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Music - Issue #52 - Overwatch, Collab and Patreon Layoffs

Good Morning! There's been a lot going on in the last few weeks across the music industry including m
Issue #52  •  May 29  •  View online  •  Suggest a link
Music
Music
Startups and change makers leveraging music and music technology to curate a more creative world.
Good Morning!
There’s been a lot going on in the last few weeks across the music industry including many of our colleagues in the live music industry seeing layoffs as a result of the current pandemic. We hope this finds you all well and doing as great as can be in the current climate.
This week’s articles include a synopsis on Triller and a great primer on artist revenue streams for anyone that might not know the pay rates of the streaming services.
Have a great weekend!
Corey
Music Startup Spotlight
One of the coolest apps I have stumbled across the last few weeks is called Endlesss. It’s a collaborative music making app that is really easy to use and makes the process a fun one. The incredibly cool aspect of the product is the ability to make music live with collaborators.
Please check it out and let me know what you think of it.
Inside the Overwatch League’s remote production studio
Inside the Overwatch League’s remote production studio
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Blizzard’s Overwatch League has been forced to carry on using remote cloud tools that allow staff to produce games from home.
www.theverge.com  •  Share

Triller has been growing sharply in recent months and is starting to break tracks and acts in its own way. For now, the audience skews towards both the US and hip-hop, but the app has global ambitions and wants to go deeper into different styles of music. It is already making inroads into EDM and that cross-genre expansion will only continue this year.
musically.com   •   Share

Announcing the Fortnite and Travis Scott Event
Announcing the Fortnite and Travis Scott Event
Travis Scott and Fortnite are throwing an event! Jump into Fortnite and attend one of several times between April 23rd through the 25th to experience Astronomical. Receive the Astroworld Cyclone Glider, a couple of Loading Screens and get ready for the Fortnite Astronomical Challenges!
www.epicgames.com  •  Share

For the second time, Bandcamp has announced it will be waiving its revenue cut on purchases made via its platform next Friday.
www.nme.com   •   Share

Amplifying artists’ fundraising with Spotify’s global reach and a $1M artist relief effort from Cash App.

Patreon lays off 13% of workforce
Patreon lays off 13% of workforce
Creative platform Patreon has laid off 30 employees, which is 13% of its workforce, TechCrunch has learned. “It is unclear how long this economic uncertainty will last and therefore, to prepare accordingly, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with 13% of Patreon’s workforce,” a Patreon spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch.
techcrunch.com  •  Share

Badu’s Quarantine Concert Series: Apocalypse, Live from Badubotron, is a live concert series from the intimacy of her bedroom in Dallas. She is charging fans to tune in, and is trail-blazing the future of paid concert streaming.
www.forbes.com   •   Share

Lo-fi beats to quarantine to are booming on YouTube
Lo-fi beats to quarantine to are booming on YouTube
People trying to be productive or find others online who are looking for community are doing so in lo-fi chillhop communities. Channels are seeing massive booms in views and subscribers.
www.theverge.com  •  Share

The COVID-19 pandemic may be turning the music business upside down, but that just means data management companies such as Audigent are more important than ever. That’s why tech investor/incubator Raised In Space, backed by music manager Scooter Braun, is doubling down amid all the uncertainty.
www.forbes.com   •   Share

Gotickety blends mobile gaming with ticket and merch giveaways
Gotickety blends mobile gaming with ticket and merch giveaways
It’s tempting to roll your eyes at a startup pitching itself as ‘Candy Crush for the Music Industry’. What, an app that 20 minutes in suddenly makes it a thousand times more difficult to listen unless you spend money on power-ups?
musically.com  •  Share

Amid coronavirus, dance music mainstays like New York club Nowadays and the label Mad Decent are diving headlong into streaming.
www.vice.com   •   Share

Primer for Artists & Music Managers: Streams of Revenue for the Recording Artist
Primer for Artists & Music Managers: Streams of Revenue for the Recording Artist
Before an Artist can truly become a business, they have to understand and stay ahead of the business or they will get taken advantage of in a very cruel industry. Knowing this, I wanted to put out a…
medium.com  •  Share

In a world where the playlist is king, it is hardly surprising that getting on New Music Friday (NMF) has become the be-all and end-all of music streaming marketing, an opportunity to get your track in front of 8m people worldwide, including the vast majority of the Western music industry. 
musically.com   •   Share

TikTok is coming after Snapchat with a new augmented reality ad format
TikTok is coming after Snapchat with a new augmented reality ad format
TikTok is adding a new augmented reality ad format.
digiday.com  •  Share

Now that Facebook is buying Giphy, how you send and receive GIFs on the internet could change forever. Some of the most popular apps and services rely on Giphy’s API and archives to let users share and post GIFs, and we’ve collected all of the services that we’re aware of in this post.

Collab - make music together, while we’re apart
Collab - make music together, while we’re apart
The NPE team from Facebook is announcing an invite-only beta of Collab, a new iOS app that brings together creators and fans to create, watch, and mix and match original videos, starting with music.
npe.fb.com  •  Share

We’re bringing artist teams, labels and distributors to Spotify for Artists so you can manage your profile, see and analyze your data and pitch to playlists, together.

NOTE: If you have any articles you would like to submit for consideration or any startups you think we should feature please let me know!
Techstars Startup Digest Music is curated by:
Corey Crossfield Corey Crossfield - Music Digest Curator
corey.crossfield@startupdigestmail.com
Josh Ford Josh Ford
josh.ford@startupdigestmail.com
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