Radio Edit | 10.2.23

This week, we’re joined by Brandon Chase, co-creator of the massively popular TikTok channel Retirement House.

A little over two years ago you launched the Retirement House TikTok channel, which just hit 5 million followers. Where did this concept come from and how did you approach building a channel like this from scratch?

Retirement House was conceptualized after Adi Azran and I realized that seniors had been left out of the spotlight by the entertainment industry. We both worked in entertainment at Flighthouse, and decided to pitch our boss on a "TV show that aired on social media" and featured several senior citizen actors. We were given the green light and Flighthouse became the studio funding our project.

We put three months into brainstorming viral ideas and going through 400 virtual auditions before our first shoot. We knew that finding the perfect ensemble would be crucial for people to fall in love with their new internet grandparents. Luckily the hard work paid off when we woke up to 250k followers after our first post and hit 1 million in a week.

At first we were just filming easy social media trends, but soon realized the cast had much more to offer. We started writing sketches like "Three Grandpas on a Bench" so the cast could show their acting skills and we built a podcast so they could share their wisdom with the world. We've always wanted this to grow into something bigger than social media, and we are still avidly pursuing an actual TV show!

Interview w/ Brandon continued below

Live Nation drops merch fees at venues

Looking to improve the lives of touring musicians and help alleviate travel costs, Live Nation has announced a new program inspired by Willie Nelson.

Dubbed ‘On The Road Again,” the promoter will no longer be taking a fee on merch sold at their venues- allowing artists to take home 100% of merch profits at each show. Additionally, any acts playing Live Nation owned and operated clubs, both headliner and support acts, will receive a $1,500 gas and travel cash stipend per show along with their performance compensation.

With merch fees generally ranging between 15-30%, the program is expected to save artists tens of millions in touring costs and net revenue.

Behind Vegas’ jaw-dropping new venue

As U2 kicks off their residency at the brand new venue, the live music experience has been completely redefined. Stemming from owner James Dolan’s desire to maximize a venue space and own the content, Sphere’s plug-and-play will eventually allow the venue to host over 700 ticketed events per year- from concerts to film screenings and more. Let’s take a look at what makes Sphere the most unique venue in the world.

• Size 366 ft tall by 516 ft wide

• Capacity 20,000

• Cost $2.3 billion

• Initial budget: $1.2 billion

• Audio partnered with Berlin-based Holoplot and utilized the company’s patented 3D Audio-Beamforming technology to ensure that listeners throughout the venue would experience identical sound mixes.

• Visual 160,000 sq. ft LED screen

• Exosphere The venue’s exterior also presents a unique financial opportunity, already locking in partnerships with artists like Refik Anadol and YouTube to promote their NFL subscription product, Sunday Ticket

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SIGNINGS

Brittany Howard lands at Island

Range Media Partners has signed country artist Russell Dickerson and Chinese singer-songwriter Lay Zhang

Warner Records’ dance label Major Records has signed Scottish DJ-producer Sam Gellaitry

Landon Barker has signed with father Travis’ DTA Records

STREAMING | RADIO

Spotify launches new feature ‘Jam:’: combining their Collaborative and Blend playlist features, Jam allows premium users to launch a real-time collaborative playlist featuring a combination of user-selected and algorithmic-based recs with up to 32 friends

Neil Young’s absence on Spotify is costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars

Songtradr has acquired BandCamp from Epic Games

Poking holes in Deezer’s proposed artist-centric payment structure

LABEL | PUBLISHING

Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group announces new partnership with Gamma

ELSEWHERE

Neil Young’s absence on Spotify is costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars

How supersized country albums are stretching Nashville’s resources thin

Interview w/ Retirement House’s Brandon Chase continued

The channel has featured music guests like Yung Gravy, Lil Pump, and NLE Choppa. With so many different promotional channels on the internet, why do you think they're choosing Retirement House?

I think they've agreed to come onto our podcast for two reasons. First they recognize the unique juxtaposition between themselves and our cast of six senior citizens. It's such an unlikely pairing that it almost feels like a practical joke when you see them together. Thankfully it's produced some really unique conversations and we've noticed the artists really let their guards down and show a more human side of themselves when talking with our cast. Both of our audiences seem to love it and the artists tell us it's one of the more memorable interviews they've done.

The second reason is because I think they realize the way music gets promoted these days has changed drastically from just a few years ago. We were lucky enough to make Billboard's "Song Breaker" chart last year at #6 for helping the song "Playboy" by Jxzero go viral. We've used most of our guests' music in our videos in the past and I think they see how much viewers like the odd pairing of hip hop and seniors, so they're down to explore ways to keep expanding that relationship.

On its face, pairing rappers with a bunch of senior citizens feels a bit odd but watching their interviews it's cool to see them bring out different sides of each. other. The RH cast bringing out the rapper's wholesome side and the rappers bringing out the retirees' rebellious side. Was this a dynamic you intentionally wanted to create and why do you think the juxtaposition of these interviews has resonated with people?

We definitely hoped their differences would make a unique conversation but we were holding our breath during our first podcast with Lil Pump. We weren't sure if it was going to be awkward but luckily they found a lot of common ground and even discovered an endearing side to him I'd never seen in any of his other interviews. We like to think we're helping bridge the gap between generations by putting such opposite people into a conversation and showing that we're not so different after all.

Because you have people from all different age groups coming up with different topics, it must make a really unique discussion. What's your process like for coming up with your podcast topics / questions? How do you decide what direction the conversations go in?

I typically will send the cast a bunch of background info on the upcoming guest and a lot of videos to watch so they can familiarize themselves. I do give them note cards to hold while filming that are filled with questions they can fall back on but most of the time they just start talking and the magic forms itself. The questions are pretty simple ranging from their backstory, career, life lessons etc. The best moments are usually when they find something in common and just have a totally unscripted dialogue

Who would your dream music guest be?

Drake duhhhh

APPOINTMENTS

Beatport has promoted Charles Morgan to chief marketing officer

Big Machine Music has promoted Michelle Attardi to senior director, publishing

Doesn’t it seem like the best jobs are never posted online? That’s why each week we’re going to share an unlisted job opening from our network in an effort to connect people and opportunities.

This week’s unlisted job:

PR Assistant | New York

If you’re interested, send us your resume here and we’ll pass it on

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