I. Business

Vice Raises Yet Another Sizable Investment Round 

As if there was any debate over the value of video content, Vice Media just secured an investment of $450 million dollars giving the growing Media powerhouse a $5.7 billion dollar valuation. Following suite in the media space, Vice plans on using the funds to build out a subscription streaming service, as well as a  direct-to-consumer video service. Both Walt Disney and Century Fox already have minority stake in Vice, and there are talks that this injection of capital may be used to pave the road to IPO. For some more insight head here.

 

II. Music & Tech

Sponsored Songs on Spotify

Spotify recently introduced a feature that allows brands to sponsor a song and users can quickly save the song to a playlist. The songs are selected based on a user’s listening tastes and subscribers are have the option to turn off the feature if they so choose. While Spotify already gives brands the opportunity to sponsor popular playlists, the streaming service provider has had to get creative in order to pay down debt as they prep for IPO. Check out more here.

 

Pandora “Sounds Like You” : NYC : Homegrown Line Up

Last week Pandora announced Nas, Young M.A., Dave East, and Biz Markie will be performing at the “Sounds Like You” : NYC event on July 19th at Brooklyn Steel. “Sounds Like You” is a campaign Pandora rolled out at the beginning of Q3 and the Brooklyn based event is being used to generate awareness. With a rebranding at the end of 2016, the “Sounds Like You” marketing push, and an influx of capital, the next 18 months should be an eventful time for Pandora. Read more here.

Twitter #musicishappening

Twitter recently launched a music promotion campaign with the support of Chance the Rapper, titled “Music is happening”. As a whole, social platforms seem to be making more of an effort to leverage their network for the purpose of music discovery. Check it out here.

 

Facebook : Video Creation App

Facebook wants more video content, so they are giving verified accounts a tailor made video creation app. By targeting creators, Facebook seems to be providing a “simple” production solution that should help to meet the seemingly endless demand for video content. Facebook made the announcement at Anaheim’s annual Vidcon conference. Get more here.

 

III. Entrepreneurship

Daryl DMC McDaniels a Hip Hop Super Hero

“It’s comic book, it’s art, it’s cartoonish, but it’s hip hop.”

Check out the comic book art of Daryl DMC McDaniels. DMC is a self proclaimed comic book enthusiast and credits the imaginative concepts and story lines he read as a kid to motivating him to take on his persona as a hip hop artist. Check out the video, and listen to DMC speak about the cross section between comic books, art, and hip hop here.

 

Courtesy of LineForLine. Artists get started here.