CDs Making A Comeback, Cheap USB Hubs, And Engineer Craig Burbidge On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is engineer Craig Burbidge, who gained multi-platinum status having worked with hundreds of R&B stars like Barry White, Steve Perry, Natalie Cole, Take 6, Teddy Pendergrass, Vanessa Williams, Brian McKnight, Kirk Franklin and many more.  Craig was also one of the first American engineers to take his talents to Asia with a long-time working relationship with Taiwanese superstar […]

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Spotify Now Trying To Make Money From Artists With SoundBetter Acquisition

Spotify may be doing well enough to turn a profit but its not enough for shareholders. The company keeps looking for new revenue streams, and one of the best may come from artists themselves. That’s why its recent acquisition of SoundBetter might be a turning point for the company, or not. SoundBetter is a marketplace […]

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This Chart Tells You What Streaming Services Are Paying (Maybe)

Everyone wants to know the royalty rate paid by the various streaming services, but when they compare most charts with their own royalty statements they’re surprised. That’s because there are so many variables that goes into the royalty calculation that every chart you read (including the one below) is the best guess average that applies […]

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Hi-Res Streaming Comes to Amazon As It Launches Its New Amazon Music HD Tier

It’s been rumored for weeks but now it’s finally a reality. Amazon has announced its new Amazon Music HD tier with both higher resolution music that also comes at a higher cost. Amazon Music HD features 50 million songs available at CD quality (44.1kHz/16 bit) with several million more available at 24bit. There’s also another […]

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Streaming Royalties May Change For The Better, SM58 Facts, And Engineer Jesse Ray Ernster On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is engineer, mixer and composer Jesse Ray Ernster, who grew up in a musical family with both his parents playing in bands and making records. Jesse’s entrance in the music business began at age of 16 touring with several artists as a lead guitarist/vocalist, but he then realized his true calling […]

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Instagram Reportedly To Replicate TikTok Features

TikTok has taken the world by storm over the last couple of years, especially with the teen crowd. Launched in 2017 by the Chinese tech company ByteDance for markets outside of China, the mobile app allows its 500 million active users to create and share short lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos. TikTok’s success hasn’t been […]

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8 Tips To Make Your Email Newsletters Mobil Friendly

Every band, artist, producer and engineer needs to stay in touch with clients and fans, and the best way is with email newsletter. I’ve covered newsletter content and frequency in posts in the past, but it’s now essential that those emails are now mobile friendly as well. Research has found that 67% of all email […]

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A New California Law Could Give Musicians Exactly What They’re Trying To Avoid

One major attraction of being a musician is that most want to avoid a real job as much as possible. That’s the dream, after all, to just spend your day creating without being beholden to “the man.” A new bill by the California Legislature may put a big ding in those asperations though, as most […]

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Latest Music Sales Data, 40th Anniversary Of The Walkman, And Miles Davis Nephew Vince Wilburn Jr. On My Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Vince Wilburn Jr. who has both toured and recorded with his uncle Miles Davis on many legendary recordings from 1984 through 1987. He is also a producer on the Grammy-winning Miles Ahead soundtrack for “Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media, and is co-executor of Miles Davis Properties. Vince has played […]

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The RIAA Investigating Payola Is Like The Fox Guarding The Henhouse

Payola, or paying for radio airplay, has been with us since the 50s in one form or another. It’s visibility seems to ebb and flow, but it’s been on the rise again recently with various exposes (especially this one last month in Rolling Stone) showing that it’s alive and well. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) […]

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Music Supervisors Tell You What They DON’T Like In A Contact Email

Music supervisors are the new music kings and queens and everyone seems to want to contact them in the hopes that they’ll pick some of their music for a film or television show. There’s lots of advice out there about the best practices when sending an email, but not much on what really turns them […]

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The One Thing That Every Music Business Employer Is Looking For

I came across the following video and thought it was something that every person trying to get a job in the music industry should watch. Since music business skills are more or less the same for most people trying to break into the business, there’s only one thing that can separate you from the rest, […]

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Manipulating Streaming Numbers, Steinway’s Secret Vault, And WAM’s Terri Winston On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Terri Winston, who’s the executive director of Women’s Audio Mission, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that uses music and media to attract over 2,000 underserved women and girls every year to STEM and creative technology studies. WAM’s award-winning curriculum weaves art and music with science, technology and computer programming and […]

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Japanese Music Sales Slow, But That May Be Good News

Everyone knows that the United States is still the largest music market in the world, but which one do you think is #2? The UK? Germany? Nope, it’s Japan, and the country has been second largest in music sales for quite a while. That’s why the music business as a whole takes notice whenever anything […]

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7 Reasons Why Teens Love Instagram, From A Real Teenager

If you want to know what a typical teenager thinks of the various social networks available, there’s a great post by 19 year old University of Texas student Andrew Watts on Medium BackChannel. In it he describes how he and his friends use all the popular networks, but what they love and hate about them as well. The post is actually a […]

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