The Future of What

Consideration of those in a caregiving role is often an afterthought in many industries, but creative industries add an extra layer of challenge due to inconsistent income and schedules. While looking for support in her journey of motherhood while maintaining a career in music, Mamas In Music co-founder Tiff Randol noticed a lack of community, and banded together with Mary Leay to create this support system. We connected with Tiff to discuss the events, partnerships and other initiatives Mamas In Music is looking to put forward, how we as an industry can collectively support mothers better, and much more!

Searching large catalogs via tags can be time-consuming, reinforce biases toward what we already know to save time, and leave a large portion of artist works unexplored. AIMS API looks to utilize AI as an assistive tool for objective and accurate full-catalog discovery via search options that include natural language prompts, similar audio matching, and lyric search to benefit clients working as editors, sound designers, music supervisors, and beyond. In this episode, AIMS CTO Einar Helde unpacks the company’s origins, how their search technologies work, and their upcoming search tool that has already become a sought-after product.

Superfans have been discussed as a promising new revenue stream for artists, and Bootleg is leaning into this concept with an app designed to allow fans to purchase limited release, high-quality audio merch captured from live shows. This platform not only creates direct revenue for touring artists, but helps fans across genres build a community with fellow concert-goers. We spoke with founder Rod Yancy about the app’s offerings, the value The MLC provides in licensing music, how labels are looking to participate with the service, and what's on the horizon!

Killphonic Rights is a creator-founded, full-service music company, with Michelle Fantus serving as Head of A&R. Michelle has witnessed the evolution of artists and repertoire over her tenure in the industry, seeing music consumption go from iTunes downloads to streaming, and now music discovery being redefined by AI & algorithms. While some things have changed for A&R over the past decade, the practice remains the same at its core. In this episode, Michelle walks through the performance measures that A&Rs of both the past and present evaluate, the two “buckets” A&Rs tend to fall into, what this new era of music discovery brings, and more!

As a distributor, publishing company, creator of DIY platform OFFstep and one of the world's largest music MCNs on YouTube, ONErpm is considered a full-service, modern record label. The company puts artists at the forefront by emphasizing transparency & education at both the front end and back end, and even has its own CMS platform for artists to track spending & marketing plans. In this episode, Head of Marketing Jenna LoMonaco details how ONErpm supports & helps to develop their artists’ vision, along with the company’s strategic incorporation of modern tech, and clears up misconceptions on exploitation in the industry.

The Clio Awards have celebrated advertising & creative works across industries dating back to the 1950s, diversifying into different programs over time, including Clio Music in 2014. In this episode, we speak with Michael Kauffman of Clio Music on the three pillars of The Clios, and break it down further into the three award areas of the music branch, along with how to enter. Michael also expands on the true value of recent winning campaigns from around the globe, and the importance of cause-based work & recognition through awards in the music industry and beyond.

In the past, artists needed to sign with record labels who would take out bank loans in order to provide financing. Now thanks to companies like Sound Royalties, artists can receive financing via advances without giving up any ownership. Possible income generating streams for artists have also grown from few to many, transforming music into a viable asset class. In this episode, Alex Heiche discusses how this evolution occurred, the importance of educating artists on where their income is coming from, and more on Sound Royalties – including where & how they operate and the solutions they provide.

Mike Pelczynski has been a part of many important conversations on the subject of AI as the Chief Strategic and Innovation Officer of voice conversion platform, Voice-Swap. These discussions revealed that general sentiments towards AI have shifted from fear to that of constructive concern. In this episode, Mike examines how some issues posed by AI can be addressed using solutions we are already familiar with, the importance of strategic partners for major stakeholders, how the music industry’s approach to AI guides other industries, and more!

Soundstripe is a tech-enabled music licensing company working with brands, agencies and rightsholders, housing 1.5 million users in 160 countries. In this episode, Soundstripe’s Angela Abbott walks us through their licensing process, emphasizing how the platform ensures artists maintain sonic identity. She then imparts advice to early-level professionals, and addresses aspects of licensing that may be overlooked, such as microsync, the importance of valuing licensed music to ad spend, and differences in monetization models from platform to platform.

At Music Biz 2025, Lisa Hresko of A2IM moderated a panel on growth strategies for independent music companies, a topic which she touches upon in this podcast recorded live at the Conference! She further expands the conversation to discuss how artists can “choose their own adventure” in the industry today by tapping into the independent community. Lisa also speaks on A2IM’s current projects, including advocacy for the HITS Act and other legislation.