Artists Make Plenty Of Money From Streaming

You may have heard that artists don’t get paid very well for streaming. This isn’t the case. In fact, Tycho, who have been nominated for a Grammy award, make 53% of their income from streaming!

Not bad, right? Artists who own their own rights get 100% of the streaming revenue. It only goes down when their publishers and labels take their cut, and that’s something the artists were paid for in advance.

Streaming Is Good For New Acts

We’ve all been told that streaming benefits the established acts over the new ones. Yet, streaming has created plenty of breakout acts such as Robin Shulz, Danny Ocean, and Lil Uzi Vert.

Streaming helps new artists break into new territories at no cost to themselves. This, in turn, raises their profile and their earnings.

Streaming Didn’t Kill The Album

Downloading killed the album. When people could pirate a whole record at no cost – they only ever listened to the tracks they liked. They stopped listening to the whole thing.

In contrast, streaming may help albums because there’s no cost to trying the whole thing rather than playing it safe and sticking to what people know.

So, there you have it – streaming is not heralding the death of the music industry, in fact, it’s helping new artists, making people money and helping to shore up the album too!

The post Is Streaming Killing Artists? Three Lies About Music Streaming You Probably Believe appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Don’t believe us? Here are a few that will blow your mind.

Let It Be Beautiful

Big Bang member Taeyang is a huge fan of R&B artists such as Michael Jackson and Frank Ocean. His remarkable cover of Chris Brown’s “Don’t Judge Me” has been a delight for fans over on YouTube.

Pray It Won’t Fade Away

Singer Ailee, who was actually born and raised in the States, turned heads with her viral cover of Beyonce’s “Halo” on Singer and Trainee. Her similarity to the platinum-selling act is so strong, folks are calling her the Korean Beyonce.

It Don’t Come In A Shot Glass

Lee Hi turned heads on the first season of Survival Audition K-pop Star. As the runner-up, she delivered an eerie performance of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” Aside from the Grammy-winning artist, she has also drawn comparisons to Meghan Trainor. With influences from soul and R&B, Lee Hi has been delivering a fresh take on K-Pop music.

These acts have made names for themselves with numerous awards and millions of downloads sold. It’s a safe bet that they’ll achieve the same level of fame on American soil in due time.

The post K-Pop Acts That Are Nearly Identical To Pop Stars In The U.S. appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Rapper Young Thug has been building a fanbase with constant mixtapes and hits such as “Stoner” and “Best Friend.” Let’s not forget about his multitude of features in songs with T.I., Nicki Minaj, and DJ Snake.

For the release of his 2017 mixtape Beautiful Thugger Girls, he wanted it to be special. He dropped the 14-song release on June 16th, which is the birthday of iconic rapper Tupac Shakur. In a tweet, he declared himself to be finishing what the late artist started by calling himself the “new Pac.”

This isn’t the first time someone put Young Thug and Tupac in the same sentence. In a 2016 interview with Pigeons and Planes, Wyclef Jean said that Thug reminded him of the platinum-selling artist. The two worked together on Thug’s mixtape Jeffery and Wyclef’s J’ouvert EP.

Will Young Thug ever be as popular as Tupac? It’s too early to tell, but you can bet he’ll have a career full of accolades and praise from his peers.

The post Young Thug Labeled Himself This Generation’s Tupac Shakur appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Horror story after horror story has shone a light on the misogyny, abuse, and sexual harassment women face on the daily. Read on to hear what three alt-scene rock queens had to say about the situation.

Linda Battilani, Halflives

“It’s important to talk about sexism because the more we do, the more it impacts things and eventually, the less we’ll have to talk about it. Women work as hard as men in this industry, and they shouldn’t have to prove something more just because they’re women.”

Becky Blomfield, Milk Teeth

“I have personally faced a number of incidences of sexism since being in Milk Teeth—some through gender-based misogyny, others through sexual harassment or inappropriate sexual conduct. To combat this, myself and the boys will always call it out when it happens. We don’t tolerate it as a band, and we don’t want it at any of our shows.”

Jess Branney, Peaness

“Does sexism exist in the music industry? Yes. Are we as people going in the right direction to reduce it? Yes. Does my personal taste and the music scenes I’m a fan of reflect my opinions of where we’re at with regards to this issue? Yes.”

The post Hear What Three Female Alt-Rockers Have To Say About Sexism In Music appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

The 52 year old, whose real name is Richard Hall, has revealed that there are other things he enjoys instead of touring and spending time in the recording studio working on new material.

“Even sitting backstage for someone else’s tour made me never want to go on tour again. I toured for such a long time. There are so many other things to do in life,” he said.

“To stay home and to go hiking and have dinner with my friends and work on politics and activism and music, and sleep in my own bed and wake up every morning and make a smoothie…”

While many people who grow up today will not know Moby, the peak of his career was in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. His 1999 album Play went on to sell more than 10 million copies.

The post Moby Reveals That Making Music is No Longer Profitable for Him appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

The veterans of the rock industry are currently preparing to embark on a US tour, which will feature the majority of their original line-up.

The “1979” house party will allow fans to relive the 1996 hit song and will take place in Los Angeles on June 28th. Fans will also have a chance to win a Yamaha guitar as well as a two-night stay at The Hilton, which includes return flights to Los Angeles.

This week, the band’s frontman Billy Corgan compared the 90’s grunge scene to a high school popularity contest.

“If everybody is sort of branded with the same brush, okay we can live that,” he said. “But you know, you’d see some people would be exalted and their sins were forgivable.

“It really reminded me of high school, which I didn’t like. So now I’m in the bigger high school and now we’re playing with millions of dollars and millions of people, and it’s just like a popularity contest. And it brought out maybe the worst or the best in my personality, which was like, ‘I’m gonna take this on and I’m gonna use myself as the battering ram so I’m gonna make it about me, knowing it’s not about me.’”

The post Smashing Pumpkins Offer Fans the Chance to Relive the Past appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Avicii, whose real name is Tim Bergling, was found dead in Muscat, Oman, where he was on holiday.

Avicii was known to have had alcohol problems and retired from music two years ago due to health complications.

Bergling himself once said: “I took on board too much negative energy. It was the best time of my life in a sense. It came with a price – a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety for me – but it was the best journey of my life.”

His family have since traveled to Oman and will return to Sweden with his body.  Thousands gathered in Stokholm this weekend to pay tribute to the hitmaker who was especially famous for the songs “Wake Me Up” and “Levels.”

The post Oman Police Suspect No Foul Play in Avicii Death appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

In an emotional message confirming the split, James mentioned he is leaving the group on good terms.

“I’m very sad to say that I have made the decision to leave Hacktivist,” he says. “I’ve had an amazing six years touring the world with my brothers and I wish them all the luck moving forward.

“I also want to thank all of the fans that have supported us this far, without you guys none of this would have been possible,” he continues. “I have every confidence that the band will continue to inspire and push the boundaries of modern music for many more years to come.”

James will play a final run of dates with Hacktivist including a headline show in the band’s hometown of Milton Keynes before bidding farewell to the band.

“We’re sad to see Timfy’s time with Hacktivist has come to an end, but we wish the best of luck with his future plans,” says bassist Josh Gurner. “We want to thank him profusely for the blood, sweat and tears he has put into the band over the past seven years.

“Timfy has been a driving force in defining the Hacktivist sound, but his departure brings with it the dawn of new ideas and forward thinking. None of this year’s shows will be cancelled, and you will be hearing from us soon with fresh new music.”

A replacement for James will soon be announced.

The post Hactivist Parting Ways With Long-Serving Guitarist Timfy James appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Poodle Love

Tamanegi has been gaining a huge Instagram following for their cute photos of three poodles and their toddler friend Mame. Musician Beck is a major fan, and he wanted to bring this lovely group of friends to a wider audience.

Where It’s At

The poodles and Mame are featured in Beck’s music video for the song “Fix Me.” The visual features the pals doing what they do best: hanging out. Whether they’re celebrating Halloween or a birthday, this will certainly warm your heart. The song is the final track from Beck’s recent studio album Colors. The video was directed by Brook Linder, who worked with Beck on the videos for “Colors” and “Dear Life.”

Keeping Them Safe

This lovely music video was done in partnership with ASPCA, which was founded back in 1866. The musician has urged fans to donate money to help protect animals around the world.

Beck will continue to spread the word about animal safety on the road. Don’t miss him if he ever makes a stop in your town.

The post Viral Poodles Get Featured In Beck’s Music Video For “Fix Me” appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Unfortunately, a lot of Millennial musicians seem to be struggling with this new reality. Here are 3 things they must know in order to succeed in the industry as it is now.

There Are No Big Breaks

Labels aren’t cruising around looking for unknowns to become stars anymore. They know how MySpace works, they can find anyone at any time.

This isn’t good news — it means the “big break” is a thing of the past and the only thing that really convinces labels to take on an act is proven demand.

Speaking Of Demand, Spotify Is Not Your Friend

It’s easy to worm your way onto a popular playlist and see your Spotify listens hit the millions. Sadly, nobody cares.

Record companies know how this works. If you want the labels to listen to you then you have to be able to put bums on seats during live shows. Those people are fans, not casual listeners.

Don’t Forget The Opportunities In The Physical World

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYaAAdsDTLJ/?tagged=epcoming

You’d be amazed to find out how many people are making a fortune as musicians who barely maintain their own Facebook presence.

TV, film, freelance recording artists, house concert artists, etc. all get paid well and aren’t online. Making it big doesn’t require the Internet.

When you know how the music business works, you can start to make it work for you. Good luck Millennial artists, we can’t wait to hear you.

The post Are You A Millennial Musician? Here’s What You Can Do To Succeed appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Artists Make Plenty Of Money From Streaming

You may have heard that artists don’t get paid very well for streaming. This isn’t the case. In fact, Tycho, who have been nominated for a Grammy award, make 53% of their income from streaming!

Not bad, right? Artists who own their own rights get 100% of the streaming revenue. It only goes down when their publishers and labels take their cut, and that’s something the artists were paid for in advance.

Streaming Is Good For New Acts

We’ve all been told that streaming benefits the established acts over the new ones. Yet, streaming has created plenty of breakout acts such as Robin Shulz, Danny Ocean, and Lil Uzi Vert.

Streaming helps new artists break into new territories at no cost to themselves. This, in turn, raises their profile and their earnings.

Streaming Didn’t Kill The Album

Downloading killed the album. When people could pirate a whole record at no cost – they only ever listened to the tracks they liked. They stopped listening to the whole thing.

In contrast, streaming may help albums because there’s no cost to trying the whole thing rather than playing it safe and sticking to what people know.

So, there you have it – streaming is not heralding the death of the music industry, in fact, it’s helping new artists, making people money and helping to shore up the album too!

The post Is Streaming Killing Artists? Three Lies About Music Streaming You Probably Believe appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Don’t believe us? Here are a few that will blow your mind.

Let It Be Beautiful

Big Bang member Taeyang is a huge fan of R&B artists such as Michael Jackson and Frank Ocean. His remarkable cover of Chris Brown’s “Don’t Judge Me” has been a delight for fans over on YouTube.

Pray It Won’t Fade Away

Singer Ailee, who was actually born and raised in the States, turned heads with her viral cover of Beyonce’s “Halo” on Singer and Trainee. Her similarity to the platinum-selling act is so strong, folks are calling her the Korean Beyonce.

It Don’t Come In A Shot Glass

Lee Hi turned heads on the first season of Survival Audition K-pop Star. As the runner-up, she delivered an eerie performance of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” Aside from the Grammy-winning artist, she has also drawn comparisons to Meghan Trainor. With influences from soul and R&B, Lee Hi has been delivering a fresh take on K-Pop music.

These acts have made names for themselves with numerous awards and millions of downloads sold. It’s a safe bet that they’ll achieve the same level of fame on American soil in due time.

The post K-Pop Acts That Are Nearly Identical To Pop Stars In The U.S. appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Rapper Young Thug has been building a fanbase with constant mixtapes and hits such as “Stoner” and “Best Friend.” Let’s not forget about his multitude of features in songs with T.I., Nicki Minaj, and DJ Snake.

For the release of his 2017 mixtape Beautiful Thugger Girls, he wanted it to be special. He dropped the 14-song release on June 16th, which is the birthday of iconic rapper Tupac Shakur. In a tweet, he declared himself to be finishing what the late artist started by calling himself the “new Pac.”

This isn’t the first time someone put Young Thug and Tupac in the same sentence. In a 2016 interview with Pigeons and Planes, Wyclef Jean said that Thug reminded him of the platinum-selling artist. The two worked together on Thug’s mixtape Jeffery and Wyclef’s J’ouvert EP.

Will Young Thug ever be as popular as Tupac? It’s too early to tell, but you can bet he’ll have a career full of accolades and praise from his peers.

The post Young Thug Labeled Himself This Generation’s Tupac Shakur appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Horror story after horror story has shone a light on the misogyny, abuse, and sexual harassment women face on the daily. Read on to hear what three alt-scene rock queens had to say about the situation.

Linda Battilani, Halflives

“It’s important to talk about sexism because the more we do, the more it impacts things and eventually, the less we’ll have to talk about it. Women work as hard as men in this industry, and they shouldn’t have to prove something more just because they’re women.”

Becky Blomfield, Milk Teeth

“I have personally faced a number of incidences of sexism since being in Milk Teeth—some through gender-based misogyny, others through sexual harassment or inappropriate sexual conduct. To combat this, myself and the boys will always call it out when it happens. We don’t tolerate it as a band, and we don’t want it at any of our shows.”

Jess Branney, Peaness

“Does sexism exist in the music industry? Yes. Are we as people going in the right direction to reduce it? Yes. Does my personal taste and the music scenes I’m a fan of reflect my opinions of where we’re at with regards to this issue? Yes.”

The post Hear What Three Female Alt-Rockers Have To Say About Sexism In Music appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

The 52 year old, whose real name is Richard Hall, has revealed that there are other things he enjoys instead of touring and spending time in the recording studio working on new material.

“Even sitting backstage for someone else’s tour made me never want to go on tour again. I toured for such a long time. There are so many other things to do in life,” he said.

“To stay home and to go hiking and have dinner with my friends and work on politics and activism and music, and sleep in my own bed and wake up every morning and make a smoothie…”

While many people who grow up today will not know Moby, the peak of his career was in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. His 1999 album Play went on to sell more than 10 million copies.

The post Moby Reveals That Making Music is No Longer Profitable for Him appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

The veterans of the rock industry are currently preparing to embark on a US tour, which will feature the majority of their original line-up.

The “1979” house party will allow fans to relive the 1996 hit song and will take place in Los Angeles on June 28th. Fans will also have a chance to win a Yamaha guitar as well as a two-night stay at The Hilton, which includes return flights to Los Angeles.

This week, the band’s frontman Billy Corgan compared the 90’s grunge scene to a high school popularity contest.

“If everybody is sort of branded with the same brush, okay we can live that,” he said. “But you know, you’d see some people would be exalted and their sins were forgivable.

“It really reminded me of high school, which I didn’t like. So now I’m in the bigger high school and now we’re playing with millions of dollars and millions of people, and it’s just like a popularity contest. And it brought out maybe the worst or the best in my personality, which was like, ‘I’m gonna take this on and I’m gonna use myself as the battering ram so I’m gonna make it about me, knowing it’s not about me.’”

The post Smashing Pumpkins Offer Fans the Chance to Relive the Past appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Avicii, whose real name is Tim Bergling, was found dead in Muscat, Oman, where he was on holiday.

Avicii was known to have had alcohol problems and retired from music two years ago due to health complications.

Bergling himself once said: “I took on board too much negative energy. It was the best time of my life in a sense. It came with a price – a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety for me – but it was the best journey of my life.”

His family have since traveled to Oman and will return to Sweden with his body.  Thousands gathered in Stokholm this weekend to pay tribute to the hitmaker who was especially famous for the songs “Wake Me Up” and “Levels.”

The post Oman Police Suspect No Foul Play in Avicii Death appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

In an emotional message confirming the split, James mentioned he is leaving the group on good terms.

“I’m very sad to say that I have made the decision to leave Hacktivist,” he says. “I’ve had an amazing six years touring the world with my brothers and I wish them all the luck moving forward.

“I also want to thank all of the fans that have supported us this far, without you guys none of this would have been possible,” he continues. “I have every confidence that the band will continue to inspire and push the boundaries of modern music for many more years to come.”

James will play a final run of dates with Hacktivist including a headline show in the band’s hometown of Milton Keynes before bidding farewell to the band.

“We’re sad to see Timfy’s time with Hacktivist has come to an end, but we wish the best of luck with his future plans,” says bassist Josh Gurner. “We want to thank him profusely for the blood, sweat and tears he has put into the band over the past seven years.

“Timfy has been a driving force in defining the Hacktivist sound, but his departure brings with it the dawn of new ideas and forward thinking. None of this year’s shows will be cancelled, and you will be hearing from us soon with fresh new music.”

A replacement for James will soon be announced.

The post Hactivist Parting Ways With Long-Serving Guitarist Timfy James appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Poodle Love

Tamanegi has been gaining a huge Instagram following for their cute photos of three poodles and their toddler friend Mame. Musician Beck is a major fan, and he wanted to bring this lovely group of friends to a wider audience.

Where It’s At

The poodles and Mame are featured in Beck’s music video for the song “Fix Me.” The visual features the pals doing what they do best: hanging out. Whether they’re celebrating Halloween or a birthday, this will certainly warm your heart. The song is the final track from Beck’s recent studio album Colors. The video was directed by Brook Linder, who worked with Beck on the videos for “Colors” and “Dear Life.”

Keeping Them Safe

This lovely music video was done in partnership with ASPCA, which was founded back in 1866. The musician has urged fans to donate money to help protect animals around the world.

Beck will continue to spread the word about animal safety on the road. Don’t miss him if he ever makes a stop in your town.

The post Viral Poodles Get Featured In Beck’s Music Video For “Fix Me” appeared first on Hot Pop Today.

Unfortunately, a lot of Millennial musicians seem to be struggling with this new reality. Here are 3 things they must know in order to succeed in the industry as it is now.

There Are No Big Breaks

Labels aren’t cruising around looking for unknowns to become stars anymore. They know how MySpace works, they can find anyone at any time.

This isn’t good news — it means the “big break” is a thing of the past and the only thing that really convinces labels to take on an act is proven demand.

Speaking Of Demand, Spotify Is Not Your Friend

It’s easy to worm your way onto a popular playlist and see your Spotify listens hit the millions. Sadly, nobody cares.

Record companies know how this works. If you want the labels to listen to you then you have to be able to put bums on seats during live shows. Those people are fans, not casual listeners.

Don’t Forget The Opportunities In The Physical World

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYaAAdsDTLJ/?tagged=epcoming

You’d be amazed to find out how many people are making a fortune as musicians who barely maintain their own Facebook presence.

TV, film, freelance recording artists, house concert artists, etc. all get paid well and aren’t online. Making it big doesn’t require the Internet.

When you know how the music business works, you can start to make it work for you. Good luck Millennial artists, we can’t wait to hear you.

The post Are You A Millennial Musician? Here’s What You Can Do To Succeed appeared first on Hot Pop Today.