My guest on the Podcast this week is Ron McMaster, who recently retired from Capitol Records Mastering after 38 years with the company. During that time he specialized in cutting vinyl and mastered a wide variety of genres and artists that include everyone from Frank Sinatra to George Harrison, Radiohead, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones […]
Continue readingWe all spend an enormous amount of time online these days and for many of us much of that comes by way of our smartphones. In fact, studies indicate that the younger the demographic, the more likely they’ll be tied to their phones. That’s generally been a good thing for the music industry since streaming […]
Continue readingVirtual Reality hit the streets with such promise but really hasn’t taken off the way that everyone had hoped and predicted. One of the reasons was that the bulky headsets just aren’t that appealing. The other is that there really wasn’t a “killer app” available, although for a while everyone thought that music might be […]
Continue readingWe keep on hearing about how most of an artist’s money is made from touring and that’s true – but only if you’ve reached a certain level on the success ladder. For everyone else out on the road it’s all about hoping that you’ll make enough money just to cover your costs. The problem is […]
Continue readingSpotify recently revealed that it had 2 million subscribers that were using ad blockers on its free tier. Since a user doesn’t pay anything to subscribe to that tier they’re subjected to ads that help pay for it and also return royalties to the artists. Someone who uses an ad blocker obviously doesn’t listen to […]
Continue readingYou’ve undoubtedly heard the music from this week’s guest, because his band’s music has been on the radio continually somewhere in the world for the last 40 years or so. Buck Dharma is lead guitarist and one of the founders of Blue Oyster Cult. He also wrote and sang lead on some of their biggest […]
Continue readingEveryone hates paying the inflated prices that secondary ticket sellers charge, but many customers feel they’re a necessary evil. If you want a seat, especially a good one, they’re probably the only game in town. But that may not be as true in Europe soon as Ticketmaster announced it will shut down its GET ME […]
Continue readingIf you own a home you most likely know about Zillow, a website that makes it easy to find out how much your house, and others in the neighborhood, is worth on the current open market. It’s great if you’re buying or selling a home, or just for fun to play a “What if” game […]
Continue readingTo many artists and bands, PR is some sort of mythical magic bullet. The thought is, “I’ll hire a publicist and then I’ll immediately be in all the music magazines, and the music bloggers will want to interview me, Spotify playlist curators will open up a slot for my music, and I may even get […]
Continue readingThe naysayers have always been so negative on the fraction of a cent payout that comes from a music stream, but it’s never been so evident that those small bits add up to something huge. Music Business Worldwide did the math after looking at both Sony Music and Universal Music Group’s financials for the beginning […]
Continue readingI’ve gotten so many questions about the Music Modernization Act bill now making its way through Congress right now that I thought I’d bring on an expert to get us up to speed. Daryl Frydman is the Recording Academy’s chief industry and government relations officer based in Washington D. C. He’s also been with us […]
Continue readingSpotify and Apple Music have been locked in a back and forth battle for the hearts and minds of the music streaming business that increases in tempo a bit more seemingly every day. Until now, Apple has had the upper hand strategically over Spotify in that its music streaming division was just another reason to […]
Continue readingWarner Music Group recently sold all of its stake in Spotify for $504 million, and everyone expected that money to go right to the company’s bottom line and bypass its artists. That’s not the case though as Warners announced that it would allocate 25% of that income back to artists. Sounds like good news, right? […]
Continue readingSelling merch is essential to artists and bands today, maybe more so than ever. The problem is that not only does it take a lot of thought and effort to come up with the appropriate products, but the same amount of thought and effort is needed when it comes to selling them as well. Here […]
Continue readingLyle Workman has a long history as a guitar player and songwriter, first as a member of Bourgeois Tagg, and then with Todd Rundgren, Beck and Sting as well as tons of sessions. These days he’s thriving as a film and television composer with movies like Superbad, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Bad Santa 2, and television shows […]
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