Ex WMG's Lança 'Humble Angel Records' Novo Streaming 'Indie Label'

Former Head of WMG's Global Playlist Strategy Launches Humble Angel Records, New Streaming-First Indie Label

How do you run a record label with no budget?

This is what Kieron Donoghue, former vp of global playlists strategy at Warner Music, faced upon launching the major's streaming-first imprint Artists To Watch last March. In fact, WMG’s overall A&R expenses actually jumped by 19 percent year-over-year in 2017, from $810 million to $964 million -- but Artists To Watch saw none of that investment.

“I had zero budget for anything, so no marketing, press or PR campaigns,” Donoghue, who joined WMG in 2014 and built its Topsify playlist brand, tells Billboard. “The only route to market I had were the Topsify playlists that I curated, and of course the songs that I signed still had to find homes in the appropriate playlists.”

In other words, Artists To Watch was a low-cost, singles-driven experiment to see what types of artists and songs could thrive in a multi-tiered playlist ecosystem, where WMG-owned Topsify coexisted and competed with analogous brands owned by Spotify, Apple Music and other services.

While the venture was not a failure per se -- Artists To Watch releases have attracted nearly 55 million streams on Spotify to date -- the concept lasted no more than half a year. According to its corresponding playlist, the last Artists To Watch release was in Sep. 2017, and the entire sublabel reportedly closed down upon Donoghue’s departure from WMG a month later. (WMG did not respond to a request for comment by press time.)

Today, Donoghue is revamping his streaming-specialist bent on his own terms with the launch of his new indie label, Humble Angel Records. The label's first signee is Jazz Mino, an electro-pop singer-songwriter who has already caught the attention of Austin Daboh (senior editor at Spotify UK), and whose single “Crush” -- a cover of Jennifer Paige’s 1998 song of the same name -- just surpassed 100,000 streams. Mino’s first release on Humble Angel is another cover, this time of the 1984 song “Together in Electric Dreams” by Giorgio Moroder and Philip Oakey.

Anyone can submit music for consideration to Humble Angel via a simple Google form (similar to how Spotify fields submissions for its global EDM playlist brand mint), signaling a more democratic approach to A&R. “Labels tend not to even start looking at an artist if they don’t have huge social media numbers around them,” Mino, who currently has around 39,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, tells Billboard. “My manager and I have built our careers by ourselves for so long, and it’s great to have someone like Kieron on board who’s just as enthusiastic about the music as we are.”

One of the key benefits of running a streaming-first label independently, rather than under a major or corporate umbrella, is identifying and reacting to artists and opportunities with greater agility. “The biggest lesson I learned [from Artists To Watch] was that you have to move fast,” says Donoghue. “You have to act fast to find new music and artists just as soon as they publish a song online -- act fast to reach out to them, put a contract together and then sign them. Major labels can take weeks if not months to negotiate terms, draw up legal papers and so forth, whereas Humble Angel Records is designed to do it in days, sometimes hours.”

Moreover, major labels are still obligated to drive sales of physical and download formats -- 22 percent of WMG’s revenue in 2017 came from physical sales -- while Humble Angel will focus all of its marketing efforts on streaming, although the label will still make its releases available for fans to download.

Transparency and efficiency of payments will also be a key focus for Humble Angel. According to Donoghue, his label's standard contract will offer at least double the average royalty splits of what major labels provide, and will pay artists monthly instead of once or twice a year (Humble Angel is partnering with Stem to handle distribution and revenue management).

Without direct access to the Topsify ecosystem, Humble Angel is also free (and, for the sake of survival, required) to experiment and strategize around a wider variety of playlists across streaming platforms.

For instance, Mino had recruited electronic producers Oliver Nelson and Ben Benim to remix her first two singles, leveraging a typical remix strategy in the EDM world for the purposes of supporting more consistent release schedules and mutual promotion across artists’ fanbases. For some of her upcoming singles, however, Mino will be releasing her own acoustic versions instead of third-party remixes -- an approach that Donoghue previously implemented at Artists To Watch with MARC’s single “Show You The Light." Mino understood the power of this strategy to expand her reach beyond the chill-pop playlist silo and into truly untapped audiences, as “people who listen mostly to acoustic music might not immediately buy into what I’m creating and sharing with my fans,” she says.

As for specific stats, while Donoghue sees potential value in all sources, he places particular importance on metrics like the percentage of listeners who stream a song from their own Saved Music collection on Spotify -- which lends deeper insight into passive versus active listening habits. On the other hand, skip rates are more arbitrarily defined, and might bog artists and managers down too deeply in unnecessary detail. “I much prefer to focus on volume of streams and where those streams came from, instead of digging in the weeds for some magic formula that may or not exist when it comes to skip and save rates,” says Donoghue.

Skeptics of the streaming-first label model may point to the downside of concentrating all of one's energy into a single revenue source -- particularly one like streaming that hasn't yet proven to be profitable on the platform level, and will only become more privy to the volatility of tech stock performance as Spotify's public offering approaches.

But Donoghue claims that specialization coupled with operational flexibility will be a valuable asset for his label, in a music industry landscape that refuses to slow down. “Our focus is going to be on doing one thing and doing it extraordinarily well,” he says. “It makes sense to focus our efforts first and foremost on streaming, because we know the streaming music ecosystem inside out and we believe this is what's going to deliver growth over the coming years.”

As Receitas De 'Music Streaming' Cresceram 53% Em 2017

Music Streaming Revenue Increased 53 Percent in 2017, Digital Services Report

U.S. digital revenue grew 15 percent in 2017 to $6.5 billion from $5.65 billion, driven largely by a 53 percent increase in streaming to $3.4 billion from 2016's total of $2.2 billion.

That's the prediction of the Digital Media Assn. (DiMA), which represents music streaming services and other digital music providers that account for 95 percent of U.S. digital music revenue.

"Digital streaming has saved the record industry, with ad-supported and subscription music services driving a third consecutive year of increasing revenue," the org said. "As the music industry comes together for Grammy Week, the continued increase in digital music revenue is a clear sign that smart policies encouraging innovation and investment benefit everyone."

Those statistics are from a forthcoming report, "Streaming Forward," coming via DiMA and research firm, MIDiA.

Spotify Reavalia Regras Para Dar Aos 'Remixadores' Mais Respeito

Spotify Reworks Rules to Give Remixers More Respect

Music is one of those art forms that sits at the cutting edge of technological development, and yet the industry itself is often slow to catch up. It took the Grammys until 2014 to consider work with samples in every category, and it wasn't until 2016 that the awards institution made free mixtapes and releases eligible for consideration.

Even Spotify, who arguably leads the charge in the streaming revolution, has only now changed its rules to credit remixers for the streams their remixes garner. Until now, only the original artist received the streaming numbers, and the remixer's popular songs list on their page wouldn't reflect popular remixes streamed either.

"Remixes are a major part of the way music evolves in the 21st century," Spotify said in its official announcement. "They build bridges between genres and they connect cultures around the world. Now Spotify is making some changes designed to give remixers the credit they deserve."

Spotify also interviewed famed and Grammy-decorated remixer Louie Vega to talk proper remixes from start to finish. Read all about it on Spotify's website.

Os Indicados Ao Grammy Atingem O Top 40 Da Billboard 200

Billboard 200 Chart Moves: 'Grammy Nominees' Series Scores 24th Top 40-Charting Album

On the latest Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Jan. 27), Camila Cabello arrived at No. 1 with her debut solo effort, Camila. The set earned 119,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Jan. 18, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 65,000 were in traditional album sales.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the week’s most popular albums based on their overall consumption. That overall unit figure combines pure album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the action on the rest of the Billboard 200:

Various Artists, 2018 Grammy Nominees – No. 22 — The long-running Grammy Nominees series collects its 24th top 40-charting album on the Billboard 200, as the 2018 Grammy Nominees compilation bows at No. 22. The set earned 17,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Jan. 18, according to Nielsen Music. The entirety of that sum is driven by traditional album sales. On the Top Album Sales chart, the title launches at No. 4, and on Compilation Albums at No. 1.

The 2018 Grammy Nominees album features 21 tracks that celebrate the nominees of the 60th annual Grammy Awards, including Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic,” Portugal. The Man’s “Feel It Still” and Kenny Chesney’s “All the Pretty Girls.”

The series, which began in 1995, has visited the top 40 with each of its 24 titles in its main series. (In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were a few genre-specific compilations -- like 1999 Grammy Rap Nominees -- that did not hit the top 40.)

Collectively, the 24 installments of the main Grammy Nominees series have sold 9.58 million copies. 

— Black Veil Brides, Vale – No. 14 — The band’s new studio set starts with 24,000 units (22,000 in traditional album sales), granting the act its fifth consecutive top 40-charting effort. On Hard Rock Albums, it debuts at No. 1 -- their first leader.

— The Cranberries, Stars: The Best of 1992-2002 – No. 16 — Following the death of The Cranberries’ lead singer Dolores O’Riordan on Jan. 15, the band’s greatest hits collection Stars: The Best of 1992-2002 debuts on the Billboard 200 at No. 16. The set, released in 2002, earned 22,000 equivalent album units in the week ending July 18, according to Nielsen Music (up 1,843 percent). The album sold 8,000 in traditional album sales (up 7,129 percent). Stars is the group’s highest-charting album since 1999’s Bury the Hatchet hit No. 13.

— Chris Young, Losing Sleep – No. 60 — The album surges 184-60 with the chart’s largest percentage gain (up 105 percent) as the set benefits from further sales generated by a concert ticket/album sale redemption promotion.

— The Beatles, 1 – No. 114 — The Beatles’ hits package 1 celebrates its 300th week on the list. The former No. 1 -- which was released in 2000 and steps 106-114 on the latest tally -- has racked up more weeks on the chart than any other Beatles album. The Fab Four’s runner-up is Abbey Road, with 249 weeks. It is followed by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (219), the act’s self-titled set (known as The White Album, with 184) and the best-of set The Beatles 1967-1970 (182).

1 is also the 20th album to spend at least 300 weeks on the list, and follows Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die, which hit the 300 threshold on the Jan. 20-dated chart.

The all-time longevity champ remains -- and will likely remain for many years to come -- Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, with 937 weeks. The runner-up is Bob Marley and The Wailers’ greatest hits set Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and The Wailers, with 505 weeks. Among all greatest hits sets, The Beatles’ 1 is one of just six titles with at least 300 weeks on the tally.

1 spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in late 2000 and early 2001 and has sold 12.87 million copies in the U.S. Since Nielsen Music began tracking sales in 1991, The Beatles’ 1 is the band’s biggest selling album, the fourth-largest selling title overall among all acts, and the best-selling greatest hits album. Ahead of 1 on Nielsen’s best-sellers list: Metallica’s self-titled album (known as The Black Album) with 16.71 million, followed by Shania Twain’s Come On Over (15.7 million), Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill (15.13 million) and then The Beatles' 1.

Hans Zimmer Vai Compor A Trilha De ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’

Hans Zimmer to Score ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’

Hans Zimmer has been tapped to score the upcoming superhero movie X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The film marks the directorial debut of writer/producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Martian, Deadpool) and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters and Jessica Chastain. Kinberg is also producing the project with Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects), Hutch Parker & Lauren Shuler Donner (Logan). 

Zimmer’s involvement was mentioned by actor Evan Peters on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. We previously heard that the composer was scoring the film this past December, but it was unclear whether he would be sharing scoring credit with anyone else. Zimmer has previously scored the Kinberg-produced sci-fi movie Chappie and Kinberg-scripted Sherlock Holmes. X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set to be released on November 2, 2018 by 20th Century Fox.

Como Você Deveria Usar Um 'email list' Entre Os Lançamentos E Shows?

How should you use your email list in between new releases or gigs?

Setting up an automated (and authentic) stream of emails that will interest your fans.

Email can be a drag. I write a bit on how to make the most of it here. But in this article, I want to dig in with you. Deep dive style.

Let’s start with a simple question: How do you use your email list in between projects?

I mean, it’s easy to send an invite to your next show or to tell people about your newest album, single, or video release.

But what about in-between that stuff? And how can you write and send emails without having it take up a ton of brain power and time? (Every time I knew I wanted to send a newsletter out, I would take an entire afternoon thinking, outlining, writing, editing, testing links, re-reading, sending.)

A plan to rock your email list for over a year

It starts with a content-creation challenge…

Write 30 emails.

(You’ll see why and what to write in a minute).

There are a bunch of ways to do this. You could take one day and just bang out all 30. Part of what took me so long every time I wanted to send out one email was that I really needed to focus and transition into email-writing mode to do this. Writing a bunch at once came WAY more easily than writing one at a time. Another way to bang out 30 emails is by writing one email a day for a month. Or by taking downtime on a tour and have all your bandmates each write 5-10. Either way, set a serious goal.

Reminder: you’re just writing these emails, you are not actually sending them… yet (we’ll get to that in a second).

If you’re using MailChimp or another email system, it helps to write these in Word or Pages first before formatting them. Formatting and posting take different brain power, and for now you want to focus on the writing, not the technology.

Here’s how to split the 30 into different kinds of emails, covering different topics:

1. First ten emails: Grab 10 of your favorite songs and write a short (2 paragraphs, tops) essay on how you came up with the lyrics, what the recording process was like, or some anecdote about the tune. Then, of course, link to that song on iTunes or Bandcamp or wherever you sell your music. That’s 10 emails.
2. Next ten emails: The next 10 emails you’ll write will tell your story. Not just “I was born here and went to college here.” But 10 little secrets or moments about yourself or your past that people don’t know yet. Pro Tip: The first place to look for these moments is in transitions. Where were you deciding something, choosing to live in one place over another? Choosing one job over another? One guy over another? If you can come up with 10 of these, you’ll have a great bunch of content emails ready to go. Bonus points if those memories inspired a song. Again, you can link to your own music.
3. Next five emails: Next, write five emails about what you love to do most. For example, this may be touring. Here you can share a specific story or two from your past tours, and/or sell tickets to your upcoming shows if you have any. Include photos, videos, anything. Pro Tip: ideally, you will send readers to a page on your website that is kept current so you can automate this email and not have to change it… see below. You won’t want to say specifics in the email, like “Come to our show February 23rd,” but instead “we’ve got a show coming up and you can get tickets here [link to your SHOWS page on your website].”
4. Last five emails: Lastly, write 5 emails asking your fans their opinion of something. You can create a poll, ask them their opinion of songs they want to hear next, or what their favorite song you play live is, or what the next video should be.

[Side note: if writing this much content sounds super daunting, then hop onto one of the most productive, results-generating workshops you’ll ever be a part of and bang it out there. Click here to enroll in the inspiring productivity program MX4!]

Now, once you have 30 emails, you can schedule these to go out once a week, or once every two weeks. If you do the latter, you will have created awesome content to send to people for over a YEAR.

They don’t need to be in order. In fact, I’d mix them up just a little. The story series can be just that, a series. And you can let people know what you’re doing. “Over the next few weeks, I would like to share some stories I haven’t shared anywhere else.” In between, you can pepper some of your other emails based on where they fit into the story.

Now, let’s talk about how to AUTOMATE all this!

What about new subscribers?

In a perfect world, your list is growing. You’re playing out and telling people about your email list and requesting that they sign up. You are sharing the signup link on social media.

So how do the new subscribers get all 30 emails? You can automate. All of the main email list providers like MailChimp allow you to do this, depending on the plan you have. I PROMISE this is worth the small monthly fee to have it set up (if your platform doesn’t offer it for free).

Automation is just that, automatically sending emails for you. This is different than scheduling because instead of sending an email on a specific date, the email program is sending emails out drip-style over a specific length of time. You can have a whole welcome series automated, making sure the new subscriber knows where to buy your music and how to find you live. Then you can assign the delay on each of the 30 emails… so 2 weeks after the person subscribes they get email #1. Two weeks after that email is sent, they get sent email #2. And so on and so forth. So it is not date-dependent.

Pro Tip

I would schedule all of these emails for the same day of the week, say, a Tuesday. I do this for when I want to send out a real-time update. Like something cool happened or I have a big last-minute show I want to share with my whole list. I don’t want people to get two emails in one day from me, so if I know that my list gets the automated emails on Tuesday, I can schedule my blast for Thursday.

Yes, it’ll take some time to write these emails, BUT once they’re done you’ll have some great content to build relationships with your fans, and hopefully make some sales.

What about authenticity?

If you’re concerned that your emails won’t feel as “real” or “you” if they’re not sent hot off the press, then take a look at how you’re writing them. Just because you’re using a marketing strategy doesn’t mean you have to sound like a marketer.

Keeping it present is important, as in, I write each of my emails as if I’m about to press send. Additionally, I also write each of my emails as if I was writing to ONE fan. I don’t say “hey guys” because chances are, each person reading my email is actually alone, by themselves. I say things I’d say in person. Because, after all, we’re all people, wanting to connect.

Let me know if you have questions about automation. I love diving into this newfound love I have and would be happy to geek out on it with you! If you liked this article, please share with your networks!

Como Os Músicos Independentes Podem 'Monetarizar' No Facebook Com O CD BABY

How indie musicians can monetize music on Facebook With CD BABY

Facebook music monetization for indie artists: What you need to know!

Big news: Facebook has been inking deals with labels, publishers, and other rights administrators in order to properly monetize music usage across the still-dominant social media platform, plus Instagram and Oculus. If you’re an independent artist, label, or songwriter, CD Baby  has got you covered for all three of those platforms.

CD Baby clients have already seen enormous value in collecting royalties for the usage of their music on YouTube via Content ID, and we can expect the same thing with Facebook. Think of it: all those videos people have posted to Facebook over the years containing your music can now earn you money.

With the massive amount of music being used on Facebook, and with the introduction of a system-wide solution to help avoid copyright issues, this is going to be huge for the music industry — and it’s not just a win for the majors; independent artists and songwriters will greatly benefit too.

If you’re a CD Baby artist, it’s easy to start collecting money for your music on Facebook

IMPORTANT: a lot of reports out there are encouraging artists to “act fast,” with messages that suggest you only have a limited window to opt in to a direct license with Facebook, or urging you to create a new account with some third party where you have to add all your release info to yet another database.

Once Facebook starts paying, many existing CD Baby clients won’t even have to lift a finger to start collecting revenue. More to the point, you don’t have to do anything else assuming you’re already taking advantage of CD Baby’s YouTube Monetization Program and CD Baby Pro Publishing.

CD Baby can help you earn money from your music on Facebook in two ways

Depending on your contribution to the music, there are two different Facebook revenue streams that artists and songwriters can tap into. To make sure that your music is usable on Facebook and you’re collecting all applicable royalties, take advantage of:

• YouTube Monetization — This service is a free opt-in with our Standard and Pro Publishing distribution packages, and you literally just check a box (no need to create a new account or upload your tracks elsewhere)
• Pro Publishing — You can upgrade any original song or album to CD Baby Pro Publishing at any time.

There are two rights at play when your music is used on Facebook

The sound recording

Whenever your song is used (on ANY video on Facebook, not just ones you’ve uploaded to your page or profile), a royalty is owed to the owner of the actual recorded track.

If you’re already taking advantage of CD Baby’s YouTube Monetization Program, your music will also be set up to collect revenue from Facebook as soon as they start paying.

The composition

Any time a sound recording is used on Facebook, the underlying song composition should also generate a royalty. This money will be owed to publishers/songwriters.

If your publishing rights are already being administered by CD Baby Pro Publishing, we’ll collect those royalties for you as soon as Facebook starts paying. If you’re not, upgrade today!

As a Pro client, we’ll also help you earn publishing revenue that is almost impossible for independent artists to collect on their own, including royalties for:

• global streaming activity
• international downloads
• YouTube plays
• and more