#10 - Heart Like a Truck 🌞

Your weekly music round-up: Taylor Swift album review, Lainey Wilson, Mdundo, BTS hiatus, Little Simz Mercury Prize win, and Suwannee Hulaween.

Welcome to our weekly roundup of happenings in the music industry. Here's what we have queued up this week:

  1. 🎹 Song recs based on our favorite pop-country collaborations.

  2. 🎙️ Our artist of the week is Lainey Wilson.

  3. 📈 Data on how Mdundo is dominating music streaming in Africa. 

  4. 💿 Industry updates from the BTS hiatus to the best listening bars in the world.

  5. 👻 A Halloween Festival and some tour announcements from a few greats.

Rating Rationale: We know it’s highly rated and a surprising tie in score, but hear us out. At Sunlighter, we admit, we're “Swifties.” From front to back, Midnights is an incredible compilation of refined and realistic late-night streams-of-consciousness as Taylor Swift’s vivid and masterful storytelling meshes naturally with Jack Antonoff’s clever yet familiar synth-pop production. Conceptually, it’s a standout album in which you hear both the nuanced diversity of songs across Taylor Swift’s coming-of-age, from her breakout pop album 1989 through Lover, with consistent production semantics that reminds you of that moody, dimly-lit feel of a sleepless night. Some will say it’s a disappointment after her indie-pop/folk phase over the last two years with folklore and evermore. Others will say Midnights is redundant after listening to 1989, reputation, and Lover. We at Sunlighter are happy to say that you all are wrong. Taylor and Jack prove they can still make the whole place shimmer with Midnights, and it’s most obvious right in the heart of the album (“Midnight Rain” through “Labyrinth”). Name a better set of original B-Sides from a more coveted duo that could qualify for a Grammy, we’ll wait.

Our favorite pop-country collaborations đŸŽš

From the Vault 🔙

Donya's Pick

Chris's Pick

The Sunlighter Playlist 🔀

Artist of the Week: Lainey Wilson 🎙️ 

For the haters out there: Yes, country is more than beers, trucks, and spitting tobacco, no matter how many times Blake Shelton says “chew tobacc’a spit.” As Texans with a soft spot for country music, what draws us to it time and time again is its heart conveyed through honest, soulful storytelling. Nashville continues to be the holy ground for songwriters to pursue that masterful art.

The Best of Both Worlds

For Lainey Wilson and her family, country music isn’t a genre, it’s a way of life. Born and raised in Baskin, Louisiana, her mom played Dolly Parton in the kitchen, while her dad played Hank Williams on his tractor. Add Buck Owens and Glen Campbell to the mix, and together these classic country artists were the soundtrack to Lainey’s childhood. In a town of 300 people, you’re bound to have more than a few “it’s a small world” scenarios. Perhaps the best of all? Lainey learned her step-grandmother babysat fellow Louisiana native Tim McGraw, who was serendipitously Lainey’s inspiration to leave her hometown and pursue a career in country music.

Lainey wrote her first song at the age of nine. After proclaiming to her parents on a trip home from Dollywood that she would be a famous country singer, she started carrying a portable sound system in her car so she’d always be prepared for a live performance. That opportunity presented itself when she booked her first-ever gig singing a cappella at the grand opening of a new convenience store in Baskin (think Mason Ramsey before Mason Ramsey was cool). Over time, her most consistent gig became performing as Hannah Montana for birthday parties in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi–entertaining as many as 3-4 parties every weekend. Once Lainey graduated high school, she attended Louisana Monroe University, balancing her school work with her involvement in a band called Cadillac Kings. But after her first year, she finally decided to take the next big step, going all-in on music.

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Tougher

In August 2011, Lainey rented a 20-foot Flagstaff bumper-pull camper trailer and drove to Nashville to pursue a career as a country artist. With only her guitar in tow, she didn’t know what to expect. When she arrived in Nashville, she parked her trailer next to Cupit Studios (owned by a family friend who let her hook the trailer up to the building for free water, electricity, and Wi-Fi), which is where she lived for the next three years, using their studio to record her first EP, Tougher. Like everyone who goes to Nashville wanting to make a name for themselves, Lainey hustled to build her network, befriending songwriters like Luke Combs, Drew Baldridge, and Ray Fulcher. That hustle finally paid off in 2018 when Lainey signed a publishing deal as a songwriter with Sony ATV. Seven months later, she secured a record deal with BMG’s Broken Bow Records.

Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’

Lainey weaves stories into her songs like a tapestry, and the world caught a glimpse of that with her first major label single, “Things a Man Oughta Know”. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Country charts and was awarded Song of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2021. This provided momentum for her first full-length debut album, Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’, in which she got to work with her “bucket-list” producer, Jay Joyce, who has also produced albums for Cage the Elephant, Brothers Osborne, Zac Brown Band, and Miranda Lambert. The album title was a guiding light for her creative process, ensuring every song that went into the album was intentionally and unapologetically Lainey Wilson. This mentality has served as her driving force throughout her career.

Bell Bottom Country & Yellowstone

Lainey is finally starting to see her years of hard work pay off, and it hasn’t just been in the music industry. Earlier this year, she released three singles from her upcoming sophomore album, Bell Bottom Country. “Heart Like a Truck” (her second #1 single), “Watermelon Moonshine,” and “Live Off,” all show an elevated level of maturity in her voice and musical sound–think soulful lyrics reminiscent of classic country wrapped in synth Southern rock production. She scored a whopping six nominations for the upcoming Country Music Awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. To top it all off, she’s been featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, has collaborated with artists like Cole Swindell and HARDY, and has had three songs featured on the Paramount TV drama, Yellowstone. Taylor Sheridan, the creator of the show, enjoyed her music so much that he gave her a call offering her a small role for the show’s fifth season, which airs November 13th.

Lainey is living proof that persistence, hustle, and heart will move mountains when you work toward something you care about. She’s a big part of defining the future of women in country music, and she’s just getting started.

Stream Bell Bottom Country everywhere this Friday, October 28th. One of Sunlighter’s favorite singer-songwriters, Trannie Anderson, is credited on 4 of the tracks 🌞 For now, here are our favorites:

Data 📈

Digitizing Africa: There is one regional funding trend that has been surprisingly recession-proof, shaking off the temporal struggles most other startups are facing: investments in African tech companies. Africa’s growing economy is still in its infancy, but some companies are proving that the market is becoming more mature, including Mdundo. Mdundo, which means “rhythm” in Swahili, has its eyes set on becoming the Spotify of Africa. Due to the significant issues of illegal downloads and the reluctance of subscription services faced by African consumers (product-market fit isn’t quite there), Mdundo offers African countries a different type of streaming service that allows users to download music for free, becoming a much more popular and user-centric platform compared to Spotify. Check the Annual Report stats for Mdundo’s most recent fiscal year (July 2021-June 2022):

  • In June 2022, Mdundo had 20.3M active users, growing 74% from June 2021.

  • Mdundo has increasingly grown its revenue through two models: advertising sales and a paid subscription tier. Their advertising sales have increased by 165% from 2.25M DKK (Danish Krones) to 5.95M DKK, primarily due to stronger advertising network partners and an increase in advertising conversion. Paid subscription revenue has also grown significantly, from 2% of total revenue to now 18% of total revenue. Mdundo now has its sights set on a third revenue stream as it looks to partner with telecommunication companies.

  • The number of songs uploaded to Mdundo increased by 43%, exceeding 400,000 songs. In total, there are now more than 1.7 million songs available for users on the Mdundo platform.

Industry Updates 💿

  • BTS Hiatus (this is big): HYBE Entertainment, the management company behind BTS, has been preparing for the BTS military service hiatus for years. As part of Korea’s mandatory military service, Jin will be the first to leave towards the end of this month. The reunion won’t occur until 2025, and the BTS Army Wives have already begun to assemble.

  • Drake & 21 Savage Album Drop: The two artists revealed their plans to drop a joint album on October 28th.

  • StemDrop is “A Song for the World” (this is awesome): TikTok, Samsung, Universal Music, Republic Records, and Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment are partnering to launch StemDrop, an incubator for all artists and music creators anywhere in the world.

  • Spotify is feeling the Heat: ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) is preparing to launch a music streaming service to new markets through wholly-owned TikTok and Resso, while also supporting their own music distribution through SoundOn.

  • Jammin’ in Your Car Just Got Better: Universal Music Group is driving sound forward with a new collaboration with Dolby Atmos, Apple Music, and Mercedes-Benz to provide the gold standard of sound in vehicles by leveraging state-of-the-art spatial audio technology.

  • Amazon Thursdays: Amazon is taking over Thursdays. After becoming the exclusive partner of NFL’s Thursday Night Football for the next 10 years, they’ve followed this up with a live concert series hosted by 2 Chainz.

  • Mercury Prize: As an alternative to the BRIT Awards, the Mercury Prize honors the best album released in the UK by a British or Irish artist (or by a band in which its members are over 50% British or Irish). This year, the award goes to Little Simz’ Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. In 2021, Arlo Parks won.

  • Audius Bets on Virtual Experiences: Audius has acquired the virtual music experience platform Soundstage.fm to extend their platform further into the metaverse.

  • Songwriting Matters: The Grammys announced a new award for 2023 that remarkably did not previously exist, Songwriter of the Year.

  • Idea Pins: This week, Pinterest announced its partnerships with a number of record labels to bring music to their new creative video platform, Idea Pins.

  • Influence Media is at it again: Last week, Influence Media acquired Blake Shelton’s catalog of masters comprising all his commercial releases from 2001 to 2019.

  • *BONUS - A Guide to Audiophile Listening Bars: We stumbled upon an incredible article from In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi (courtesy of PoolSuite) of some of the best listening bars around the world.

Festivals & Tour Announcements 🎡

Kicking off our festival announcements this week is the unfortunate, Fyre Festival-comparable news for Saturday attendees of the When We Were Young Festival. Due to sustained high winds in the Las Vegas area, the organizers ultimately chose to cancel the festival on Saturday after proactively preparing the festival grounds.

Halloween is around the corner, which means the annual pilgrimage to join other costumed campers to see The String Cheese Incident + friends at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park is drawing near. Now in its 9th year, Suwannee Hulaween is bringing another eclectic blend of music festival artists to the camping grounds outside of Live Oak, an equidistant drive into the marsh from Tallahassee or Jacksonville. The trickiest part is getting to the festival, but the treats you get across three days are worth it.

Tour Announcements 🤘

  • Skrillex is announced as the special guest for Porter Robinson’s Second Sky Festival on October 29th.

  • The Eagles add additional west coast dates to their 2023 Hotel California tour.

  • Earlier this month, Thievery Corporation announced US tour dates kicking off December 2022 in New Haven, CT.

  • Brett Eldrege is already gearing up for Christmas, announcing his Glow LIVE holiday tour.

  • Buddy Guy announced his Damn Right Farewell Tour, starting February 2023.

  • Maggie Rogers announced the North American leg of The Feral Joy Tour with Del Water Gap as the special guest, starting February 2023.

  • Old Dominion is kicking off their No Bad Vibes Tour starting January 2023.

  • Belle and Sebastian will be back in North America starting April 2023.

  • Journey will continue their Freedom Tour into 2023 while celebrating their golden anniversary (that’s 50 years) with supporting guest Toto.

Wrap Up 👏

We're closing the newsletter this week with the opening lyric of what might be the most heartbreaking country song.

Lyrical Genius ✍️

“She put him out, like the burning end of a midnight cigarette”

Brad Paisley (feat. Alison Krauss)

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See ya next Sunday 😎

Chris and Donya

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