Ep. 133: we’re joined by Paul Sampson, CEO and founder of Lickd, the licensing startup that supplies music to creators on YouTube and other platforms. We seem to be shifting into an era where a new and widespread use of music is emerging – where music is a component of a wider experience: for instance in the background of short/long videos, live streams of gaming, or as part of users building interactive experiences - almost “music as Lego”. We chat to Paul about the future of music usage and whether the current system of licensing is up to the task of recovering the correct money for music creators. Creators of online content are eager to use recognisable hit songs in what they make. And Paul Samson has an interesting perspective on these creators needs – whether they are zillion-streaming superstars like MrBeast, or more modestly-successful creators. So we ask him about what they actually want from music, and also how they view music in terms of its use and its value, when they are perhaps only using it as a component of something bigger that they’re piecing together. Plus we ask Paul about generative AI music – and whether this could take a slice out of his business model. Lickd: https://lickd.co Tearing T-shirts: Most T-shirts worn and torn in one minute Nirvana –  Nevermind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg&list=OLAK5uy_kEQJGO2SZ0k-vJ8b-F2AJLfKnw0cFydNg Andrea Bocelli - Con Te Partirò - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVUHHW1tJYA ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 👋 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Knowledge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠corporate and sponsored subscriptions⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscription-options⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ⓜ️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music Ally⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠'s industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscribe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/musically⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Sven Deutschmann, Managing Director of Sonopress, discusses the launch of EcoRecord, a new vinyl record manufacturing process using plastic from plastic water bottles to reduce energy consumption and waste. They explore the manufacturing process, the use of a more sustainable plastic called PT, the sound quality of EcoRecords, and the environmental benefits of injection molding. They also discuss the need for industry-wide improvements in reducing energy consumption and artists' demand for environmentally friendly vinyl production methods.

Ep 131: We have been puzzling over the impact of AI-generated music and how it will align with the laws that have made the music business, well, the music business. Eliane Ellbogen is an intellectual property lawyer at Fasken law firm in Montreal, and has spoken at a number of conferences about the legal implications that accompany AI Music. She joined Music Ally's Editor Joe Sparrow, who lobbed some (depending on your point of view) tricky and/or stupid legal questions at Eliane – who answered them with patience and clarity. For instance: can an AI author music? Can humans claim ownership of AI-generated music? What happens if an AI-created piece of music sounds very similar to your own human music? What laws might be used to regulate it all? Eliane gamely got to grips with them all. Eliane and Fasken: https://www.fasken.com/en/eliane-ellbogen Eliane at MUTEK:  https://forum.mutek.org/en/shows/2023/workshop-art-ai-and-the-law---ip-for-digital-artists Bach’s Goldberg Variations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4yAB37wG5s Oneohtrix Point Never - Again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcCWAqoiSXI Smashing watermelons: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-watermelons-smashed-with-a-punch-in-one-minute ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 👋 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Knowledge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠corporate and sponsored subscriptions⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscription-options⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ⓜ️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music Ally⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠'s industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscribe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/musically⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Andrew Batey and Morgan Hayduk, co-CEOs of Beatdapp, discuss alarming statistics on streaming fraud, revealing that 40%-60% of streams from well-known distributors are fraudulent. They explore the rise of bot attacks and credential stuffing, the vulnerability of streaming platforms to fraud, and the recent changes to payment thresholds.

Ep. 129: Dan Stein, AKA DJ Fresh, and Declan McGlynn are co-founders of Voice-Swap, the AI-powered service that, as the name suggests, allows you to swap your singing voice for that of one of their chart-topping singers’ voices. They chat to Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow about why they think producers, artists and writers will want to use AI to transform their own voice to sound like one of their featured artists. One of the difficulties that songwriters and songwriting producers face is using their own voice to sing lyrics on a track that is designed for someone else: perhaps their own voice is not very good, or perhaps it’s too hard to picture another artist performing the demo. This was a problem that Dan Stein, as DJ Fresh, faced – and he and his founders are addressing this issue with the help of AI. Voice Swap allows people to sing something into their platform, and the resulting output will sound like one of the singers whose voices the AI has been trained on. Dan and Declan talk about their technology, and who will be interested in using it, and they also dig into some of the more complex concepts: like whether particular AI voices might become ubiquitous across pop music, and whether this will diminish or boost human creativity. Voice Swap https://www.voice-swap.ai Prince – Sign O’ The Times https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nysBR93vc_I48usiCFTnMe6nKTB6YETjo&si=PCmbJ5wVyd2zvjSv DJ Fresh – Gold Dust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNuUgbUzM8U Sliced grapes: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/575085-most-grapes-sliced-in-the-air-with-a-sword-whilst-standing-on-a-swiss-ball-in-one ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: ⁠⁠⁠https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/⁠⁠⁠ 👋 ⁠⁠⁠The Knowledge⁠⁠⁠, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo⁠⁠⁠ 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our ⁠⁠⁠corporate and sponsored subscriptions⁠⁠⁠. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: ⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscription-options⁠⁠⁠ Ⓜ️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠Music Ally⁠⁠⁠'s industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: ⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscribe⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/musically⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Kris Ahrend, CEO of the Mechanical Licensing Collective, discusses the state of mechanical licensing in 2023, data transparency, and the future of streaming royalties. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the business side of the music industry, data transparency, and the need for all rights holders to actively connect data gaps for proper payment entitlement.

Stuart Dredge, Head of Insight at Music Ally, discusses the ambitions, possibilities, ethical and legal issues of AI music in the music business. They explore the human element behind AI music, the battle for control within the industry, and the direction of AI music towards collaboration with human musicians. The podcast also touches on the ethical and legal implications, regulations, and the impact of AI in music making.

Ep 126: in this episode Editor Joe Sparrow is joined by musician and music education facilitator Elizabeth J. Birch, and the CEO of UK charity Youth Music Matt Griffiths. They join us to talk about the experiences of disabled musicians in the UK music industry – and the work done by Elizabeth and Youth Music to improve it. Elizabeth is a champion of accessible music-making, and shares her knowledge with aspiring young disabled musicians. She hopes for a day when the disabled community are not so overlooked in the music industry – and Elizabeth has now been nominated for the Inspirational Music Leader award at this year’s Youth Music Awards for her work at Midlands Art Centre as a result of her work. She and Matt talk about their work, explain how the disabled community is still quite invisible in the UK music scene, and what can be done to improve things in the music industry – including platforming more disabled people on and off the stage. Youth Music Awards https://youthmusic.org.uk/awards Youth Music https://youthmusic.org.uk Elizabeth J Birch https://elizabethjbirch.bandcamp.com/ Lock picking https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/97409-most-locks-picked-in-one-minute ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/ 👋 The Knowledge, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options Ⓜ️ Subscribe to Music Ally's industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: musically.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz Twitter: https://twitter.com/musically Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Ep 125: In this episode Stationhead co-founders, Murray Levison and Ryan Star speak to Editor Joe Sparrow about the platform’s role as a gathering place for superfans, and what fans are seeking in a platform that mixes music, community and commerce. Superfans are well know for their all-encompassing support of an artist, and their desire to form a community to celebrate them. Stationhead started out as a kind of live radio platform that would allow users to play music and talk around the songs, and has changed its path a little to become even more oriented around fandoms. Now, fans gather around stations to geek out about an artist’s music and chat about. them – with some artists joining in on the broadcasts for things like release parties. Joe talked to Murray and Ryan – who is also a successful artist in his own right – about what fans want and what Stationhead is doing to give it to them. Stationhead:  https://www.stationhead.com Stationhead – Nicki Minaj fandom: https://www.stationhead.com/p/fandom/nicki-minaj-fans-stationhead Ryan Star: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKeFzpawPad05pLIP1NGFhA God Only Knows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NADx3-qRxek Scratch Your Back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8US2vvG4niA Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtXl8xAPAtA&list=PL3PhWT10BW3VDM5IcVodrdUpVIhU8f7Z- Drumsticks https://youtu.be/4lJMjBU8fBM ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/ 👋 The Knowledge, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options Ⓜ️ Subscribe to Music Ally's industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: musically.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz Twitter: https://twitter.com/musically Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Christine Barnum, CD Baby's Chief Revenue Officer, discusses the challenges of detecting streaming fraud. They explore the definition of fraud, techniques used by fraudsters, and the collaboration between distributors and rights holders. They also share personal experiences with impactful music.