Las Vegas Hotel Wynn has confirmed that Jamie Jones and Solomun will be the ‘first-ever tech house residencies on the Strip’ Wynn’s Alex Cordova also confirmed Black Coffee (South African Deep House master) for a residency at the hotel’s high-end club, XS, in 2018, Resident Advisor reported.
It is a move that clearly shows how “The tide of dance music has been turning” and darker, deeper sounds electronic music from deep to tech house has fully emerged from the underground to be a dominant force in the global dance music scene and nightlife industry.
As Billboard reports “It’s a major sonic shift for the Strip”. Wynn’s Cordova states “one that can only bolster a growing segment of American dance fans.” Whilst he believes showcasing Tech House in Las Vegas is a positive move for the dance music scene some may disagree and feel it has sold out.
When a type of music defines itself by its emergence from the underground, can it keep it’s cool in the bright neon lights of one of the, erm, tackiest places on earth where pop stars go to retire slash make insane amounts of money?
We want to hear your thoughts. Great move or “it’s going to kill our scene”? Tweet us at @semmanchester with your thoughts.
Bono did an interview in Rolling Stone recently and Hypebot have pulled out some sage advice from the insanely successful, but sometimes mocked U2 frontman. “For a man that can afford to never sing another note in his life [he] showed a surprising grasp of the limitations and opportunities presented to all musicians by streaming and the direct to fan era.” Here’s some gems from the Irish rocker:
On ‘Going DIY’:
“If you are a teenager and you are listening to whatever the pop act is, you’re probably listening to them 100 times a day. It’s a teenage crush, but in a year’s time you won’t care about that. But artists that have a connection with you and your life, you pay for the subscription service. In fact, we are going to witness a revolution in the way artists and their fans interact. Chance the Rapper, who has a beautiful soul and a mind to match it, has no record label. He is doing it himself, and he is successful…if your music is on Apple or on Spotify, you can speak straight to people.”
On Spotify
“I knew Spotify would come through for people, but a lot of my friends were angry for believing me because they said, “We are just getting micropayments.” I said things were going to change once this gets to scale, and it is going to take a while. It is going to be unpleasant; not a good time to be Cole Porter right now…As it gets to scale . . . if the record labels don’t share out what they’re receiving from Spotify, artists will bypass the record labels and go straight to Spotify or Apple.”
On how Streaming is artistically motivating for artists
“We’re back to the Fifties now, where the focus is on songs rather than albums. U2 make albums, so how do we survive? By making the songs better. And having, I hope, the humility to accept that we need to rediscover songwriting.”
On record labels’ purpose now
” What you need from record labels is advice and, you know, help with how you manage your band or brand or the artwork and the videos and all of that.”
We don’t know what you think of Bono, but we think the man speaks wisdom and sounds really on it. If only he would abstain from those leather trousers…
It’s official, on-demand music is now overtaking all other formats, “Streaming’s growth is shaping the music market”, as reported in Nielson’s yearly report.
In 2017 the recorded music industry grew by 12.5% as audio streaming “soared”, seeing a huge shift in how we consume music and filmed content. Music streaming went from 252 billion in 2016 to a whopping 400 billion last year, pretty staggering figures.
Some big name artists broke records in the streaming arena, for example “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber was the most streamed track both in video and audio, seeing a staggering 1.3 billion+ streams last year. Ten tracks in 2017 surpassed the 400 million streams benchmark, up from just one in 2016.
Erin Crawford from Nielsen said “Consumers are continuing to engage with music at unprecedented levels and audio streaming services are proving to be key catalyst in increased consumer demand.”
The news is sure to make established and up and coming artists as well as record labels take platforms like Spotify more seriously and rethink strategies focused around “sales”.
In 2017 album sales were down, as well as digital sales but vinyl sales just keep on growing, up by 9% in 2017 and R&B/Hip-Hop Surpassed Rock, “the most dominant genre” for the first time ever.
“The music industry saw solid growth this past year, largely supported by the increased accessibility of music and a diversity of channels for music discovery,”
As you might have read in our previous new roundups, Jay Z’s high fidelity audio streaming platform Tidal had a bit of a rocky year in 2017, with some predicting that a demise was imminent. Well there’s no sign of that yet as they’ve just announced a partnership with Dubset: “an innovative music marketplace for DJs, artists, labels, publishers, and distributors” where they essential help artists monetise, and legalise mixes and remixes.
“Sampling and mixtapes has long been a foundational part of the music ecosystem,” said Lior Tibon of TIDAL. “Empowering DJs to bring their content to TIDAL is something we are very excited about” while Dubset CEO Stephen White said “This is another important step in making the incredible content created by our DJ community available to fans all over the world.”
For all you DJs and remixers out there you can visit www.mixbank.com for more information.
If you have seen some music news that you’d like us to feature email elle@semmanchester.com.
SEM at Sounds From The Other City 2018