It’s 3.44 a.m. in the Strait of Dover and I’m lying awake on the top bunk of a tour bus parked on a ferry headed from France to the U.K. It’s been a day my 16-year-old Backstreet Boys-loving self could only have dreamed of — lunching with Howie Dorough, watching …
Read More »Is This $2 Billion Orb the Future of Live Music?
Ever since the Beatles first crossed the Atlantic, in 1964, major concerts have largely taken place at venues built for sports, even though that often means poor sight lines for many fans, and less-than-optimal sound for most everybody. But a new era of live entertainment begins in late September, when …
Read More »Twenty-One Numbers That Tell the Future of Music
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” Operate in the modern music industry for any length of time and someone is bound to recite this famous …
Read More »How Discord Became the Most Important Platform in Hip-Hop
The producer Kenny Beats has noticed some strange phenomena at his shows over the past few years. For one, the crowds have gotten noticeably bigger, as have merch sales and streams. But most notably, he says, he’s grown accustomed to members of the audience viewing him more as a friend …
Read More »Tainy on Who's Pushing Reggaeton Forward, Hanging With Skrillex, and Why AI Music Can't Measure Up
The Future of Music Interview is a Q&A in which our favorite artists and producers share their vision of what’s next, weighing in on everything from AI to emerging scenes to the artists inspiring them the most. You could call Tainy reggaeton’s resident psychic. Since he started making beats at …
Read More »Goggles and Avatars: Five Things Coming to Concerts of the Future
The opening of the Las Vegas Sphere this September will be a major moment in the history of live music entertainment, but it’s not the only big innovation on the horizon. Entrepreneurs all across the globe are looking for other ways to reshape the concert experience and justify the record-high …
Read More »Juls Believes Afrobeats Is Returning to Its Roots
The Future of Music Interview is a Q&A in which our favorite artists and producers share their vision of what’s next, weighing in on everything from AI to emerging scenes to the artists inspiring them the most. Julian Nicco Annan initially wanted to be an architect. The British Ghanaian producer, …
Read More »H.E.R. Thinks Live Instruments are Coming Back to Pop
THE FUTURE OF Music Interview is a Q&A in which our favorite artists and producers share their vision of what’s next, weighing in on everything from AI to emerging scenes to the artists inspiring them the most. As a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist who was more than happy to record a club …
Read More »Going to a Show? Prepare to Surrender Your Data
Customer data is a goldmine in the live music industry as promoters, venue operators, ticket marketplaces, and the artists themselves seek to learn more about their audiences and their habits to better serve them — and get them to spend more. From the moment fans check out online all the …
Read More »Christine and the Queens on Expanding His Voice and Making Art Accessible to Everyone
The Future of Music Interview is a Q&A in which our favorite artists and producers share their vision of what’s next, weighing in on everything from AI to emerging scenes to the artists inspiring them the most. When Christine and the Queens, the progressive French pop artist who also goes …
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