#66 - Trap Kitty 🌞

Happy Sunlighter Sunday! Post-Thanksgiving means we’re just counting down the days to Christmas. We already hear the music everywhere, but tbh, it puts us in the best mood. Also ICYMI, we launched our Sunlighter Music Calendar. All the upcoming music releases and live show updates you’ve ever wanted in one place. Reply to this email or drop a comment below to let us know what you think 🌞

Rating Rationale: Since BROCKHAMPTON announced their split at Coachella 2022, founding member Kevin Abstract has embarked on a new sonic journey with his most recent album, Blanket. It’s immediately reminiscent of 90s grunge but with an edgy versatility that also spans folk and Americana. Maybe not what you’d expect, but unpredictability and experimentation were always part of the fabric of BROCKHAMPTON, and it has continued into Kevin’s solo career. We think the experiment is a great representation of Kevin’s innate creative ability and protean nature. We recommend listening to “Madonna,” “Running Out,” and “Real 2 Me.”

Phish is next up to headline The Sphere; Shaky Knees, Hellfest, and Rock en Seine release 2024 lineups

Phish are officially slated to headline four shows from April 21-25 at what they call the “breathtaking canvas” that is The Sphere in Las Vegas. Ticket requests are now available through December 11, and any remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public on December 15. 

🎸 Several summer rock festival lineups were released this week:

• Shaky Knees Music Festival announces Noah Kahan, Arcade Fire, Weezer, The Offspring, Foo Fighters, and Billy Idol are among the headliners for the upcoming shows in Atlanta, GA.

• Rock en Seine in Paris, France is stacked with headliners like Måneskin, PJ Harvey, Fred Again.., LCD Soundsystem, and Jungle for the August 2024 festival.

• Hellfest 2024 in Clisson, France has over 170 artists set to take the stage next June, including Metallica, Machine Head, Foo Fighters, and Avenged Sevenfold.

Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé set to earn $22M opening weekend

After premiering in Los Angeles and London, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé debuted to the rest of the world in theaters this past Friday. The concert documentary is described as a love letter to the Beyhive, and as a special surprise to her fans, the 32-time Grammy winner released a new track, “MY HOUSE,” to celebrate the film’s release. AMC is projecting $22 million from opening weekend domestically and a $40 million global release.

Taylor Swift Eras Tour hits streaming, pop phenomenon set to earn $100M from Spotify royalties in 2023

Pop phenomenon Taylor Swift announced that her record-breaking Eras Tour film, which has amassed $250 million since its release, will hit streaming services on her birthday, December 13th. The film will be an extended version including three additional songs: “Wildest Dreams,” “Long Live,” and “The Archer.” In true Taylor Swift fashion, fans can rent the film on streaming services for $19.89. 

Shortly after this announcement, Spotify named Taylor Swift the “Global Top Artist of the Year.” In 2023 alone, Swift has garnered a whopping 26.1 billion global streams. With Spotify’s current royalty model, she’s set to earn $101 million from the streaming giant in royalties alone by the end of 2023.

Fun fact: Spotify is celebrating Swift’s accomplishment with sparkles and era colors on the track progress bar for a limited time whenever you play a Taylor Swift track on the app. 

Young Miko

Primer: Young Miko is one of the most culturally important, upcoming Latin artists to know right now. Unapologetically self-expressive and championing the Latin music LGBTQ+ movement, she has taken the reggaeton music scene by storm after working as a tattoo artist for four years to fund her music dreams. With a deep love for anime, her stage name was inspired by the Japanese characters “Mi” and “Ko,” which translates to “beauty” and “daughter of God.”

Genre: Latin trap

Influences: She has a wide and diverse range of influences that include Gwen Stefani, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, La Oreja de Van Gogh, La Quinta Estación, Shakira, Juanes, U2, The Beatles, and The Police.

Current Label: The Wave Music Group

Audience: ~30 million monthly listeners

What’s Next: Undoubtedly, Young Miko has had a big year. Her lead single, “wiggy,” along with her numerous features on Feid’s “CLASSY 101,” KAROL G’s “DISPO” and Marshmello’s “Tempo,” should be setting her up for more momentum and potentially a sophomore album release next year. In the meantime, you can catch her at Calibash next month.

🎁 Streaming Wrapped: Everyone’s favorite early Christmas gift was unwrapped last week as streaming giants unveiled personalized data visualizations for listeners over the last year. Globally, “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus became the top-streamed song on Spotify, while “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen earned that honor on Apple Music. Check your year in review on Wrapped or Replay. 

🎵 More TikTok Music: To foster deeper relationships between artists and fans, TikTok introduced “Artist Accounts,” giving fans a glimpse into the creative process and upcoming releases from their favorite artists.

ADA 🤝 Boomy: Warner Music Group’s ADA opens up to the creative and business possibilities of AI through a global distribution deal with generative AI music creation platform, Boomy. Both entities are set to mutually benefit from the partnership as ADA expects Boomy to bring its top artists to ADA, while those same top artists gain exposure through ADA’s mainstream distribution channels.

🎧 HQ Audio: HARMAN, a Samsung subsidiary, adds music management, discovery, and streaming platform, Roon, to its ever-growing audio portfolio. Both companies share an “audio-forward” vision, and this move signifies their goal to “enhance the sound and connectivity experience for music lovers worldwide.”

👀 SaaS for Independents: ONErpm launches a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform along with a DIY distribution service in an effort for independent artists to have a one-stop shop to manage all distribution, marketing campaigns, and analytics.

💸 Big Songwriter Payday: After about three months of speculation, BMI, one of the leading music rights collection organizations, has sold to private equity firm, New Mountain Capital for an estimated $2 billion. iHeartMedia is set to earn $100M through part-ownership of the business, but the big win is that $100M proceeds will be distributed to member songwriters and music publishers. 

🌍 International Updates: The former CEO of SM Entertainment introduced a new company, TITAN CONTENT, which is backed by nine investment firms to further bridge the K-pop industry to the American market. Splice, the royalty-free music creation platform, dives into South Asian music with its new label, Aaroh. Pepsi Music Academy and EMPIRE are dedicated to growing music industry talent in Nigeria with the launch of their music education program and talent accelerator. Warner Music Group inked a partnership with SmallGod’s Small World Records to empower a new generation of African musicians.

😬 Might Be Hard to Handle: Well, we didn’t see this coming. Daryl Hall was granted a restraining order after suing longtime musical partner John Oates (Hall & Oates) to stop him from selling his share in a joint venture. More details hopefully to be revealed soon…

🌟 BRITS Rising Star Hopefuls: We’ve covered the last three former BRIT Rising Star recipients (Griff, Holly Humberstone, and FLO), and the annual showcase of the UK music industry announced an early shortlist of prospective nominees for the March 2024 ceremony.

💰 Securing the Bag: Mozaic, formerly Jammber, is like Splitwise but for creator payouts. They raised $20M in Series A funding. Wavze raised funding for an undisclosed amount to expand music licensing for independent artists in the sporting event space.

Dolly Parton captures her highest debut, Christmas music is on the rise

📈 Thanks to her halftime show during the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving football game and her promotions at your local Dollar General, Dolly Parton captured her biggest debut album, reaching #3 on the Billboard 200. With the holiday week officially kicking off the countdown to Christmas, Christmas songs and albums have been rising across the charts, with Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” battling for the #1 spot in the coming weeks.

Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 and Tate McRae’s THINK LATER will be out this Friday

📅 For upcoming albums, tours, and festivals access our comprehensive music calendar here.

⏩ Here are album releases to look out for this week: 

1. Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday 2

2. Tate McRae, THINK LATER

3. Neil Young, Before and After (acoustic re-recordings of his past songs)

4. The Killers, Rebel Diamonds (a greatest hits album)

5. Car Seat Headrest, Faces From The Masquerade

6. TOKiMONSTA and Suzi Analogue, Analogue Monsta: BOOM EP

7. Lolo Zouaï, Crying in the Carwash

The Merch Table

• 🌷 Pink Friday Eau De Parfum: To celebrate her upcoming release of Pink Friday 2, Nicki Minaj is dropping a new fragrance. 

• ⚾ Dreamville x HH50: J Cole’s Dreamville Records just dropped a collaboration to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.

• ⛳ Golf Wang Holiday Pop-Ups: Tyler, the Creator announced 12 holiday pop-up stores will be opening across the world for the holidays, including several U.S. cities. See which cities made the list.

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See ya next Sunday 😎

Chris and Donya