Every site and social network online is collecting our data, and while that might seem sinister at first glance, in most cases there’s a good reason – to more precisely send us either content or advertising that’s most personally relevant to us. Why get hit with 99 things that we don’t care about just to […]
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With Spotify about to become listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a big question that has hung over the heads of major label execs is what will happen if they liquidate their shares in the company. Revenue windfalls like this in the past have found their way to the company’s bottom lines and not […]
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Ever wonder how much we listen to audio programming in a given week. Nielsen Research actually keeps track of this and has some very interesting data that shows that Americans. listen to a tremendous amount of audio, but not all of it comes from the sources that you might think. With streaming at the forefront […]
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My guest this week is Greg Curtis, who is not only a session and touring trumpet player and accomplished engineer, but he’s also the founder of The Bridge Recording, which is one of the busiest scoring stages in Hollywood. The Bridge is actually one of the few studios anywhere that’s found its business increasing in […]
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Don’t you feel ripped off when you try to buy a ticket to see your favorite artist and the only ones available are from a secondary ticket broker at an inflated cost? If you live in Ireland, those days may be gone soon as the government has thrown its support behind a bill outlawing the […]
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Sometimes your view of exactly what’s hot in music can be skewed by the country that you live in, but you get a dose of reality when you look at the IFPI global rankings for the top 10 artists last year. The IFPI’s rankings use ‘album equivalent’ units to combine measurements of downloads, physical sales and streams […]
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It seems like as soon as we get used to the latest Facebook “updates” the service changes the game yet again. That’s what happened at the end of last year when the social platform reconfigured its News Feed algorithm once more in order to help get rid of spammy content and fake news. That’s the […]
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In 2016 Twitter invested $70 million in SoundCloud, which looked to be a wise venture since the company was valued at around $700 million at the time. Things in the tech world change fast though, as in it’s 2017 annual report, Twitter indicated that it was forced to write off the entire investment because that […]
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Lij Shaw is the host of a great podcast called Recording Studio Rockstars, and is the owner of the Toy Box Studio in Nashville, where he’s been making records for the last 25 years. The studio is in his house, and recently he received a cease and desist order from the city for violating a […]
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There have been a number of recent reports lately that Spotify is looking to launch its own series of branded streaming hardware products. This is supported by its search for an “Operations Manager – Hardware Product” as well as several listings for hardware related positions on its website. Let’s look at the pros and cons […]
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Facebook isn’t in the music streaming business yet, but it sure looks like it’s going that way. The platform recently signed another music licensing deal, this time with ICE Services, which is a licensing group and copyright database that represents PRS in the UK, STIM in Sweden and GEMA in Germany. The deal covers not only Facebook, but Instagram, Oculus and Messenger […]
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It’s not everyday that you hear of a big tech company getting scammed, but when it’s done legally it’s especially unusual. A report in a recent Music Business News described how someone from Bulgaria used a pair of playlists to take as much as a million bucks in royalties from music tech giant Spotify. Here’s […]
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The price of new vinyl albums is going through the roof these days and some industry execs think that we’re fast approaching buyer fatigue as a result. While you might find a few at $16, it’s not uncommon to see a premium release go for anywhere from $40 to $60, which can strain most collector’s […]
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Dr. Stephen Marcone is Director of the Music Management Programs and David Philp is a professor of Music and Entertainment Industries at the William Paterson University of New Jersey, which has one of the best music business programs in the country. They’ve also collaborated on the 6th edition of Steve’s excellent book Managing Your Band. […]
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The recorded music business is definitely feeling better these days as all the major labels have reported big increases in revenue recently. The latest of these is Universal Music Group, who reportedly saw an income stream of close to $18 million every day in 2017. This represents a sales increase of around 11% from the […]
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