When football becomes cultural infrastructure
When football becomes cultural infrastructure How Spotify and FC Barcelona turned a football sponsorship into one of the most sophisticated cultural marketing platforms in modern entertainment. Football and music were always connected Football and music have always belonged together. Long before Spotify existed, football clubs and music scenes were already deeply intertwined, particularly in Britain. […]
What is happening to culture through AI?
Culture has always evolved in relation to technology, each transformation reshaping not only how cultural forms are produced, but how they are experienced, shared and valued. What feels different today is not only the speed of change, but the nature of the relationship itself, which seems to be shifting from one of tools and mediation […]
Music passes $30 billion, powered by the rise of streaming
The global music industry has crossed a symbolic threshold, reaching $31.7 billion in 2025 — up 6.4% on the previous year — according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The milestone is often attributed to streaming, and not without reason. But the forces behind this growth are more uneven than the headline suggests. […]
Listening for what comes next: Scenes to watch in 2026
Every few years the music industry rediscovers the same lesson: by the time a new sound reaches charts, radio rotations or major playlists, the community that created it has usually been evolving somewhere else for quite some time. Historically, those early signals often emerged from physical geographies — local clubs, pirate radio, independent record stores. […]
Why do we miss David Bowie so much after 10 years?
Ten years after his death, the absence of David Bowie feels deeper than the loss of a legendary musician. Cultural history is full of great artists who died young or too soon, yet few absences continue to feel as intellectually and creatively relevant a decade later. Bowie is missed not only because of the music […]
What happens to music when anyone can create it?
Artificial intelligence has become an unavoidable presence in the music world, reshaping conversations across conservatories, studios, record labels and cultural institutions. Most public debates still orbit the same familiar questions: Can AI compose? Will artists be replaced? Is this the end of authenticity? These questions, while provocative, miss the deeper shift underway. Something more structural, […]
What Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rico residency tells us about the future of touring
8 de octubre de 2025 From San Juan to Berlin to Las Vegas, artists are rethinking what it means to go on tour — and who really benefits when they stay in one place. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been fascinated by how Bad Bunny turned his San Juan residency into something bigger than […]
The best music release strategies for independent artists in 2025
3 de octubre de 2025 The music industry has never been more crowded. In 2024, over 120,000 new tracks were uploaded every single day to streaming platforms —more music in one day than in the entire year of 1989. With such overwhelming competition, the real challenge is not recording songs but ensuring that they are […]
K-pop and the superfan economy: Innovation by design, expansion by strategy
9 de septiembre de 2025 K-pop and the superfan economy: From Seoul to the world When people think about innovation in music, the first images that come to mind are AI platforms, immersive venues like the Sphere in Las Vegas, or streaming’s latest algorithm. But the most fascinating experiment has been unfolding for more than […]