Latest news with #Chartmetric
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
For Elvis, death has proved disturbingly good business
Elvis lives. A 'new' Elvis Presley album is out this week, Sunset Boulevard, comprising fresh mixes of songs recorded in Los Angeles between 1970 and 1975, two years before the King died. This was a period when Elvis was arguably at the top of his game as an entertainer, relentlessly touring America with a big, super-tight ensemble of outstanding musicians, flying in on his jet and collecting a million dollars a show. Yet he was at a critically low ebb, derided for embracing Las Vegas's cheesy showbiz values and pouring out subpar albums overstuffed with middle-of-the-road material barely fit for his stellar talents. Yet here we are, still sifting through his recordings for lost gems. An extended five-disc box set that includes 89 rarities, mainly rehearsals and out-takes, more than half of which have never come out officially before. Its chief selling point is that it features songs stripped of excess overdubs to give Elvis a more raw and contemporary sound. It makes you wonder where they find this stuff? What dusty vault still contains unreleased Elvis recordings more than half a century since he died? Elvis put out 24 studio albums and 17 soundtracks within a 21-year period between his recording debut aged 19 in 1954 and death aged 42 in August 1977. Since then, there have been a mind-boggling 307 posthumous compilations, 21 remix albums, 80 box sets and 271 special collectors' releases in the Follow That Dream series. That is a lot of music, and a lot of it is the same music, repackaged over and over again. The 'Elvis lives' slogan started appearing in the immediate aftermath of his televised funeral procession, as the world grappled with the sudden disappearance of this lightning-bolt figure who had symbolised such virility. Nearly half a century later, what started out as a kind of sentimental wish seems manifestly true in terms of the way Elvis has persisted as a fixture of popular culture. The curation of the Elvis legend and management of his estate have become object lessons in the commercial exploitation of posthumous music careers. Where Elvis treads, every ageing pop brand (and their heirs) can only aspire to follow. Mercifully it is not all exploitative tat like the much derided 'interactive experience' Elvis Evolution that opened in London in July, charging up to £300 for a bit of pimped-up video footage and some over-familiar memorabilia. Elvis racks up huge streaming numbers, with more than 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify. A close look at the statistics is fascinating. His key modern audience (according to music industry site Chartmetric) are not old rock'n'roll diehards but women between the ages of 25 and 34. His most popular song is not even one of his classic rockers but dreamily romantic 1961 ballad Can't Help Falling in Love, which has garnered over a billion Spotify streams. Connecting to new generations is crucial to posthumous longevity. You have to remain present in the streaming and social media mix, with constant new releases (archive or remixes), documentaries and films (Baz Luhrmann's 2022 Elvis biopic provided a huge boost to his income and image) and even live (or almost live) performances. The best example is probably Queen, who are Spotify's most streamed vintage musical artists at number 37, and have toured with substitute singers Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert since the death of Freddie Mercury in 1991. If we include the Beatles (at 55), Nirvana (111), Bee Gees (335) and the Cranberries (482), there are just 14 deceased vintage 20th-century artists in Spotify's all-time top 500 streamers (Michael Jackson at 78, Bob Marley, 122, Tupac Shakur, 157, Elvis, 205, Frank Sinatra, 208, David Bowie, 224, the Notorious BIG, 249, Whitney Houston, 294, and film composer John Williams, 446). There are also a number of late contemporary 21st-century stars, including Amy Winehouse (343), Aviici (74) and rappers Juice Wrld (21), XXXTentacion (20), Mac Miller (70) and Pop Smoke (97). Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath's streams skyrocketed this week following Osbourne's death, increasing between 1,000 and 2,000 per cent, hurling them into Spotify's current top 200 and establishing Ozzy as the number one heavy metal artist in the world. I wonder if Sabbath might be tempted to tour again with another singer, Queen style? The three surviving members were on incredible form at Ozzy's farewell concert, and it would almost be a shame if they let that music fade away. There would be no shortage of contenders, with great singers from pop star Yungblud to Rival Sons' Jay Buchanan and Lzzy Hale of Halestorm giving powerful renditions of Sabbath classics at that moving show. Death can be disturbingly good for business, as anyone who has pored over Forbes's ghoulishly fascinating annual chart of highest-earning dead celebrities can attest. Yet there are notable absences, too, from once-supreme bands and stars who appear to be fading from the firmament, such as the Doors, Marvin Gaye and even Jimi Hendrix. To protect your legacy, you have to work it. Elvis Presley's personal fortune at death was a modest $5m (around $20m/£15m adjusted for inflation). By 2022, it was estimated at more than $1bn, and he is still raking in around $100m a year, with his granddaughter, Riley Keough, his sole beneficiary following the death of her mother, Lisa-Marie, in 2023. Elvis is literally worth more dead than alive. Sunset Boulevard is out now On the Record I've been listening to Lord Huron's fine new album, The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1, a slice of atmospheric Americana with thoughtful lyrics, pitched somewhere between such unmodern influences as the Band and Chris Isaak. Movie star Kristen Stewart lends her moodily dramatic delivery to one track. The surprising thing is how popular this old-fashioned, rootsy US quartet are. One of their songs, The Night We Met, has accrued more than three billion plays on Spotify since its release in 2015. It is the 22nd most popular song of the streaming age, putting it ahead of anything by Taylor Swift (whose Cruel Summer is number 28 in all-time streams). Come critical lists and award season, I expect Jim Legxacy to be a contender for his intriguing second album, Black British Music. He is a singer, rapper and producer with an experimental bent married to sinuous pop craft, blending indie, rock and folk with quirky electronica and grime influences. It hints at the shapeshifting potential of such groundbreaking American producer-songwriters as Frank Ocean and Kanye West, and provides an interesting snapshot of a kind of uniquely British take on modern musical forms. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Business Insider
06-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Read the pitch decks 6 music and audio startups used to raise millions
Audio startups are changing how we listen to and discover music. A new crop of companies has emerged to help artists and other audio creators build businesses. We spoke with six audio-startup founders who shared the pitch decks they used to raise funds. Startups are building new ways for artists and creators to make and distribute songs and other audio. Some companies, including social-entertainment apps like TikTok and YouTube, are making it easier for artists to get discovered. Platforms like Roblox and Discord have added new formats for artists to reach fans. And generative AI tools like Suno have created a tidal wave of new music while raising new questions about artist compensation in the age of AI. One area of focus among audio startups is finding ways to help artists interact with their most loyal listeners, sometimes called superfans. Sesh built a platform that lets users add "fan cards" of their favorite artists to their smartphone wallets, for example. Hangout created a group-listening platform that enables music fans to stream songs together. "Even with a hundred superfans, you're going to be able to make a living instead of needing to do extra jobs for you to be able to pay for your instruments or your music career," Sesh's CEO, Iigo-Hubertus Bunzl Pelayo, told Business Insider. Other upstarts are focused on building internal tools for artists and their teams. Offtop built a Dropbox-style platform to help music collaborators share files, for instance. And RealCount offers data analytics for artists on their ticket sales. Investors have poured millions of dollars into audio startups over the last few years. The category has drawn funding from institutional firms like SoftBank Ventures Korea and record labels like Sony Music. BI spoke with six audio-startup founders who've raised money in the past few years about their fundraising process. They each shared the pitch decks they used to win over investors. Read the pitch decks that helped 6 audio startups raise millions of dollars: Note: Pitch decks are sorted by investment stage and size of round. Series A Seed Other Geoff Weiss, JP Mangalindan, Nhari Djan, and Michael Espinosa previously contributed reporting. Chartmetric is a data-and-analytics tool that enables music-industry professionals to track the digital performance of company created a platform for customers like record labels and artists to review streaming and social-media data all in one place."There is more and more data that artists and record labels measure and that they care about, and the importance of the data changes over time," Chartmetric founder and CEO Sung Cho told the 46-page pitch deck that the company used to raise $2 million in seed funding Magroove Brazil-based Magroove helps independent musicians distribute music on global platforms like Spotify and iTunes, and runs a music-discovery app. A prime selling point for artists on the platform is its affordable distribution services. The company is also testing features to help artists earn more, including a digital-store offering. "I had my history as trying to make it as a musician, knowing absolutely nothing to now being in the position to help other artists and serve them with things that I didn't have back then," cofounder Vtor Cunha told the 21-page pitch deck Magroove used to raise $1.6 million in seed funding built a subscription service for creators that opens up access to a library of royalty-free music and sound 40% of its clients are livestreaming gamers, the company told company raised in June a $7.5 million Series A in a round led by Sony Music Entertainment."The 'majors' were not our first target – we initially wanted to go the classic VC route," CMO Jesse Korwin told Insider at the time. "We realized that having one of the major music companies as a backer provided a ton of validity and support for our vision."Read the 13-page pitch deck that used to raise $7.5 million in funding Supercast Supercast built a subscription platform designed specifically for podcast company launched in September 2019 and raised $2 million in seed funding from investors like Form Capital and Table Management."The world of podcasting is sitting on a goldmine, and they don't even know it," said CEO Jason Sew Hoy. "They've done the hard work of building up the audiences that they may be monetizing by ads. But they have an entirely new additive revenue stream that they can switch on with listeners' subscriptions."Read the 20-page pitch deck the company used to raise $2 million Ultimate Playlist Ultimate Playlist is a music-marketing platform that incentivizes users to listen to and rate songs in exchange for daily cash day, the company features a new set of 40 songs on the app. Eventually, the company plans to charge rights holders around $200 to $300 for a song to be included."There's not a lot out there for this middle-class artist," cofounder Shevy Smith told Insider. "One key component of Ultimate Playlist is that it isn't anchored by superstars."Read the 9-page pitch deck that the company used to raise $2 millionJP Mangalindan and Michael Espinosa contributed additional reporting. This story was originally published in January 16, 2023.
