An Inside Look At Modular Synthesis With Chris Meyer On My Latest Podcast

On this week’s podcast episode my guest is modular synthesizer maven Chris Meyer, who has done important engineering work at Sequential Circuits, Digidesign, Marion Systems with the legendary Tom Oberheim, and Roland R&D U.S., where he was chief engineer.  Along the way he created Vector Synthesis and worked on the Sequential Prophet 2000, Prophet VS, […]

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The Eras Of Popular Music Are Not What You Think They Are

Most people identify an era of music by time period, and more precisely, by the decade in which it was created. For instance, the 50’s were rock and roll, the 60s were British Invasion, the 70s were rock, the 80s New Wave Brit Pop, the 90s grunge, and so on. That may outline a general […]

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It’s Sad, But This AI-Generated Band Will Make Some Musicians Give Up

Artist and bands face so much natural competition these days that it’s a wonder why anyone even does it all. Not only do you have to worry about the other 120,000 tracks that are uploaded every day, but you now have to worry about AI-generated music as well. Case in point, a presumably AI-generated band […]

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Music Collaboration With Dominic Castro And Gary Lux of SyncDNA On My Latest Podcast

Online music collaboration is for many the holy grail for efficiently working in a home studio.  The problem is that most tools that are available suffer from latency that makes true collaboration impossible.  SyncDNA is the first online platform that allows frame-accurate synchronization of collaborators anywhere in the world, and now it’s helping mixers, musicians, […]

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Watch Out Vinyl, Tariffs Are Coming For You

As we all know, one of the many bright spots in the music industry recently has been vinyl sales. Even though the sales figures can be deceptive as to the actual number, it’s still a large revenue source for the just about everyone in that particular food chain. That said, the growth of vinyl is […]

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The ‘How To Get Paid For Your Hard Work’ Checklist

Your not a music professional if you haven’t been screwed out of money at least once. That’s par for the course and part of the learning process, but it obviously becomes a real problem if it continues to happen. Regardless of what end of the music business you work in, as an independent contractor it’s your […]

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Merlin Network CEO Jeremy Sirota On My Latest Podcast

On this week’s podcast episode my guest is the CEO of the Merlin Network of independent music labels, Jeremy Sirota. Merlin is a member-based organization representing the digital licensing rights for hundreds of independent labels and distributors in nearly every country around the globe. That makes up 15% of the recorded music market. Under Jeremy’s […]

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‘Buzz Me In: Inside The Record Plant Studios’ On My Latest Podcast

I read a lot of music biographies and history books, especially from the Rock era. Like most people, I love reading about the story behind the hits. The best book I’ve ever read about that era is Buzz Me In: Inside The Record Plant Studios.  The Record Plant was co-founded by engineer Gary Kellgrin and businessman […]

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The Lightning-Fast Rise (and Fall) of Modern Pop Hits

In today’s streaming-first landscape, pop music moves faster than ever, mostly because it’s supercharged by algorithm-driven platforms like Spotify and viral engines like TikTok. The fact that modern pop hits come and go at an ever increasing speed means that if artists don’t account for this, their songs can be left in the dust even […]

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The New “TikTok For Artists” Platform Has Some Advantages

TikTok is one of those platforms that you either love or hate, but either way, you have to admit that it’s important to the music business in so many ways. In fact,  84% of songs that reached the Billboard 200 list in 2024 gained traction on TikTok first, and U.S. users are 74% more likely […]

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Vinyl Group CEO Josh Simons On The Future Of Record Labels On My Latest Podcast

In this week’s podcast episode, my guest guest today is Josh Simons, CEO of Australia’s only ASX-listed music company, Vinyl Group.  Josh’s journey is as diverse as it gets. He founded Vampr, the ‘LinkedIn for creatives,’ connecting over 1.4 million music professionals worldwide. He’s also been instrumental in developing platforms like Jaxsta and Vinyl.com, tackling […]

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If The Major Labels Strike A Deal With AI Music Generators, Artists Are In Trouble

There are reports that the three major labels are in the middle of licensing discussions with AI music generators Udio and Suno. If you’re an artist, just the thought of this should scare the crap out of you, as it’s yet another step down the road to purging real live artists from their rosters. Don’t […]

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Music Is Losing Young Men, And That Will Change Everything

I wrote recently about how there are no more garage bands or places for them to play, and how young men would prefer to indulge in video games rather than create music. I think the problem goes deeper than just the creation of music – it’s music consumption as well. MEDiA Reseach recently posted an […]

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Marketing Strategist And Founder Of CyberPR Ariel Hyatt On My Latest Podcast

In this week’s podcast episode, my guest is music marketing strategist, speaker, author, and the founder of Cyber PR, Ariel Hyatt. Known for her bold ideas and practical strategies, Ariel has helped thousands of independent musicians and creative entrepreneurs craft sustainable careers over the course of two decades.  Ariel has always been at the forefront […]

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Study Says That People Are Happy To Rent Their Music

For the majority of time that the music business has been around, people have purchased the music they listen to. Be it wax cylinders, vinyl records, CDs, cassettes – whatever physical format you can think of – consumers were perfectly happy buying the music that they liked. Today we’ve made a 180 on that thinking […]

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