Jessie Ware's Superbloom sounds like the sonic embodiment of a city street exploding with magnolia and cherry blooms as the air warms in spring. There's the love-drunk disco pop the singer perfected on her 2020 breakout album, the sumptuous proto-house recalling Paradise Garage, and the floral, cinematic soundscapes of '70s funk.
Sportfive's gaming department, which started with just three dedicated employees in 2016, has now expanded to a robust team of 80, highlighting the agency's commitment to the gaming sector.
R&B in the 21st century has been in a constant state of flux, tugged between safe traditionalism and blurry attempts at progression. For the last decade-plus that "progression" has seen R&B music become more indebted to trap records and the moody atmospherics of alternative bands like Radiohead, Coldplay, or My Bloody Valentine.
Context as the subject The issue with selfies is that they demote the importance of context. You can be standing in front of the Great Wall of China but an arms-length framing makes you an artificial focal point. By contrast, if you turn the camera around, you're presenting your viewer with your perspective on the world around you. Taking care to turn a quick snap into an artful, composed observation shows your audience something important, without having to tell them so directly.
Social platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook offer huge opportunities for marketers. They are the new de facto gatekeepers to huge audiences, and there are very few other means to reach younger audiences at scale with ease. But that access comes with trade-offs, and different platforms emerge and disappear rapidly. As part of our Predictions season, The Drum Network seeks to examine where brands and agencies fit into that environment.
But to anyone tracking the data over the past few years, it was inevitable. In 2022, Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti redefined the market, driving Latin music's streaming growth to new heights. It later became the first Spanish-language album nominated for Grammy Album of the Year. The takeaway is simple: When you have accurate, real-time data, you don't guess where culture is going, you know.
The only song here that really matters. Written just hours after the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and released a few days later, Springsteen names names (looking at you, Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem) and speaks bold, specific truth. With a title that recalls his own impactful Streets of Philadelphia, a melody reminiscent of Bob Dylan, and an urgency not felt since Neil Young's Ohio, it may not be groundbreaking musically, but Streets of Minneapolis is exactly what we need right now.
Musicboard, an app for music discovery and recommendations, has been struggling, according to its users. Over the past several months, users said the app experienced outages, the website went offline, and the Android app disappeared from the Play Store. This has concerned its devoted, if small, user base. (The app has been downloaded around 462,000 times to date, according to market intelligence provider Appfigures.) On Reddit, users have been recommending alternatives and offering each other support as they wait for any update.
