By: Carlos Ybarra, Anyi Wong-Lifton, Sarah Molloy, and Sorcha Collister, TMA Entertainment Team
This Week’s Music Trends
Your weekly look at what’s happening in music trends, partnerships, new releases, and more courtesy of TMA Entertainment.
Is rotating your smartphone to watch a music video with the standard horizontal dimensions becoming too exhausting? You’re in luck: vertical video is taking off, and music is leading the charge. This isn’t too surprising given smartphones account for nearly 30% of global music listening time and they’re the choice listening device of 16-24-year-olds. Social media is the first thing that comes to mind: TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook all let fans highlight and share music through vertical videos. But now, Spotify’s relatively new “Canvas” feature and Samsung’s vertically oriented concert and TVs exemplify the growing push for (horizontally-accustomed) artists themselves to rotate how they visually imagine their music.
- Music stickers: Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, Snapchat
Sheryl Crow Partners with Gibson for Limited-Edition Release
Iconic guitar brand Gibson has teamed up with Sheryl Crow to release a limited-edition guitar, the Sheryl Crow Country Western Supreme guitar. The guitar is a re-release of the 1962 original Gibson Country Western acoustic guitar. For any guitar fanatics out there, here’s the full rundown: the acoustic instrument is made with Thermally Aged Sitka spruce and hide glue for “additional projection and increased expression with a wider dynamic range”, and each one is decorated with the Amulet M analog pickup for accurate response when the instrument is amplified. To top it off, the guitar has a gorgeous Antique Cherry finish and features a rosewood fingerboard.
For the rest of us: these guitars are beautifully crafted and each one will be signed by Sheryl Crow herself. But if you’re looking to get your hands on one, we recommend you start saving – one of these will set you back as much as $4.3K.
Crow has a long history with the Gibson Country Western guitar. She famously played the original 1962 version, and in 1999 asked the brand to replicate the instrument, fearing it wouldn’t hold up on tour. As a result of this request, Gibson released a signature Sheryl Crow guitar then and introduced other versions of it in 2013 and 2016. The release of this version comes on the heels of Crow’s self-proclaimed final album, Threads, that was dropped in June. But don’t worry, this isn’t the end of Crow’s career – fans can catch her still belting out her hits and touring, always with her Gibson in-hand.
What we’re listening to this week…
(Click image to listen) Note: may contain explicit content
Weekly Playlist
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).
Sorcha Collister has seven years experience in the heart of the music industry, London, from putting on gigs with Mongolian throat singers to making music playlists for strip clubs. She has spent five years developing her skills in Music Synchronization, fitting music to images, and built strong relationships with all the leading record labels, publishers and many small independent labels. Sorcha has dedicated herself to the EMEA-wide Procter & Gamble licensing every one of their music choices for adverts from fine fragrances to nappies and assisting on countless music searches to find the ideal track. She has taken the opportunities to get to know many of the advertising agencies around London and Europe, assisting their creativity whilst allowing them to remain at the front of their campaigns.
