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...
Sep 22, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 100
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...
Sep 16, 2022•35 min•Season 1Ep. 99
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 (...
Sep 14, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 98
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 ...
Sep 08, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 97
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, ar...
Aug 31, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 96
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 s...
Aug 23, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 95
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...
Aug 18, 2022•46 min•Season 1Ep. 94
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 mthe...
Aug 03, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 93
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 ticketi...
Jul 26, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 92
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 posit...
Jul 19, 2022•34 min•Season 1Ep. 91
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 th...
Jul 13, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 90
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 multina...
Jul 06, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 89
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 protec...
Jun 27, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 88
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 cl...
Jun 15, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 87
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 ...
Jun 10, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 86
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 fo...
Jun 06, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 86
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 ...
May 30, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 84
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 f...
May 23, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 83
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...
May 19, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 82
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 e...
May 16, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 81
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 o...
May 09, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 80
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 s...
May 03, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 79
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 ...
Apr 25, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 78
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...
Apr 20, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 77
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 betwee...
Apr 13, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 76
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 lo...
Apr 07, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 75
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 mig...
Apr 01, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 74
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 opport...
Mar 25, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 73
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, an...
Mar 18, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 72
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 becomin...
Mar 11, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 71
