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
We last wrote about vinyl’s resurgence almost exactly a year ago – and since then it’s only grown. With 15 consecutive years of success, a vinyl trade group has officially formed: The Vinyl Alliance held its first meeting last week with attendance from a variety of players in the industry. Between old acts, new acts, and brands hopping aboard this format, a number of vinyl trends have made headlines in the past year that appeal to collectors, passionate fans, and even environmentalists.
Introducing the ‘Vinyl Alliance’
For the collector:
- The Beatles release a monstrosity of a box set
- Vinyl Me, Please’s Blue Note anthology box set
- Garth Brooks’s Legacy Collection vinyl box set brings in $18.5 million in presales
- Minnesota Timberwolves dole out Prince 7” vinyl
For the passionate young fan:
- Jonas Brother vinyl club
- Video game music is driving a vinyl record resurgence
- Taylor Swift releasing limited-edition ‘ME!’ 7-inch vinyl singles
For the environmentalist:
- Nick Mulvey releases a record made entirely from plastic ocean garbage
- Bacardi upcycles plastic straws by turning them into vinyl records
- Porsche recycles retired race tires into playable vinyl records
Partnership News
Pop music’s favorite ‘90s heartthrob, Justin Timberlake, has launched a new collection with Levi’s that’ll have fans looking so good they won’t be able to pass by a “Mirror” without staring. The collection is made up of 11 pieces including trucker jackets, flannel shirts, and even cargo pants. The pieces are more fashionable than they sound – check them out on Levi’s website here. The focus of this collection was largely on versatility, and Timberlake emphasizes that the clothing “could be worn in New York, could be worn In Stockholm, could be worn in L.A. and could be worn in Memphis, Tennessee” to reflect all the cool places he has been able to travel.
The other component to this partnership is a little less material – Timberlake teamed up with Levi’s Music Project to give back to his hometown of Memphis. Back in August, JT made an appearance and surprised the students of Stax Music Academy, along with fellow artists Timbaland, Ives, Knox, and Danja. The Music Project is all about granting kids and young adults accessibility to music education as well as giving them facetime with successful artists, and the result of this collaboration was the Song Lab, a state-of-the-art facility with new equipment and instruments, an endeavor estimated to be around $200,000. Students also got to participate in song-writing workshops with the singer, and music classes were implemented in an effort to keep this project flourishing. If what they say is true, JT has some good karma coming his way for giving back to his community – after all “What Goes Around…/…Comes Back Around”.
Partnership Highlights
- Dickies launched the “Yours to Make” campaign aimed to put workers from various industries at the forefront. The global campaign features music producer Channel Tres who remixed “Taint What You Do” by Sy Oliver & James Young.
- Israeli cannabis tech startup Seedo, the company that has developed a fully-automated indoor cannabis grow device, has made Snoop Dogg its official brand ambassador. Through the deal Snoop will “educate consumers on the environmental benefits and social opportunity of Seedo’s home and commercial grow technology” and contribute to a social responsibility program that will be sharing Seedo’s growing practices.
- In India, Kia Motors and KPop super group BLACKPINK are teaming up for a flyaway contest. The “Lucky Drive to Seoul” contest will award 10 winners with an all expenses paid trip to Seoul, South Korea to meet BLACKPINK. Entrants will submit a video to Kia’s Facebook or Instagram handles by tagging Kia Motors India and using the hashtags #KiaLDTS & #KiaSeltos.
Creativity That Matters
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Sinebrychoff, a Finnish brewer and soft drink company, the organization leveraged its thirty-year sponsorship of Finnish hockey club HIFK (Sporting Society Comrades, Helsinki) to create a unique ‘Red Classics’ orchestral and choral experience for the team’s game against arch-rivals TPS (Turun Palloseura).
The surreal video shows the club as they take the ice with the the 85-piece Vantaa Pops Orchestra soundtracking the epic entrance. HIFK went on to win the match-up 2-1, thanks in part to the shot of sonic adrenaline provided by the night’s musical guests.
What we’re listening to this week…
(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).
