A Little Knowledge… #69

Welcome to A Little Knowledge #69 – our free weekly LinkedIn newsletter.

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?? BULLETIN NEWS: Taylor Swift fans complete TikTok tasks to unlock 'friendship bracelet'

April saw?the launch of an ‘in-app experience’ on TikTok for Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ album, and this week?the partnership has kicked off its second phase, which continues its gamification theme:

• An 11-week campaign will see fans completing album-themed tasks on TikTok to unlock ‘digital beads’ that form a very-on-brand ‘in-app friendship bracelet’.?Those who complete all the tasks will get a Swift-themed frame for their profile.?
• Tasks will change each week, but include things like saving a track to a streaming service, watching a video from the tour, or posting videos using Swift’s music or related hashtags.
• TikTok will also be adding video highlights from the latest concerts on Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ during that 11 weeks.
• The company says there are already more than 3.2m creator videos using the #TheTorturedPoetsDepartment hashtag, and more than 5m using hashtags relating to the tour.
• It’s the fan challenges that interest us. Gamification has been a periodically-recurring buzzword in the music industry, and Swift herself was involved in?one of the more infamous examples of the trend in 2017.?

???Read more?here.

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??MUSIC ALLY ON WHATSAPP

Our WhatsApp Channel is a simple way to stay on top of music business news: every afternoon (UK time), we post the lead story, and links to the rest of the day’s news. Click here to sign up.

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???FOCUS PODCAST ROUND-UP:?Recent episodes you may have missed

The?Music Ally Focus?podcast?discusses interesting topics from across the music industry with?a?host?of?experts - and all?in just?30 minutes. There are?more than 150 episodes?of interesting discussions?for you to?explore?in the archive! Here’s a selection of?recent?episodes?you may have missed:

• In?Episode #154?we talk with?Caroline Heldman Ph.D?and?Samantha Maloney, co-founders of the?Sound Off Coalition,?which recently?published a report?that called out “the scathing history and financial impact of decades of sexual abuse and coverups in the music industry”.?Content warning:?this episode discusses sexual abuse.
• Episode #155?sees our editor Joe Sparrow talk with?Andre?Benz. Benz?founded?The Nations?when he was in high school, and it has grown into a media conglomerate with a record label and various genre-focused channels. He explains the challenges of building an ecosystem that meets the needs of modern music fans -?and also creators.
• For?Episode #156?we were joined by?Jacquelle Horton?of?Fave?to talk superfans.?How can you nurture superfandom without taking advantage??Creating an ecosystem that facilitates fan-to-fan interaction and captures the value of their activities is key.
• ???Get stuck in! Listen to all these?episodes?here.When?Co:brand?first came across Music Ally’s radar, we were impressed by the comprehensive suite of features that have historically been missing in similar tools. And little wonder, as, according to the Co:brand team, the platform was built in close collaboration with a number of record labels.?
• Co:brand offers a mix of an analytics software and creator campaign management tools for music industry professionals at record labels and agencies.?
• The company charges based on how many artists you track, and will track all of these artists catalogue.
• We take a look at its core functionalities and?features, pricing - and alternatives.

?? Subscribers can read Tools in full?here

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?? MUSIC ALLY JOBS

The latest and best jobs for the global music business, trusted by both top music industry companies and experienced professionals on top of their game.

Are you looking for a job? Click here to see the full list of vacancies!

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?? A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA...

?And finally… our daily Bulletin newsletter is loved by subscribers for its instant industry analysis - but secretly, the part they like most is the ‘A Little Something Extra’ section at the bottom of the email. Here's a few of the best recent links:

• Seminal?Chicago house mega-banger?‘Move Your Body’ was – like all the best songs – cobbled together?“in just 30 minutes by four postal workers after a tough shift on the letter-sorting machine.”
• The Barcelona Guitar Trio (Luis Robisco, Xavier Coll & Alí Arango) are a trio with a difference – it's three people... playing one guitar... all at once.?Here they are doing 'Billie Jean'.
• The European Space Agency has used dust from a 4.5 billion year old meteorite to….?3D-print LEGO bricks.

This is only a glimpse into this week's The Knowledge newsletter – subscribe for FREE?and every Friday it’ll arrive in your inbox with:

??? The best new platforms in TOOLS; ?? Highlights from our latest COUNTRY PROFILE REPORTS; ???? Some great and/or strange music in SOMETHING 4 THE WEEKEND; ?? A look back in TIME MACHINE; ?? The Music Ally Focus PODCAST; and ?? more links to our favourite unusual stuff in A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA.