Music needs to trash the default release strategy

Welcome, artists & builders.

Each week, we navigate music’s future together. Today, I’m getting into the default mode of music release strategies & get into a great example of 2 artists trying something new.

Inside Issue #18

💡 Context: Challenge the default
🤔 That’s New: Earl Sweatshirt & the Alchemist drop fully on-chain album
🗞️ What You Missed: Youtube AI Music Incubator & more

Music’s Default Mode

We’ve been releasing music the same way, over & over, for a decade.

Rinse & repeat. In the name of reach.

We’ve been told music needs to look the same on every platform, at the same time, and you can’t hold any back for your own community.

To do otherwise is bad:

→ Bad for the industry. Streaming is our savior.
→ Bad for artists. Don’t piss off the masters of attention.

The slot machine could hit & your streams/views could go burrrrr.

But, we're waking up to that.

We can offer different experiences to different people. We can optimize for more than just reach.

We can play our own games.

Convenience Isn’t the Only Thing

With music, friction can be a feature, not a bug.

Buying in
Showing up
Dropping the needle

These enhance the experience. They don't take it away. They center the music.

It starts to feel earned.
It feels owned.

When everything is disposable, infinitely available & requires no commitment, is it a surprise we don’t put value on it?

Is it a surprise music becomes commodity?

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Embracing Friction

Some things limit your reach, but they grow your impact.

🪟 You can window your releases. Let your community listen before anyone else. EVEN is doing this in a paid format as ‘Sell First, Stream Later’. Your distributor will tell you this will hurt your playlist opportunities. Ok.

🪜 You can own the premium tier. Make the complete album only available through your own channels. Not just “bonus tracks”, but key cuts that only exist in your world: vinyl, community, etc.

⛓️ You can release on-chain. Yep. Music NFTs give the possibility to take the collecting experience of vinyl online, where convenience, discovery & scale are typically prioritized at all costs. It's a format that is by definition undefined. And it’s up to the artist to create an experience worth the friction.

These only work if the experience on the other side is worthwhile.

There’s more than one way to release music.

Sometimes, the default must be challenged.

— Rob

Two major artists are taking a shot at this today. See below.

📚️ My 3 Favorite Reads This Week

1. WT$ is Streaming Economics from the mind behind Soundcloud’s fan-centric models

2. How can indies make the most of the metaverse

3. Why optimizing for followers on Spotify is a mistake.

Youtube is working on a suite of AI music tools: creativity, protection, monetization.

And they want industry buy-in to do it responsibly.

• UMG is the founding partner
• Frank Sinatra's estate is involved
• They published their AI music principles

They've outlined 3 principles:

1. Embrace AI responsibly with music partners

2. Grant protections while unlocking opportunity

3. Invest in trust & safety work

Think Content ID, on steroids.

12 UMG artists kick off the program: d4vd, Anitta, Juanes, Yo Gotti , Don Was , Louis Bell, Max Richter, Ryan Tedder, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Jerkins, ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus, & the estate of Frank Sinatra 👀 

🧠 AI music is happening. The biggest players are now embracing it. And we need models to license & monetize it.

That’s all this week. See you on Twitter or LinkedIn.

- Rob