Spotify’s direct listing earlier this month on the New York Stock Exchange doesn’t mean that the company is taking it easy, as it has just rolled out a new user interface with a number of new features on its freemium tier. The catch, for the moment at least, is that only new users will see […]
Continue readingMy guest this week is producer and composer David Campos, who was one of my first guests when I started this podcast 4 years ago. He was originally on episode #6. David has produced gold and platinum albums, has won a Clio award for one of his jingles, and composed music for MTV, SABC and […]
Continue readingAmazon has never officially discussed its Prime service subscriber numbers in the past, leaving room for lots of speculation. Was it 90 million? 120 million? 60 million? Finally we get some real confirmation from CEOÂ Jeff Bezos himself, who announced in its annual shareholders letter that the company has broken the 100 million barrier, a new […]
Continue readingDepending on how you look at it, new figures from Midea Research examining the total revenue for recorded music last year are either good news or bad news for indie DIY artists. As the study points out, DIY artists who release music through Tunecore, CD Baby and Bandcamp took in a total of $472 million last […]
Continue readingYou’ve finally finished creating your newsletter email and it’s time to hit the send button. But is it really? It turns out that the exact day and time that’s optimum to send your email has been extensively studied, and thanks to the built-in scheduler now offered by Email Service Providers (ESPs), you can be sure […]
Continue readingRecord labels, especially large ones, are often seen as just exploiters of artists and their music. That may be so in many cases, but labels by and large can also be centers for incubation of new artists and ideas. The problem is that it’s so often behind the scenes so it’s not brought to the […]
Continue readingMy guest this week is producer, engineer, musician, and composer Warren Huart. Warren’s had a lot of success since he moved to Los Angeles from his native England, working platinum-selling artists like The Fray, Korn, James Blunt, Ace Frehley, and Aerosmith, to name just a few. His works also can be found in film and […]
Continue readingThere’s a lot about copyright and licensing that needs to be brought into the digital age, but now we’re one step closer to that becoming reality. The United States House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously last week (32-0) to approve the new Music Modernization Act (H.R. 5447), in the first step of the process. The Music Modernization […]
Continue readingAutomation is taking over so many aspects of the workplace these days, but the last place you’d ever think it would happen would be in record label talent scouting. Having a feel for new music and artists that may resonate with large segments of the population is a talent in itself, and one that’s been rewarded […]
Continue readingEven though most artists (especially those just starting out) are doing so much for themselves these days, many would still prefer to be connected with a label to relieve at least some of the burden of the business that doesn’t involve creation. Submitting your works to a label can be tricky though, and unless you’re […]
Continue readingAmazon has always been the sleeping giant in music streaming. It’s Prime Music comes as a part of Amazon Prime, and although there are no official numbers as to the number of subscribers, the company hints that it’s at least hundred million. Amazon also has a stand-alone service as well called Amazon Music Unlimited, which […]
Continue readingMy guest this week is scoring mixer Bobby Fernandez, who’s recorded and mixed the scores on hundreds of major film studio movies. Just to give you an example, Bobby has over 300 IMDB credits, but that doesn’t include over 200 films that he wasn’t credited for when working for Warner Brothers! Bobby’s also won a […]
Continue readingSpotify’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange last week proved to be a little underwhelming in that most existing stockholders decided to hold on to their shares, a good sign for the company’s long-term future. Its stock price at the end of the week ended up at just shy of $148, which translated […]
Continue readingStreaming royalties are a completely moving target, and what’s reported as the average payment today will certainly change tomorrow. The reason is that there are so many variables that go into calculating a stream payment. That said, the chart below from Statista provides the gross payouts to labels per stream from each major streaming service. […]
Continue readingSpotify finally went public yesterday in a unique direct listing that had Wall Street watching the offering closely. The stock opened at a price of $165.90 per share but fell to $149.01 by the end of the day. The stock dropped down another 8% to $140.02 by midday Wednesday. That said, even at $140 per […]
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