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Feb 8 2023

🔵 TikTok polishes up its brass neck to square up to the majors

The latest news from the music and tech industries
Hi there -

I only commented the other day about TikTok removing the majors' music from its platform in Australia as part of a test. Cut to today and it seems the company is really pushing its luck - well, depending on your point of view of course.

Removing the majors' music is one thing, but launching its own distribution program on the same day is either a bold PR stunt, or just a gigantic "fuck you" to the majors in particular.

Of course, these things are all part of the fun. The majors might make some comments about the state of streaming right ahead of renegotiating a deal, and now it looks like the Chinese video giant is flexing its own muscles to see whether it can truly break from the majors grip.

No doubt this will all end amicably; it only makes good business sense to do that after all. That said, if anyone is in a (relatively) good position to agitate the majors right now, it's TikTok.

That is, if would be if the President of the USA wasn't making it abundantly clear that he is not a fan and wants to see it reigned in. The problem TikTok faces is that if the US takes action, it might well prompt a chain reaction around the world, causing existential threat to the company.

In the context of that, its spat with the majors might be the least of its worries.

Have a great evening,

D.

🎶 written whilst listening to "Shockout" a compilation from the label of the same name, delivering intensely visceral dancehall and ragga-type vibes. I'm not gonna lie, it was a colossal mistake putting this on whilst trying to compile the Digest, as it's an unholy, distorted, savage take on dancehall, masterminded by Kevin "The Bug" Martin. It's like trying to write whilst lying with your head in a kick drum, as Beenie Man screams through a broken transistor amp and a dub siren screams through a fuzzbox. Despite all this, I do heartily recommend it 😆
Stories from the Music Industry:
TikTok launches its SoundOn distribution program in Australia
TikTok is rolling out its SoundOn distribution arm in another country, and lets just say the timing is interesting. SoundOn, remember, is TikToks program for unsigned artists to upload their music directly to its platform, and also distribute it more widely to traditional streaming services. Its latest market is Australia, heralded with a launch event at the Laneway Festival in Sydney according to The Music Network.

👆🏻Hot take: a ballsy move from TikTok here, in a move that is surely bound to directly agitate the majors. 
Ticketing, for example, which is one of the sectors being targeted in the Biden administration’s Junk Fee Prevention Act. “We’ll cap service fees on tickets to concerts and sporting events and make companies disclose all fees upfront,” said Biden, while listing other issues including airline tickets, bank overdraft fees and internet/mobile switching premiums. 

👆🏻Hot take: not a great day for Ticketmaster or TikTok. Both are in for a rough year, based on this. 
JKBX plans to sell shares in these music royalties (of hit songs and popular artists from all eras) to retail [non-professional] investors through its marketplace. The company is keeping its powder dry on announcing which artists and catalogues have already been signed up in the $1.7bn though. As for GTS, its one of the biggest market makers in the US financial industry, buying and selling securities it claims to account for 3-5% of daily cash equities volume in the US. 

👆🏻Hot take: I read this as "eToro for music investment". Fair? Either way, keen to see how this fares. 
Might conversational AIs be the key to finally bringing rich context to music streaming, providing information about the songs, the musicians, the scenes and where they fit into musical history? How would those conversations be visually (or aurally?) presented alongside the actual music? This is what we always wondered whether Alexa, Siri and co would become: musical assistants driven by conversation rather than just commands.

👆🏻Hot take: really good point made by Music Ally here. I suspect we won't be waiting long before something emerges addressing this exact space. 
The deal is a partnership with The Catalina Whale Mixer, a collection of 5,555 NFT avatars on the Solana blockchain. Created by tech studio WAGMI Beach in December 2021, the concept of The Whales was born when co-founders Ben Willis and Joshua Andriano met with Def Jams DJ Mormile and Ryan Rodriguez.

👆🏻Hot take: I can only ever read stories like this and wonder what Damon Albarn and Gorillaz must make of it all. 
Commenting on the deal, ROSTR CEO and co-founder Mark WIlliamson said: When we were given the opportunity to re-acquire ROSTR, we had to take it; we have unfinished business helping to build a more connected entertainment industry. Wed like to thank Utopia for the last year and wish them all the success going forward. The sale will allow Utopia to sharpen its focus on building and scaling a financial infrastructure and products for the music industry that would allow industry players to process royalties accurately.

👆🏻Hot take: I must confess that ROSTR seemed a little out of place now among Utopia's acquisitions, so this makes a lot of sense. Looking forward to seeing how the platform develops; I'm a fan. 
Stories from the Broader World of Tech:
TikTok is crushing YouTube in annual study of kids and teens app usage
For another year in a row, TikTok has found itself as the social app kids and teens are spending the most time using throughout the day, even outpacing YouTube. According to an ongoing annual review of kids’ and teens’ app usage and behavior globally, the younger demographic — minors ranging in ages from 4 through 18 — began to watch more TikTok than YouTube on an average daily basis starting in June 2020, and TikTok’s numbers have continued to grow ever since.

👆🏻Hot take: ordinarily this news would arguably me received positively. In the current climate it may just be more grist to the mill for the "ban TikTok" crowd.
Bard, the company’s new AI experiment, aims to “combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models.” Not short on ambition, Google! The model, or service, or AI chatbot, however you wish to describe it, was announced in a blog post by CEO Sundar Pichai. He pointedly notes Google’s recentering around AI some years back, as well as the fact that the most influential concept (the Transformer) was created by the company’s researchers in 2017.

👆🏻Hot take: the latest development in Google's bid to show that it has not in fact been blindsided by ChatGPT. 
McKinsey data shows women are using the metaverse more than men, both to achieve business goals and for leisure. McKinsey’s data reveals that 60% of women report they have implemented more than two metaverse-related initiatives in their organizations, and they are 20% more likely to implement multiple metaverse initiatives. But, while they may disproportionately utilize its capabilities, women leaders in the industry are far more scarce. In the past five years, male-led metaverse companies received a higher share of total funding (90%) than women-led metaverse companies (10%).

👆🏻Hot take: possibly the least-surprising news ever, but at the same time surely a clarion call for this to be addressed given the fact that apparently more women use the metaverse than men. 
Other Reads I've Enjoyed Lately:
Why Everyone Feels Like They’re Faking It
The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous. Critics, and even the idea’s originators, question its value.

👆🏻Hot take: a fascinating take on Imposter Syndrome and the issues surrounding ascribing it to people. Not sure I'm doing the article justice there but see what you think! 
Our hunger for wealth and love drives us to work and create — capitalism’s genius is finding new avenues for that drive.

👆🏻Hot take: a great article arguing that history has proven that tech innovation increases employment - meaning we should not fear AI and its impact on society in general.

Being hard on yourself is not only ineffective, but it is also a hard pattern to break. How can you take a more balanced, emotionally equanimous approach to your performance?

👆🏻Hot take: a welcome little reminder, if anyone needs it 🤗
The latest from Motive Unknown on Twitter:
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