Music Tectonics

Why are cover songs so popular? And it’s not just with fans but with Hollywood too. Jeff Van Driel knows: he’s CEO of mVibe, a platform for sync licensing cover songs. This week on the podcast, Jeff gives host Dmitri Vietze a micro-to-macro view of the music biz starting from mVibe’s B2B niche. Jeff explains how mVibe’s platform offers tech solutions that are unique to connecting music supervisors with the perfect cover song, but have the potential to scale to solve larger industry problems. From his past at the classical music giant NAXOS (classical music is all cover songs, after all!) to the rapid growth of sync licensing in recent years, get Jeff’s perspective from that sweet spot where music and tech meet. Find out how mVibe cuts through the noise in the marketplace and why cover songs are so hot right now. What are the next big innovations on the music for picture horizon ? Why isn’t Jeff worried about A.I. music creation? What’s next for mVibe’s platform?    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.

We talk a lot about seismic shifts in the music industry, and Mark Mulligan is a true music tech seismologist. If you’ve read his Music Industry Blog, followed his work with MIDiA Research, or seen him speak, you know that his data-powered approach is unparalleled for understanding, explaining, and predicting upheavals in the music tech landscape. This week Mark takes Dmitri and Tristra on a whirlwind tour of the seismic shifts he’s tracking. Find out why Mark believes that this is “The Age of the Empowered Artist.” Who has the resources to navigate a music industry that’s increasingly fluid? What are streaming services in Europe and North America getting wrong about social listening and fandom? Why isn’t music the teenage cultural touchstone that it used to be? How can you get a Mark Mulligan trading card? Mark delves into it all, with mind-blowing truth bombs around every turn. If you like this episode, don’t miss Mark’s keynote at the Music Tectonics Conference, Oct 28-29 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.

Put it on the blockchain! That was the cry at music industry conferences over the past couple of years, while industry veterans stood at the back of the room snickering. At Music Tectonics we are facing the tension straight on with a Blockchain Cage Match at our October 29 conference in L.A. Enthusiasts and skeptics will face off on stage. We announce the event on this episode featuring Vezt CEO Steve Stewart, who is not afraid to face the heat and who has come up with an interesting business model that uses blockchain to track investments by fans in artists’ songs. Meanwhile, Vezt does not require the rest of the industry to adopt blockchain for the business to function. Host Dmitri Vietze rapid-fires skeptical questions and Stewart bats them away with grace and agility. We thought the industry skeptics might win the cage match, but now we're not so sure. Tune in to see where you land, then come to the conference to see the Cage Match in action.    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.

In the music streaming era, how do fans find out who’s playing on their favorite tracks? What happened to all the credits that used to fill album liner notes with fine print? Finally, there’s an IMDB for music: Jaxsta. CEO and co-founder Jacqui Louez Schoorl sat down with podcast host Dmitri Vietze in a quiet corner at DIY Musician Conference to tell how she went from working on Star Wars to building the world’s largest official database for music credits. Jaxsta puts music discovery tools back into fans’ hands, so you can follow the sounds and artists that matter to you. Track down that amazing backup singer and that killer sax player and listen to everything they’ve ever worked on! Jacqui has years of experience in the film and music industries, so she knows why credits are critical for crew and performers, too. Find out how Jaxsta works with data partners to get authoritative credits, what’s next for Jaxsta as a business, and how music discovery might change thanks to the rabbit holes that Jaxsta opens up for avid listeners. What will you discover? Go digital cratedigging at jaxsta.com. 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.

There was a time when album sales, ticket sales and radio airplay were the only numbers that mattered in the music industry. Now, streaming generates extremely granular data about who is listening, when, where, and how. Greg Delaney and Erik Gilbert of the data management company Entertainment Intelligence sat down with hosts Dmitri Vietze and Tristra Newyear Yeager to dig into how this data explosion is changing the music business. Which came first, the profusion of data about listeners, or a music market that required pinpoint targeting to squeeze out the most from those penny fractions? Is follower count, skip rate, or average streams per day a more meaningful number? Which metrics really help labels and artists understand users and build audiences, and which ones are just snake oil? Who suffers when streams are farmed? Find out how Entertainment Intelligence is creating indie benchmarks that rival what the majors do, and how as a neutral party they can work like an “escrow account” for data.  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.

Bob Boilen has a job many of us dream of: listening to and talking about music at NPR. A concert at his tiny desk is a dream gig for up and coming performers, and his long-running All Songs Considered show is the cornerstone of NPR Music. Bob sat down with his friend Dmitri Vietze to give his perspective on the technology of listening to, curating, and creating music. How does Bob manage the lifetime’s worth of new music he receives in a day? What does it take to catch his attention? How did the rise of All Songs Considered, NPR’s first online audio show, presage the podcast boom? What’s the one music tech innovation Bob yearns for? Learn what Bob’s favorite tools are for making music, and why he sees software engineers as his collaborators. 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 @MusicTectonics on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Dani Deahl and host Dmitri Vietze look at all the cans of worms that Artificial Intelligence has opened for the music biz, and how AI contributes to the seismic shifts we’ve been tracking in the industry. Listen in on a lively back and forth as they take sides on a multitude of issues: Will AI ever be able to create a pop hit all on its own? Where is the line between useful AI tools and replacements for human creativity ? Can ownership and copyright issues around AI be addressed on the software developers’ side, with Terms of Service for example, or is it going to take lawmaking and regulation?  Dani Deahl is our hero at Music Tectonics: as The Verge’s music tech journalist, she makes complex issues accessible without losing nuance. She’s also a DJ, producer, and VP of the Recording Academy’s Chicago chapter, so she talks about AI and music creation with passion and knowledge. That’s why we’re so excited that she’s not only a podcast guest, she’s also our AI’s Got Talent MC at the Music Tectonics Conference this October!  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 let us know what you think on Twitter and Facebook. Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Is transparency in the music industry a cause to fight for... or an inevitability? Noah Becker says it is both! Noah chats with host Dmitri Vietze about how multiple claims on music usage keeps all parties from getting paid and how transparency can help unlock those revenues. He argues that everyone benefits when the “black box” thinking and market-share payouts of the past are replaced by transparent data. As CEO of AdRev, Noah explains his company’s work administering music assets with YouTube’s Content ID system. AdRev manages over 15 million copyrights, making sure that rights holders from major labels and content libraries all the way down to indie musicians get paid when their music is used in YouTube videos, and soon on other UGC platforms. Find out how increased access to data is making the push to transparency inevitable and how transparency will lubricate data flow and revenue growth for the industry. The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Weekly episodes include interviews with music tech movers & shakers and deep dives into seismic shifts. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more.

Music is being used in so many new ways, from V.R. and video games to shortform user-generated videos and remixes, that it’s hard to keep up with new license types. Are the systems and laws keeping up or is the industry struggling to adapt to the rapid pace of change? Host Dmitri Vietze chats with guest Seth Schachner of Strat Americas about how the music industry responds to rapid change and the trend towards “micro-uses” and other unexpected music forms. Listen in on a conversation that ranges from ringtones to TikTok, Anitta to A.I. That’s one reason we’re excited to have Seth at the Music Tectonics Conference- his years at the front lines of music industry innovation and his expertise in the Latin American market give him the kind of big-picture insights Music Tectonics is all about.  The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Weekly episodes include seismic shifts and interviews with music tech movers & shakers. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more.

Music for picture, also known as synch, is a growing slice of the music industry pie, and it’s experiencing seismic shifts just like the rest of the biz. Today on Music Tectonics, irregular host Tristra Newyear Yeager explores the synch terrain with Tanvi Patel, CEO and owner of indie catalog company Crucial Music. Tanvi digs in to how synch works and how the shifting media landscape is causing tremors in synch too. Music is like Fire, as we learned last week, igniting new uses for music and new ways of licensing and generating revenue. What new opportunities for licensing music arise when more and more products weave music into their makeup? How is “Peak TV” and the proliferation of streaming media services changing the synch ecosystem? The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Weekly episodes include news roundups and interviews with music tech movers & shakers. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more.