Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
Amid the endless thinkpieces on Apple Music, this one from Music Business Worldwide stood out, with its insightful projections on how the new streaming service will affect record labels. The idea that Apple could single-handedly launch an artist without label involvement was particularly interesting. I don’t think they’ll be doing this regularly any time soon, but they certainly have the power to make it happen to prove a point and intimidate the labels. That’s why I’m featuring their guinea pig, singer-songwriter Loren Kramar, today. Loren fits alongside Tobias Jesso Jr, Tor Miller and BØRNS in the American troubadour trend, and as none of them have quite crossed over yet, with Apple’s support he could jump ahead. His song My Life was used in their WWDC presentation and a few days later appeared on YouTube and, of course, iTunes. I will be interested to see how Apple promote Loren and how long he holds out before signing a major label deal. Conspiracy theories suggest Loren has existing links to Jimmy Iovine and Interscope, so he's not a typical unsigned artist, as Apple have implied. But the fact is he's not famous or successful, and if he is in a few months, Apple will have done their job.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCiiGY2NAMU]