When the verdict in the 2015 copyright infringement trial brought by the Marvin Gaye estate against the writers of the Robin Thicke hit “Blurred Lines” was reached, most of the music industry shuddered. While some of the flavor of the Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up” hit of 1977 was captured on the “Blurred […]
Continue readingMost artists and musicians that I know hold the shows American Idol and The Voice in some level of contempt. It’s made-for-TV music and doesn’t reflect much about the true business of music or paying your dues (although there’s less of that these days anyway). It gets the public excited for the duration of the […]
Continue readingWay back when radio was the main channel for developing a hit, record labels tried to game the system by bribing radio station program directors with money and gifts to add a record to the station’s playlist, a process that became known as payola. Several scandals ensued and the practice became illegal, but labels and […]
Continue readingMy guest on the podcast this week is producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer Clarence Jey, whose credits include music on US Billboard Hot 100, a Grammy-winning record, one of the largest viral music successes in history, music for film and multiple Emmy-nominated TV shows. His broad musical spectrum ranges from creating music for the Grammy […]
Continue readingSpotify’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange is coming on April 3rd and there’s already been plenty written about this unusual tactic. Much of the reasoning for the move coming from the company seems to circle around the fact that underwriting a traditional IPO costs too much, so there will be considerable savings by avoiding […]
Continue readingIt just goes to show the state that radio is in these days when iHeartMedia, the largest station group in the United States, needs to files for bankruptcy protection. The company formerly known as Clear Channel, which owns 858 stations as well as well as the iHeartRadio digital streaming venture, had been stymied under the […]
Continue readingWhen it comes to measurement, one of the things that can happen is that it’s easy to be almost overwhelmed by the data that a measurement tool can provide. Here’s an excerpt from the 2nd edition of my Social Media Promotion For Musicians handbook that shows how to interpret the performance metrics in order to understand […]
Continue readingHave we reached peak social media? It’s beginning to look that way if the data from The Infinite Dial study is to be believed. The annual report is a collaboration between Edison Research and Triton Digital and takes a look at the digital and analog consumption habits of people in the U.S. This year’s version […]
Continue readingMy guest this week is the content creation manager for KEF America, Jack Sharkey. KEF, in case you’re not aware, manufacturers some pretty high-end loudspeakers, but also has a long history of supplying monitors to the BBC, which is one of the highest references a company can have. Jack originally got in touch with me […]
Continue readingTo many music artists and bands, making an album has always been the epitome of their art. This group of songs was a statement to their voice and current state of mind, not to mention a reflection of their social and physical environment. It was thought to be the highest form of recorded experience the […]
Continue readingEvery site and social network online is collecting our data, and while that might seem sinister at first glance, in most cases there’s a good reason – to more precisely send us either content or advertising that’s most personally relevant to us. Why get hit with 99 things that we don’t care about just to […]
Continue readingWith Spotify about to become listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a big question that has hung over the heads of major label execs is what will happen if they liquidate their shares in the company. Revenue windfalls like this in the past have found their way to the company’s bottom lines and not […]
Continue readingEver wonder how much we listen to audio programming in a given week. Nielsen Research actually keeps track of this and has some very interesting data that shows that Americans. listen to a tremendous amount of audio, but not all of it comes from the sources that you might think. With streaming at the forefront […]
Continue readingMy guest this week is Greg Curtis, who is not only a session and touring trumpet player and accomplished engineer, but he’s also the founder of The Bridge Recording, which is one of the busiest scoring stages in Hollywood. The Bridge is actually one of the few studios anywhere that’s found its business increasing in […]
Continue readingDon’t you feel ripped off when you try to buy a ticket to see your favorite artist and the only ones available are from a secondary ticket broker at an inflated cost? If you live in Ireland, those days may be gone soon as the government has thrown its support behind a bill outlawing the […]
Continue reading