Vol 131: Luminate, Taylor, Cassettes, a Final KISS Off, & More
Vol 131: Luminate, Taylor, Cassettes, a Final KISS Off, & More
Unweighting the Scales
Luminate Hits a Sour Note
In a notable move on October 16, Luminate, the organization behind the music consumption data that shapes the Billboard Charts, announced a major change. Starting December 29, 2023, they will stop using a method called 'weighting' for sales from independent record stores.
Here's what that means: normally, if one local record store reports its sales, Luminate increases these numbers to estimate sales from other similar stores that don't report their sales. Although not perfect, this method gives a more complete view of music sales. But now, Luminate plans to bring in new stores to provide data. However, the slow pace of adding these new stores raises concerns. Without weighting and sufficient data from new stores, the charts might miss capturing the true landscape of music sales. This change could impact everyone in the music world, from emerging artists to well-known superstars, and the labels that represent them.
The Indies Respond
Soon after this announcement, groups representing hundreds of independent record stores voiced their concerns. They want the weighting system to continue until a more effective way of reporting sales is established. A2IM, a trade organization, emphasized in a letter that until at least 75% of Luminate's 642 identified stores are regularly and reliably reporting sales, the weighting system should remain.
The Significance of Sales Data
According to Luminate's 2022 U.S. Year-End Music Report, 43.5 million vinyl records were sold last year, up 4.2% from 2021. Including CD and cassette sales, the total reaches nearly 80 million physical albums. Most of these sales happen at large retailers like Walmart and online platforms like Amazon. Luminate also gets data from places like Bandcamp, direct-to-consumer webstores, and a selection of independent record stores. But, the number of these small stores reporting sales is decreasing, already casting doubt on the accuracy of the charts. Ending this data modeling could further skew the representation of diverse music on various charts, limiting the visibility of non-mainstream albums and new artists.
How Weighting Works
Here's a simplified explanation of weighting: Imagine a city with five independent record stores, but only one reports its sales to Luminate. This store's sales are then increased to represent the other four. Factors like an in-store artist performance can affect this. The exact formula for this increase is not publicly shared, but it's known that this method is used to account for unreported sales. It's like a poll - not perfect, but it helps tell a broader story of music sales, benefiting everyone involved, directly or indirectly.
Collecting accurate data in the music industry is tough. Luminate claims to analyze 23 trillion data points from thousands of artists, with core data from over 500 partners. However, with around 1,600 independent record stores in the U.S., the 72 stores (assuming full participation) reporting to Luminate represent just a small fraction of the market. This raises the question of why more stores aren't reporting.
Many store owners report challenges with expensive software and labor-intensive data entry. Sandy Bitman, owner of Park Avenue CDs in Orlando, shares his experience of struggling with outdated systems and the need to manually report sales to Luminate.
“We’re not reporting at all right now because our POS [point-of-sale] system kind of aged out,” says Bitman. “We’re switching to a system that does have a function to report to Luminate, but we’re being told that we still have to manually send the report. There are some stores who use Shopify, who have to fill out an Excel grid themselves and then send it to Luminate. The rule changes that they’ve [Luminate] talked about are to protect the integrity of the data, but if stores can manipulate the data, that defeats the purpose.”
This highlights the need for a more streamlined and accessible reporting process.
In contrast, the UK's Official Charts Company captures 98% of album sales, including those from numerous independent stores. The U.S. is larger, but this example shows that more efficient reporting methods are possible. Luminate could potentially develop a more universal software solution or provide better support to enable easier reporting by independent stores.
Independent record stores play a crucial role in music charts. Blink 182's recent album 'One More Time' hit #1, with a significant contribution from indie store sales. This highlights how important these stores are in reflecting actual music trends and successes.
For Billboard's consumption charts to be as precise as possible, including independent stores is crucial. While weighting isn't the ultimate solution, its removal shouldn't be rushed. The transition should only happen when a majority of record stores are consistently reporting, marking the end of an outdated system. This will ensure that the charts truly reflect the diverse and dynamic world of music sales.
Endeavor is on the verge of going private (again).
Endeavor Group is evaluating “strategic alternatives” for its assets, which include the powerhouse talent agency WME, Frieze Art Fair & The Professional Bull Riders organization.
They recently rolled up World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) into TKO Holdings, whose stock is down 24% since opening in September.
It’s become clear since Endeavor’s IPO in 2021 that there is a valuation disconnect between their strong flywheel of assets and public perception.
Scenes from the Final* KISS Concert in Chicago
KISS wraps up their career in makeup with Gene and Paul (so many qualifiers!) on Saturday in New York City. But first, they stopped in Chicago.
*until the next one 😉
Speaking of KISS…
I saw Gene on TV claiming the band is greater demand than ever and “everything is sold out.” So let’s look at some recent dates:
10/19/2023
Heritage Bank Center, Cincinnati, OH
Reported audience: 8,481 / 12,904 (65.72%)
Reported gross: $824,263
10/22/2023
Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Cleveland, OH
Reported audience: 10,010 / 17,760 (56.36%)
Reported gross: $1,244,197
10/25/2023
Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO
Reported audience: 9,689 / 16,915 (57.28%)
Reported gross: $1,112,699
10/27/2023
Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, TX
Reported audience: 10,788 / 11,006 (98%)
Reported gross: $1,589,141
11/1/2023
Acrisure Arena, Palm Desert, CA
Reported audience: 6,729 / 9,670 (69.59%)
Reported gross: $1,057,568
11/3/2023
Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
Reported audience: 15,869 / 17,467 (90.85%)
Reported gross: $2,464,809
RIP: Kevin ‘Geordie’ Walker
Killing Joke Guitarist Dies at 64
I spoke to Geordie last week. He began our hour-long conversation with ‘there he is,’ and apart from a flu, he was in fine spirits and looking forward to the future with optimism. We reincarnated before and we will reincarnate again. I never left his side in 44 years. Tears.
Jaz Coleman
Just Plane Wrong
Taylor Swift will finish the year leading everyone in everything. Including private jet Co2 emissions (for the second year in a row). It wasn’t long ago that she called climate change a “horrific situation.” Hypocrisy from a gazillionaire celebrity? Shocking, I know.
Well, now you can doom scroll yourself into oblivion and watch her fleet of private jets spew toxic emissions all over the poors.
Thanks to Heavy Mental friend ümlaut for the tip!
Phish officially announced as next residency at Sphere
Considering news of this leaked a couple months ago, this is a bit anti-climatic. Unless you’re a Phish fan, but if you are I doubt you’re reading this newsletter. Each night will feature a different setlist and accompanying visuals. You can request to purchase tickets to the shows for the low, low price of $750.
Beyoncé recently toured the venue with her production manager, after a previous visit by her management team. Safe to say she’ll have her own Sphere residency in the future.
Ticket Counts
Tickets available per date; capacities per date; average percentage sold per date; and number of shows.
And Judas Priest, newly on sale, and the only tour worth attending:
INTERMISSION
👆🏼 Thanks,
!Cassettes: Sound & Sentiment
Two new books I’m looking forward to reading, "Unspooled" by Rob Drew, and "High Bias" by Marc Masters, delve into the influential role of cassette tapes in spreading thrash metal, hip-hop, and experimental music globally.
For you kids out there, cassettes revolutionized music sharing and creation long before streaming and MP3s. They allowed people to craft personal compilations that became a canvas for creativity, not just in the States and UK, but worldwide.
In “High Bias,” artists like Britt Daniel of Spoon and Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas recall using mixtapes to express emotions and showcase eclectic music tastes. The personal touch extended to crafting unique covers, enhanced the intimate nature of these gifts.
Beyond personal exchanges, cassettes played a pivotal role in the music industry's evolution. They were instrumental (pun intended) in the spread of thrash metal and hip-hop, and enabled the circulation of music otherwise ignored by corporate record labels, fostering genre recognition.
The cassette had a dual role: empowering listeners and artists with control over their musical experiences and circumventing the need for label acceptance or expensive studio time. This autonomy also extended to political realms, challenging authoritarian regimes in the 1970s and 1980s.
The cassette's influence was intertwined with technological advancements like the boom box, car stereo, Walkman, and Tascam Portastudio, all playing a part in shaping music consumption and production.
Philips' strategic licensing of its compact cassette invention in 1963 ensured its market dominance, arguably making the company a key player in recorded music history. This format, initially intended for speech recording, became indispensable for its portability and ease of use.
Despite a resurgence in cassette sales, largely driven by major-label releases and viewed as collectable art by fans, its significance remains rooted in the underground music scene. For labels like Fernando Aguilar’s California-based Stay Tough, cassettes are a practical and economic choice, particularly for genres like hardcore, emo, and pop-punk.
The cassette's recent cultural impact was further boosted by popular movies like "Guardians of the Galaxy," sparking renewed interest in the format.
Cassettes may lack the romantic allure of vinyl or the fidelity of CDs and lossless files, but their role in music's survival and evolution is undeniable. They enabled the underground scene to thrive decades ago, and once again provide a tangible, personal touch in an increasingly digital souless world.
Budding artists turn to seed investments
Online marketplaces like Indify, Sound Royalties, and beatBread are empowering people to place their bets on artists before major labels scoop them up. With the revenue from label-less artists who release music directly growing by 17% last year to an amazing $1.7 billion, streaming has made it possible for musicians to pay the rent while working on their first major albums… but perhaps only by finding forward-thinking partners willing to bet on their future success.
VC Records
Indify — which discovered Billie Eilish, Post Malone, and Khalid before they became breakout hitmakers — wants to give artists and the people who discover them the ability to jumpstart their success on the ground floors of their careers.
Artists who use Indify can receive upfront investments and creative control in exchange for a cut of the streaming rights on a single song or album — with artists keeping at least 50% of the revenue generated after investors are made whole.
Most investments typically come from music managers, who will then help the artist with marketing and social media strategy.
Indify only makes money when investors do — 15% of their post-recoupment earnings.
Indify says that most financing arrangements are for about seven years, with 95% of the deals still only in their second year. Yet, half of all contracts through Indify are already profitable — some have already tripled their investment. That includes manager Josh Feschbach, who’s turned a $30,000 investment in Mad Tsai into $110,000.
For his part, Mad Tsai has made over $245,000… not bad for a college student who was discovered posting ukulele-driven songs on TikTok.
JOBS!
Merchandise Brand Manager for Global Pop Artist (Nashville)
Duties include product launches, graphic design, content creation, social media, event coordination, and outreach. Head here for more details.
Head of Publishing at Adesso Music (UK)
Working alongside the General Manager you will be tasked with overseeing the day to day running of Adesso Music Publishing. Previous experience working within a Publishing Company is essential. Send your resume to Geoff: geoff@adessomusicltd.com
A&R Consultant at Seminal Music (Los Angeles)
All of the A&R things in this non-exclusive contract role. Learn more and apply for the job right here.
Head of Partnerships at Vault (Los Angeles)
Vault is seeking a dedicated Co-Founder with relevant experience to drive partnerships with new artists, helping to craft service offerings and support the development of Vault’s identity and vision as an artist services agency. Apply here.
Producer at Go West Creative (Nashville)
In this role, the Producer will lead content conception, design and execution of virtual and live events. This role will be responsible for creating the event run-of-show, pre-production and post-production oversight. Apply here.
Director of Experiential at Brand New: A Collective (NY or LA)
This role is responsible for the leadership, supervision and coordination of all aspects of event productions from concept to execution. Apply here.
Executive Assistant, Brands & Ventures - SB Projects - New York City - Ideal applicant will have 2+ years of prior entertainment industry administrative assistant experience. Apply here
THE NEWS DESK
The Year in Touring 2023
Billboard’s year-end breakdown of all-things live music is out now.
Spoiler: Taylor crushes all.
UK report raises concerns about mental wellbeing of musicians
“The highest rates of negative mental wellbeing by career stage are reported amongst students (41%) and those not yet working as a musician (41%). This suggests the need for dedicated support for those at the very early stages of a musicians’ career,” added the report. This leads into one of the key points made by the report: that low mental wellbeing causes musicians to leave the industry – possibly before they’ve had a chance to realise their potential.
Why artist subscriptions are the perfect partner to two-tier licensing
MIDiA’s data shows strong willingness among fans to pay, up to $5 an artist. But, if a long-tail artist was to price their subscription at just fifty cents, it would only take five fans to subscribe to generate the same amount of income a thousand streams would. Get that to ten fans (surely eminently achievable for many long-tail artists) and they would be earning double the minimum stream threshold of the two-tier system.
103m people are now paying for music on Tencent Music services
The company now has 103 million paying users for its online music services, up from 85.3 million a year ago. This is a combination of people paying for subscriptions to Tencent Music’s three services – QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo – and people buying digital albums and content from them. However, the company provided some new figures on its subscription revenues specifically: they grew by 42% year-on-year to RMB 3.19bn ($438m at current exchange rates) in Q3.
Anthym helps colleagues form workplace connections through music
Dubbed “Welcome,” the offering expands Anthym’s music-based team connection experience, launched last year at TechCrunch Startup Battlefield. Employees create “JamTracks,” five songs that correlate to important memories in their lives, such as when they adopted their dog or lost a loved one. In this case, the hiring manager tasks a new hire to complete a JamTrack, which is then shared with the rest of the team, fostering a deeper connection between colleagues.
Holly Herndon’s Infinite Art
Earlier this year, Spawning raised three million dollars in venture capital. The company is currently working on a handful of experiments. In October, it launched Kudurru, an open network of Web sites that aim to identify, and block, Web scrapers. Next year, Spawning plans to launch a kind of marketplace called Source+. An artist such as Bruce Springsteen could gather his data—demo tapes, vocal snippets—and license it to a company such as OpenAI, for training purposes. He could also create a model based on that data—Boss+—for other musicians to collaborate with, for a fee.
Why Is Everyone Mad At Spotify?
According to Spotify, “Nearly 70% of … revenue is paid back as royalties to rights holders, who then pay the artists and songwriters, based on the agreed terms.” If Spotify increased that percentage, artists would make more. But, as previously noted, Spotify is not paying artists and songwriters directly. They are paying labels, distributors, and publishers. Those entities distribute money to artists. If those entities decreased their take, artists and songwriters would also get paid more.
We Are Giant raises $8M from Sterling Partners to launch music community platform
We Are Giant describes itself as an ad-free platform that offers artists a range of tools to monetize their work and create deeper connections with their fanbase. The platform’s features include licensed listening parties for new music and unreleased demos, exclusive livestreams, interactive chat rooms with musicians, and more.
Creamfields To Build Largest Indoor Stage Ever
Live Nation has unveiled a new 30,000-capacity indoor main stage for Creamfields festival (cap. 70,000) which is set to become the largest indoor festival superstructure in the world according to the promoter.
Want to Read Something Else?
Microsoft Teams has launched an AI-powered home decoration feature
The new feature can detect elements of your background and clean it up by removing clutter or adding plants. One step closer to our dystopia.
Yale neuroscientists discover why Zoom meetings numb our brains
Pupil size and brain-based blood flow don’t lie. Virtual meetings are simply no replacement for in-person interactions.
How TMZ Became Hollywood’s Grim Reaper
After being tipped on Matthew Perry’s death, the site’s close ties to law enforcement and habit of paying sources gets new scrutiny.
Mass-migrating corals to save them from a killer heat wave.
Conservationists are moving thousands of the reef-building animals out of the sea to climate-controlled labs on land. High temperatures drive off the photosynthetic algae corals rely on for nutrients, causing coral bleaching that can be deadly.
After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer offer a magazine
Popular Science magazine shifted to an all-digital format a couple of years ago, and now even that’s gone.
I Bought The New Seven-CD Garth Brooks Box Set From Bass Pro Shops (A True Story)
The best-selling solo artist in pop history wants to pretend like the ’90s never ended, so he forged the year’s weirdest retail campaign.
Your comments on Spotify are great. Everyone wants to blame Spotify etc for not getting paid. But I bet the record companies are still getting paid
[this is good]