Alderbrook

There’s recently been a lot of debate among investors, music industry professionals, and entrepreneurs about the future of the Major record labels. ?????? Universal Music Group (“UMG”) – the largest Major by revenue – is a company at the heart of this debate. While UMG has its critics, the company also has some savvy and well-funded backers. ?And its biggest investors feel that UMG remains “an attractive long-term investment.” In our opinion, this ongoing conversation has lacked some depth and failed to acknowledge the dynamic nature of the playing field. Let's take a swing at clearing things up in this month's newsletter. To do so, we'll explore the following - - Why do investors believe that UMG is an attractive investment? - What’s holding back the bullish thesis? - What is UMG’s strategy to address these concerns?? - Given the above, how might UMG convince the market of its investment case? Hope you enjoy the read and would love to hear your feedback! ?? #music #strategy https://lnkd.in/efk6EKzp

Alderbrook's newsletter -- Leveling Up -- is almost three years old! ?? In this month's piece, we recap - ?? Our most read articles of the past couple years; ?? Our 2024 music playlist; and ?? Some of the top content we've consumed over the past month or two. Happy holidays and hope you enjoy the read! ???? https://lnkd.in/em2wqFgD

Which music startups and investors are participating in the AI hype cycle? ?????? Back in March 2023,?we?wrote about?artificial intelligence’s potential value to the music industry and the barriers standing in the way of realizing that value. In this month's newsletter, we analyze funding activity among music AI startups. In doing so, we can try to 1) identify the areas that music AI builders see as the biggest opportunities and 2) observe which investors are most actively funding them. Hope you enjoy the read! ?? https://lnkd.in/eRGg6iW8 #musicindustry #venturecapital #strategy

Congrats team RootNote on your pre-seed raise! We’re grateful to be along for this journey. ?? cc Jason Burchard

For the second month in a row, we have an exciting collaboration for our monthly newsletter! ???????? Leveling Up is teaming up with Jesse Feister, Global Head of Creator Marketing at Twitch, to take a closer look at the music industry’s buzzword du jour: “superfans”. Much ink has been spilled covering this trend over the past few quarters. Industry leaders like Universal Music Group's CEO Lucian Grainge and Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl made it clear in their annual letters that superfans are a priority. In this piece, we aim to better understand the following - ???? Why are companies so excited about the potential of monetizing musician’s biggest fans in 2024? ?? How big could the superfan opportunity ultimately be for the industry? ?? What barriers stand in the way of unlocking that value? ?? And finally, how are participants positioning to ride this wave? Hope you enjoy the read! If so, you can subscribe to our free monthly newsletter at the link below. ?? https://lnkd.in/eqCht-ir #musicindustry #superfans #strategy

Last year, Taylor Swift and Beyonce won at the box office with their concert films. Which other artists can replicate that? We answered that in a deep dive Trapital essay. Jimmy Stone from Alderbrook wrote a piece for us "The Rise of Concert Films" that answers this question. Here are a few highlights from his piece: "As a result, both [Beyonce and Taylor Swift]?reportedly?received an unprecedented 50% of ticket sales – a much higher split than the traditional creator/studio deal. "For comparison, actor Tom Cruise?reportedly received?just over 5% of?Top Gun: Maverick’s gross ticket sales, equaling ~10% of film studio Paramount’s ~50% split of gross sales after the theaters got their ~50% cut. Cutting the studio from the split equation makes the concert film genre much more lucrative for artists." "All signs indicate the concert movie trend will continue over the next few years. On a recent earnings call, AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron?confirmed as much... I think it makes sense for pop genre artists like Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, and Billie Eilish to explore concert films... I also wouldn’t be surprised to see top-charting artists in other genres – such as hip-hop (e.g., Drake), Latin (e.g., Bad Bunny), and Country (e.g., Morgan Wallen) – that haven’t historically been associated with top grossing concert movie projects." It was a great piece that breaks down the past, present, and future of these deals. Highly recommend out his full piece! Link in the comments below. Which other artists would have a commercially successful concert film at the box office?

We have an exciting collaboration for this month's newsletter! ???????? We're teaming up with Trapital founder Dan Runcie to take a closer look at the booming concert film genre. Last year two concert films –?Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour?and?Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce?– topped the weekend box office charts?in their respective opening weekends. Swift’s film?reportedly was the top grossing concert film ever, making over $200 million?at the global box office. At the same time, Swift's film was “only” the?22nd highest grossing?movie at the global box office in 2023. Compared to?video game movie adaptations,?the?film doesn't even crack the top 10 grossing of all-time. So is the concert film trend overhyped? In this piece, we’ll try to answer that question by exploring the following - ?? What is driving music artists and Hollywood to develop concert film projects? And importantly, why now? ?? Which ingredients appear necessary to drive success in the genre? ?? Finally, where might this genre be headed? Hope you enjoy the read! (Links to the Trapital newsletter and podcast are included in the article.)?? https://lnkd.in/emM8hM23 #concertfilm #musicindustry #strategy