By: Carlos Ybarra, Anyi Wong-Lifton, and Sarah Molloy, TMA Entertainment Team
Your weekly look at what’s happening in music trends, partnerships, new releases, and more courtesy of the TMA Music Team.
This Week’s Music Trends
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” I don’t have any philosophical answers, but artist Joe Patitucci has spent several years developing technology that might inspire you to listen more to trees. PlantWave allows plant parents to turn their flora into musical instruments via the electrical conductivity on the leaves’ surfaces. It sounds like something out of a sci-fi story, but we can see musical plant tech as part of a trending interest in the sounds of our surroundings. As consumers increasingly close their eyes to visual messaging, brands are turning to distinctive sounds to pique people’s attention – from the familiar noise of airplanes and cities to the yet-unheard sounds of plants, electric cars, and ocean pollution.
- Conoco Made an Album of Lofi Beats Out of Car Sounds
- Let your plants play music, and gardens of sound will bloom
- Lincoln’s ambient album turns NYC into ‘The City That Sleeps’
- Singapore Airlines made a song from the sounds of an Airbus A350
- ‘Pure Sounds of Michigan’ album looks to lure tourists with ambient music
- Electric cars need to make noise for safety, but what kind?
- Nat Geo creates ‘Sounds of Future Ocean’ to draw attention to plastics crisis
- Walk off the Earth covers “Walk on the Moon” for VELCRO BRAND
Partnership News
English rock band Bring Me the Horizon has collaborated with fellow European export Spotify to create customizable merch for BMTH fans. Each fan can link their Spotify account to the band’s merchandise website, where they can choose their six favorite songs from the band’s most recent album, ‘amo’. Based on the fan’s listening preferences, the site will craft a customized t-shirt to reflect those songs. The overall design of the t-shirt will not vary – each shirt will feature the band’s logo, but the color of that logo will deviate.
Do fans want merch that is customizable? Communities of fans who support the same artist form a sort of group identity – the very nature of music brings people together. Traditional band merch is uniform in design, and acts as an identifier for other fans; these people are like me, these people share my interests. Allowing for merch customization could crack that bond.
But personalization is having a moment in the music world. Spotify has been exploring platform customization for awhile now, releasing personalized playlists and song suggestions based on listening history. It seems that the streaming service wants each listener to have an experience that only they can have, and now fans can reflect that in the form of a t-shirt. All of this brings us to a couple of questions: will further opportunities for fans to have unique music experiences continue to excite listeners? Or will communities become more isolated from each other?
Partnership Highlights
- Levi’s and Justin Timberlake released a 12-piece capsule collection. The Levi’s x Justin Timberlake fall-winter 2019 Fresh Leaves collection will feature new takes on his signature hooded shirts, trucker jackets, cargo pants and a reversible down vest with plaids and an orange camouflage pattern in the mix.
- Staying in fashion, Ray Ban and DJ Honey Dijon are releasing a sunglasses capsule collection. The collection, inspired by her favorite eras, will pay homage to the most culturally rich decades in history.
- Modelo has teamed up with Anderson .Paak and iHeart Media for the Modelo Fighting Chance Concert Series. The three-stop mini series, taking place in November, will raise money for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to help refugees, immigrants and Americans in need.
- In Ireland, Fanta is going in on Halloween with the creation of HalloweenFM.ie, Ireland’s first ever Halloween focused radio station. The station will broadcast for 10 days starting on October 23rd.
- Apple has added a new official playlist curator in St. Jude Children’s Hospital. The two will release a series of playlists created by St. Jude patients and celebrity supporters including Country music Artist Chris Young.
Creativity That Matters
A couple weeks ago the New York Lottery kicked off a new campaign featuring mythical Heavy Metal band Black Titanium – A Metal band so metal they literally play with metal instruments.
This week the campaign took a turn for the real when Black Titanium released two singles off their EP which is available on Spotify.
What we’re listening to this week…
(Click image to listen) Note: may contain explicit content
About TMA Music
We help brands harness the power of music and use it to foster a deeper bond with your customers. Our team of seasoned experts helps you navigate the music industry to develop a comprehensive music strategy, ideate on creative music concepts, license songs, partner with the right talent, and execute on every facet of a music marketing program.
Larry Weintraub – President of Music at TMA, Larry is a lifelong entrepreneur who champions the customer experience with a personal passion for disruptive technologies and innovative products. As head of the TMA Music Team, Larry leads music strategy for Fortune 100 brand clients. Larry also leads innovation at the agency with an internal and client-based concentration on emerging technology to better help consumer engagement. Larry also loves sour beers, inhales podcasts, and has a massive Pez collection.
Carlos Ybarra – Born in Sterling, IL and sharpened by the City of the Broad Shoulders, Carlos followed his passion for music and joined TMA’s State Farm Music team in 2017 after spending nearly a decade as a Multicultural marketer. Shortly after, Carlos transitioned to Los Angeles to join TMA’s entertainment practice where he provides strategic music consultation to the agency’s clients. Carlos graduated from Benedictine University with a B.B.A. in Accounting and in his spare time enjoys attending shows, documenting street art, traveling and cooking.
Anyi Wong-Lifton – Anyi is a Strategy Coordinator for TMA’s Culture Marketing group who tracks entertainment trends, writes weekly music columns, and organizes diversity education programs. She grew in Portland, Oregon before it was cool and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Scripps College before moving to Los Angeles. When not making professional use of her pop culture obsession, Anyi volunteers at a dog rescue, collects pencils, and avoids driving.
Sarah Molloy – Sarah is an Operations Coordinator in TMA’s Los Angeles Office, where she and has one hand in finance and the other in entertainment. She joined TMA as the Entertainment Apprentice in January 2019. She is originally from Boston, MA and went to school at Emerson College in her home city. In her free time, she likes to go to the beach, take naps, and sing karaoke (when she has the chance).
