This Huge Online Platform Isn’t Paying Any Music Royalties
The music industry constantly beats up YouTube because of its puny royalty stream, but it consistently overlooks another huge service that isn’t paying anything – Twitch. The Amazon-owned platform has 2.2 million broadcasters and 15 million daily active users who are all consuming music, but unfortunately, artists, songwriters, labels and publishers aren’t seeing a dime […]
Continue readingHow The European Union Copyright Reform Could Change The Music Business For The Worse
As much as artists, managers, labels and publishers rail against YouTube, there’s no denying that it’s been beneficial to the industry in at least two ways. First, it’s the foremost place for new music discovery, and secondly, it provides an additional revenue stream. The major complaint against YouTube has always been about the royalty amount […]
Continue readingSpotify And Nielsen Deal Could Mean More Money For Artists
One of the things that’s most valuable to artists, management and labels is the demographic information of exactly who is listening. In these days of targeted advertising, the more we know about an audience the better we can serve them. While artists really need this info, the fact of the matter is that advertisers might […]
Continue readingSweetwater’s Mitch Gallagher, Spotify Video War, And Neumann Logo Badge Color On My Latest Podcast
My guest this week on Episode #230 of my Inner Circle Podcast is Sweetwater’s editorial director Mitch Gallagher, who started his career as a guitarist/vocalist with various rock and country bands while earning a degree in music from Moorhead State University and studying with various classical guitar masters. After making his living as a touring […]
Continue readingA Glimpse Of The Future? It’s Hard To Post Classical Music Online Without A Copyright Violation
Back, Bartok, Schubert, Puccini and Wagner wrote their compositions hundreds of years ago before the idea of copyright was even a glint in an intellectual property attorney’s eye, so they’re in the public domain. But are they? It turns out it’s getting tougher and tougher to post the music of the classical greats by a performer […]
Continue readingWill This Company Be The Last CD Distributor?
The CD is fading away, not as quickly as was predicted, but the long slow decline is occurring nonetheless. Streaming is the root cause, of course, and the decline of the importance of the album too, but for the most part, our attention is now elsewhere instead of on a round piece of plastic. That […]
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How To Pick The Best Font For Your Musical Brand
Everyone in the music business is ultimately a brand, and the ones that develop theirs are ultimately the most successful. Artists, bands, musicians, producers, even indie record labels, have a tough time discovering their brand though, and in some cases they don’t know where to start. In the second edition of my Social Media Promotion […]
Continue readingThe Family Plan Comes Back To Bite The Streaming Platforms
At one point in time the Family Plan tier with multiple users on one monthly bill seemed like a great way to get more people on board with music streaming, especially when it was new. This strategy actually turned out to work too well though, as so many users are now on Family Plans that […]
Continue readingTaxi’s Michael Laskow, US Radio Decline, And The 5 Saddest Songs On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
Michael Laskow started Taxi in 1992 with the idea of helping songwriters, artists, bands, and composers get their music heard initially by record labels, and later by publishers and music supervisors. The company now has members in over 90 countries and features a host of placements with virtually every major television channel and film studio. […]
Continue readingConcert Sales Revenue Hit Record Highs, But The Reason Isn’t Popularity
If you’re an A-list artist then times are very good for you. According the recent Pollstar mid-year report, the top 50 best selling tours in the first half of 2018 generated a record amount of cash. Those tours brought in $2.21 billion in sales revenue, which is up 12% over last year at the same time. […]
Continue readingEven As Streaming Increases YouTube Is Still The Place For Music Discovery
It’s true that millions of people still go to YouTube primarily for the cute cat and baby videos, but music is still the platform’s #1 attraction and money maker, according to a new study by MIDiA. Music videos are the single most popular video category on YouTube, accounting for 32% of views and 21% of its […]
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Things For Artists And Bands To Write About Online
Just posting on any platform online just for the sake of having posts probably strategically isn’t a good idea. You want to post something that’s relevant to your music in some way so you can use it at least indirectly as marketing. Luckily, as a musician, you probably have plenty to write about. Here’s an […]
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You Can Learn A Lot About Font Psychology From Netflix
Fonts are a big part of our lives. Every piece of marketing that you’ll ever release probably has or will have at least a couple of fonts, so instead of just picking them at random because they look nice, it’s best to at least have an idea of the power they have. Each one has […]
Continue readingVinyl Mastering Legend Ron McMaster On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
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 […]
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Should The Music Industry Be Worried About Teen Social Media Cord Cutting?
We 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 […]
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