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Hello all -
One curious development today is the news that Apple has apparently acquired Platoon, the "A&R and creative services" company founded by former Apple man Denzyl Feigelson. I must confess to knowing relatively little about Platoon, but with their stated remit I am curiousas to why Apple would wish to acquire them. One thought is that it certainly helps align Apple more closely with emerging talent, which in some respects is no bad thing. I've commented a few times before now that Apple appear to 'get' the whole artist relationship far more than Spotify, rooting their endeavours in a genuine creative conversation more than a blunt corporate tie-in. In that sense, Platoon could fit in well.
One thing I do find interesting though is the kind of company Platoon is - or perhaps more accurately, what it is not: a label. Does it say something about music in 2018 that the likes of Apple are seeing value not so much in the labels but the companies potentially emerging the next generations of talent before they're even at the label signing stage? Fascinating stuff.
Elsewhere I'm going to be watching with great interest the lawsuit 2 Milly has brought against Epic Games for copying his trademark Milly Rock dance. With Fortnite making tens (if not hundreds) of millions per month, I could only watch in fascination at my son eagerly downloading all manner of dance moves that clearly copy various artists, movies and TV shows. Chance The Rapper had previously called on Epic to do the right thing, but so far that appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Could 2 Milly achieve where Chance failed? It will be interesting to see...
Have a great weekend,
D.
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JOB ALERT! Our friends at Big Dipper Management are looking for a new Junior Assistant to join their team. "The job is a catch-all of everything a management company does, which is pretty much everything bar making the music. Duties include (but are not limited to) booking travel/studios, song registration/metadata, organising meetings/itineraries, talking to manufacturers re: records/merch, understanding social media/streaming services, visa applications, expenses and sometimes making the tea. We have a great roster, including Sigur Rós, Jónsi, Alex Somers, JFDR, Sons of Raphael, James Canty, Kjartan Sveinsson, Paul Corley and Sigur Rós label imprint Krunk. Salary to be assessed according to aptitude and experience." Sound like your thing? Contact John Best via john@wearebigdipper.com for more info! As ever, feel free to spread word privately. Thanks!
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MBW understands that Feigelson will now lead Platoon’s team of 12 full-time employees from its Tileyard HQ in London, where it has two recording studios. Platoon will continue to support artists across areas including tour support, original content, social media marketing and global expansion strategies. A source close to Platoon told MBW: “The Apple deal gives Platoon the backing and resources to accomplish its vision and continue its goal to develop original music and visual content – while leaving artists free to sign with who they want and distribute their music where they want.”
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/apple-acquires-ar-and-creative-services-company-platoon/
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That’s great for fans, but there’s a very interesting partnership behind the scenes too, with blockchain startup Blokur, which is providing “rights attribution” for the Fantom Mezzanine app. Blokur will be tracking the usage of individual stems and audio assets within the app, and producing a “dynamic rights structure” for every new piece of music that fans create using Fantom. It’s an attempt to show how Blokur’s blockchain-based technology could be used to build an accurate picture of how songwriters’ and musicians’ work is used in remixes, mash-ups and other derivative works – and ultimately to ensure they get royalties from that activity.
https://musically.com/2018/12/07/massive-attack-test-remix-rights-tracking-with-blockchain-startup-blokur/
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Blockchain rights startup JAAK has made several senior appointments ahead of its first commercial release set for in 2019. Spotify’s former artist-in-residence D.A.Wallach and David King, inventor of YouTube’s Content ID join as advisors, while UMPG’s Dom Lovett joins full time. According to JAAK, its first commercial product will lower the barriers to music innovation by ‘simplifying the licensing and back-office processes for music rights holders and developers’.
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/blockchain-firm-jaak-makes-key-hires-ahead-of-first-product-launch-in-2019/
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Vine may have shut down in 2016, but the popularity of the platform still lives on through many a YouTube Vine compilation. The new Vine 2.0 known as Byte is set to launch in spring 2019 and now the platform is opening up for future creators who can register today. With YouTube recently adding stories like Instagram and Snapchat before it, this differs by being a looping video. If you weren’t aware, Vine helped launch the careers of some of the biggest names (rightly or wrongly) on YouTube.
https://9to5google.com/2018/12/06/byte-from-vine-creators-opens-creator-program/
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Last month, Pandora announced it would soon be bringing its “Genome” technology to a new space outside of music: it would leverage a similar classification system to make podcast recommendations, too. Initially, the feature was only available to select users on mobile devices, ahead of a broader public launch. Today, Pandora says its Podcast Genome Project has gone live for all users. Like Pandora’s Music Genome is its music information database capable of classifying songs across 450 different attributes — Pandora’s Podcast Genome Project is a cataloging system designed to evaluate content. But its focus is on audio programs instead of music.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/06/pandoras-podcast-genome-project-goes-live-for-all/
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Now, when you ask Alexa to help pick a playlist, the voice assistant will start a conversation about what you want to hear. First, it’ll ask if there’s a particular genre or tempo you’re after, then it’ll start offering samples of different playlists for you to accept or reject. In some cases, Alexa will seek more guidance–for instance, by asking if you want something laid back or upbeat–and you can also try to proactively narrow things down each time Alexa suggests another playlist.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90276800/alexa-just-got-better-at-picking-music-for-you?partner=feedburner
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Now Damian Collins, the Chairman of the Committee has released the entire cache of documents to the public, saying in a tweet: "They raise important questions about how Facebook treats users data, their policies for working with app developers, and how they exercise their dominant position in the social media market."
https://thenextweb.com/facebook/2018/12/05/uk-parliament-facebook-internal-documents/
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The Ticketfly co-founder and former president of TicketWeb, Dan Teree, has launched a new ticketing platform, Big Neon, which he hopes to have powered by Tari blockchain technology in 2020. Teree departed from Ticketfly in 2013, two years before it was acquired by Pandora and then sold to Eventbrite. However, as of last month, Eventbrite announced that it plans to phase-out the Ticketfly brand, replacing it with a new platform dubbed Eventbrite Music. Teree believes his platform will compete with Eventbrite, telling Billboard that “ticketing companies are consolidating and getting bigger, but not necessarily better.”
https://www.ticketnews.com/2018/12/ticketfly-founder-launches-ticket-platform/
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SiriusXM owner Liberty Media is looking to negotiate a stake of approximately 35% in US radio giant iHeartMedia after it comes out bankruptcy in early 2019. That’s according to sources cited in this report by the New York Post. This report of course follows last month’s news that Apple is looking at ways to boost its presence in US radio and is in early-stage talks to acquire a stake in iHeart. According to the report in the New York Post report, Liberty’s majority owner John Malone wants to “create a soup-to-nuts toll taker for music lovers by combining iHeart with his other music properties.”
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/liberty-vs-apple-for-stake-in-iheartmedia/
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"Upon information and belief, Epic creates emotes by copying and coding dances and movements directly from popular videos, movies, and television shows without consent," states the complaint. "Epic does so by coding still frames of the source material. For example, upon and information and belief, Epic coded the 'Ride the Pony' emote, frame-by-frame, from the 'Gangnam Style' dance made famous by the Korean entertainer, Psy. The Ride the Pony emote and Psy's dance are identical in every respect."
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8488794/2-milly-sues-epic-games-milly-rock-dance-routine
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