While it’s now easier than ever to access music over streaming platforms, what we gain in convenience we lose in audio quality. Orastream is a company that helps audiophiles stream their music collection in high definition. Counting Neil Young as a customer and fan of their tech, Orastream’s mission is to restore high quality audio to your digital music. Helping us understand what makes for good quality audio streaming these days is Frankie Tan, Oratsream’s founder. Frankie is an engineer by tra...
Jun 14, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 51
The iPhone was first introduced in 2007. This world changing product brought us some amazing benefits but it also created some issues. Besides the screen addiction affecting us all, there is growing evidence that our constant use of headphones might be creating a hearing loss epidemic - especially in younger people. We wanted to learn what listening habits might contribute to the problem and if there’s anything we can do about it. To answer our questions, we reached out to one of the world’s lea...
May 31, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 50
It’s no secret that concert ticketing is a mess. Service fees are sky high, sophisticated bots scoop the best seats and resale prices on secondary markets are too high for many fans. While the problem is widespread - help may be on the way. A promising startup called Lyte is creating solutions to level the playing field and ease the burden on fans’ pocketbooks. Helping us dig into the issue is Lawrence Peryer. Lawrence is the Chief Strategy Officer at Lyte, a reservations technology platform tha...
May 24, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 49
One theory explaining the recent comeback in record collecting is that its a backlash against the digitization of music. There’s a new company that is challenging this theory by integrating old school vinyl collections with a hot new digital collectible - NFTs. Vinylkey believes that by merging record collecting with NFTs, they can unlock new opportunities for artists to engage and delight their fans. Taking us on a tour of Vinylkey are Gar Ragland and Sean Moore. Gar is a producer, musician, an...
May 17, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 48
In past episodes we’ve covered how music can impact our brain’s chemistry. In this episode we look at an area of research that explores the relationship between musical preferences and our personality. What does your taste in music say about your character and can your personality traits predict what types of music you’ll like? To walk us through his topic, we’re joined today by Dr. David M. Greenberg from Jerusalem, Israel. David is a psychologist, musician, and researcher at Bar-Ilan Universit...
May 10, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 47
The Eurovision Song Contest attracts over 180 million viewers and has been an annual event since 1956. Despite being such a huge success, the USA has never joined in on the action until now. This year NBC is running their own Americanized spinoff - The American Song Contest hosted by Snoop and Kelly Clarkson. Will it enjoy the lasting power of Eurovision or be a one and done flop? Joining us today from North Edinburgh, Scotland is Ewan Spence. Ewan is a freelance broadcaster and journalist, with...
May 03, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 47
In 2022, Neil Young left Spotify to protest the platform’s support of podcaster Joe Rogan and his alleged misinformation about COVID, bringing the role of music and protest back into the spotlight. Using music to effect social change is nothing new but much has changed since the days of Bob Dylan and social upheaval of the 60s. To help explain this evolution, we reached James Sullivan, a music and culture writer and journalism teacher at Emerson College. His book “Which Side Are You On? The Hist...
Apr 26, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Virtual artists have been around since the time of Alvin and the Chipmunks but have never really penetrated mainstream music. This could be about to change. Increasingly we’re seeing breakout hits from artists like Grimes’ War Nymph and Lil Miquela. And with the coming of the metaverse, virtual artists could have the platform they always needed to propel this niche into overdrive. To help explain this trend, our guest today is Ian Simon who joins us from Los Angeles. Ian is a co-founder of Stran...
Apr 19, 2022•34 min•Season 1Ep. 44
The role of music in video games has been constantly evolving. We started with background music in iconic games like Super Mario Bros, Zelda or Tetris. Then games like Guitar Hero, Just Dance and Grand Theft Auto incorporated hit songs into the game play. More recently, popular artists have been performing concerts as avatars in game worlds like Fortnite and Roblox. Could the Metaverse be the next evolution? Where music can be streamed and concerts are reimagined in new paradigms that are immers...
Apr 12, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 43
We can all remember a radio or TV jingle that's stuck in our heads. The first music jingle aired almost 100 years ago and since then advertisers have learned that music is critical to making a great ad. Who were the original mad men that discovered this innovation - and how has music in advertising evolved over the years? To walk us through this interesting history, we’re joined by Dr. Timothy D. Taylor, a professor in UCLA’s Department of Music and an authority on music and advertising. Tim is ...
Apr 05, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 42
Streaming platforms have given us the gift of cheap, easy access to any song in the world but they have also attracted criticism from indie artists who complain that the royalty system they ushered in unfairly favors the top artists. SoundCloud was an early pioneer in streaming and always catered to the indie community. So it makes sense that they are trying to improve the economics for emerging artists, in part with a new system they call Fan-Powered Royalties. We’re joined today by Drea Jackso...
Mar 29, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Have you ever wondered why certain songs get stuck in your head or why certain memories are triggered when listening to music? In this episode we get into a mind-blowing discussion about everything from ear worms to how music can be applied as an Alzheimer's therapy. We’re joined by Dr. Kelly Jakubowski, a researcher specializing in music and memory. Kelly is an Assistant Professor of Music Psychology at Durham University in the UK. She studied Music Performance (on the violin) and Music Theory ...
Mar 22, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 40
When most people hear about crypto or blockchains, they probably think it’s all about Bitcoin. Turns out there’s much more to it. Audius is a new kind of music streaming company built on the foundations of the blockchain or Web3 technology. Despite being only 3 years old, Audius was named one of the hottest companies of 2021 attracting investment from top Venture Capital firms and artists like Katy Perry, Nas, Pusha T, Steve Aoki and others. In this episode we get the down-low on the hype around...
Mar 15, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 39
You probably know by now that Vinyl is making a comeback. Record sales have been growing like crazy for the past 10 years. But even before vinyl was cool again, Discogs was building a site to help collectors catalog their records and sell them to anyone around the world. Founded in 2000, Discogs has grown to become one of the top music sites on the web. To help us get inside the vinyl underground and the rise of Discogs, we’re joined today by Jeffrey Smith, Director of Growth Marketing. Jeff has...
Mar 08, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 38
It’s not everyday that you hear about a brand new instrument. Today we’re joined by Mike Butera, CEO of Artiphon. Artiphon is developing new types of musical instruments that can be played by anybody. Their first product launched in 2014 and set a record with Kickstarter as the best selling musical instrument ever on that platform. Mike tells us how he was inspired to start the company and how technology is lowering the barrier to music creation and growing an army of new artists. Mike founded A...
Mar 01, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Music fans love their merch. How else do people know all the cool music you like if you’re not wearing the shirt? Merch has long been a way for fans to connect with artists and also a significant revenue stream for artists. When the pandemic hit, concert revenue died and merch revenue died with it. In this episode we hear the story first hand from a company that makes their living selling merch and how they pivoted to survive. We also learn about what makes a great concert tee and what genre of ...
Feb 22, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Web3, or what many think of as ‘crypto’ was a major story in 2021 and is continuing to develop in 2022, but web3 is much more than just crypto. Emerging business models and things like Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), for example, are a new type of entity with the potential to blow the doors off traditional centralized organizations. Web3 and its underlying blockchain technology have the potential to facilitate global IP rights administration and royalty management - paving the way...
Feb 15, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs took the world by storm in 2021 turning digital art into digital gold. NFTs could be an important new revenue stream for artists but so far music has been mostly left out of the party. In this episode we talk to one of the companies trying to change this with a new platform to create and sell music NFTs. We hear the story of how new artists and veterans like Method Man are getting in on the NFT market. We’re joined today by John Kohl and Alison Ball of TuneGO. John is...
Feb 08, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Listeners connect with the artists on many different levels. Some are casual listeners, others might attend a concert or two and superfans make it a lifestyle choice. Consider ‘Deadheads’ who followed the Grateful Dead to hundreds of shows or the BTS Army that attacks online critics of the popular K-Pop group. What is it about some bands that create such rapid followings? Whatever the level of fandom, the ability for fans to connect to artists (and vice versa) has been ever evolving as new techn...
Feb 01, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Music labels were once the gatekeepers of the music industry, handling every part of the music production and distribution process. Now this oligopoly has been disrupted by new technologies that lower the cost for artists to create music, distribute it and promote it themselves. The labels and the business models needed to support them have had to adapt to this new reality. To walk us through this topic we’re joined by Kirt Debique, CEO of music label Bricklane and technology startup SyncFloor. ...
Jan 25, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 32
In the epic 1968 Stanley Kubrick sci-fi film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, Hal, an artificial intelligence sings a song called Daisy Bell while being decommissioned by the space crew. Over 50 years later, AI is no longer sci-fi. It’s here and it’s real. In this episode we’re joined by Jon Gillick, a computer scientist that was part of the winning team of the 2021 international AI song contest. Their winning track, "Listen to Your Body Choir" took inspiration from the song Daisy Bell, an homage to the...
Jan 18, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Who wrote that song? What’s that sample? When music went digital, listeners lost the liner notes along with the ability to easily discover the musicians and other individuals who made it. Enter the Deepr music app. Known as ‘Shazam on steroids’, Deepr uses audio recognition and manual search inputs to identify who was involved in making that music. The app shares interactive data behind the music: songwriters, producers, featured artists, background singers, samples, and more. Listeners can clic...
Jan 11, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 30
What were the biggest stories in music tech from 2021 and what might we see in the coming year? In today’s episode we recap the top trends of the year and make our predictions for what’s coming next. Tristra Newyear Yaeger and Dmitri Vietze join us from Bloomington Indiana for an end of the year round-up. Dmitri is the Founder and CEO of rock paper scissors , a music tech and innovation PR firm where Tristra is a writer, strategist and creative force. Dmitri and Tristra also host a music tech co...
Jan 04, 2022•54 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Have you ever listened to music while exercising? You were probably just trying to make it more enjoyable or pass the time more quickly. But, did you know that music can actually make you perform better as an athlete? Music has been proven to produce a measurable improvement in many types of athletic activities. We’re joined today by a world-renowned expert who will explain why music has this super-power and how to harness it for your own sporting activities. Costas Karageorghis is a professor i...
Dec 28, 2021•40 min•Season 1Ep. 28
In this episode Ace Piva joins us from Brantford, Ontario. He is creator of the Lost Tapes of the 27 Club, which uses artificial intelligence to create new songs by artists lost to music's mental health crisis. Ace is a certified addictions counsellor who knows the ins and outs of the road and its associated pressures and struggles. He’s been there as a musician, tour manager, sound engineer, stage manager and production manager - and today, Piva is a co-founder and Executive Director of Over Th...
Dec 21, 2021•35 min•Season 1Ep. 27
First there was the neighbourhood music teacher. Then along came instructional videos on YouTube. Now Helsinki-based Yousician dominates music education with more than 20 million users tapping the service each month to learn and play music. In this episode we learn about Yousician, the world’s largest music education platform. Yousician turns learning into a game (sort of like Guitar Hero, but with real instruments) offering gamified music education for guitar, bass, ukulele, piano and voice. Re...
Dec 14, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 26
In recent years, TikTok has exploded onto the social media scene, dominating the attention span of the youth set. TikTok’s users now spend more time each month watching content than YouTube users. Songs routinely surpass a billion video views and according to the company, 100 songs have racked up over 50 billion views on over 125 million creations. Five of these reached number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart. In this episode we are joined by Nathan Pyle from Nashville, Tennessee. Nathan is Gene...
Dec 07, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 25
In this episode we look at the disappearance of record shops in the UK in the late 2000s, followed by a sharp resurgence that continues into the 2020s. While it seemed record shops were going the way of the 8-track and the cassette, the industry did a complete 180 and did the unthinkable - and boutique record stores started popping up again all over the UK. To take us through the downs and ups, Pip Piper and Graham Jones join us from Dawlish, England. During his career as a sales-rep, Graham vis...
Nov 30, 2021•35 min•Season 1Ep. 24
In this episode we dig into disruptive new business models for artists that use social tokens also known as creator coins. Creator coins represent a potential breakthrough for artists to earn a living and also for fans to participate directly in economy of the artists they want to support. Rally is a new platform for allowing - artists and creators of all types - to make and issue these coins. To explain how this all works, we’re joined by Bryce Carr from Los Angeles California. Bryce is the Dir...
Nov 23, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 23
In this episode we explore the world of Splice and the music creation tools they create for artists. We dive into the expanding world of DIY music tools that enable creators to make music in their bedrooms. We learn how the rise of new tools like Splice and creators like Murda Beats are disrupting the music creation process. To take us through this topic, Ale Koretzky joins us from Venice, California. Ale is the Head of Machine Learning at Splice and leads Splice's AI strategy, roadmap, and exec...
Nov 16, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 22
