Last week, film bros who have spent the past few years making A24 their entire identity were in for a music-centric rebrand: the film company took to Instagram to cryptically tease the launch of A24Music, via a soundtracked graphic accompanied by the caption ‘A24 music. Stay tuned.’
As witty letterbox quips have proven, film buffs are funny. So it’s not surprising that the post’s comments section popped off. “It’s spoken word Letterboxd reviews read over jazz” commented one user. “It’s just William Dafoe screaming into a mic against reverb’d guitar” predicted another. But the best one might have been, “Posting this when Spotify is down, oh you ate that.”
But although the announcement coming around the same time our headphones were an auditory desert was amusing, it doesn't appear that A24 is gunning to be the next Spotify (at least not yet). It has, it turns out, been around since 2021 when the company partnered with Secretly Distribution to build a catalog of musical intellectual property and to get its releases on streaming services and in record stores. It’s merely kept a low profile until now.
Tbf, A24 expanding into music makes sense: the soundtracks have always been an integral component of its films and shows, from Zendaya and Labrinth’s Euphoria hit “All For Us” to Moonlight’s Oscar-nominated score (a live performance of which was hosted in London.) The brand also produces extended Spotify playlists based on its soundtracks and releases special-edition vinyls, and has even expanded into another audio-only venture: podcasting.
According to HypeBeast, this iteration of A24 Music is just a social channel for its music division. But considering how fast A24 has taken over the cinematic landscape, and how dramatic last week’s announcement was, it’s hard to believe it will stop there. Given Spotify's monopoly over the music space, and A24’s penchant for getting independent films made, A24 expanding onto the music scene can only be a good thing for both emerging artists and music fanatics.
