The album “Nevermind” by Nirvana came out in 1991. On the cover of this legendary piece was portrayed a toddler, swimming underwater after a dollar. And after 30 years, all of a sudden, the baby on the album cover decided to file a lawsuit against Kurt Cobein’s family residence and all living Nirvana members for “child pornography and sexual exploitation.”
30-year-old Spencer Elder, who was photographed for the album cover, never had any problem with his naked picture being used as artwork in the past, as it is shown in his interview with The Guardian in 2015. In the interview, he is quoted as stating, “I am glad they chose me… It is a weird thing to get my head around, being part of such a culturally iconic image. But it’s always been a positive thing and opened doors for me…,” adding, “I might have one of the most famous penises in the music industry, but no one would ever know that to look at me. Sooner or later, I want to create a print of a real-deal re-enactment shot, completely naked. Why not? I think it would be fun.”
Nirvana “Nevermind” Album Cover Artwork – Is this art, or sexual exploitation?
It says in the legal filing that “The images exposed Spencer’s intimate body part and lasciviously displayed Spencer’s genitals from the time he was an infant to the present day.” However, as long as a child’s photo is not sexualized, it is not considered as pornography by US law.
Spencer’s lawyer, Robert Y. Lewis, doesn’t agree with the defendant’s position and argues that since the photo shows a naked infant swimming after a dollar, it can be perceived as the infant looks “like a sex worker.”
There are a lot of questions surrounding this case – is it appropriate to file a lawsuit so long after Spencer Elder became an adult? Does it make sense that he initially gave an interview stating on record how proud he is to be on the album cover, and now he has a completely different view? Can he sue Nirvana if, at the moment of taking the picture, he was a 4-months-old infant and his parents (legal guardians) approved of his image being used for commercial exploitation? If it was a child pornography, wouldn’t Nirvana’s album cover for “Nevermind” have been taken down by US authorities years ago?
The story begs answers to many questions, but for now it is known that the parents of Spencer were actually paid for the appearance of their infant on the notorious album cover in the amount of $200. On another note, however, Spencer says that his parents have never signed any agreements or releases that would allow Nirvana and its team to use the naked photo of him on the album. And though he isn’t happy about the album cover anymore, he has made a cosplay of the picture as a grown up.
Spencer Elder recreates infamous “Nevermind” album cover pic 30 years later.
Whatever comes next is sure to unfold in court. The MIW team will continue to monitor the situation as Nirvana fans and music lovers alike wait for answers to the many questions being asked about the pending suit.
Living in the 21st century, music artists have endless opportunities and space to promote their music on the Internet – through social media, streaming services, and online media outlets. However, it is necessary to stay relevant and feel what channels will help an artist to get noticed and grow its audience more than others, and it is something that is constantly changing. Except for Instagram, Spotify, SoundCloud and other platforms that are highly popular and oversaturated, there are more promising platforms to break into.
In this article, we will present three underrated platforms which deserve to receive attention and usage by music artists, based on numbers, statistics, and stories of success. These platforms are:
TikTok – Music Industry Weekly
1. TikTok – Even though it seems like everyone has already heard about this social media platform, some people are still hesitant to start using it. The media has already reported how phenomenal the platform has become over the past several years. However, it can’t be emphasized enough just how powerful this platform is for creatives who want to share their music with the world. While Instagram experiments with its algorithm, forcing artists to do something they don’t necessarily want or need (3 posts per week to grow an audience, for example), TikTok makes everything much easier, pushing users’ content not only to their followers but to others’ feed. Nowadays, it is considered as the main social media channel for indie artists to build a huge following. TikTok alone has somewhat revolutionized the music industry, and this has been proven by a number of real stories. Such notable artists include Doja Cat, Umanbek, Kali Uchis, Megan Thee Stallion, Trevor Daniel and Olivia Rodrigo who all reached worldwide fame when their songs went mainstream on the platform, and users from all over the world started to feature them in their videos. Everyone knows “Say So” by Doja Cat – the song hit almost 786,000,000 streams on Spotify and became the most popular in Doja’s catalogue.
Another extraordinary story is about “Roses” (Remix) by SAINt JHn & Imanbek – it brought 1,344,053,004 streams to Imanbek, creating a sensation out of his remix, which led to his relocation from a dormitory in Kazakhstan to Los Angeles, collaborations with Rita Ora, Gunna, David Guetta and others, and a win of Grammy for “The Best Dance Song”. What is more interesting in this story is that by creating the remix for a 5 year old song “Roses,” Imanbek also brought attention to SAINt JHn, who currently has 19,000,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. The remix charted as No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 in the UK, which became the first time for SAINt JHn to appear in charts (except his collaboration with Beyoncé for “Brown Skin Girl” in 2019).
In 2020, the song that carried a lot of people through the pandemic was “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion. Indeed, another absolute hit breakthrough via TikTok and was featured in 22,000,000 videos and streamed 308,614,578 times on Spotify. The track had such a success that even Beyoncé supported it, creating a remix. This song became the bridge for Megan to reach fame on an international level and led to her collaboration with Cardi B.
Moving to 2021, in the end of February, TikTok’s users discovered another singer to make a wildly famous star – Kali Uchis. Her half-Spanish, half-English song “telepatía” is the most streamed track in her catalogue so far, having 381,599,271 streams on Spotify.
In order to prove why TikTok should be used by artists, consider the number of Instagram users versus TikTok users:
According to the numbers, TikTok’s audience is only 70% of Instagram’s users, which means that the platform has more space and air for creators to be pushed through the algorithm, having lower competition in comparison with Instagram. Moreover, since TikTok is the platform that specializes only in videos and pushes it even if a user doesn’t really want it, it is safe to say that there is a group of people (all over the world) that prefer to watch others’ content rather than participate and upload their own, which means that music artists have more eyes looking at them and less content to compete with.
As the stories have proven, it doesn’t matter if an artist is established or not – on TikTok anyone can become famous. 2020 was a year of prosperity for the platform and it keeps bringing new artists into the music industry. While it’s not too late, artists should use the chance to register on the platform and start pushing their music there – especially because there are a lot of music creatives that still haven’t adjusted and switch over to TikTok. Use the opportunity while it is not as oversaturated as Instagram.
YouTube Music – Music Industry Weekly
2. YouTube Music – No one talks about YouTube Music, mostly naming Spotify and Apple Music as the main channel for streaming and searching for new artists. However, this can prove to be a big mistake for creatives. Artists should never forget the platform that was there before all the streaming services existed – not only was YouTube the place for videos, it was also a space for finding new faces. Now when mainly all music video premieres go out on YouTube, (and streaming services can do nothing about it) YouTube goes deeper, seriously expanding YouTube Music, hoping to dethroning Spotify. YouTube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen, announced that YouTube Music is currently the fastest-growing streaming service according to the payments within the platform provided to the music industry via advertising and subscription revenue to the tune of approximately $4 billion dollars. For the record, Spotify’s royalty payment hit 5 billion dollars in 2020.
For an upcoming artist, right now is the perfect time to jump in on the opportunity before everyone else starts and it will be too late. Moreover, remember the artists who got recognized, starting via YouTube when streaming services already became a thing – The Weeknd broke through with his miraculous anonymous account created in 2011; Alan Walker posted his music for other people to use it as copyrighted-free tracks; Ed Sheeran uploaded his live performances and started to build his fanbase; Charlie Puth used to sing covers on famous songs on YouTube until he was noticed by Ellen DeGeneres and eventually got signed to her record label; last but not least, Shawn Mendes used the same formula as Charlie Puth – he made covers of songs by Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and others, gained supporters and started to move forward on publishing his own songs, which led him to years of climbing to the top and receiving 37,306,264 monthly listeners on Spotify.
There is yet one more reason to put your attention on YouTube Music though. Spotify and Apple Music are the most popular streaming services which have millions of subscribers all over the world, and some people can think that this is their leverage. However, it is necessary to look at it from another angle. Let’s compare the number of Spotify’s, Apple Music’s and YouTube Music’s subscribers below:
According to the numbers, YouTube Music has only 8% of Spotify’s number of subscribers and 41% of Apple Music. The Verge states that Spotify has 1.2 million artists with over 1,000 listeners (which doesn’t represent all artists on Spotify but gives an approximate number), which means that the number of artists posting their music on YouTube Music logically should be much less. Here comes the main advantage of the platform – fewer competitors and more space to be explored for an artist.
YouTube Music has a big potential, which is shown in YouTube’s financial report and a fast-growing number of subscriptions. Therefore, it’s a great opportunity for an artist to get in on “the trend” before it becomes mainstream.
LinkedIn – Music Industry Weekly
3. LinkedIn – This may seem like the most unexpected platform for promoting music – but it’s a place where an artist can be noticed by an A&R scout or an artist manager. LinkedIn is an ideal space to connect with professionals from the music industry and other artists. Moreover, some of the music executives actively post tips and tricks for young artists about how to grow a fanbase, submit music to labels, and more. After all, it’s not necessary to network with scouts and managers only – there are plenty of people from the industry who would like to check out and support an artist’s music, consequently becoming a fan. Think about it as a portfolio, where an artist can share his or her projects with other professionals and network about future opportunities.
Isabella Bedoya, ex-Head of A&R at Trend Def (distributed by Sony Music) not only gives her advice on LinkedIn, but also creates virtual networking events and performs at virtual panels, which can be another exciting opportunity for artists to learn, connect and shine a light on themselves and their music. Producers such as Dale Reynolds, who is signed to Beatstars and Sony Music Publishing and worked on the song “Delusions of Grandeur” by Scrim (which received 3,204,574 streams on Spotify), periodically looks for new artists to work with and posts about it on LinkedIn.
It’s necessary to review the numbers to prove the point about LinkedIn efficiency. Let’s compare how many users Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn have:
Firstly, the difference in numbers is massive and shows that the number of LinkedIn users contain only 24.2% of Facebook’s number of users and 69% of Instagram. There is no need to analyze the numbers to see that Instagram and Facebook are the platforms where an artist will have much fewer chances to build a fanbase due to the oversaturation the market. Lots of users on a platform is a good thing, but not if there are too many of them.
Secondly, Instagram and Facebook do not have limiting visions like LinkedIn does – while on LinkedIn an artist can easily find music professionals using its specific search tool, connect with them and discuss business, not every music professional who is open to that on LinkedIn is ready to connect with upcoming artists on Instagram and Facebook since they can use it as their personal social media for family and friends only.
As it can be seen above, LinkedIn is full of people from the music industry who are ready to help, talk, connect, work together, and share links for different opportunities. The platform can look too professional at first for pushing an artist’s music, but if artists think strategically about their presence on LinkedIn and analyze how to present themselves, it can give a significant lift to an artist career. Every industry is about networking and connections. This is especially true in the music industry – and LinkedIn is the perfect place for it.
According to all of the facts, numbers, statistics, and information mentioned above, it is highly advised that artists seriously consider the usage of such platforms as TikTok, YouTube Music and LinkedIn if they aren’t already using them.
While Instagram stopped helping artists long ago to grow an audience and get discovered by other people due to its constantly changing algorithm, TikTok seems to be the biggest contender in helping artists share their music even in light of how mainstream it has become.
There is no question that Spotify is the most popular streaming service in the world. The challenge is that it has become oversaturated with countless artists trying to break through. Apple Music has the same problem, in addition to the fact that it does not have any system of pushing the music of newer aspiring artists (in comparison with Spotify). YouTube Music’s reports show steady growth and a promising future, which makes it a great streaming service for young music creatives to hop on now before it got too crowded.
While Twitter and Facebook are the type of social media that is not considered as a space for professional presentation and is more about people’s thoughts and personal life (which is literally used all over the globe) these platforms make it hard for artists to connect with people from the music industry, to get noticed, or to collaborate. LinkedIn was created exactly for this purpose and is not widely used and accepted by music creatives due to complications in understating how to use it as an artist, which is another distinct advantage.
There is no doubt that being a music artist in the 21st century opens a lot of different opportunities to promote music, especially digitally. There is also no doubt that in order to get noticed and make an artist’s dream come true, they should stay active and relevant on every popular social media platform. But the most important thing in this age is the necessity to stay proactive and stay on top of popular platforms, and hopping on the new ones before everyone else finds these “hidden gems.” Either way, being vigilant and willing to think outside of the box will open tons of opportunities for an artist who is willing to put in the work and carve their own path to success.
As with every successfully progressing field, once in a while, the music industry evolves and produces new trends, influenced by the audience’s or artist’s changing preferences. A few years ago, Hip-Hop and Rap surpassed POP music, becoming the most popular genre in the world. Moreover, before that, in the 2000’s, Hip-Hop and Rock music with its subgenres (EMO-Rock, Alternative Rock, New Metal, Rap-Rock and etc.) had a massive influence, being the most mainstreamed genres of the first part of the decade.
In 2020, new trends have arisen, smoothly flowing over into 2021. Currently, the most promising trends based on numbers, charts and statistics are:
Latin Music.
Latin Music had huge growth last year and was supported by a lot of international artists in different ways – Selena Gomez released a whole EP album “Revelacion” in Spanish; The Weeknd sang a part in Spanish for Maluma’s “Hawai Remix,” after that inviting Rosalía to create the remix for his song “Blinding Lights” as well. Billie Eilish also jumped in and dropped a song “Lo Vas A Olvidar” featuring Rosalía, while Dua Lipa collaborated with J. Balvin, Bad Bunny & Tainy for “Un Dia.” A massive interest from such big artists wasn’t the main reason for Latin music to rise though; fair to say it was a consequence.
The first significant sign of a development of the genre started with Bad Bunny and his album “YHLQMDLG,” which became the highest-charting Spanish language album ever and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 on March 9, 2020, according to the Grammys. Moreover, later in the year, releasing his third album “El Ultimo Tour del Mundo” on November 27, 2020, it debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard in America and became the first ever album in full Spanish to achieve it (for comparison, it beat Miley Cyrus’s “Plastic Hearts” which was released on the same week). Concluding the year with Spotify’s reports about most-streamed artists and songs of 2020, it was revealed that Bad Bunny was the most-streamed artist worldwide with his album “YHLQMDLG.”
At the same time with Bad Bunny’s historical records, artists such as Maluma also achieved big things for Latin music and earned No.1 on the Billboard Global (excl. the U.S.) with his song “Hawái,” which stayed for 40 weeks in the chart.
Looking at the attention Spanish-speaking artists were receiving, different Music Awards also supported them by inviting to perform at the events – Maluma at MTV VMAs (2020), Karol G at MTV EMA (2020) and Billboard Music Awards (2021), and Bad Bunny at Grammy Awards and Billboard Music Awards (2021).
In addition to everything mentioned above, the chart below shows the growth in interest to Latin music (including such subgenres as latin, reggaeton, reggaeton colombiano and trap latino) in 2020:
Even though Pop music stays as the most popular genre in the world, a more important indicator here are the numbers representing latin, reggaeton, reggaeton colombiano and trap latino music. Considering that all of them mostly were at the bottom since the 2000’s, it proves that Latin music is emerging and is on its way to prospering. Latin music received much more attention and consequently more platforms to be shown than ever before. The time for latin music is now.
Lo-Fi & Chill Music
These genres of music or so-called “background for studying” were not visible and involved in any music discussion before the pandemic, TikTok and Generation Z have arrived all together at the same time.
Indeed, the significant increase in an interest for Lo-Fi and Chill music appeared in 2020, during quarantine, when TikTok was one of the most popular platforms (citation). Watching videos on the platform, it can be noticed that a lot of educational or aesthetic content is recorded along with Lo-Fi & Chill Music in the background, which brings awareness about such genres and entice listeners to explore them. Since Generation Z is the main audience of TikTok, it eventually became the main audience for Lofi & Chill music.
Moreover, in one of those “pandemic” nights in 2020, Youtube’s most popular livestream was “lofi hip hop radio – beats to relax / study to” by Chilled Cow, viewed by 40,000 people. In addition, Spotify stated that during 2020, playlists such as “Chill Vibes” grew by more than 7%.
Last but not least, such artist as Powfu and his lofi song “Death Bed (Coffee for Your Head)” became an absolute hit on TikTok in 2020 and still trends today in 2021 – it was featured 5.1 million times on the platform and streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify (June 12, 2021).
There is no doubt that Lofi & Chill Music will continue to rise in 2021 since this discussion. For example, indie record label Amuse hired professionals to build a Lofi department to explore and develop the genres, believing it is going to keep growing. As it can be seen above that Lofi music starts prospering, industry professionals can come to an agreement that music shouldn’t be necessarily dynamic or mood-boosting – it can also be something that doesn’t grab a listener’s attention but rather helps them focus on an agenda for the day.
Rock / Glock Rock / Alternative
This does not have to come as a surprise: Rock and its subgenres were a major trend in the 2000’s, implemented in Pop and Rap songs, which were admired by millions of young teenagers and adults. Now, when the 2000’s fashion trends are back, it might be the reason for the 2000’s music trends to arise as well. However, it started before 2021.
In 2019, the first album to receive the biggest attention due to sound production and artist fame was “Hollywood’s Bleeding” by Post Malone, which peaked on the US Billboard 200 at No.1, considered as one of the best albums in 2019 and 2020 and nominated for “Album of the Year” by The Recording Academy. Post Malone’s image always portrayed a rockstar, however, only the third album showcased his musical influences – having rock arrangements and featuring rock legends such as Ozzy Osbourne.
It is hard to say if Post Malone actually started the trend, but later in 2020 and 2021 other rap artists began releasing music, which gave a feeling that they were heavily influenced by Rock, Punk and Alternative music: Machine Gun Kelly (completely changed his style and became a rock star in his album “Tickets to my downfall” (2020)), The Kid LAROI’s “F*CK LOVE (SAVAGE)” (2020), Trippie Redd’s “PEGASUS” with Travis Barker (2021). In the 2000’s, when Rap and Rock artists used to collaborate with each other or when a rap artist went from rap beats to a rock sound was originally called Nu-Metal, later on named as Glock Rock. And it seems that Glock Rock is actually coming back.
All of the (originally) Rap artists mentioned above changed their style with the named albums and it was widely supported by the audience.
Another artist who completely changed her sound and was supported by fans, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 is Miley Cyrus with her Glam Rock album “Plastic Hearts”.
From 2020 to 2021, Rock influence keeps going – Rap artist Trippie Redd collaborated with Travis Barker (drummer from the band “Blink-182”) and released a rock album “PEGASUS”; Olivia Rodrigo and her album “SOUR”, which includes such songs as “brutal” and “good 4 u”, brought an absolute feeling of “déjà vu” and reminded the audience of the teen rock in the 2000’s (seems like it was something that everyone needed, therefore the album debuted as No.1 on the Billboard 200).
What is interesting about this trend is that it wasn’t demanded by the audience (as it can be noticed in Latin and Lofi & Chill Music), in this case it is completely opposite – artists, who grew up listening to rock / punk / alternative demanded a change for themselves and wanted to try something they were inspired by. In this case, artists brought a new, old trend to their audiences and the results show that people love it.
As the Music Industry keeps progressing and growing, music trends keep changing as people explore new music, finding new favorite genres or reminiscing about the old ones. While there is nothing surprising about the process though, it is entirely positive – the industry is developing, growing, prospering and getting more creative! Once there is a trend in genres which weren’t popular before or were popular a long ago, we can soon expect extraordinary collaborations and an unexpected mixing of sounds, with endless potential to create something absolutely new and out of our minds.
Interiano, M., Kazemi, K., Wang, L., Yang, J., Yu, Z., & Komarova, N. L. (n.d.). Musical trends and predictability of success in contemporary songs in and out of the top charts. In The Royal Society Publishing. Retrieved from https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.171274
“Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd will be remembered by everyone as the biggest song of 2020. Released on December 2019, the track became an absolute success for the artist, spending 4 weeks as #1, 43 weeks in Top-5, 57 weeks in Top-10, 79 weeks in Top-20 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also didn’t go unnoticed on TikTok and became one of the first songs of the pandemic which was used in a viral dance challenge and other videos on the platform almost 2,5 million times.
The fame of the song is undeniable – it was streamed almost 2,5 billion times on Spotify and Aug 16, spent 88 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, which makes it the longest charting song of all time.
The Weeknd shared his thoughts about such an amazing achievement on Instagram, “…For the last decade every song has been a journey and to be able to continue this journey has been nothing short of a blessing, it’s the only gift I could ever ask for. I’ll be doing it for as long as I can breathe. I love my fans and wouldn’t be here without you. Big day for Blinding Lights. Multiple songs in the top 20. Thursday turns 10. Caesar turned 4 and the f*****g dawn is coming. LET’S GO”
As it was mentioned in the post, Blinding Lights isn’t the only reason for him to be proud. In the same week, the singer had a 10-years anniversary of his mixtape “Thursday” (which eventually became a part of “Trilogy” that made him famous), the next album is on the way (he refers to it as a dawn) and the lead-single “Take My Breath” just came out, while previous works are still trending and his dog Caesar became a little older.
Needless to say – this is the energy fans are happy to see, especially when the artist promised to go on air with his radio “Memento Mori” every week until the upcoming album will be finally released. In the last episode, Abel said, “Next decade is gonna be nuts. I promise I am not stopping, I’m just getting started,” sharing his favorite songs which included Britney Spears’s ‘Toxic’ and ‘Every Time’ that inspired him for the next album.
As The Weeknd said, while the “After Hours” album still builds its legacy, we keep listening to it and waiting for “the dawn.”
Silk Sonic, a duo of Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars presented its lead-single “Leave the door open” in March, 2021. The track brought the vibes of a Golden Age of Soul, which was not only evident in the sound, but in its old-school visuals of a cover art and performance at the 63rd Grammys.
It debuted as #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually becoming #1. The song had a huge success and Silk Sonic decided to go further and even release a live version, performed at the Grammys, on all DSPs.
According to rumors, the duo’s album release rollout didn’t include such a big gap between first and second single, but due to long trending of “Leave The Door Open,” the release of the next song “Skate” was pushed to July 30, 2021. It is unknown if the rumors were true since the duo and its representatives didn’t confirm it, but the fact that the timeline of the releases seems to be stretched out does stay the same.
On February 25, together with the announcement of “Leave The Door Open,” Anderson .Paak stated that they already made the whole album “An Evening with Silk Sonic.” But it seems like fans will have to wait till next year.
In the latest interview with Rolling Stone, Anderson and Bruno revealed that the album won’t see the world till January, 2022. “We’re really in touch-up mode now,” explained Bruno Mars, “We’ve got the bones of the album, so it’s really about touching parts that need a little more… Grease.”. As they kept talking to the interviewer, .Paak said “We both make feel-good music, and I think it’s because we’ve been through pain and tragedy,” In the conversation, both of them shared that they want to give good feelings and emotions to its listeners since they know how it feels like to go through hard times (to say the least) – they opened up that both of them know how it is to lose parents and be broke. Therefore, this album, as well as Silk Sonic, are their opportunity to deal with it and that is the reason why it takes time – they give their all, it is “life or death” for them.
It is still far from January, but good work takes time. And, if nothing changes and Silk Sonic releases their long-awaited album as promised, there is a guarantee that the beginning of the next year will be started with the music full of happiness, love, and positive vibes.
Niccolò Paluani’s foray into music was purely accidental, literally. The decision to pursue a professional music career stemmed from being on the Costa Concordia cruise ship that sank on January 13, 2012. After surviving the mishap, he decided to pursue things that allowed him to live life fully. “The moment reshaped my mind, and I decided I was not going to waste my life doing things I wouldn’t enjoy,” Niccolò said.The Padova, Italy-native applied to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston after graduating from the conservatory. He became a guitarist and started playing for artists like Tristan Simone and Eduardo Omondi. Shortly after, he created his own tribute band called The Snarky Puppy Ensemble, which performed alongside Michael League at the Cafe 939 in Boston. The Snarky Puppy Ensemble made it to the final of the AES Recording Competition with an original arrangement that Niccolò Paluani directed and the band recorded.His graduation from college opened up a new world of musical artistry for him as the pandemic started, and he switched from being a guitarist to a composer. Around this time, he also moved to Los Angeles, where he connected with notable and established musicians, producers and talent managers. In LA, Niccolò Paluani worked with Luigi Meroni and Nicolas Farmakalidis (The Weeknd, Pat Metheny, Lasso, Julia Michaels) and other artists’ movies, productions, and Netflix TV series. He also made his announcement in the music scene by releasing his first two singles, which rose to the top of the iTunes charts in Italy.As a guitarist, Niccolò Paluani approaches music compositions uniquely and allows all his musical influences to reflect in the type of music he creates. “Artists always get told to find their own voice, to be unique, which sometimes can be really hard and put a lot of pressure on them. I realized that we should embrace the fact that all the artists that we listen to and the influences we take inspiration from live together inside us. If we are capable of embracing that we are the combination of all our influences, then we are already unique,” he said. Niccolò Paluani aims to deliver music different from the usual commercial trap. “I want to make some music that appeals to both the body and the mind,” he said. For every music composition, Niccolò Paluani remembers the circumstances that got him to this point. He’s a strong believer in turning struggles into power and dealing with problems head-on. Despite surviving an accident that left 32 people dead and thousands traumatized, he dusted himself and got on a new journey to rewrite his life story.“My will and determination have gotten me this far, and I hope to stay on course,” he noted. “Sometimes I have to bite the bullet, but I know it’s just a matter of time. There is always a solution to any obstacle that I’ll find in front of me. It’s always a matter of how to deal with them.”Niccolò Paluani’s goals for the next few years include going on tours and performing to a live audience, promoting his released music, becoming a better composer and performer, and ultimately winning a Grammy Award. Learn more about Niccolò Paluani on his official Instagram page.
In July, Kanye West announced his next album “Donda” (which is named in honor of his mother) was about to come out. No one expected that the release was going to be smooth and simple, as it usually is with other artists, and no one was wrong about that.
First, Kanye stated that his fans will be able to hear it on July 23, then August 6, then August 13, and then August 20. Now, it is being pushed to August 26. In the meantime, Apple Music promoted an exclusive live stream event from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta earlier this month that showed the creative phenom finishing the album.
.@kanyewest prepares and presents his 10th album #Donda, live from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta during an exclusive livestream event.
No one can deny that Kanye’s album rollout is unique, though. Not only because of the constant rescheduling of the release, but the way he lets his fans taste this upcoming era. The rapper moved to the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Atlanta with the purpose to focus and finish the album there. While having residency in the arena, he already had a livestream for everyone who would love to see how he lives there and what he does during the process of working on Donda (half of the livestream included him sleeping). Moreover, he organized two listening/release parties (on the nights when the album was supposed to come out) in the Mercedes-Benz Arena, which last time was attended by 40,000 people and watched by 5 millions via livestream. Hundreds of videos spreaded on social media from the event, showing how Kanye was floating in the end of the show. And even though Kanye didn’t perform any of the songs, the visuals were truly beautiful and people spent money ($20/$50 per ticket) to have an exclusive opportunity to hear the new album first.
Although Kanye keeps rescheduling the release of his album, it is done due to his desire to make this album perfect, especially when it is called in the name of his mother. And while all we have are videos from the listening parties with some parts of new songs, there is one thing for sure – DONDA will have a lot of features and collaborations.
For those who didn’t have time to dive into the details of the album, here is the list of the artists to expect there (if Kanye doesn’t change his mind) when DONDA comes out: Lil Baby, The Weeknd, Playboi Carti, Baby Keem, Don Toliver, Pusha T, Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Roddy Rich, Lil Durk, Kid Cudi, 070 Shake, Pop Smoke, Lil Durk, Young Thug, Lil Yachty, Donda and more.
Also, as it is known at the moment, the lead-single for the album is called “Hurricane” (feat. The Weeknd and Lil Baby) and it does sound angelic. It seemed to be well received according to the likes on a recent IG post by Complex Music.
Complex Music IG Post – Music Industry Weekly
As more news about Kanye and his album DONDA keep coming, it is already stated that the last listening party at the Mercedes-Benz Arena on August 5 broke the record as the highest-grossing US tour solely on its merchandise – just in one night, attendees bought tees, designed by Balenciaga, on $7,000,000 (previous record was made by Taylor Swift and sales were under $7 million).
It’s obvious that DONDA hasn’t dropped quite yet, but fans keep waiting and hoping that “next week” it will finally be released successfully. But for now… It is Kanye’s world and we are just living in it.
For those who missed the news about DaBaby’s rant at a recent live event that caused a stir within the LGBTQ+ community and the Music Industry generally, you will need to first brush up on the headlines that hit the digital airwaves over the past several weeks. You can quickly catch up by reading the following news article published on MIW last week: DaBaby’s Controversy Keeps Going: What’s Coming Next?
The situation got much worse when DaBaby tried to apologize and made his first statement on Twitter after the show on July 27, “I tell fans to put a cellphone light in the air y’all start a million-man March. I told y’all digested that wrong. But I ain’t gonna lie I’m impressed. Now show this same amount of support when a racist cop kill one of our black ass… YA NOT,” continuing in another tweet, “Anybody who done ever affected by AIDS/HIV y’all got the right to be upset, what I said was insensitive even though I have no intentions on offending anybody. But the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. y’all business is y’all business.”
Despite his attempt at damage control, the negative wave of comments kept spreading across the Internet, highlighting that it was not a genuine apology. According to the timeline of the next events, DaBaby and his team had five days to correct the situation, which didn’t happen. Therefore, different companies and celebrities stepped in, deciding to not ignore it.
First, the brand BoohooMAN that partnered with the rapper made an announcement on its Twitter on July 28, saying that they had cut ties and will no longer work with him due to his speech at Rolling Loud, “…We stand by and support the LGBTQ+ community, and do not tolerate hate speech or discrimination in any form.”
Later, Elton John published post on Instagram, with a goal to educate people about AIDS/HIV, adding “We’ve been shocked to read about the HIV misinformation and homophobic statements made at the recent DaBaby show…”.
On the same day, “the hero of the occasion” released a music video “Giving What It’s Supposed to Give,” including such lyrics as “B****, we like AIDS, I’m on your a**, we on your a**, b****, we won’t go away.” The music video has finished with a message, colored as a rainbow, “Don’t Fight Hate With Hate. My apologies for being the same way you want the freedom to be you.”
The story could be finished here, but it was only the beginning of the end. Even though DaBaby got a strong backlash generally, there were a handful of heavy hitters such as as Boosie Badazz and T.I. who supported him, but it wasn’t really noticed.
The next day on July 29, Madonna added her few words to everything already said by other people, “…I want to put cell phone lighter up and pray for your ignorance… And your sexist remarks about Ladies who’s p***** need to smell like water only encourage more discrimination against women… People like you are the reason we are still living in a world divided by fear.”
As it will be announced later, DaBaby has contacted the organizers of Lollapalooza a week prior his performance at the festival, asking to allow him to show a special video apology at the stage during his show, which the organizers agreed to but… never got the file. Therefore, on August 1, hours before the scheduled DaBaby’s show, the festival announced that Billion Dollar Baby will not perform. “Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect, and love. With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight.”, says the post on Instagram.
And just like that, as Lollapalooza dropped DaBaby, others followed, including Governors Ball, KS 107.5 Summer Jam, Parklife, iHeart Radio, Music Midtown, Austin City Limits and Day N Vegas. It wasn’t even helpful that the performer of the hit “Rockstar” issued an apology (again) in the middle of the cancellations on August 2, in which he points out that “Social media moves so fast that people want to demolish you before you even have the opportunity to grow, educate, and learn from your mistakes.” And since it wasn’t helpful, he quietly deleted the post with the apology from his Instagram on August 7, and moved on – just like Kanye West on August 9, who removed his “Nah Nah Nah” Remix with DaBaby and 2 Chainz from all DSPs, which was released in October 2020.
It is hard to say if the story will be continued, but we will keep MIW readers posted on the subsequent fallout. We will also be sure to report as other artists continue to speak up and support (as 50 Cent, who believes that DaBaby will overcome the controversy), or not support DaBaby (as radio stations, that removed “Levitating” Remix with DaBaby from rotation) and try to help him to understand his mistake (as Miley Cyrus, who stated on her Instagram that she is ready to educate the rapper).
Music as an art can be approached from different dimensions. For an artist like Pharaoh Sistare, who grew up surrounded by some of the most profound music influences, the power of quality vintage-laced songs can be felt in his lyrics and production. Drawing influence from music legends like Michael Jackson, Prince, and James Brown, Pharaoh Sistare delivers a captivating music style attractive to all. Starting out as a music producer, Pharaoh Sistare created beats for many other artists and delivered stellar production to keep their careers going. He became known for the quality attached to his work and how easily music audiences got hooked to the sound.Most of his musical inspirations have a nostalgic feel to them. His sound always brings back memories from a certain time period or place, whether it be a late night disco or a beach party in the ’60s. Notably, childhood video games and movies have made a major impact on the overall aesthetic and imagination the artist possesses. Each of his songs represents a world, and in that world there’s always an unforgettable tune to dance to. ” I want to make music that gives a feeling you just can’t resist. It’s what the world needs,” he added.Since his pivot from music production, Pharaoh Sistare has released four singles which have garnered more than 40,000 streams on Spotify as of today. Just in time for Summer, Pharaoh Sistare drops a masterpiece of an EP titled Once Upon a Groove, on June 25, 2021. Uncoincidentally, Pharaoh released the EP on the same day as the passing of Michael Jackson, as a dedication to the King of Pop. If writing, producing, recording and engineering this classic EP wasn’t enough, Pharaoh Sistare also illustrated the colorfully enchanting EP cover. He recently released the music video for his first single, “Strobe Light.” An enchanting animation video directed by Pharaoh Sistare was wonderfully animated by Richmond artist W. Macwood. Pharaoh Sistare is also a great dancer who has drawn influence from the most legendary dancers in history like Fred Astaire, Bob Fosse, James brown and Adolfo Quinones. Many of his fans have described him as a mix between Michael Jackson and The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. “I dance, produce my music, and can adapt to any genre of music. Music has been a part of my life since I was very little. I was about 6 years old when I first was introduced to music production and dance. They have stuck with me ever since.” he shared. Even with such comparisons, Pharaoh Sistare’s music and style is one all his own.Pharaoh has often been labeled as an undiscovered fashion icon for his trend setting designs and diverse use of styles. “Fashion is a lifestyle, and there are no rules when it comes to how a person wants to be seen. I am straight. I want to change the narrative of how straight men can look, sound, act, and live” he said.Beyond music, he has also done a bit of fashion design, such as the knit blanket cut and sew trend on social media. Pharaoh first posted it on Instagram in 2018 before a follower who had quite a large following swiped the design, made it their own, and posted it without accrediting Pharaoh Sistare to the design. With a burgeoning presence of an industry icon, Pharaoh Sistare aims to connect with everyone who loves to dance, and be free. “I hope my music connects with believers in the power of unity, love and imagination. People who are full of enchantment, bright, and angelic. People who love the feeling of nostalgia, and love when nostalgia makes a modernized return. Those who are inspired by nature, and by people who can fully be themselves,” he said. For the next few years, his goal is to become a global icon in the music industry and a well-known style influencer. With more than enough talent and creativity to storm the music industry, Pharaoh Sistare has the potential to become one of the biggest artists of this lifetime.“Strobe Light” music video and Once Upon a Groove EP can be found by visiting his website.
The abbreviation “NFT” has been hitting the headlines all around the globe over the past year. We continue to hear more and more stories about its usage by artists and the impressive amount of money they’ve been able to earn. But what exactly is an NFT and what’s all the hype?
NFT stands for “non-fungible token”, meaning a unique file which allows you to attach a digital consumer good, such as audio, visual art, video, GIF, etc. In the music industry, an NFT can be imagined as a unique limited edition of a piece of merch, signed CD or Vinyl. It’s “one of a kind,” amazingly rare and exclusive. It’s something intangible, impossible to touch but can still be experienced. The more NFTs that are used by artists, the more ideas about what an NFT can represent. For example: VIP backstage experiences for future shows, visualizers, a dinner with an artist and so much more.
It turns out that this technology is not as new as most people think. Elizabeth Howcroft claims that the first NFT was created in 2014, but the trend took 7 years to capture the general public’s attention.
Relying on the chart above, on average 76% of the revenue earned by the named artists came from touring. It’s safe to say by analyzing this cross-section of artists, that out of the entire music industry, the majority of revenue comes from touring.
When CDs stopped being the music medium of choice, (thanks to MP3 files and streaming services), artists started depending on royalties received from streaming, which didn’t leave much of a “financial cushion” for them to rely on unless they are internationally popular and have millions of fans. The chart below shows that an artist gets paid less than a penny per single stream of his or her song:
In March 2020, COVID-19 knocked at the door of people’s homes and locked everyone indoors for more than a year. This included musicians who depended on live-performances and touring. It took the music industry time to pivot and come up with “live-event substitutions” such as livestream shows. However, it still couldn’t replace the amount of income earned from live events. This was the catalyst that brought NFTs to the forefront.
Sitting at home, artists from all creative fields (musicians, painters, photographers, etc.) discovered that offering their works through NFT market places allowed them to collect the royalties directly, without paying commissions to “middlemen” (such as labels, managers, streaming services, venue providers, etc.), which seemed like a perfect solution to the lack of earnings from touring. Also, the average price of an NFT starts at hundreds of dollars, which is way more than the average earnings from streaming. Moreover, it allows artists to collaborate with each other and sell art & music together in one package. As NFT platforms started to be used in the creative industries more and more, famous singers, rappers and DJs stepped in and supported the trend, which is one of the reasons why NFTs got so much attention.
Indeed, after announcing NFT collections by The Weeknd, Grimes, Kings of Leon, Steve Aoki, A$AP Rocky and others, a few hundred thousand fans ran to explore it, looking to own exclusive art and special unreleased music from their favorite artists.
From an artist’s point of view, an NFT is a great tool to earn money and sell music as well as collaborate with creatives from different fields. It gives them an opportunity to connect with fans directly and not to worry about a social media algorithm. Artists have long had to fit their marketing to a social media algorithm in order to get more attention and consequently more fans and publicity. With an NFT, it is enough to have 5 loyal buyers for an artist to receive a stable source of financial income.
Despite its advantages, NFTs have its cons. To obtain a piece of art or audio by your favorite musicians, you should have hundreds to thousands of dollars ready to spend in order to get the unique piece and rights of ownership (for example, The Weeknd’s NFT “The Source” were sold for $469,420). This poses an obvious, glaring problem: NFTs aren’t affordable for a majority of fans, even if they would love to connect with their favorite artists. In its early days, NFTs are platforms for art collectors and millionaires.
Moreover, what almost no one thinks about is the environmental impact NFT has on the planet. According to Jiahui Qiu, an average transaction for NFTs has a carbon footprint of about 48kg. It means that in order to create, sell and get paid for one NFT, it takes a huge amount of computer power which affects Earth. The reason for that is a high maintenance of a blockchain such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, since the crypto currency is the main payment option for an NFT. Not only is it a serious problem for the environment, but the usage of NFTs can affect an image of an artist as a person who ignores such issues as climate change, too.
Another issue with NFT is a piracy. Even though NFT collections have a limited number of pieces and those who win in a bidding auction, get the right to own a piece of a collection exclusively, are not the ones who can have it. Officially, the person who buys NFT has it in ownership. However, in those 20 minutes of an online auction and showing of a collection, literally every user registered on NFT platform has a right to see the NFT and screen record it. In this way, NFTs aren’t protected from piracy at all which creates a question – why would someone buy it if they can easily access and record it on their devices for free? Why would people want to buy an NFT if practically, they won’t have exclusive ownership because everyone can save a pirate copy for free? Until it is a collector or someone who really wants to have a “status” of ownership, NFT loses any sense for others. Especially, with such high prices which only provoke to get a pirate copy.
Also, the NFT platform might be an opportunity for artists to earn money from unreleased music which is not going to be in an official EP or LP album. For example, The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky presented their unreleased tracks as a part of their NFT collection for an exclusive right to own the songs which will never be distributed on streaming services and anything else. But the real question is, if they sell unreleased music on NFT, does it mean they just try to earn money from unfinished songs which will never become a hit? Because if it had obvious potential to be a hit, they would share it with the world.
Obviously, there are still a lot of questions about non-fungible tokens and its legal side as well. Artists and those who buy NFTs should totally understand what exact rights are being sold and obtained in exchange for money.
For example, if a musician collaborates with a graphic designer and sells a GIF with a sound, he or she should receive permission to use the audio in NFT from every person/label that has rights on this track. As we can see, “middlemen” still applies between artists and their royalties.
Moreover, NFT buyers should know that if they buy a NFT, which, for example, represents a GIF with a sound, they get an ownership for this exact piece of NFT, a GIF, not a whole song which is used in GIF. Imagine it as a CD – a person has a copy but has no rights for original master recording.
There are a lot of reasons for NFT to be costly due to expensive pre-production costs (registration and transaction fees, copyright agreements, contracts, etc.) and an auction system, but experts promise that in the future the process will get much better. NFTs will become cheaper and affordable for everyone, people will be able to buy one piece together in mutual ownership and non-fungible tokens will be recognized by the majority of people.
However, the environmental question still stays without an answer as well as the success of NFTs in the future. Indeed, nowadays, it leaves more questions than answers. There is no doubt that NFT will stay for a long time if not forever, it will be used more, however, will it provoke a real revolution in the music industry? This is still doubtful and questionable.
