The Future of What

Episode #21: For the 15th annual Future of Music Summit, we headed to Washington DC for a special taping of The Future What. Portia talked with musician and innovator Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs about her creative process, puppeteering past and more. Then we sat down with Tim Quirk, founder of Freeform Development Inc. and former Google Play exec. GUESTS Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) Tim Quirk (Freeform Development Inc.) MUSIC tUnE-yArDs “Gangsta” Too Much Joy “Long Haired Guys From England” Delta 5 "Mind Your Own Business"

Episode #19: When people hear about the Recording Academy, some scratch their heads in wonder, while others immediately recognize them as the organization that puts on the Grammy Awards every year. However, both of these responses bely the true effort and intent behind the organization, as they are just as involved in awards shows as they are in advocacy for musicians on Capitol Hill and beyond. After several successful years of doing the music industry lobbying day, "Grammys On The Hill," the Recording Academy decided to take the model that they had developed for Washington, D.C. and bring that back to musician's home districts. This year represents the second time that "Grammys In My District" has happened, and we speak with three different players inside the organization about what's different about this year's event, and catch some soundbytes of the event that took place in Seattle on October 14. GUESTS Kris Orlowski (Musician) Daryl Friedman (The Recording Academy) Brandon Bush (Musician) MUSIC Gospel Music "Automobile" Xiu Xiu "Chocolate Makes You Happy" Kris Orlowski "It Ain’t Necessarily So" Sugarland "Stuck Like Glue" Kinski "Flight Risk" Delta 5 "Mind Your Own Business"

Episode #18: Some music services are more "artist friendly" than others, and some might say that Bandcamp is the ultimate in that regard. Unlike other services that charge artists a per year fee for their services, regardless of units sold, Bandcamp is totally free until you sell a song or album, and then their take is only half of what other services charge artists for distribution. In this episode, we speak with Andrew Jervis and Jennifer Elias of Bandcamp about the company's history and future, and their different roles within the company. We then toggle over to Christopher Kirkley (Sahel Sounds) and Greta Kline (Frankie Cosmos), to get their impressions as long-time Bandcamp users, as label and artist, respectively. We end our episode with a snippet from our Bandcamp subscriber exclusive segment called, "How Did You Get Into Music," where we talk to singer-songwriter, Laura Veirs, about her past, present and future! GUESTS Andrew Jervis (Bandcamp) Jennifer Elias (Bandcamp) Christopher Kirkley (Sahel Sounds) Greta Kline (Frankie Cosmos) Laura Veirs (Musician) MUSIC Wimps "Take It As It Comes" Abba Gargando "Majrad Iyan" Frankie Cosmos "Art School" Quasi "R.I.P." Delta 5 "Mind Your Own Business"

Episode #17: As the music industry continues to shrink, investors have begun to circle around record labels and holders of large back catalogs, likely in the hopes of acquiring large amounts of publishing and master rights for an artificially low price. What do these investors know? In this episode, we explore this topic at length, and try to figure out why investors are spending a lot of money on a "failing" industry, when artists' core audiences aren't. GUESTS Jeff Slate (Writer/Journalist) Mark Mulligan (Writer/Journalist) Matt Daniels (Poly-Graph) Jim Selby (AdShare) MUSIC Nick Drake "Pink Moon" Delta 5 "Mind Your Own Business"

Episode #16: In the second installment of our "Gatekeeper's Roundtable," we speak with Ali Hedrick of The Billions Corporation about some of the new acts that she's working with, and how they've come to her, or vice versa. Christen Green adds to the conversation by telling us about how she ended up working with The Lumineers, among the other notable acts that are a part of Onto Entertainment. We also have Nate Nelson tell us the story about how he ended up at Stones Throw Records via the leaked Madvillain demos, and how his experience there ultimately led him to start Innovative Leisure. Don't think for a second that this is a puff piece chock full of "success stories." We dig in, and ask these folks about who they regret passing on, too! Lots of valuable "what not to do" information in this episode. GUESTS Ali Hedrick (The Billions Corporation) Christen Green (Onto Entertainment) Nate Nelson (Innovative Leisure) MUSIC Margaret Glaspy "Somebody To Anybody" The Lumineers "Ho Hey" Horse Feathers "Finch On Saturday" Horse Feathers "Old Media" Madvillain "Accordian"

Episode #15: In this episode, we explore the historical impact of musical videos by looking at the advent and evolution of MTV, and the explosion of YouTube as a format for music, and music videos. We kick off the hour with Courtney Smith, a former programmer for MTV and MTVU, who gives us a bird’s eye view of how videos were selected for air, and how her days with the station were different than the early days. From there we toggle over to Ed Vetri of Wind-Up Records, who explains the importance of music videos to his label’s growth, and the careers of bands like Evanescence and Creed. After that, we catch up with music video director, Alicia J. Rose, and talk to her about what’s changed since she got into the directing game a decade ago. Rounding out the hour is a discussion with Jack Conte, who’s band Pomplamoose has made videos a priority from the outset of their career, which eventually led him to develop the video subscription/patronage website Patreon. GUESTS Courtney Smith (MTV, Author “Record Collecting For Girls” ) Ed Vetri (Wind-Up Records) Alicia J. Rose (Director/Producer) Jack Conte (Pomplamoose, Patreon) MUSIC Buggles “Video Killed The Radio Star” Buggles “On TV” Blitzen Trapper “All Across This Land” Pomplamoose “Lorde 2Pac Beck Mashup”

Episode #26: You've recorded a song, now you want people to hear it. What's next? Our guests this week guide us through the basics of PROs and song distribution. ASCAP's Marc Emert-Hutner helps us decipher some of the acronyms every musician should know in order to understand their rights. Then, Kevin Breuner of CD Baby returns to the show to talk about how to distribute music yourself. SoundExchange's Michael Darpino wraps up by telling us how musicians can collect royalties.

Episode #14: In this episode, we speak with three different musical gatekeepers about what gets them to lower their guard long enough to allow a band safe passage to the next level in their career. Joining us for the discussion is Slim Moon (Kill Rock Stars, 5RC, Shotclock Management, Nonesuch Records, etc.), Ken Cheppaikode (Dirtnap Records, Green Noise), and Theo Craig (PDX Pop Now!, X-Ray FM, Mascaras, etc.)

Episode #13: Brooklyn band Here We Go Magic is set to release their fourth album with indie label Secretly Canadian on October 15th, and we wanted to explore the process that the album went through from "farm to table." First we speak with Michael Bloch, guitarist in the band, who explains how he and song writer Luke Temple tackled their first album as a two piece using only rudimentary tools to create a full band, live, in the studio sound. Next we speak with one of Secretly Canadian's founders, Ben Swanson, and the man responsible for signing "Here We Go Magic," who tells us why he loves the band and the label's role in seeing the record through completion. To discuss one of the final links in the chain, we talk with Ian McKinnon, the head of label relations at one of the oldest music streaming services, Rhapsody.

Episode #12: In this episode, we dig deep into the "Fair Music: Transparency and Money Flows in the Music Industry” report recently presented by the Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (BerkleeICE). Joining us for the discussion are Panos Panay (founder of BerkleeICE and SonicBids), David Lowery (songwriter for Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, writer at The Trichordist), Mike Huppe (CEO of SoundExchange), and Jeremy DeVine (founder of Temporary Residence Ltd.). Read the entire report here: https://www.berklee.edu/news/fair_music_report