Sandbox Issue 272: DSP’s Emerging Talent Programmes – how do you get on one, what happens if you do, and is there a catch?
Lead: Each DSP has a programme dedicated to supporting new artists: weaponising the platform by endorsing them to a large audience, and hopefully accelerating their careers. Places on these programmes are, of course, keenly sought after – so what is experienced by that lucky few? Is it really the win-win it seems? What do artists need […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – USA 2021
The USA’s digital music market is one of the most vibrant globally and shows little sign of slowing down, even if the price paid for subscriptions is slowing
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 271: Finding a marketing balance and seeking success on Twitch
Lead: Which Twitch Mix Fits? – Music is essential to the Twitch experience, but Twitch’s formal relationship with music is still a little murky – albeit with the launch of the licensed Soundtrack by Twitch feature offering welcome progress. The power of Twitch as a marketing, communication, and community-building tool is also still open to debate […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Canada 2021
After coming late to streaming, Canada is now experiencing a boom in subscriber numbers and overall music consumption.
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 270: Always-on my mind: how do artists avoid social media burn-out?
Lead: Always-on my mind: Artists have long accepted – sometimes reluctantly – that their role includes intimate direct-to-fan digital connectivity, usually via Social Media. Grinding out content on multiple platforms, each with unique creative, time, and emotional pressures, was a stressful enough existence before Coronavirus made the need to be always-online seem all the more urgent. […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – South Korea 2021
South Korea’s music business remains buoyant in 2021, with digital music in particular on the rise – despite K-Pop fans’ enduring love of physical goods
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 269: Indie-Visible: balancing Indie rock marketing on streaming and IRL
Lead: Indie-Visible – Marketing indie rock bands on streaming platforms can be tricky for a number of reasons: their traditionally album-based release cycle goes counter to the current approach of endless singles; their aesthetic, ethos and fandom require patience and context; and while their fanbase wants their favourite artists on streaming services, they also demand special physical products […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Hungary 2021
Hungary came late to digital music but is rapidly making up for lost time, transforming it into one of Europe’s fastest-growing music markets
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 268: YouTube Premiere Playbook
Lead: YouTube Premiere Playbook – Youtube offers dizzying depth of content (500 hours of video uploaded each minute) and breadth of fan access (over half of music fans regularly watch music videos on the platform). It also means that uploading a great music video is not enough – artists must reach the fans that care and […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Belgium 2021
Belgium may not be a digital music powerhouse but music streaming is in the ascendance there, after DSPs improved their service in the country.
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 267 :: The Optimism Issue. 2021
Lead: 2021 – The Optimism Issue: Let’s not dwell any longer than necessary on the seemingly never-ending year of challenges that was 2020. In this issue we look forward with optimism and find many reasons to be cheerful in 2021. We asked our international panel of industry experts to explain what gave them hope in […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Russia 2020
After a standout performance in 2019, the Russian recorded music industry looks set to continue its path towards being a global top 10 market.
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Netherlands 2020
A tech-savvy population that has wholeheartedly embraced streaming has insulated the Dutch music industry from the worst effects of Covid
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Brazil 2020
Brazil’s digital music industry has made up for a slow start with years of growth, a trend that should continue into 2021 and beyond
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Source: Music ally
LiveXLive financials show a $10.2m loss for Q3 2020
US livestreaming and podcasts firm LiveXLive is a public company, so it’s one of the few companies in that space whose numbers we get quarterly insights into. The numbers for Q3 follow its historical pattern: growing revenues, but also net losses. LiveXLive saw its revenues grow by 51.9% year-on-year to $14.6m last quarter, but it recorded […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 264: Lo-fi, hi-impact – how lo-fi hip hop brands are chilling out millions of devoted listeners
Lead: Lo-fi hip hop is no longer simply a crackly, jazzy sub-genre – it’s a huge business, with millions subscribing to multi-platform playlists and albums of atmospheric songs to relax, study, chill and sleep to. We explore how this unassuming background music has quietly grown into an enormous DIY empire, how mood music is resonating with […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Australia 2020
Digital business has held up well and international revenue reached an all-time high in Australia despite inevitable levelling off as a result of Covid-19
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Poland 2020
Digital music revenue in Poland was higher than physical for the first time ever in the first half of 2020 and streaming has helped local talent – already big in Poland – to explode
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Japan 2020
Japan’s recorded music market lost 19% of value in the first half of 2020, despite an increase in digital revenue of 11% – but it was a drop that was expected, given the impact of COVID-19.
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 263: A brand new experience: creating activations that connect in a non-live world
Lead: Experiential brand activations in a non-live world – Creating effective brand activations has never been easy – but there was one basic starting point: find an event with lots of people, and connect with them. With concerts and festivals curtailed for the next six months at least, brands are partnering with musicians online to create […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 262: Key Lessons from Sandbox Summit Global
Lead: Sandbox Summit Global – Over five days at the end of September, we held our Sandbox Summit Global conference. For this Sandbox report, we’re digging into what we learned from the event and how it relates to the wider industry: from streaming innovation (or a lack of it) and Covid-disrupted release schedules to analytics overload, knock-on […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 261: The return of the fanclub? Crowdfunding in 2020
Lead: Crowdfunding in 2020 – Crowdfunding is not a new idea – but following the nosedive of recorded music sales in the early noughts, crowdfunding became a tantalising concept: fanbases could be leveraged into recording costs. Despite some successes, it has remained a relatively niche concern. That is, until now. Covid-19 has led to a rise […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 260: Twitch for Artists
Lead: Twitch for artists – Artists were drifting towards livestreaming platform Twitch before COVID-19 hit, and Twitch has been making overtures to musicians for a while. But since live performance was halted, interest in the platform has never been higher, and Twitch is welcoming artists – and their fans – with open arms. But Twitch demands […]
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Source: Music ally
Electronic Labor Day livestream to support rebuilding in Beirut
The explosion in Beirut on 4 August was devastating, killing nearly 200 people and injuring thousands more, while destroying buildings across a large swathe of the city. One of the latest relief efforts comes from the music industry: a livestreaming event called ‘For Beirut’ that has been organised by the Electronic Labor Day initiative and Beatport. It […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 259: Six Months On, What Next?
Lead: The effect of COVID-19, six months on. This Sandbox issue hosts the launch of a new Music Ally monthly feature: our Global Experts Panel. We’ve assembled a panel of industry leaders from around the world, from many sectors of the music business, and each month we’ll put a single question to them on a pressing issue. […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – China 2020
A lack of reliable figures makes China a difficult music market to understand. Even so, its digital potential is vast.
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 258: KIDS’ STUFF. Music’s youngest and most powerful consumers
Lead: we report back on our recent New Kids On The Block: Insight Into A New Generation online conference that we ran in conjunction with UK trade bodies the BPI and ERA, drawing out the 10 key lessons from the different panels and presentations. These include: children are much more active (and increasingly so) than previously presumed; […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Singapore 2020
Singapore’s digital music business is small but – relatively – thriving, with a large number of streaming services, a strong tech scene and a high conversion rate from free to premium streaming.
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 257: Filter Tips. Making camera effects connect
Lead: Music-centric filters on social apps are designed to appeal not just to hardcore fans but also to get enough “shareability” to pull in potential new fans. They are also being used by labels themselves to create a form of augmented branding. We look at who is doing them well, if they are worth the investment and […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Mexico 2020
In a fast-growing region for recorded music income, Mexico has continued to shine, its impressive annual results showing continued growth and impressive numbers.
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Report :: Q2 2020 Edition
Our main feature explores the evolution of live music, as we look towards a time when concerts are able to resume safely. What have we learned from the livestreaming boom during the Covid-19 lockdown, and what are the prospects for ‘hybrid’ online/offline concerts in the coming months? We’ve also got a feature recapping two thought-provoking […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 256: PRIMAL STREAM 📱🎧 Making lockdown concerts work
Lead: Livestreams have moved to try and fill the massive hole left by the total cancellation of tours and festivals around the world. As more acts do them, however, it becomes incrementally harder to stand out and draw in big enough audiences to make them worthwhile. We speak to those building a whole new gig economy here […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Israel 2020
Israel offers unique challenges and unique opportunities to the global music business – a relatively small country with a strong tech culture, where music streaming has, perhaps, yet to really catch on
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 255: K-Pop. What the Global Music Industry can learn from South Korea
Lead: K-pop is eating the world whole and is changing what marketing – especially superfan-centric marketing – can do. We speak to those working in and around the K-pop world to learn how the genre markets itself, where its acts engage with their fans to build incredible levels of loyalty, why trans-media marketing underscores everything they do […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Finland 2020
Finland’s digital music industry is in relatively good health after years of steady growth, although it lags behind its Nordic neighbours in terms of premium music subscribers.
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 254: The Rise of Music Podcasts
Lead: If you aren’t making or appearing on a podcast, do you actually exist? Even with DSPs and record labels investing in them heavily and building whole podcasting divisions, there is still the issue of licensing music for them that is holding back their creative potential. Yet beyond that knotty problem, the sector is still an […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Sweden 2020
The global music industry may be watching Sweden closely to see when the streaming pioneer will plateau, but the signs, pre-COVID anyway, indicates that Spotify’s home country still has potential for further growth.
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 253: Music Marketing in Lockdown
Lead: We are now several weeks into lockdown and have moved far, far beyond just “doing a livestream”. There was some wavering at the start as to whether albums should be delayed by several weeks or brought forward, but now everyone is having to roll their sleeves up and get on with it. The music […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Colombia 2020
Colombia’s music industry has gone from strength to digital strength, giving some hope that it may come out of the global pandemic in relatively healthy shape.
The post Country Profile – Colombia 2020 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Nigeria 2020
Nigeria is bursting with musical talent. But should it also be considered a potential source of revenue for labels?
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 251: Streaming and Music’s new formats
Lead: The playlist hasn’t killed the album… yet. Instead, artists and labels are caught between both and are starting to experiment with the shapes that releases can now take. Justin Bieber has begun chopping up his album into a series of EPs, designed in part to find the sweet spot on streaming services that drive […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Spain 2020
The Spanish music industry was showing signs of real progress in 2019. And then COVID-19 struck
The post Country Profile – Spain 2020 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 250: The power of smaller playlists
Lead: The likes of New Music Friday and Today’s Top Hits might theoretically get your music in front of the most people; but if they are not listening, then what’s the point? In a business that has long run on the assumption that “big is best”, the opposite is proving true when it comes to […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – United Kingdom 2020
The BPI and ERA remain positive about the outlook for the UK’s recorded music industry, despite COVID-19 and Brexit representing extremely tough challenges for the business
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Report :: Q1 2020 Edition
Our main Music Ally report is getting bigger and going quarterly! This is the first edition of the new report including some of the new elements we’ve been planning, with more to be added in the Q2 report in early July. We couldn’t ignore the coronavirus pandemic, of course, so there’s a feature exploring some […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 249: What music can learn from YouTube’s biggest channels
Lead: Music is critical to YouTube while the music industry (beyond the politics of the value gap debate) is hugely reliant on the platform. But so too are other content types. We look at the biggest channels on YouTube generally – including categories such as comedy, education, film, sports and gaming (as well as music […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Germany 2020
Germany looks to be finally throwing off its reputation as a digital slowcoach with streaming numbers sending overall music revenue into the black, despite the physical market still playing an important role.
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Source: Music ally
Today’s positive coronavirus-related industry news (26 March)
We’re keeping this going, not least because positive news is keeping us going, personally… British collecting society PRS for Music has launched an Emergency Relief Fund for its members, created with the PRS Members’ Fund and PRS Foundation. To qualify, applicants have to have been members of PRS for at least two years and earned over £500 […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 248: PERSONALISATION. Music marketing makes it all about YOU
Lead: Personalisation is a powerful way to stand out in a noisy marketplace and to make fans feel involved with things. It all, however, has to be handled with care as one person’s “tailored messaging” is another person’s spam. We look at how the personal – from recommendations and mixtapes to merchandise and location – […]
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Source: Music ally
Live music affected by latest coronavirus event restrictions
Having said last week that we’re going to try not to stoke your anxiety over the novel-coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak with long, scary stories, this morning we can’t ignore the latest developments and their implications for our industry. You may have already seen the reports that Universal Music Group boss Sir Lucian Grainge has been hospitalised […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – USA 2020
Music streaming is surging in the US, bringing with it strong growth in recorded music income. But questions remain about how long this can last
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 247: All Triller, No Filler: Music’s next big launchpad?
Lead: Triller is not a TikTok killer – but it is certainly proving to be a hearty contender. At the moment, it is strongest in the US and it skews heavily towards hip-hop as its in-built soundtrack. Its ambitions are, however, more global and the genres it covers will naturally expand as it grows internationally. […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Canada 2020
Canada may have been initially slow to embrace streaming, but recent years have seen the market make steady gains, even if YouTube remains a constant source of irritation
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 246: BAD INFLUENCE. Social media’s new fault lines
Lead: Influencers are a growing part of music marketing but tighter rules on what they can do (and how explicit they must be in declaring their interests), as well as a series of scandals, are making working here increasingly complicated – if not increasingly risky. Some are arguing they still have power, but others are […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Turkey 2020
Turkey may have one of the lowest per-capita spends on music globally, but recent years have seen recorded music income grow significantly while new digital players have helped streaming numbers to boom.
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 245: Catalogue Marketing Rejuvenated
Lead: With pretty much everything available at all times, the fundamentals of catalogue marketing have had to bend to the needs of the streaming market and the social media landscape. There is still a role for the deluxe anniversary boxset, but finding new ways to shake up the old and shine new light on both […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – South Korea 2020
Standing astride a hugely successful domestic output, the South Korean music industry is thriving across the genres and 2019 figures are expected to show another strong period of growth
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 244: How to Make a Big Artist Comeback
Lead: Don’t call it a comeback. Actually, DO call it a comeback. Fans today not only expect all the music in the world to be instantly available, they also expect every pop star to be available at all times. But musicians need to step away from the limelight and off the promotional treadmill every now […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Thailand 2020
Thailand’s digital infrastructure has spearheaded growth in social media and internet usage that has had a positive effect on streaming revenues, with the market picking up in 2018 for the first time in five years
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 243: The Last 10 Years and The Next 10 Years of Music Marketing
Welcome to the first Sandbox of 2020. Lead: It is now 10 years since we published the very first edition of Sandbox, so to start a new decade we speak to marketers from around the world about the tools and trends that shaped the past decade of music marketing as well as the ones they believe […]
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Report 426: Trends of 2019
This year we’ve picked 42 (also the answer to life, the universe and everything as fans of Douglas Adams will know) of the trends and moments we found most significant in 2019. What are they? *takes deep breath* industry growth; the European Copyright Directive and Music Modernization Act; Spotify’s two-sided marketplace; Apple Music’s bundled future; […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Italy 2019
Italy’s digital music take-up lags behind most of its EU neighbours with only 1.5 million premium streaming subscribers. Nonetheless, that’s still a jump of 0.5m in less than a year and streaming is enjoying growth
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 241: Music Merchandising Moves On
A T-shirt or a flimsy tour programme was the bulk of merchandise in the “old days” – mass-produced items to shift quickly when an act was on tour. Fortunately, things have changed dramatically in recent years – with a clear drive to be as environmentally aware as possible. Print-on-demand technology is also allowing acts to […]
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Source: Music ally
Music Ally Report 425: AIs on the prize. What will Artificial Intelligence really mean for the music industry?
This report focuses on AI music – both in terms of artificial-intelligence systems that are creating original music, and AI-driven tools that human musicians are using for their own creative purposes. There’s lots to talk about. We’ve started by digging through the Music Ally archives to offer a timeline of modern AI music – starting with UK […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 240: Music Marketing’s Wellness and Fitness Drive
People are increasingly attuned to the need to look after their mental and their physical health – and music can and does play a big role here. The gym playlist is one thing, but acts crafting albums for meditation apps and artists working with a new generation of fitness brands is something else entirely. We […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – UAE 2019
As the business hub of the Middle East and North Africa, the UAE belies its geographical size. In the case of the music industry, global streaming services have joined record companies in mining its significant potential
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 239: Music and Advertising’s tense union
Lead: The old rules of advertising are long gone – as is a lot of the inherent guesswork around advertising’s effectiveness. In its place has come greater tracking of ad spend and ad impact, but the entire process itself has become much more convoluted. We speak to those working in this rapidly changing world to […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Russia 2019
A significant 8m jump in users of streaming services in Russia in a single year illustrates how those platforms are engaging music consumers, while on social media, vKontakte’s vast popularity is helping to fuel the growth
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Source: Music ally
Liz Longley smashes Kickstarter total to buy album back from label
When crowdfunding platform Kickstarter first started making waves in the music industry in the early 2010s, the pitch from artists was often ‘help me to make my new album independently’. In 2019, in the case of artist Liz Longley, the pitch is ‘help me to buy my new album back from my label so I […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 238: Remixes Hit Saturation Point
Lead: Lil Nas X might have broken on TikTok but it was his deft use of multiple remixes (and collaborations) that kept ‘Old Town Road’ in the air throughout most of 2019. He claims he has 25 remixes of follow-up track ‘Panini’ ready to go, although this might prove to be the most high-profile case […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Netherlands 2019
Homegrown acts and local hip-hop artists have driven a surge in streaming in the Netherlands over the past four years. There are signs this trend is slowing but industry figures are positive there’s room for more growth
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 237: VIEWTUBE. When Music Video Plays Get Juiced
Lead: Sony Music India artist Badshah claimed to have broken the 24-hour record on YouTube for 75m plays of his track ‘Paagal’ in July. Then people started asking questions. It eventually emerged that the track’s success had been boosted by TrueView ads before and during other YouTube videos, all of which counted toward the opening […]
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Source: Music ally
Spotify’s family plan launches in India for $2.50 a month
When Spotify launched in India earlier this year, its family plan wasn’t part of the offering. Now it is. The plan launched yesterday for INR 179 a month (around $2.50) covering up to six people in a household as in other markets. “Spotify’s Premium Family plan has been loved across markets, and we know that […]
The post Spotify’s family plan launches in India for $2.50 a month appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Euro copyright directive sparks Google change in France… for news
This week, Music Ally got a notification from Google that from late October, text snippets, video previews and thumbnail images from our website will not be shown in search results in France. We haven’t done anything wrong (we promise!) – this is an alert that anyone designated a ‘European press publication’ is getting, and it’s […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Spain 2019
After a blockbuster first half of the year, the Spanish music industry saw an unlikely spike in CD sales. While that might be a temporary blip, overall growth was at 27% and the news from Spain is hugely positive
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Summit 2019 London, 30 October #ModernMusicMarketing
Music Ally is delighted to be hosting its flagship music marketing conference Sandbox Summit at the London Art House on Wednesday 30th October. A day packed with thought-leading discussions and presentations at the cutting edge of music marketing, the event has become an essential fixture on the music marketer’s calendar. Thank you as ever to our headline sponsors Linkfire and The Orchard for helping […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Australia 2019
Four years of growth, combined with a strong established industry with room for further expansion has put the Australian recorded music business into a new optimistic mindset
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 236: Power Plays. THE NEXT STEP FOR PLAYLISTS
Lead: Playlists are still enormously important for breaking acts and for building careers – but they are increasingly a moving target that gets harder and harder to hit. As they change what they are, how they work and what they do, those marketing through playlists could find themselves shunted back to square one. This is […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 235: Talking TikTok Triumphs
Lead: TikTok is an essential consideration for artist marketing in 2019, particularly for pop acts. But for all the strategies and careful coordination, the best things on the app are often those that blindside everyone. We spotlight the best recent uses of music (and surprise catalogue reappearances) on TikTok in recent months and also look […]
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Source: Music ally
Report 424: Music/Tech Startups in 2019
Our focus is on music/tech startups, and their interaction with the music industry. Screenwriter William Goldman’s famous line about Hollywood – ”Nobody knows anything” – applies just as well to the task of spotting successful music/tech startups. But what Music Ally does know is that whenever we’ve been curious about startups in the present, it’s given us […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Philippines 2019
The Philippines, like many individual markets in Southeast Asia, is something of an enigma as far as the Western music industry is concerned. However, a promising digital market is being fueled by a young population
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 233: Shopping Around: Making Online Stores Add Up
Lead: Working with D2C experts is one part of the business, but changes in how social media sites are structuring themselves can offer acts new ways to sell products to fans of all stripes. We look at where social platforms are being best used to sell merchandise, how casual fans (and not just superfans) can […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Mexico 2019
Mexico has turned its world upside down in an unlikely situation where music is driving smartphone adoption rather than the other way around. And it’s all helping to send recorded music revenue to new heights.
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox issue 232: Music Marketing in Trigger Cities
Lead: This issue we have a special extended feature looking into the phenomenon of Trigger Cities. These are places outside of the obvious music markets that are now – due to streaming and how algorithms are fed – playing a key role in helping break artists and genres. This represents a whole new dynamic for […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Canada 2019
YouTube boasts immense strength in Canada but it is partly responsible for the slow adoption of subscription streaming as the country’s music industry aims to improve the revenue disparity for Canadian creators
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox issue 231: Conversions. Tracking Cause and Effect in fan marketing
Lead: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half,” is a quote commonly attributed to Philadelphian retailer John Wanamaker in the 1800s and it has haunted the advertising and marketing worlds ever since. Spending money and hoping for a consumer reaction previously involved stacking up a […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Japan 2019
Almost 20m people in Japan subscribed to a music streaming service at the end of 2018 – with both free and paid subscriber numbers set to rise further over the next few years as streaming revenues remain healthy
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox issue 230: Why Email Marketing Is More Important Than Ever
Lead: Email marketing is far from dead. We look at why it is still relevant, how email tools and platforms are getting smarter and where they are allowing users greater ways to target audiences, segment audiences and personalise messaging. Yet there are still many pitfalls, so in this issue we outline how to use email […]
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Source: Music ally
Researchers reveal tech to modify talking-head videos by editing text
A team of researchers at Stanford University have been showing off technology that they’ve created to perform “text-based editing of videos of talking heads”. What that means is, for a video of someone shot from the shoulders up talking about something, what they’re saying can be changed simply by editing its script. “The application uses […]
The post Researchers reveal tech to modify talking-head videos by editing text appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Norway 2019
The Norwegian recorded music industry has settled into the contented groove of a mature digital market with price rises for some streaming services having little impact on revenue or subscriber numbers
The post Country Profile – Norway 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Poland 2019
Much as in the rest of the world streaming income has been on the rise in Poland. But this has not – for the moment – come at the expense of physical sales with Poland 32% up on physical product in Q1 2019
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Source: Music ally
Record label 777 Music launches its own esports offshoot
The latest label exploring the crossover between music and esports is 777 Music, which has launched its own esports division. The company says it’s keen to explore the potential for genres beyond electronic-music to reap the rewards of pro-gaming partnerships. It has launched an online community for music and gaming fans, and is setting up […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Brazil 2019
The impact of streaming in what is now the tenth largest recorded music market in the world could lead to “three to five years of significant growth” – and “the sky’s the limit” says Sony Brasil’s president
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 227: TIK-ING BOXES. How TikTok can change music marketing.
Lead: TikTok is far more than a novelty app for people to whip up memes that have a shorter shelf life than a carton of milk. It is now breaking acts and songs in a way that other platforms cannot. We look at what the music industry is doing to capitalise on its phenomenal growth […]
The post Sandbox Issue 227: TIK-ING BOXES. How TikTok can change music marketing. appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Sweden 2019
Streaming revenue in Sweden increased another 8% in 2018 to make up 90% of total music sales. The inevitable question is how long can the Swedish market – long an aspirational model to the global music industry – continue to grow?
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 226: What people just don’t “get” about digital marketing
Lead: what digital marketing trends are most underrated or simply misunderstood in 2019? That’s the question we put to the music marketing community and got them to hold forth on the subject. This resulted in a lot of ideas and a lot of new paths for marketing this year and beyond. Campaigns: TikTok goes all […]
The post Sandbox Issue 226: What people just don’t “get” about digital marketing appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Country Profile – South Africa 2019
There is plenty of optimism surrounding the South African music industry as revenue growth returned in 2018 and numerous streaming services launched in a country just setting out on its digital music journey
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 225: Retargeting in an Age of Privacy
Lead: Tighter regulations around retargeting have made the job of digital marketing much trickier to navigate. What this has meant is that marketers have to get smarter. We speak to those working around these rules about why – if they put the work in – this can be more blessing than curse. Campaigns: Billie Eilish […]
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Source: Music ally
Report 422: Playlisting’s next leap forward
Playlists have been referred to as everything from the new album, the new compilation, the new greatest hits, through to the new radio, the new MTV and more. Whether you’re a pop act trying to build a truly global audience or just trying to make a living from making mood music, if you’re not on […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – France 2019
The “gilets jaunes” movement in France has had a significant negative impact on physical music sales, with protests peaking at the end of the year when those sales are typically at their strongest. This followed a 12-month period when France added 1m streaming subscribers
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 224: Up Hit Creek. THE DRY STREAMS PARADOX
Lead: The Dry Streams Paradox is when there is a huge gap between the number of streams an act gets and the number of fans they have or can reach. Just because someone plays one of your songs, it does not follow that they even know what your name is. Does this all mean that […]
The post Sandbox Issue 224: Up Hit Creek. THE DRY STREAMS PARADOX appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
T Bone Burnett takes on big-tech companies in SXSW speech
Musician and producer T Bone Burnett has spoken out before on the relationship between technology companies and artists. Last week at SXSW, he gave a speech outlining how he feels about all this in 2019. “It must be becoming obvious to most people by now: the fact that we are in a battle. A battle […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Germany 2019
The post Country Profile – Germany 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Report 421 :: AI on the Prize
Artificial intelligence is a hot ticket in the music industry and is spinning off in a variety of exciting new directions. It is being used to create music but also to power recommendations, to better understand the contexts of listening and to patch the leaks in the hull of metadata. It is, therefore, the Swiss […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 222: SYNC IN. Music Synchronisation Gets Smarter
Lead: as synchronisation grows in importance, a new wave of tools is emerging to make that whole process work seamlessly and smarter, covering both micro-licensing and pitch management. We look at the key players here, what they do and where they are taking synch – plus consider how AI is set to shake things up […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – United Kingdom 2019
The post Country Profile – United Kingdom 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 221: Fake Views. Lies, damned lies and music statistics
Lead: Smoke and mirrors have always been part of music, but when it comes to data, truth is starting to play second fiddle to hype. The nefarious and ruthless are finding ways to “massage” social media and streaming numbers while offering the desperate and gullible a quick fix. But the platforms are getting wise to […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – China 2019
The post Country Profile – China 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Report 420: #2019Goals. The music industry’s key challenges this year… and how we can tackle them
Welcome to the first Music Ally Report of 2019. We’re taking a look at some of the key challenges that lie ahead for our industry this year – and how they might be tackled. From diversity to startups via fake music and taking a bite out of radio, we hope it’s a constructive take on […]
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Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 220: Vault-ing Ambitions
Lead: While Netflix viewers are currently obsessing over Marie Kondo and her rules on de-cluttering the home (instructing viewers to only hold onto the things that “spark joy”), a different approach needs to happen in digital marketing. Rather than binning everything but the essentials, archivists and markets should be retaining as much as they can […]
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Source: Music ally
Country Profile – Turkey 2019
The post Country Profile – Turkey 2019 appeared first on Music Ally.
Source: Music ally
Sandbox Issue 219: The Tools and Trends That Will Shape 2019
Lead: A new year and a new slate. To kick off the year, we speak to marketers around the business and around the world about what tools they think will be indispensable and what trends they believe will shape 2019. From AR filters and scarcity to algorithmic personalisation of playlists, the continued rise of Latin […]
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Source: Music ally