In this week’s edition of the RCS Weekly Music News Roundup, 3 Doors Down and the Roots drop new vinyl, sea shanties are trending, and Rolling Stone rolls into Twitch, but first, a completely unsurprising headline:

Canadian Music Fans Cannot Wait to Get Back to Live Shows

Can’t wait to play live again? Canadian music fans are right there with you.

Results released Feb. 8th, 2021 from a joint survey by Music Canada and Abacus Data reveal “music lovers can’t wait to get back to seeing shows, once it’s safe to do so.” The survey also reveals:

  • Music fans consider festivals, concert halls, pubs, and other live music venues as economically and culturally essential.
  • They worry about music venues surviving the pandemic.
  • They fear “fewer musicians and music will be created, and new and upcoming musicians will be lost without the opportunity of playing in live music venues.”

“The research substantiates everything we’ve been hearing,” says Erin Benjamin, President and CEO of the Canadian Live Music Association. “Venues are closing their doors in increasing numbers, for circumstances beyond their control, and people are recognizing the extent of the loss, and what that loss means—economically, culturally, and socially.”

3 Doors Down and The Roots Drop New Vinyl Releases in March

Some weeks ago, we wrote about the continuing rise of vinyl, and 3 Doors Down provides the latest evidence of this trend. On March 26th, 2021, 3 Doors Down will drop a re-mastered 20th Anniversary edition of their debut studio album The Better Life—along with the nine-song Escatawpa Sessions—as a 3LP box set on high-quality vinyl. The release includes:

  • three previously unreleased tracks
  • a custom lithograph
  • a six-page booklet with never-before-seen photos
  • extensive liner notes
  • interviews with the band

Similarly, The Roots drop a deluxe 3LP, 4LP, and digital deluxe collection of their ground-breaking second studio album Do You Want More?!!!??! on March 12th, 2021. The 3LP deluxe vinyl edition features five bonus tracks, five remixes, and a 24-page booklet including images taken by photographer Mpozi Tolbert and track-by-track commentary. The 4LP vinyl edition features all the bonuses of the 3LP collection plus eight additional bonus tracks and two remix versions of “Distortion to Static.”

Both releases by 3 Doors Down and The Roots reflect one of the fundamental reasons why vinyl is on the rise. Namely, the releases provide an extensive package of exclusives, artwork, and other physical goodies that you can’t get from streaming.

Rolling Stone Slated to Go Live on Twitch

In a move to engage younger audiences, Rolling Stone magazine is launching a video channel on Twitch and will begin broadcasting five days a week starting March 1st, 2021. The launch (to be called Rolling Stone on Twitch) marks the first original-content deal by a mainstream music publication on a platform for video gamers, and Twitch hopes the deal will help broaden its reach.

Sea Shanties Now Trending (Yup, Sea Shanties)

What do you do with a drunken sailor singing sea shanties er-lie in the mornin’? You tell him the latest findings from Statista: Sea shanties are trending. In January 2021, Google announced sea shanty searches were at the highest rate in the search engine’s history, and Twitter has declared 2021 “The Year of the Shanty.”

Facebook Keeps on Growing

Our blog “Why NOT to Ignore Facebook to Promote Your Band” may be a few months old, but it’s relevance remains for bands wanting to build audiences. According to findings released Feb. 2nd, 2021 by Statista, Facebook’s number of monthly users has steadily grown for the past 16 years to hit 2.8 billion users worldwide at the end of 2020. (That’s roughly a third of the world’s population.)

Instagram clocked in with roughly half the number of users, and Twitter user numbers (surpassed by Reddit, Pinterest, and even Snapchat) have so steadily dropped over the past seven years that Forbes recently called the network “a fading Twitter,” and likened it to “a television set without shows to watch.”

Mixcloud LIVE—Now Live

Having beta-tested a new livestreaming service in 2020, Mixcloud recently went live with their appropriately named Mixcloud LIVE. Available exclusively to Mixcloud Pro creators, Mixcloud LIVE offers core features like:

  • the ability to legally save recordings of livestreams
  • high-fidelity 320kpbs audio
  • the ability for creators to monetize content

The new platform also includes engagement stats, listener metrics, and scheduling for uploads, plus a 30-day trial.

One thing to keep in mind:

Mixcloud Pro is currently $15 a month (or $180 a year), and as noted in our recent blog, over half of music fans did not enjoy livestreamed performances in 2020, meaning bands did not realize much income from livestreaming (if any). So, if you decide to explore Mixcloud LIVE, you should consider subscription fees as a band promotional expense.

Foo Fighters Release Medicine at Midnight

From the band that gave us the hilarious parody ad FreshPotix, the Foo Fighters have just released their 10th studio album, Medicine at Midnight. Accompanied by a complete range of cool swag (including a Medicine at Midnight wall flag, T-shirt, beanie, and button sticker pack), the album remains available in three formats (at the time of this post):

  • Black vinyl
  • CD
  • Digital download

The ultra-cool, exclusive purple smoke vinyl album is currently sold out, which reflects how this newsletter started.

In a world of streaming, vinyl isn’t just on the rise. It’s bringing along some pretty sweet colors.

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