The Spotify Fresh Finds Playlist was launched in 2016 and features up-and-coming artists which used data from music blogs and tastemakers.

Now the playlist has expanded into an “artist program” that will help independent artists by providing education and resources as well as opportunities for collaboration.

Artists selected by Spotify will have access to one-on-one mentorship with members of Spotify and a personalized Masterclass to learn how to best use Spotify for Artists tools (like Canvas and Marquee). There will be collaboration opportunities with songwriters and producers and the artists and producers/songwriters will release an original Spotify Singles track.

The four artists that debuted on the first Fresh Finds program are Wallice, Unusual Demont, Julia Wolf and EKKSTACY— they all just met up this morning in Times Square to see themselves on the Fresh Finds billboard.

Spotify is also rolling out new Fresh Finds playlists in the UK, Australia, Brazil, Spain, India, and more.

Soundcloud launched a new series of weekly artist events at Clubhouse.

The weekly artist event series starts at the Clubhouse on May 26th and will be hosted by a DJ, producer and former MTV host. Jasmine Solano will join the artists First on SoundCloud 2021, including Charmaine, She less, Child pen, Lourdiz, Otis kane, Payday, Sofia mills, Y SoFaygo.

SoundCloud says artists will invite collaborators, friends, and fans each week to join in live conversations and connect artists with musicians, influencers, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders.

Now that America has the virus on the run, the live show has reawakened. Are we in the clear? Many hope so. In fact, more shows are on the books now than in 2019.

“Around the world, people are showing the need to get out and socialise once again which reinforces our expectation that a return to concerts will be the logical progression as vaccines are readily available to everyone who wants to get one”, Rapino said.

He continues: “We are already seeing confirmed major tour dates for 2022 up double digits from the same time pre-pandemic in 2019 for 2020.

Live Nation’s Rapino did predict that live show would return by summer.

Instagram teamed up with Merchbar and will add shopping features to over 4,300 artists, labels and creators.

“The past year has been so challenging for the music industry and we hope that together with Merchbar, we can make it easier for artists to use Instagram to connect with their fans and support themselves with our shopping tools,” said Perry Bashkoff, Director, Music Partnerships at Instagram.

“Instagram brings artists and fans together in a totally unique and personal way. We’re thrilled to add another dimension to that connection with the integration of the tactile, physical goods fans treasure so much. This is one of those rare moments that is a win for the entire ecosystem, and we’re excited to enable these functionalities for artists and their supporting companies while providing fans a terrific experience for discovering and buying artist products,” said Edward Aten, CEO of Merchbar.

Speaking about merch. Our readers have been telling us to make KOAR shirts, but we still can’t decide on a color. If we did have merch, the instagram feature wouldn’t be available to us anyway, it’s only for select artists. If the feature was available to us, that would motivate me to choose on a color. Hurry up and serve everybody.

Now that TikTok has moved into the mainstream expect a major shaking on the music landscape.

Many professionals will leave the business because of the massive change.
It was find an act, develop the act, find some good songs, build some hype, and push it to radio. That has vanished. The blueprint of breaking an artist has completely changed. You may find yourself asking if there is a blue print at all?

Artist will need to learn a new skill.
You built an instagram following but it’s back to square one. You need to figure out TikTok if you want to succeed in the new music biz framework. Instagram was rather effortless. It was a platform that was used for photo dumping and captions. Emojis replaced engagement.

TikTok forces artists to perform.
This will cull the herd, especially for artists who can’t perform or entertain. TikTok is an amazing introspective tool. It tells you who can act, sing, and dance. It shines the light on Who Can and Who Can’t.

With TikTok, the music biz has become a totally barrier-free market.
Anyone who can act, sing, and dance can find themselves riding the algorithmic wave. The idea of mastering performance has increasingly gone by the wayside.

The TikTok platform has deplatformed the artist.
It’s not about the artist. It’s about the content and the song. This makes it harder for the manager to turn to the artist into brand. More streaming users say song matters more to them than the artist who performed it.

TikTok rewards content and not the creator.
An artist must constantly push out high quality content. It’s not for the lazy or the blockhead. Instagram rewarded the top tier artists with premier shelf space despite the content they rolled out. Sure, TikTok rewards their app stars, but it’s a fairer game. A better game than Instagram. Everybody must work for fame. Whether you’re a mom, a janitor, or Jennifer Aniston.