Distribution is in free fall today. Artists are releasing singles daily, weekly, and monthly. Over-saturation and noise are real issues today. It’s more challenging to get the word out with everyone fighting for attention. We are living in an attention economy. Other advise such as Jimmy Iovine that quality, not quantity should be barometers. The breakout artist of the year was Billie Eilish (Interscope). But she didn’t oversaturate with content. Everything she put out was good followed by spellbinding visuals. Plus, her music wasn’t commercial and radio wouldn’t touch her music. Ironically, her streams were through the roof. New breakout artists won’t be commercial. People are searching for really bizarre stuff. They’ll be outliers that will find an edge, building their own quadrant. Songs today focus on different topics. Issues like depression, anxiety, politics will probably be the focus in 2020. Artists today feel comfortable talking about their weaknesses. Of course, there are no rules. That can make it difficult to find a NO.1 . A big topic of discussion are influencers vs musicians. Although two can co-exist it has become a difficult puzzle. Should artists be influencers and can influencers become artists? Both are mutually exclusive. Sure artists are ultimately influencers but the Motivational Mandy or Be Yourself Brandy haven’t moved mountains in the artist space and deals will become less for those type of influencers. This takes a lot of reflection to figure out and ultimately 2020 will be an interesting year.