Case Studies: Music

Cover image for How Coachella put the power of UGC livestreaming on display

How Coachella put the power of UGC livestreaming on display

Tatiana Cirisano

1 Jun 2023

YouTube Music Business Strategy

YouTube’s official livestream of the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival captured the event through both a long-form, professional livestream on YouTube, and short-form video user-generated content (UGC) on YouTube Shorts. YouTube partnered with influencers to document their festival run on Shorts, taking advantage of the growing trend ...

Cover image for An AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd collab is shaking the music industry

An AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd collab is shaking the music industry

Mark Mulligan, Hanna Kahlert and Tatiana Cirisano

2 May 2023

Music

The rapid deployment of musical “deepfakes’’ on social media illustrates just how quickly artificial intelligence (AI) is already reshaping the music industry. Deepfakes are a type of AI that can create convincing replicas of real people, whether in the image, video, or audio format.

Cover image for CD Baby’s ‘Stages’ can serve both passion and professionalism

CD Baby’s ‘Stages’ can serve both passion and professionalism

Tatiana Cirisano

3 Apr 2023

Music Business Strategy

CD Baby’s ‘Stages’ can serve both passion and professionalism The traditional view of the fast-growing artists direct sector as a funnel for recorded music is becoming outdated. Nearly the same percentage of these 6.4 million creators are passionate, but do not expect a full-time career (36%) as those who do (38%).

Cover image for Artiphon’s Minibeats brings social music creation to Snapchat

Artiphon’s Minibeats brings social music creation to Snapchat

Tatiana Cirisano

1 Mar 2023

Music Product Strategy

In 2021, instrument maker Artiphon launched the Orbacam social video app, where users could shoot video, create music for it, and add perfectly synced video effects. Originally meant as a companion to the company’s Orba handheld beatmaker, the app simply placed a digital version of the Orba over a TikTok-like interface.

Cover image for YouTube is paving a new music discovery pathway — will it work?

YouTube is paving a new music discovery pathway — will it work?

Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

4 Jan 2023

Music

Song discovery ideally kicks off a fandom journey for the consumer, who then goes on to learn about the artist, stream their wider catalogue, become a fan, and buy merchandise and concert tickets. But, too often today, music discovery both starts and ends with the song.

Cover image for Taylor Swift’s Midnights playbook for sustaining superstardom

Taylor Swift’s Midnights playbook for sustaining superstardom

Tatiana Cirisano

29 Nov 2022

Music

As an artist whose rise to prominence coincided with the rise of streaming, Taylor Swift was able to build a massive listener base in less congested times, benefitting from all the democratising impacts of streaming before it gave way to over-saturation and hyper-fragmentation.

Cover image for Inside the growing scene of neoperreo

Inside the growing scene of neoperreo

Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

31 Aug 2022

Music

Neoperreo represents an up-and-coming scene that is driven by a music genre, but it is identified as much for as its sound as it is for its visual aesthetic, values, practices, and other layers. The neoperreo subgenre is a reaction to what its members view as the ‘mainstreaming’ of reggaeton, as well as the fact that reggaeton is dominated by m...

Cover image for A tale of two album releases

A tale of two album releases
Gunna and The Weeknd

Mark Mulligan and Tatiana Cirisano

31 Aug 2022

Music

In the on-demand streaming era, music consumption is increasingly fragmented. Consumers are spreading out their listening across varying artists and songs, and personalised recommendations algorithms are pushing them further into niches. Superstars still exist, but their impact is lessening.

Cover image for Twenty One Pilots

Twenty One Pilots
How Twenty One Pilots’ Takeøver Tour created virtual-physical harmony

Tatiana Cirisano

28 Jan 2022

Music live streaming Live entertainment

In September 2021, rock band Twenty One Pilots became the latest act to perform a pre-taped set in gaming platform Roblox as avatars (following Lil Nas X in 2020).Billed as the kick-off to the band’s in-person Takeøver Tour, promoting their albumScaled & Icy, the weekend event included a pre-show premiere performance, and replays on the hour...

Cover image for Beatport

Beatport
A modern creator tools ecosystem

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

30 Sep 2021

Music

Beatport was founded in 2004 as an online music marketplace geared towards DJs. This remains its core business, but in the time since (and particularly the past several years), it has expanded to offer more. Beatport now owns Loopmasters, including both sound packs platform Loopcloud, and music plug-in marketplace Plugin Boutique, as well as distri...

Cover image for Fender

Fender
The journey from a vintage icon to a driver of modern music making

Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

30 Sep 2021

Music

Fender has long been renowned for one thing more than anything else – guitars. Since releasing its first guitars in the early 1950s, Fender has become an icon in music. For a long time, their historical legacy was enough to ride on, as an established collector market would drive sales of vintage recreations and custom shop models.

Cover image for Splice

Splice

Mark Mulligan and Kriss Thakrar

7 Sep 2021

Music Justin Bieber AI

Founded in 2013, US-based music creator platform Splice has become one of themost recognisable brands in the creator tools space. Splice took the subscription access model for music sounds and samples to a global scale, both riding anddriving the creative trend towards sounds-based music production.

Cover image for BTS

BTS
BTS hit big with the most successful virtual concert yet

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Kriss Thakrar

15 May 2021

Music concerts BTS

BTS are the best selling artist of 2020, and their label, Big Hit Music, deserves credit for the innovations they have championed in driving fandom – particularlywith virtual concerts. Map of the Soul: ON:E is the most successful virtual concertyet, selling 993,000 tickets and earning $35 million in revenue.

Cover image for Splash / Tones and I

Splash / Tones and I
Splash / Tones and I event showcases the future of artist-fan engagement

Mark Mulligan

25 Jan 2021

Music Sony Music lil nas x

With more than 150 million monthly active users, and most of those very young, Roblox has carved out for itself an important and highly targeted youth audience. The extensible nature of the platform means that it supports multiple games worlds rather than a uniform gaming environment.

Cover image for Driift

Driift
Driift creates a new vertically integrated approach to live performances

Mark Mulligan

22 Dec 2020

live music Music Product Strategy

Founded in 2020, UK-based Driift was set up to capitalise on and drive the newopportunities that were presented by lockdown’s cessation of live music concerts.Spun out of artist agency ATC, Driift takes an artist-centric approach, with a core focus on high-production values and ticketed events with ticketing partner Dice.

Cover image for BandLab

BandLab
BandLab taps the growing demand for creator communities

Mark Mulligan

15 Nov 2020

Music BandLab online publishing

Founded in 2014, Singapore-headquartered BandLab has built a multi-facetedmusic business, with divisions focused on manufacture of guitars, retail stores,media, and an online artist platform. With significant financial backing, BandLab has made some high-profile acquisitions, including taking a large shareholding in RollingStone (now divested), as ...

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