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...
Feb 01, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 160
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 pl...
Jan 18, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 159
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 challeng...
Jan 11, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 158
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 e...
Jan 05, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 157
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/wa...
Dec 14, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 156
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, ...
Dec 07, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 155
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 wh...
Nov 30, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 154
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 significa...
Nov 23, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 153
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 ...
Nov 16, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 152
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 bil...
Nov 08, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 151
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...
Nov 02, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 150
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 ...
Oct 30, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 149
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 -...
Oct 25, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 149
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...
Oct 17, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 147
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, ...
Oct 12, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 146
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, h...
Sep 28, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 145
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 g...
Sep 21, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 144
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 o...
Sep 14, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 143
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 w...
Sep 07, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 142
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...
Aug 31, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 141
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 b...
Aug 24, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 140
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 block...
Aug 17, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 139
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...
Aug 10, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 138
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...
Aug 03, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 137
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...
Jul 27, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 136
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 ...
Jul 20, 2023•19 min•Season 1Ep. 135
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 a...
Jul 13, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 134
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 mus...
Jul 07, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 133
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 i...
Jun 22, 2023•23 min•Season 1Ep. 132
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 t...
Jun 15, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 131
