| | | | MUSIC MARKETING TIPS, MUST-KNOW SKILLS & ESSENTIAL NEWS Need more Knowledge? Music Ally Pro will teach you all the skills you need! | | | | | | | Hi , and welcome to The Knowledge – Music Ally's weekly ¯\_(ć)_/¯ at the modern music industry. This is the email that has found the website that gives you, to quote Spinal Tap's David St. Hubbins, too much f*cking perspective. Below are highlights of the news, tips, analysis and learning that make up our industry-leading subscriber services. Please forward this signup link to anyone who'd like a FREE Music Ally account – and for this newsletter to jingle into their inbox each Friday. (And hit reply if you spend all day nudging information around in a spreadsheet, and would much prefer to do it like this, in 1983.) š Seasonal note: Music Ally is taking a well-earned winter pause as of next week. We'll return in the new year and OH GOD OH GOD CAN YOU BELIEVE 2025 HAS GONE SO FAST. Have a great break, everyone :) š
This week's Knowledge – in-depth and at-a-glance:
š¬ BULLETIN NEWS: Spotify offers 'more control' starting with Prompted Playlist
š CHRISTMAS NEWS: TikTok and Apple Music to stream Mariah Carey Christmas show
šµš« SOMETHING 4 THE WEEKEND: Weekly, week-ending music, in time for the weekend
š§ FOCUS PODCAST: Genius steals - this month's best new music marketing campaigns
š¤ A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA... Our favourite unusual stuff found online this week
Note: Ⓜ️ = link to Music Ally subscriber content
| | | š§ The Price of Music Podcast is your weekly music biz explainer! It's hosted by the BBC's Steve Lamacq and Music Ally's Stuart Dredge. Each week they discuss the hot stories and important trends in the global music business – and answer listeners' questions (including the ones you've always been afraid to ask...)
Listen now! Spotify / Apple / YouTube / Other | | | | š¬ BULLETIN NEWS: Spotify offers 'more control' starting with Prompted Playlist "For the first time, Spotify is giving users the power to steer the algorithm," is how the streaming service's latest announcement begins. "Imagine a Spotify that doesn't just passively learn from you but literally listens to you. One you can steer and shape with your own words," it continues. - If you're reading those portentous words thinking some kind of user-prompted AI playlist is about to hove into view… give yourself a biscuit. What was being announced was 'Prompted Playlist' and it launched on 11 December for Premium subscribers in New Zealand as an early-access beta.
- It's an evolution of the 'AI Playlists' feature that Spotify launched in beta in April 2024, but with some notable bells and whistles added in.
- In the blog post, soon-to-be co-CEO Gustav Sƶderstrƶm teased the feature as "the beginning of a new phase where listeners take the lead" and where Spotify is "more personal, more responsive, more intelligent, and more aware of the world and culture around it".
- This is a wider trend rather than a single streaming service revolutionising All The Things on its own. Conversational interfaces paired with recommendations digging deep into each listener's history and habits will become the norm over the coming years.
š Read more about what this means for musicians and rightsholders here. | |  | | ⚡ TROLLEY: Powering Fast, Compliant Payouts for the Music Industry
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- ✅ Streamline tax reporting with built-in W-9/W-8 collection and automated tax form production, cutting down year-end admin work.
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| | | š CHRISTMAS NEWS: TikTok and Apple Music to stream Mariah Carey Christmas show Mariah Carey may be one of the artists most hard-done-by in streaming services' end-of-year recaps, given that most don't include streams from December. - But she is one of the biggest winners of the festive season thanks to evergreen streams of 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' – and her now-traditional series of Christmas concerts.
- This year, the final show of her Las Vegas residency will be streamed globally by TikTok and Apple Music, in a partnership with Gamma.
- The 13 December concert will be livestreamed in HD by both platforms, with Apple Music getting exclusivity on replays afterwards.
š Read more here. | |  |
šµš« SOMETHING 4 THE WEEKEND: Weekly, week-ending music for the weekend
Isn't it a funny how in the music biz we spend so long yakking about strategies and platforms and budgets and stuff, and the actual music can sometimes feel a bit relegated to "oh yeah, and that too" status?
This is the bit of The Knowledge that rights that wrong – and gives you something good to listen over the weekend.
This week, forgive us, because we've shared some of this before, but there's something joyous about watching archive videos of people fiddling with emergent technology that later revolutionised music. (See, for instance, this video of a young Cory Doctorow in 1995 explaining how the Internet Underground Music Archive works.) Going back a little further is The Knowledge's fave acid/jungle/etc pioneer A Guy Called Gerald explaining in the late 80s how he makes amazing dance music with a bunch of gear that can literally be found in museums now. Which in turn leads us nicely to A Guy called Gerald meeting fellow pioneer Derrick May in 1990.
We've also previously shared this classic clip of Jeff Mills squatting in an empty room making terrific music with only a drum machine, but let's go back even further and consider how people used to dance to his music on TV in 1983. And with that, folks, a very funky/happy holidays to you all from your pals at Something 4 The Weekend. | |  | Pocket Gamer Connects London 2026 returns January 19–20 — bigger than ever, across The Brewery and The Barbican Centre! Join 3,000+ games industry professionals for two unmissable days of content, connection, and collaboration. New for 2026: Beyond Games – The Transmedia Summit and The Apps Business Summit. Network through MeetToMatch, meet developers, investors, publishers, media and more, and celebrate at the Global Connects Party. š
January 19–20, 2026 | London | | | š§ FOCUS PODCAST: Genius steals - this month's best new music marketing campaigns We're refreshing the Music Ally Focus podcast (or should that be re-Focusing?) for our many music marketing listeners. We'll now be publishing regular episodees that spotlight excellent work. - We're calling it "Genius Steals" - regular host Joe Sparrow will ask the questions to Music Ally's Director of Marketing and Strategy Marlen HĆ¼llbrock
- In this episode Marlen explains why a bunch of great campaigns caught her eye recently, including a Lily Allen USB stick that you might get behind; Sleep Token's colouring book; the Kinks' tea; and lots more
- Also getting a mention this week: Fred again.., TOMORA, Sofi Merone, SAILORR, JADE, berlioz, Eli, Gunna and Katseye
- It's ideal for anyone who wants to get up to speed quickly and be inspired by the latest marketing ideas
š Listen here or wherever you usually get your podcasts. | |  | š¼ Music Ally Jobs - The latest and best jobs for the global music business, trusted by both top music industry companies and experienced professionals on top of their game.
Are you looking for a job? Click here to see the full list of vacancies! | | š¤ A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA...
And finally… our daily Bulletin newsletter is loved by subscribers for its instant industry analysis - but secretly, the part they like most is the 'A Little Something Extra' section at the bottom of the email. Here's a few of the best recent links and a couple of Knowledge extras: | | | š§ Music Ally Subscribers get so much more Knowledge! Have you got your FREE Music Ally account yet? Our free account lets you access up to 10 Music Ally News and Analysis articles from our premium paid service every month – and it only takes 30 seconds to sign up. Click here and dig in! | | | But wait! There's more! Our paid premium subscriber account gives you unlimited access to news and analysis, Sandbox digital marketing guides, Behind The Campaign deep-dives, big-picture Insight Reports, Country Profile reports... all with the music marketing, tech, and industry focus that makes Music Ally a must-have resource for key decision-makers in the music industry. Check it out here! | | | | Music Ally Pro is our powerful new platform consisting of an integrated suite of knowledge and skills tools, a responsive AI AllyBot that draws from our full insight resources, and a unique marketing campaigns database. We also offer in-house learning and development as well as marketing strategy and implementation for labels, managers, artists and publishers. | | | | | | | |
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