Tag: Old Town Road

Categories
Editorials Industry News News

Tik Tok, Blanco Brown, and the future of discovery

Tik Tok, Blanco Brown, Git Up

After propelling Lil Nas X into the spotlight earlier this year, Tik Tok may be on the verge of its second star-making moment with Blanco Brown.

Have you heard of #GitUpChallenge? If not, there is a good chance you are not a Tik Tok user. Based on “The Git Up” by fast-rising artist Blanco Brown, the #GitUpChallenge tasks music fans to create a dance video using the song as their soundtrack. Tik Tok user HarveyBass is largely responsible for creating the challenge, so we might as well take a look at his video first:

Tik Tok’s ability to influence pop culture at large was proven earlier this year when Lil Nas X took the Billboard charts by storm with “Old Town Road.” The song, which has since gone on to be the number one song in the country for ten consecutive weeks, initially rose to popular because Tik Tok users could not stop making videos using the material. The song grew so popular, in fact, that radio station programmers across the country began ripping the song from YouTube to place it in rotation.

“The Git Up,” much like “Old Town Road,” was largely overlooked upon its initial release. The song was quietly dropped on streaming services May 3, which was preceded by a Soundcloud debut in late April. The song did not take off until it gained the attention of Tik Tok users, and it did not begin to find viral success until the HarveyBass clip above started to spread outside the video-sharing platform in early June.

Since that happened, “The Git Up” has been gaining traction online, as well as at terrestrial. The song has accrued more than 2.7 million streams on Spotify to date, which makes it nearly 20x more popular than Brown’s second most-streamed track on the service. There’s another 2.3 million plays on YouTube, as well as millions more on other streaming platforms.

As of this week, “The Git Up” has also entered the Billboard charts, coming in at No. 16 on Country Digital Song Sales (4,000 downloads sold) and No. 38 on Hot Country Songs.

Call it the “Old Town Road” effect, but Brown’s decision to combine the popularity of country and hip-hop while also delivering what is essentially a new “Cha Cha Slide” may have created a monster that will be inescapable at weddings, proms, etc. for years to come.

A glance at Google trends reinforces the song’s growing popularity:

A glance at trends on YouTube does as well:

The only question that remains is where the track and Blanco Brown go from here? Unlike “Old Town Road,” Brown’s “Git Up” is a song made to make people dance. It’s not intended for casual listening (despite being incredibly catchy). Longevity will depend mainly on radio play and the embrace of club DJs around the world.

Regardless, for now, it seems Tik Tok is about to have another moment in the spotlight. Brown’s presence on the charts solidifies the platform’s ability to shift and shape pop culture, so now one must wonder who will be next. Will another country-rap track work? Will tastes evolve to give another emerging genre a chance? Only time will tell.

Categories
News

Music Biz News (5/31/19): Warner Bros., Tinder, Lil Nas X

The latest episode of Music Biz News tackles rebranding, apps aligning themselves with music, and the continuing success of music’s new star.

The music business is a fast-moving train that never stops. Each week, hundreds of new developments occur throughout the industry that drastically reshapes the business of music as we know it. Sometimes these events result from months or even years of careful planning, but other times, it feels as if fate herself is forcing change.

We realize no one is able to keep up with every development in music week to week, which is why we decided to create a new web series called Music Biz News. Every Friday, host James Shotwell breaks down the biggest stories from the world of music in a matter of minutes. Our goal is to provide you with everything you need to know about emerging trends and popular topics, along with just enough commentary to help you discuss the week’s biggest headlines with your friends and coworkers.

On this week’s episode of Music Biz News, host James Shotwell explains the recent rebranding of Warner Bros. Records to Warner Records, examines Tinder’s new approach to aligning itself with the music business, and take an in-depth look at the continuing success of “Old Town Road” hitmaker Lil Nas X.

Categories
Industry News News

Major labels demand ‘guaranteed money’ from TikTok owners

With current contracts set to expire this Spring, three of the biggest labels in the world are trying to secure additional revenue from the fast-growing social media platform.

The big three record labels — Universal, Warner, and Sony Music — are demanding more money for songs played on TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin, setting up a showdown with the hugely popular video apps, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

All three labels have contracts with the app owners, ByteDance, that are set to expire this Spring. Negotiations for new agreements have reportedly been ongoing for months, but little progress has been made. 

If a deal is not reached in the near future, the labels may choose to pull their catalogs from the service, which would likely force TikTok and Douyin to remove existing videos and prevent new uploads containing music owned by the companies. That action would ultimately lead to a diminished popularity for the app, which could eventually kill the platform altogether. 

Since negotiations are private, it’s unclear what money is currently being exchanged between ByteDance and the labels with music on its platforms. The fight for higher payouts allegedly stem from the rising popularity of the apps, which has “emboldened” the labels to seek better royalty payouts. Figures are, again, not public, but sources claim the big three labels are seeking a big enough change to earn them hundreds of millions in “guaranteed money.”

Reports of the platforms’ popularity are accurate. TikTok alone has over one billion downloads across iPhones and Google devices worldwide.

TikTok’s argument against the proposed changes is that the company is not a streaming service and therefore it should not be expected to meet the standard royalty rates paid by Spotify and similar platforms.

Todd Schefflin, Head of Global Music Business Development at ByteDance, responds to the reports of negotiations with:

“TikTok is for short video creation and viewing, and is simply not a product for pure music consumption that requires a label’s entire collection.”

Speaking to the platform’s ability to help artists, Shefflin added:

“A short video on TikTok can become a valuable promotional tool for artists to grow their fan bases and build awareness for new work.”

Shefflin brings up a good point. The irony in this story lies in TikTok’s ability to raise the profile of up and coming artists on a global scale. Lil Nas X currently has the number one song in America with the Billy Ray Cyrus assisted remix to his viral hit, “Old Town Road.” The song, which was initially released in late 2018, rose in popularity thanks in large part to a series of videos created by users of TikTok. Here are a few examples:

Major labels may see themselves as needing more money from TikTok, but they may need the platform’s ability to raise artist profiles even more. Removing music catalogs from an app with over one billion users would hurt music marketing at every level, but it would especially hurt developing artists.

That said, the industry’s growing reliance on streaming revenue cannot be denied. The music industry grew 9.7 percent in 2018, thanks mainly to the rise of paid streaming services Spotify and Apple Music. That’s impressive, but compared to where the music business was in 1999, there’s still a long way to go before the industry as a whole can reach its former heights of success.

Categories
Industry News News

Lil Nas X responds to Billboard chart controversy with “Old Town Road” remix

The up and coming artist has
lassoed country legend Billy Ray Cyrus for the remix to his viral hit.

Lil Nas X knows better than to fight words with words. The Atlanta artist, whose viral hit “Old Town Road” was removed from the Hot 100 Country chart by Billboard because it did not “embrace enough elements of today’s country music,” has responded to the recent controversy around his music with a new remix featuring genre legend Billy Ray Cyrus. Take a listen:

The remix of “Old Town Road” features the same structure and production of the original song, only now there is also a verse and chorus is featuring Cyrus’ iconic vocals. The man behind “Achy Breaky Heart” sings about living like a rockstar, buying expensive guitars, and being a modern-day Marlboro Man who yearns to return to simpler times (on the “Old Town Road”). It’s a fitting addition to the already great track, and the internet seems to agree. Since its release on Friday, April 5, both Cyrus and the remix of “Old Town Road” have been the top trending topics on Twitter, and the official stream of the song has been trending on YouTube.

Cyrus also shared some insight and support with Lil Nas X on social media, writing “Been watching everything going on with OTR. When I got thrown off the charts, Waylon Jennings said to me “Take this as a compliment” means you’re doing something great! Only Outlaws are outlawed. Welcome to the club!”

Paired with the song’s removal from the Hot 100 Country chart was a statement from Billboard claiming that their decision “had absolutely nothing to do with the race of the artist.” When asked what he thought of the potential racial motivation of the removal, Lil Nas X said: “I believe whenever you’re trying something new, it’s always going to get some kind of bad reception. For example, when rap started, or when rock and roll began. But with country trap, I in no way want to take credit for that. I believe Young Thug would be one of the biggest pioneers in that.”

Since news of the song’s chart removal went public, Lil Nas X has continued to garner attention and success. “Old Town Road” was the most streamed song on Spotify last week. If he were still part of the country charts, he would have the number one song in the genre.

With the remix of “Old Town Road,” Billboard must now decide whether or not the song is country enough to meet its vague standards. If the company says yes it’s admitting the song needed someone already accepted by the genre to give it a green light. If the company still refuses to admit it, the question of why will hang over the chart system for the foreseeable future.

Whatever the case, the internet will continue supporting Lil Nas X. The release of the remix spawned hundreds of new memes, some of which you can view below:

https://twitter.com/mtldn3/status/1114169717877608449
Categories
News

Lil Nas X and the question of who defines what a genre sounds like

Viral sensation Lil Nas X has been removed from Billboard’s country charts for not embracing enough elements of country music, which raises questions about we define the genre.

No one saw Lil Nas X coming. The Atlanta artist released his breakout smash, “Old Town Road,” to Soundcloud on December 2, 2018. The song quickly found a following, and not long after became a go-to track for videos posted to the popular mashup app TikTok, which in turn grew its popularity. The song took off so fast, in fact, that radio programmers across the country had to rip the song from YouTube in order to get in rotation at their station.

Recently, the saga of the song’s bizarre rise through the world of music reached new heights when it simultaneously debuted on three Billboard charts — the cross-genre Hot 100 chart, the Hot Country Songs chart, and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Lil Nas X’s career on the country chart, however, did not last long. Rolling Stone reports that Billboard quietly removed “Old Town Road” from Hot Country Songs and informed Lil Nas X’s label, Columbia Records, that his inclusion on the ranking was a mistake, according to an insider with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Billboard did not publicly announce the change, but speaking to RS, a representative for the company said:

“upon further review, it was determined that ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X does not currently merit inclusion on Billboard‘s country charts. When determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is musical composition. While ‘Old Town Road’ incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”

After the publication of that story, a representative for Billboard provided a subsequent statement indicating that race did not play a part in the decision to remove “Old Town Road” from the country chart.

Not everyone believes Billboard’s comments about race not playing a role in their decision. The music business relies heavily on old-fashioned definitions of genre, which have always mapped on race — Billboard’s R&B chart, for example, was originally titled “race music,” while the Latin songs chart lumps together a myriad of genres and languages under one ethnic umbrella.

In recent years many caucasian country stars have leveraged elements of hip-hop to push their genre forward without being excluded from the charts. Sam Hunt, for example, was hailed by Billboard as the ‘white Drake’ back in 2017. Florida Georgia Line, another popular country act, went platinum with a single featuring Nelly. Tim McGaw did the same way back in 2004 with “Over and Over Again.” It seems that as long as a white musician is involved, Billboard has no problem with hip-hop influenced country music.

There’s also a question of how we define country music in the streaming era. Many songs gain popularity through services such as Spotify and Apple Music before radio or other mainstream outlets give them attention. If the country audience is vocal about their support of an artist, does that not make them — at least in some way — a country artist? If the country music audience supports Lil Nas X, who is undeniably using banjos and guitars and other traditional genre elements in his music, shouldn’t that be enough to classify him as a country artist?

Exit mobile version