The Future of What

Episode #158 : The world has changed quite a bit since the Pacific NW queercore outfit Team Dresch released their first full-length album 25 years ago. There was no internet, there weren’t any openly gay people running for president, and there weren’t nearly as many corporations sponsoring pride festivals. While the band never truly broke-up, they have returned to the public eye after announcing a few reissues and a short U.S. tour schedule. As If that wasn’t enough to re-establish their presence, they’ve also recorded some new material for their new singles comp, which you can hear in this episode! This episode is sponsored by DISCO! Go to disco.ac/future for a free trial and 20% off with code: future

Episode #157 : Given the success of films that have been adapted from comic books and graphic novels, it makes sense that other industries would start adopting them, too, and Herø Records is doing just that. Blending the worlds of music and graphic art into a transmedia experience, Herø Records, has released several singles, EPs and more that are all tied to comics in some shape or fashion. On this episode, we speak with the CEO (Matt Medney) and Creative Director (Pete Russo) of Herø Records about their vision, and Herø Records artist, Skela. This episode is sponsored by DISCO! Go to disco.ac/future for a free trial and 20% off with code: future

Episode #156 : Thousands of hours of content are uploaded to sites like YouTube, SoundCloud, TikTok, Facebook, etc. every minute, and a fair amount of it contains unlicensed music. Technologies like YouTube’s “Content ID” system can help rights holders find offending usages once they’re uploaded, but not all sites have that kind of functionality, and certain uses are so short that the current tech can’t find them. Thankfully, there are several third party services stepping into the market to fill this critical gap in digital attribution and rights management, and we talk to three of them on this episode. In this hour, we hear from Stephen White of LyricFind, Amadea Choplin of PEX, and Stephen White of Dubset. This episode is sponsored by DISCO! Go to disco.ac/future for a free trial and 20% off with code: future

Episode 155 : Record labels, music supervisors, management companies, et. al. deal with high volumes of music submissions on a daily basis, and until recently, managing those files (and their requisite metadata) hasn’t been easy. Enter DISCO, a cloud based storage solution for music professionals, that combines the best parts of iTunes, Soundcloud, Dropbox and MailChimp all in one easy to use browser based application. On this episode, we talk to Karl Richter of Level Two Music about the development of DISCO, and then we speak with music supervisor Whitney Pilzer and Pete Beck of Believe Music about how the platform has transformed their day to day business operations. This episode is sponsored by DISCO! Go to disco.ac/future for a free trial and 20% off with code: future

Episode #154 : While little attention was given by the U.S. population at large, the creative class, and musicians in particular, paid close attention to the wars waged over the EU’s new copyright directive, known colloquially as Article 13. Although is has yet to be ratified, and passed into law by its member states, Article 13 has the potential to close the “safe harbor” loophole for UGC giants like YouTube, Soundcloud, etc., which would make them wholly responsible, and liable, for all previously copyrighted material published on their platforms. Since these changes to EU law will affect the way these global brands do business, there’s a good chance that changes in the European market will trickle out across the world, to the benefit of musicians and creators everywhere. On this episode, we hear from Helen Smith of Impala, Crispin Hunt of the Ivors Academy, and attorney Chris Castle. This episode is sponsored by DISCO! Go to disco.ac/future for a free trial and 20% off with code: future

Episode #153 : Perennially popular at music business conferences, “demo” listening roundtables can be extremely helpful and informative for artists, labels, and others, since you get direct and immediate feedback from gatekeepers within the industry. On this episode, we asked three Portland professionals to bring in a new favorite track of theirs, that they’ve received as a solicited or unsolicited demo, for one of their outlets. At the table for this discussion are DJ, radio host, and monthly event coordinator, DJ Klyph, boutique music publicist, Sierra Haager, and talent buyer, Lori Hughes.

Episode #152 : As smart speakers, like the Amazon Dot and Google Home, take up residence in more homes across the U.S., kids’ music has seen an unexpected uptick in its overall consumption, mostly due to the agency imparted to children via voice activated technologies. On this episode, we explore this trend with the president of Kidz Bop, Vic Zaraya, along with Grammy nominated singer/songwriter, Lori Henriquez, and senior Wired staff writer, Adrienne So.

In the final installment of the Get Paid series (in collaboration with Vortex Music Magazine), Portia discusses sync licensing and brand partnerships with Brett Byrd of CD Baby, Marissa Hernandez of Marmoset, and Scott Wagner of WagsWorks. Do you want to know if your music sync-able, or how to make sure that music supervisors can find your music among thousands of songs when a request comes in? Listen in, and then go get paid! Guests: Brett Byrd (CD Baby) Marissa Hernandez (Marmoset) Scott Wagner (WagsWorks) Music: Filthy Friends “November Man” Wimps “Mope Around” Kinski “Guest Girl Vocalist” Delta 5 “Mind Your Own Business”

Episode #150: The landscape of independent distribution is rapidly changing. As more independent labels move toward truly independent distribution models, their market share becomes clearer. On this episode, we talk to Chris Welz of Secretly Distribution, Kevin Breuner of CD Baby, and Jim Mahoney of Merlin.

Episode #149: Last year, the music industry came under fire for an ongoing lack of meaningful representation for women. What's different in 2019? On this episode we hear about efforts toward greater diversity and inclusion from leaders across the industry, including Michele Ballantyne (RIAA), Richard Burgess (A2IM), and Terri Winston (WAM).