#16 - Head on Fire 🌞

Happy Sunlighter Sunday! This week, Spotify reminded everyone that it’s the most wonderful time of the year, and music streaming hit an all-time high.

Let’s get into it.

Here's what we have queued up this week:

1. 🎹 Song recs based on what we're listening to.

2. 💿 Industry updates from $1 billion in royalties to 1 trillion in streams.

3. 🎙️ Griff is our artist of the week.

4. 📈 Data from Spotify Wrapped.

5. 🎡 Sunlighter Music Festival, Primavera, Mirror Mirror, and tour announcements.

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Donya: You may know him from power ballads like “SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK,” or perfect sunset soundtracks like “Glimpse of Us.” Joji returns with SMITHEREENS, his third studio album, staying true to his R&B, bedroom pop roots. The album opens with an operatic intro, which sets the tone perfectly to send you off to an immersive 25-minute dream. Every song is seamlessly packed with intertwined harmonies and lovesick melodies. This album is worth a listen if you’re a sucker for music that makes you feel like you’re in another world with its pure, ethereal production.

Chris: As one of the flagship signees to 88rising’s all-Asian record label, Joji has consistently pushed the boundaries of Asian American music, displaying a more soulful, diverse sound that contrasts the proliferation of K-pop. While Joji’s ballad-embracing style is very much identifiable, SMITHEREENS feels like a slight reversal in course from the more uptempo Nectar, and acts as a much slower, somber sequel to BALLADS 1. However, the album has performed well - is it a sign of the times?

The Sunlighter Playlist 🔀

Songs we're currently listening to 🎹

Industry Updates 💿

This week, there were a lot of music discussions at the water cooler. Everyone made their own personal festival lineup through the Instafest App. Apple Replay attempted to piggyback off of the success of Spotify Wrapped. The late Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac passed away this week, which led to a very heartfelt tribute by Stevie Nicks.

Here’s everything else you missed:

• 🕰️ Baby, you’re so classic: Deutsche Grammophon, a division of Universal Music Group, announced STAGE+, a new classical music subscription service. This includes livestreams, video archives, and streaming services.

• 👑 B*tch better have my money: SoundExchange, a non-profit organization designated by Congress to collect and distribute royalties for artists, announced it’s on track to distribute $1 billion to artists by the end of the year.

• 🔊 Loan out a million, I get back a trillion: Music audio streams hit 1 trillion for the first time ever this year, with Harry Styles holding 558 million streams of “As It Was.”

• ✨ Some dreams keep on gettin’ better: Nashville’s Music Row announced 11 artists they believe will be the “Next Big Thing.”

• 👨‍⚖️ #MeToo China (this is big): One of China’s most popular entertainers, Canadian Chinese pop star Kris Wu (also a previous K-pop EXO member), was sentenced to 13 years in prison for rape.

• 🗽 The serendipity of summer in New York: A summer staple outdoor concert experience in Central Park announces their booking partner will be Live Nation.

Artist of the Week: Griff🎙️

The UK is known for cranking out some of the best artists of the last 60 years: from classics like The Beatles, Elton John, Queen, and David Bowie all the way to Radiohead, Ed Sheeran, Adele, and most recently, Dua Lipa (the OG Sunlighter followers know we called her superstardom first). Here at Sunlighter, we believe Griff is well on her way to joining those ranks.

Jesus & Taylor Swift

Sarah Faith Griffiths (known professionally as Griff) hails from a small village outside London called Kings Langley. She was born as the middle child to immigrant parents of Jamaican and Chinese descent. While both of her parents were gifted singers, it was her dad who served as her biggest influence, introducing her to rhythm and soul by bringing the influence of artists like Michael Jackson, Kirk Franklin, and Marvin Gaye to the Griffiths household.

Beyond the early days of her musical upbringing, Griff says her two biggest inspirations are Jesus and Taylor Swift. Growing up, Griff’s family regularly attended church, and when she was eight years old, she had her first-ever performance on stage at the Christmas service. That same year, Griff received her first iPod and discovered Taylor Swift’s Fearless album, which inspired her to start songwriting.

Growing up in a mostly white middle-class town, Griff characterizes her upbringing as alienating, but one where she quickly learned to be independent. She would go to school, come home and write songs in her bedroom, and repeat–intentionally keeping her music life separate from her school life. As her mastery of songwriting evolved, she started borrowing her older brother Sam’s laptop to watch YouTube tutorials on how to produce music, using Logic to create her own recordings.

One Foot In Front of the Other

After deciding to take a gap year rather than attending university, Griff began publishing her music on SoundCloud until her song “Paradise” caught the attention of music publishers and record labels, which led to her signing with Warner Records in July 2019.

Griff dedicated her time during the COVID lockdown to return to her first love of songwriting as she prepared for her mixtape, One Foot In Front Of The Other. The mixtape debuted in June 2021, and it quickly became a powerhouse exhibition of Griff’s stellar vocals, vulnerable songwriting, and cosmic production. Griff’s creative aesthetic was even more impressive–experimenting with the mixtape’s theme through the exploration of balance and resilience.

BRITs Rising Star & Debut Album

That same year, Griff became one of the youngest recipients of the BRITs Rising Star Award (we highlighted this year’s winner, Holly Humberstone in our first edition). A few months later, she attended a Reuben Selby fashion show, where she became fast friends with fellow artist Sigrid. They decided to collaborate on a true festival chorus singalong called “Head on Fire,” which was released in January 2022.

Throughout 2022, Griff has juggled playing her first-ever sold-out tour in the UK, US, and Europe with being the supporting act for some of the world’s biggest stars, including Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Florence and the Machine, and Ed Sheeran. Most exciting of all, she’s been hard at work on her debut album, taking her time with the process and focusing on writing the best music she can.

Fun fact: Griff has a passion for sewing, having created the patchwork for her tour backdrop and her outfits for the “Black Hole,” “Forgive Myself,” and “Good Stuff” music videos.

Griff’s songs feel like you’re having deep life talks with your closest friends. We’ve highlighted our favorite tracks from her debut below:

Data 📈

Spotify Wrapped 2022: Spotify dropped their annual “Wrapped” recap of 2022 listening trends. We’ve summarized Spotify’s global listening data for you here:

Most-Streamed Artists

• The most-streamed artist of 2022 is Bad Bunny, which marks his third year holding this title.

• Taylor Swift took silver in aggregate streams but took gold in certain countries, like the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Malaysia, and Singapore, among others.

• The top five most-streamed artists look a little bit different in the United States, with Drake claiming the top spot.

Most-Streamed Songs

• Harry Styles’ “As It Was” takes the top spot for the most-streamed song of 2022.

• In the United States, Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit” and Jack Harlow’s “First Class” make it onto the top five most-streamed songs board, knocking out “STAY” and “Tití Me Preguntó.”

Most-Streamed Albums

• The most-streamed album of the year was Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti.

• In the United States, both Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album and Taylor Swift’s Midnights make the top five most-streamed albums list, knocking out Doja Cat’s Planet Her and Ed Sheeran’s =.

Festivals & Tour Announcements 🎡

This week, a junior at the University of Southern California hit the viral jackpot with his custom festival lineup app, receiving more than 11 million users. Like everyone else, we wanted a glimpse of what our ideal festival would look like based on the most streamed artists on our playlist. Here’s how it turned out:

🚨 THE NEXT FESTIVAL LINEUP IS NOT AN INSTAFEST.APP POSTER. Primavera Sound is back with another jaw-dropping line-up for their annual summer music festival in Spain – this time, in both Barcelona and Madrid. From past experience, we advise you to come prepared with plenty of energy and a good pair of walking shoes because, unlike most music festivals, Primavera starts late (5 PM) and goes well into the following morning (6 AM), and the grounds are located at a massive 14-hectare public industrial seaside park (Parc del Fòrum).

🪞 Mirror mirror on the wall, Virgil Abloh was the fairest of them all: Over the weekend, Travis Scott and Skepta headlined Mirror Mirror Music Festival, a one-day honorary music festival in remembrance of Virgil Abloh’s commitment to music, art, and design. All proceeds from the festival were donated to support The Virgil Abloh Foundation.

Tour Announcements 🤘

• The Weeknd and…Binance (a crypto partnership?) are teaming up to support additional international dates of the After Hours Til Dawn Tour. Every ticket sold will donate $1 (€ or £ if in Europe or the UK, respectively) towards The Weeknd’s XO Humanitarian Fund.

• The Killers are doing a quick 8-stop stint early next year before heading to Mexico in April.

• After wrapping up his Dangerous Tour in October, Morgan Wallen is turning right back around and hitting the road once again in 2023 as part of his One Night at a Time World Tour. 39 stops, HARDY, and fellow Texan, Parker McCollum–it all kicks off next March.

• Metallica announced their M72 World Tour, in which the band will be playing two nights in each city, but each night with a completely different setlist and openers. A portion of proceeds from each ticket will go to Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation, a community enrichment program supporting workforce education and local services.

• Bryce Vine will be back on the road for his newly announced Serotonin Tour, which kicks off in Montreal on February 22nd.

• Seven Lions is kicking off his Beyond the Veil - The Journey III Tour in support of his most recent album.

• Half•alive announced their Conditions of a Punk Tour, which will span 23 nights in 2023.

Wrap Up 👏

We're closing the newsletter this week with a sweet sentimental reminder from The Beatles.

Lyrical Genius ✍️

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

See ya next Sunday 😎

Chris and Donya