Every surprise coming from Lume’s launch

Twenty-five artists have signed on, their archives have been rummaged through, and Lorde will soon be Lume-ing: Chris Schulz gives the new music platform, which launches today, an exclusive spin.

Email notifications are pinging, Slack messages are flying and brows are furrowed. Inside the Morningside office of Lume, there’s a sudden gasp. “Supergroove wants to talk,” says Janine Russell. “Can you imagine?” There are nods of approval, murmurs of support. Heads return to screens and the notifications continue.

It’s all go at Lume, the startup co-founded by The Spinoff’s Duncan Greive, alongside Sacha Judd, Tim Harper and Justin Warren. Scheduled to launch on app stores today, the music platform offers fans the chance to pay $25 to “go deeper” on albums packaged with bonus content like videos, photos, interviews, b-sides and exclusives. 

It is, Lume’s founders say, a response to a broken streaming model that returns a pittance to artists. Lume offers a higher rate of return, with 80% of each sale going to the artist. It has big backers, including investment from Substack’s Hamish McKenzie, Letterboxd’s Karl von Randow and pop star Ella Yelich-O’Connor, aka Lorde. 

Twenty-five local artists have become early adopters, with albums by Bic Runga, Tiki Taane, Reb Fountain, Fur Patrol, The Phoenix Foundation, Lontalius and Dick Move available when today’s launch button is pushed. Thanks to a recent publishing deal, Lume will be available worldwide too. “If you’re in London, you can download a Lume,” says Harper. 

This past Monday, a checklist showed how much work still needed to happen. Just 10 of those 25 albums had red ticks of approval beside them. Assets for Bic Runga’s Red Sunset were needed. A new album of unreleased material by reclusive Auckland rock act Voom required sign-off. “Two of the four Fur Patrol members have approved,” announced Russell, Lume’s artist liaison, to more nods.

Lume’s launch was delayed from mid-June to mid-July, pushed out to help negotiate international deals. Even then, staff admit they were stretching themselves to get it ready. While no one’s yet spent the night in the office, Warren expected he and Lume’s engineers would pull several all-nighters. “There will definitely be some late nights,” he said.

At the very reasonable time of 10am, I was given a very strong coffee and an all-access pass to see how everyone will experience Lume when it launches today. “You’re the first to experience it,” Harper told me, passing me his phone and a pair of headphones. Here are the answers to all the questions I had…

Lume founders, from left, Tim Harper, Justin Warren, Duncan Greive and Sacha Judd (Photo: Supplied)

It’s a streaming service – but a very basic one

Your purchased Lumes appear in a carousel. Flick through them, pick one to play and the first track begins. The player resembles Apple Music more than Spotify, but that’s where the similarities end. Lume offers an album experience, with tracks designed to be listened to in the order an artist presents them. You can’t make playlists out of your Lumes, but you can gift them to friends for a 24-hour period. Those albums stream with sound quality “better than most streaming services”, Lume promises.

There’s much more than music inside each Lume

What’s in a Lume? Whatever an artist wants to include. A typical package includes a combination of music videos, live performances, interviews, photos and notes alongside bonus tracks, remixes or unreleased songs. These can be browsed while streaming, but playback will stop if you’re watching a video with audio, or listening to bonus content.

Some inclusions are fascinating. The Phoenix Foundation clipped print reviews for its 2015 album Give Up Your Dreams and adds their Trans Fatty Acid EP previously available only on cassette. Fazerdaze’s Amelia Murray adds studio footage from her recording sessions for Soft Power plus a full concert performance from last year’s excellent Powerstation show. Vera Ellen offers Google Docs full of mixing notes from her album Heaven Knows What Time.

Seeing what’s in each Lume is part of the fun. Troy Kingi includes instrumentals from last year’s excellent hip-hop album Night Lords. Tali adds detailed notes to each song on her 2022 album Future Dwellers, plus photos of her mum painting the artwork. The devilish outtakes from Erny Belle’s Not Your Cupid cover shoot made me squeal with delight. 

Lume has exclusives unavailable on other platforms

This is what could make Lume truly stand out from the packed streaming market. For launch, Buzz Moller has compiled an entire album of unreleased material from his band Voom, a big deal considering there have been just three in 36 years. Tiki Taane’s Past, Present, Future includes four previously unreleased instrumentals and eight live songs.

Rockers Swallow the Rat are releasing a full live album. Brooding singer Lontalius packages two different versions of last year’s album Heavy. Rising Auckland artist Isla Moon may have taken this concept further than most, having last year’s album Out of Body completely reworked into seven electronic-tinged bangers, then adds music videos, live performances, demos and studio videos. 

The Lume of Tiki Taane’s Past, Present, Future includes four previously unreleased instrumentals and eight live songs.

More Lumes, er, loom

As Russell’s conversation with Supergroove suggests, discussions are under way with many more artists about joining Lume. Phase two, scheduled a month from now, has 12 artists, big names and some smaller ones too, listed on the office whiteboard, which I was allowed to see only on the condition I didn’t reveal them.

Lorde is ‘tossing it all up on Lume’

Earlier this month, Lorde sent out an email to fans that included a link to 49 demos from last year’s album Virgin. It felt like a good Lume had been spoiled by one of the platform’s early investors, especially when Lorde said, “I’m going to toss it all up on Lume” in the same newsletter.

But there’s much more coming from the first Lume by Aotearoa’s biggest pop export. “You haven’t seen [her Lume] yet,” says Harper. “She got to do something on the anniversary of Virgin for her fans. But she also got to hold back some stuff for Lume.”

Lorde’s email has opened doors to the international market 

That one note from Lorde has sparked conversations. “We’ve had labels from all over the world going, ‘Hey guys, can we have a chat?” says Harper. He’s not prepared to reveal which just yet, but says they are “massive”. “All the big indies are going, ‘We love this.’”

As I scrolled and streamed all of the Lumes available on launch today, an album by the Canadian artist Goldie Boutilier spun on a turntable in the corner of Lume’s office. Later, Russell emailed me links to her music and said, “I’m on a one-woman mission to get her on Lume … when we’re ready.”

Perhaps that signals Lume’s future – less as a Spotify rival and more as a boutique musical medley dripping in cool. But who knows what the future holds. Lume is a startup and any pivot is possible. “The first couple of months are about proving the concept,” says Harper. “From there we can scale up as we need to.”

Lume is available in app stores for Android and Apple users from midday.

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