Songwriters Might Actually Catch A Break As The DOJ Weighs In On “Stairway To Heaven” Case

For the past few years songwriters have been under siege in the courtroom when it comes to plagiarism cases. Starting with the Robin Thicke/Marvin Gaye “Blurred Lines” lawsuit to the most recent Katy Perry “Dark Horse” case, songwriters and publishers have been incredulous of the outcomes. It seems like the feel of the song has […]

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Music Disappearing From Radio, Hydrating Your Voice, And Hollywood Bowl FOH Mixer Fred Vogler

My guest on the podcast this week is 6 time Grammy Award-winner Fred Vogler who’s the principal sound designer and FOH mixer for the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Throughout the year, he also records the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for commercial and broadcast release. Fred […]

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There’s A New Way To Game YouTube Views That Artists And Labels Are Using

YouTube views are so high these days that they don’t mean anything anymore. If you’re a record label or artist, it’s more of an ego boost than anything else to hit a billion views. While it used to be that directly buying views from a broker was one way to go, today there’s a better […]

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30 Ways To Keep Your Fans Interested Online

When it comes to success online, the secret is engagement. Any way that you can elicit a response from your fans and followers has to be used, but you can’t keep using the same thing over and over. Here are 30 ways (culled from 71 that Dave Cool posted on Hypebot) that you can keep […]

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HostBaby Transferring Accounts To Bandzoogle

CD Baby has been one of the largest online music distributors for some time, and it’s always offered a number of additional features. One of these features is a place for an artist or band to host their website, which the company called HostBaby. Now the company has announced that it’s shutting down HostBaby and […]

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Amazon Sells Counterfeit CDs, Mixing With Your Eyes, And Amuse CEO Diego Farias On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Diego Farias, who’s a digital music and tech expert with experience from some of the world’s most successful tech companies. He now serves as the CEO and co-founder of record label and music distributor Amuse.  Amuse has a unique business model in that it provides free distribution to all the […]

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Spotify Is Testing Higher Prices In Scandinavia

Now that it has a healthy number of subscribers, Spotify would like to raise its prices and the first place it’s trying is in its own back yard. The company is planning on increasing the price of its family plan by 14% in Scandinavia, according to Bloomberg. Since music streaming has the most penetration in Scandinavia […]

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You’ll Be Amazed At The Number Of Fake Followers These Music Celebs Have

We all know that we can buy just about any kind of signs of social authority these days. Likes, streams, views – yep, they’re for sale. So are followers, and you’d be surprised just how many fake followers some of the biggest music celebrities actually have. ICMP in London looked at a number of available […]

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Producer Joe Solo, Re-recording Old Songs, And The 64 Bit World On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Joe Solo, who turned a chance meeting with Macy Gray into a 17 year journey that culminated in a Grammy win, a double platinum album, and a hit MTV video.  Soon afterward Joe transitioned into the world of music publishing as the head staff writer/producer for Paramount’s Famous Music Publishing […]

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Apple Music For Artists Program Launches

Even though Apple Music has always paid a lot more in per stream royalties than Spotify, artists and managers still felt something was missing. Spotify provides some deep insights into the listening audience thanks to its Spotify For Artists program, but now Apple has launched its own version of the program. The Apple Music For […]

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The Major Labels Make $16k Per Second From Streaming, For Now

Yes, you read the headline right. The major labels are now bringing in over $16,000 per second from streaming alone. That amounts to over $1 million per hour, according to an analysis by Music Business News. That all sounds great, but the problem is that although the income from streaming is still growing, streaming itself […]

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Apple Hi-Res Streaming Is Here With Apple Digital Masters

I’ve been predicted this would happen for a couple of years and now it’s finally here. Apple has taken its treasure trove of high-resolution audio masters and launched a new “initiative” called Apple Digital Masters. Details are sketchy and the only announcement has come through Billboard so far, but an Apple hi-res streaming component has […]

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Tencent Comes Out Favorably Ahead In Its Deal With Universal Music

Vivendi announced today that discussions have begun with Tencent Holdings Limited for the Chinese media giant to buy 10% of its Universal Music Group. The price is pegged at $3.4 billion USD, which puts UMG’s valuation at $34 billion. Tencent will also have a one year call option to purchase an additional 10% of the […]

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411 Music Group’s Kristen Agee, Katy Perry “Dark Horse” Verdict, And Musician’s SoundCloud Accounts On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

My guest on the podcast this week is Kristen Agee, who is a classically trained violinist and started playing multiple instruments at the age of 7. She opened a studio in Silver Lake, California where she recorded punk bands and wrote music for various artists, all while touring as bassist after learning the instrument from Rolling Stone’s bass […]

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Sony Artists And Songwriters Can Now Get Paid Faster

You would think in this age of digital music consumption that it would be easy to calculate royalties, and as a result, pay them out quickly. That hasn’t been the case though, as major labels and publishers still pay as if it’s 1999. Kobalt has been the publisher that has led the way with almost […]

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