Spotify Accounts Hack, Music Gear And Tech, And Post Engineer Leslie Gaston-Bird On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Leslie Gaston-Bird, post-production engineer, governor-at-large for the Audio Engineering Society, and former Associate Professor of Recording Arts at the University of Colorado Denver. Leslie’s first gig was at National Public Radio headquarters in Washington, D.C. where she worked on shows like “Morning Edition.” “All Things Considered”, “Talk of the Nation” […]

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It’s A Good Time To Be A Songwriter As Universal Music Publishing Joins Others With Royalty Portal

Many classic songwriters lament days gone by when mechanical royalties from vinyl and CD’s ruled, but the fact of the matter is that the accounting back then was archaic. You never knew how well you were doing until you received a statement, and even then it came from royalties earned months and even years back. […]

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Here’s Why Your Email Marketing Is Still Important

It’s very tempting to rely on social media as the major avenue to reach your fans and followers, but you might be surprised that even though it can be effective, it doesn’t come close to an old standby format that’s easy to disregard – that’s email marketing. When it comes down to it, your email […]

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The Beatles Fake Merch Lawsuit Win Shows How The System Works In Real Life

It doesn’t matter if you’re an entrepreneur or musical artist, as soon as you get some level of success there will be others trying to steal a bit of it. Many times this is in the form of counterfeit merchandise that may bear your logo or trademark. The problem is trying to catch the people […]

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The Health Of Major Streaming Services, 6F’s Of Taking A Gig, And Drummer Daniel Glass On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is drummer Daniel Glass, who has worked with a wide variety of artists that range from Brian Setzer to Bette Midler, to the Budapest Jazz Orchestra, to KISS front man Gene Simmons.  Daniel has been voted one of the top five R&B drummers in the world by readers of Modern Drummer […]

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A Look At Spotify’s New Songwriter Pages Feature

There’s been a lot of bad blood between songwriters and publishers after the streaming service appealed a royalty rate increase by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) last year. In fairness, Apple Music was the only service that agreed to the increase while all of the other major streamers appealed, which didn’t exactly endear any of […]

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Inner Circle Podcast Named #2 Best Audio Podcast

Many thanks to Feedspot for naming my Inner Circle Podcast at #2 in their list of Top 10 Audio Podcasts. After 300+ episodes I think we’re getting the hang of this podcast thing! Seriously though, thank you for your support as that’s what keeps me going. I make no money from the podcast so it’s […]

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Every Melody Possible Is Copyrighted And On This Hard Drive

Songwriters are super cautious these days since plagiarism lawsuits are flying and the winner in court is usually the one you’d least suspect. One of the reasons why it’s so tough to defend a copyright lawsuit is because the court now considers a melody just a sequence of pitches, so Damien Riehl and Noah Rubin […]

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Check Out These 3 Social Media Contest Tools

Contests are a great way to boost your audience but it’s not as easy to hold one on you favorite social network as you think. Without the help of a third party contest tool you may be in violation of the service’s terms, which can get you into hot water fast. Luckily there are many […]

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Submitting To Playlists, Reasons Behind USB-C, And Legendary Producer John Boylan On This Week’s Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is the legendary producer John Boylan, who started in the business as a member of the burgeoning folk scene in the Village in New York City that set the tone for the explosion in the music business to unimagined heights.  He then went on to become a songwriter in the famed […]

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Warner Music Going Public Indicates Streaming Price Increases

Warner Music Group announced that it was filling for an IPO last week, and while that in itself wasn’t particularly earth-shattering news, one particular statement in its required S-1 filing was. It indicates a change that may be coming soon to online music distribution services in the form of streaming price increases. “We believe that, […]

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The Art Of Playlist Stuffing

Streaming is having a tremendous influence on the very essence of a song (its form) these days for better or worse. Many pop songs are near or under the 2 minute mark, devoid of intros, bridges and solos, in order to get right to the meat of the tune and keep the listener for at […]

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Don’t Look Now But YouTube Music Is Up To 20 Million Subscribers

YouTube has been the most widely used platform for music consumption for at least a decade now, and you’d think that it would be easy for the company to turn all those users into subscribers. It turns out that’s happening slowly but surely as Alphabet chief Sundar Pichai revealed on the company’s latest earnings call that […]

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Ghost Songs, Illegal Tribute Bands, And Music Strategy Consultant Jay Gilbert On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Jay Gilbert, who’s love of taking concert photographs eventually translated into being on the cutting edge of digital sales and marketing as an executive with Universal, Sony and Warner Music Groups. Jay has created and executed unique online marketing plans for a wide variety of artists, including Elton John, KISS, […]

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There’s A Lot To Learn From Amazon’s Email Template

One of the thing that artists, musicians and even labels constantly struggle with is how an email blast or press release should be formatted for best engagement. There are many different ways to do this, but if you’ve ever received anything from Amazon you know that what they do is particularly effective. It seems that […]

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