Category: AUDIENCE

Global Pop Music 2.0 – A New Kind Of Star

There’s been a fundamental change to the idea that English is pop’s lingua franca. This development has been accompanied by a remarkable shift in the pop-star system itself. While bilingual artists surge into charts and playlists, joining the American rappers who have profoundly reshaped popular music in the last 20 years (the five most listened-to tracks on Spotify in 2018 were by US hip-hop acts), it’s a different story for the stars who emerged during the era we might call Pop 1.0. “The massive pop stars of yesteryear – Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake – are fading from the public consciousness. – The Guardian

Fortnite Now Has 200 Million Users. It’s Not Just A Game – It’s Become A Community-Building Platform

Fortnite’s most significant achievement may be the role it has come to play in the lives of millions. For these players, Fortnite has become a daily social square – a digital mall or virtual afterschool meetup that spans neighborhoods, cities, countries and continents. This role is powered by Fortnite’s free availability, robust voice chat, cross-platform functionality, and collaborative gameplay. Accordingly, examples abound of kids, adults and families simply hanging out or catching up on Fortnite while they play. – Redef

Met Museum, MIT, And Microsoft Unveil Joint AI Project

At the museum on Monday, “[the three partners] present[ed] five digital prototypes that harness artificial intelligence to make use of images of objects in the Met’s collection. … Visitors could sample applications like Storyteller, which uses voice recognition AI to conjure Met images illustrating whatever words a user utters aloud … [or] My Life, My Met, which uses AI to analyze a user’s Instagram’s posts and replaces the images with the closest matches to works in the Met’s collection.” — The Art Newspaper

Orlando Ballet Asks Its Customers Flat-Out If They’re Willing To Pay Extra For Live Music

“A survey from the ballet has been arriving in email inboxes with only two questions for recipients: ‘How much does live music affect your decision to purchase tickets to Orlando Ballet?’ and ‘Would you be willing to pay a small increase in ticket prices for a performance with live music?'” — Orlando Sentinel

Will Instagram Kill A Musician’s Famous Mystery?

Maybe the pressure of being mysterious was getting to superstar Frank Ocean, or maybe … well, who knows, with Ocean? But “with Ocean’s mask slipping, it is worth wondering how audience perceptions towards him might shift. From the off, Ocean felt like a pre-social-media artist, with a privacy that forced listeners to focus on the intricacies of his music rather than the life of the man behind it, adding to his enigma and giving rise to one of music’s most dedicated fanbases.” – The Guardian (UK)

How Story-Sharing Platform Wattpad Became A Hollywood Player

Beyond its handful of higher-profile productions, including a feature film coming this spring, Wattpad estimates that nearly 1,000 of its stories have been turned intotraditional books, TV shows, films and other digital content. It’s partnered with NBCUniversal, SYFY, CW Seed and others around the world to develop film and television projects, and last week it announced that it’s launching its own publishing imprint, Wattpad Books.  – Los Angeles Times

First Issue: When A Museum Wants To Be Relevant To Its Community – What Does Relevance Mean?

“Our breakthrough moment was when we took ownership of the fact that we didn’t need to write a “social impact statement” (which might be seen as competing with our mission statement). Rather, we simply needed to articulate the problem our community is facing that we are uniquely suited to address, the best solution we believe exists for that problem, and the concrete and tangible outcomes we’re going to measure that will demonstrate our positive social impact.” – Medium