It’s been about a month since my last blog – honestly things have been such a whirlwind that finding a few quiet minutes to reflect has been tough! That said, it’s been great to be so busy and have so many exciting things happening in the Blue Willow universe. So, without further ado, here’s 16 Bars…
1. Music 4 Mental Health – we’re so thankful for all of the support from our community at this past week’s event supporting the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre (AARC) – huge appreciation and thank you to Prairie Dog Brewing for hosting us and to all the artists who came out and played their hearts out.
2. AARC has had over 650 youth between 12 and 21 and their families graduate their program – they are entirely funded by private donations and have been supporting our community for over 30 years. It’s truly inspiring to see the work they are doing and how they are helping not just the youth, but families caught up in these situations.
3. About 20 years ago, I found a close family member of mine strung out on drugs and in a very bad situation. They were a youth at the time and fortunately, I was able to intervene and got them on a path toward recovery. I had no idea that organizations like AARC existed and luckily in our case things worked out but it would have been great to know there were options like this.
4. Our goal with Music 4 Mental Health is to amplify organizations in our community that are supporting mental health initiatives, which can mean a lot of things. At the end of the day, if there is a group of people working toward bettering the mental health of people in our communities – we want to connect and collaborate! It’s been a pleasure working with Breaking Free Foundation, Centre for Suicide Prevention, and AARC so far!
5. It was great to see so many familiar faces with the artist lineup – Matt & Jon, Keira Myer, Eric John, and Brother Bicker Band as well as some new faces with 0Stella & Kayla Williams joining us for the first time. We are always trying to connect artists to each other with the vents we do, sparking these connections can lead to some really inspiring & creative opportunities that may not have occurred otherwise!
6. Speaking of events connecting artists, our Canada Day showcase hosted by Kate Reid at Trolley 5 was such a blast! It was such a great opportunity to meet new people and hear some serious talent! More to come with these types of showcases starting with Kate Reid & Friends on August 15th at The Trop (more details coming soon!)
7. Random thought: I never in a million years would have thought my soon to be 13-year-old kid in 2024 would be as into Eminem as I was in 1999, but here we are.
8. Random thought continued… Fortnite’s business model fascinates me. The way they revolutionized gaming by providing the platform for free and selling add ons for skins (like Eminem & Metallica for example, two of the most recent ones my son has purchased) for all intents and purposes it’s a name, image, likeness licensing marketplace that creates way more revenue than the traditional console / game model ever would have – generating over $2M per day in micro transactions…
9. Last part of this random thought… My son tells me his Fortnite account is worth $11K USD based on the skins and special edition things he’s collected over the years… is that actually a thing??
10. In music news… Spotify overtook UMG for the largest market cap share after a strong 2Q. According to Yahoo Finance the music industry market cap is $217.5 Billion dollars in the first half of the year and the top 6 market share companies are: Spotify (28.7%), Universal Music Group (24.7%), Tencent Music (11.1%), Live Nation (10%), Warner Music Group (7.3%), and Sirius XM (5%)
11. After laying off ~1500 people at the end of 2023, Spotify has seen revenue increase by 20% in Q1 and improved profitability with over $1B in profit in Q1 along with a stronger than expected Q2 per yahoo finance.
12. Spotify has made some significant adjustments to their strategy over the last year including a major pivot on their podcast exclusivity – focusing more on distribution, increasing prices for users, adding more value to platform with audio books being free for paid users, and revamping their royalty fee structure.
13. According to Tech Xplore – Spotify paid out $9B in artists in 2023. 1,250 artists generated +$1M, 11.6k artists generated +$100,000, and 66k artists generated over $10,000 – these royalty payouts have tripled since 2017 and indie artists account for ~50% (or $4.5B in payouts per year)
14. Spotify estimates there are ~225,000 professionally aspiring artists on their platform right now (with an album or more of work uploaded)
15. All that to say… while it may feel impossible as an indie artist to make a wave in the ocean of streaming with giant companies such as Spotify… there are opportunities to do so and Spotify continues to evolve and grow as a business to stay relevant and competitive in the market. As a user, it can be frustrating to see more price increases but I watched a video the other day that had an interesting perspective… as consumers we pay for a bunch of different streaming services at $15-25 a month and each has a portion of movies that were ever made, vs. Streaming where for $10-$15 a month you can have access to basically every song ever made…
16. Songs I can’t stop listening to: She Burns Away – Briscoe, Tobey – Eminem (Feat. Big Sean & BabyTron), Wild – Ryan Lindsay