Music - Issue #40

For some good anecdotal data on TikTok’s current surge, though, try The Atlantic’s article about last week’s VidCon conference. Traditionally dominated by YouTubers, journalist Taylor Lorenz reported that “this year, the platform everyone is talking about isn’t YouTube – it’s TikTok”.

There’s a danger of reading too much into brief comments made at a technology conference, but something Spotify’s chief premium business officer Alex Norström said at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech event yesterday is noteworthy. “For an artist like Fletcher there’s huge potential in looking at things that are beyond just ad sales and subscriptions, which is our business model of today,” he said. “You can add stuff on top like micro-payments, a la carte, prepaid plans for different contexts… The revenue infrastructure will then create lots of opportunity for you to innovate with the art.”

Ed Newton-Rex was the founder and CEO of Jukedeck, one of the first startups to develop AI-generated music. Now he works for TikTok parent firm Bytedance.

In February 2017, days before Metallica announced its WorldWired North American stadium tour, Live Nation president of U.S. concerts Bob Roux spoke by phone with a little-known wealth adviser turned event promoter who had been tasked by an associate of the band to sell 88,000 tickets directly on resale sites like StubHub, without giving fans a chance to buy them through normal channels at face value.

Record labels like Sony’s Lost Rings and Monstercat, which is home to Marshmello, are tapping into a new market with songs created explicitly for Twitch streamers and the gaming community.

The culture brand grew significantly on TikTok.

Part corporate-surveillance engine, part democratic free-for-all, this is what it feels like when a video site takes over our listening lives.