Stardust

Hello! We’re working on our Stardust podcast coming to Apple Music in early 2021! Stay tuned.

Apple Acquires 'Platoon', A UK A&R Startup for Discovering Music Artists

Apple has added Platoon, a London-based A&R startup that is focused on discovering emerging music artists, according to Music Business Worldwide.

The acquisition was also confirmed by British newspaper The Telegraph. The acquisition shows Apple’s keen interest in reaching new up and coming music artists.

Platoon was founded in 2016 by Saul Klein who previously had co-founded the British video-on-demand service LoveFilm (now defunct), and Denzyl Feigelson, who has been an advisor to Apple on iTunes and Apple Music for 16 years, and a music industry veteran for 40 years.

Platoon worked with California singer, 16-year-old Billie Eilish before she signed with Interscope in 2017. Eilish debuted her new song "Come Out And Play" as the backdrop to Apple's "Share Your Gifts" holiday ad.

At its London headquarters, Feigelson leads Platoon's team of 12 full-time employees where it has two recording studios. Platoon offers support to its artists from tour support to original content, social media marketing and global expansion strategies. As an A&R company, Platoon focus on talent scouting and helping in developing the relationship between recording artists and songwriters. A&R staff often connect artists with record labels or publishing companies.

Apple has been highlighting emerging artists through its Up Next Program that began in April 2017. Apple Music has put its weight behind developing artists with Up Next, jumpstarted with artist 6lack (aka Ricardo Valdez), a 24-year-old rapper from Atlanta, GA. As part of the program, 6lack appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden, where he was introduced by Beats 1's Zane Lowe. Apple Music also promoted 6lack’s songs on their playlists and on the iTunes store. While the criteria for selection to the program has not been announced, 6lack was an unknown musician without any social media following or established fan base prior to his inclusion in the program.

“I may be extreme in saying that, but nobody knew who he was. And within his first week, “PRBLMS” got a million streams. That’s a metric. Within the first week, a guy that no one had heard about had the No. 3 song on the R&B charts in the [iTunes] Store, he sold 10,000 copies independently. And then, he was the No. 6 streaming song on the chart. This was back in May.”

— Carl Chery, Apple's head of Artist Curation

While no one had heard of 6lack, the first song of his that was released on Apple Music was extremely popular or as Chery said in an interview with Billboard, “on fire.”

WWDC: More of our Favorites - Podcasts, HomePod and Apple Music - Part 3

Apple has redesigned its entire App Store in iOS 11. Along with this large update, there is also a new Podcasts App. This is terrific news as discovery has been less accessible on Apple's podcast app.

1. Redesigned Podcasts App UI

While the overall idea of the app remains the same, the new Podcasts app in iOS 11 has significant changes to improve user experience with an improved interface design.

The podcast industry has also grown exponentially.

Podcast Consumption via Apple at WWDC 2017

At WWDC last month, Apple shared some statistics too:

• 400,000 Podcasts

• 14,000,000 Episodes created

• 10,000,000 Episodes downloaded

• 155 Countries for distribution and submission

A lot of key media players have also now forayed into the podcasting space, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BBC, NPR, CNN, Bloomberg, MTV, Vogue, Verge, ESPN, Disney, Buzzfeed, Entertainment News and more. Well known individuals for their business acumen or industry expertise have joined the bandwagon as well, offering insight via interviews with guests. A good example is LinkedIn's co-founder and Greylock partner, Reid Hoffman who interviews entrepreneurs and business leaders in his Masters of Scale podcast.

Improved Presentation

The new app addresses some of the problems in the prior iOS version where it was difficult to add all episodes to the library and the listening order did not truly reflect the content best. In the new Podcast app for iOS 11, you can:

• decide how episodes are ordered and recommended
• add the full season to your library, with the newest episode at the top
• have collections of episodes
• use Quick Play to pick up where you last left off
• easily find episodes with clear, concise titles

This new format is ideal for narrative and storytelling content and encourages listeners to hear the whole season and discover new episodes. There are also four new tabs along the bottom of the interface: Listen Now, Library, Browse and Search.

You can also add more detail about any episode. This is ideal for podcast trailers, season trailers and episode bonus content.

Podcast New UI Details via Apple at WWDC 2017

Podcast Episode Notes via Apple at WWDC 2017

Podcast Analytics

Apple has also added analytics accessible via iTunes Connect to help determine:

• how many people are listening
• how much do they actually listening
• where are they listening

Here's an example from the podcast The Very Hungry Tourists.

New Podcast Analytics via Apple at WWDC 2017

2. New HomePod, High Fidelity Sound for Your Home

Apple announced its new smart speaker, HomePod at WWDC to be released in December. While the new HomePod is similar to the Amazon Echo and Google Home in lacking a display and being activated by the voice, HomePod differentiates itself with superior sound quality.

Given our work with and love for audio at Elf, we’re keen on trying out the new HomePod for ourselves. The ability to have distortion-free high fidelity sound with directional control is very appealing. HomePod achieves this with 7 beam-forming tweeters that come with individual amplifiers and an upward-facing woofer and a 6-microphone array. The A8 chip powers Siri and also has room-sensing technology. With its entry into the home audio systems, HomePod takes on the likes of Sonos and also offers integration with Apple Music.

3. Updated Apple Music

Apple has also updated Apple Music so you can discover and share music and artists with your friends. We like this new feature as well as the option to play 2 different tracks in 2 different locations in your home using AirPlay 2. It's easier to control your home audio system and the speakers throughout your home.

Together, all these updates make for a much higher quality audio experience from discovery to playing audio. We're excited to contribute to this via our Hayden's podcast Stardust launching in early 2019.