Category Archives for "Music Industry News"
April 9, 2021
Guitarist Jennifer Batten, Payola For Streaming, And Supercharged Hard Drives On My Latest Podcast
My guest on the podcast this week is Jennifer Batten, who played lead and rhythm guitar on Michael Jackson’s Bad, Dangerous and HIStory world tours. She’s also appeared on 2 Jeff Beck albums and was a member of his touring band for 3 years. Jennifer continues to give clinics and master classes all over the world, and […]
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April 8, 2021
YouTube Checks Now Warns Of Copyright Problems Before You Post
If you post on YouTube a lot you’ve probably run into a copyright problem before. Maybe you’ve used a piece of a song by someone else, or a piece of video, or even a graphic. Maybe you’ve received a copyright warning over your own music, which is the ultimate insult. The problem is that these […]
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April 6, 2021
3 Reasons Why Spotify Playlist Promoters Might Not Be The Answer
We’ve all seen how just one placement on the right Spotify playlist can take an unknown track and boost its streams into the millions. As a result, there’s now an entire business built around helping artists get placed on playlists. Officially, Spotify says that there’s no way that any of these playlist promoters are influential […]
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March 23, 2021
Here’s Why Surprise Releases Aren’t A Good Idea For Indie Artists
It’s easy to look at surprise releases from superstars like Drake and Taylor Swift and believe that’s the way music will be dropped on the public in the future, but it might be wise to re-think that strategy if you’re an indie artist. As with so much in the industry, the rules that apply to […]
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March 16, 2021
The Last Major Country To Embrace Streaming Is Finally Doing It
What if I told you that there was a country where music sales are huge yet it never really got that much into streaming? Would you guess that country was in South America, or maybe Africa? Believe it or not, that country is Japan, and it’s been the second largest music market in the world […]
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March 11, 2021
The Top 10 Biggest Digital Songs Of 2020
The IFPI is about to come out with its annual report and we’re starting to get some interesting tidbits of information from it leaked. One of the most interesting aspects is the number of songs that hit 1 billion streams last year. A billion used to be an unthinkable amount, something that was rarely reached […]
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March 2, 2021
The Recorded Music Industry Did Okay Last Year With $12 Billion in Revenue
Covid didn’t keep the recorded music industry down last year as revenue was up more than 9% to around $12 billion. That marks the 5th straight year of growth for the industry. While it may signal happy days in the label corporate offices, it’s still down from the industry’s top level of $14.6 billion in […]
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February 23, 2021
Spotify HiFi CD Quality Audio Tier To Launch
Spotify announced that it will be launching its new Spotify HiFi CD quality lossless audio tier later in the year. Although there were very few specifics given, the company did say that high-definition audio was one of the most requested features that they’ve received. Audio quality on Spotify currently tops out at 320kbps, so a […]
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February 9, 2021
Spotify Makes A Lot Of Money And Loses A Lot At The Same Time
For those that think that streaming networks are rolling around in cash, that may be true, but the old adage “It’s not how much you make but what you keep,” still applies. According to its latest Q4 filing, Spotify collected $9.5 billion in revenue last year, but still keeps losing a lot of money. The […]
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February 2, 2021
Top 20 Most Successful Music Artists Of All Time
We all love Top 10/20 lists, even though much of the time they’re somewhat subjective. Here’s one that I couldn’t resist though. It’s the Top 20 most successful music artists of all time by Stacker. Actually Stacker’s list is of the top 50, but I condensed it down a bit here. The list takes awards […]
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January 19, 2021
The Quick Release Formula Has Now Taken The Leap To Radio
If you weren’t paying attention, the method to release music to the public began to change a few years ago. Instead of recording a group of songs for an album release with a single to promote it, artists with big social followings began using a “Quick Release Formula” with songs released every month or 6 […]
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January 12, 2021
What’s The Best City In The U.S. For Musicians? The Answer Might Surprise You
When people think of the music business, they immediately think of Los Angeles. After all, doesn’t it have the most artists, musicians, recording studios and record labels? If that was your answer, you’d be wrong. The U.S. city that leads in all those categories and more is actually Nashville. The Music Industry Report 2020 by […]
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January 6, 2021
Recordings Of Noise Can Make More Money Than Music On Spotify
Artists and songwriters spend so much time crafting their songs that it’s a shame when the returns don’t seem to justify the time spent. It’s even worse when a recording of simple noise is making a lot more money without even trying. It turns out that recordings of white noise and ambience to fall asleep […]
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December 31, 2020
Annual Music Industry Predictions For 2021 On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
No guest on the podcast this week, but you’ll find plenty to listen to as I give my top predictions for what will happen next year in the music industry. We’ll look at a wide variety of topics including: How music venues adapt to the new world Live streaming The many facets of the TikTok story Facebook getting […]
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December 24, 2020
2020 Annual Year End Review On My Inner Circle Podcast
No guest on the podcast this week, but I will be taking my annual look back at how the music world changed in 2020. Even though the pandemic dominated the headlines, there was so much more that happened in the past year. We’ll cover: Some of the serious fires that shaped our year and our future The […]
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