it's a celebration

Hey! Last week I spent way too much time watching Kwame Brown videos. He's been an NBA punchline for two decades, so I can't blame him for calling out the haters and milking the moment. Kwame has the energy of someone who wears all black Nike Air Force 1s, and you can't mess with someone at that level. Let's hope it stays fun and no one gets hurt!

This week's memo covers Trapital's sponsorship opportunities, the future of livestream events post-pandemic, and hip-hop's 50th anniversary in 2023.

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new pod: Tracy Chan, Twitch

Tracy Chan, Twitch's VP Head of Music came on the Trapital Podcast to share some impressive stats:

• Artists making $25K+ have grown 16x since Jan 2020.
• For artists making $50K+, the median viewership is 183 fans. 183! That's $274 per fan.

Tracy and I talked about how artists make money on the platform, finding 100 True Fans, and the creator economy. Tracy also worked at Spotify and YouTube to build their creator platforms, so he gets this space better than anyone.

Tap in on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get podcasts.

Reach the people taking hip-hop to the next level

Q3 is right around the corner, which means it's time for Trapital to get ready for newsletter sponsorships for the quarter.

If you've read this memo for the past few months, you've seen a few sponsors get highlighted. Next quarter, I plan to ramp this up. Here are some insights:

10K+ subscribers, 50%+ open rate, 2.5% sponsor click rate

• Industry: 35% Music, 20% Tech, 13% Media.
• Race: 37% Black, 36% White, 12% Asian, 8% Latino.
• Income: 63% live in households that earn $100K+, 10% earn $400K+
• Position: 38% founders, C-level, or partners

These are the most influential leaders in music, media, and tech. They understand hip-hop's influence and stay ahead of the curve. If you want to reach them, then let's talk!

Sponsor packages start at $750 and scale up from there. Discounts are offered for multiple weeks. Prices subject to change as the audience grows.

Read Trapital's Q3 Sponsor Kit to learn more. Please fill out this short form if interested!

The Business of Hip Hop's 50th Birthday

Last week, Mass Appeal announced Hip Hop 50, an upcoming documentary series on Showtime. Universal Hip Hop Museum also broke ground and hopes to open by 2023.

August 11, 2023. That's the date hip-hop will recognize its 50th anniversary. On that day in 1973, DJ Kool Herc hosted a back-to-school jam in the Bronx, and the rest is history.

When anniversaries are done right, everyone wins. Mass Appeal's promo video sets the stage for a three-year celebration full of content and events. The umbrella of 'Hip Hop 50' should attract more attention per event, which gets more brand partners involved. The celebration becomes greater than the sum of the individual events.

Content x commerce. Hip Hop 50 makes sense for Mass Appeal's business model. The company is a creative agency, content studio, and record label. The content (docuseries, music, podcasts) builds the base for the agency that works with Fortune 500 companies. Hip Hop 50 is a chance to extend the commerce into B2C products too. Each event is an opportunity to release associated memorabilia, merch, and more.

The perfect balance. Meanwhile, the Universal Hip Hop Museum finally started construction after pandemic delays. Unfortunately, museums have a complicated place in hip-hop. High-end museums become inaccessible to some. Low brow exhibits "dumb down the culture." There's a fine balance to strike, especially in the age of Instagram. It's hard to ignore popular IG-made spots like The Museum of Ice Cream and the Trap Music Museum in Atlanta.

Since this hip-hop museum in New York, it will celebrate the city's influence and honor the impact from all regions across the world. But that's an ambitious task. It's hard for museums to cover a wide range of subjects, even in the same niche. Soon enough other regions will open their own hip-hop museums to reflect the local culture.

Learn more about Mass Appeal's strategy in my Trapital Podcast interview with CEO Peter Bittenbender. Read more about the Universal Hip Hop Museum here.

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The Demand for Livestreams Post-Pandemic

Last week, Spotify announced that it will sell $15 tickets for livestream virtual concerts. Now that live events are coming back, it's time to discuss what these events look like in a post-pandemic world.

Pandemic novelty or here to last? In December, I tweeted a bold prediction that Travis Scott would not do another 50+ city concert tour given the success of his Fortnite experience. I'll admit, I had too much dip on my chip that day. I no longer believe that's true. But it helped me better understand where livestream events are heading. Here's what we've learned:

Successful events tap into existing demand. The best run event was Dua Lipa's Studio 2054. She dropped Future Nostalgia at the beginning of the pandemic and couldn't go on tour. She was hesitant about the livestream at first, but she found a way to make it unique.

She charged fans in most markets $10 (and $15 for VIP) and charged Tencent and Ganaa to broadcast in China and India, respectively. 5 million total fans watched. 263,000 paid $10 each. That's $2.63 million in revenue, not including the revenue from Tencent and Ganaa, or the revenue she still collects from on-demand access to the $20 event + documentary. She sold that thing like a pay-per-view boxing match.

Travis Scott's Fortnite and Lil' Nas X's Roblox event were also successful because they lined up with engaged audiences. Those online game platforms capture tons of attention, and both artists have fans that were already familiar with each respective online game.

The least successful events needed more than just an artist. There are plenty of superstars who tried events that didn't take off. The Weeknd's livestream TikTok concert drew in 2 million total viewers and 275,000 concurrent. Not bad, but nowhere near Travis Scott-Fortnite or Lil Nas X-Roblox. TikTok is huge, but it's not known for interactive events like that. There was no existing base.

Similarly, both Lil' Uzi Vert and Megan Thee Stallion hosted ticketed Live Nation livestream events for $15 in August 2020. But the events came and went with little buzz. Uzi has shared his lukewarm feelings about his latest album Eternal Atake, so I doubt he pushed the event as much as he could have. Plus, it's Uzi! This is the same guy who implanted a $24 diamond in his forehead. He's always moved a little different.

Meanwhile, Meg was already quite visible. In 2020, she performed at most mainstream music award shows, had the most talked-about music video of the year, notable late-night show performances. You had to be a diehard Hottie to pay $15 for a one-off concert of hers.

The challenge for Spotify. Spotify may have hundreds of millions of users, but it has none of the features that make online gaming platforms so effective at livestream concerts. Can Spotify create a Studio 2054-level experience for all of its ticketed livestream events? Maybe. But Dua's event took five months to pull off. It's much more bespoke than what Spotify will offer artists.​

Spotify's advantage is its ability to target users. It knows more about music fans than any other music company, which is valuable. But great data isn't enough to capture a livestream audience.

Read more about Spotify's livestream plans at Spotify.live​

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Coming soon from Trapital

Essay on the major record labels - coming soon!