Beatchain CEO Ben Mendoza, Apple Buys Label Services Company, And Hit Songs Keys And Tempos On My Latest Podcast

My guest on the podcast today is Ben Mendoza, who created UK-based Beatchain along with co-founder and musician Steve Jones to accelerate artist growth by using data science and automation.  Ben has spent almost 25 years using software to improve decision making and automate time-consuming processes with leading expense management company MDSL, which Beatchain now brings to the music […]

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Universal Music Had More Than $7 Billion In Revenue Last Year

Who says that the major record labels are dying? Far from it, if the latest revenue figures from Universal Music Group (UMG) is any indication. The company brought in more than $7.1 billion last year, and much of its growth was attributed to streaming music income. Profits come from having hits and Universal certainly had […]

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EU Copyright Directive Text Is Approved And Goes Towards Final Vote

The European Union’s Article 13 Copyright Directive which holds platforms like YouTube accountable for the infringement of user uploaded content is finally moving towards a final vote after some revision of text that now seems to appease all voting parties. YouTube has been lobbying heavily for the text to not contain user generated content (UGC) […]

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The Mystery Of The 25 Year Old Rock Song Hitting The Top Of The Japanese Charts

Last week there was a lot of press around why a 25 year old Dinosaur Jr. song called “Over Your Shoulder” appeared out of the blue at #18 on the Japanese Billboard charts. As far as anyone could tell, there was no reason for this song to appear on any chart since it wasn’t part […]

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AEG And SMG Merge To Become The World’s Largest Venue Company

LiveNation has been almost an overwhelming force in the concert business over the last decade, with smaller competitors like AEG and SMG nipping at its heals. Those days may be over however, as AEG and SMG owner private equity firm Onex have agreed to merge. The new company, dubbed ASM Global, will now control over […]

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The Marshmello Concert On Fortnite May Show The Next Realm For Artists

For a music artist, playing in front of thousands represents at the very least, a minor success. While superstars regularly play to tens of thousands and festivals can top that by a factor of 10, how does appearing before millions sound? No, I’m not referring to the Super Bowl halftime show but the recent in-game […]

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Amuse To Use Machine Learning To Determine Royalty Advances

Getting an advance on your royalties is always a wild guess about what you’re worth. The label or publisher wants to keep it low, and the artist/songwriter wants it as high as possible in case it’s the last money he or she ever sees. The future of royalty advances may lie with artificial intelligence and […]

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5 Artists Sue Sony And Universal Music For Copyright Infringement

Record labels have always done whatever they could to keep as much money as possible and limit what they paid to artists. Back in the day of the music entrepreneur/label owner this was expected, but as the music business is fairly corporate now, you’d think those days would be over. Not so, according to 5 […]

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Streaming Music Revenue Is Up, But The Per Song Rates May Have Fallen

How steaming music royalties are derived is such a complex subject that even few within the industry know how it works completely, so it’s easy to get a skewed viewpoint based on limited information that we’re sometimes fed. That said, most data is relevant in some way as long as it’s put into context. One […]

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There’s At Least One Music Genre That Still Favors CDs – Classical

Sales for CDs keep on falling, but predictions of the format’s total demise are still premature as it continues to hang around. While download sales have fallen off the cliff, the CD sales decline has been a lot more gradual. In fact, there’s still at least one music genre where followers still prefer the round […]

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It Looks Like SoundCloud Is Getting Healthier

Artists and bands everywhere have been worried for a while about whether SoundCloud would change drastically in order to survive, thanks to the ever growing losses that the company was experiencing. The platform is the main window to the outside world for many indie act’s music, and for many the thought of finding a new […]

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The Average Spotify User Pays Just $5.50 Per Month

For years various music industry insiders have said that the average price for a streaming music subscription should be in the $5 per month range in order to maximize growth. The major record labels have worked hard to keep the price as high as possible however, with the preferred U.S. price at $9.99 per month […]

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YouTube May Come Out On Top As Article 13 Flounders

The music industry had great hopes that it would finally deal a blow to YouTube if Article 13 of the European Union’s new copyright law were to pass. After a massive marketing campaign against it, it looks like YouTube might have won the war, as the controversial bill is taking on water fast. In a […]

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Some Pledge Music Artists Having Trouble Collecting

As if being an artist isn’t hard enough already. Imagine that you go to the trouble of designing and marketing your crowdfunding campaign, and through your hard work it successfully reaches its goal or beyond. Then you find that you can’t get your hands on the funds in order to fulfill your promised product to […]

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Cassettes Are Dead? Nope, Sales Up 23%

It’s funny how music formats long left for dead keep reappearing with new-found sales vigor. That’s the case with the lowly cassette, a format that was often denigrated even when it was hot. Believe it or not, sales last year actually grew by 23%, and not from indie bands selling their wares in clubs. These […]

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