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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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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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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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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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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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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Help Is On The Way For US Music Venues As Congress Finally Helps Out

After months of negotiations, Congress finally agreed to a trillion dollar stimulus package that also included $15 billion for distressed music venues. The Save Our Stages act will provide relief for venues small and large that have been closed since March due to the pandemic. Although the bill has not yet been officially completed and […]

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The 3 Types Of Media, Producer Mark Plati Part 2, And Top 10 Audio Hardware Pieces On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Mark Plati, who worked with a wide range of major artists including Prince, David Bowie, Janet Jackson, Talking Heads, Fleetwood Mac, the Bee Gees, The Cure and many others. In Part 1, which was Episode #338, we talked about we talked about working with Prince and Bowie, music for theater, following […]

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