TMA Music Newsletter: April Edition
By Amanda Levine
Congrats to Bad Bunny, who is the first Spanish-language performer to headline Coachella Festival! He, along with Rosalia, Kali Uchis, and many more, were among the record number of Latin acts weekend one. Jackson Wang also made history as the first Chinese solo artist to perform his own set as did BLACKPINK, the first Korean act to headline the festival – and they brought some of the best performances of the entire weekend!
On an unexpected note, fans were left a bit shocked and perplexed by one of the most anticipated performances of the weekend, Frank Ocean. There was a lot of speculation about his performance [many fans felt like he phoned it in], which started an hour late and was cut off because of curfew time. It got to be so much that he ended up cancelling his performance for the second weekend.
To feed our nostalgia, it was the first performance of a reunited Blink 182, including performing favorites like “All The Small Things” and ending with “Dammit” mashed up with a little TLC.
Be sure to enjoy our Coachella playlist featuring artists who performed this year to keep the vibes going!
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MUSIC?
It’s all about New Media and AI. Ticketmaster debuted its first NFT-gated ticket sales with metal band Avenged Sevenfold. In a study done by Momentum Worldwide about music and the metaverse, it may surprise you that at least 75% of music fans see a metaverse platform as changing the way they consume music. SXSW Music Festival last month used it as an opportunity to talk to famous musicians about AI, saying that it has a limited scope in “feeling” to produce high quality tracks, but certainly can help with mixing and mastering songs. And just recently, an AI song released by the creator known as @ghostwriter quickly got pulled from all major DSPs for concerns around illegal likeness use of Drake and The Weeknd.
WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH MUSIC & BRANDS?
After a months-long battle with Bacardi, Jay-Z can now call himself a billionaire. New Balance has significantly upped their street cred again with recent talent partnerships, most currently a special edition sneaker with rapper Action Bronson. In what may (may not) be a surprise, Adidas and Ivy Park (Beyonce) have parted ways citing both poor sales performance and creative differences. And if you’re a Duolingo fan – they are working on a music app to establish building blocks in music creation, not unlike their offering for language and math.
WHAT’S HAPPENING WITHIN TMA MUSIC?
Giving a shout out to some of our Europe-based work this month, which includes seeing more cute babies in this Pampers campaign using a cover of “Born To Be Wild,” and other work for Fairy liquid detergent in the UK, and Gillette in Italy.
WHAT’S INTERESTING?
–– An in-depth history of industrial music and its influence on alt/grunge.
–– The interweaving of music and animé with the help of Crunchyroll.
–– Mixing gaming sound bites and popular catalog tracks in the new Super Mario Bros. movie – was this a hit or miss?
Stay tuned for next month’s newsletter with trends, stats, and more!
