Luis Fonsi at the 18th Latin GRAMMY Awards

Luis Fonsi 

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Nielsen Music Wraps 2017 With "Despacito" As Most-Streamed Song

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Other year-end highlights include R&B/hip-hop's dominance, the 59th GRAMMYs' social showing and vinyl sales increases
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Jan 4, 2018 - 12:53 pm

Nielsen Music released its 2017 U.S. Music Year-End Report on Jan. 3, including highlights such as R&B/hip-hop becoming the most popular genre for the first time, vinyl album sales' second record-breaking year in a row and the 1.3 billion streams that made "Despacito" 2017's most-streamed song on its way to winning four Latin GRAMMY Awards in 2017 and receiving three 60th GRAMMY Awards nominations —Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

While Nielsen prides itself on "the science behind what's next," 2017's multimetric combination of digital and physical sales also provides a more granular view of what's happened, allowing fine-point comparisons between how leading artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift jockey around top spots.

Comparisons between singles and albums take on a wider dimension. For example, Sam Hunt's GRAMMY-nominated "Body Like A Back Road" came in just behind "Despacito" and Sheeran's "Shape Of You" for best digital song sales. But on the country album side, Chris Stapleton dominates with GRAMMY-nominated album From A Room: Vol. 1 and GRAMMY winner Traveller taking the top two slots.

The report also shows that the 59th GRAMMY Awards came in first as "the most social special event of the year," and this receives a more detailed look as well. For example, Prince became the most-streamed artist online during the telecast, and Adele's Record Of The Year acceptance speech produced more than 44,000 Twitter interactions in a single minute.

Slipping back into "what's next?" mode, it is exciting to see growing demographic support for live music. More than 50 percent of American consumers go to at least one live music event per year. More than 50 percent of average consumer music dollars go for live music attendance.

According to the report, millennials are the most likely to attend live shows, offering a testament that efforts such as Record Store Days and New Music Fridays are having an impact as on-demand streaming makes the discovery of new artists easier than it has ever been.

As a postscript, the Top 40 debut of K-pop band BTS' hit "Mic Drop" — the first time ever for a Korean artist — ranked on Nielsen's highlights as well.

Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Streaming Add Up To UK Music Surge

Music Trends

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Looking Ahead To 2019 Meta Trends For Music, Tech And The Internet

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MIDiA Research releases its latest see-the-future report on expecting the unexpected in the year ahead
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Nov 20, 2018 - 4:21 pm

What does the future of music hold? Well, opinions vary. But media and technology analysis firm MIDiA Research specializes in seeing the future and on Nov. 16, its managing director Mark Mulligan announced the release of their latest crystal-ball insights for clients. It should come as no surprise that he predicts change ahead, but by nature, digital disruption causes shock and surprise. These changes, however they come to fruition, are bound to influence the business of music and how consumers appreciate their many options.

Mulligan blogged short run-downs of nine meta trends that are the basis of more detailed analysis in his firm's report. He closes with four "long-term structural trends" grouped into one: voice navigation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and augmented reality. The full report treats each of these separately, as to-be-continued items, progressing steadily without raising major disruptions in 2019.

The impact of platforms capturing consumer data surfaces in several of the predicted meta trends, including the expectation that European regulators will make an example of some leading platforms, enforcing adequate compliance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation. On thing is for sure, there is no shortage of data. MIDiA predicts that streamlining and simplifying what gets analyzed how must become a trend to counteract the data paralysis caused by too many numbers to crunch together effectively.

A related meta trend is that privacy itself will become more of a product. The firm observes that Apple has already staked out a lead in this, to distinguish itself from Facebook and Google.

Although privacy issues have had a big impact on politics lately, because of personally targeted ads, this nexus between politics and tech is something MIDiA expects will continue to grow.

Just as the way a company handles private data can become a product and a selling point, the same holds true for environmental "green" issues and presumably any issues that resonate with consumer demographics in a big way. While the impact of this on music is uncertain, you can bet more and more companies will choose to align with receptive segments of opinion to boost their brands.

Rights deals are also expected to remain disruptive, though their implications are still unclear. The two main related meta trends identified are major tech companies making original content and digital-first companies offering unexpected varieties of rights deals, both with the potential for massive change next year.

For instance, the major internet platforms are wealthy enough to buy entertainment and sports businesses, but even without acquisitions, they are already in a position to embark on their own brand of studio system. An example of this would be a music streaming service operating as a record label, but the sky is the limit for the mix-and-match possibilities so new permutations are expected to arrive in 2019. Success itself will be disruptive because any model that wins quickly with the public is likely to attract mega millions invested in new efforts to compete with it.

Perhaps the most relevant to music consumption of all these meta trends is described by MIDiA as "the validation of collective experience." This is more complicated than it first appears but its essence has similarities to the olden days of live television broadcasts. While personalized internet media can put consumers in a private silo, this will be increasingly balanced by attractive shared experiences enabling people to connect in real time or else miss out. Sharing special times together will become enabled in new versions of "be there or be square," and the cutting edge of high-tech marketing will seek to innovate unprecedented ways to embrace the moment with one's peers.

MIDiA Research's clients include billion-dollar brands competing based on innovation. In this changing world, MIDiA's expert guesswork maps out at least some of what's ahead for all of us. For each of us, new experiences are in store and the richest companies in the world are competing to supply us with them.

How Young Musicians Are Using Instagram As A Music Platform

Maren Morris, Ryan Hurd videocast

Maren Morris, Ryan Hurd videocast

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Can Facebook's New Portal Device Help Musicians Connect?

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Smart screen video chat device looks to increase casual feeling of hanging out with friends and could serve musicians well
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Oct 12, 2018 - 3:54 pm

Earlier this week, Facebook announced two new Portal video chat devices designed to move the smart speaker experience to the screen and encourage virtual hanging out that feels authentic and casual. The "Hey, Portal" experience could become a new model for intimate and spontaneous engagement. For people who care about making music, this could reveal all sorts of unexpected new perspectives.

The family focus of Portal and Portal+ could help it be suitable for musical artists reaching out to fans. It's designed for what Facebook wanted but in a way that emphasizes giving everyone meaningful experiences that engage and connect them.

Facebook's increased 2018 emphasis on friends-and-family, as explained by Mark Zuckerberg early this year, has apparently been influential in Portal's design. That change to Facebook's newsfeed algorithms shook up major figures' social media strategies because of its emphasis on media that actively engages users.

The priorities Zuckerberg listed included meaningful relationships, connection, intimacy, community, well-being and personal moments. Portal's features work together to encourage just those kinds of interactions, and they could mean a new way to connect and collaborate for musicians and songwriters. The need for artists to represent a culture and community all their own — filled with people their fan base believes in and engages with — will apply to Portal-captured exchanges just as it applies more generally now to challenges such as getting on Facebook's newsfeeds.

The camera & mic: Many elements were thought through to help folks feel comfortable with a Facebook camera in their home. The Portal's on-board AI pans and zooms intelligently. A physical privacy shield clips easily over the lens and can also be used to disable the microphone, making the screen revert to displaying favorite photos.

Partners: At launch Portal and Portal + have been optimized for accessing Facebook Watch, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify Premium, and more with additional partner announcements expected soon.

Filter fun: Portal's bedtime stories feature seems to point the way toward AR-enhanced, spontaneous music content that could be ahead. A story, its characters, and animated filters that can turn a selfie into a cartoon character are designed to let sleepytime storytellers stimulate and soothe children. The same fun that can help a kid fall asleep can be purposed for wide-awake entertainment. A musician can come equipped with an animated story and a cast of filter-characters when using Portal, which should be more fun with music too.

Privacy: On the back end, encryption through FB Messenger and Portal's other data routing is designed to reassure consumers made skittish by news of data breaches and criminal hackers. For example Amazon Alexa is on board for voice-activated use and keeps your interactions with it separate from Facebook's servers. Facebook also pledges not to view or retain the content of chats. The reason the camera-AI lives on-board Portal is so that less private data travels over the internet.

Price and product: The 10-inch Portal displays 1280 x 800 video and is available for $199. The 15-inch Portal+ displays 1920 x 1080 video, can be adjusted for portrait or landscape viewing, and costs $349. Available now for pre-sale, Facebook is also offering a promotional incentive of $100 off if you buy two. Shipments are expected to begin next month.

Competition: Amazon's latest Echo Show is built for similar tasks but with less of a "hanging-out" vibe designed into its specifications.

Like telephones, Portal's greatest power is enabling one-to-one meaningful experiences, which could include co-writing, lessons, or even rehearsing if latency is low enough. But also like mobile phones, video chat's power provides content that can be cast to wider audiences, making personalized performances and custom concerts other possible uses for musicians. Portal connections may stay intimate while being captured and still result in creation of conventional video content, while doing this in ways that feel more personal and spontaneous. It makes sense for Facebook's company agenda, and it's an interesting direction for artists too. Life in the social media spotlight has had drama and excitement of its own, and this could be a next step in its evolution.

The technology's implications may even reach into the media. Last month, The New York Times questioned the future viability of celebrity journalism because earnest sharing is replacing the perspective of an objective third-party biographer, for example when friends interview friends. Whether Portal ultimately enables one-to-many Portal-casting or not, captured feeds of celebs hanging out with close friends and being intimate and revealing online, in ways they can control, seems a format likely to attract both musicians as well as a growing audience.

Spotify Adds Direct Uploads For Indie Artists

YouTube app

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YouTube Downloading Sites Biggest Music Industry Threat

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Livelihoods get hurt, massively and daily, by stream recording off platforms such as YouTube
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Sep 13, 2018 - 4:55 pm

While YouTube offers the ability to watch content at no cost, websites that "stream rip" music allow people to convert a YouTube video into an MP3 file and keep it. These sites are attracting millions and are the biggest threat to the music industry, numbers show.  

According to the Independent "A third of young people use sites that illegally convert videos from Youtube to MP3 files" in the U.K. The effects of stream ripping have come to light thanks to a crackdown that began in 2016 and is underway in an effort by companies in the U.S. and the U.K.

On Jan. 12, the U.S. Trade Representative released the 2017 Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets, identifying the worst of the worst, including stream rippers. In its sections on positive developments since the year before it references successful enforcement efforts such as the shut down of Youtube-mp3.org. It also identifies Convert2MP3.net as one of the worst offenders however for a more detailed description of what stream ripping is, a footnote advises to see the previous year's report. This is a sign of a persistent problem.

Streaming sites are able to monetize and make millions through online advertisements, while content creators receive nothing. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the U.K. record industry's trade association and is one entity trying to stop stream ripping.  

"We hope that responsible advertisers, search engines and hosting providers will also reflect on the ethics of supporting sites that enrich themselves by defrauding creators," BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor told the Independent.

Stream ripping remains one of the easiest and most popular methods of downloading that can be easily abused and is regularly, for infringing purposes. Above all, it hurts musicians.

The Independent also referenced the voluntary shut down of the MP3Fiber website. In the U.S., on Aug. 3 Billboard reported that the major labels filed lawsuits against FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com, both "Russia-based illegal stream-ripping websites." A YouTube spokesperson made it clear to the Independent that such abuses break their Terms of Service, saying, "Once notified of an infringing tool, or service that allows the downloading of a YouTube video without permission from the content owner we take appropriate action." YouTube has "invested heavily" in copyright and management tools, it says.

Like the Freedom Radio Hour DJs address in the above video, people used to rip off Beethoven's sheet music so there will be infringing uses, some of them very serious. At best stream ripping makes that easier and at worst it encourages mass consumers to bend and break the rules any way they want to, an internet chaos that has charms and also victims.

Maybe some things never change, but this one should. We know what the problem is. Fix it, don't rip it.

Upcoming Spotify Renegotiations Magnify Tussles With Labels

Apple Music

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Apple Music Reportedly Launching New Music Publishing Division

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Find out what Apple's move into publishing may mean for the company's future
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
May 30, 2018 - 3:47 pm

Reports on May 30 that Apple has created a new international music publishing division are raising speculations about the directions the leading corporation could take. "Luring songwriters" was how Rolling Stone described the expansion, while also pointing to the end-of-summer expectation that Apple Music's current 50 million subscribers will swell to exceed Spotify's 75 million subscribers.

What's clear is that the business deeply associated with New York City's Brill Building and Nashville's Music Row is expected to find a new base in cutting-edge digital technology companies. For example, when Sony announced on May 22 that it would spend $2.3 billion to acquire a greater stake in EMI Music Publishing, Sony President/CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said, "In the entertainment space, we are focusing on building a strong IP portfolio." That was certainly a vote of confidence in the value of copyrights.

Apple and its tech competitors cultivate and protect patent IP portfolios, underlying the innovations built into their products. The journey into artistic IP by Apple, at a minimum, will give it a vantage point and valuable experience on the copyright side. For example, it could help bolster the consummation of licensing deals more swiftly as well as lead to the direct signing and development of songwriting talent.

Elena Segal has been reportedly promoted to her new role as Global Director of Music Publishing at Apple Music, having previously worked as the legal director for iTunes International. When Apple Music launched globally in 2015, Segal was head of licensing, proving she could navigate and negotiate legal requirements that, unlike Apple's tech products, are not meant to be intuitive.

David Israelite, president/CEO of the National Music Publishers Association, praised Apple's new division as "wonderful," saying it "shows their respect and admiration for the publishing industry."

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