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Music - Issue #46

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Music

Startups and change makers leveraging music and music technology to curate a more creative world.

Good Morning!
Hope you are all having a great week so far.
This Week’s Highlights
Bring Me The Horizon made an interesting integration with their merch and fan Spotify data.
YouTube finally allows you to sell merch on your artist channel albeit through Merchbar.
Music charts are meaningless and the Economist wrote about why.
Startup Spotlight
Startup spotlight this week is on blockchain power fan platform, Sweet. Fans can earn the token, Sugar, by interacting with different parts of the brand platform. They can then use the tokens earned to redeem them for prizes. The Black Eyed Peas use the platform to power their website and offer a great example of the implementation.
Have a great week!
Corey & Josh

Spotify Helps Bring Me the Horizon Fans Customize Their T-Shirts
Spotify Helps Bring Me the Horizon Fans Customize Their T-Shirts
Users pick their six favorite tracks from Amo, and the Amo in Colour website designs their swag.
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Sweet App Helps Artists Reward Fans' Support With Prizes, Experiences
Sweet has launched a new fan rewards app called Sweet.
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Spotify's Canvas Video-Looping Tool Expands Beta With More Artists Are Getting Access
Spotify's Canvas Video-Looping Tool Expands Beta With More Artists Are Getting Access
Canvas – the Spotify tool that allows select artists to add short looping visuals to their music on the streaming service – is going wider. The streaming service has invited some of its most active Spotify for Artists users to join the Canvas beta, which has previously been used by artists including Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Flying Lotus and Bon Iver.
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The Music Industry is Evolving Faster Than Ever, and So Are The Scammers
Scamming in the music industry is nothing new, but as the technology changes and competition surges, the scammers are finding new ways to capitalize.
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5 cutting edge music startups up for first ever Music Innovation Prize by Web Summit
5 cutting edge music startups up for first ever Music Innovation Prize by Web Summit
Five up-and-coming tech startups will compete for the first Music Innovations Prize at the 2019 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. This is the first time the
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YouTube launches Merchbar partnership for artist merchandise
One of the first to take advantage is Marshmello, who’s created a football shirt (or for American readers, ‘soccer jersey’) that will be exclusive to Merchbar and his YouTube channel.
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Meditation app Calm looks to expand into wholly unexpected genres
Calm has worked with recently and the symbiosis that can happen here. Moby, Sigur Rós and Sam Smith are among the artists who have used the app as part of their marketing and as a way to reach whole new audiences. Acton Smith also reveals that Keith Urban will be doing something with Calm next year.
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How Universal Music Group plans to grow—through video
How Universal Music Group plans to grow—through video
In the latest episode of the ‘Ad Lib’ podcast, UMG’s content strategist explains how the world’s largest music label is evolving into a ‘music-based media company.’
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What Should Label Playlist Strategies Be in 2020?
Playlist strategies need to evolve in 2020.
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The Grateful Dead, Vampire Weekend and Why Bootleg Band Merch Is In
The Grateful Dead, Vampire Weekend and Why Bootleg Band Merch Is In
Instagram accounts @FromtheLot and @FromtheFreezer have amassed huge followings by showcasing pictures of bootleg Grateful Dead and Vampire Weekend merch.
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Sony’s 360 “spatial” audio will stream soon on Amazon, Tidal, and Deezer
More than 1,000 songs from the likes of Pharrell Williams and Bob Dylan will stream in the new format, which rethinks the left-right audio paradigm.
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The rise and rise of Bandcamp
The rise and rise of Bandcamp
Bandcamp is just always there for us.
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Meet Tones and I, the Australian Ex-Busker Who Achieved a Global Hit Thanks to Streaming
This is an interesting case study for Spotify and an up and coming artist.
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The meaninglessness of music charts
The meaninglessness of music charts
With each streaming platform crowning a different champion each week, it has become impossible to tell which artists are truly popular
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Tencent Music now has 31m paying online-music users
Tencent Music published its latest financial results yesterday, and they revealed sluggish growth for active users of the company’s three online-music services in China, but a much more-sprightly rise in the number of paid subscribers for those services.
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Techstars Startup Digest Music is curated by:
Corey Crossfield Corey Crossfield - Music Digest Curator
corey.crossfield@startupdigestmail.com
Josh Ford Josh Ford
josh.ford@startupdigestmail.com
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