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Monthly Archives: June 2016

Music Industry News Roundup

Music Industry News Roundup

Today begins a new  series on the Music 3.0 blog. One day every week I’ll provide a post with links to a number of interesting music business-related stories. Some will be about social media, some about music distribution, some about royalties, and some about record labels, but all will be connected to the industry in […]

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Sound Designer Diego Stocco On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

Diego Stocco

My guest this week on my Inner Circle Podcast is sound designer and composer Diego Stocco. Diego’s not only worked on movies like Takers and Sherlock Holmes, television shows like The Tudors and Moonlight. and video games like Assassin’s Creed, but he’s also one of the people behind the great sounds on the Korg Z1, […]

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June 27, 2016

Why Brexit Might Actually Be Good For The Music Business

Brexit and the music business

Now that Brexit has unleashed its shock and horror on the financial markets worldwide, other much smaller sectors are wondering how it will affect them as well, and the music business is no exception. The traditional music business (meaning record labels) is run by a crafty street-wise bunch that know how to roll with the […]

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June 22, 2016

Music Artists Need More Than Taylor Swift In Their DMCA Challenge

Artists need a leader

With Taylor Swift and U2 the latest superstars to sign a petition to congress complaining about the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the movement appears to be gaining traction. Chances are this one ends up like others before it though, with lots of strong talking points presented, Congressman shaking their heads yes, but not […]

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Auratone’s Alex Jacobsen On This Week’s Inner Circle Podcast

Alex_Jacobsen

The little Auratone sound cube monitors were once found in just about every studio in the world, but they just about fell off the map after the passing of company founder Jack Wilson.  Today Jack’s grandson Alex Jacobsen has relaunched Auratone, and he’s my guest on this week’s podcast. Alex has a great story about […]

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The Different Sources Of Publishing Royalties

Music Publishing

Regardless of the era, the songwriter and publisher have made money, and continue to make money in three primary ways: 1. Mechanical royalties are paid whenever a song is digitally downloaded, a song is streamed from an on-demand service, or a physical CD or vinyl record is sold. 2. A performance royalty is paid whenever […]

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June 17, 2016

Twitter Invests In SoundCloud, But Why?

SoundCloud-Twitter

Twitter has made an investment in SoundCloud for a reported $70 million and if you’ve been following the story between the companies, you have to ask yourself “Why now?” About two years ago Twitter almost acquired SoundCloud before walking away at the last minute, and an acquisition certainly would have made a lot more sense […]

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June 15, 2016

The Music Industry Continues To Whiff On Each Giant Opportunity

Radiohead

Artists, labels and music services alike continue to lament the fact that not enough free streaming subscribers are converting to the paid tier, yet the possible incentive to get those free tier customers to upgrade is being ignored by the different players along the product pipeline. Superstar albums continue to be released without the industry […]

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Songwriter Martin Page On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

Martin Page

This week I’m lucky to have my compadre from the AudioNowcast on my Inner Circle Podcast, songwriter Martin Page. Martin’s had much success over the years writing with everyone from Earth, Wind and Fire, to Bernie Taupin, to Hal David, to Robbie Robertson, to Robbie Williams, and he’s also co-written a couple of world-wide #1 […]

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Big Tax Break Coming For Recording In New York

Music Tax Break

Everybody likes to save money and saving money on taxes is no exception. That’s why numerous states (like North Carolina and Louisiana) and countries (like Canada) have issued their own versions of a tax break to entertainment companies to lure production to their locations in recent years. Now New York is getting into the act, […]

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June 10, 2016

Get Ready For The Amazon Streaming Music Disruption

Amazon_Prime_Music_logo

With the battle over streaming music leadership raging on between Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, there’s one major company that’s been lying silently in the weeds waiting for the right time to pounce on an industry increasingly ripe for the picking. Don’t look now, but it may be Amazon that may soon be the one […]

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June 8, 2016

What If Google Had Bought Michael Jackson’s Half Of Sony/ATV?

Google Buys Sony/ATV?

Word came out over the weekend that Google was a clandestine bidder for Michael Jackson’s half of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and the news had the music business wiping its collective brow in relief. Had that purchase happened, we might be looking at a very different industry landscape today. To recap, last March a buy-sell clause […]

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Mastering Engineer Ian Shepherd On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

Ian Shepherd

If you take notice I have a lot of mastering engineer’s on my Inner Circle Podcast, and that’s because they’re pretty overlooked, usually keep a low profile, and what they do is generally misunderstood. That said, as you’ve probably heard by now if you listen to the show a lot, they all have great stories […]

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