Alderbrook

Alderbrook's newsletter -- Leveling Up -- is almost three years old! 🎉 In this month's piece, we recap - ✍️ Our most read articles of the past couple years; 🎵 Our 2024 music playlist; and 📖 Some of the top content we've consumed over the past month or two. Happy holidays and hope you enjoy the read! 🎄👇 https://lnkd.in/em2wqFgD

Which music startups and investors are participating in the AI hype cycle? 🤖💰📈 Back in March 2023, we wrote about artificial intelligence’s potential value to the music industry and the barriers standing in the way of realizing that value. In this month's newsletter, we analyze funding activity among music AI startups. In doing so, we can try to 1) identify the areas that music AI builders see as the biggest opportunities and 2) observe which investors are most actively funding them. Hope you enjoy the read! 👇 https://lnkd.in/eRGg6iW8 #musicindustry #venturecapital #strategy

Congrats team RootNote on your pre-seed raise! We’re grateful to be along for this journey. 🚀 cc Jason Burchard

For the second month in a row, we have an exciting collaboration for our monthly newsletter! 🤝🧑💻🚀 Leveling Up is teaming up with Jesse Feister, Global Head of Creator Marketing at Twitch, to take a closer look at the music industry’s buzzword du jour: “superfans”. Much ink has been spilled covering this trend over the past few quarters. Industry leaders like Universal Music Group's CEO Lucian Grainge and Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl made it clear in their annual letters that superfans are a priority. In this piece, we aim to better understand the following - 👩🎤 Why are companies so excited about the potential of monetizing musician’s biggest fans in 2024? 🌎 How big could the superfan opportunity ultimately be for the industry? 🚧 What barriers stand in the way of unlocking that value? 🌊 And finally, how are participants positioning to ride this wave? Hope you enjoy the read! If so, you can subscribe to our free monthly newsletter at the link below. 👇 https://lnkd.in/eqCht-ir #musicindustry #superfans #strategy

Last year, Taylor Swift and Beyonce won at the box office with their concert films. Which other artists can replicate that? We answered that in a deep dive Trapital essay. Jimmy Stone from Alderbrook wrote a piece for us "The Rise of Concert Films" that answers this question. Here are a few highlights from his piece: "As a result, both [Beyonce and Taylor Swift] reportedly received an unprecedented 50% of ticket sales – a much higher split than the traditional creator/studio deal. "For comparison, actor Tom Cruise reportedly received just over 5% of Top Gun: Maverick’s gross ticket sales, equaling ~10% of film studio Paramount’s ~50% split of gross sales after the theaters got their ~50% cut. Cutting the studio from the split equation makes the concert film genre much more lucrative for artists." "All signs indicate the concert movie trend will continue over the next few years. On a recent earnings call, AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron confirmed as much... I think it makes sense for pop genre artists like Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, and Billie Eilish to explore concert films... I also wouldn’t be surprised to see top-charting artists in other genres – such as hip-hop (e.g., Drake), Latin (e.g., Bad Bunny), and Country (e.g., Morgan Wallen) – that haven’t historically been associated with top grossing concert movie projects." It was a great piece that breaks down the past, present, and future of these deals. Highly recommend out his full piece! Link in the comments below. Which other artists would have a commercially successful concert film at the box office?

We have an exciting collaboration for this month's newsletter! 🤝🧑💻🚀 We're teaming up with Trapital founder Dan Runcie to take a closer look at the booming concert film genre. Last year two concert films – Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce – topped the weekend box office charts in their respective opening weekends. Swift’s film reportedly was the top grossing concert film ever, making over $200 million at the global box office. At the same time, Swift's film was “only” the 22nd highest grossing movie at the global box office in 2023. Compared to video game movie adaptations, the film doesn't even crack the top 10 grossing of all-time. So is the concert film trend overhyped? In this piece, we’ll try to answer that question by exploring the following - 🎥 What is driving music artists and Hollywood to develop concert film projects? And importantly, why now? 📈 Which ingredients appear necessary to drive success in the genre? 🔮 Finally, where might this genre be headed? Hope you enjoy the read! (Links to the Trapital newsletter and podcast are included in the article.)👇 https://lnkd.in/emM8hM23 #concertfilm #musicindustry #strategy

🎵☁️ SoundCloud: Understanding Music Streaming’s Dark Horse ☁️🐴 This month's newsletter covers a company that we’ve wanted to write about for some time. SoundCloud is one of the most unique music technology companies we’ve come across. And yet, the company seems to receive less attention than larger streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. Many in the industry seem to believe its best days are in the past. When reports surfaced that SoundCloud is being shopped at a $1+ billion valuation, it felt like the right time for an Alderbrook Companies deep dive. In this piece, we'll explore - 🚀 How SoundCloud rose to prominence and some of the issues it has encountered along its journey. 🤝 The value proposition it brings to the table for artists and listeners. ⚖️ How the business is currently faring as it relates to user growth, financial results, and engagement. 🔮 Its differentiated vision for the future. 💸 And finally, our quick take on the likelihood of realizing a $1 billion valuation in the near-term. Grab a cup of coffee and hope you enjoy this deep dive on a fascinating company! 👇 https://lnkd.in/edXFBUUq #soundcloud #musicindustry #strategy

Congrats Will Jarvis & Lars Doucet! Excited for what’s to come for ValueBase in 2024.

2023 was another big year for Alderbrook Companies' newsletter - Leveling Up. Our readership grew 344% this year. We learned a ton through the writing process, met a bunch of super talented people, and in certain cases were invited to help with exciting projects. We intend to continue writing regularly in 2024, so hopefully Leveling Up continues to be interesting and/or entertaining to you. Our year-end review covers: - 2023’s five most read articles. - Our 2023 song playlist. - And some of the most interesting content we've consumed over the past month or two. Hope you enjoy Leveling Up's final edition of 2023! If you're not already a subscriber and enjoy our content, consider joining the ride. 😃👇 https://lnkd.in/egyiYzfA