The music industry never stops and when it looks like this, it’s actually getting ready to evolve. We have to keep up as best as we can with all these musical trends, which could become protagonists or “just passing music” tracks on our playlists.
1. Musical trends: easy and truly global
The key word will be (or maybe already is): GLOBALIZATION. Nowadays listening to music coming from the other side of the globe, costs (almost) nothing.
In 2019 there will be an expansion of streaming services’ active users, on a par with the growth of the African, Indian and Asian markets.
Moreover, it seems that the great diffusion of “smart speakers” (with voice control) will involve an overhaul of songs titles, which will be more comprehensible to the inbuilt virtual assistant!
Are we going to listen to songs with hyper-simplified titles from all over the world? We’ll see, in the meantime the K-Pop “made in Korea” is already a fact since 2018, breaking boundaries and conventions.
2. Streaming on Spotify
Spotify, after becoming the world’s most popular music streaming service, will introduce several new features. A sort of artificial intelligence will be implemented within the platform, to provide more suitable contents and to create custom-made playlists, as well as the possibility to advertise our own songs on Discover Weekly.
Maybe our songs reproduced on our acoustic speakers will be an interesting “advice”!
In any case, the expansion of podcasting world makes Spotify an increasingly interesting “place”.
3. Let’s go local
According to LBBONLINE, the streaming platforms’ credit is that they made the removal of musical barriers possible. Now even minor artists can find their way into mainstream circuits trying to be known abroad. The increasingly collaborations between artists on different continents encourage the creativity on music production and the diversity of supply.
In Italy, SIAE has an office called Italia Music Export, to promote Italian artists abroad.
So: yes to global, but also keep an eye on what happens in your home country!
4. “Return” to concept albums
According to a select number of recording artists, radio DJs and music journalists, BBC tells us 8 predictions for music in 2019, and one of them is the return of the concept album. Maybe an album with tracks that revolve around a specific and unique theme will bring a little bit more meaning to listeners than they do individually. Maybe a concept album could attempt to reinforce the identity and personality of the bands. Are we going to love the concept album as in the past? We don’t know, but we will always be ready to test our loudspeakers!
