Music Week’s round-up of essential music biz stories you might have missed...
Post reality
Immersive content and technology company Supersphere has announced that Post Malone will stream his upcoming Raleigh, North Carolina concert in virtual reality through Oculus Venues. Fans can tune into the live broadcast on October 17 at 8pm ET.
The broadcast will allow viewers to watch Post Malone perform live in an immersive 180-degree VR concert experience. The deal was brokered by UTA. Supersphere recently partnered with Billie Eilish on her When We All Fall Asleep tour.
Gay Times x Apple Music
Media brand Gay Times has launched the breaking artist programme Elevate on Apple Music. It is designed to catapult emerging LGBTQ artists into bigger global projects and opportunities. Joesef is the first Elevate artist.
Earlier this year Gay Times launched on Apple Music with a series of curated playlists.
Smart move
Grammy-nominated K Flay has lauched a microcast (a podcast shorter than 10 minutes) designed for smart speakers. Titled What Am I Doing Here?, it was developed to support her current album, Solutions, and features guests including Sam Harris (X-Ambassadors), Bishop Briggs and Zac Carper.
“K Flay is an innovator in the space and feels it’s important to provide this unique content everywhere her fans are listening via voice assistants, given their current prevalence and their future potential for growth in the home, the car, and on mobile,” said Lars Murray, partner at PopCult Worldwide, which produces the microcast.
Fully SoundAware
SoundAware is expanding its senior team with the appointment of Floris Slootmans to streamline the international business development of the Dutch company. SoundAware provides realtime automatic content recognition and recently expanded its portfolio with Sabam, the Belgian Association of Authors, Composers and Publishers.
“We are delighted to have someone of Floris’ calibre and experience step up to join us,” said Harold de Groot, managing director of SoundAware. “We are at a critical moment and we need dedicated business development to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead. He is a strong communicator with deep knowledge of the European market of authors, composers and publishers.”
Beer label
Decca Records and Portobello Brewing Company have launched their collaborative beer, Decca Supreme Ale. The ale is part of the label’s 90th anniversary celebrations.
Decca 90 curator Daryl Easlea said: “To mark the final phase of Decca’s 90th anniversary, we are absolutely delighted to celebrate with this fine session ale brewed by our friends at the Portobello Brewery.”
