Music Ally Focus

Ep. 147: Stuart Dredge, Music Ally’s Head of Insight, joins Editor Joe Sparrow to answer some of the biggest and most complex questions in the DSP space in 2024.

This podcast is aligned with Music Ally’s new quarterly report and the Big Questions they chat about include:

• Who are the winners and losers from artist-centric payment systems – and will creators and labels be satisfied?
• How often and by how much should subscription prices change  – and are we now in an era of incremental increases?
• What are the industry’s needs (or demands) around marketing from DSPs – and will a bold platform finally go all-in on fan communities?

So if you need to quickly get up to speed with the issues that DSPs are facing and the changes that are coming this year, it’s the most informative way to spend the next 30 minutes!

Music Ally’s Quarterly Reports: https://musically.com/category/reports/ 

Pencils in beard: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/673649-most-pencils-put-into-a-beard-in-one-minute

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Ep. 146: In this episode we ask: how do people search for music today and what do people really want in their results? We welcome Einar Helde, AIMS API co-founder and CCO, to the Focus podcast to answer that question, as well as to explain how technology is allowing people to search in novel and nuanced ways – and what that means for people who make music.

The needs of people who make, share and use music have changed dramatically. Artists scramble to be discovered amongst the supposed 100,000+ new tracks uploaded each day, and equally, the people seeking music scramble to find what they really want. In this Music Ally Focus Extra episode, made in partnership with AIMS API, we discuss the future of this discovery quandary, and how being able to search for music in a way that allows those searchers – whether professional music supervisors or simply fans of music – to get what they want, and perhaps even get what they didn’t know they wanted in the first place.

AIMS API: https://www.aimsapi.com/

Ep 145: Joe Sparrow is joined by Sean Lee, CEO/co-founder and Kyungtae Kim, co-founder and Audio & AI Specialist, of Verses, an AI music platform that powers music generation in virtual spaces. We wanted to talk about the use of dynamic AI-created music in the metaverse, and how that music then connects to virtual items. Essentially: where three of recent years’ most hypebeast products – AI created music, NFTs and metaverses – all come together.

Verses has recently been nominated for a 2024 CES Award for its “Beat-based AI music video generator”, aespa world, a tool that “automatically creates music videos when users touch the screen in sync with the beat.” We spoke about how AI generated music will fit into virtual spaces, who owns the music generated in this way, and whether human communities will miss out on communal experiences if they are not united by a consistent musical presence

Verses: https://www.verses.kr/

Transcript provided by Sean Lee and Kyungtae Kim: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U2p7hODk1LJj2wvaBCUJ45lUCAHuPDE-1JSahayYlKA/edit?usp=sharing 

Cow tricks: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/730746-most-tricks-performed-by-a-cow-in-one-minute

Roni Size & Reprazent – Brown Paper Bag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwI0gbGEyuI

SHINee - View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF53cptEE5k

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Ep. 144: Tuned Global's CEO Con Raso joins Joe Sparrow to talk about something that sounds a bit intangible and distant: the cost of storing all the music that gets streamed. If it’s essentially free for owners of huge catalogues of music to upload their files to someone else’s server, then they will – and smaller rightsholders like DIY artists and labels will be under increasing competition against an ever-increasing volume.

Con and Joe chatted about whether DSPs should charge for storage and what the effects of that may look like for large and small rightsholders - and they also talked about a hypothetical future with small indie streaming platforms – just like small indie labels.

Tuned Global: https://www.tunedglobal.com

The Fall – Totally Wired: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R26AwWdQyHU

Balloons: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/fastest-time-to-blow-up-a-balloon-with-the-eye

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Ep 143: Marie Clausen worked hard to rise to a senior position in the music industry, only to find that she was often the only woman in the room. So she’s now driven to change that – and she explains to Joe Sparrow how she initiated Merlin’s Engage mentorship program, designed to boost the representation of women in the top ranks of the music industry.

Marie is U.S. Managing Director at Ninja Tune, and is also Managing Board Director for Merlin, the digital rights music licensing partner organisation for independent rightsholders. We talk about her own career, how Merlin’s mentorship program works, the importance of finding strong allyship and support, what changes she is already seeing – and what you can do to be part of the change.

Marie Clausen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marieccclausen

Merlin Engage: https://merlinnetwork.org/merlin-engage-executive-mentoring-for-the-next-generation-of-female-music-leaders/

Merlin Engage alumni interviews: https://merlinnetwork.org/merlin-engage-alumni-interviews-katie-alberts

Friday I’m in Love - The Cure: https://youtu.be/mGgMZpGYiy8

Scones: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/705985-most-scones-assembled-in-one-minute
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Ep 142: Cory Docorow is a highly regarded sci-fi author, activist and journalist who is in favour of the liberalisation and modernisation of copyright laws. He recently coined the concept of "enshittification", which is when monopolistic digital platforms offer increasingly worse services to continue making money... and then they die. We talk about how the music industry is enshittifying itself, and how copyright could be used better. You may find his views provocative and/or counter to your own beliefs – which of course is all the more reason to listen to them! PLUS, stay tuned until the end of the podcast for an exclusive extract from the audiobook of Cory’s new book The Bezzle, read by Wil Wheaton, and which deals with music copyright theft.

More on Cory: he is also a special advisor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (⁠eff.org⁠), the non-profit digital rights group, and he has published a number of fiction and non-fiction books. "Enshittification" was the American Dialect Society's 2023 Word of the Year. His newest novel is The Bezzle.

Cory Doctorow: https://pluralistic.net

The Bezzle – UK: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bezzle-9781804547793/

The Bezzle – US: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

Enshittification: ⁠https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification⁠

Remain in Light covered by Angelique Kidjo: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mbIYOh0HJq4wi9oYI-SjACbkSJHC_u7Ng&si=gk1GbRbtkJExJzqI

Munchmills: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/105683-most-munchmills-in-one-minute-breakdance

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Ep 141: Dmytro Lopushanskyy, CTO of AI-powered song analysis and discovery tool Harmix, joins Joe to explain how tools like his actually work, and how they can find overlooked songs that are buried deep in catalogues. Dmytro also talks about what life in the music industry may be like when we have useful AI assistants, and how artists and rightsholders should be able to opt their music out of training AI models. 

Harmix uses AI to sift through giant catalogues of music with the intention of helping people – like music supervisors – find music they can use in video film and TV. It lets users search with words, images, videos and other music to find music that best matches what’s in their heads. In this Music Ally Extra episode, made in partnership with Harmix, Dmytro explains where technology like this is headed, what benefits it will bring, and why taking an ethical approach to training AI models is so important.

Try Harmix Search: https://web.harmix.ai
Interested in evaluating using Harmix with your own catalogue? Email [email protected] to request a free test and in-depth discoverability report.

Ep. 140: Joe is joined by Sherry Saeedi, founder & CEO of Verswire. Sherry says that Verswire is a new alternative to record labels – or “a venture capital model alternative for signing musicians” as she puts it. We ask her why she believes it is “the future of music” and Sherry talks with the passion and language of a tech founder. She thinks that the Verswire model of investing in artists in a similar way to how startups are funded will have a major disruptive effect on the long-standing record label model. Verswire is now signing bands, has pulled in $12.3M in seed and series A investment, and is opening a publishing arm in partnership with Kobalt – so we ask her to explain how it is disruptive.

LINKS:

Verswire Website

Verswire Instagram

Sherry Saeedi's Instagram

Blink 182 – Enema of the State: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ku1eCIHSQXftkjdy1pDCmCHYLyHza-agY&si=px29N2GpY1YDO-cb

Rob Thomas - Someday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6pODq8_FxE

Drill bits: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/609662-most-times-to-insert-a-power-drill-bit-into-the-nose-in-30-seconds

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Ep. 139: The Black Eyed Peas have sold an estimated 80 million records, are one of only a handful of artists to have simultaneously held the number-one and number-two spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and have headlined the Super Bowl half-time show. We were very happy to talk to Rachel Strassberger, one third of the Black Eyed Peas' management team. She speaks to Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow about what it's like to co-manage one of the world’s best-selling and well-known groups, and what she has learned along the way.

Rachel also talks about how the team balances promoting a mix of classic hits and front line releases, and what the modern requirements are from managers for artists – of all sizes. She also talks from her personal perspective about the skills managers will need to adopt in the next ten years as the industry undergoes another cycle of rapid change.

Rachel Strassberger: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-strassberger-1434141b/

Where is the Love? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc

Dice/feet https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/716798-most-dice-stacked-with-one-foot-in-one-minute

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Ep. 138: Lyrics are now everywhere - in our streaming apps, on short form social media, and in the now ubiquitous lyric video. So how might lyrics be used in the future in ways we may not have thought of? Joe Sparrow is joined by Darryl Ballantyne, founder & CEO of LyricFind, one of the oldest companies to license lyrics on behalf of rightsholders to various digital services, who chats about the how lyrics will be used in autonomous vehicles – and by various generative AI tools. Are these platforms licensing them and what are the wider legal implications if someone, for instance, asks an AI to create a new set of lyrics in the style of U2 or "Penny Lane"? (He also explains how Hanson’s “Mmm-Bop” is actually a very tragic song if you think about the lyrics...)

LyricFind: https://www.lyricfind.com/

Don Henley - The Boys Of Summer: youtube.com/watch?v=6RUIeX6UCT8

Pancakes https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-tosses-of-a-pancake-in-one-minute

------

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Ep. 137: Marie Fol, Lead of the Keychange initiative, joins Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow and they takes stock of gender representation in the music industry in 2024. Keychange is a global network and movement with a wide ranging remit to works towards what it calls “a total restructure of the music industry in reaching full gender equality.”

Joe and Marie discuss Keychange’s ambitions for the year ahead and talk in depth across a number of areas in the music business – as well as the challenges that Keychange faces, and the pushback and common counter-arguments she faces. Marie and Joe and also dig into the more complex issues, including the "pipeline problem", and her advice on how you can make tangible and actionable differences.

Keychange: https://www.keychange.eu/about-us

Keychange US: https://www.keychangeus.com/

Kimmortal https://kimmortalportal.com/aboutme

Burgers:https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/612186-most-hamburgers-assembled-in-one-minute

------

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Ep. 136: AI is promising fundamental changes to the business of music and its creation. But what about the part where music is connected to the fans? Virginie Berger is a long-established music-tech industry expert and like many people working in innovative areas of the music industry, she’s been doing deep research into the role AI will play now, and in the future. In this episode, Music Ally's Editor Joe Sparrow picks Virginie's brains on the role that AI will play in music marketing and fan engagement. 

Virginie explained how AI tools are already streamlining community building, creating unique fan experiences, and generating content.

Virginie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginieberger/

- AI-driven platforms "Endel" create personalized soundscapes based on the listener's environment and mood, 

- "TheWaveVR," transforms how fans experience music by offering interactive and immersive virtual reality concerts. 

- “Landmrk” uses AI to unlock exclusive content for music fans based on their geographical location. 

- Arsenal London's chatbot, "Robot Pires"

- Character.AI's Chatbots: Character.AI offers chatbots that fans can customize based on their interpretation of a character. These chatbots can simulate conversations with the character, providing a unique, personalized fan experience

- “Cortex” and “Pattern89” analyze historical performance data to predict the success of future content, optimizing posting schedules and content types for maximum engagement.

- Socialbakers (emplifi): An AI-driven social media management platform that provides advanced audience insights, content creation, and posting optimization for social media management.

- Predis.ai: An AI-powered social media marketing platform that can assist in content creation and optimization for various social media platforms.

- Symphony: An automated marketing platform that can help artists streamline fan development and engagement, providing AI-powered tools for content creation and audience analysis.

- FeedHive offer advanced audience insights, content generation, and posting optimization for social media management. 

In Rainbows From The Basement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWqDIZxO-nU

Flipping omelettes: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-flips-of-an-omelette-in-one-minute

------

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Ep. 135: YouTube's Nur Ozdamar joins Music Ally's editor Joe Sparrow to explain how her Artist & Label Development team for Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) supports the careers of artists and its label partners. She describes the help that they provide, how they choose which emerging artists they eventually partner with – and how her team consider the changing face of music consumption on YouTube.

YouTube for Artists: https://artists.youtube/

Jeff Buckley :⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MMXjunSx80

Unicycle skips: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-skips-on-a-unicycle-in-one-minute

------

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Ep. 134: Lior Tibon is former COO of TIDAL, and now co-founder of music financing platform Duetti, which aims to let smaller and mid-range artists sell part or all of their catalogue. He’s got experience in both the investment and streaming sides of the industry and so we talk about two things that are distantly, yet directly, connected: the recently mooted artist-centric payment systems that divide up money to artists from streaming platforms in new ways – and the service that Duetti provides, giving artists another route to the money that their songs will make.

Lior talks about who would benefit the most if an artist-centric system was widely rolled out – and whether it would please artist who have been calling for a fairer remuneration model. He also talks about Duetti’s work, who they target, and how artists may use services like this to unlock value from songs alongside streaming income.

Duetti – https://duetti.co

Paul Oakenfold – https://www.youtube.com/@PaulOakenfoldVEVO

------

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Ep. 133: we’re joined by Paul Sampson, CEO and founder of Lickd, the licensing startup that supplies music to creators on YouTube and other platforms. We seem to be shifting into an era where a new and widespread use of music is emerging – where music is a component of a wider experience: for instance in the background of short/long videos, live streams of gaming, or as part of users building interactive experiences - almost “music as Lego”. We chat to Paul about the future of music usage and whether the current system of licensing is up to the task of recovering the correct money for music creators.

Creators of online content are eager to use recognisable hit songs in what they make. And Paul Samson has an interesting perspective on these creators needs – whether they are zillion-streaming superstars like MrBeast, or more modestly-successful creators. So we ask him about what they actually want from music, and also how they view music in terms of its use and its value, when they are perhaps only using it as a component of something bigger that they’re piecing together. Plus we ask Paul about generative AI music – and whether this could take a slice out of his business model.

Lickd: https://lickd.co

Tearing T-shirts: Most T-shirts worn and torn in one minute

Nirvana –  Nevermind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg&list=OLAK5uy_kEQJGO2SZ0k-vJ8b-F2AJLfKnw0cFydNg

Andrea Bocelli - Con Te Partirò - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVUHHW1tJYA

------

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠corporate and sponsored subscriptions⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscription-options⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Ep. 132: Making vinyl records requires a lot of heat and energy, and uses plastics that are bad for the environment. But vinyl records are an old technology - so how might a modern record be made? Sven Deutschmann is Managing Director of Sonopress, a company that makes vinyl records and other physical media. He showed Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow a new type of disc and spoke about a new process of making records that uses the same plastic used in plastic water bottles, and that uses significantly less energy – and creates less waste.

It's called EcoRecord and is made by injection moulding, not pressing, and is produced using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as its base material rather than polyvinyl chloride (PVC). They can also be produced using 100% recycled PET.  Creating the discs requires neither natural gas nor steam, and Sonopress says its test operation saw energy savings of up to 85% compared to the traditional process. The product is being launched in collaboration with Warner Music.

Video of EcoRecord process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9Og3mDCeD8

Sonopress https://www.sonopress.de/en/

If you’re interested in finding out more about EcoRecord please contact: [email protected].

The Dark Side of the Moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9ynZnEBtvw

Coconuts: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/101775-most-green-coconuts-smashed-in-one-minute-by-elbows

------

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠corporate and sponsored subscriptions⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscription-options⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Ep 131: We have been puzzling over the impact of AI-generated music and how it will align with the laws that have made the music business, well, the music business. Eliane Ellbogen is an intellectual property lawyer at Fasken law firm in Montreal, and has spoken at a number of conferences about the legal implications that accompany AI Music. She joined Music Ally's Editor Joe Sparrow, who lobbed some (depending on your point of view) tricky and/or stupid legal questions at Eliane – who answered them with patience and clarity.

For instance: can an AI author music? Can humans claim ownership of AI-generated music? What happens if an AI-created piece of music sounds very similar to your own human music? What laws might be used to regulate it all? Eliane gamely got to grips with them all.

Eliane and Fasken: https://www.fasken.com/en/eliane-ellbogen

Eliane at MUTEK:  https://forum.mutek.org/en/shows/2023/workshop-art-ai-and-the-law---ip-for-digital-artists

Bach’s Goldberg Variations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4yAB37wG5s

Oneohtrix Point Never - Again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcCWAqoiSXI

Smashing watermelons: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-watermelons-smashed-with-a-punch-in-one-minute

------

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠corporate and sponsored subscriptions⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscription-options⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Ep. 130: Andrew Batey and Morgan Hayduk are both co-CEOs & co-founders of Beatdapp, a platform which processes huge quantities of data to detect streaming fraud for clients like labels and streaming platforms. Editor Joe Sparrow welcomes them back to the podcast to update us on the state of streaming fraud – and they have some truly shocking statistics to share.

They chat to Joe about the recent changes in streaming fraud, what percentage of all streaming is actually fraudulent, how many billions of dollars will be siphoned out via fraud this year, and reveal a remarkable statistic: that 40%-60% of all streams from songs distributed  via many well-known distributors are fraudulent. 

(It’s worth noting we spoke before some DSPs announced changes to their payment thresholds, which will require songs to get a certain number of streams before payout.)

Beatdapp: https://beatdapp.com/dsps-otts

Garth Brooks - Standing Outside The Fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-6Koisf7UI

2Pac - Changes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXvBjCO19QY

Ponytail / candles:  https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-candles-extinguished-with-a-pigtail-(platted-ponytail)-in-one-minute

------

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Ep. 129: Dan Stein, AKA DJ Fresh, and Declan McGlynn are co-founders of Voice-Swap, the AI-powered service that, as the name suggests, allows you to swap your singing voice for that of one of their chart-topping singers’ voices. They chat to Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow about why they think producers, artists and writers will want to use AI to transform their own voice to sound like one of their featured artists.

One of the difficulties that songwriters and songwriting producers face is using their own voice to sing lyrics on a track that is designed for someone else: perhaps their own voice is not very good, or perhaps it’s too hard to picture another artist performing the demo. This was a problem that Dan Stein, as DJ Fresh, faced – and he and his founders are addressing this issue with the help of AI. Voice Swap allows people to sing something into their platform, and the resulting output will sound like one of the singers whose voices the AI has been trained on. Dan and Declan talk about their technology, and who will be interested in using it, and they also dig into some of the more complex concepts: like whether particular AI voices might become ubiquitous across pop music, and whether this will diminish or boost human creativity.

Voice Swap https://www.voice-swap.ai

Prince – Sign O’ The Times https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nysBR93vc_I48usiCFTnMe6nKTB6YETjo&si=PCmbJ5wVyd2zvjSv

DJ Fresh – Gold Dust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNuUgbUzM8U

Sliced grapes: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/575085-most-grapes-sliced-in-the-air-with-a-sword-whilst-standing-on-a-swiss-ball-in-one

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Ep. 128: We’re joined by Kris Ahrend, CEO of the Mechanical Licensing Collective. He gives us an overview of the state of  mechanical licensing in 2023, the big issues from the MLC’s perspective, and the changes he’d like to see happen.

He also talks about data transparency, what he thinks artists and songwriters want (and what the MLC are doing to increase clarity for them); the recent Phonorecord III final determination; and what the streaming royalty space will look like in 5 years’ time.

The MLC: https://www.themlc.com/

Phil Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRY1NG1P_kw

Smashing pumpkins: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-pumpkins-smashed-in-one-minute

------

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Ep. 127: In this special episode, Music Ally’s Head of Insight, Stuart Dredge talks to our Editor Joe Sparrow, and focuses squarely on AI and music in 2023 – a topic that has caused so much excitement, confusion, innovation, and concern all at once. 

Stuart breaks down the ambitions and possibilities – as well as the ethical and legal issues – that AI music is bringing to the music business: 

❱ AI music is human music... for better or worse – We often talk about AI as if it were sentient already - AI is doing this, AI is doing that... but actually it’s humans behind it all – building these AIs, deciding what to train them on, and choosing whether to create music ethically... or not. 

❱ A battle for control... and industry tensions – The music industry has come together very quickly to set out its principles for how creative AI should be regulated: around permission, payment and transparency. But it’s not as simple as ‚music against AI’ – there are new concepts that are being discussed around who gets to choose how music is used and by whom. 

❱ AI is not just about pushing a button – AI music is seen by some as profoundly uncreative: you hit a button and a song comes out - and it’s probably not very good. But that’s not actually the direction of travel: the latest wave of musical AIs are about prompting platforms into creating good snippets of music then human musicians using their creativity to turn them into better work. 

“Johnny Cash” sings Barbie Girl –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAFdzBTe2lg

Tach Teaches – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REqIJJLJbsc

Cathy Dennis’ “Toxic” demo – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7dk9DXFrwk

Skipping robots – https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/462433-most-skips-by-a-robot-in-one-minute

------

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Ep 126: in this episode Editor Joe Sparrow is joined by musician and music education facilitator Elizabeth J. Birch, and the CEO of UK charity Youth Music Matt Griffiths. They join us to talk about the experiences of disabled musicians in the UK music industry – and the work done by Elizabeth and Youth Music to improve it. Elizabeth is a champion of accessible music-making, and shares her knowledge with aspiring young disabled musicians. She hopes for a day when the disabled community are not so overlooked in the music industry – and Elizabeth has now been nominated for the Inspirational Music Leader award at this year’s Youth Music Awards for her work at Midlands Art Centre as a result of her work. She and Matt talk about their work, explain how the disabled community is still quite invisible in the UK music scene, and what can be done to improve things in the music industry – including platforming more disabled people on and off the stage.

Youth Music Awards https://youthmusic.org.uk/awards

Youth Music https://youthmusic.org.uk

Elizabeth J Birch https://elizabethjbirch.bandcamp.com/

Lock picking https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/97409-most-locks-picked-in-one-minute

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Ep 125: In this episode Stationhead co-founders, Murray Levison and Ryan Star speak to Editor Joe Sparrow about the platform’s role as a gathering place for superfans, and what fans are seeking in a platform that mixes music, community and commerce. Superfans are well know for their all-encompassing support of an artist, and their desire to form a community to celebrate them. Stationhead started out as a kind of live radio platform that would allow users to play music and talk around the songs, and has changed its path a little to become even more oriented around fandoms. Now, fans gather around stations to geek out about an artist’s music and chat about. them – with some artists joining in on the broadcasts for things like release parties. Joe talked to Murray and Ryan – who is also a successful artist in his own right – about what fans want and what Stationhead is doing to give it to them.

Stationhead:  https://www.stationhead.com

Stationhead – Nicki Minaj fandom: https://www.stationhead.com/p/fandom/nicki-minaj-fans-stationhead

Ryan Star: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKeFzpawPad05pLIP1NGFhA

God Only Knows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NADx3-qRxek

Scratch Your Back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8US2vvG4niA

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtXl8xAPAtA&list=PL3PhWT10BW3VDM5IcVodrdUpVIhU8f7Z-

Drumsticks https://youtu.be/4lJMjBU8fBM

------

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Ep. 124: in this episode we’re joined by Christine Barnum, CD Baby’s Chief Revenue Officer – we’re talking about music streaming fraud, how the company tries to spot it, and what the fraudsters are doing to try to avoid being detected. Christine’s job is a form of fraud whack-a-mole: trying to spot suspicious streaming activity before paying rightsholders.  We talk about her efforts in “fraud, trust & safety” from the perspective of a distributor – including how she defines streaming fraud, how difficult it is to spot, how widespread fraud really is – and what a distributor does to stop it. 

CD Baby: cdbaby.com

Jeff Buckley - Morning Theft youtube.com/watch?v=gxJI7hlPdnY

Mozart - Requiem youtube.com/watch?v=Dp2SJN4UiE4

Stamp licking guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-stamps-licked-in-one-minute

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Ep. 123: Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow chats to Cat Henry, executive director of the US-based nonprofit philanthropic organisation Live Music Society. Cat talks about the society’s mission, which it describes as “to recognise and protect small venues and listening rooms across the United States so that live music can remain accessible to all.” Small venues can be one of the most enjoyable and valuable things that any local community possesses; a place where people can gather, enjoy music and grow their community. Small venues have been under the cosh in recent years: not only did the covid-19 lockdown punish them particularly hard, but a changing gigging environment, and large increases in costs has meant that, in 2023, running a small venue is hard work. Cat tells us about the state of the small venue community in the USA, the threats they and challenges they face, and why they are so important to the people who love them.

Live Music Society https://www.livemusicsociety.org/

Cat Henry: https://www.livemusicsociety.org/news/live-music-society-announces-appointment-ofcat-henry-as-executive-director

Toolbox grant https://www.livemusicsociety.org/toolboxgrant

John Coltrane – A Love Supreme ⁠youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGUJd_6WZDWv_YGv6b4kd1IJbaH_Z7bGP⁠

Cobbler Most fruit cobbler eaten in 30 seconds

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Ep 122: Alex Mubert, founder of the Mubert AI generative music platform talks to Editor Joe Sparrow about using AI to make music, the impact creative musical AI will have on rightsholders, and whether we will have to redefine what music itself is – in an era where infinitely-long pieces of music can be tailor-made for each listener.

Most of us have come to terms with the fact that generating music with AI is now simply part of the music making landscape. Alex Mubert’s eponymous company was one of the early AI music platforms, and he has plenty of experience to lean on when answering our questions about how AI music will change things. He believes for instance, that mass adoption of generative music as a creative tool will be through video content creators – who may be keen to "co-create" music for their videos with an AI trained on their favourite artist – and he talks about how the integration of AI music into streaming platfroms could change how much money is paid out to human creators.

Mubert: https://mubert.com

RATM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWXazVhlyxQ

Mustard: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/503372-most-mustard-bottle-drunk-in-30-seconds

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Ep. 121: We speak to two people from TikTok who have helped turn classical music into viral content. TikTok has captured the attention of people in every area of the music industry, who now look to the short-video app for A&R, marketing, music discovery, audience-building and fan-nurturing. Darina Connolly, Head of Artist & Label Partnerships, talks about TikTok’s direction and strategy, and she’s joined by Label Partnerships Manager Lisa Skeppner, who is one of the go-to TikTok people when it comes to classical music. Music Ally's Editor Joe Sparrow asks them what it is about classical music that holds users’ attentions – is it the song, the performance, the context of the song’s use, or the artists themselves? And what can non-classical artists learn for how they use TikTok?

We talk to Darina and Lisa about how classical music has connected on TikTok, and the impact on classical artists – and also they talk more widely about what it means for users to be discovering new “old" music this way – and what the longer-term impacts of that are beyond short-term spikes in attention around novel genres.

TikTok Artist Handbook: newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/uk-artist-handbook-supporting-artists-to-get-the-most-out-of-tiktok

Sade - No Ordinary Love: youtube.com/watch?v=_WcWHZc8s2I

ABBA – Gimme Gimme Gimme: youtube.com/watch?v=XEjLoHdbVeE

Peas: Most peas eaten using a cocktail stick in 30 seconds

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Ep 120: We're joined by Piers Henwood, a Grammy and Juno-nominated artist manager and musician. Artists today are under increasing pressure to do, well, lots of stuff: write, record and release music, create TikToks, collaborate, communicate with fans, go on tours, and so much more. A while ago, Piers wrote a guest post on Music Ally about “the implications of the pressure placed on artists to succeed in a needy industry and an always-on culture” – so we wanted to talk to him more deeply about the relationship between fans and artists, and the pressures that artists experience. Henwood says it’s time we take another look at who the customer is in this system, and help artists retreat from the always-on approach.  Music Ally Editor Joe Sparrow chatted to him about what a healthy and sustainable creative existence is for the people who, ultimately, are at the centre of everything we love about music.

Piers' guest post on Music Ally: musically.com/2023/05/09/reclaiming-fame-as-an-artist-whos-your-customer-guest-post

Harry Belafonte - Calypso: youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nL5Xd_KkpM0wzk08xIw2mksZvS7ze9JZo

Piers Henwood: piershenwood.com

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Ep 119: Every time our Head of Insight appears on the podcast, people say how useful they find his analysis – so we're bringing Stuart Dredge back again to answer a thorny question: “is music streaming like radio?”. Stuart explains why this simple-sounding question is actually quite complex and how it could raise a number of fundamental legal issues around payments to artists and rightsholders.

Streaming platforms have always provided radio-like experiences: whether something simple like "lean back" listening – where you hit play and the platform chooses what music you hear – or more overt concepts like Spotify's new AI DJ, creating what is a recognisable personalised radio-like experience. So at what point should streaming music be classed as "radio"? Moreover, streaming services want to compete with regular radio, to attract its listeners and advertisers. What does it mean, then, if streaming and radio's boundaries are blurring? Editor Joe Sparrow puts these questions, and more, to Stuart.

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Ep. 118: In the latest Focus podcast episode we’re joined by Keatly Haldeman of the blockchain music sync licensing platform Dequency. Attention has moved away from web3 tech and shifted via the metaverse to AI; so we thought it was time to check in and see how web3 tech has progressed away from the pressure of all that hype. Keatly still thinks that web3 and blockchain tech will transform the music industry, and we talk to him about what he thinks the long term impact of web3, crypto, and blockchain tech will be on the music business now that it’s on the gentle upwards slope of the hype cycle, and how Dequency is, he believes, a good example of aligning the needs of artists, content creators, and blockchain technology.

https://dequency.io

Sublime – 40oz. To Freedom: youtube.com/watch?v=FQJXu56fJPM&list=OLAK5uy_mts5eCCpftF-EbhwYr4f3geuQVnG6vT9s&index=2

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Ep 117: We’re joined by David Martin, CEO of the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) – the UK trade body representing the specific rights and interests of music artists. We’re talking about two of the key needs that emerging artists have: that is to say – a guiding hand at the right time, and making money from merch.

Artists have become increasingly vocal about one particular reality of touring, namely some venues asking for 25% (plus tax) of all the merch they sell. The FAC has decided to campaign against this via its 100% Venues campaign, which is a public database of UK and North American venues that charge zero commission on artists' merchandise sales. David also talks about the needs of emerging artists who are hitting the cusp of success – and why the FAC is injecting cash and connections at what they see as the turning point in their careers.

The FAC's Step Up fund: thefac.org/stepup

100% Venue Directory: thefac.org/venuedirectory

Joy Division - Closer: youtube.com/watch?v=WYkA80GcnjE&list=OLAK5uy_lOlrsoFPaar3Ic4vpZb6qMCxk80tEmfnk

Most chokeslams in one minute: guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-chokeslams-in-one-minute-wrestling

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Ep 116: Music Ally Editor Joe Sparrow is joined by A Greener Future CEO and cofounder Claire O’Neill. AGF created the world’s first event sustainability standards and now offers consultancy, training, certification and membership to the events industry. We talk to her about how live events can become greener and more sustainable – and how there’s a lot more to it that simply cutting down on carbon emissions.

The events industry is a part of the music industry that can stand to make some sweeping changes to run it in a more sustainable manner. Events and festivals require moving huge amounts of people and equipment and consume a lot of resources – often in the form of non-renewable fuel. Punters, artists, and industry workers increasingly want to be taking part in events that are not damaging the planet. And yet events are complicated, and have many stakeholders. So how do you do it? Claire O’Neill and A Greener Future say that they help you find the path through to… well, a greener future.

AGF: agreenerfuture.com

T. Rex, Left Hand Luke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ftosocPOA4

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Ep. 115: We’re joined by Cliff Fluet – someone who has worked with, or advised, music-related AI platforms for a decade. He talks to Music Ally Editor Joe Sparrow about the bigger-picture possibilities and repercussions that AI could have on the music industry – he calls it "the most consequential tool the music industry could use" and one that "could solve a number of its biggest challenges," including real-time music detection, metadata, and personalised discovery.

Cliff is a man with a lot on his plate – he’s Joint Head of Media & Entertainment at law firm Lewis Silkin, is MD at Eleven Advisory, is Chair of the Ivors Academy Trust, and is Vice Chair of Help Musicians. He’s also got deep experience working with companies in the AI music space – advising on all the various legal and business considerations that inevitably crop up when the music industry and AI come together. We took the chance to talk to someone who knows his AI onions and move the conversation along a bit from the basic legal implications. We asked him whether the music business is really prepared for the impact of AI, and we also picked his brains to discover some of the applications of AI in the music industry that you might not have yet considered.

Cliff Fluet on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/clifffluet

The final side of "Abbey Road": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Ujexj9YGs

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Ep. 114: In this special episode we’re checking in on The Music Business Academy (MBA) for Africa –  a training program geared towards developing the next generation of music industry executives in Africa. It’s developed by Creative Industries Initiative For Africa in partnership with Music Ally and Dr. Carlos Chirinos of the Music Business Department at the New York University. Having been involved with the MBA for Africa for a few years now, we thought it would be great to speak to some of the staff – some of whom are alumni of the programme – to check in on how education is meeting the needs of the music industry in west Africa.

So we speak to Kini-Abasi Edet, Head of Operations, Pokyes Jan, Head Of Administration, and Nissi Utho, Project Manager. (We’d also like to thank Okoro Frances, who’s Head of A&R, for taking part too – but unfortunately a technical gremlin meant that this recording was not usable.)

Anyway - we got some great insight on the kind of skills the local music industry needs, and how the global attention on West African music is helping the local industry to develop the next generation of artists and industry professionals.

MBA For Africa: https://mbaforafrica.com/

MBA for Africa on Music Ally: https://musically.com/2022/04/11/music-business-academy-for-africa-returns-for-second-year/

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Episode 113: we’re joined by Shain Shapiro, PhD  – a music and cultural policy thinker whose work focuses on the idea of music cities. Shain's upcoming new book This Must Be The Place introduces and examines music’s relationship to cities. Not the influence cities have on music, but the powerful impact music can have on how cities are developed, built, managed and governed. It’s a fascinating concept: the way that music can be used to shape culture around us and the relationship with the people and places that we live in. We ask him what music cities are, and how music intersects with a city’s cultural and political policy.

https://www.shainshapiro.com/book

Remain in Light: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ldZpfPljmwhO4m7Eu8HUTylyh1uHT4wyY

Hammer flipping: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/593507-most-hammer-flips-in-one-minute

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Episode 112: In this episode we’re joined by two people from Splice, the music-making platform and sample library: CEO Kakul Srivistava and Mark Thomas, Splice's VP of sounds. Sampling has been used by musicians for decades as a way to create music, and finding the right sounds and snippets of music is a complex and time consuming task.

We talk about music creation in the 2023 environment when everyone is making music, how important samples are to the creative process, what the impact is for musicians if platforms make finding samples a one-click affair, and how AI is being used to help producers find samples better. Splice, like a lot of music businesses, has also been embracing AI, and has just launched the public beta version of an AI-powered tool that assembles bunches of samples that fit together.

Both guests have a rich history in creative technology businesses:  Kakul was previously Vice President of Creative Cloud Experience and Engagement at Adobe and the Vice President of Product & Marketing at GitHub, and Mark is a musician who became CTO at AWAL, and founder of platform BuzzDeck, before spending a decade at Apple Services. I spoke to Kakul and Mark about the needs of musicians today and the impact of technology in helping them create the music we love. 

https://splice.com

https://splice.com/blog/coso-breakthrough-ai-tech/

Mark: Kenny Wheeler –  Music for Small and Large Ensembles

Kakul: Stevie Wonder – Innervisions

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Episode 111: in this episode we’re joined by Rebecca Berman, SVP of International at Concord, a large independent company that operates in music publishing, a label, and in acquisition – and which has artists and repertoires licensed all over the world. We talk to Rebecca about how she and Concord views the potential in exploding markets like Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Her job involves building a local teams to support Concord Label Group’s repertoire around the globe, so she has an interesting view on the fast-growing, high-potential markets – like sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. We spoke to her about what the wider consequences of these rapidly-growing markets might be on the wider music business, and how the established music industry might change in terms of structure, strategy, and revenue.

⁠Concord⁠: concord.com

Boygenius: xboygeniusx.com

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Episode 110: We speak to Ines Dunn, a young songwriter from London, who has writing credits in songs like Maisie Peters’ “Not Another Rockstar”, and is one of the first songwriters to be featured by Spotify’s RADAR programme. One of the biggest fillips an artist’s career can receive is by being part of one of the major streaming platforms’ artist programmes – which at its most flashy, can result in your face being plastered across a billboard in Leicester Square in London. That’s what happened to Ines Dunn, and so we spoke to her about her nascent career, how she ended up on Spotify’s RADAR programme, and what the tangible benefits are of getting high-profile support like this, and what she sees as the benefits for DSPs in offering these kind of programmes.

Written by Ines Dunn playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1EFLbEbClSreiP

Most éclairs filled with cream in one minute

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Episode 109: Music Ally’s Head of Insight, Stuart Dredge chats in depth with Joe Sparrow about the big picture issues that music streaming platforms, its users and economy will need to face  this year. We’ve just published our latest Quarterly Report which comprehensively breaks down each of the big global DSPs in a “Report Card” format – and to accompany it, Stu forecasts what might happen around various key topics: 

• The Transition from “music” to “audio” – music streaming services are becoming audio streaming services. Music is competing with other kinds of audio, be that podcasts or white noise, so what does that mean in terms of royalties and ear-share?
• Price rises – for users and for artists – there’s pressure from the music industry to raise the prices of streaming subscriptions: will adding a dollar or two does lead to a mass of cancellations or not? Can – or should –  the pie be grown? And what about changing the whole system of payment from pro-rata to something else?
• Direct artist support – DSPs are providing other ways to support artists: buying merch, buying tickets, and subscriptions are appearing more widely on streaming apps. And how do artists feel about introducing tipping to DSPs? 
• User interfaces and AI –  DSPs are introducing many new ways to interact with, and discover music, from TikTok-like feeds to AI DJs. So is the next leap for music discovery going to be conversations with AIs?
• The mid tier DSPs (and remember web3?) –  Deezer, SoundCloud, Tidal and Napster have all positioned themselves as disruptors in different ways. They're nimbler than the big DSPs and can experiment with novel ideas like web3 music – but what are the long-term prospects for these services?

Music Ally’s Quarterly Report: https://musically.com/category/reports/

34 dozen oysters in 8 minutes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Bertoletti#2012

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Episode 108: in this episode we’re joined by Adam Webb, from FanFair Alliance - a UK-based organisation campaigning against industrial-scale online ticket touting- or scalping if you prefer. I chatted to Adam about the state of ticketing in the UK, and what does FA see as the most pertinent issue that needs fixing/changing? He also talks about speculative ticketing is, why he thinks it’s harmful, and what should be done, and the difference in approach between artists in the UK and the US when it comes to dynamically priced tickets.

Supported by managers and teams for artists including Arctic Monkeys, Ed Sheeran, Biffy Clyro, Pixies, Iron Maiden, George Ezra, PJ Harvey, Niall Horan and many others, FanFair, it says, “has successfully helped change the regulatory and legislative landscape in the UK, leading to the widespread adoption of consumer-friendly practices for ticket resale.”

FanFair Alliance: fanfairalliance.org

Adam’s guest post on dynamic pricing  for Music Ally: https://musically.com/2022/03/13/is-dynamic-pricing-containing-the-battle-against-ticket-touting-or-undermining-it-guest-column/

Most shaving cream pies thrown in 30 seconds by a team of 2

Pet Sounds: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mJN3N2XYKY6P2RpKP_-Zk20HwDSewNAYY

Episode 107: We’re joined by Pamela McCormick and Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE of London-based organisation United Development – they talk to Joe Sparrow about supporting and developing young black musicians and industry talent, the state of representation in the UK industry, and what you can do to help make gradual improvements around representation in the music business. Pamela McCormick is founder and CEO of United Development (UD), and Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, was recently appointed chair. UD brings communities together around Black music and Black music culture. For 20 years, UD has acted as a bridge between burgeoning talent and the music industry, through business and employment support programmes, career guidance, access to resources and showcasing, and more. They explain the issues that the young people they work with face, the hurdles that are "baked-in” to the current industry structure, explain how to build intentional change into your business, and how to disrupt the “pipeline issue” that goes hand in hand with a lack of representation in the music industry.

UD website: https://www.udmusic.org/ 

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE: https://aimafidon.com/

UD Industry takeover event: https://www.complex.com/music/ud-industry-takeover-2023

UD on BBC Radio 4: https://www.udmusic.org/blog/artists/ud-x-bbc-radio-4/

Chronixx - COOL AS THE BREEZE/FRIDAY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsCV2LBoAG0

Miles Davis – Kind of Blue https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nkfBmwK2t62J1xAsfhcwj9PVQG7N5UunA

Popsicles: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/118197-most-ice-lollies-popsicles-eaten-in-one-minute

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Episode 106:  Joe Sparrow talks to two UK music entrepreneurs who have grown a substantial and influential business from the ground up. TK and SK, co-founders of London-based independent record label and management company Finesse Foreva, which is home to artists/producers including Russ Millions, Skengdo & AM, and JB Made It. The company has received multiple Platinum certifications, worked with Drake, and had the UK’s first number one single for a Drill (or, for international listeners, a "UK Drill") track.  We talked about how Drill has grown to national and international popularity, how it was demonised in the UK press, how the genre and the scene around it has grown into a big industry through the age-old combination of hard work, ambition and talent – and how they are working hard to share skills and educate a new generation of music business entrepreneurs as part of Finesse Foreva’s wider social focus.

Foreva: https://www.finesseforeva.co.uk/

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Episode 105: For a man whose name is rhyming slang in the UK for something going wrong, most of what Pete Tong touches goes very right. He’s been enormously influential in the international electronic music scene for four decades: as a broadcaster, a jet-setting DJ who has released dozens of mix albums, at the influential FFRR and Three Six Zero labels, and now, as co-founder of the International Music Summit. We invited Pete onto the podcast to talk about A&R in the dance music world: how it has changed, how it works now, the role that good taste plays, the challenges of keeping up with the TikTok whirlwind, his thoughts on modern artistry and fandom, and what he thinks about the use of AI in future A&R approaches.

https://www.internationalmusicsummit.com/summit-schedule

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Episode 104: A Very Special Episode this week: We’ve wanted to make our daily Bulletin newsletter into a podcast for a long time, and now, we’ve created one – with the help of a text-to-voice AI. We're now sharing it here, so that you can hear the results too. The AI twist is that we have cloned the voice of our Learning Operations Manager, Sarah Seukeran, and it’s “her” that you’ll hear on the Bulletin podcast. It was soft-launched a few weeks ago – and we think the Bulletin translates really well into a sub-10 minute audio round up. In our opinion, it's an impressive confirmation of the technology's potential.

So we'd love to hear what you think – does it sound good to you? Would you be interested in a daily (or weekly?) audio version of our News output? (In the future, this AI-powered podcast may become part of Music Ally's subscription offering.) Please do let us know all and any feedback: email our editor Joe Sparrow on [email protected].

Here's the Music Ally Bulletin podcast on Spotify, if you'd like to follow it: https://open.spotify.com/show/6tXXBfONkdUIkSIFT8TgGF?si=74e45d0ef2274438

PS: Note that the AI origins of this audio means that there may be some very occasional mispronunciations or speech glitches – this is still in a beta phase of testing!

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Episode 103: Laura Kidd has been a fully independent artist for a long time – and her recent "Obey Robots" project managed to hit the UK albums chart at #14 (ahead of Artic Monkeys and Lewis Capaldi and just behind ABBA and Fleetwood Mac). It’s a hugely impressive achievement for a DIY/indie artist - so how did she do it? In this podcast she explains to Joe Sparrow how she used email, YouTube videos and Facebook ads to get chart success. She also talks about her deliberate choice to ignore fame, and how she instead looked to build a slow-burn, direct-to-fan “nano-community" that supports her work – and this is what she now considers “success.” Laura also explains why someone who is not concerned with the traditional concept of success decided to aim for chart success, how being completely DIY is a “terrifying” concept, how it can be hard to let go of the reins, and how she now considers herself a 'community artist’.It’s a fascinating conversation for anyone working in music marketing – and especially for DIY artists looking to cut through.

The Obey Robots project: https://shop.penfriend.rocks/collections/obey-robots

Laura's Penfriend YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/penfriendrocks

Music choice: Kid A by Radiohead 

Most bananas snapped in one minute: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-bananas-snapped-in-one-minute

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Episode 102: we’re joined by Sarah Woods, the Deputy Chief Executive of UK charity Help Musicians, a UK charity that offers career help for musicians in the form of a number of services, including financial support. She talks to Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow about what she calls “reverse globalisation” of the music industry: a situation where UK artists become confined to touring in the UK due to it becoming increasingly hard to tour abroad.Post-Brexit, touring the rest of Europe is now a complex affair, involving visas and carnets, and accompanying rising costs. As a result, some musicians have been looking to America - and are finding complications there too, with the US planning to raise touring visa fees for foreign acts by more than 250%. We spoke to Sarah about this “reverse globalisation” and she shared some data that shows where applicants to Help Musicians’ services most need help around touring, and what the impacts will mean for artists as they seek to expand their audience at home and abroad. 

Help Musicians: helpmusicians.org.uk

Visa advice for touring artists: helpmusicians.org.uk/get-support/develop-as-a-musician/advice/visa-advice-service

The Cure – “Disintegration”

Jacqueline du Pre & Daniel Barenboim - Elgar Cello Concerto

Plus: Peeling and eating bananas quickly

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Episode 101: We talk to Andy Robinson, of Boutique rights management company Interstellar Music Services. In the modern music business paradigm, managers can do everything – so we’ll discuss how you can not do everything – and avoid burnout whilst providing the best service possible to artists. He talks about making tough choices, transparent conversations with artists, and how he regularly finds hundreds of thousands of streams that artists have not been paid for.

Andy has a background in artist management and now focuses on helping artists recover as much of the money as possible from their music via a data-centric approach. He took this specific path after he realised that it was his strength – so we wanted to ask Andy one of those slippery questions that all managers must ask themselves: with almost infinite number of ways to connect with the music industry now, how do you focus on the things that will work well for you and your artist? And perhaps more importantly, how do you choose what not to do?

Andy and Interstella: https://www.interstellarmusic.com

Music pick: Santana’s “Santana”

Plus: Competitive pizza eating

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🎉 Music Ally Focus Ep. 100 🎉 – We talk about about Neurodiversity in the electronic music business with Finlay Johnson, interim CEO of the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM) and Tristan Hunt, who is an ADHD coach for musicians and people working in the music business, and is also an ex-regional manager at the AFEM.

There is increasing awareness about neurodiversity, and more people are being diagnosed with conditions like ADHD at later stages in life. Last year, the AFEM surveyed people in the electronic music industry to learn more about the neurodiversity of the people working in it. They discovered that 58% of these participants demonstrated a neurodiverse condition, although only 38% currently have a clinical diagnosis. Finlay and Tristan discuss how the same creativity that results in innovative music can also be accompanied by neurodiversity; how the electronic music industry, with its inherent late nights and party atmosphere can exacerbate existing issues; and what people working in the music industry can do to support colleagues with neurodiverse conditions.

AFEM: https://associationforelectronicmusic.org

AFEM Neurodiversity report: https://www.billboard.com/pro/neurodiverse-electronic-music-study-analysis/

Tristan: https://www.tristanhunt.co.uk

Finlay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finlay-johnson-77b3936b

ADDitude magazine: https://www.additudemag.com/

Music choices:

Finlay: Four Tet – Rounds
Tristan: Paul Simon – Graceland

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 99: Successful songwriter Niclas Molinder co-founded the music credits ecosystem Session along with two other Swedish songwriters, Max Martin and Bjorn Ulvaeus in 2019. Music Ally's editor Joe Sparrow asks him about what he’s doing to make sure that as much new music as possible has all the correct credits and metadata baked in from the start – and ask him why getting music metadata straightened out is taking so long.

Session aims to attach complete metadata is attached to all recordings and songs at the point of creation. Niclas has written and produced for artists such as Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Mary J Blige and The Jonas Brothers. Niclas also talks about the challenges that companies who have spent fortunes buying catalogues of decades-old songs – often with patchy metadata – can go about uncovering and attaching the correct credits to their catalogue of music.

Session: https://www.session.id

Niclas' music choices:

Sting – They Dance Alone (Cueca Solo) youtu.be/MS_bN5ECJTI

Monica Zetterlund – Waltz For Debbie

Most rice grains eaten in one minute using chopsticks

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 98: This episode is for anyone interested in building a long, sustainable career as a musician. We're joined by Keith Jopling, of the Art of Longevity podcast, in which he talks to notable musicians - like, for instance Suzanne Vega, Nile Rodgers, Gary Numan and Norah Jones – about their careers in music and how they kept them going for so long. We ask him what he’s learned, what patterns there are in long-term success, and how you can use this information.

Keith Jopling has also just published a white paper called “Crossing the Rubicon” (link below), which charts the careers of many of the artists he's spoken to, and attempts to find out if there is a common artist career paths, how important big hits are, and whether classic albums still exist - or are even important? Keith breaks down a few different career examples, including that of Norah Jones, Suede, Teenage Fanclub, Suzanne Vega, and more – and gives us the big, actionable takeaways for you to use in your own work.

The Art of Longevity podcast: songsommelier.com

Download "Crossing The Rubicon" here: songsommelier.com/crossing-the-rubicon

Most pancakes filled in one minute

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 97: “It was sampling that revitalised – and continues the life of – a lot of music that we would never have otherwise heard… it deserves a lot more credit than it gets”

Sampling has been the backbone of a number of modern music styles, from house to hip hop. Deborah Mannis-Gardner of DMG Clearances has just helped pull off something that many thought may never happen: getting the many samples on De La Soul’s groundbreaking albums cleared so that they can finally appear on streaming services. She's also cleared samples for Wu Tang Clan, Drake, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Common, Eminem, and the groundbreaking musical Hamilton. We ask her how she gets the right people to say "yes" to letting other artists use bits of their songs.

After De La Soul's master recordings were acquired by Reservoir, Deborah was brought in to clear every sample on their classic albums. She explains to us what the hurdles are when you approach an artist with a sample clearance request; how she sleeps with her phone in case one of her high-profile clients decides to check if they can sample something at a late hour in the studio; and how she doesn't see the desire for artists to use samples going away any time soon. 

DMG Clearances dmgclearances.com

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly 

The shortest song in the Hot 100

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 96: Artists have been increasingly vocal about the pressures of the music industry and the impact on their mental health. And it’s not just artists: everyone can experience unique stresses in the industry. In this episode, Joe Sparrow talks to Adam Ficek and Jeordie Shenton of UK charity Tonic Rider about what they are doing to provide music industry-specific support.

Music industry pressures are unique: job security can be shaky, and there can be endless late nights – not to mention the sex and drugs and rock ’n’ roll. Meanwhile, the idea of the “tortured artist” is normalised, and those artists are then put on a pedestal.

UK charity Tonic Rider provides resources to encourage good mental health in the music business, through regular support groups, learning sessions, workshops, and training courses. Adam and Jeordie explain what stresses that artists and music business professionals tell them that they are feeling, what the Tonic Rider can do for you and your business, and how regular support groups with other people in the business who really understand its unique mix of pressures can be hugely helpful.

Tonic Rider: tonicmusic.co.uk/tonic-rider

Contact Tonic Rider: [email protected]

Most chocolate bars eaten in one minute: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/94495-most-chocolate-bars-eaten-in-one-minute

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 95: Time is flying and we’re now one month into 2023, so we asked Music Ally's Head of Insight, Stuart Dredge, to flex his insight muscles and speculate on what might happen in the rest of the year. We analyse some of the biggest issues in the music business:

• The recent comments made by UMG’s Lucian Grainge about how income from streaming should be shared
• Job cuts in music tech, including Spotify’s recent layoffs;
• Is streaming an affordable luxury that people will not cancel?
• Are gig tickets a luxury that people will skip to save cash?
• What about TikTok and how music generates money from non-streaming platforms
• Fairness for artists – what can artists do to make more money and take more control?

This discussion is extra-long – a whole hour! – and was recorded as a companion piece to Music Ally’s latest Quarterly Report – there’s a link below for Music Ally subscribers.

Music Ally's "Looking ahead to 2023" Quarterly Report:  https://musically.com/2023/02/09/music-ally-quarterly-report-looking-ahead-to-2023

Most pencils snapped in one minute: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/118697-most-pencils-snapped-in-one-minute

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 94: Dr. Jennifer Otter Bickerdike is a rock ’n’ roll cultural historian and author, who recently wrote the critically acclaimed and best-selling books You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico and Being Britney: Pieces of a Modern Icon. We spoke to her about the pressures placed on music stars, including burnout, overwork, and (social-) media stress – with Britney as a central example, but also leaning on knowledge from Jen’s past work in the music industry history. She worked in senior positions at Interscope and with artists like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Dr. Dre, Gwen Stefani, U2, and Eminem – before she left to start a new life in the UK. Amongst other things she’s co-founder of Moving the Needle, a nonprofit organization that supports women in the UK music industry through their careers. She spoke to Music Ally's Joe Sparrow about how we can create a better space for artists to produce the music we love. There's also an eye-opening anecdote about a clown, and much more Phil Collins than this podcast is usually comfortable with.

Dr. Jennifer Otter Bickerdike: jenniferotterbickerdike.com

Jen’s podcast: jenniferotterbickerdike.com/podcast

Most jalapeno chilli peppers eaten in one minute 

Phil Collins - Sussudio youtube.com/watch?v=r0qBaBb1Y-U

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 93: What does a music publication need to be in 2023? We talk a lot on the podcast about marketing from the artist-side: getting projects to launch and connecting to as many people as possible. But what about the point after that - when music fans debate and discuss music – and explore and discover music they don’t know that they don’t know? Sean Adams, of Drowned in Sound, explains how he’s going to build a modern music publication.

Drowned in Sound was one of the UK’s earliest music blogs back in 2000, and it then became one of the UK’s leading music publications, growing into a successful record label, an early podcast, and also live shows on the way. Having “paused” Drowned in Sound for a few years, Adams is bringing the publication back - but in a format that connects with the needs of music fans in a 2023 environment. So what is the mix of content, platforms, and community that music fans need now if they want a jumping-off point that is more contextual and community-driven than a playlist? Sean explains his plans.

Drowned in Sound’s new podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6hdFH47LWFXxL1Jdp9QqYK?si=20a4bf26d94946aa

Announcing DiS’s relaunch: https://twitter.com/seaninsound/status/1614909932184141824

Sean’s music pick: Warszawa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7kg5hq1eCc

Most shrimps eaten in one minute

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 92: We’re joined by Annabella Coldrick, Chief Executive of the Music Managers Forum to talk about the new realities of touring in the post-covid world. The Music Managers Forum recently held a round-table event with its members and it revealed a lot of concerns and issues around touring.  Artists are now facing a completely different touring environment: where a transformed economy means that touring is no longer the sturdy income source it was once considered, and artists are cancelling shows due to the lack of economic viability or as a result of mental health issues from the increased pressures around performing. We ask Coldrick what touring in 2023 is going to look like for her members and the artists they work with, and what they think the future holds.

Links mentioned in the show:

MMF (Music Managers Forum) – themmf.net

FAC 100% venues campaign - thefac.org/venuedirectory

Super Furry Animals – Northern Lights 

Most coins deposited into a piggy bank by a dog in one minute 

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🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 91: WTF is "web3 music"? In this episode we’re joined by Dan Fowler, Director of Open Source Projects at web3 music incubator HIFI Labs, and a man with deep experience working at where crypto, web3 and music meet. Joe Sparrow asks Dan the stupid questions so that we can all find out what web3 music is, and what it will mean for the music industry.

Most of us now have a surface understanding of NFTs and web3 stuff, but what is it exactly that classes a song as “web3 Music”, what does a web3 music  industry look like, and how is web3 music different to the music we are used to? Dan – who has worked on blockchain music projects for Jaak, ICE, PRS For Music, and now HIFI Labs – gamely agreed to explain what it all means, how bit works, and who can use it to good effect.

HIFI Labs: hifilabs.co – or join their Discord here: discord.gg/bqVs89D44M

Dan Fowler is on Twitter – @dan_djfnd – and on Substack: danfowler.substack.com

Most alternate paws offered by a dog in one minute: guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/448008-most-alternate-paws-offered-by-a-dog-in-one-minute

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 90: This episode, just like the Wu-Tang Clan, is for the children. Or rather, the parents of those children: we’re joined by the founders of Parenthood In Music, which aims to improve working conditions for parents in the music industry. Parenthood, they believe, remains one of the main drivers of inequality in the workplace. We find out why, and what changes they’re hoping to make.

Parenthood In Music is an initiative founded by Steffi von Kannemann (founder of the agency Better Things) and Marit Posch (General Manager IDOL Germany/ Co-founder of Hyper Culture).  Parenthood, they say, often means that mothers and single parents end up not reaching and holding managerial positions, or must switch to new jobs in other industries. They want to “build a music industry that doesn’t marginalise parents, but supports them.” So we wanted to find out more: why has this happened, what changes should be made, and what the benefits are for the industry as a whole.

Fun fact: because all of us are based in the same grimy city of Berlin, this is the first ever in-person Music Ally Focus Podcast!

Parenthood in Music: https://www.parenthoodinmusic.com/home-eng

Most apple sauce eaten in one minute: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/412530-most-apple-sauce-eaten-in-one-minute

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 89: Music Ally has just released its Campaign of the Year report (Get it for free here!) and so we finish the year with our annual podcast that highlights some of the best campaigns from 2022, chosen by the experts at Music Ally. The 2022 issue of our utterly essential Campaigns of the Year report has 60 highly-detailed case studies packed with data, KPIs, ideas and learnings – straight from the teams who did the best work of 2022. It’s a huge, vital resource for anyone working in music marketing, from DIY artist to major label. To pick out some jewels from 2022, we're joined for our end of year party / marketing bonanza by: 

• Eamonn Forde, writer Campaigns and Behind the Campaigns and Campaigns of the Year report; 
• Marlen Hüllbrock, Head of Marketing and Audience at Music Ally;
• and Magda Jędrzejevska, Training Executive at Music Ally. 

They each picked two campaigns from the report, explained why they are so good, and we spoke about how anyone listening can try to use these ideas for themselves.

Campaigns highlighted:

Eamonn: Eason Chan and Joakin Berg
Marlen: JVKE and Cate
Magda: Dapz on the map and Jagwar Twin

Report: Sandbox Campaigns of the Year report: download it for free now!

Webinar: Sandbox Best Campaigns of 2022: Actionable Insights and Strategies for 2023

Behind The Campaign :: Eason Chan

Behind The Campaign :: Joakim Berg

Muhammad Rashid cracking walnuts with his head: https://youtu.be/DonEdEUX0aI

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 88: We’re thrilled to be joined by Dan Runcie, founder of Trapital, which offers music business insight with a strong focus on the business of hip-hop – the world’s pre-eminent genre of pop music. Trapital has recently published its first big report on the business and culture of hip hop – and Dan, a true thought leader in this space, has a lot of interesting things to say: he talks about how the narrow genre boundaries of hip hop are hiding its actual size and success on an international basis, how hip-hop’s super-successful leaders like Jay Z are poised to become the large-scale investors of tomorrow – and how their hip-hop roots mean they have a remit to do things differently than the incumbents. It's a fascinating conversation for anyone who cares about the business of music - not just hip hop.

Trapital: https://trapital.co/

Trapital podcast: https://trapital.co/pod/

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 87: In this episode we’re joined by Kyran de Keijzer, co-founder of Muso.AI, the music credits platform that brings together data on the people that make songs, and allows music professionals to edit and manage their legacy metadata. Kyran says he looked at the most popular tracks ever made, and then looked at the metadata that reaches streaming platforms and found lots of gaps: only 60% have songwriting credits, 46% producer credits, and only 29% have engineering credits. We speak to him and ask why he chose to take on one of the huge music metadata challenges - in trying to make sure that all the people associated with a track are properly credited in the metadata, in a verified way. So, in this podcast, part of a partnership between Music Ally and Muso.AI, we wanted to hear the thoughts of someone who has spent half a decade working with music metadata and solving a problem that, he says, can help people not only get the credit they deserve, but open up new work opportunities, and get paid better for the work they do.

Muso.ai: https://muso.ai

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/muso-ai

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muso.ai/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MusoAIapp

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ai_muso

Music Ally Focus Ep. 86: We’re joined in this episode by Janelle Mitchell and Estée Blu - two recipients of the Richard Antwi Scholarship, which aims to support Black and minority ethnic students living in the UK and awards a full scholarship for University of Westminster’s Music Business Management MA course. We wanted to know how these two ambitious young pros see the music industry from their perspectives, and the hurdles that they see in front of them. 

They told us their frank opinions about:  the changes that need to be made, how they feel some Black people are put into job roles to fulfil a visible “diversity” remit, and how the goal of having currently underrepresented people in senior roles will have a transformative effect. They both also talk about how Black people are often expected to carry the burden of driving change around representation in the industry – and the subsequent impact that has on mental health.

It's an honest, important, and fascinating conversation.

Estée Blu – https://www.esteeblu.com

Janelle Mitchell – https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/janelle-mitchell

Richard Antwi Scholarship – https://www.richardantwi.org

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 85: Artist Love Ssega explains how he combines his music career with climate justice, and whether artists have a responsibility to not be silent on this issue. The climate emergency is the most meaningful challenge of our time, and one that the music industry can make a number of changes in relation to – whether that’s in terms of reducing music businesses carbon footprints, or artists using their influence to encourage fans to make a difference. London based artist Love Ssega talks about his work addressing the climate emergency from the perspective of an artist, his work with initiatives like Earth Percent, and also about the business opportunity that awaits artists if they adopt and become vocally supportive of climate-friendly activities.

Love Ssega: https://www.lovessega.com

Earth Percent: https://earthpercent.org

Some examples of Ssega's climate-related work:

https://worldoftopia.com/love-ssega-my-world-of-good/

https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/life-at-queens/news-and-events/ssegawa-ssekintu-kiwanuka-british-council-musician-in-residence-in

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 84: We’re joined by Gary Helsinger, SVP, Licensing & Creative at Melodie, who chats to us about the state of library music, but also tells all of the best rock n roll stories we have heard on the Focus podcast thus far. Gary has had a rich and varied background to say the least: for instance, he was Director, A&R at Chrysalis Music Group whilst also a member of platinum-selling rock band Green Jellÿ – plus, he was also a manager, and has deep experience in licensing and synch. So he tells us about the state of modern library music and sync, and his work in that field at Melodie. He also regales us with stories of how he signed himself as a musician, discovered Jeff Buckley, signed the Smashing Pumpkins, argued with David Bowie, loaned Prince his guitar, snooped on shoppers behind a two way mirror with Michael Jackson, and, oh, a whole lot more.

Melodie: https://melod.ie

Leah Shutkever eating sausages: youtube.com/watch?v=c7_e9SfzbqY

Green Jellÿ: youtube.com/watch?v=Gtffv9bpB-U

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 83: We’re joined in this show by Michael Horan, VP of Product at Last.fm, which is just about to hit a remarkable milestone: 20 years as a music tech company. In that time Last.fm has gathered an enormous amount of data on how people listen to music – and we wanted to talk to Michael about what Last.fm has learned from a music business that has changed dramatically in two decades.

Last.fm has grown from a company that tracked what you were listening to in your mp3 and CD collection to what you listen to everywhere online, and in this podcast, part of a partnership between Music Ally and Last.fm, we ask Michael about what Last.fm has both witnessed in – and brought to – over 20 years in the music business. He talks about the changes in how data has been used, and what changes are needed so that data can continue to be used in innovative ways to build communities and connect audiences with artists.

www.last.fm

www.last.fm/music

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/last-fm

Twitter - https://twitter.com/lastfm

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/lastfm

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/last_fm/

Music Ally Focus Ep. 82: We’re joined by multi-award winning UK beatbox champion, and live looping pioneer, Beardyman (AKA Darren Foreman) – who, like a number of artists, has created a significant extra income stream via a subscription model on Patreon. We talk to him about how he has made a model where fans do not merely support him – they collaborate with him: subscribers can present their track ideas and collaborate directly with Beardyman, and if successful, get royalties on the track. Darren he tells us about how and why he set up this new, direct-to-fan community connection, how it has become a big part of his income, how a Discord server is vital, and why he chose to only offer highly affordable pricing.

Beardyman on Patreon: patreon.com/beardyman

Beardyman: https://www.beardyman.co.uk

An example of Beardyman's livestreams: youtu.be/WhyNVidvlVY

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 81: In this episode we’re discussing the past, present and future of Latin music on a global scale with Jesús Triviño Alarcón, senior director for Latin Global for streaming platform Tidal. Jesús has a deep connection with Latin music and culture: he is a Webby-nominated content creator who has covered music, TV, film and more for over 17 years as a reporter, editor, producer and curator.

Latin music has firmly solidified its status as a global superpower, and we spoke to Jesús about his observations of Latin music’s recent successes, which music and cultures will spring to international prominence next, the possibility of innovative international collaborations – and we also got some insight on how audiences engage with Latin music.

Here are a few of the genres and artists Jesús mentioned:

• Rising: Latin
• Tmrw / R&B en Español 
• Tmrw / Cumbia
• Reggaeton del Sur (Venezuela)
• FEID Esenciales (one of the artists Jesús mentioned as an artist on the brink of global superstardom)

And here's an album by his music choice: A Tribe Called Quest's "Low End Theory" 

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #80: In this episode, we’re going to talk about Equitable Remuneration (ER) and how it works out in practice, IRL, with two people who truly understand the economics and legality of it. What is ER? In the UK and some other countries, it’s the practice of dividing certain radio play royalties 50-50 between artist and label - and in the UK’s long-running parliamentary inquiry into music streaming economics, ER became a widely-requested solution to many artists’ claims that they were not being paid enough.

So, we’ve got two people who really know their stuff to talk about whether applying ER to music streaming is a good idea. Spoiler: it might actually leave artists worse off. Dr Hayleigh Bosher, Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law and Associate Dean at Brunel University London, and  Will Page, former Chief Economist at Spotify and PRS for Music. They explore from a legal and economic perspective which are of the three real-world ER options available the most likely to happen  – and reveal that ER might actually leave artists worse off. So… what does the future hold for artist royalties in an environment where many artists still want to be paid differently? And will streaming platforms be able to increase monthly subscription costs in the middle of economic hardship? Hayleigh and Will look ahead and try to navigate the likely path forward.

Dr Hayleigh Bosher: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/hayleigh-bosher

Will Page: https://tarzaneconomics.com

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #79: We're speaking to Sam Saideman, co-founder of Innovo Music Management about TikTok, influencer marketing, and how artists can do it effectively – it's a really interesting conversation, full of good ideas, and free of marketing blah blah.

 Sam’s a big fan of TikTok – “it has an unlimited upside” he says – but if you get TikTok wrong, you can get it really wrong. “You could easily spend $100,000 on a music marketing campaign on TikTok and not get a single thing you wanted out of it… and they guy next to you could spend $500 activating one influencer and go viral overnight” says Sam. He talks about the mistakes that big legacy marketing firms – like major labels – make when engaging with TikTok, and explains what they really should be doing.

Innovo management manages creators who currently reach over 43 million followers on TikTok, and Sam compares managing artists to influencers, what artists are doing wrong on TikTok, and he explains how making lots of low budget videos are the right way to go.

Innovo: innovomanagement.com

Sam's blog post about finding your niche on TikTok.

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #78: In the second of two episodes where we speak to artists about pressures they have felt from that industry, and the effect it has had on them as people, we speak to the artist Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, or Orlando Higginbottom as he’s known to his family and friends. He talks about his experiences of working with record labels – and discussing the need for them in 2022, based on a decade of experiences that have not been, let’s say, wholly positive. He has just released his new album “When The Lights Go” as an independent artist, and Orlando has been highly vocal about his position on the current state of the music industry – including saying that “nobody should be signing a bad record deal, and perhaps nobody should be signing record deals at all”. We’re going to be talking about the need for record labels in the current environment, and his experiences in the recorded music industry, in which he has released two studio albums a decade apart, and felt he was let down by an industry that took advantage of him as a young artist.

TEED on your streaming platform: https://lnkfi.re/TEEDinosaurs

TEED: https://www.totallyenormousextinctdinosaurs.com

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #77: In this episode, we discuss Music Ally SI:X – our new annual global showcase, contest and mentorship support program for early-stage music startups. We chat to representatives of two of the sponsors, Emma Cordell, Senior Communications manager of FUGA, and Gregor Pryor, Partner at Reed Smith – along with Music Ally’s CEO Paul Brindley – about what they consider to be the most exciting and innovative areas in music tech, why big, game-changing ideas are still out there (and how to spot them),  and offer some advice for SI:X applicants to help them stand out from the competition. Remember, there’s still time left to apply for Music Ally SI:X – but not a lot: the deadline for applications is Monday 19th September. 

Find more information and apply to SI:X here: https://musically.com/music-ally-six

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #76: Recently we’ve reported a lot about artists being increasingly outspoken about the pressure on them to create content for social media. If big-name artists like Halsey are voicing their concerns and experiencing pressure, what about indie artists, who don’t have a team around them? This is the first of two episodes where we speak to artists about pressures they have felt from the music industry, and the effect it has had on them as people. We chat to independent artist Lauren Walker (who performs as Eurielle) about social media burnout: Lauren talks about her experiences of pressure from the social media platforms and DSPs. She voices her concerns around the “race to the bottom” of creating a buzz on social media in order to get onto playlists, and the crushing personal impact as a result of the expectation to be on all the social media platforms, all the time.

Eurielle: eurielle.com

Eurielle on (yes) social media: instagram.com/eurielle_music

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #75: In this episode we’re joined by two up-and-coming managers who are part of the UK’s MMF Accelerator programme. We want to know what opportunities talented young managers are seeing, and how they are going to use them to take their nascent stars onto success. Cecile Dreyer and Pascal Balletti talk to us about the fresh approaches they are using - specifically with regards to Direct to fan, NFT and web3 tech, and TikTok: all areas of interest that any managers, labels, artist team members listening can take advantage of.

The MMF’s accelerator programme is a grants and training initiative which runs each year and aims to boost the careers of young mangers in the UK, though expert professional development, of which MusicAlly is a partner. 

MMF's Accellerator 2022: https://themmf.net/accelerator-2022

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #74: "We confidently say that at least 10% of all streaming activity is fraud," – that's the opinion of Andrew Batey and Morgan Hayduk of Beatdapp, the streaming analysis platform that aims to uncover streaming fraud. We find out what the fraud looks like, how big it is, who’s doing it and why, how it works … and how much it would cost if we wanted to be the fraudsters. The answers will probably surprise you, and – if you’re an artist – you may be shocked to find that your streaming numbers have been inflated by scammers too.

Streaming fraud is complex: it’s clear that there is an incentive for people to game the system - siphoning money away from real artists. You might think that it’s simply a case of artists juicing their numbers to look more impressive. But there’s also a bigger, more complex picture and Andrew and Morgan explain how they find patterns of use that are indications of streaming fraud. 

Beatdapp's blog post on the "whac-a-mole" nature of stopping streaming fraud: blog.beatdapp.com/2022/05/whac-a-mole-part-2-return-of-the-whac

Beatdapp: beatdapp.com

Superman 3’s fraction-of-a-penny scheme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7JBXGkBoFc

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #73: Geoff Taylor, CEO of the BPI – the British recorded music industry's trade association – joins us for his first interview since announcing he will step down from his role in 2023. 

Geoff has led the BPI for 15 years, a period which has seen significant technological, economic and structural change. We speak to him about the changes he has seen, the work he and the BPI has done in the music tech sector, and where it’s all going next in the UK’s recorded music industry.

We also dig into two of the biggest issues he’s faced: the recent UK parliamentary inquiry into the economics of music streaming, and the decision by the UK’s CMA - the Competition and Markets Authority - not to conduct a full market investigation into music streaming and the UK’s music industry.

This episode is the first in a new ongoing series, celebrating Music Ally’s upcoming 20th anniversary, which will feature interviews with people who have had a signifiant impact on the music industry during the last two decades.

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #72: We’re looking at Country music, and how, as a genre, there are a number of communities that are underrepresented in it. We talk to people who are trying to change this. CMT and the Nashville-based management services company mtheory announced its Equal Access Development Program, designed to provide access and training for underrepresented demographics in the country music industry.

We invited the two of the originators of the programme, Cameo Carlson, President of mtheory and Tiffany Provenzano, Director, Equal Access at mtheory to talk about how the programme works and why it is needed. And we are also happy to welcome two of the participants in the programme – the Country artist Miko Marks, and artist manager Kadeem Phillips – who talk about the inequality and discrimination they have experienced in Country music, and how they felt the Equal Access programme was making a difference.

Here's Miko's new song, One More Night: youtube.com/watch?v=FsAwial3Hyw

The Equal Access programme: https://mtheory.com/equal-access/

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #71: Buying show tickets is still an imperfect and sometimes frustrating – not to mention expensive – experience. You’ll have certainly felt the pang of annoyance as tickets you want are snapped up by bots, and then sold on the secondary market for inflated prices. So what does a better ticketing system look like? We welcome Chief Strategy Officer of “post primary” ticketing platform Lyte, Lawrence Peryer, to discuss dynamic ticket pricing, the concept of fairness in ticketing, and the price point at which tickets are sold. We ask him about selling "real tickets at fair prices", what this means, and what the future of ticketing could be.

Lyte: lyte.com/about

Lawrence's music choice: Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of The Moon: youtube.com/watch?v=dj4_-kh-Kpg

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #70: We speak to Lewis Jamieson, co-founder and Director of Communications at the environmental pressure group Music Declares Emergency. MDE recently partnered with the University of Glasgow, the BPI, and others to research the expectations of music fans. He’s here to talk about what environmental changes music fans expect from their favourite artists, festivals, gig venues and labels – and what fans can do to make a difference. Lewis puts forward the case that making positive environmental changes is not just right, it’s sound business sense – and he talks about the power that fans have to demand these changes.

He also explains how fans and the artists they love can form communities that can make positive change happen, and also create a collective support group that helps them feel that they are making a real difference. Lewis also explains how people working on artist's teams, at labels, and at other music businesses can get to grips with a problem that often feels overwhelming – and how to start to effect real change.

Music Declares Emergency: musicdeclares.net

Music Industry Climate Pack: musicdeclares.net/assets/documents/pdfs/MDE-MUSIC-INDUSTRY-CLIMATE-PACK.pdf

Lewis' music choice: Sex Pistols – Bodies: youtu.be/S5PYZesJnyE

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Music Ally Focus Ep. #69: “If we had a pound from each of these people, our entire lives would change.” UK metalcore band While She Sleeps has been running its "Sleeps Society" for two years, and it has revolutionised the group's fortunes. We speak to two people from both ends of the equation – Mat Welsh from the band, and Oliver Smith, who is a top-tier Sleeps Society member. They explain how the relationship benefits band and fan alike. Society members can access a range of perks to enhance their connection with the band, including helping select the setlist at special shows, accessing bonus content, and even supplying backing vocals.

Oliver explains how it brings fans closer, and brings him closer to the band in a nuanced, enjoyable way. He also explains what he gets out of his enhanced connection with the band, and what happened when you close the traditional gap between artist and fan. Meanwhile, Mat explains how their subscription system has revolutionised the band’s business model and allowed them to invest back into the band – and how the subscriber fans are a special “trustee”-style group who “own their portion of the band” who help advise the band on important decisions.

Sleeps Society: patreon.com/whileshesleeps

While She Sleeps: whileshesleeps.com

Mat's music choice: Alexisonfire - Sans Soleil – youtube.com/watch?v=J_FfwNPhZmg

Oliver's music choice: While She Sleeps - The Long Way Home – youtube.com/watch?v=tOTvwiShufI

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Music Ally Focus #68: This week, we happily welcome music journalist and broadcaster Greg Cochrane, co-host of the Sounds Like A Plan podcast – which is in its third season, and explores how the music industry is responding to the climate crisis. The world is apparently speedrunning through the climate crisis and we all need to do our part to make the significant changes that will help minimise the damage to planet earth. But while we dutifully recycle our paper and plastics, are the big multinational music businesses doing their part?

We discuss this with Greg, and ask him what the music industry is doing, what it must do better – and how we can all make a difference, regardless of whether we're a CEO or a DIY artist.

Listen to the Sounds Like A Plan podcast here: linktr.ee/Soundslikeaplanpodcast

Music Ally's reporting on the climate emergency: musically.com/tag/climate-emergency

Greg's music choice: Anohni's "4 Degrees" youtube.com/watch?v=Fi0q0O4V5Qs

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We welcome Dorothy Carvello, former Atlantic A&R exec, and now author and campaigner for women in the music industry, to the podcast. Content warning: this podcast will discuss sexism, misogyny, and sexual assault. Carvello has recently launched her Face the Music Now Foundation, which aims to support women experiencing abuse in the music industry, and to force through widespread change.

Carvallo is extremely blunt in her observations and opinions. Major music companies, she says, are protecting abusers within their ranks, and shutting down women who make accusations via big cheques and NDAs. She also talks of the fear of speaking out and the need for transparency: “no 20 year old woman should have to say ‘if I speak up I’m afraid my career will be over.’ – that’s morally wrong. And it’s bad business! #MeToo is bad for the bottom line – and companies need to wake up and start realising that.”

She also talks about the work her foundation is doing to affect change, including via shareholder activism and trying to hold publicly-traded companies to account – because, she says, that unless change starts at the top, things are unlikely to change.

Face The Music Now Foundation: facethemusicnow.com

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It goes without saying that if you make or market music, you need to understand fans. The writer, journalist and broadcaster Jude Rogers is our latest guest, and she talks about the nature of modern fandom – and what it is that fans feel in the connection with their favourite artist. Jude has just published a new book, The Sound of Being Human, which tells the story of what it feels like to be a music fan, through a series of personal recollections and wider research framed around a bunch of classic songs. On the surface this episode may not seem to be your archetypal music industry podcast topic – but Jude's book exposes the human side of the industry that we can sometimes lose track of amongst all the discussion of marketing KPIs and so on. Jude talks to Joe Sparrow about what makes fans to do all the obsessive fan-stuff, and what they want from artists in return.

Jude's new book, The Sound Of Being Human: https://www.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/titles/jude-rogers/the-sound-of-being-human/9781474622950/

Jude's music choice – Buffalo Stance: youtube.com/watch?v=JWsRz3TJDEY

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We’ve spoken a lot about what music business web3 projects are, what artists can get out of them, what fans want in them and what the future may hold – but what about the actual underlying technology? And how do you get started with this famously complex tech? We’ve invited Tim Shank, CTO of Blockpool, and Brian Scudder, Head of Communications, to explain more. They say that now is the time to experiment with web3 tech and NFTs.

We wanted to know how music businesses can partner with blockchain companies and about the actual blockchain technology itself: which projects should/shouldn’t be tokenised/blockchainified, how to pick the right form of token/partner, what other considerations there might be.

This is another podcast in a series that digs into the burgeoning web3 space’s new concepts, ideas, and conventions and how they relate to the music business.

Blockpool: https://blockpool.eu/

Brian Scudder: linkedin.com/in/brianscudder

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The PPL has just announced its 2021 results and, as with most business areas affected by covid, it’s a complicated story. We’re asking Peter to talk through those results, but also what will happen next in the slightly mysterious world of neighbouring rights. In 2021 the PPL saw more money come in but slightly less, due to covid, go out – and the money was shared amongst more people. He’ll also talk about the recent European Court of Justice ruling which means that performers from the USA may for the first time be paid when their music is played on the radio in Europe.

The PPL: https://www.ppluk.com

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The Orchard was the first digital music distributor, and it's now 25 years old – so we asked co-founder Richard Gottehrer what he has learned along the way, and what the future holds for digital distributors. Richard is a man with a rich history of varied activity and success in the music industry: starting as a successful songwriter, he went on to form Sire records with Seymour Stein, producing albums by Blondie, the Go-Gos and Dr Feelgood along the way. In 1997, he co-founded The Orchard with Scott Cohen (now Chief Innovation Officer at WMG), which later became a subsidiary of Sony Music. 

The Orchard: theorchard.com

Richard's song choice: Percy Sledge - When A Man Loves A Woman - youtube.com/watch?v=EYb84BDMbi0

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We welcome Family In Music's chief innovation officer Kevin Bacon to talk about music metadata and blockchain tech. Kevin is no stranger to blockchain and web3 tech, having having been involved in early British blockchain startup Blockpool, which caused a stir when collaborating with Bjork in an early crypto-music experiment back in 2017. Before that, Kevin founded AWAL after a successful career as a record producer. He’s now chief innovation officer of Family In Music, a multi-faceted company for music creators, and which has just launched a platform called MgNTa – which he thinks will allow songwriters to collect money they would have otherwise missed, amongst other things.

Family in Music & MgNTa: familyinmusic.com/mgnta

Kevin's music choice: The Temptations – Ball of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today): youtube.com/watch?v=5HjUxggPd6E

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In this episode we’re joined by Rio Caraeff, Chief Commercial Officer of Syng, the home audio manufacturer who make a "triphonic speaker" that they claim enables a new kind of listening experience, where music follows you around, and tracks can be stripped down to create unique musical experiences. Rio is one of the people who can confidently talk about the music/tech landscape, having founded the video platform VEVO, and spent time as Chief Content Officer at the Augmented Reality company Magic Leap. We chat to him about how this fascinating technology works, and the future of music consumption when it’s a little more enveloping than streaming songs to a Bluetooth speaker.

Syng: syngspace.com

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Music Ally Focus #60: One of the benefits of web3 tech, its proponents argue, is that it encourages meaningful interaction between fan and artist. We’ve seen examples, for instance, of NFTs acting as fan club memberships. But what if the artists don’t exist in the first place? We’re happy to welcome Ian Simon, co-founder of Spirit Bomb, a virtual artist record label, to explain how virtual artists and web3 tech can unite to create new and desirable experiences for music fans – and how it might expand the overall pie and bring in new fans, who perhaps wouldn't have previously considered themselves "music fans". Oh, and what's it like managing an artist that doesn't exist as a person – how do they connect to fans, and what do fans want?

This is another in our series that digs into the burgeoning web3 space’s new concepts, ideas, and conventions and how they relate to the music business.

Strangeloop Discord https://discord.com/invite/strangeloop

Virtual artist LV4: https://wiki.spiritbomb.ai/#LV4

Spiritbomb: https://spiritbomb.ai

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In this fascinating and entertaining episode, we're joined by two people who are asking complicated questions about the nature of music copyright: Damien Riehl, technologist, technology lawyer and musician, and coder and technologist Noah Rubin. You may have heard of them previously – together, Riehl and Rubin created software that composed every single possible melody – and then they released them into the public domain. We ask them about their work, and Damien gives his forthright opinions on the recent Ed Sheeran plagiarism court case, copyright trolls, whether the copyright law as it stands is fit for purpose, and what music copyright law should look like.

All the Music: http://allthemusic.info

Damien’s TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/damien_riehl_copyrighting_all_the_melodies_to_avoid_accidental_infringement

Damien’s music choice: Phoebe Bridgers 

Noah's choice: Beardyman 

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Ian Matthews and Sam Bates to talk about how a Web3 business becomes a DAO and what happens when a smart linking service is added to the mix. You may know Ian's work as a member of the wildly successful UK band Kasabian – whose songs have been streamed billions of times – but he is also in the Web3 business, as co-founder of a community-owned, not for profit web3 organisation. We’re going to ask him what his soon-to-be-DAO does, what he hopes to achieve with it, and what excites him about this space – and he's joined by Sam Bates, the CMO of one of the companies that Ian's organisation has acquired: smart linking service Amplify. So how will web3 tech work in a world where artists are keen to own their direct fan relationships?

Ian’s DAO: https://www.chapel.earth

Amplify: https://amplify.link

Ian's music pick: The Atomic Mr Basie

Sam's music pick: Nas' Illmatic

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Andrea Czapary Martin, CEO of PRS for Music, which represents the rights of over 160,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers in the UK and around the world. The last few years have seen income in the music industry fluctuate wildly due to the impact of coronavirus – and PRS for Music has just released its 2021 results, including how much money it has collected and has paid out to songwriters during that period of disruption. So we spoke to Andrea about those results, and also about the future of music being used in new technology spaces – like, you guessed it – the metaverse.

One quick note about the Ukraine campaign that Andrea mentions – she’d like to make it clear that this is a CISAC initiative that PRS for Music supports – and you can read about – and support – it here: cisac.org/Newsroom/news-releases/cisac-solidarity-fund-ukraine

PRS for Music: prsformusic.com

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Last year, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative examined over 4,000 executives from 119 music companies and found that only 7.5% were Black. In this episode we’re joined by Jaia Thomas, founder and president of Diverse Representation, and Amity Paye, senior director of communications at Color Of Change, two organisations that recently announced the launch of the Diverse Representation Music Database, which connects music companies directly with Black talent across the USA. They’ll be talking about representation and equity in the music business, as well as the ambitions of the database, and the corporate accountability of the industry at large. Amity and Jaia also suggest how you can get started and be part of the change – even if you think you’re not powerful enough to make a difference. (Spoiler: you are!)

Color of Change https://colorofchange.org

The Diverse Representation Black Professionals Music Database https://www.diverserepresentationmusic.com

The #ChangeMusic initiative https://changeindustries.org/changemusic

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We warmly welcome Godwin Tom and Elizabeth Sobowale to talk about developing the next generation of music industry executives in Africa. They oversee Music Business Academy (MBA) for Africa – a training program that aims to develop that next generation. Godwin is CEO of iManage Africa and Elizabeth is Programme Director of MBA for Africa, which has developed the program in partnership with Music Ally and Dr. Carlos Chirinos of the Music Business Department at the New York University.

Runs between July and November 2022, the program will teach students about a range of music business trends and technologies, as well as giving them hands-on experience in releasing and promoting music to create sustainable careers for artists.

We wanted to talk to Elizabeth and Godwin about the changes they have seen in the African markets, the kind of training and education needed to develop the people who work in the industries there, and their thoughts on the future of the African music industry – and the music itself.

Music Business Academy for Africa: https://musicbusinessafrica.org

Godwin Tom: https://www.instagram.com/godwintom

Elizabeth Sobowale: https://www.instagram.com/elizabeth_sho

CIIF Africa: https://www.instagram.com/ciif.africa

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Music Ally Focus #54: Vickie Nauman, founder of music consultancy CrossBorderWorks, recently worked on a notable metaverse project, which involved the music licensing for 20 of David Guetta’s songs for an event where he – via his virtual avatar – DJ’ed in Roblox earlier this year. So we wanted to talk to Vickie about licensing music – something tricky enough in normal circumstances - in the metaverse. She tells us what she learned, and what she thinks the future of music in the metaverse will look like.

This Focus podcast is another in a series that digs into the burgeoning web3 space: the new concepts, ideas, and conventions and how they relate to the music business. 

Vickie/CrossBorderWorks: https://www.crossborderworks.com

David Guetta's Roblox party: https://roblox.fandom.com/wiki/David_Guetta_DJ_Party

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Josh Empson, CEO of Tempo Music Investments, joins Joe Sparrow to explain what it’s like to have a $1 billion-plus fund to invest in the purchase of music rights, and what these purchases mean for music and rightsholders. We are fascinated by this space, where huge sums change hands for ownership of songs – so we talked to Josh about how catalogues are chosen for purchasing, whether music is under- or over-valued at the moment, the long-term strategy of these investments, and what the impact might be on mid-tier songwriters and artists.

Josh/Tempo: https://www.tempomusic.com/people/josh-empson

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The music NFT bubble has not popped as some predicted, but it has deflated dramatically since it’s STONK-stastic peak in early 2021. The music-related NFT business is now settling into something more affordable, practical, and dare we say it, mundane. So we invited Max Shand, of the music NFT platform Serenade, to talk about it. Serenade has partnered with a number of music industry institutions and artists – and Max explains what a longer-term Music NFT landscape will look like, and what opportunities exist there for artists. He also talks about how he believes NFTs will empower fandom, stop artists from feeling like T-shirt makers first, and artists second, and his own extensive Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark collection of merch.

This is another episode in a new series of shows that dig into the burgeoning web3 space, and the new concepts, ideas, and conventions within it – and how they relate to the music business. 

Serenade: https://serenade.co

A Super Furry Animals NFT on Serenade: https://serenade.co/products/116022

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Edward Balassanian, founder and CEO of AI music creation company Aimi, chats to Music Ally's editor Joe Sparrow about the role AI music will play in our lives – and the conversation quickly gets a little bit philosophical. AI generated music is fascinating, partly because it questions our connection with music in the first place: if that music is not made by humans, then what is it we actually enjoy about it? Edward talks how music produced by AI may be part of many experiences in the future, and paints a picture of a world where we start to think about music - and what we use it for - in very different ways. 

Listen to Aimi's AI-created music here via these streaming experiences:

https://aimi.fm/experiences/?sort=livelistening-desc

https://aimi.fm/experience/deep/

https://aimi.fm/experience/push/

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Distributors hold even more keys to powerful fan-engagement opportunities than ever. Last year saw big changes in the space: aggressive geographic expansion, moves into NFTs, DeFi, and crypto, and fintech partnerships. Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow talks to special guest Kristin Graziani, president of music distribution service Stem – who talks about the evolving role of digital distributors in 2022, and what artists actually want from their distributor, in an era when Direct-to-fan is becoming the default approach for emerging and established artists.

Stem: https://stem.is

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Music Ally Focus #49: In the first in a short series of podcasts designed to help you understand how various elements of Web3 tech can be used in music, Grammy-award-winning artist RAC (AKA André Allen Anjos), and Head of Crypto at Hifi Labs, Jack Spallone, both speak to Music Ally Editor Joe Sparrow about racOS – RAC's new fan club / website which is also a DAO. the DAO – a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation – allows fans to become RAC token holders, and they are given access to exclusive features in the fan community, and new ways to interact with the artist. André, who has made a series of early experiments with web3 technologies, including tokens and NFTs, joins Jack in explaining how the DAO technology works, what the future of fan communities are in a web3 world, and what drew them both into this new field of technology.

racOS: https://rac.fm

Hifi Labs: https://www.hifilabs.co

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Music Ally Focus #48: We have quickly published this podcast due to the rapidly developing situation in Ukraine, where Russian forces have invaded and numerous cities are under attack. Dartsya Tarkovska, co-founder of Music Export Ukraine spoke to Music Ally from Ukraine and explained the war's impact on artists and people in the music industry, and how the industry will need to change its approach to Ukraine and Russia in the future. Dartsya is clear that our hopes and prayers are not enough: only actions are truly meaningful, and she describes how people in the international music industry can deliver practical help. She also talks movingly about her love for Ukrainian music and what the work of artists means to the country

Please note that there are a number of links below, supplied by Dartsya and Music Export Ukraine, that offer ways that you can deliver real assistance to the people of Ukraine – via donations, or actions that you can take to provide meaningful support. 

Music Export Ukraine’s collection of resources, donation links, and actions to help Ukraine: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VxrEdB4_g2rXha33IBY6AbVit5N7nNS7S1IV6-4u2U8/edit?usp=sharing

Music Export Ukraine, which helps Ukrainian emerging artists on an international level: https://musicexportukraine.com

MEU’s Spotify playlist of Ukrainian artists: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/334fKzmzN6YLVvoT0Q2spF?

Alonya Alonya’s post criticising streaming platforms: https://www.instagram.com/p/CahPvwutsSt/

Music Ally Editor Joe Sparrow speaks to Jeronimo Folgueira, CEO of music streaming platform Deezer about the company's current and future strategy, and also to get his thoughts on the state of music streaming today. He explained the various  ways that he thinks streaming can better serve artists and fans: including more ways of buying and selling inside streaming apps, how the relationships between the streaming platforms and the major labels could improve, and how, in the changing relationship between fans and artists, streaming apps can be the intermediary between the two.

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New money is pouring into the music industry: giant alternative asset management companies like Blackstone and KKR, are partnering with the likes of Hipgnosis and BMG to purchase music catalogue at great expense. But... why? Are they suddenly interested in buying some cool rock songs for some reason? Have they run out of other places to invest money in times of very low interest rates? Or have they spotted that music is undervalued? Music Ally's Joe Sparrow chats to journalist and analyst David Turner of music industry newsletter Penny Fractions, and he talks in depth about why on earth are these companies are suddenly pouring billions of dollars into music. David has some fascinating theories, and brings insight that has resulted from years of his own research.

Penny Fractions: https://pennyfractions.ghost.io

(Plus, a fishy world record) 

BTW – if you are interested in this topic, be sure to check out Focus Episode #38 (one of our most popular podcasts of 2021) where I discussed investments into music rights with music-tech strategist Dan Fowler, and how these giant investments could eventually buy enough catalogue to challenge traditional publishers.

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Music industry veteran Karen Emanuel is CEO of Key Production – and is on the board of Moving the Needle, a UK group that supports women entering the music industry. She speaks to Music Ally Editor Joe Sparrow about what can be done to encourage more women to enter the music business, and how to support and showcase their work when they are in it. Also: what does she want to see in terms of representation, pay, and recognition for women in the industry in 2022 – and how can listeners can actively make positive changes?

Moving the Needle: https://www.mtnnow.com

Karen Emanuel: https://www.mtnnow.com/karen

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Spotify has a lot on its plate all of a sudden. In 2020 it signed the controversial, blunt-smoking, bow-hunting podcaster Joe Rogan in a $100m deal - and while there has always been pushback against some of his guests, this week things came to a head, as Neil Young asked Spotify to choose between him or Rogan due to the podcaster's Covid-19 views. His music is now being removed from the service. In the same week, Rogan once again invited controversial academic Jordan Peterson onto his show – causing more controversy. By 28th January, #DeleteSpotify was trending on Twitter. Music Ally's Editor Joe Sparrow talks to Head of Insight Stuart Dredge to try and get some answers: how big a deal is this for Spotify, could #DeleteSpotify gain momentum and become a much bigger problem for the company – and will Spotify tell Joe Rogan to stop discussing certain topics on his show?

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Double Elvis is the music-focused podcast company behind the hit rock n roll crime music podcast “Disgraceland” and others, including the recent hip-hop inspired audio drama podcast “Here Comes the Break”, which was made in partnership with Def Jam and featured an exclusive soundtrack.

Music Ally has written a lot about the space where the music industry and podcasting meets so we’ve invited Double Elvis' CEO Brady Sadler to talk about podcasts teaming up with record labels, figuring out which music-themed podcasts will work, and the role of podcasts in introducing listeners to heritage artists and their catalogue and “baking in” that fandom. Oh, and Brady and Music Ally's editor Joe Sparrow geek out a tiny bit over The Cure.

Links mentioned in the show:

Disgraceland podcast: https://www.disgracelandpod.com
Curious Creatures podcast: https://curiouscreaturespodcast.com
Sounds and Vision with Andrew Loog Oldham: https://andrewloogoldham.net

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The long-held assumption is that artists make music, and that music is then the core connection between the artist and the fan – as well as the thing that is monetised. But that paradigm is rapidly changing. Christine Osazuwa, Strategy Director for Pollen Presents, speaks to Music Ally's Editor Joe Sparrow about how artists can and should seek new streams of income outside of the traditional sources of recording royalties and live tickets/merch – and how to connect with fans using platforms that allow direct relationships, and allow monetisation of the fandom itself via subscriptions, tips and exclusive offers.

Christine is also founder of  Measure of Music – part conference, part hackathon – which is happening in February (https://measureofmusic.com) and she is moderating at the NY:LON Connect conference (nylonconnect.com), which returns for its sixth edition online over January 18-21 2022.

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Music Ally Focus #41: Music Ally has just published its latest Quarterly Report – our yearly Trends Report is a forward-thinking series of analyses, with advice, ideas and context, to help you navigate a better route through the year ahead. (Music Ally subscribers can access it here.)

In this podcast we are going to pick over a couple of the topics from the report. First, we'll dig into New Revenue Streams, including the pricing of streaming and challenger music services and the one-off, 'non-DSP' payments that fuelled major labels' revenue surge in 2021. And secondly, because we are positive people here at Good Ship Music Ally, we'll talk about The Positive Industry We Want to Be: specifically, the meaningful change that needs to happen around the climate emergency, and the Music Climate Pact.

Those topics discussed in the full report are:

• The future fair music industry
• The Value of the Song
• Superfan Platforms and Creator Economies
• The Future of Live
• The New Revenue Streams
• The New Markets
• The Positive Industry We Want to Be

🧐 You can find all our reports here: musically.com/reports

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Music Ally Focus Ep. 40: Every December, Music Ally publishes its hotly-anticipated Sandbox Campaigns of the Year issue, which rounds up the best, most innovative and interesting campaigns of the previous 12 months – and 2021’s is the biggest ever. (There's a link to the report below). It's an incredibly useful resource for anyone planning marketing in 2022: so in this podcast we invited three of Music Ally’s marketing experts to pick out two of the winning campaigns they liked the most. 

We speak to Eamonn Forde, compiler of the Marketing Campaigns of the Year list, and who has recently published a book called Leaving The Building: The Lucrative Afterlife Of Music Estates, on how the music industry ensures that pop stars are lucrative even after they die – which is a hint as to which campaigns he picked. We also hear from Magda Jędrzejewska, Music Ally's Marketing Executive, and Marlen Hüllbrock, Music Ally’s Head of Marketing Services. They have all picked very different, very innovative campaigns –  and all share great insight into how they worked so well.

The Sandbox Music Marketing Campaigns of the Year report: https://musically.com/2021/12/15/sandbox-campaigns-of-the-year-2021s-best-music-marketing-campaigns/

Eamonn Forde's (great) new book, Leaving The Building: The Lucrative Afterlife Of Music Estates: https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Eamonn-Forde/Leaving-the-Building--The-Lucrative-Afterlife-of-Music-Estates/25990193

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In advance of the NY:LON Connect conference (nylonconnect.com), which returns for its sixth edition online over January 18-21 2022, we spoke to two previous conference participants to understand what these two experts see as the most meaningful and important topics as we look ahead into the fast-shifting music industry. The topics they zeroed in on include the creator economy, sub-Saharan Africa, increased transparency for artists, the current emphasis on catalogue, and, of course, the metaverse.

Vickie Naumann is founder & CEO of CrossBorderWorks, and she has consults and advises on music/tech with major companies, including Beat Saber andOculus, Q&A, Bose, Spotify, and Downtown Music.

Tom Frederikse is a partner at UK law firm Clintons, is dual-qualified as both a UK solicitor and a New York attorney, and is recognised as a leading practitioner in Digital Media and technology-related matters.

NYLON CONNECT 2022 is a forum for high-level strategic debate about the biggest issues facing the global music business and is a collaboration between the Music Business Association and Music Ally: nylonconnect.com

Music Business Association: musicbiz.org

Vickie Naumann: crossborderworks.com

Tom Frederikse: clintons.co.uk/tom-frederikse

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Private equity funds and firms like Hipgnosis are scooping up music catalogues. And 60% of Hipgnosis’s expensively-purchased catalogue of music is over ten years old, with only 2.5% under 3 years old. Will major publishers and labels be drawn into a bidding war over copyrights, and will new artists suffer as a result? 

Music-tech strategist Dan Fowler recently wrote a fascinating article called “The Changing Landscape of Music Publishing” which aimed to figure out what the impact of the big catalogue purchases of Hipgnosis and private equity funds like  Blackstone, KKR, and Apollo would be on major publishers. In this podcast he explains how:

• Hipgnosis may not be overpaying for rights, and are in fact establishing a new market value, 
• what it means when staggeringly wealthy firms that are focused on pure financial profit get involved in the music rights industry,
• what the possibly-worrying impact will be on new music and musicians,
• how it's only going to get harder for new musicians to make a living from streaming and royalties.

Dan Fowler on Twitter: twitter.com/dan_djfnd

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Smartlinking services like Linkfire are now ubiquitous to music fans and industry alike: they have become essential glue that holds all the disparate areas of the business together, sending fans from one place to another, and generating income along the way. We chat to Linkfire CEO Lars Ettrup about this quietly powerful sector, and we ask him if smartlinks are empowering independence for DIY artists, and if they even need a traditional website in an age where the most important URL for them to share is a smartlink. PLUS: Lars announces that Linkfire has just acquired a major competitor.

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Music Ally recently published its Q3 2021 report, which focused on music/tech startups and the future fo the music industry. In the report, we spoke to Chris Howard, serial entrepreuer, and CEO of The Rattle, which operates in London, Los Angeles and New York City. The Rattle stands “as a counter-culture to the traditional music and startup industries,” and what Howard said in our report - in particular his critique of the music industry’s (in)ability to engage with technology – ruffled a few feathers. So obviously, we asked him back to expand on his thoughts.

In this podcast, he explains why he said that music tech is "really really really boring" and how artists are going to start viewing themselves as the CEOs of their own small enterprises – which creates many more options and entirely new business models using technology adjacent to the music industry. 

Here's our interview with Rishi Patel and John Acquaviva of Plus Eight Equity Partners.

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Special guest Amit Gurbaxani recently wrote an article for us on the Indian All About Music music industry conference, and here, he gives us his expert insight into the Indian music markets. He chatted to Joe Sparrow about three of the key topics, and answered some questions submitted via social media. He spoke about how there is appetite – and money – for international touring acts in India, but not a live venue infrastructure yet; how Indian music is not just about Bollywood and that regional pop is enormous – and can be truly measured for the first time; and much more. It's a fascinating insight into India's multi-faceted music markets.

Here are the articles written by Amit that were mentioned in the podcast:

• How a Canadian Punjabi hip-hop song became Spotify India’s biggest hit: musically.com/2021/08/02/big-bang-reads-how-a-canadian-punjabi-hip-hop-song-became-spotify-indias-biggest-hit
• Spotlight on India: the rapid growth of regional Indian language music: musically.com/2021/08/02/spotlight-on-india-the-rapid-growth-of-regional-indian-language-music
• Independent music, not Bollywood, may be India’s global crossover: musically.com/2021/03/08/independent-music-not-bollywood-may-be-indias-global-crossover

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Music Ally has just published its Q3 2021 report, which focused on music/tech startups. For the report, we spoke to Rishi Patel and John Acquaviva of music/tech investors Plus Eight Equity about how they see the future of the industry, and they kindly agreed to dig deeper into their thoughts in this podcast. Rishi and John explain to Music Ally's Joe Sparrow how the creator economy is a huge focus for them; how the incumbent music business companies “have a gun to their heads” and will be forced to adapt quickly to rapidly-evolving technology; how realistic uses of NFTs in music will likely be for digitised collector editions of music and merch; and how the “wildcard” is the metaverse – and how that may in turn drive up the value of NFTs.

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In this episode, CTO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (which represents the interests of the global recording industry)  Richard Gooch joins us to talk about metadata. He says that the idea that “music metadata is broken” is a misconception. He explains the new systems that he says form the infrastructure for a fairer music industry – for everyone from superstars to new artists in existing territories in sub-Saharan Africa, where the IFPI has a particular current focus. He also talks about improvements that could be made, how performing rights reporting can change, and the changes he hopes music metadata will bring.

Suffolk Braves Wheelchair Basketball Club's world record: https://youtu.be/OvuBbMBuXh4?t=195

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TikTok has officially reached the milestone of one billion monthly active users (MAUs). The short-form videos app revealed the news in a short announcement blog post, although it did not give any other stats. In July 2020, TikTok had 689.2 million monthly active users and it only took 14 months to hit the one billion MAUs mark –  which suggests that TikTok has been adding around 22.2 million users a month during that period. Joe and Stu discuss what this means for artists and the music industry – and whether it means music is becoming simply a component of the burgeoning "creator economy".

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It's all happening in the UK right now: there are some big and meaningful investigations into the music industry going on, which will almost certainly have big repercussions around the world when they conclude. This week, the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has published a hefty report on music creators' earnings in the digital era. It has a huge amount of data, and aims to inform discussion in the ever-heated debate about artists and streaming royalties. It's a very long report – 224 pages to be exact – so if you feel overwhelmed just thinking about reading it, listen to Stuart Dredge (who has heroically read it all) explain the important bits to Joe Sparrow in this podcast.

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Some musicians are finding NFTs irresistible, seeing them as a new way to connect with fans, make money – and sell slices of their music rights. It seems very easy to sell a small percentage of, for instance, your master recording copyright – with potentially huge rewards. But, warns this week's special guest, there are many ways you could get caught in a tricky situation that you may not have considered – including anti-money laundering laws, securities laws, international tax issues, and the highly volatile nature of cryptocurrency itself.

Adrian Perry is partner and co-chair of Covington & Burling LLP's Music Industry practice, and is eager to help musicians and rights owners understand these hidden legal risks.  He's no NFT-sceptic, and is enthusiastic about the space – so he helped Music Ally's editor Joe Sparrow  understand the associated risks, and how to navigate them. 

Here's more info on Adrian: https://www.cov.com/en/professionals/p/adrian-perry

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Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow talk over the shock news that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that Sony Music’s $430m acquisition of distributor AWAL from Kobalt “raises competition concerns”, and gave the major label a five-day deadline to respond. If those responses do not satisfy the regulator, it will launch a deeper ‘phase two’ investigation of the deal. Stu and Joe discuss why this has happened, what the responses of various connected parties were – and if this, combined with the UK's recent parliamentary inquiry into music streaming, means that major labels are facing an unprecedented period of probing and pressure. (For more context, we analysed this story in depth here.)

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Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow talk over the possibilities (and accidentally insult both golfers and jazz fans) in Apple's purchase of Primephonic, the classical music streaming service, which they promise will be reborn as a better experience, with more features. Classical music has proved famously tricky for the big streaming services to get right, thanks to the specific challenges around metadata and catalogue navigation, but in other ways it’s been very simple: peaceful piano instrumentals, for example, are a staple of the DSPs’ mood playlists, and they fall under the banner of ‘classical’ as much as the famous symphonies do. [NOTE: we added music to another version of this episode, but it will only appear on certain platforms, hence this music-free version, which is otherwise identical. It was "Blue In Green" by Miles Davis, FYI.]

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LINKS:

• For more context on what Apple is buying, you can read our article, based on a roundtable hosted by Primephonic to discuss trends around classical and streaming.
• You can also watch the recent classical-focused episode from the BPI and Music Ally’s Music & Tech Springboard Programme, which saw classical labels talking about the trends they see.
• Here's LA Beast eating an advent calendar very fast.

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Rebecca Versteegh, Head of Music Partnerships at the “Gen-Z Marketing Agency” Creed Media is our special guest this week. Creed has only been around for three years but has become well known for its success at TikTok marketing and works with all three major labels.

While TikTok success is highly sought after by many marketers, it’s the next step that holds interest for a lot of them: translating that attention across to streaming platforms in the forms of plays, follows and fandom elsewhere in the music industry ecosystem.

So how do you do it? Joe Sparrow talks to Rebecca to find out... 

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Tim Westergren was the former founder and CEO of Pandora, and helped build the current digital music landscape. He left the company in 2017, frustrated by “the music industrial complex vortex”, and last year launched a new startup called Sessions –  a live-streaming platform for emerging and established artists. He says Sessions does something unique: it spends its own money to bring in viewers for performing artists, and gives artists a direct connection, and all the data, on their fans. Tim talks to Music Ally editor Joe Sparrow about how he hopes the music industry can work differently, and how the business model of the big streaming platforms, he believes, is not the right path for artists. He also discusses Spotify's controversial Discovery Mode – where artists receive a lower per-stream rate in exchange for exposure.

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Spotify has published its financial results for the second quarter of 2021: it now has 365 million monthly active users (MAUs) including 165 million premium subscribers, and added nine million users and seven million subscribers during Q2. The results also contained some interesting info about Greenroom, its Clubhouse-style app, showed slow growth in the "Rest of World" areas – and revealed an operating profit of €12m in Q2. Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow rummage around in the announcement and pull out the vital facts.

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Hashtag challenges and dance contests are vital to TikTok and rival apps and services are adopting them too. YouTube Shorts is no different, and as the service continues its rapid global rollout, it has snagged a partnership with K-Pop giants BTS. They have launched the ‘first ever worldwide dance challenge’ on YouTube Shorts based around their new track ‘Permission to Dance’. Joe and Stu discuss what this means for short-form video, and whether people will simply do the dance on TikTok instead.

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Music Ally has reported extensively on the hearings at the UK parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) inquiry into the economics of music streaming – which has now published its report. And it’s fair to say major labels will be wincing the most as they read its recommendations – which include:

• Introducing broadcast-style equitable remuneration (ER) for streaming income
• An investigation by the UK’s competition watchdog the CMA into major labels’ market power and business practices
• Legislation giving artists a “right to recapture” their recordings rights after 20 years
• Calling for songs (and thus songwriters and publishers) to get a bigger share of streaming royalties

Joe and Stu poured a very large mug of coffee, read the whole 120+page report, and then pull out the most important parts – and discuss what will happen next.

Here’s the full written analysis of the report too: https://musically.com/2021/07/15/labels-under-fire-uk-streaming-inquiry-report/

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Muhammad Rashid (Pakistan) crushing 49 watermelons with his head in 1 min: https://www.facebook.com/GuinnessWorldRecords/videos/489784921508299/

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow.

British politician Kevin Brennan wrote a guest article for UK newspaper the Independent which offers a few hints on the outcome of the UK Parliamentary Inquiry into artists' streaming income. The British music industry will now be preparing for a big lobbying battle around applying equitable remuneration (ER) to streaming, although this is not a big surprise given the issue’s prominence in the hearings of the UK’s music streaming economics inquiry.  Joe and Stu try to figure out the most likely outcome; wonder if labels should be worried - or if they have an other card to play.

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Que Jianyu solving three Rubik's cubes whilst juggling them in 5 mins 2.43 sec: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6AsllXpKBU

Music Ally appears on The Daily Show! https://mobile.twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1405867638199394317

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. 

Spotify has evolved from a pure music-streaming service to an 'audio-first' platform including podcasts and live audio. Perhaps major labels are going down a similar evolutionary path. Sony Music is the latest to beef up its podcasting activities. It has acquired UK-based radio, podcasts and TV producer Somethin' Else for an undisclosed amount, as part of an expansion of its global podcasts division. Joe and Stu delve into what's behind this purchase - and if it means major labels are creeping away from the music business.

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There are now more ways than ever for an artist to connect with audiences, and to make money doing it – exactly the kind of complex task that many artists look to a manager to help them with. So how do forward-thinking managers help artists connect with their audience, strike innovative deals, and make money in new ways? Joe Sparrow talks to three young managers who are all navigating this new landscape to find out what they have learned: 

• Sarah, Muise Management – who works with Shygirl, LYZZA, Butch, Lou Hayter & Delilah Holliday.  

• "T" Oyelola, Black Grape Global - who works with YolandDa Brown, Genevieve Dawson, Annastasia Baker.  

• Ben Price - Harbourside Music Management - works with Viktoria Modesta , Lachi and Lucy May Walker.  

Sarah, T and Ben are all members of Music Managers Forum's Accelerator Programme - an initiative they set up in 2019 with support from YouTube Music, Arts Council England and Creative Scotland, helping upcoming managers to become sustainable businesses.   

We’ve been speaking about the “third pillar” of income for artists for a while now: a substantial stream of income that sits alongside the traditional duo of live performance and recorded income, and is composed of a unique mix of income streams for every artist. For instance: an artist could make money from Twitch streams, a “super-fanclub” on Patreon, a closely-aligned and long-term brand partnership, or a podcast.

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Roblox is a buzzy platform with a huge user base making games, spaces and virtual experiences. As part of that process they can upload custom audio, which could be music - and now the US National Music Publishers Association is suing Roblox for $200m in damages for “Roblox’s unabashed exploitation of music without proper licences”. Joe and Stu discuss what this means for User Generated Content platforms like Roblox others in a similar situation – like Twitch.

...And here's Aneta Florczyk rolling 6 frying pans into a cylinder with her bare hands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mME2J1E_P20

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. This week, YouTube announced that it has paid out more than $4bn to the music industry in the last 12 months, according to its head of music Lyor Cohen. Joe 'n' Stu ask what this means for streaming services, artists, and labels: is it as simple as "more money in is better?" And what might other streaming platforms like Spotify do in response?

Oh, and here's the link to Budimir Šobat’s world record of the longest time for the breath being held voluntarily.
52 Gaj Ka Daman – a regional song that became a billion-stream YouTube mega-hit.

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Joe 'n' Stu talk about understanding what NFTs *really* mean for the music industry and how they should be part of long-term thinking; what the music industry can learn from sports marketing; and how artists are making more money from memberships on livestreaming platforms than they are from touring. It's a recap of a few of the most impactful things they learned from Music Ally's Sandbox Summit Global conference, which happened in late May 2021.

Here are the links mentioned in the show:

The world's fastest motorised toilet: guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/fastest-toilet
What can the music industry learn from sports and other sectors? musically.com/2021/05/26/what-can-the-music-industry-learn-from-sports-and-other-sectors
NFTs and music: ‘Proof of fandom, status, utility and engagement’ musically.com/2021/05/27/nfts-and-music-proof-of-fandom-status-utility-and-engagement
How can memberships and tips economies work for musicians?: musically.com/2021/05/28/how-can-memberships-and-tips-economies-work-for-musicians

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Distributor Believe said that it is "contemplating" raising around €500m (around $608.5m) from its mooted IPO... the prospectus isn't yet public, but Believe has published some of the figures that will be key to its appeal to investors: In 2020, Believe generated €728m (886m) from 'digital music sales' and in the first quarter of 2021, the company made another €124m, up by 26% year-on-year. Joe and Stu analyse who might (alternatively) buy Believe outright, what this IPO might mean for artists, and if it changes the power balance between distributors and labels.

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Games firm Roblox is firmly on the music industry map now, and Roblox published its Q1 results, revealing that it generated $387m of revenues in the first three months of this year, up 140% compared to Q1 2020. It also has 43.3m daily active users, and music is increasingly a part of the Roblox experience - so Joe and Stu analyse what this might mean for the music biz, and how artists could use it to make cool new experiences for fans.

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Will Page, the former chief economist at Spotify and PRS for Music, has published a new study of 'Twitch's Rockonomics' which contains data unearthed by Page – particularly the case studies of artists Laura Shigihara, Aeseaes, Sereda, Matt Heafy, mxmtoon and RAC – will be useful for any musician mulling whether to use Twitch.

Joe and Stu talk about its insight into how Twitch's economy works and if it could be valuable for musicians, artists, performers and rightsholders.

PLUS: Page talked to Music Ally about his findings, explaining that it was an attempt to help Twitch "understand the economics of their own business model", as well as to give artists and the wider music industry an insight into the platform. You can read the interview here: https://musically.com/2021/04/29/twitch-rockonomics-will-page-mxmtoon-rac/

And read his study here: https://www.twitchrockonomics.com

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Apple has just announced its new show-level podcast subscriptions. Spotify also plans to announce its own similar offering, having invested heavily in podcasting in the last few years. So what does it mean for musicians and songwriters? Could show-level podcast subscriptions mean musician podcasters start creating their own paywalls with exclusive content – possibly including paywalled music too? Should artists create non-music audio that listeners will play for? Could you even release music as "a podcast" and make more money? Stu 'n' Joe dig in...

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We were thrilled to talk to techno legend Richie Hawtin and Endel CEO Oleg Stavitsky – two people at the cutting edge of where Music and AI intersects. Hawtin, the pioneering musician, DJ and technologist partnered with Endel, the Berlin-based platform that creates adaptive, real-time personalised sounds and music using AI on a brand new project, "Deeper Focus", which automatically creates music based on Hawtin's work.

We chatted to  Richie and Oleg about their new project, and their thoughts on how music, musicians, and AI can work together - and what it means for the music industry, and for musicians afraid that AI will replace them.

Music Ally readers can get an exclusive free month of Endel: https://code.endel.io/?code=musically

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The Endel X Plastikman "Deeper Focus" collaboration: https://deeper.endel.io
 

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Indian social media firm ShareChat is behind one of the most successful new TikTok rivals in India: Moj. It now has more than 120 million monthly active users – making it one of the leaders in the scramble to replace TikTok, after that app was banned in India last summer. ShareChat has just raised a $502m funding round, with investors including Snap, Twitter and Tiger Global Management. 

Joe 'n' Stu analyse the implications for the music business and the wider context of western tech firms scrambling to invest in these Indian companies.

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NB: As promised in this episode, here's a frankly chaotic video of someone completing Super Mario 64 in 6m30s: https://youtu.be/vCc8qaW0dX8

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Patreon is now valued at $4bn and their focus on the ‘creator’ economy seems to be working – so does this mean that we can assume that artists will now generate a substantial part of their money from superfans via platforms like Patreon? How do artists persuade fans to support them on these platforms - and will labels be shoved out of the picture or do they still have an important role to play? 

Stu and Joe analyse what it means for artists, and what it suggests about the future of artists' income.

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NB: As promised in this episode, here's a video of Joey "Jaws" Chestnut eating 75 hot dogs in 10 mins: youtube.com/watch?v=rE85Rjr5Nyg

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. "There are elements of live listening that will eventually exist on Spotify too. You should imagine that functionality being available," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told Music Ally in February this year, when we asked him whether his company had plans for radio and/or Clubhouse-style live audio. Lo and behold: Spotify just announced its acquisition of startup Betty Labs, the creator of a live audio app called Locker Room. Stu and Joe analyse the streaming giant's move into broadcasting, and what it might mean for content creators...

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Global recorded music revenues grew by 7.4% to $21.6bn in 2020, according to industry body the IFPI, which published its annual Global Music Report this week. That’s a deceleration compared to 2019, but with 2020 being the year of Covid-19, labels will see the latest figures as a success. It’s also the sixth consecutive year of growth, and the highest annual total since 2002, when global revenues were $22.1bn. Joe and Stu dig into the data to see where the money came from during a year of lockdown – and wonder where growth may come from next.

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Spotify has just launched a new data-heavy website that explains how the company pays out royalties. Spotify isn’t explicitly describing it as a defence of music streaming, but given the recent upsurge in debate about musicians and streaming royalties – not to mention the UK’s parliamentary inquiry focusing on the streaming economy – the timing is no accident.   

Joe and Stu discuss what this new tranche of data might show – and try to answer Daniel Ek's rhetorical question: "Artists ask me all the time why they’re not making more money. If the music industry is generating so much, then where the hell is it going?"

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Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive at BPI & BRIT Awards, discusses artists, labels, streaming and equitable remuneration with Music Ally's Joe Sparrow.

Throughout the current UK parliamentary inquiry into the economics of music streaming, Music Ally has worked hard to report fairly the full range of views in the debates about how streaming pays off for musicians. We've reported at length on the key sessions at the inquiry, taking in artists, labels, industry bodies and streaming services. And in May 2020, we invited Tom Gray, a key figure in the Broken Record campaign that sparked the inquiry, onto our Music Ally TV Show.

We've now extended a similar invitation to Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI, Brit Awards and Mercury Prize. Like Gray, he gave evidence during the inquiry, speaking on behalf of the BPI's major and independent label membership. He spoke to us in depth about the biggest issues raised in the inquiry and how streaming should work for artists. You can read Music Ally's deeper coverage on the issue here.

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. We're in a moment of intense hype around non-fungible tokens of all kinds, music included. Grimes sold $5.8m of her NFTs in 20 minutes last week, while Mike Shinoda recently made tens of thousands of dollars from a single NFT, including a new song. Now artist 3lau (aka Justin Blau) has set his own record: $11.6m of NFT sales. Joe and Stu discuss if this is another crypto bubble, and what the actual good uses of NFTs might be for artists.

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Streaming service Tidal has a new majority owner: fintech firm Square. That's the mobile payments company founded by Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, which is now paying $297m in stock and cash for the stake. Tidal co-owner Jay-Z will be joining Square's board as part of the transaction. Stu explains to Joe why a fintech company wants to buy in to streaming music, and how it will try and make new opportunities for artists. 

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Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. This week, Spotify held a huge event announcing a raft of announcements, including new functionality and what they presented as positive examples of artists generating money from the platform. Stuart Dredge, who authored Music Ally's live coverage of the event, and then spoke to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek after it, explains to Joe what he thinks these announcement mean, and where Spotify is going next.

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