Beats & Bytes – Doin’ it for the Gram-my 🏆

It’s Grammy Week! And for the first time in a long time (15 years, to be exact), it’s going down in my hometown: New York City.

The 60th annual Grammy Awards return to New York this Sunday and it’s already hectic. Everyone in the music industry has descended on the city for a packed week of showcases, concerts, meetings, panels, and general networking. No sleep till Brooklyn.

Hosting a major event in New York is never easy. Remember the last time the Super Bowl was here? The weather is always iffy and you can forget about that gorgeous LA sun. Meanwhile, the city has so much else going on at all times that The Grammys have to fight just to make a wave.

But, as someone who works at the intersection of music, marketing, and tech, there’s no better place for music’s biggest night. Music is increasingly intertwined with culture, deeply impacting the way brands communicate with consumers and the way people relate to one another. Artists are also flexing their voices to tell stories that resonate beyond their latest singles (see: Halsey’s stirring speech from this weekend’s Women’s March).

To host the Grammys at the cultural epicenter of the world makes perfect sense given the centrality of music to culture.

I hope all of us in the so-called “industry”—whether that be on the music side, the brand side, or the platform side—can feed off of this excitement and gain new inspiration when it comes to how music can bring people together and drive brands forward.

I know my ears (and eyes) will be open.

Best of luck to the nominees & have a great week, all!
– JesseK