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the new generation

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Hey! I'm still thinking about Anora’s success at the Academy Awards. Neon, the film's distributor, spent around $18 million on its Oscars campaign. That's three times higher than the movie's $6 million production budget.

Let’s switch gears to the Grammys. How much did it cost to produce Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter? How much was spent by Columbia Records and Parkwood Entertainment on her campaign (including the Netflix Christmas Day halftime show)?

I have a ballpark idea, but the numbers shouldn’t come from me. It should come from the handful of people who know the exact answer. This is why I made the case for more transparency. It grows the pie for everyone involved.

For today’s episode, we reshared an evergreen topic—breaking through the noise. 2024 was a big year for newer artists in music who gained attention, but there’s still a gap between them and the biggest artists in the world.

You can listen to my conversation with Tati Cirisano here, or read below. Despite the difficulty to break through in all forms of media, I’m optimistic for the people who put out excellent work. Let’s dive in.

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​Trapital Summit: Super Early Bird Tickets Here

You might have seen my teaser on social media about “9.10.25.” That’s the date for our next Trapital Summit.

Mark your calendar. On September 10, 2025, we’ll be at NeueHouse Hollywood in Los Angeles. Since we ran out of tickets last year, we’re getting an early start given the heightened interest. We’re offering a super early bird discount that ends April 30.

Don’t be the person who scrolls through the highlights after the event and says, “Wow, looks amazing. I have to be there next year.” This message is literally meant for you! Register here.​

The Upside of Struggling to Break Through

I’ve been writing this newsletter for a while. It’s been seven years, as of last week! I’ve met plenty of people who have started and stopped their own newsletters in all sorts of industries. I know all the trends on what works and doesn’t work. I could write a whole book on it.

This year though, I’ve heard more from people who feel like the “best days” are behind us. The email marketing platforms have made it easier than ever to spin up a newsletter and get started. Having a newsletter is no longer a differentiator. Now, it's table stakes. The inbox is more crowded than ever. Social media algorithms made it tougher to push your followers to an email list. Plus, video captures more attention from audiences than ever before.

But the newsletters that last are rarely just newsletters. Most have built a real company around their work. There’s a brand there that resonates with its target audience. The company is focused on a market that’s willing to pay for what they offer. And operators need to have the endurance to continue. Believe me, I’ve made my fair share of pivots with Trapital and have experienced many of these shifts.

The encouraging part is that most people don’t have the endurance. Like Jay Z said when he talked to Warren Buffett, “The genius thing is that we did was, we never gave up.”

These conversations about newsletters sound like the discussions in music for the past few years. By 2021, TikTok began to saturate, record labels realized that many of the acts they signed from viral TikTok clips wouldn’t pay off, and the algorithms got stronger.

It became harder for new acts to break through. The newer artists who did break through, like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Shaboozey, aren’t “new.” It took them years to get where they are. The biggest stars from the late 2000s and early 2010s rose up because of their talent. But the reason that many of them are still the biggest stars today has more to do with their timing than their talent.

This is why I revisited our episode, Can New Superstars Ever Surpass Old Superstars? A few things have changed since our December 2023 recording, but the sentiment still holds.

Despite these trends, I believe that now is still the best time to be an artist. I feel similarly about most forms of media, even people who have newsletters.

The truth that few want to admit is that these long-lost “glory days” also elevated a lot of mediocrity. There was plenty of success for subpar writing, the summarization of Wikipedia articles, artists who sounded like exact replicas of established stars, and podcasts that gained traction solely because of the well-known name attached to it. It’s not just the biggest artists in the world who thrived off of monetizable mid!

It’s harder for forgettable work to break through off of clever distribution tactics. But excellent work that’s uniquely positioned can still find its audience and thrive. It may take more effort and resources and is still subject to market timing, but it’s possible. That’s what pushes successful independent artists to pursue greatness. That’s what pushes me to still make the best podcast possible week after week. And I hope that’s what pushes you with your work in your respective fields.

For more on this topic, you should follow artists managers and indie label owners like Barry Johnson, Kei Henderson, and Zeke Nicholson. They’ve managed some of the most successful artists and are transparent about the realities. Like most things in music, the topics discussed in this industry today will likely be similar in other industries.

Listen here:
​​Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Overcast​

CHARTMETRIC STAT OF THE WEEK - SZA

Following her Super Bowl halftime performance and the release of the deluxe version of SOS, SZA's Spotify monthly listeners have surged to 97 million as of March 11, 2025. No wonder the concert tickets for SZA's tour with Kendrick Lamar, who has 111 million listeners.

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Dan Runcie
Founder of Trapital

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