Spotify’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange last week proved to be a little underwhelming in that most existing stockholders decided to hold on to their shares, a good sign for the company’s long-term future. Its stock price at the end of the week ended up at just shy of $148, which translated […]
Continue reading
Streaming royalties are a completely moving target, and what’s reported as the average payment today will certainly change tomorrow. The reason is that there are so many variables that go into calculating a stream payment. That said, the chart below from Statista provides the gross payouts to labels per stream from each major streaming service. […]
Continue reading
Spotify finally went public yesterday in a unique direct listing that had Wall Street watching the offering closely. The stock opened at a price of $165.90 per share but fell to $149.01 by the end of the day. The stock dropped down another 8% to $140.02 by midday Wednesday. That said, even at $140 per […]
Continue reading
YouTube has rolled out a new variety of advert that may end up bringing in more ad dollars not only for artists and bands, but anyone who posts an interesting video on the service. Known as TrueView for Reach, the new ad type is similar to standard TrueView ads that can be skipped after 5 […]
Continue reading
My guest this week is saxophonist Joe Sublett, who’s a Grammy and W.C. Handy Award winner as well as an inductee of the Blues Hall of Fame. Joe’s credits include work with superstars like The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat, The Band, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, BB King and a […]
Continue reading
There was a time in the recent past when the record company advances for a new record deal had shrunk thanks to the overall music business being in such a bad way revenue-wise. It got to the point where many artists considered going the DIY route since it actually offered better alternatives to make money. […]
Continue reading
Perhaps the biggest question that today’s producer has is, “How do I get paid?” Back in the days when physical sales were king, this was never a problem as producers were paid handsomely for their services from sales royalties. Even though there are still physical sales involved today, that more than likely will not pay […]
Continue reading
YouTube is about to employ a rather unique strategy in order to get more people to buy into its upcoming subscription plan. The service is going to begin to insert more ads in videos in an effort to frustrate users enough that they’ll want to pay to eliminate them. YouTube’s global head of music Lyor Cohen laid […]
Continue reading
Last week I posted about iHeartMedia’s chapter 11 bankruptcy in which it was attempting to wipe out $10 billion worth of its $20 billion debt so it could carry on operations. Although various music companies are owned just a small portion of that amount, its still a significant $38 million, and that’s money that’s not […]
Continue reading
My guest on the podcast this week is Joyce Kettering, a composer who became so successful licensing her music that she did the thing that so many dream about – she was able to quit a very good day job as a financial auditor and just dedicate herself to music. What makes this story even […]
Continue reading
We live in an age where it’s probably the easiest it has ever been to access just about any kind of music you want, and all for free. The music business has always been driven by convenience of consumption, and it’s difficult to imagine how much easier it can get than joining the free tier […]
Continue reading
When the verdict in the 2015 copyright infringement trial brought by the Marvin Gaye estate against the writers of the Robin Thicke hit “Blurred Lines” was reached, most of the music industry shuddered. While some of the flavor of the Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up” hit of 1977 was captured on the “Blurred […]
Continue reading
Most artists and musicians that I know hold the shows American Idol and The Voice in some level of contempt. It’s made-for-TV music and doesn’t reflect much about the true business of music or paying your dues (although there’s less of that these days anyway). It gets the public excited for the duration of the […]
Continue reading
Way back when radio was the main channel for developing a hit, record labels tried to game the system by bribing radio station program directors with money and gifts to add a record to the station’s playlist, a process that became known as payola. Several scandals ensued and the practice became illegal, but labels and […]
Continue reading
My guest on the podcast this week is producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer Clarence Jey, whose credits include music on US Billboard Hot 100, a Grammy-winning record, one of the largest viral music successes in history, music for film and multiple Emmy-nominated TV shows. His broad musical spectrum ranges from creating music for the Grammy […]
Continue reading