The last few years have gone better than expected for the recorded music industry, with double digit growth and lots of smiles to go around. With streaming continuing to grow in acceptance, it’s a party that looks to go on for some time, but that’s not what Sony is predicting. Despite the growth in streaming, Sony […]
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Facebook has threatened to go big into music for quite a while and last week finally made its move. The company announced that its users can now upload and share their videos that contain music by popular artists and now have it legally licensed for the first time. Facebook also announced a new music feature called […]
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My guest this week is longtime Senior VP of Marketing for Warner Bros and current marketing consultant to both labels and indie artists Ted Joseph. Ted has been associated with over 100 gold and platinum recordings for artists in a wide range of genres, from pop and urban to contemporary jazz and country. He has […]
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A new report suggests that Spotify is embarking on a new strategy that may ultimately alienate the very partners it needs to stay in business. A recent Billboard article outlined Spotify’s currently unannounced program of offering advances to a select number of indie artists for a direct licensing deal with the service. If you’re an artist or […]
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Virtually everyone in the music business breathed a sigh of relief when the Music Modernization Act sailed through the House of Representatives recently. Finally it looked like we were making some headway towards changing at least a few outdated copyright laws. When it comes to Washington however, nothing is as easy as it seems as […]
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We all want the maximum number of followers to see our posts, but that’s not always easy. The guardian of the feed on any social network is its algorithm, which selects the posts that it believes will be relevant to each user. Knowing how that algorithm works, then tailoring your posts accordingly, is the secret […]
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I’ve been privileged to be invited to appear as a guest on three great podcasts recently that you might want to check out. Coincidentally, all of them posted at around the same time. The first is the great Working Class Audio Episode #180. Host Matt Boudreau and I spoke about artist/musician/engineer diversification, the state of the […]
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My guest on the Podcast this week is record producer, mixing engineer and songwriter Andrew Maury. Andrew is one of the few mixers who has made the transition from mixing live sound to the studio, and he’s had a lot of success, especially lately working on big hits by Shawn Mendes. In the interview we […]
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Songwriters have always made a good amount of performance royalties from radio airplay, and many still do under the right circumstances (meaning, a big hit). That said, there’s a constant battle between the performance rights organizations (PROs – ASCAP and BMI) and the RMLC (Radio Music Licensing Committee) to raise and lower the rates every […]
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You might have noticed that all new music released by record labels always comes on a Friday and wondered why. After all, Friday generally isn’t a great day for communication online (especially via email) as people are especially frantic before the weekend. And if you remember back to before 2015, Tuesday used to be release […]
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It’s amazing that so many brands (which includes artists and bands as well as companies) don’t have a proper “Press” section on their website that contains all the information that a journalist or blogger might need when writing a story. I speak from personal experience as a writer in that I’m always surprised with what I can’t find […]
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When it comes to paid subscribers, Pandora has taken a back seat to all the other major services with only around 6 million. One of the reasons is that the company hasn’t been very creative with its tiers, but that posture may have changed with reports of the company launching a new family plan at […]
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My guest on the Podcast this week is EveAnna Manley, the president, CEO and sole owner of Manley Labs. For the last two decades EveAnna’s been instrumental in the continued proliferation of high-end tube gear to both the pro audio and hi-fi industries. She’s as smart as they come in this business and so incredibly […]
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I wonder how many times YouTube viewers watched an “official” music video from their favorite artist and saw the Vevo logo on the video or in the song’s description. I wonder how many actually thought to themselves, “What the heck is a Vevo?” That, my friends, was the main problem of the major record labels’ […]
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If you’ve been using a music aggregator like CD Baby or TunCore to get your music out to a wider audience, it looks like there’s a new alternative available that has a unique twist. Swedish startup Amuse (amuse.io) was founded by a team of industry heavyweights, and they’ve just received $15.5 million in funding to expand […]
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