🔵 Music needs to Believe in its own value
And why investment into indie ecosystems is more important than ever
I couldn’t help but see an odd overlap in two stories today. The first concerns Believe, whose Chairman has now launched a bid to buy back the company and take it private again. The other concerns a semi-local radio station hitting the point of financial crisis.
Allow me to elaborate.
The apparent motivation for the Believe buy-back is that the consortium involved feels “the strength of its operational performance has not been reflected in the share price evolution”. In short: they clearly disagree with analysts’ views around the worth of the company.
By taking Believe private, one imagines it will open up more opportunity to raise further financing and in turn invest that into growth, allowing the business to blossom to a point where it might well be the next major label (of a sort - Believe proudly positions itself as an independent). All signs suggest that to be possible, too.
What is notable here is that there is a clear pushback on how music is valued by those working on Wall St versus those perhaps working a little closer to the coal face. That - to me anyway - is a heartening thing to see. In an odd way this has parallels to the ongoing Universal/TikTok situation, in which the former is essentially telling the latter that music is worth more than what is currently being proposed.
Perhaps music does have more value that analysts sometimes place upon it. How does that relate to a radio station fighting for survival?
Reprezent Radio is a station based here in London. It gave first exposure to groups like Ezra Collective, and had a strong had to play in the development of the grime scene, as well as being the entry point for DJs like Jamz Supernova. It is underground radio, supporting youth development, and it is moving to become a charity. However at present, it is desperately low on funds and has launched crowdfunding in a bid to survive.
Stations like Reprezent are part the primordial ooze from which talent of all types gets its first step up. It is a tastemaker, and as music journalism continues to die, and the likes of Spotify make it harder to actually find good music, radio might prove to be a rare beacon actually providing some filtration from the saturation-like levels of new music emerging. Universal recognised the value in radio when it bought a 25% stake in NTS, and at the time I asked where the indies were when this was happening.
I share Denis Ladegaillerie’s view that there is more value in music than finance types on Wall St might recognise. However I feel it is also necessary to accept that the music itself only breaks through and thrives thanks to the ecosystem around it. Stations like Reprezent are too easy to write off as insignificant, as if something else will jump into its place were it to go under. I don’t believe that to be the case - not at all.
Now granted, Reprezent is a London station and music exists worldwide so those of you not around the UK capital might be wondering what this has to do with you. This is less about that specific station and more about how we as an industry recognise that recorded music does not exist in a vacuum. As we move to a point where more and more people are creators, and therefore more and more music is being released, the vast majority of which will struggle to even get a few plays, the tastemakers that provide filtration here are more vital than ever.
Please do consider donating to support Reprezent. Donations are matched, not by a music business I note, but by Aviva, the insurance company, which has some kind of charitable arm. Anything you give will effectively be doubled, making this a great way to help.
If you work in music here in the UK, if you have a nice job at a label, I’d argue you owe it to your conscience to give them some money, because we all make money when artists get successful, and it’s stations like this that support them when they’re nobody. Reprezent played Stormzy before anyone else, and look how much money that artist alone has now made for the UK music industry. Reprezent might have your respect, but only money pays the bills. We have to accept a collective responsibility here and step up, and on a wider level it is past time that we accept that the ecosystem is a network of interconnected dependencies. We can do so much better if we do.
Have a great evening,
D.
📺 watching Loudermilk on Netflix. Yes, I am one of the latecomers, but I care not a jot - this is fantastic TV. Highly recommended! Enjoy this snippet in the meantime.
🤖 playing with Google Bard Gemini. On certain tasks, this feels better than GPT. Only on some, mind - elsewhere it still trails. It is good to stay across these things though - be sure to make time for it.
Stories from the Music Industry:
Martin Mills says artist-centric thresholds 'seem flawed to me'
Mills also suggested an alternative idea. “A system of DSPs charging a small flat fee for delivery, and maybe also storage, seems to me would result in self-regulation, and avoid the need to make judgements.” Mills also expressed concern at the current power of Universal Music Group. “They’re dominant, and are apparently proud to admit it. And, as market leaders, very smart at it. Which is dangerous,” he said. “We’ve been living in an oligopolistic marketplace for a decade or so, and I think that oligopolistic marketplace is rapidly becoming a monopolistic one.”
👆🏻Hot take: Mills makes a fine suggestions here. I feel the general chatter around Universal’s market share is one that will only continue to gather momentum, too.
EQT, Denis Ladegaillerie, and TCV launch $1.64 billion takeover bid for Believe
Denis Ladegaillerie, founder, Chairman & CEO of Believe, said: “Since being a public company, Believe has systematically outperformed its objectives, delivering its IPO plan two years ahead of schedule. However the strength of its operational performance has not been reflected in the share price evolution.
👆🏻Hot take: I’m fascinated by the notion that Believe is rejecting the investment analysts in favour of a privately-owned approach. If this is a means to buck the constant greed of Wall St, then I’d welcome it.
US Artist Visa Fees To Increase By More Than $500
From April 1, applications costs for the O visa, which allows a musician or performer to stay in the US for three years, will be hiked from $460 to $1,055. On the same date, fees for the P visa, which grants a musician or performer entry to the country for a shorter stay tied to a specific event, will rise from $460 to $1,015.
👆🏻Hot take: by all accounts this is positive only in that the amount was expected to be higher, but at a time where touring is feeling increasingly like a luxury for the top 1%, this is not a welcome development.
AIM CEO Silvia Montello: Apple Music Atmos royalty change hurts Indies
“Our understanding is definitely that it’s not an opt-in contractually,” explains Montello. “The labels that we’ve spoken to, of which there have been a significant number over the last week or so, have all said that they’re not in a position to be able to opt out or to push back against the changes. Hence the concerns around how this plays out.”
👆🏻Hot take: it is the opt-in aspect of this that feels so wrong to me. Apple is pushing hard, but I still question the degree to which there’s genuine consumer appetite for this such that the ill-will this is generating among labels and artists is actually worth it.
YouTube now lets you integrate music videos into your Shorts
YouTube is introducing the ability for users to incorporate or “remix” a music video in their short-form videos, called Shorts, as the company continues to challenge TikTok. Given that YouTube has something that TikTok doesn’t, which is a vast library of official music videos, it makes sense for the platform to leverage it to advance its short-form video ambitions.
👆🏻Hot take: a savvy move from YouTube here. Provide all the things TikTok cannot. Smart.
Stories from the Broader World of Tech:
Apple fans are starting to return their Vision Pros
Comfort is among the most cited reasons for returns. People have said the headset gives them headaches and triggers motion sickness. The weight of the device, and the fact that most of it is front-loaded, has been another complaint. Parker Ortolani, The Verge’s product manager, told me that he thought using the device led to a burst blood vessel in his eye.
👆🏻Hot take: for me this simply underlines the degree to which the Vision Pro is the canary in the coalmine here. It will improve, and in time will probably be built into something that just looks like a pair of glasses, but in the meantime, there are many things to improve.
Meta to charge extra for boosted posts on Instagram, Facebook after Apple change
Additionally, Meta says those who want to boost posts through its iOS apps will now need to add prepaid funds and pay for them before their boosted posts are published. Meta will charge an extra 30 percent to cover Apple’s transaction fee for preloading funds in iOS as well. This new payment process will roll out in the US first before hitting “additional markets and countries” later in the year.
👆🏻Hot take: whilst buying ads in-app is basically the least effective way to run any campaign on Meta, this is another sad example where it is the consumer getting caught between two greedy Big Tech companies.
Need something else to read? Here you go:
From bone smashing to chin extensions: how ‘looksmaxxing’ is reshaping young men’s faces
Chiselled jaws, pouty lips, hunter eyes: everything is up for grabs in the quest to increase ‘sexual market value’. But how did this extreme cosmetic craze become mainstream?
👆🏻Hot take: there’s something quite depressing about this read, but it is nonetheless a fascinating one.
The US military is embedded in the gaming world. Its target: teen recruits
Amid a recruitment struggle, branches are using huge hits like Fortnite as marketing tools. Some veterans see the practice as unethical – especially given the age of the gaming audience
👆🏻Hot take: whilst I can see the logic at work here, this nonetheless feels dystopian to me. If you’ve ever seen Ready Player One, it will seem grimly familiar.
Exit Notes:
Our friends at MIDiA are doing another survey, this time on the state of streaming services. They’d love your participation, and are offering a $1,000 prize, drawn from all those who have taken part. Complete the survey here.
Charmfactory is partnering with The Change Academy to offer 2 new artists an Emerging Talent Scholarship, which provides them with free access to a year of monthly one to one coaching & mentoring sessions, and full access to the Talent Incubator Programme. Interested? Full details here.