Music Ally Focus

Michael Horan, VP of Product at Last.fm, discusses the evolution of Last.fm over 20 years, from tracking mp3s to online music streaming. He delves into the importance of data in connecting artists with audiences and the challenges of organizing music data for fair royalties. The conversation also explores the value of user input in music discovery and the need for online music communities in the digital age.

Music Ally Focus Ep. 82: We’re joined by multi-award winning UK beatbox champion, and live looping pioneer, Beardyman (AKA Darren Foreman) – who, like a number of artists, has created a significant extra income stream via a subscription model on Patreon. We talk to him about how he has made a model where fans do not merely support him – they collaborate with him: subscribers can present their track ideas and collaborate directly with Beardyman, and if successful, get royalties on the track. Darren he tells us about how and why he set up this new, direct-to-fan community connection, how it has become a big part of his income, how a Discord server is vital, and why he chose to only offer highly affordable pricing. Beardyman on Patreon: patreon.com/beardyman Beardyman: https://www.beardyman.co.uk An example of Beardyman's livestreams: youtu.be/WhyNVidvlVY ------ 👋 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

Music Ally Focus Ep. 81: In this episode we’re discussing the past, present and future of Latin music on a global scale with Jesús Triviño Alarcón, senior director for Latin Global for streaming platform Tidal. Jesús has a deep connection with Latin music and culture: he is a Webby-nominated content creator who has covered music, TV, film and more for over 17 years as a reporter, editor, producer and curator. Latin music has firmly solidified its status as a global superpower, and we spoke to Jesús about his observations of Latin music’s recent successes, which music and cultures will spring to international prominence next, the possibility of innovative international collaborations – and we also got some insight on how audiences engage with Latin music. Here are a few of the genres and artists Jesús mentioned: Rising: Latin Tmrw / R&B en Español  Tmrw / Cumbia Reggaeton del Sur (Venezuela) FEID Esenciales (one of the artists Jesús mentioned as an artist on the brink of global superstardom) And here's an album by his music choice: A Tribe Called Quest's "Low End Theory"  ------ 👋 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

Music Ally Focus Ep. #80: In this episode, we’re going to talk about Equitable Remuneration (ER) and how it works out in practice, IRL, with two people who truly understand the economics and legality of it. What is ER? In the UK and some other countries, it’s the practice of dividing certain radio play royalties 50-50 between artist and label - and in the UK’s long-running parliamentary inquiry into music streaming economics, ER became a widely-requested solution to many artists’ claims that they were not being paid enough. So, we’ve got two people who really know their stuff to talk about whether applying ER to music streaming is a good idea. Spoiler: it might actually leave artists worse off. Dr Hayleigh Bosher, Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law and Associate Dean at Brunel University London, and  Will Page, former Chief Economist at Spotify and PRS for Music. They explore from a legal and economic perspective which are of the three real-world ER options available the most likely to happen  – and reveal that ER might actually leave artists worse off. So… what does the future hold for artist royalties in an environment where many artists still want to be paid differently? And will streaming platforms be able to increase monthly subscription costs in the middle of economic hardship? Hayleigh and Will look ahead and try to navigate the likely path forward. Dr Hayleigh Bosher: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/hayleigh-bosher Will Page: https://tarzaneconomics.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

Sam Saideman, Co-founder of Innovo Music Management, discusses TikTok and influencer marketing. He highlights mistakes made by major labels on TikTok and offers tips for success. He compares managing artists to influencers and emphasizes the value of low budget videos. The podcast explores methods for going viral on TikTok, including influencer marketing and building personal brands. It also delves into the risks and failures of TikTok marketing campaigns, stressing the importance of authentic content and trying different strategies.

Music Ally Focus Ep. #78: In the second of two episodes where we speak to artists about pressures they have felt from that industry, and the effect it has had on them as people, we speak to the artist Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, or Orlando Higginbottom as he’s known to his family and friends. He talks about his experiences of working with record labels – and discussing the need for them in 2022, based on a decade of experiences that have not been, let’s say, wholly positive. He has just released his new album “When The Lights Go” as an independent artist, and Orlando has been highly vocal about his position on the current state of the music industry – including saying that “nobody should be signing a bad record deal, and perhaps nobody should be signing record deals at all”. We’re going to be talking about the need for record labels in the current environment, and his experiences in the recorded music industry, in which he has released two studio albums a decade apart, and felt he was let down by an industry that took advantage of him as a young artist. TEED on your streaming platform: https://lnkfi.re/TEEDinosaurs TEED: https://www.totallyenormousextinctdinosaurs.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

Music Ally Focus Ep. #77: In this episode, we discuss Music Ally SI:X – our new annual global showcase, contest and mentorship support program for early-stage music startups. We chat to representatives of two of the sponsors, Emma Cordell, Senior Communications manager of FUGA, and Gregor Pryor, Partner at Reed Smith – along with Music Ally’s CEO Paul Brindley – about what they consider to be the most exciting and innovative areas in music tech, why big, game-changing ideas are still out there (and how to spot them),  and offer some advice for SI:X applicants to help them stand out from the competition. Remember, there’s still time left to apply for Music Ally SI:X – but not a lot: the deadline for applications is Monday 19th September.  Find more information and apply to SI:X here: https://musically.com/music-ally-six ------ 👋 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

Music Ally Focus Ep. #76: Recently we’ve reported a lot about artists being increasingly outspoken about the pressure on them to create content for social media. If big-name artists like Halsey are voicing their concerns and experiencing pressure, what about indie artists, who don’t have a team around them? This is the first of two episodes where we speak to artists about pressures they have felt from the music industry, and the effect it has had on them as people. We chat to independent artist Lauren Walker (who performs as Eurielle) about social media burnout: Lauren talks about her experiences of pressure from the social media platforms and DSPs. She voices her concerns around the “race to the bottom” of creating a buzz on social media in order to get onto playlists, and the crushing personal impact as a result of the expectation to be on all the social media platforms, all the time. Eurielle: eurielle.com Eurielle on (yes) social media: instagram.com/eurielle_music ------ 👋 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

Music Ally Focus Ep. #75: In this episode we’re joined by two up-and-coming managers who are part of the UK’s MMF Accelerator programme. We want to know what opportunities talented young managers are seeing, and how they are going to use them to take their nascent stars onto success. Cecile Dreyer and Pascal Balletti talk to us about the fresh approaches they are using - specifically with regards to Direct to fan, NFT and web3 tech, and TikTok: all areas of interest that any managers, labels, artist team members listening can take advantage of. The MMF’s accelerator programme is a grants and training initiative which runs each year and aims to boost the careers of young mangers in the UK, though expert professional development, of which MusicAlly is a partner.  MMF's Accellerator 2022: https://themmf.net/accelerator-2022 ------ 👋 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

Music Ally Focus Ep. #74: "We confidently say that at least 10% of all streaming activity is fraud," – that's the opinion of Andrew Batey and Morgan Hayduk of Beatdapp, the streaming analysis platform that aims to uncover streaming fraud. We find out what the fraud looks like, how big it is, who’s doing it and why, how it works … and how much it would cost if we wanted to be the fraudsters. The answers will probably surprise you, and – if you’re an artist – you may be shocked to find that your streaming numbers have been inflated by scammers too. Streaming fraud is complex: it’s clear that there is an incentive for people to game the system - siphoning money away from real artists. You might think that it’s simply a case of artists juicing their numbers to look more impressive. But there’s also a bigger, more complex picture and Andrew and Morgan explain how they find patterns of use that are indications of streaming fraud.  Beatdapp's blog post on the "whac-a-mole" nature of stopping streaming fraud: blog.beatdapp.com/2022/05/whac-a-mole-part-2-return-of-the-whac Beatdapp: beatdapp.com Superman 3’s fraction-of-a-penny scheme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7JBXGkBoFc ------ 👋 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