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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3 Tools To Help Boost Your Music Career In 2021

One of the great things about the time we live in is that there’s a constant stream of new apps released to help an artist’s creativity and marketing. It can take some time to sort through them all that are available, but here are 3 that I think are worth checking out for some boost […]

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Most Music Creators Make Less Than $270 Per Year From Streaming, But That’s Normal

A survey by The Ivors Academy and Musicians’ Union in the UK found that 82% of their music creators are making less that 200£ (or $270) from streaming music each year. This is despite the fact that the major record labels have claimed to have earned about $4.4 billion dollars so far this year. There were […]

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Forget 1000 True Fans. How About Only 1?

In 2008 Kevin Kelly wrote an article in Wired that influenced music marketing forever. The concept was that 1000 true fans are enough to sustain any career, since they’ll buy anything an artist puts forward. If you could make just $100 from each fan, then you could gross $100,000, which most musicians would be happy […]

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New Cue Sheet Standards Should Make Composers More Money

Music composers for any kind of broadcast medium know how important cue sheets are. They’re the lifeblood of your royalty stream, but the problem is that it all depends on how they’re filled out. If there’s an entry mistake, it’s entirely possible that either you’ll be paid less than you should or maybe even not […]

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AI-Driven A&R, Miles Copeland Part 2, And Deep Fake Vocals On My Latest Podcast

There’s more behind-the-scenes music business stories with former Police and Sting manger Ian Copeland, the guest on the podcast this week. Ian also created IRS Records, which was at the forefront of punk and New Wave as the home of bands like REM, The Bangles, Dead Kennedys, The Go Gos, and many others.  In part 2 of […]

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Spotify Created a Plagiarism Detector That Could Change Songwriting Forever

No one wants their song ripped off without credit, but songwriters will tell you that coming up with something totally original is getting harder and harder. That’s because Western music is limited to a 12 note scale, which makes the note combinations, especially the ones that we find pleasing, somewhat limited. No matter which side […]

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Spotify Testing Its Own Version Of Stories This Holiday Season

The Stories feature is a big hit on multiple social networks and it looks like Spotify is now rolling out its own version. In what is acknowledged as a test, the company unveiled a Christmas Hits story (see the image above) featuring a slew of Holiday songs. If Stories are fully rolled out in the […]

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YouTube Ads, Police Manager Miles Copeland – Part 1, And Thunderbolt 4 On My Latest Podcast

Get ready for some great behind-the-scenes music business stories as my guest on the podcast this week is Miles Copeland, who formerly managed The Police and created IRS Records. IRS was at the forefront of punk and New Wave as the home of bands like REM, The Bangles, Dead Kennedys, The Go Gos, and many others.  He also […]

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