MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE

Weekly insights about the future of music, media & tech. Written & composed by @basgras.
Sent out Mondays at 4pm CET, 10am EST.

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Previous issues

#85

September 18, 2017

✖️ My Instagram & Twitter hack 🤳 Spotify is finally cracking video 🎞️ Radio no good for today's hits? 📻 – Hi everyone, 🇦🇹 Just got back from a lovely team trip to Vienna with my IDAGIO colleagues. We had a w
#84

September 11, 2017

✖️ Why music startups often fail 💥 Better streaming services for DJS 🎛️ Music promo is going meme-first 🔑 – Hi everyone, Some unexpected travel this week, so I didn't have much time to write. However, sometime
#83

September 4, 2017

✖️ The next 3 interfaces for music 📻 Hiphop, coding, and algoraves 💻 Funding by VCs overtaken by ICOs 💸 – Hey! I'm looking for frontend and Android developers to join my team at IDAGIO in Berlin (we're reinv
#82

August 28, 2017

✖️ How TIDAL's predecessor failed 😵 Biohacking & the future of music 🔮 Alexa goes beyond Amazon Echo 📻 – Hi everyone, I've had a lovely time in Trondheim last week, speaking about key trends in music tech,
#81

August 21, 2017

✖️ The Instagram Stories rulebook 📸 The trojan horse for domestic AI 🤖 Sonic warfare & music's dark side 🔫 – Hey everyone! Had an amazing few days in Cologne at the c/o pop convention, where I got to meet so ma
#80

August 14, 2017

✖️ 4 big music tech opportunities 🍀 Albums in the streaming age 💿 Messaging as the next platform ✉️ – Hi all, Summer can be a deceptive time for product people. On the one hand, the office gets more quie
#79

August 7, 2017

✖️ Thinking big, starting small 🐭 Spotify takes on the loudness war ⚔️ How Gracenote uses AI for music 🤖 – Hey, everybody! I hope you are having a great summer so far. I appreciate all the ways in which many
#78

July 31, 2017

✖️ Who owns your fan relationship? ⚖️ Saving Soundcloud with tokens? 👯 TIDAL's broken promises 💔 – Hey, everybody! It's way too warm in Berlin to stay inside, so enjoy this week's links: had to pick c
#77

July 24, 2017

✖️ Niche streaming opportunities 🔼 The word of mouth economy 🤑 Connecting FB Groups to Pages 👩‍💻 – Hey, everybody! 🤝 Since its inception, MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE has always been like a community to me.
#76

July 17, 2017

✖️ AI music needs human narrative 👩‍🎤 Mental health and AI-made music ⚕️ How labels compete for playlists 📣 – Hi all, A lot was said and spoken this week about Spotify's "fake artists" debacle, and Soundcloud's
#75

July 10, 2017

✖️ Sharing music on Instagram 🤳 India's emerging music economy 🇮🇳 How spammers game digital music 💰 – Hi all, If you happen to be visiting Berlin for Tech Open Air this week, drop me a line. We're lookin
#74

July 3, 2017

✖️ How tech will turn pop into folk 🎤 Music, sustainability, and insects? 🐛 The end of the smartphone cycle ➰ – Hey everyone, I'm actually out with the flu, but managed to dot the i's on this edition on time for y
#73

June 26, 2017

✖️ Music habits post-net neutrality 💡 Chatbots & blockchain converge 🔮 Soundcloud, Instagram & hiphop 🎤 – Hey everybody, Hope you're having a good start to your summer! My day job is Product Director for a c
#72

June 19, 2017

✖️ Social VR & music subcultures 👯 Amazon Echo changing music? 🎤 Money at the speed of information 💸 – Hi everybody, It was lovely being in hot Barcelona last week for Sónar+D, moderating a panel, and spe
#71

June 12, 2017

✖️ Remix culture goes mobile-first 📲 Streaming in emerging markets 🇨🇳 Midem recap + off to Sonár+D ✈️ – Hi everyone,I've had a blast at Midem, doing 2 awesome panels, meeting a lot of old friends, and bein
#70

June 5, 2017

✖️ Location-based music promo 📍 Interactive Soundcloud tracks 🎧 Blockchain: beyond royalties ⛓️ – Hey everybody, Thanks for all the feedback last week. Decided to keep this layout for now and see if
#69

May 29, 2017

✖️ The Moby problem on Spotify 😭 End of music hardware ownership 🎹 Kik launches cryptocurrency 💸 – Hey everybody! A little change in format this week. Cutting out some of the images, which I felt clut
#68

May 22, 2017

✖️ Innovation in classical music 🎻 Music & video's changing relation 📺 Google's AI invents new sounds 🤖 – Hey everyone, I had a great time at Classical:NEXT last week -- peep the lead article for some of the
#67

May 15, 2017

✖️ How to gamify your fanbase 👾 Playlists are social media 🎶📱 Festivals going geek 🤓💃 – Hi everybody! Looking forward to speaking about IDAGIO at Classical:NEXT this week. If you're plannin
#66

May 8, 2017

✖️ The audiovisual band member 🎬 Net neutrality's important to music 👈 What emoji mean in music 🔥 – Hi everybody! Getting pretty settled here in Berlin - just in time for conference season: I'll be at
#65

May 1, 2017

✖️ Future of music & cheap eateries 🇻🇳 Apple Music's millennial problem 👶 Blockchain in Russia, Spotify, CMOs ⛓️ – Hey everyone,I've been having a great time here in Berlin. It's basically been my first week in the c
#64

April 24, 2017

✖️ Can computers be creative? 🤖 Deezer & user-centric payouts 💰 Music, custom for your brain 🎧 – Hi there 🎉 Today's my first day as Product Director at IDAGIO. 🏡 Meanwhile, it looks like I already f
#63

April 17, 2017

✖️ Music's new MySpace moment 🌅 Kendrick Lamar's iPhone song 📲 TheWaveVR launches beta 💃 – Hey everybody,✨ Thanks so much for all the warm responses to last week's announcement. I've tried to
#62

April 10, 2017

✖️ Moving to Berlin to join IDAGIO 🎻 Spotify & Universal's BIG deal 💰 Blockchain adopted by PROs ⛓️ – Hi there!Big update today - for me personally at least. In two weeks, I'll be moving to Berlin to joi
#61

April 3, 2017

✖️ Creatives as victims, Sónar+D, MxTxF on Patreon, consumer data in music, streaming overtakes sales 👀 – Hi everybody!Two sets of announcements this week.✈️ Sónar+D: I'm moderating a panel about blockchain
#60

March 27, 2017

✖️ I'm done with Medium for now 🙅 Believe Digital & the value gap ⏩ Valuing attention with blockchain 🔗 – Good times in Berlin last week with a lot of inspiring conversations, attending my first Algorave, an
#59

March 20, 2017

✖️ Snapchat stories for music 👻 Mental health in the music biz ⚕️ Stream-to-own platforms ▶️ – Greetings from Berlin! 🇩🇪Put some extra creativity into one of this week's lead pieces. Check them ou
#58

March 13, 2017

✖️ Reinventing radio: Anchor 2.0 ⚓ Should Apple buy Pandora? 🏦 Synthesizer powered by blood 💉🦇 – What's up everyone! 🔉 This week's instalment has an audio component, check it out.Hope to see more of
#57

March 6, 2017

✖️ Secondary ticketing vs privacy 👀 2017 music blockchain update ⛓️ Future, Fetty, Run The Jewels 👉👊 – Had a very exciting week in which Quibus, a new band I'm helping, suddenly got some important airtime
#56

February 27, 2017

✖️ Gaming lessons for the music biz 🎮 Techstars Music's first startups 🐣 Transparency code for royalties 💸 – Just announced: proud to be helping c/o pop bring together an amazing program next August. I'll be wr
#55

February 20, 2017

✖️ Augmented reality & music biz 👁️ UMG bets on hi-res streaming 🎶 Blockchain & VR converge 🔗 – Years ago, Mike Masnick of Techdirt was one of the first people to let me publish to a big audience a
#54

February 13, 2017

✖️ The long tail doesn't matter 🙅 Playlist edit as the new radio edit 📻 Amazon Alexa & a new golden age 📯 – A few days in bed with flu allowed me to do some thinking. 🤔I'd love for recommendations of good mics
#53

February 6, 2017

✖️ One year MxTxF, special edition 🎉 On-demand economy in music 📱 Lessons from freelancing in music 💻 – Here we are! It's MxTxF's birthday this week. I've written about why I write this newsletter before,
#52

January 30, 2017

✖️ Experiencing mood on Spotify 😇 China's expanding music market 🇨🇳 Culture as a political weapon ⚔️ – Hi everyone! Next week MxTxF turns 1 year old! So I'll be doing some highlights - don't miss the spec
#51

January 23, 2017

✖️ What if Marilyn Manson was a YouTuber? 💡 The music streaming playlist economy 📈 1,000 subs! 🍾 – A small milestone: MxTxF now counts 1,000 newsletter subscribers. 🎉 A perfect early birthday gift for
#50

January 16, 2017

✖️ Innovation in live music shows 🏟️ Value of being an early adopter ✨ Snapchat changing the music biz 👻 – Hi everybody, I had an excellent few days at Eurosonic Noorderslag meeting with loads of brilliant mi
#49

January 9, 2017

✖️ What music jobs will tech disrupt? 🤖 Music biz predictions for 2017 🔮 Concert ticket pricing explained 🎫 – Hey everybody, Welcome to all the new subscribers from the shesaid.so community for women in music. T
#48

January 2, 2017

✖️ Be so good they can’t ignore you 🍾 2016's flopped predictions 🤐 Essential 360° VR music videos 👓 Machine learning 101 🤖 – Happy new year! Thanks for all the responses last week. Also, in case you missed last week's edition:
#47

December 26, 2016

#47: Why I write this newsletter ✍ PIAS founder interviews Merlin CEO 🔮 YouTube views down for some 👎 Music streaming UX in 2017 📱 – Just announced officially: I'll be speaking at Midem next year. Hope to see you in Cannes in June! Th
#46

December 19, 2016

#46: Music biz trends in 2016 🔑 | Monetizing video messaging 📱 | Streaming startup challenges 😫 | Understanding AI 🤖 – Hi everybody, It's time to start wrapping up the year... and I did exactly that for Synchtank, lookin
#45

December 12, 2016

#45: Fan remixes & content strategy 💕 | Spotify 💔 Soundcloud | Smartphones & Latin music 🌎 | YouTube's $1bn payout 💰 – Hi everybody, Just got an invitation to hop on a panel at Eurosonic Noorderslag on the Saturday. Conf
#44

December 5, 2016

#44: Transhumanism & music 🌠 | The gender problem in music 🙅 | Context aware music 🏙 | Lots on Spotify 📱 – Hi everyone, Two lead pieces for you this week. One in response to a brave girl speaking up about her
#43

November 28, 2016

#43: Building vs Creating 🛠 | AI & music's future 🤖 | Online fan wars 🖕 | Fan interaction & live shows 📱 – Hey everybody! In case you were curious, turns out howdy diddly doo does just as well as normal greet
#42

November 21, 2016

#42: Startups inventing the future of music 🔮 | AI & big data in streaming 🔢 | Secondary ticketing 🎫 | PC Music 🎀 – Howdy diddly doo, Let's see what impact that salutation has on my newsletter's open rate. 🙃Had a grea
#41

November 14, 2016

#41: Moving Forward with Blockchain ⏩ | Facebook as a media company 📺 | IoT & the battle for the living room 🛋 | Plenty more – Hi everyone, This week's lead piece is about blockchain. In it, I attempt to illustrate a strategy to
#40

November 7, 2016

#40: Moving beyond static music 🕹 | Livestreaming revenue 🤑 | Make music in your browser 💻 | More on bots 🤖 | Mixed reality 😮 – Hi everybody! This week's overarching theme is interactivity. Whether it's about engaging with music
#39

October 31, 2016

#39: Spotify Daily Mix as a standalone product 📲 | Music, AI & copyright 🤖 | Data: media in 2017 🔜 | 75% mobile internet use 🤳 – Hi everyone,This week I take a wider angle than usual in these mailings, since there are a number of
#38

October 24, 2016

#38: Ephemeral Content's Value 🔑 | Streaming Services as Labels 💿 | Music & Gender 💁 | AI 🤖 | China 🇨🇳 – Hi everyone! I had a blast at Amsterdam Dance Event and it's been so great meeting so many of you, ol
#37

October 17, 2016

#37: Accelerating the future of music 🛫 | Music streaming profits 🏄 | Record labels of the future 💻 | Much more! – Hey everybody, I'm getting ready for Amsterdam Dance Event. My laptop is being repaired, so I'll be w
#36

October 10, 2016

#36: Livestreaming enabling new business models 💌 | Music streaming consolidation 🤝 | Secondary ticketing 🎫 | Facebook VR 👓 – Hey everyone,Let's schedule meetings for Amsterdam Dance Event (19-23 Oct). If you're in town and hav
#35

October 3, 2016

#35: Spotify success: from 0 to 300k plays 🙌 | How my headphones saved my life 🎧 | Spotify & Soundcloud? 💖 | EDM in Asia 🌏 – Hey everybody!Two questions for you this week:Does anyone know about platforms that allow you to rele
#34

September 26, 2016

#34: Monetizing remix culture with Beatport's former CEO 💰 | Understanding the price of music 💵 | iHeartRadio 📻 | AI-composed music 🤖 – Hey everybody,Last week I had a very interesting conversation with Matthew Adell about his remix mone
#33

September 19, 2016

#33: Music curation food chain 🍔 | Discovery tools 🎶 | Universal & Sony's new app 📱 | Loads more – Hey everyone,Another extensive edition, with three articles from my hand and a selection of this week
#32

September 12, 2016

#32: 🌍 Are gamers music's largest subculture? 🎮 | Streaming services as labels | ADE | Blockchain | New music price points – Hey everybody!Another digest for you this week & for all those who just signed up: welcome aboard
#31

September 5, 2016

⚡ Over 80% of businesses fail. Why should it be different for music? – Hey everybody!It looks like after 2 months of autumn, summer has finally arrived in Holland. I guess
#30

August 29, 2016

#30: How to make music sustainable 🌳 | Evolution of music discovery 💻 | 5 big ideas for indie music 💡 | Curated links, infographics & more 👀 – Hey everyone,What a week! Drama over exclusives, rumours of UMG banning them, mud throwing between st
#29

August 22, 2016

#29: Building the world's largest DJ video platform 📹 and our changing relationship with music 🎷 – Hey everyone!Two new introductions this week. I'm going to be doing a series of interviews with peopl
#28

August 15, 2016

#28: ⬆️ Rise of Yellow Claw (Case-Study), Music & Machine Learning + Much More – Hey everyone,Got way too close to the deadline this week, because I got carried away writing a case-s
#27

August 8, 2016

#27: Spotify Release Radar, Discover Weekly, and the Habit Loop + Bots + Trendwatching + Links: TheWaveVR, Facebook VR, Music & Beer – Hey everybody! 👋This week's lead is about Spotify's latest feature. I also have 2 bonus articles, inc
#26

August 1, 2016

#26: Special Edition! 🎉 Learn to code, augmented reality & the future of music, links about Soundcloud, Musical.ly, Flipagram, album apps & much more! – 500 subscribers! 🎉I've always aimed for relevant subscribers - quality over quantity, and I'm proud t
#25

July 25, 2016

#25: VKontakte’s New Music Licenses have Global Implications + Neuroscience Behind Paying for Music + YouTube, Beatport, Flipagram & Spotify news & perspective – Hey everyone!Over the past week I made some big changes to the site and put content front and center.
#24

July 18, 2016

#24: Four Products That Show the Future of Music, the Dashboard Era of the Music Biz, More VR Experiences & (of course) Pokemon Go – Hey everybody!Thank you for all the great feedback on last week's article about Pokémon Go and the fu
#23

July 11, 2016

#23: Pokémon Go & the Future of Music + links & stats about the state of online music – Hey there!Thanks everyone for the kind responses to last week's mailing. Your feedback helps me deter
#22

July 4, 2016

#22: Are pay-per-stream royalties costing artists tens of thousands of dollars? - Apple & Tidal - Warner's $3B debt - Mixed reality – Hey everybody,Played around with some streaming data in a spreadsheet last week - and made some inter
#21

June 27, 2016

#21: Automate, or Get Automated: How to Save Yourself from the Robot Revolution + Music in Indie Games + DAO lessons + YouTube algorithms + Spotify, Netflix data + more – Hey everyone,What a crazy week. I think everything's been said about Brexit and the music business, s
#20

June 20, 2016

#20: Great Content and the Power of Networks, Twitter ❤ Soundcloud, SFX exits bankruptcy, Ethereum / DAO, video game soundtracks, and more! – Hey everyone!Super excited to be traveling to Berklee Valencia this week to deliver a lecture on grow
#19

June 13, 2016

#19: How Media is Changing (Us), McLuhanism, the Music Business 2.0, Algorithms and Big Data – Hey everyone!This week I'm zooming out a bit - looking at media theory, the age of networks, how it c
#18

June 6, 2016

#18: Building Attention-Holding Habits for Music, Björk, VR, Augmented Cognition, Open Source music, SOCAN & more – Thanks to everyone who's signed up recently. Glad to have you aboard!Taking another look at what the
#17

May 30, 2016

#17: Music industry not ready for Blockchain - plus: VR, Ethereum, Skin Orgasms, Chocolate & Illegal Raves – Hey everyone - it's been a great week collaborating with fascinating people at Music Tech Fest. I've
#16

May 23, 2016

#16: Humans as Curators of Artificial Creativity, Gaming Industry Lessons, Bandcamp $uccess, YouTube is the New Google+ – Greetings from Berlin everyone!I'm hacking away at blockchain concepts for the music business at Musi
#15

May 16, 2016

#15: The Rule of Seven for Music Discovery + Blockchain momentum + RIP iTunes? + Filter bubble fallacy + lots more – Hey there!Flying out to Berlin next Sunday to work on blockchain solutions for the music business (mo
#14

May 9, 2016

#14: Three Game Mechanics for the Music Biz + Chatbots + Pandora's comeback? + Apple Music revamp + Omnifone trouble + YouTube's talent dev bootcamps – Hey there!The recent addition of a new mode in video game Fallout 4 prompted me to write about one of
#13

May 2, 2016

#13: Ask More Questions ❓ Gender Equality in Music 👫 First Rule of Pricing 💵 Design for Humanity 🏡 - MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE – Hey everyone!Had a great time in London last week, meeting loads of interesting people at Music Conne
#12

April 25, 2016

#12: Dubstep, Clickbait and Culture as Content x I'm in London x App Store success, VR, and Minecraft – Hey all,This week I'm in London for Music Connected. Look forward to seeing some of you there. I stil
#11

April 18, 2016

#11: 2025's Music Business, Music Growth Hacking 101, First Steps in Music & VR - MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE – Hellooooo!Last week was a fascinating one. I flew to London last minute for an event, registered MUSI
#10

April 11, 2016

#10: Three Important Trends for the Independent Music Biz (Fair Trade Music, D2F, New Formats) – Hey everyone!We've made it to number 10 already. If you're looking for help with your digital strateg
#9

April 4, 2016

#9 MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE: Unbundle Music Platforms to Monetize New Segments + meet me in London this month! – Hey everyone!Happy to announce I'll be in London for AIM's Music Connected on the 27th of April! I'll
#8

March 28, 2016

#8 MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE: Virtual Reality is Going to Change our Music Experience, Forever + Twitch + Open Sourcing the Music Industry & More! – Hey everybody!Playing around with the look & feel a bit. Let me know what you think. Besides plen
#7

March 21, 2016

#7: Why startup founders choose to ignore music copyright | MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE – Hey there!Going to be expanding on last week's topic and broaden the perspective. The current licensi
#6

March 14, 2016

#6: Thought experiment! What if copyright did not exist? | MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE – Hello everyone!If you're active in the music business, I'd like to point your attention to Benji Roge
#5

March 7, 2016

#5: Don't broadcast: how to make social media fun | MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE – Hey everyone,Thanks for the replies, recommendations and all the new signups. This week I'm tackling
#4

February 29, 2016

#4 MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE: We Are Living Through a CULTURAL REVOLUTION – Hey everyone!Every week I try to switch things up a bit and keep this exciting. This week I'm focusin
#3

February 22, 2016

#3 MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE: Monopolising Behaviour, Artists as Startups, Streaming's Future, and More! – Hello everybody!Thanks for all your shares, replies, tips and sign-ups! It's so awesome to see these
#2

February 15, 2016

#2 MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE: Streaming is NOT the future of music - let's move on – Hey there!This week I'm making a case for why we should be thinking WAY beyond streaming. If there's
#1

February 8, 2016

#1 MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE: VR & Music, Tribal Leadership, AI, Stream Fraud & More – Hey everyone! I'm truly humbled by the amount of initial signups. Thanks for joining me for the start

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