfway over, we figured now is the perfect time to look back and celebrate our most-read articles.
Take an inside look at how Minnesota’s High School for Recording Arts Vocational Discovery program uses Haulix to teach students about the music industry.
With more tools and services promising to help musicians grow than ever, you might be surprised to learn that the best marketing approach is also one of the oldest.
Nearly two decades since their peak popularity, CDs are having a moment, but how long will it last?
Compact Discs are back (not that they ever went anywhere). According to data from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), shipments of compact discs rose from 31.6 million in 2020 to 46.6 million in 2021 – a rise of 47%. Revenue also increased from $483.2 million to $584.2 million. The last time sales of CDs were on the up was in 2004.
These figures may seem small compared to CDs’ 2004 peak when nearly a billion discs shipped in the US alone. But it seems possible that compact discs may soon follow vinyl’s footsteps by having a revival moment. In 2021, 39.7 million vinyl records were sold in the US, generating nearly $1 billion, a noticeably higher return than CD revenue.
The true sales figures for compact discs are likely higher than the RIAA report estimates. Many independent artists sell a large portion of CDs to fans at live shows or through online merch stores and never report sales. Its possible tens of thousands, if not millions, of CDs are sold this way annually.
But Why?
The motivations behind our renewed cultural interest in CDs likely differ depending on whether you’re a music fan or professional.
For fans, physical music is often viewed as a souvenir. Owning a vinyl or CD is tangible proof of fandom, proving to other listeners that someone financially supports the artist(s) they love.
In the world of K-Pop, which has taken young listeners worldwide by storm in recent years, music as a keepsake is commonplace. Physical media releases in this genre often include exclusive photographs, merch items, and unique packaging. Fans view each release as a collector’s item, increasing demand and sales.
For the industry, CDs offer a cost-effect alternative to vinyl, which is experiencing a production backlog due to increasing demand and ongoing supply chain issues.
While per-unit costs drop with larger orders of both formats, the savings that CDs offer the artists and labels making them as well as the fan buying them are substantial. As Hypebot points out, at Discmakers, a limited run of 100 CDs in full-color jackets can cost around $2 each. That same run of 100 vinyl records costs $20 – $25 each.
The turnaround time for CDs is also much quicker than that of vinyl. Discmakers currently list three options for compact disc production times, with the longest taking fourteen business days. By comparison, Gold Rush Vinyl now warns customers that new orders are facing a turnaround time of eight to ten months. Several services offer shorter times for higher prices, but the fastest we’ve found is sixteen weeks.
CDs are also easier to transport than vinyl and take up less space, which is useful when touring in a van, car, or bus.
What does this mean for artists?
Artists from all walks of life should consider utilizing CDs as merchandise items. Not only are they cost-efficient and easy to make, but the options for customization are endless. Physical releases provide a unique opportunity to expand upon your record. You can help fans decipher the stories behind the songs, provide them with lyrics to sing along to, or create an engaging layout that pulls us further into your world of sound. Best of all, the low cost of creating CDs means the risk is equally low. It’s better to spend $200 on a hundred CDs you struggle to sell than $2500 on a similar amount of vinyl.
What does this mean for streaming?
Absolutely nothing. Streaming is king, and it’s highly unlikely that the resurgence of physical media in any form will dethrone it. Paid subscriptions to streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, and Amazon Music accounted for over 57% of music revenue ($8.6 billion), with ad-supported streams bringing in another $1.8 billion. CD and vinyl album sales combined accounted for less than 11% of revenue.
From the debut of Twitter Notes to Spotify’s renewed focus on community, we’ve gathered the biggest music news stories of the week.
Summer is officially here, and the temperature isn’t the only thing hitting all-time highs. Artists from all walks of life are experiencing a boom of interest thanks to better weather, and professionals are hard at work making the most of the moment. Consider this a reminder to go outside and touch the grass. You deserve to feel the wind in your hair while your favorite songs play at a loud volume. Don’t let the consumer have all the fun.
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.
Twitter is trialing a new longform format that will let you shoot well past 280 characters, meaning you may no longer have to relay your humorous anecdotes via numbered tweet threads. Called Notes, the new feature enables users to write entire articles straight onto the social media platform, and even include photos, videos, GIFs, and tweets.
“From the rise of the screenshot announcement Tweet to the newsletter boom, a new reality became clear: people were writing long elsewhere, and then coming to Twitter to share their work and for the conversation surrounding all those words,” said Twitter’s Rembert Browne in one of Twitter’s first Notes. “With Notes, the goal is to fill in that missing piece and help writers find whatever type of success they desire.”
The feature is currently being tested by a small selection of writers based in the US, Canada, the UK, and Ghana, with the trial expected to run for two months. A Notes tab is also being added to these users’ Twitter profiles, under which you’ll be able to see all their published Notes.
Aiming to provide Twitter users with more flexibility and control, Notes’ rich-text editor will enable writers to bold, italicise, and otherwise format their words. Titles are limited to 100 characters, but the body of a Note can reach up to 2,500 words before Twitter cuts you off — more than enough space to explain your passions. (Writers still have to stick to Twitter’s rules though, so no lengthy treatises inciting violence.)
Spotify is developing a new feature called Community that would allow mobile users to see what sort of music their friends are streaming in real time as well as what playlists they’ve recently updated in a dedicated place in the app. The company today offers a similar “Friend Activity” feature on the desktop but had limited users’ access to that same Friend Activity on mobile devices.
Reached for comment, Spotify confirmed the feature was in the early testing phases but declined to share more details.
The company’s roots as a social music streaming app had helped the company grow in earlier days by leveraging its Facebook integration to build out its friend graph. But, in later years, Spotify looked more toward personalization features to give it an advantage over streaming rivals. Playlists customized to the individual listener — like Spotify’s flagship Discover Weekly, for example — had been helping to attract and retain users more than seeing what friends streamed. As a result, the company’s focus on users’ personal friend networks was de-emphasized in the product.
Steve Cooper, CEO of Warner Music Group for the past 11 years, will step down next year, a rep for the company confirmed to Variety. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The transition will be a gradual one, the rep emphasized, as the company seeks a suitable successor. Cooper, 75, said he has instructed the board to begin the search for his successor, and that he and the board expect the transition to take place by the end of 2023, according to an internal email that appears in full below.
Warner is the third-largest major music group, after Universal and Sony, Warner Music-owned labels include Atlantic — which is the most consistently successful major label in the business — Elektra and its flagship Warner Records, along with the third-largest music publisher, Warner Chappell Music. Its top current acts include Ed Sheeran, Lizzo, Dua Lipa and others.
Law enforcement agencies in Brazil have blocked or seized the domains of hundreds of websites and apps accused of utilising and/or distributing unlicensed music in a coordinated action as part of an on-going anti-piracy initiative called Operation 404.
226 websites and 461 apps were targeted in the action, which was supported by local music industry trade group Pro-Música Brasil and the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry, and which saw Brazilian police and the country’s Ministry Of Justice liaising with cyber and IP crime experts in both the US and the UK.
The high number of apps targeted is particularly interesting, given apps that use music without licence are becoming a top piracy gripe for the music industry.
Commenting on the operation, IFPI’s Director Of Global Content Protection And Enforcement Melissa Morgia says: “As a result of the coordinated work of the Brazilian authorities, together with agencies in the US and the UK, these actions have seen the highest number of unlicensed music services disrupted as part of the Operation 404 campaign. We thank and commend all the authorities and agencies involved in carrying out these actions for their ongoing collaboration and support in protecting music creators’ content.”
Spotify published its fourth annual Culture Next Trends Report yesterday to tie in with the Lions, including the claim that 18-24 year-olds played more than 578bn minutes of music on Spotify in 2021. “16 billion more minutes than Millennials”. Other stats on Gen-Z: 68% of them like listening to and watching media from early decades; 67% use podcasts and music to cope with stress and anxiety; and 59% believe “life was better before social media”.
YouTube, meanwhile, has published its own new Culture & Trends report focusing on Gen-Z, both as YouTubers and viewers. Among its findings: 85% of Gen-Z have posted video content online; and 65% are more interested in content “that’s personally relevant to them” rather than simply “the content that lots of other people talk about… many younger users are opting out of the watercooler discourse”.
Asking fans to pre-save your music on Spotify is a popular promotional strategy, but what do these campaigns accomplish? We have the shocking answer.
Pre-save campaigns are genius in theory. With so much going on in the world, fans need a way to guarantee they hear the next release from their favorite artists. Musicians, in turn, need to know fans are seeing their content and getting excited about their next record.
But many engaged in pre-save campaigns often tell us they deliver mixed results. Fans that expect to be notified when a new release becomes available, for example, often report receiving no such message. If they do, the message usually arrives days or weeks after release.
Meanwhile, artists, who sometimes believe a successful pre-save campaign will lead to editorial playlisting and other opportunities at a DSP, are disappointed when the campaign they spent weeks promoting doesn’t immediately result in a boom of new listenership.
Commit this to memory: Spotify pre-saves are artificial tools created by third-party developers that have little-to-no direct relationship with the streaming giant or its playlist curators.
Pre-save campaigns are not native to Spotify. In other words, no function on Spotify allows people to pre-save a song or album before its release.
As our friends at Habit Music report, Spotify and other DSPs do not have access to the information gathered by third-party app developers, so the performance of your campaign does not affect whether or not your music is considered for playlists. There is a small chance that, in theory, a successful pre-save campaign could generate a large enough growth in streams to attract algorithmic playlists, but I wouldn’t recommend putting your hopes in dreams in that basket.
If pre-save campaigns don’t matter to Spotify, what value do they offer artists?
Spotify may not have access to your pre-save campaign data, but you do, and that can help you navigate fan relationships. The data you gather from your campaign will tell you who enjoys your music, wants to know about your latest news, and—depending on the service you choose—how to reach them. You can add those individuals to your mailing list, send them personalized thank you notes, offer early access to your next tour on sale, etc. From there, the possibilities for community building are virtually endless.
