Music Ally Focus

Episode 113: we’re joined by Shain Shapiro, PhD  – a music and cultural policy thinker whose work focuses on the idea of music cities. Shain's upcoming new book This Must Be The Place introduces and examines music’s relationship to cities. Not the influence cities have on music, but the powerful impact music can have on how cities are developed, built, managed and governed. It’s a fascinating concept: the way that music can be used to shape culture around us and the relationship with the people and places that we live in. We ask him what music cities are, and how music intersects with a city’s cultural and political policy. https://www.shainshapiro.com/book Remain in Light: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ldZpfPljmwhO4m7Eu8HUTylyh1uHT4wyY Hammer flipping: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/593507-most-hammer-flips-in-one-minute ------ 👋 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

Episode 112: In this episode we’re joined by two people from Splice, the music-making platform and sample library: CEO Kakul Srivistava and Mark Thomas, Splice's VP of sounds. Sampling has been used by musicians for decades as a way to create music, and finding the right sounds and snippets of music is a complex and time consuming task. We talk about music creation in the 2023 environment when everyone is making music, how important samples are to the creative process, what the impact is for musicians if platforms make finding samples a one-click affair, and how AI is being used to help producers find samples better. Splice, like a lot of music businesses, has also been embracing AI, and has just launched the public beta version of an AI-powered tool that assembles bunches of samples that fit together. Both guests have a rich history in creative technology businesses:  Kakul was previously Vice President of Creative Cloud Experience and Engagement at Adobe and the Vice President of Product & Marketing at GitHub, and Mark is a musician who became CTO at AWAL, and founder of platform BuzzDeck, before spending a decade at Apple Services. I spoke to Kakul and Mark about the needs of musicians today and the impact of technology in helping them create the music we love.  https://splice.com https://splice.com/blog/coso-breakthrough-ai-tech/ Mark: Kenny Wheeler –  Music for Small and Large Ensembles Kakul: Stevie Wonder – Innervisions ------ 👋 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

Episode 111: in this episode we’re joined by Rebecca Berman, SVP of International at Concord, a large independent company that operates in music publishing, a label, and in acquisition – and which has artists and repertoires licensed all over the world. We talk to Rebecca about how she and Concord views the potential in exploding markets like Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Her job involves building a local teams to support Concord Label Group’s repertoire around the globe, so she has an interesting view on the fast-growing, high-potential markets – like sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. We spoke to her about what the wider consequences of these rapidly-growing markets might be on the wider music business, and how the established music industry might change in terms of structure, strategy, and revenue. ⁠Concord⁠: concord.com Boygenius: xboygeniusx.com ------ 👋 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

Episode 110: We speak to Ines Dunn, a young songwriter from London, who has writing credits in songs like Maisie Peters’ “Not Another Rockstar”, and is one of the first songwriters to be featured by Spotify’s RADAR programme. One of the biggest fillips an artist’s career can receive is by being part of one of the major streaming platforms’ artist programmes – which at its most flashy, can result in your face being plastered across a billboard in Leicester Square in London. That’s what happened to Ines Dunn, and so we spoke to her about her nascent career, how she ended up on Spotify’s RADAR programme, and what the tangible benefits are of getting high-profile support like this, and what she sees as the benefits for DSPs in offering these kind of programmes. Written by Ines Dunn playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1EFLbEbClSreiP Most éclairs filled with cream in one minute ------ 👋 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

Episode 109: Music Ally’s Head of Insight, Stuart Dredge chats in depth with Joe Sparrow about the big picture issues that music streaming platforms, its users and economy will need to face  this year. We’ve just published our latest Quarterly Report which comprehensively breaks down each of the big global DSPs in a “Report Card” format – and to accompany it, Stu forecasts what might happen around various key topics:  The Transition from “music” to “audio” – music streaming services are becoming audio streaming services. Music is competing with other kinds of audio, be that podcasts or white noise, so what does that mean in terms of royalties and ear-share? Price rises – for users and for artists – there’s pressure from the music industry to raise the prices of streaming subscriptions: will adding a dollar or two does lead to a mass of cancellations or not? Can – or should –  the pie be grown? And what about changing the whole system of payment from pro-rata to something else? Direct artist support – DSPs are providing other ways to support artists: buying merch, buying tickets, and subscriptions are appearing more widely on streaming apps. And how do artists feel about introducing tipping to DSPs?  User interfaces and AI –  DSPs are introducing many new ways to interact with, and discover music, from TikTok-like feeds to AI DJs. So is the next leap for music discovery going to be conversations with AIs? The mid tier DSPs (and remember web3?) –  Deezer, SoundCloud, Tidal and Napster have all positioned themselves as disruptors in different ways. They're nimbler than the big DSPs and can experiment with novel ideas like web3 music – but what are the long-term prospects for these services? Music Ally’s Quarterly Report: https://musically.com/category/reports/ 34 dozen oysters in 8 minutes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Bertoletti#2012 ------ 👋 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

Episode 108: in this episode we’re joined by Adam Webb, from FanFair Alliance - a UK-based organisation campaigning against industrial-scale online ticket touting- or scalping if you prefer. I chatted to Adam about the state of ticketing in the UK, and what does FA see as the most pertinent issue that needs fixing/changing? He also talks about speculative ticketing is, why he thinks it’s harmful, and what should be done, and the difference in approach between artists in the UK and the US when it comes to dynamically priced tickets. Supported by managers and teams for artists including Arctic Monkeys, Ed Sheeran, Biffy Clyro, Pixies, Iron Maiden, George Ezra, PJ Harvey, Niall Horan and many others, FanFair, it says, “has successfully helped change the regulatory and legislative landscape in the UK, leading to the widespread adoption of consumer-friendly practices for ticket resale.” FanFair Alliance: fanfairalliance.org Adam’s guest post on dynamic pricing  for Music Ally: https://musically.com/2022/03/13/is-dynamic-pricing-containing-the-battle-against-ticket-touting-or-undermining-it-guest-column/ Most shaving cream pies thrown in 30 seconds by a team of 2 Pet Sounds: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mJN3N2XYKY6P2RpKP_-Zk20HwDSewNAYY

Episode 107: We’re joined by Pamela McCormick and Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE of London-based organisation United Development – they talk to Joe Sparrow about supporting and developing young black musicians and industry talent, the state of representation in the UK industry, and what you can do to help make gradual improvements around representation in the music business. Pamela McCormick is founder and CEO of United Development (UD), and Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, was recently appointed chair. UD brings communities together around Black music and Black music culture. For 20 years, UD has acted as a bridge between burgeoning talent and the music industry, through business and employment support programmes, career guidance, access to resources and showcasing, and more. They explain the issues that the young people they work with face, the hurdles that are "baked-in” to the current industry structure, explain how to build intentional change into your business, and how to disrupt the “pipeline issue” that goes hand in hand with a lack of representation in the music industry. UD website: https://www.udmusic.org/  Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE: https://aimafidon.com/ UD Industry takeover event: https://www.complex.com/music/ud-industry-takeover-2023 UD on BBC Radio 4: https://www.udmusic.org/blog/artists/ud-x-bbc-radio-4/ Chronixx - COOL AS THE BREEZE/FRIDAY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsCV2LBoAG0 Miles Davis – Kind of Blue https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nkfBmwK2t62J1xAsfhcwj9PVQG7N5UunA Popsicles: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/118197-most-ice-lollies-popsicles-eaten-in-one-minute ------ 👋 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

Episode 106:  Joe Sparrow talks to two UK music entrepreneurs who have grown a substantial and influential business from the ground up. TK and SK, co-founders of London-based independent record label and management company Finesse Foreva, which is home to artists/producers including Russ Millions, Skengdo & AM, and JB Made It. The company has received multiple Platinum certifications, worked with Drake, and had the UK’s first number one single for a Drill (or, for international listeners, a "UK Drill") track.  We talked about how Drill has grown to national and international popularity, how it was demonised in the UK press, how the genre and the scene around it has grown into a big industry through the age-old combination of hard work, ambition and talent – and how they are working hard to share skills and educate a new generation of music business entrepreneurs as part of Finesse Foreva’s wider social focus. Foreva: https://www.finesseforeva.co.uk/ ------ 👋 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

Episode 105: For a man whose name is rhyming slang in the UK for something going wrong, most of what Pete Tong touches goes very right. He’s been enormously influential in the international electronic music scene for four decades: as a broadcaster, a jet-setting DJ who has released dozens of mix albums, at the influential FFRR and Three Six Zero labels, and now, as co-founder of the International Music Summit. We invited Pete onto the podcast to talk about A&R in the dance music world: how it has changed, how it works now, the role that good taste plays, the challenges of keeping up with the TikTok whirlwind, his thoughts on modern artistry and fandom, and what he thinks about the use of AI in future A&R approaches. https://www.internationalmusicsummit.com/summit-schedule ------ 👋 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

Episode 104: A Very Special Episode this week: We’ve wanted to make our daily Bulletin newsletter into a podcast for a long time, and now, we’ve created one – with the help of a text-to-voice AI. We're now sharing it here, so that you can hear the results too. The AI twist is that we have cloned the voice of our Learning Operations Manager, Sarah Seukeran, and it’s “her” that you’ll hear on the Bulletin podcast. It was soft-launched a few weeks ago – and we think the Bulletin translates really well into a sub-10 minute audio round up. In our opinion, it's an impressive confirmation of the technology's potential. So we'd love to hear what you think – does it sound good to you? Would you be interested in a daily (or weekly?) audio version of our News output? (In the future, this AI-powered podcast may become part of Music Ally's subscription offering.) Please do let us know all and any feedback: email our editor Joe Sparrow on joe@musically.com. Here's the Music Ally Bulletin podcast on Spotify, if you'd like to follow it: https://open.spotify.com/show/6tXXBfONkdUIkSIFT8TgGF?si=74e45d0ef2274438 PS: Note that the AI origins of this audio means that there may be some very occasional mispronunciations or speech glitches – this is still in a beta phase of testing! ------ 👋 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