The Future of What

With almost a decade of experience securing copyrights for artists & rightsholders, Cosynd identified that music producers were being potentially priced out of registering their backlog of work with the U.S. Copyright Office. This led them to develop a new group registration service, allowing producers to save time & money by registering groups of beats and other musical elements instead of individually registering each element. We spoke with Cosynd CEO, Jessica Sobhraj about this new initiative, the company’s mission of supporting creators’ legal protections, the importance of registering music with the Copyright Office, and much more!

While looking into higher-ed music business programs, David Fritz and Steven Ship found that the segmented approach to curriculums was helpful for new students, but it did not help artists and songwriters who needed to know the ins-and-outs of how the industry works for their already established careers. This led them to start Creative Intell, which offers practical classes that give students insights and step-by-step guides on everything from recording and releasing a cover song to tracking all of their income streams. In our latest podcast, we discuss the platform’s founding, the feedback from early users, future plans for expansion and updates, and more!

With more artists creating and releasing more music now than ever, there is a major need for new revenue streams and funding options to help artists take their careers to the next level. This month on The Future of What, we speak with two representatives from companies that do just that: Nick Struzenski of Vault, a bespoke catalog brokerage & artist funding service, and Matthew Tilley of beatBread, which provides funding for artists & labels alike powered by data science. Tune in for conversations about their companies’ offerings, why the need for funding is so prevalent right now, how new technologies like machine learning are making it easier to provide funding, and more!

RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities) was founded in 2021 as a collective of artists, performers and music professionals with disabilities seeking to raise awareness of disability culture in the music business. Since then the organization has worked to advocate and create opportunities for disabled music professionals and ensure they have access to inclusive & accessible spaces, including partnering with the GRAMMYs to make the annual awards event more disability-inclusive. This month, we spoke with RAMPD’s founder, Lachi & President, Precious Perez to learn about RAMPD’s story and what the group is working on in 2024!

Sync placements have become a highly lucrative revenue stream for artists and rightsholders alike in recent years, as the production teams behind tv shows & movies constantly search for the perfect tracks to set the scene in their latest project. With that expanded attention to this part of the business comes a lot of extra paperwork, something that until recently sync licensing teams did not have help with. This month, we spoke with Trevanna Tracks’ CEO, Jennifer Freed and COO, Selina Meere to learn more about the company’s origins, its all-in-one solution for logging & organizing complex sync project data, and the importance of centralizing this data to increasing sync teams’ productivity!

The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) was founded at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as a lifeline for small live music houses, pulling together federal grant money to ensure that venues would remain afloat until it was safe for artists to tour again. Since then, the organization has shifted focus to develop a member services suite, tackle major issues like the ticketing debacle, and address the needs of venues on a local level. We spoke with NIVA's Executive Director, Stephen Parker about the organization’s history and recent advocacy work, as well as the variety of issues indie venues still face.

Exceleration Music and Redeye Distribution discuss their acquisition and the benefits it brings to the indie music business. They explore partnerships, serving the indie community, the role of consolidators, the founding of Redeye Worldwide, and their expansion plans in Europe.

Tune in to this special message from Music Business Association President, Portia Sabin with some updates regarding our inaugural Trust & Safety In Music Symposium, Music Biz 2024, the Common Ground Webinar Series & our new Music Biz Events app, changes to our website & socials, and more!

Cat Henry, founder of Live Music Society, discusses the organization's mission to support small music venues and the challenges they face. She also highlights the significance of grant programs in helping local venues connect with their audiences and addresses the financial challenges of independent venues and record stores. Learn how LiveMusicSociety.org enables people to donate directly to small venues.

In just a few short years, song lyrics have gone from a “nice to have” addition that music fans could seek out in liner notes or on the internet to a hot commodity on streaming platforms, graphics-heavy promotional videos, user-generated content and beyond. This month, we talk with LyricFind Founder & CEO, Darryl Ballantyne about the evolution of lyric-centric products, how his company liaises with labels & publishers to help support their needs, the renewed importance of proper song translations as music’s reach breaks cultural barriers, and much more!