I recently learned a new acronym from one of my younger friends: GTI. What sounds like a variety of physical ailment actually stands for “going through it,” or facing a particular stressful or overwhelming time. Part of adulthood is navigating the peaks and valleys of everyday life, and knowing how to recalibrate ourselves after a period of time during which we’re “GTI.” For many entrepreneurs these days, myself included, one solution for creating balance has been instituting a mental health …
Beats & Bytes: SXSW in NYC
The holiday rush is here! I can’t believe it’s December already, and we know what this season means. A mad rush to the stores both virtually and in person. As more and more consumer excitement is building, one of this year’s top MVBs (most valuable brands) is becoming clear. This brand smartly integrated with music by partnering with artists like Pharrell, A$AP Rocky and Kanye. Even with no artists attached their product is selling out, flying off the shelves, creating …
Beats & Bytes – Thanksgiving Music Industry
Although 2016 has been a tough year there are definitely some bright spots to be thankful for. Mainly, after almost two decades of relentless decline caused by piracy and falling prices, the music business is enjoying a fragile recovery thanks to the growth of paid streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. More tickets are selling. More shows are happening. More shows are selling out. Social media and the forward thinking brands have lead to the demand for the experiential …
Beats & Bytes – The Patch 2 Year Anniversary
What a week. Election upsets, the passing of legends such as Cohen, Russell and Ifill. There was much to mourn but in the sour and sweet of it all, the Nue Agency celebrated an important birthday. The Patch, a project with Sour Patch Kids, turned two years old and threw a party where the vibe was upbeat and hopeful as the Mogwli’s gave us music to help us keep going. Just like The Patch. A project close to our hearts …
Beats & Bytes – Make The Music Industry Great Again
We finally made it. Election day is here! What a wild race it’s been. I definitely feel a little anxious. To watch two ridiculously dynamic personalities battling it out to be the leader of the free world is something else. The coverage has been absurd and every day another piece of the plot revealed itself. Another saga, another headline grabbing news story. The election has dominated all of my social graphs day-in and day-out for the entire year. No one …
Beats & Bytes – Social Feedback Loop
This past Halloween season was the biggest ever. I’m sure you felt it too. It’s moved beyond a simple night into weeks of build up and days of parties. According to recent reports Halloween spending was up this year breaking a record high. $8.4 billion U.S. Halloween sales to be exact. We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again, here at Nue we believe this to be a direct result of social media and the digital economy. Everyone is …
Beats & Bytes – Quality Festivals, Quality Brand Activations
I saw a lot of great festivals this year. Besides quality music, a common theme was quality brand activations. You can read all about my top five that I saw in 2016 right here. The big lesson here: Like any cultural trend, brands need to pick and choose their battles wisely. With millennials, teens and incoming generations of consumers behind them, authenticity is the name of the game. There’s plenty of room for brands to play at festivals and other …
Beats & Bytes – Share Your Tech Ideas
Six months ago we started incubating a new content series for the hip hop tech space called Hot In Tech.You may have seen it in Beats + Bytes before and now we need you. If you are a founder, a creator and/or a person making waves in digital culture we want to talk with you and spread your message. My partner on this project is one of the savviest tech hip hop heads in the world, TatWza. We started to …
Beats & Bytes – San Francisco Spirit
Traveling always helps bring about a change for your mind. New people, new experiences, and new conversations allow us to grow and be inspired and this past weekend in San Francisco was that for me. I was in SF for family business but on Sunday night I had a chance to be social and reconnect with friends. San Francisco’s tech scene is so inspiring. It feels like all of my friends are working on projects that they are passionate about …
Two New NYC Festivals
With great risk comes great reward and this weekend two new festivals launched in NYC. It almost felt a little greedy. After all of the amazing festival music this summer was there any way to top it? Both The Meadows and The Roots Picnic were epic undertakings and a huge congrats to Live Nation and Founders Entertainment because they pulled it off. I’ve never seen Bryant Park so well orchestrated. From the outside looking in, putting on a two day festival …
Beats & Bytes: Global Citizen Fest
What a weekend! Global Citizen Festival was the most fun I’ve had all month. Doing good feels good! The Global Citizen Festival is so unique because it combines actionable social good and festival culture. It’s well done and shows the power of music, social good and social media. In between each set there are moments that connect the messaging. Normally one can’t even get tickets to this event unless you are taking social actions. And the impressions, although not related …
The streaming wars continue to intensify
The streaming wars continue to intensify. Spotify is gearing up for their IPO. Pandora announced a new streaming service rate of $4.95 per month and Questlove as their artist in residence. And there are rumors of Tidal losing 27 million dollars this year yet continuing to put on awesome events and drop top notch exclusives including the new charity show with Jay and Beyonce. But all eyes were on Apple this week. The new iPhone is out and so is …
Beats & Bytes: Artist Curated Festivals Work
In two weeks Chance The Rapper will launch the first ever Magnificent Coloring Day Festival at U.S. Cellular Field on Chicago’s Southside. The show has a great lineup and is breaking every attendance festival record at the White Sox Stadium. A team that Chance is artist ambassador for and a stadium that hasn’t had a show in 15 years. Chance put up his own money, took the risk and is paying off majorly. He’s even clawing back the scalpers. I’m very impressed with …
Beats & Bytes: 2016 MTV VMAs
This weekend I was invited to my third VMAs. My first one was when I signed and represented the Clipse and Justin Timberlake for his world premiere of his first single as a solo artist featuring Clipse. The second time was when my client Wale was the house band. This year we were invited down by our partners at MTV2 and it was the biggest and best production yet. The performances were spectacular and as usual it featured music’s biggest stars. …
Beats & Bytes: VMEGA Joins Nike
While I was out in LA last week, Nike announce that it purchased a New York based Tech company called VIRGIN MEGA (VMEGA). VMEGA is the brainchild of Ron Faris who was previously an executive of Virgin Mobile. Essentially, the mission was to re-imagine the Virgin Mega stores of old as a mobile, digital only app. The app set it’s sight on the gamificiation of queue/line culture, with the goal of making product and content go viral, building brand religions, …
