Music Tectonics

The growing momentum of Independent music is causing shifts in the music industry that could prove more powerful even than streaming. At the 2019 Music Tectonics Conference, the Independent Era panel brought together some of the people driving that trend, helping self-empowered artists take control of their careers and change the music industry along the way. Their tools and resources make creating, distributing, promoting, and getting paid for music easier than ever. Did you know Lil Nas X got the beat behind his record-crushing song Old Town Road for free on Beatstars in a BOGO offer? Being an indie musician used to mean trying to do what the major label mainstream music did, but  on a budget. With so many resources to get their music to listeners and see what works, nimble indies are teaching the majors a thing or two. Find out what happens when artists approach their careers like they’re founding a start-up, and what will fuel the indie sector’s next growth spurt. The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter, facebook, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

Music Ally just released Stuart Dredge’s “The 42 Trends of 2019,” a comprehensive end-of-year report for the music biz. With the digital ink barely dry on the virtual page, Stuart sits down with host Dmitri Vietze to explore 5 overarching megatrends that emerged from his report—and his predictions for 2020. Stuart is uniquely placed to reflect back on the year in music: he writes Music Ally’s daily newsletter, a herculean task that gives him a granular view of music industry trends as they shift like sand dunes.  Follow Stuart and Dmitri along on a wild ride through the coming of age of the global digital music industry (and how markets like India, China, Africa, and Latin America are driving innovation and ripping up rule books) to the state of AI music generation, from gaming and  Esports to AR (and why you shouldn’t write off VR just yet). How are legal and licensing frameworks shifting in response? Is music listening changing in a shifting audio landscape that includes podcasts, high res streaming, and smart speakers? Why do analysts predict the death of the record label every time an indie artist forges a new path?  What trends get Stuart excited—or terrified—for 2020? The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter, facebook, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

What does the music tech landscape look like from the investor's point of view—and what are start-ups getting wrong? Listen to the Music Tech Investor Panel, recorded at the 2019 Music Tectonics Conference, to find out. Moderated by writer Cherie Hu (who has her own podcast/newsletter Water & Music), the panel brought together decisionmakers from across the emerging landscape of music tech investment: Rishi Patel (Plus Eight Equity), Zach Katz (Raised In Space Enterprises), Larry Marcus (Marcy Venture Partners and Walden Venture Capital), and Virginie Berger (DBTH Capital).  What mistakes should start-ups avoid, in their business plan and in their pitches? What roles are artists playing in investment and product development? How do investors make decisions about which companies to fund? Should start-ups stake their claim in saturated areas of music tech like streaming and VR, or strike out in unoccupied territory? Is it more important to demonstrate profitability or growth? What special challenges face Rights Tech founders? Get answers straight from the investors.The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter, facebook, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

Take a deep dive into the rapid growth of the indie sector, one of the seismic shifts that gained the most attention at the Music Tectonics Conference. Our guide to this shifting terrain is Tracy Maddux, CEO of AVL Digital Group, the parent company of CD Baby, AdRev and DashGo, which all provide DIY Musicians with trusted tools for distribution, marketing, and monetization. Being independent doesn’t mean being alone: learn how Merlin, A2IM, and other organizations unite indie players to multiply their advocacy and negotiating power with governmental bodies and DSPs. As Tracy explains, indie growth is not just about scale. It's about options, audiences, and working together. Tracy places independent music’s growing market share in the context of the music biz and beyond, and shows how that growth interacts with other trends like globalization and the crumbling of the mainstream to shake up power structures. Get a deeper understanding of Mark Mulligan’s prediction in last week’s podcast that the rise of the self-empowered artist will be a more powerful shift than music streaming! The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

Explore fault lines in the recorded music industry from Teddy Boys to TikTok with Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Research. When Mark opened the first annual Music Tectonics Conference in October in Los Angeles, he lobbed visions from the future into the audience. We captured the audio of his unique mix of trendspotting, economic analysis, and prediction so you can hear what you missed. What does “peak attention” mean for the music biz? Why are mobile games the canary in the digital coalmine? Which approaching seismic shift does Mark think will be even bigger than streaming? How is the digital music market like the gold rush, and who is holding the picks and shovels? The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Stay tuned for more audio from the first Music Tectonics Conference! Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter, facebook, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

What if payments in the music industry could be as seamless as paying for your rideshare or food delivery? In this bonus episode, host Dmitri Vietze is joined by Justin Butler, L.A.-based Director of Global Sales at Hyperwallet. Hyperwallet provides payment solutions for many companies to manage payouts for 200 plus companies and teratorries.    Hyperwallet was recently acquired by PayPal and functions on the backend to move money around. Although they work across all spectrums and verticals, in the music industry they currently are working with DSPs to streamline their payments process.     The music industry is more accessible than ever. Take a look at the gig economy, where payment approaches true seamlessness. Historically in the music industry it hasn’t been this way, and it’s ripe for disruption. Intrigued? Find out more about Hyperwallet at the Music Tectonics Conference in LA- Justin will be speaking on the panel “Rethinking Royalties: How the Entertainment Industry Can Modernize Payments.”    The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  

Independent music isn’t on the margins any more: It makes up 40 percent of the industry. This week on the podcast, Kevin Breuner joins host Dmitri Vietze to talk about how Independent self empowered artists are changing the game. Kevin knows independent music: He’s VP of Marketing at CD Baby, host of the DIY Musician Podcast (going strong at 241 episodes!), and an indie musician himself. The rise of the DIY Musician means that mainstream artists are having to work harder to maintention the same attention level. Pre-streaming, labels used to be genre specific—radio too—and other artists were viewed as competition. Now other artists are partners because there are a ton of opportunities to cross promote and work together to grow their collective fan bases. There are fewer gatekeepers now and the floodgates are open, and success is coming from surprising places so it’s the perfect time to experiment as an independent artist.    CD Baby has long been a prime mover in a number of the tech-driven seismic shifts in the music biz we’ve been tracking: Broken Gates, Self-Driving Artists, Many Paths to Success, the list goes on. We’re grateful that they signed on early as a Supernova Sponsor of the Music Tectonics Conference where we’ll explore these shifts and more. Kevin will be there, along with CEO Tracy Maddux and SVP Christine Barnum. Connect with them in LA!   The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Data Everywhere? Music In Slices? Hands of the Masses? WTF are all these Seismic Shifts we keep talking about? Podcast host Dmitri Vietze explains it all in this episode recorded live in Los Angeles at General Assembly. Dmitri revealed 18 of the biggest seismic shifts shaking up the music biz as a result of technology and innovation, all distilled into the fun visual medium of trading cards. If you’re a regular listener, you heard co-host Tristra Newyear and Music Tech Seismologist Mark Mulligan challenge him to do it, and he did. Listen in as Dmitri riffs on everything from IKEA lampspeakers to Instagram as a music discovery app. Hear the audience chase the rabbits Dmitri lets loose.  We’re releasing card designs day by day on our website, so check out the visuals while you listen at MusicTectonics.com/seismicshifts!  Collect all 18 cards only at the Music Tectonics Conference, October 28-29 in Los Angeles—and add some Shift Talker speaker cards to your deck! Just wait till you see that Golden Mulligan. . . Did Dmitri miss any major shifts that are shaking up your corner of the biz? What should the next series of trading cards feature? Let us know @MusicTectonics on Twitter & Facebook, or shout at  Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What music fan hasn’t dreamed of playing a solo with their favorite band, or immersing themselves in every detail of their favorite song? In a Music Tectonics first, this podcast episode spans five cities (on two continents) to explore the emerging interactive music market. Leaders of three start-ups explain how their apps invite fans into the music in unique ways: Sarah Janiszewski (Jammer),  Frank Østevold (oiid), and Dave Park (SongAI). All these apps use the stems of a song—the individual guitar, bass, drums, and vocal tracks—to let users become co-creators, not just passive listeners. These new ideas were all developed with the support of Universal Music Group’s global digital innovation program, so Bill Gagnon, SVP Business Development at UMG, chimes in to give a big picture view of the program and the thinking behind it. UMG is working closely with start-ups to help spawn innovation and bringing fans and artists closer, and the development of the interactive music market is just one of the spaces where new ideas are growing. Get a first hand look at the interactive music frontier: play with all three apps at the Music Tectonics Conference in LA Oct. 28-29! UMG is creating a start-up playground in our exhibitor hall where you’ll be able to try them out yourself.    The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

When you stream music, how much are you actually hearing? What happens to audio quality as a track makes its way from the studio to your earbuds? Find out from Dan Mackta, Managing Director at Qobuz USA. Qobuz lets audiophiles stream studio-quality music from any device, not just the lossy mp3s offered by the streaming giants. Dan dares music lovers—especially jazz and classical fans—to try better audio and find out for themselves how much more there is to hear.  Learn how “brick wall compression” has shaped the sound of pop music and why audiophiles think of music like cocaine. Want to give it a try? Dan gives his expert picks for the essentials you need to start your own audiophile journey. The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.