(L-R) Global Head of Country Music at Spotify, John Marks and Lil Nas X visits the Spotify House during CMA Fest at Ole Red on June 06, 2019 in Nashville.
Brett Carlsen/Getty Images for SpotifyMonths after he ended a run as Spotify USA global head of country programming, John Marks has established a new consulting firm, JohnMarks.me, to assist artists and their associated teams as they develop streaming strategies.
Marks' five-year tenure at Spotify built atop his previous history as SiriusXM head of country programming and a lengthy programming background at radio stations in San Diego; Salt Lake City; Little Rock, Ark.; Beaumont, Texas; and Cincinnati.
That experience provides him an insider's perspective that mirrors the skills of the country industry at large: The collective business has established familiarity with promoting to the needs of broadcasters for decades, but it now focuses frequently on a newer streaming platform with its own set of data that's influenced by a different array of consumer uses and built-in functions. The language and the needs of the platform don't always overlap with the best practices at terrestrial radio.
"Even though there is no rhyme or reason to a lot of it, I've been able to look at the data on a lot of music, and I have what I feel is a reasonable approach to what is more likely to stream than others,"says Marks.
Marks' knowledge base includes insights on release strategies, social media and some A&R decisions.
"Even though there is no rhyme or reason to a lot of it, I've been able to look at the data on a lot of music, and I have what I feel is a reasonable approach to what is more likely to stream than others,"says Marks.
Marks' knowledge base includes insights on release strategies, social media and some A&R decisions.
NEWS
Lil Yachty usually does a great job at feeding his fans new music. It seems like every other week he's got new snippets to tease or loosies dropping on DSPS whenever he feels like it. Just several hours ago, the Georgia multi-hyphenate hopped on over to his SoundCloud page, tHE CONCRETE LeaK sYstem, to share some long-lost recordings.
Per HipHopNMore, there's 11 in total and the origins of them range from 2022-2025. Some of you may remember that Lil Yachty updated this account almost a year ago with 14 tracks. Back then he unleased some unheard collaborations with his 2016 XXL Freshman classmate 21 Savage and singer Vory.
In the time since then, Yachty did drop off a pair of freestyles as well. But this is the latest major collection to be added to tHE CONCRETE LeaK sYstem.
Overall, the cuts here feel reminiscent of his earlier material in that they are more trap focused. However, the main some extra charm with most of the beats featuring some slightly left-field quirks.
They definitely don't relate at all to what Lil Boat has been experimenting with solo catalog wise. His 2023 album Let's Start Here. was a psychedelic rock exploration. Then, there's his 2024 collaboration joint with James Blake, Bad Cameo.
On that, Lil Yachty stepped into the London artist's soundscape in some ways by bringing his warbly singing voice to neo-soul, alternative R&B, and ambient pop.
But unfortunately for the 27-year-old, him sharing of all of this music with his fans has been interrupted to some degree. That's because Yachty is still going back and forth with former Concrete Boys group mate, KARRAHBOOO.
Her initial split from Boat's collective was a shocking development when it originally happened about a year ago. However, as the two rappers repeatedly went at each other's throats, we began to learn more. Yachty was claiming that KARRAHBOOO was incredibly disrespectful to those involved with the group.
Moreover, it led to him claiming that he was writing all of her verses and tracks. KARRAHBOOO has since retaliated, of course, but she really went after him recently. Just two weeks ago, she alleged that he mistreats women poorly overall. "U have a daughter and u treating women like this is mindblowing like I know u never see her but still that doesn’t make sense how evil this man is to women (not just me)," she said in part.
