SoundCloud tackles what it calls the ‘Zero Plays problem’ with AI-Powered ‘First Fans’ featureAlgorithm will use AI technology developed by Musiio
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Want to work at a Major Label? You are competing for just 27K jobs worldwideIf you dream of working at a major record label or music publisher, you may find this new analysis both encouraging and incredibly daunting. The three major music groups –. Continue reading
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Who tomorrow’s music business is being built for [MIDiA’s Tatiana Cirisano]The music industry is no longer a simple one-way transaction between creators and consumers because now the consumers are creators too. Tatiana Cirisano of MIDiA explores the impact. by Tatiana. Continue reading
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SXSW Music Showcase and Panel Picker applications OPEN for 2024SXSW has opened applications for music showcases and panels at next year’s edition from March 11-16, 2024, in Austin, TX. SXSW Panels & Presentations PanelPicker is the official SXSW user-generated. Continue reading
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The music industry’s tipping point is Right Here, Right NowStreaming is buckling under its own weight. The economics and structure that served it well in its first decade are not the ones that will get it through the next ten years. You might say that streaming is going through its ‘start up to scale up’ phase. AI is the disruption lightning rod of the moment, but transformational as it may prove to be, it is simply catalysing pre-existing disruptions. ‘Fixing’ the problems thrown up by AI would be dealing with symptoms rather than causes. The music industry is at a tipping point. There is still time for the creators and businesses within it to help shape what comes next, but that window of opportunity is both small, and closing.

Is anyone earning what they want from streaming?

When streaming first emerged, artists were worried it would not pay them enough; then the debate moved on to whether too much value lay with the biggest artists and labels; now with the superstar artist production line stuttering, the majors want a new royalty system to protect their income. Meanwhile, Spotify still struggles to generate a consistent profit. So the long tail, the majors, creators, and streaming services all think that streaming isn’t paying them enough. Which begs the question: just who or what is streaming paying enough?  Whatever the answer may be, the clear takeaway is that a royalty and remuneration system designed when albums, charts, downloads, and radio still ruled the roost, is failing to adapt to today’s much changed music world.

Remuneration pains are a symptom of consumption

A host of potential innovations are vying to be the solution to streaming’s remuneration woes (fan powered / user centric, two-tier licensing, etc.) but royalty challenges are the output, not the input. Streaming has shifted the majority of music behaviour from active listening to lean-back consumption, using algorithms to push consumers towards niches. The result is a consumption landscape shaped by fragmentation and passivity. There is a lot more consumption than before, with more consumers monetised, but the previous, finite artist economy has been replaced by an in-effect infinite song economy. Consumption needs ‘fixing’ before remuneration. 

While there are encouraging shifts towards monetising fandom, those tools will never have full effect if audiences are simply spending their time listening passively. There will, quite simply, be no fandom to monetise.

Machines on all sides

These are the two key sets of market dynamics that AI, and some other emerging technologies, will make worse, not better. Lean-back consumption is where AI will have the biggest, near-term impact. Context based playlists deliver music that is good enough. It is all about the overall soundscape rather than individual tracks, and even less about the artists. Production music libraries, like Epidemic Sound, have already shown that their music is plenty good enough for such playlists. Generative AI is waiting to pick up the baton, and may be able to do it even better if the music is specifically designed for the hyper-specific music that algorithms have taught consumers to expect. What is more, generative AI can get even more specific by evolving to the listener’s use case (i.e., like Endel). And if DSPs were to generate AI music themselves, then they could a) improve margins; b) stuff playlists; c) push users to the music. They who control the algorithm, control the listener.

And if that wasn’t bad enough for traditional labels and artists, a rising wave of virtual artists is hitting the market, such as K-pop acts Mave, Plave and Eternity, building on the foundations laid by the (now almost heritage) trailblazers like K/DA and Aespa. And even if these virtual artists have humans behind them, they are still a machine-centred challenge to wholly human artists (slightly crazy we even have to think in those terms these days!)

So, machines are opening a two-pronged attack on traditional labels and artists: 1) AI is competing for lean back, while 2) virtual artists compete for lean in (fandom).

Choose your poison

The industry’s strategy is to compel DSPs to take down problematic AI music and to keep the long tail in check with lower royalty rates. But that is unlikely to be enough. For example, why wouldn’t superstar virtual artists be eligible for the same royalty rate as superstar human artists? Regardless of whether the superstars are virtual or human, arguments that superstars deserve higher rates for pulling people to DSPs in the first place becomes less convincing every day, as consumption becomes ever more fragmented and ever less reliant on superstars.

But the scale of this problem is about to erupt like a volcano. Because the existential threat will come from AI in the hands of humans. AI will accelerate the consumerisation of creation trend that has been harnessed by artists and fans alike on TikTok, Snapchat, BandLab and a host of other places. Throw simpler-than-simple generative AI into social platforms and suddenly you have the potential for consumers creating ‘music’ at the same rate they create photos and videos. 

Millions of new ‘songs’ every day would break streaming royalties. So, labels would just get DSPs to keep those tracks off streaming, right? Not necessarily. These would be tracks made by people, so they would bring with them ready-made audiences of friends, family, colleagues and connections. Everyone becomes a fan of everyone else. It is the zenith of the network effect. And AI creations do not need to have millions of streams to disrupt streaming economics; millions of them only need to have at least one stream each.

And if friends can’t listen on DSPs, then they’ll listen on the social apps. Which means less time spent on streaming and further cultural dilution for DSPs. As one investment analyst put it to me: labels are faced with a ‘choose your poison’ choice, i.e., lower royalties now (due to dilution) or lower royalties later (due to smaller user bases).

Build a better train?

The entirely understandable temptation is to make what we have, work better. But sustaining innovation is unlikely to be enough. Just in the same way that it wasn’t enough for train companies to build better trains when Henry Ford’s new-fangled Model T car came to market. 

To be clear, building a better train is a not a bad option. Today, nearly a century on from when the last Model T rolled off the production line, trains still play a pivotal role. But for music, everything points to making streaming work better AND building something new.

Streaming fixed the problems of piracy and tumbling music sales. In doing so, it had the unintended consequence of commodifying music consumption. Without a new fork in the road, generative AI will simply hasten the utter domination of convenience. Pop will eat itself. AI will bring huge amount of value right across the music business, but portions of it will also hasten a reductive race to the bottom for convenient consumption.

Which is why, the time is now to start building plan B. To elevate a music world centred around fandom, identity, creativity, and exceptionalism. These are the fundamentally human elements of music that can (at least for now) clearly demarcate what is inevitably going to become a two-track music world. 

Five years ago, it would have been crazy to be thinking about how machines will shape the near future of both the business of music and of music itself. Just imagine what we might be discussing five years in the future?…..

Artist to Artist: 6 Tips for Making an Old-School Retro Album in Modern TimesWhen I set out to record Worried Minds, my debut album, I had no idea what I was doing.

I knew I wanted to make an old-school retro album, just like my idols did in the ‘70s, but I didn’t know what that meant... or even how I would know if I’d been successful when it was over. The project would eventually span 10 years, and be completed during the worldwide Covid pandemic... But we’ll get to that.

Tip #1: Hire the right people, with the right experience, for the job.

In 2013, I wrote an email to Louie Shelton, who had moved to the Gold Coast (Australia) from Los Angeles (USA) in the ‘80s and brought with him decades of music-making. He had produced records for artists like Seals & Croft, and played guitar on world famous records by Jackson 5, The Monkees, Lionel Ritchie and many, many more.

Louie emailed back “Your songs have potential. Let’s pick the best ones.”

We selected two local musicians to fill out the band and cut 10 songs in about three days at the Recording Oasis Studio on the Gold Coast, one of the top studios in the area at the time.

Tip #2: If you want your album to feel retro, approach the recording process as they did from the time period you’re aiming for.

Louie ran the three days like a Motown session, based on his time with the Wrecking Crew and other artists in the ‘60s & ‘70s. Before we hit record, we sat in a circle looking over a simple chord chart and listening to my acoustic demo as Louie gave us pencil notes for arrangement direction. I played everyone a reference track to guide creativity, but otherwise, after this quick meeting, the band stepped into the studio and started finding a vibe. There was a brilliant simplicity to it and the music instantly felt good.

Tip #3: Don’t over-rehearse. Cut the track live with the band.

In the studio, we had drums, bass, guitar and some simple piano. After only a short time jamming, Louie would lift his head from his guitar to look to me and the band and say “Should we try one?” We would then play the song a few times until we got a full live take. There was no other discussion or rehearsal, just these three days repeating this process.    The most astonishing moment for me came next, as everyone would head to the control room to listen to a take, Louie would remain. He said, “I’m just gonna’ add another guitar to this, okay.” His southern drawl sounded as authentic as the guitar he was laying down. We listened from the control room as he recorded another one, two, three guitar parts, building the arrangement in real time. All live, without listening back to the other before trying the next.   Later, Louie said, “I isolate the parts in my head, thinking of which guitar player I’m being during each take. Some sessions from the old days had three guitar players in the one room playing different parts of the fuller arrangement, recording at the same time.” This was the same effect, but just one man playing three times.

Tip #4: Understand the nuances of recording sessions from the past and bring them to the present.

Looking back, it was only then, talking to Louie, did I start to understand what I’d been searching for: I wasn’t trying to capture an authentic retro sound sonically, but rather replicate and understand the recording sessions of another era. It was about capturing “moments.” Musicians playing with clarity and incredible style, making additions to the overall arrangement in a concise and surprising way, in the moment.

Tip #5: Allow yourself to be challenged, and grow through the process

From 2013 to 2019, this album was forgotten about. As an Independent artist, I had to move on to other work. After playing with the band during those original sessions, I knew how good a musician needed to be to excel in the studio. So, I put in hours upon hours of study. Re-learning songs from the rock & roll songbook. Singing along to records I loved. And after so many shows all over the world at cabaret festivals, on cruise ships, and at corporate events or parties, eventually I started to develop a vocal sound that felt right for the album.    By 2020, the world had stopped and the Covid pandemic was upon us. For many, this was a time of reflection. A time for clarifying choices and goals. I remembered the album still sitting on the shelf. The album that was all about “feeling good.” It was time to finish it.    I connected with engineer and a longtime collaborator, Stefan Du Randt (Mac Miller, Katy Perry, Elton John), who brought in Jack Garzonio (Coldplay, INXS, Black Eyed Peas), both of whom had worked out of the historic Studios 301 in Sydney, Australia.

    Between 2020 and 2021, I drove from Brisbane to Sydney during the various lockdowns to record live strings, horns and session vocals. We re-recorded drums at Nick Didia’s Studio in Byron Bay (Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Powderfinger) to get a bigger sound, and sprinkled in a few more legends; Nathan East on bass (Fourplay, Daft Punk, Eric Clapton and more), James Morrison on trumpet (Australian Jazz Royalty) and Andrew Oh on saxophones/flute.

Tip #6: Know when to stop. If the first take feels good, there’s no need for another.

Looking back, I can see I could not have finished this record any earlier. I grew as an artist making it, through collaboration and learning on the job. From the first time I was in the studio with Louie in 2013 to recording my final vocals at Studios 301 in June 2021, I was a different artist. I was able to feel first-hand the skill and energy it took to record like my idols, and all that was left was for me to do the same.    On the last day of recording, I was sitting in a big empty studio over-dubbing some grand piano for the song “SO GLAD.” The engineer said, “I’m rolling, just play along. No pressure.” Suddenly something came over me. I started jamming out an Aretha Franklin, Muscle Shoals type piano part. I was improvising in the moment and there was a magic to it. My headphones actually came off during the take, I was bopping around so much, but I just kept playing. I couldn’t stop. I knew I had finally hooked into that old-school feeling I had been searching for, and I didn’t want the take to end. But the track finished, and the album was done. I’d made an old-school record for the modern times. Now I just had to learn how to sell it. ––Bradley McCaw

BRADLEY MCCAW: Hailing from Australia, soulful pop singer-songwriter Bradley McCaw is a quadruple threat, conquering music, theater, performance and composition. Conjuring all of his talents into one, McCaw brings forth his debut full-length album, Worried Minds, due for release on June 23. Drawing from the feel-good energy of ‘70s music and the longing for new beginnings, Worried Minds showcases an old-school sound with a modern motif.Web: bradleymccawofficial.com/  Email: management@bradleymccawofficial.com

Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners sells 50% stake in music library to $200m-backed Multimedia MusicTransaction includes the rights to the soundtracks of numerous movies, including 1917, The BFG, Bridge of Spies
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Veteran music exec Caron Veazey joins DICE Board of DirectorsExec managed Pharrell Williams for nearly a decade
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WMG leads UMG and Sony in music tech startup investmentsAll three major labels and some independents have made significant investments in music tech, but Warmer Music Group is clearly the most aggressive, at least in terms of the number. Continue reading
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SoundCloud adds Meta’s Devi Mahadevia, promotes Tracy Chan, Ama WaltonSoundCloud has hired Devi Mahadevia as its new SVP of Strategy and promoted two senior executives in moves that confirm the company’s increasing focus on creators. Tracy Chan has been. Continue reading
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What the new rise of vinyl sales means for artists in 2023Vinyl sales are rising yet again, which means some change is coming for many independent artists and labels… by Andre Calilhanna from the Disc Makers Blog According to the RIAA,. Continue reading
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Strange Currencies: Music from Season 2 of The BearWe've assembled some choice musical selections from season 2 of The Bear including R.E.M., Wilco, and very unexpected deep cuts from Tangerine Dream, Brian Wilson, Italian superstar Mina, and the best song from National Lampoon's Vacation.

Register For The 20th Annual IAMARegistration is now open for the 20th Annual IAMA (International Acoustic Music Awards), which provides an opportunity for acoustic artists everywhere to get prominent radio and web exposure and compete for awards in eight categories including Best Male Artist, Best Female Artist, Best Group/Duo Folk, Americana/Roots/AAA, Instrumental, Open (any musical style or genre), and Bluegrass/Country, as well as an Overall Grand Prize award worth over US$11,000.00, which includes radio promotion on over 250 radio stations in the U.S. and Canada.

Sponsored by New Music Weekly, Loggins Promotion, Airplay Access, Sirius XM Radio, Solid State Logic (SSL), Ditto Music, Acoustic Café Radio, Paige Capo, Make Music Matter, Kari Estrin Management & Consulting, and Sonicbids, IAMA has a history of winners getting signed and moving up the Billboard charts. Past awardees include Meghan Trainor, Zane Williams, Jeff Gutt, Charlie Dore, Bertie Higgins & Bellamy Brothers, Ryan Sheridan, Pat Byrne, and Deidre McCalla. Entry deadline is November 20, with details at: inacoustic.com/The post Register For The 20th Annual IAMA first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Snafu Records launches AI-powered financing platform for indie artists backed by $7m round of funding led by Pophouse EntertainmentNew funding round also saw participation from music manager Marc Jordan through his investment fund Blue Amber Investments
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African music streaming service Mdundo forecasts 35% MAU growth in upcoming fiscal yearMdundo said it expects to hit 35 million MAUs in FY 2023-2024
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