I can’t believe I’m typing this but we’re officially in Q4 of this year. There’s just about 3 months left to the year and the weeks are flying by. Q3 was just as eventful as the previous quarters so I thought it’d be worth sharing a look at some reflections and things I’m thinking about heading into the final stretch of 2024.

This newsletter highlights:

• 5 thoughts on Q3 of this year

Let’s dive in ⬇️

1) Major record label restructuring

Major record labels continue to downsize as they undergo restructuring and consolidation of their teams. Warner Music Group underwent layoffs a few weeks go, letting go of a sizable amount of people at Atlantic Records.

While it’s a tough time for many, I’m hopeful and optimistic those folks will bounce back soon with new opportunities in other roles or creating their own opportunities. Out of the wave of layoffs this year will emerge people starting their own new and innovative companies with more folks choosing to try their own hand.

We’re in the midst of a huge paradigm shift for the music industry as established major companies are consolidating to keep up with the pace at which artists are breaking.

It’ll be interesting to see how major record labels restructure heading into next year and keep up with the fast changing landscape.

2) Country music continues to gain in popularity

Country music continues to grow in popularity as a genre and the crossover with hip-hop is becoming more noticeable. A great example is Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” being the best selling song in the US in 2024 by total units via Luminate. It’s interesting to see how much success Shaboozey has had in the hip-hop space with a song that blurs that line between rap and country.

Another example is the trajectory of social media companies - the company that owns some of the bigger hip-hop outlets on Instagram (for ex: rap, bars, drip, etc) is now running an account called @countryhub with country themed content. They clearly see the direction of where music popularity is going and want to be ahead of the curve.

We’re also seeing more artists in the hip-hop space collaborate with established country artists, for example Post Malone & Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help”.

3) Kendrick playing the Super Bowl halftime show

The announcement of Kendrick playing the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show caused a social media firestorm with many feeling like Lil Wayne should’ve been selected because it takes place in New Orleans.

It’ll be interesting to see what else Kendrick has tee’d up around the performance to capitalize and maximize it. Many expect him to release an album sometime around February and “Not Like Us” was just submitted for 5 categories at the Grammys.

4) Touring continues to get harder

More and more concerts and tours are getting cancelled for various reasons. The cost and expenses of going on tour are making it harder for artists to afford everything (gas, travel, hotel, lodging, equipment, band members, food, etc)

In addition, fans have less money for tickets (especially expensive tickets to see established artists who need a high price point to offset the cost of their production) with the economy being in the challenging state its in.

It’ll be interesting to see how many artists go on tour this spring and for the ones that do, how high level their production is.

5) TikTok is still trying to figure out music’s place on the app

It was recently announced that TikTok sunsetted the streaming service it had in beta called TikTok Music. It seems TikTok is trying to avoid competing with streaming services like Spotify and is still trying to find its place in the music landscape.

As important as TikTok is to the music industry, it seems like the app is still trying to understand its place in the music game and what kind of positioning it wants to have.

Thanks for reading, until next time.