The second quarter of 2024 for the music industry picked up right where it left off in Q1 in terms of unpredictability. The industry continues to undergo a massive transformational period, shaping the future of music and entertainment.

While there’s certainly more to analyze and think about, here are 5 thoughts as we begin a new quarter.

This newsletter highlights:

• 5 thoughts after Q2 of this year

Let’s dive in ⬇️ 

1) TikTok is back in the mix

One of the most chaotic events in Q1 of this year was UMG pulling their entire catalog down from TikTok after both parties couldn’t find common ground in their renegotiations.

Quarter 2 was not one to be outdone by Q1 so it only makes sense the saga continued…in early May, the two parties reached an agreement that reinstated UMG’s music back on the platform. The move had a massive impact, giving all of UMG’s artists the chance to have their music back on the world’s most influential music marketing platform and almost immediately increased their visibility. Influencer campaigns returned in droves with marketing budgets and strategy immediately shifting upon the reinstatement.

Not having music available on the biggest music discovery platform in the world for a few months was a massive blow to artist discovery and visibility for that time period.

2) The Taylor Swift takeover

Q2 kicked off with a bang when Taylor Swift released her new album “The Tortured Poets Department” on April 19th. The album immediately became record-breaking upon release and continues to break records months later.

It will likely be the biggest album of 2024 in terms of consumption and chart placement (the album has been #1 on the Billboard Top 200 charts for 9 consecutive weeks in a row).

Read more HERE about the in-depth strategies around the album release.

3) Rap Beef takes on new life

It’s hard to evaluate Q2 without mentioning the Drake & Kendrick beef. It’s one of the biggest music beefs in as long as we can remember and what helped separate this from past beefs was how much it was fueled by social media.

Memes, think pieces, lyric breakdowns, analysis, hot takes, & more surrounded the beef with social media in a firestorm with each release. Everyone had their own opinion about what each lyric and song meant, how heavy it hit, and more.

With how integrated of a role social media played in the event, we may be looking at a new kind of dynamic with how artists use the internet when going at each other.

4) Tech continues to get hit

In late May, TikTok laid off more than 1000 employees mostly in the marketing and operations departments. It continues to be a tough time for tech as restructuring occurs, the economy shows slow signs of improvement, and major tech players are still rebounding from overstaffing during COVID.

I’m hopeful those folks find new opportunities soon.

5) The oversaturation continues

The music and entertainment landscape continues to become more and more saturated with the volume of output every day. I can’t open up YouTube to watch a channel I enjoy without being recommended 10 other similar channels and diverting from my initial interest.

It’s getting harder and harder to cut through the noise and it’ll be interesting to see how the landscape develops.

Let’s see where this next quarter takes us.

Thanks for reading, until next time.