Happy February!
I am glad to have you back on our Weekly Roundup once again. These short articles are a way to keep in touch with our daily watch over the music industry and tech trends, and this week has been interesting for us.
First because we made the trip to London to attend AIM Connected, where we saw a few keynotes on various topics. Second because Q4 has ended and a lot of updates are coming out! Let’s see what happened during this last week.
#1. Spotify ends the year right
The main streaming service just published their financial update for Q4 this week and it’s looking good! The information went around quickly, they reached 271 million Monthly Active Users (including 124 million Premium accounts).
These numbers are impressive also because that means they have been approximately gaining a little more than 3 million users per month (since last quarter). Meanwhile, Spotify is still putting a lot of efforts on podcasts to keep that rhythm going.
#2. Would China make the move for music?
An interesting trend is starting in Beijing, with officials announcing investments to come in creative industries. A lot of independent labels were shutdown a few years ago, stopping the sector’s development. But this time, we can only imagine that they’re taking advantage of companies like TikTok and Bytedance to keep working on this track. Although, a lot of tech might be involved, mainly related to AI. Let’s wait and see…
#3. When should you release albums?
Big question, lots of opinions. The writer Amber Horsburgh did the heavy work and studied the releases over 2019 in the US and the best times to release your albums. Time to get calendars out and see what data can do for you!
#4. A reversed music economy: 24/7 lofi hip hop livestreams on YouTube
If you’re used to YouTube during your long hours of work, you surely stumbled across these long livestreams, playing lofi music. Ever wondered how the artists behind made a living? Cherie Hu took the time to go over the system put in place by these musicians.
When YouTube will absolutely never be the platform on which they’ll be able to make a living, the artists turn to other streaming platforms, building their own structured labels and distribution tools.
#5. AIM Connected 2020
This week, we went to AIM Connected 2020 in London! More than an event, we discovered a strong network and an association very involved in the recorded music sector. Find out what we saw in our report: AIM Connected 2020: is it worth it?
To complete the news about AIM Connected, Music Week goes back on Paul Pacifico (AIM’s CEO) talking about Brexit and the challenges faced by the music industry.
