Songwriters Aren’t Being Paid Enough From Streaming And This Report Outlines Why

Songwriting was always a way that a musician could make a good or even great living without having to be a performer. The problem is that most of the rules for how songwriters get paid were written back in the days of physical media. In our streaming economy things are tilted more towards the performer […]

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The 5 Steps To YouTube Video Optimization In 2021

Just putting a video up on YouTube is not enough these days. If your video isn’t optimized properly then the YouTube algorithm won’t drive traffic to it, so it doesn’t do you much good at that point regardless of its quality. Luckily, optimizing a video isn’t that difficult, it just takes a little extra time […]

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Will SXSW Change Now That A Big Corporation Is A Part-Owner?

Music conferences come and go over the years, but one that not only keeps going but continues to with gravitas is South By Southwest. SXSW has always been thought of as not only the king of the hill for these types of gatherings, but remains respected for not being strictly a money-grab (although there’s plenty […]

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Meddling CEO Travis Rosenblatt, Latest Social Trends, And Cleaning Microphones On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Travis Rosenblatt, who used his experience in A&R for Warner Bros and 300 Entertainment to create Medding, a subscription-based service which offers real time data on global music markets, as well as track capabilities, analytics and communications tools. Meddling is used by record labels, music publishers, artist management, law […]

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Spotify’s Car Thing Is Now A Real Thing

Spotify has made overtures about getting into the hardware business before, but now it’s for real with the introduction of its new “Car Thing,” a smart speaker designed specifically for the automobile. The device is now in limited release in the United States for a select number of Spotify subscribers. Car Thing comes with three […]

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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