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#48 - In FLO State 🌞

#48 - In FLO State 🌞

Your Weekly Music Round-Up: Calico album review, Peloton's impact on the music industry, TikTok Elevate vs. Reels Charts, Taylor Swift tops charts, FLO

Chris Xu & Donya Bayrami
July 23rd, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

Happy Sunlighter Sunday! The biggest question of the week was “Barbie or Oppenheimer?” We saw both, but it was hard to ignore Mattel’s pink takeover, so this week, we’re giving you a second dose of pink.

Here's what we have queued up this week:

🌶️ Review of Calico by Ryan Beatty.
💿 This Week in Music: Peloton’s impact on the music industry, TikTok Elevate vs. Reels Charts, and Get Protocol combats Ticketmaster.
📈 Weekly Charts: Taylor Swift dominates the charts after releasing her version of Speak Now.
🔀 Recommendation Station: Balanced Breakfast updates to satisfy your music hunger.
🎙️ FLO is our artist of the week.

Rating Rationale: Longtime BROCKHAMPTON collaborator and pop singer-songwriter Ryan Beatty has returned from a three-year hiatus, and his third studio album proves it was worth the wait. Calico is filled to the brim with intricate, intimate lyrics and hauntingly beautiful harmonies. With support from producers Ethan Gruska and Justin Vernon, among others, Calico is serenity in fine form with a variety of instrumentals (horns, strings) and soothing vocals. For us, standout tracks include “Ribbons” and “White Teeth.”

🚲 Music In The Air: Goldman Sachs published their annual Music In The Air report, revealing that after Facebook (not including IG) and Gaming, Peloton was the leading emerging platform and contributor to music industry revenue, paying $267 million in 2022.

📈 Price Goin’ Up: Spotify will increase their monthly subscription fee to $10.99 later this week. This comes a few days after YouTube Music made the same change.

🕊️ Lovely, Never Ever Change: The legendary Tony Bennett passed away on Friday at the age of 96. We leave you with one of our favorite clips of how music impacted his Alzheimer’s disease.

✋ RapCaviar Top 50: Earlier this month, Spotify’s RapCaviar published the Top 50 most-streamed hip-hop albums on Spotify.

📺 You Gotta Watch This: In anticipation of his upcoming album, Austin, Post Malone surprises fans with a performance in Times Square:

📊 Are You For Reel: TikTok poked the bear when they launched Elevate, a program focused on positioning TikTok as the music industry’s one-stop-shop for music discovery. Spotify responded by joining forces with Instagram to publish what they’re calling “Reels Charts,” which is a playlist of the top 50 songs used on Instagram Reels. The feature is already live in Brazil and Mexico.

☁️ Sony x SoundCloud: Five rising SoundCloud artists will participate in a six-month accelerator program called “First on SoundCloud 2023,” which will provide 1:1 mentoring, creator marketing strategy sessions, audio sessions in partnership with Sony, and metrics on fan behavior.

👑 K-pop Runs the World: The genre has broken countless records in 2023 with record-high revenue of $133 million just in the first half of this year, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.

💵 Harbourview Eyes Blackbear: It’s been a busy month of catalog acquisitions for Harbourview: first Wiz Khalifa, then Nelly, and now Blackbear’s recorded assets and publishing catalog.

💰 Securing the Bag: PlusMusic, an AI-driven audio platform, is raising a $2.5 million seed round to become “the gaming version of Spotify.” Superfans are invaluable, and invite-only paywall creator platform, Passes, knows it. In a rushed acquisition announcement earlier this week, it acquired a16z-led Series A seed FanHouse after a $9 million investment from Multicoin Capital.

🌐 Web3 Updates: Get Protocol raises $4.5 million to combat Ticketmaster in what they call the Web 2.5 space, and Supercollector pivots their strategy to become an on-chain album marketplace.

🎉 HBD, Roxy: Famous Los Angeles venue, The Roxy, celebrates its 50-year anniversary this fall by bringing back its inaugural concert performer, Neil Young. What perfect timing for a little “Harvest Moon.”

🚢 Creed Nation: Creed is reuniting for their first performance in over 10 years on the Summer of ‘99 cruise with special guest, 3 Doors Down, in 2024.

👀 Dan + Shay tease their upcoming album, Bigger Houses, with three new singles, Chris Stapleton announces his fifth studio album, Higher, and releases “White Horses” as his first single, Travis Scott confirms Utopia and film Circus Maximus will drop next Friday, Quavo says Rocket Power will be landing soon, The Band CAMINO invites you to join them in The Dark, Mark Ronson says he’s loving what he’s heard of Dua Lipa’s next album, Fleetwood Mac are releasing a new live version of Rumours, Harry Styles introduced a new 10-minute instrumental during his final show of LOVE On Tour, and Keanu Reaves and band Dogstar prepare for their first album and tour in 20 years.

🚶‍♂️ Artists On Tour: Lauren Mayberry from CHVRCHES is going on a solo tour, Coldplay is extending their Music of the Spheres tour into Europe next summer 2024, and Gunna announces his first show after being released from prison.

📈 What’s Trending? Taylor Swift. She now has more #1 albums (her 12th) than any woman in history, beating Barbra Streisand who previously held that title. Taylor also currently has 4 albums in the top 10 (Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Midnights, Lover, and Folklore) and 22 songs in the top 100.

💿 Our Playlist Collection

🍳 Balanced Breakfast: A balance of genres to satisfy your music hunger.
🌊 Midsommar Solstice: Songs for your summer rotation.
🤠 Austin City Limits: An annual music retreat to the land of tacos and cowboys. 2023 is a return to ACL's indie roots while showcasing talented upcoming British artists. We recommend shuffling.

Primer: FLO is this generation’s version of Destiny’s Child, and Jorja, Renée, and Stella are out to prove that they can reinvent one of the most scintillating R&B trios of all time. If you’re already a FloLifer, you’re early, but if you haven’t heard about this trio from across the pond, it’s about time you have.

Ch3mistry: While FLO quickly ascended to fame in 2022 with the help of their debut single “Cardboard Box” (and subsequent TikTok fame), work behind the scenes to perfect their chemistry and sound started much earlier. One could argue that their common upbringing, in which each member was raised by a respective single mother, was the earliest and most significant contribution. That intrinsic bond of diligence shared by each member of the trio permeated into their respective careers. Ultimately, their paths would converge at Universal Music’s girl-group development program, where they immediately found mutual solidarity in their collective artistic vision. Since their formation, they’ve collaborated closely with producer and songwriter, MNEK (who they claim as their fourth invisible member), on numerous songs and have gone on to win the 2023 BRIT Award for Rising Star and BBC Sound Of… Poll (beating out Fred again.. and Nia Archives).

Genre: Y2K R&B

Influences: Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Usher, Ciara, Rihanna, Little Mix

Current Label: Jointly signed by Island Records and Republic Records

What’s Next: Since completing their first North American tour run in April, FLO has replaced the stage for the studio as anticipation builds for their debut album. While we wait, here’s a clever camcorder-style music video of their song, “Summertime”:

Wrap Up 👏

We're closing the newsletter this week with a preview of next week’s album review.

Who’s Burning? 🌡️

The Japanese House, who recently released their sophomore album.

The Merch Table 💳

🥤 Raising Cane’s? Yup, for a limited time, you can go to your local Raising Cane’s (NYC people, there’s one in Times Square now) and get a limited edition Post Malone 32 oz cup. Imagine how much better water will taste at home.
📱 1-800-HOTLINEBLING: It’s summer, and you need a better pool float. Drake has you covered.
📕 LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, PHOENIX!: Phoenix commemorates their history and their dear friend/producer, Philippe Zdar, with their first book.

How do you like our newsletter this week?

We're all ears, click the number of 🔆 you think we deserve and feel free to drop a comment.

Check out our other articles and give us a follow on Twitter!

See ya next Sunday 😎

Chris and Donya

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