#HowWeListen Live: In Conversation Podcast: Recent Episodes
Byta Ltd, How We Listen Live, How We Listen Live In Conversation, #HWL Live, byta, #HowWeListen
This podcast series, produced by Byta/ byta.com, is based on our monthly online, live and free event of the same name. This series of interviews is designed to deliver the knowledge to enable tomorrow’s artists, their teams and industry leaders to better manoeuvre their way through the music ecosystem. Each episode features an in-depth one-on-one conversation with someone with extensive experience with the business of music.
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation is hosted by Byta’s founder, Marc Brown, whose deep music business background and digital audio knowledge have helped him deliver unique insights to audiences from Tallinn to Toronto. Marc is a former label owner, manager and radio plugger.
It’s all about people and its all about network.
Today’s guest on #HowWeListen Live: In Conversation is Alex Brees CEO and Founder of un:hurd music, a music tech company that uses proprietary technology to help artists reach their most valuable fans via data-led marketing campaigns.
Throughout this conversation, Alex offers valuable insights into the evolving landscape of the music industry, the importance of data in crafting effective marketing strategies, and the challenges and opportunities for artists in the digital age. He emphasizes the need for artists to be adaptable, understand their audience deeply, and leverage data not just for short-term gains like playlist placements but for building a sustainable and engaged fan base.
The conversation begins with Alex detailing his educational path, studying psychology at university, which unexpectedly paved the way to a career in sales and marketing. Despite not having a formal education in sales, Alex highlights the crucial role that selling skills play in entrepreneurial success, a realization he came to understand during his university days. After university, he moved to London to tap into more significant opportunities in tech, driven by a fascination with data's power to influence marketing strategies as inspired by books like “Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking)”
Transition to Tech and Data Analysis:
In London, Alex transitioned from basic sales roles to more complex positions where he could analyze data to drive marketing decisions. Then his tenure at a Global Investment firm, Carlyle, where he worked as a trading analyst. Here, Alex's role was pivotal in converting consumer behaviour data into actionable marketing insights, helping the company optimize its advertising spend and grow its market presence rapidly.
In the Music Industry:
Parallel to his tech career, Alex's love for music led him to organize music events, particularly in the UK rap scene, which was then burgeoning. His efforts not only provided a platform for emerging artists but also challenged the negative stereotypes often associated with the genre, thus opening more venues to these performers. This side venture eventually steered his career fully into the music industry.
Universal Music:
Alex's passion for music and data culminated in a role at Universal Music as a global analyst. Here, he was responsible for using data to optimize marketing campaigns for top-tier artists like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. His work involved a mix of quantitative analysis—looking at streaming and social media data—and qualitative research, such as market surveys to better understand fan desires and expectations.
un:hurd:
Drawing from his many experiences, Alex founded un:hurd, a platform designed to support underrepresented artists by using data-driven strategies to boost their careers. The platform helps artists understand their audience through detailed analysis and effective marketing strategies, mirroring the analytical approaches he honed in his previous roles but focusing on empowering smaller artists and indie labels.
un:hurd music is powerful, seamless music promotion at your fingertips. It offers you the ability to build effective promotional campaigns across all of your platforms that matter. Their technology creates a tailored list of marketing suggestions based on the user’s data and in just a few clicks, one can pitch to playlists, reach new fans on social media and launch a fan hub. Since launching, un:hurd has worked with over 65,000 artists from 129 countries, has raised over £2mil from some of the worlds most influential music investors, been featured as one of Music Ally’s start-ups to watch and has featured on BBC Dragons Den.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
un:hurd
00:10 - Byta.com
06:10 - London Drill and Trap promoting
08:14 - Being an analyst at Universal Music
10:17 - Major label resources, what that means
12:00 - The transition from Universal Music to un:hurd
12:50 - My Analyst superpowers
15:50 - Competitor analysis for music
17:30 - Wanting to scale up to help millions of musicians
20:45 - learn by doing
21:55 - What does un:hurd do for its clients
23:30 - Byta.com
24:00 - Playlisting is important, but just a part of the puzzle
26:30 - Playlist is NOT the answer
28:30 - know what your goal is as an artist
32:00 - Spotify playlist pitching & third-party playlists
33:33 - Building momentum
35:00 - Be yourself?
36:00 - Be consistent & own your audience
39:00 - How do Majors do it and does it work for DIY?
42:00 - Create as much awareness as possible
43:15 - #HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
44:45 - ABT (Always be testing) test your content types
45:50 - Always create what feels true to you,
48:30 - rasing capital for Tech.
52:42 - It's all about people, and it's all about network
54:30 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
Episode Credits:Artwork by Jen Pmphrey
Hosted by Marc Brown
Series coordinated by Jamie Ford
Produced and edited by Colin MacKenzie
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
I think PR today is more of a content coordinator or content facilitator because content right now is so fragmented across so many different mediums. Our job is really to generate awareness for what our clients are doing.
Today’s guest on #HowWeListen Live: In Conversation, in Nancy Lu a seasoned New York-based publicist with over a decade of experience, she describes her journey from healthcare consulting and tech startups to establishing her own PR firm, Fancy PR.
Nancy discusses her initial reluctance to pursue a career in the arts due to the instability perceived by her immigrant family background and societal expectations. However, her passion for music and involvement in the music scene in Washington D.C., where she made significant connections and wrote about music for pleasure, eventually led her to shift her career path toward her true passion.
Nancy explains the complexities of modern public relations, which has transcended traditional media to include various content platforms, making the role of a publicist more about content coordination and opportunity creation. She emphasizes the importance of understanding and personally connecting with artists to effectively communicate their stories and project visions. This approach not only enhances campaign strategies but also aligns with her belief that resonating with an artist's work can significantly improve a publicist's efficacy.
Throughout the conversation, Nancy discusses the strategic aspects of PR, such as managing expectations, defining the scope of work with clients, and the importance of strategic planning in campaign success. She touches on the challenges faced by independent artists and the role of publicists in amplifying their existing momentum rather than building it from scratch. Nancy also addresses the critical need for more inclusivity in the industry, praising initiatives like incubator programs aimed at underserved communities.
During their conversation Marc and Nancy also explore how the digital age has changed the expectations and methodologies in PR, requiring publicists to be more creative and integrated in their approach to media and content. They discuss the importance of data and analytics in shaping PR strategies and the continuous need for adaptation to the ever-evolving media landscape.
The conversation wraps up with Nancy advocating for a realistic and informed approach to PR, where understanding the artist's current standing and potential trajectory is crucial for effective publicity. She stresses that while AI may assist in streamlining processes, the creative and human aspects of public relations remain irreplaceable, underscoring the artistry behind crafting impactful public relations campaigns.
Fancy PR
The Fancy PR Story – Founded in 2013, Fancy PR is a boutique full-service public relations agency committed to storytelling. From crafting artists’ narratives to placing high-impact stories and driving cultural conversations, they love what they do. As an AAPI woman-owned Business, we’re moved by diversity, equity and inclusion in the arts and believe in the power of fans and building community.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Fancy PR
00:10 - Byta.com
02:44 - from Health Care to Tech to Music
04:24 - Wanting music but no one to look to
07:00 - DC and music connections getting started
10:15 - Moving to NYC and Girlie Action
11:36 - Post intern and Vitalic Noise
13:17 - move to Fancy PR and getting started
14:39 - Is PR today all about being a content coordinator or content facilitator
16:22 - Define the scope of work
17:30 - strategy for small vs bigger artists
20:37 - Onboarding a new client and transparency, goals
23:25 - PR usually works on retainer
24:39 - Live events are now key
26:00 - #1 set up foundation of awareness…
30:00 - Integrate your publicist into the team, share the stats
31:00 - Byta.com
32:00 - “The Report”, delivering good and bad news
36:00 - Timelines, when to pitch & when to go back
38:30 - The cold call
39:00 - Do not paste a press release into a DM
40:30 - Where do new artists need to start
42:55 - Make it personal, its not just about the music
46:00 - Don’t be a clown, unless you are a clown
48:00 - Timelines, scheduling
50:00 - Too early, too late
50:30 - Do you need a PR?
54:30 - AI, Publicists are humans
56:00 - Byta.com
Episode Credits:Artwork by Jen Pmphrey
Hosted by Marc Brown
Series coordinated by Jamie Ford
Produced and edited by Colin MacKenzie
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
"When you create the conditions to be able to cultivate the work that you want, then that's what's going to allow you to thrive."
Today’s guest on #HowWeListen Live: In Conversation, in Emily White. Host Marc Brown sits down with Emily White to discuss her inspiring journey from Wisconsin to New York, and how her educational and professional experiences have shaped her successful career in the music industry. Originally from Wisconsin, Emily recounts her time at Northeastern University in Boston, where she balanced her studies in the Music Industry program with being a Division I scholarship athlete. She shares how her internships at Powderfinger Promotions, Live Nation, and ones in New York, provided her with practical, hands-on experience and helped her build a strong network within the industry.
Emily highlights the importance of real-world experience, encouraging aspiring music professionals to immerse themselves in the field, make connections, and learn from their experiences. She also delves into her transition from internships to a full-time role as a tour manager for The Dresden Dolls, which ultimately led to her founding a successful music management company.
Throughout the conversation, Emily emphasizes the significance of continuous learning and adaptation in the ever-evolving music industry. She discusses her work as an author, where she distilled her extensive knowledge into the Amazon bestseller "How to Build a Sustainable Music Career and Collect All Revenue Streams," and her podcast, which is a top music business podcast globally.
Emily also touches on her advocacy work, particularly her efforts to increase voter turnout through the #IVoted initiative, showcasing her commitment to using her platform for social good. This episode is packed with valuable insights and practical advice for anyone looking to navigate and succeed in the music industry.
Collective Entertainment is a 100% women-run & owned company based in New York, Miami, & North Carolina. Their clients & projects span the entertainment industries specializing in music, sports, content creation, activism, & production.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Collective Entertainment
How to Build a Sustainable Music Career and Collect All Revenue Streams
IVoted
00:10 - Byta.com
02:51 - Wisconsin to New York
06:00 - Internships / Amanda Palmer / Dresden Dolls
14:02 - The 2nd Book
How to Build a Sustainable Music Career and Collect All Revenue Streams
16:35 - Get your art together & other tips to get started
21:00 - Understand what music publishing is & Performing Rights Organizations
23:17 - Publishing administrator
30:30 - my next series of books….
31:50 - Byta.com
33:25 - Full night's sleep, daily movement, and then a short meditation
36:23 - #IVoted
38:28 - Taylor Vs Drake
40:00 - Elections are often decided by the size of a concert venue
46:31 - Voting, it's been a real problem in the USA
49:10 - Michelle Cable
52:48 - Things don’t always go the way you expect it to, that can be good too
56:25 - What is your WHY
58:00 -
Byta.com
Episode Credits:Artwork by Jen Pmphrey
Hosted by Marc Brown
Series coordinated by Jamie Ford
Produced and edited by Colin MacKenzie
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
“I run my band like a startup and I run my startup like a band”
Today's guest is Roman Rappak not only the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer (CCO) at Ristband, but also the frontman for the touring band: Pivot. Roman shares his background, detailing his start in the music industry as a musician forming a band and making beats on a laptop, eventually signing record deals and touring the world. However, he realized that traditional revenue streams from touring and licensing were unsustainable. This realization led him to explore new ways to leverage technological advancements to support musicians.
Roman describes the inception of the world's first mixed-reality live concert, funded by a Dutch government grant in 2017. This innovative concept allowed audiences to experience a live band performance through augmented reality, blending the real and virtual worlds. This approach proved financially successful and highlighted the potential for integrating music with immersive technology.
The conversation shifts to Ristband's evolution, where Roman reflects on his initial reluctance to embrace the tech industry but ultimately recognizing the potential for music-tech convergence. He mentions the support from Epic Games, which enabled Ristband to develop tools and platforms to make immersive music experiences accessible to a broader audience. Roman emphasizes the importance of viewing musicians as startups, using technology to enhance their visibility and revenue.
Marc and Roman discuss the historical context of music and gaming, noting how advancements like the PlayStation One and licensing real music in games brought the two industries closer together. They explore the potential for dynamic, ever-changing music integration in games and the challenges of creating new contractual relationships for music use in gaming.
Roman highlights the shift in the music industry, where major labels now prioritize viral social media presence over traditional musical talent. He encourages artists to embrace new tools and technologies, leveraging the vast opportunities in the gaming world to reach wider audiences and sustain their careers.
The conversation concludes with Roman urging artists to explore new mediums and tools, emphasizing the importance of curiosity and innovation. He mentions the Voices of VR podcast as a valuable resource for understanding the intersection of VR, AI, and music. Roman and Marc agree that the future of the music industry will be shaped by unexpected, underground innovations rather than traditional major label strategies.
Overall, the discussion provides a comprehensive overview of Ristband's mission to revolutionize the music industry through technology, Roman's journey from musician to tech innovator, and the potential for artists to thrive by embracing new technological opportunities.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Ristband
Pivots
00:10 - Byta.com
04:25 - Roman’s background
06:00 - Pivots
08:10 - Ristband at SXSW
09:00 - Number of songs uploaded to Spotify
10:30 - Trent Reznor article
13:45 - Roman realizes he is in the Tech biz
16:10 - Major labels are not forward acting
16:50 - Gaming & Music, the new way forward
20:10 - How did Gaming get so music-friendly
26:37 - Where are the opportunities for smaller artists
29:45 - How it became way more easy to build games
31:00 - Byta.com
32:19 - Roman’s band is making money
35:20 - Gaming is the new MTV for music discovery
37:30 - Things have changed, artists need to break new ground
41:45 - #HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
43:15 - People used to think the internet was “never going to work” & was genius
43:40 - We are in the Wild West
60:00 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
Episode Credits:Artwork by Jen Pmphrey
Hosted by Marc Brown
Series coordinated by Jamie Ford
Produced and edited by Colin MacKenzie
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
“The first tip that I give all artists is to be organized and cohesive. You don't know what someone's entry point is going to be to you and your music”.
Today's guest is Brian “Z” Zisook is the Co-Founder & SVP of Operations & Artist Services at Audiomack. In this episode, Brian and Marc discuss preparing for online success as an artist by strategizing DSPs & Social Media. Zisook’s extensive experience in the music industry surprisingly includes conducting over 500 interviews with artists and industry professionals over 13 years. Artists include- J. Cole, Big Sean, Rick Ross, John Legend, Nipsey Hussle, DJ Khaled, and Anderson.Paak, among others. Zisook was even selected to join the Recording Academy as part of their new member class in 2022. Brian’s main gig is co-founder of Audiomack. As SVP of Operations, Zisook leads a team of 10 across three continents, overseeing and managing relationships with over 180 record labels and distribution partners, including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and over 80 Merlin members. Before Audiomack, Zisook was the VP and EIC of DJBooth, a New York-based digital music publication and media house he co-founded with Audiomack co-founder David Macli. At its peak, DJBooth generated 8M page views monthly and annual revenue exceeding one million dollars.
Audiomack is an on-demand music streaming and audio discovery platform that allows artists and creators to upload limitless music and podcasts for listeners through its mobile apps and website. In February 2021, Billboard announced Audiomack streaming data would begin informing some of its flagship charts, including the Hot 100, the Billboard 200, and the Global 200. In March 2021, Fast Company magazine named Audiomack one of the 10 most innovative companies in music.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Audiomack
DJbooth.net
00:10 - Byta.com
02:44 - Where Brian is from
03:14 - College Radio is where it all started / DJbooth.net
06:24 - Why we started Audiomack
08:28 - How the idea progressed
12:41 - Empowering creators is our jam
16:53 - How do we make money
19:48 - Advice and educational tips, pay attention to your fans
24:28 - There is a need now more than ever for connection.
29:35 - Artistic development is really like human development.
31:10 - If you're trying to appeal to everybody, you end up appealing to nobody.
33:36 - Present as organized
38:30 - A variety of ways that you can engage your audience
45:26 - Ridiculous to paint a picture that this is not a lot of work
48:11 - What what might be obvious to one is not correct to another
50:27 - Create a spreadsheet
53:00 - Campaigns that are really engaging, innovative or inspiring
57:29 - Who is your target audience? The mainstream is too broad a target
60:00 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
"So it's our job to get the best possible deal. So basically, there's no database, how long is a piece of string? Just make sure you're working with someone who knows the industry and who knows what music is worth?"
Today’s guest is Simon Pursehouse, Global Director of Music Services at Sentric Music, an “industry challenging” music publisher. Simon works within the Business Development and Creative Departments at Sentric and is the point person for their roster of signed songwriters.
Previously at Sentric, Simon headed up the sync division, which under his supervision was nominated as Best Indie Publisher at the Music Week Sync awards for six years running. Here he has developed relationships with global media organisations, broadcasters and advertising agencies which has resulted in Sentric’s catalogue being placed in adverts, films, games, TV shows worldwide.
Simon has been featured in Music Weeks’ ‘30 Under 30’ list and regularly speaks at various industry conferences worldwide such as Reeperbahn, The Great Escape, BBC Introducing Live and AIM’s Sync Day amongst many others. He has been invited to discuss Sentric on BBC 6Music on multiple occasions and has consulted on judging panels for awards/grants for BAFTA, PRS, BRITs, Music Week and more. He is a regular guest lecturer at LIPA and BIMM amongst other educational bodies.
Simon has been a core part of Sentric’s online identity; he is the author of Sentric’s Blog which offers advice to emerging artists and has received millions of hits
Sentric Music:
Sentric Music was formed in 2006 as the new age independent music publisher. Sentric disrupted traditional publishing by offering the fairest deal in the industry. We empower artists and songwriters to collect the royalties they’re owed.
Their friendly and knowledgeable team are dedicated to ensuring writers and artists get the most out of their music. They enjoy giving artists and songwriters opportunities to elevate their careers and fulfil their ambitions.
“To date we’ve put the power back in the hands of over 400,000 artists.”
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Sentric Music
Streaming Calculator
WTF is Music Publishing
00:10 - Byta.com
02:43 - The Beard
03:48 - Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts
04:14 - History of Sentric’s start
08:04 - Sentric’s growth and development
11:00 - The basics of music publishing
12:42 - Your local Performing Rights Organization
14:00 - The Sentric method
16:00 - The pie chart / AKA how publishing works
19:00 - Simon’s trip to Australia
22:26 - Democratization of Publishing
24:30 - Collecting royalties and new synchs
26:51 - Performance VS Mechanical income
28:53 - Marc’s recap
30:33 - Byta.com
31:05 - Neighbouring rights explained
34:51 - What the fuck is music publishing
The Life Cycle of a music publishing copyright
37:00 - Sentric Vs TuneCore VS Song Trust
41:30 - Pitching Syncs
44:00 - Picking partners: Be careful (aka - wait and they will find you)
48:00 - Lawyers
52:38 - Sarah Hamilton (Ditto)
54:24 - Just be nice to everyone (if you are good, they will find you)
59:27 - Make sure your whole team know about all your wins, helps the pitch.
1:01:00 - More on sync
1:04:00 - The goal is to make your music, not just "sinkable music…"
1:08:00 - email tips, making contact
1:09:000 - Be nice
1:12:00 - Work with experienced people
1:14:30 - Finding the “Best people”
1:15:00 - How much do you charge for Synchs
1:16:48 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
" I think socioeconomic status and background is one of the key areas where the music industry isn’t diverse enough."
Today's guest is Lara Baker, General Manager at FUGA for the UK & Ireland. On top of being named in Billboard's International Power Players 2022, she was also honoured with Music Week’s Women in Music Roll of Honour and SheSaidSo's Alternative Power List. She is passionate about improving diversity, gender balance and inclusivity in the music business. She has sat on UK Music’s Diversity Taskforce, supported the Love Music Hate Racism campaign and organised regular women in music and diversity-focused events. Lara joined FUGA in early 2023. She came from Songtrust/Downtown Music Publishing, where Lara worked for 4 years as Director of Business Development for the UK, IE and Australia. Lara's background and passion have always been supporting independent labels and artists. Her music career began in 2004 at AIM (the UK trade association for independent labels), where Lara spent 14 years serving the independent community, ultimately as Marketing and Events Director. During this time she created the AIM Awards, the leading celebration of independent music, as well as AIM's year-round programme events including AIM Connected, AIM Sync conference and Indie-Con (now known as Future Independents). There is a lot to talk about and Marc and Lara definitely get into it.
FUGA is the world's leading B2B music distributor. FUGA is the number one choice for some of the world’s top labels, management companies and distributors, including Epitaph Records, Ultra, Curb, Mom + Pop, mTheory and Domino. As GM UK/IE, Lara's role leads new business and client relations for the territory.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
FUGA
AIM
WIN
Merlin
Songtrust/Downtown Music
Women in Music Awards
shesaid.so
Keychange
Black Music Coalition,
Women in CTRL,
00:10 - Byta.com
03:52 - Getting started, school & first job
04:50 - Music business school
07:57 - Socioeconomics and background
09:00 - AIM getting its start
12:16 - Why indies needed help
15:52 - The Big wins at AIM when I was there, Spotify/MTV…
18:00 - Merlin and WIN explained
21:15 - Diversity in music not reflected in the organization
25:00 - Women in Music Awards, genesis
26:38 - Mentoring
28:50 - The gender pay gap, really bugs me!
36:45 - The Socioeconomic barriers
41:00 - Byta.com
43:00 - Things have changed, what artists need to do and how FUGA helps
46:00 - The Hives.
52:00 - More initiatives
54:10 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
" If you’re passionate you should be able to find the hustle because it’s what you love to do. Most people in the music industry are passionate, so if you’re not then it’ll be hard to get to the hustle. My main piece of advice: Find what you’re passionate about and the hustle will follow."
Today's guest is Daniel Seligman who has been active in the Montreal and international music scene since 2000. He has managed Stars, The Unicorns, Socalled and Yves Jarvis through the company he co-owns called Danagement. In 2002 Seligman co-founded the multidisciplinary festival POP Montreal and remains the festival's creative director. An annual not-for-profit cultural event, POP Montreal champions independence in the arts by presenting emerging and celebrated talents. The 5-day festival showcases more than 400 performances to audiences of over 60,000. Founded in 2002, POP Montreal helped break countless emerging artists to the world while providing a dizzying and diverse array of headliners like RZA, Fever Ray, Bonobo, The Orb, Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, Godflesh, David Byrne, St Vincent, Butthole Surfers, John Cale, Beck, Franz Ferdinand, Regina Spektor, Queens of the Stone Age etc.
Danagement Artist Management oversees music management, business management, tour production and grant writing for a wide variety of artists including; Basia Bulat, Braids, Jean-Michel Blais, Le Ren, Owen Pallett, Sarah Neufeld, Socalled, God Speed You Black Emperor, Wolf Parade, The Besnard Lakes and more. In 20 years POP Montreal has produced thousands of shows and events throughout Montreal and around the world. On a festival landscape that’s persistently male and Euro-centric, POP succeeds in offering attendees respite. This year the festival takes place in Montreal, from September 27th to October 1st, 2023. The 5-day festival showcases more than 400 performances to audiences of over 60,000.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Pop Montreal
Danagment
00:10 - Byta.com
02:26 - Ursa Pop Montreal HQ & Great venue
05:00 - Montreal is unique, Montreal was super cheap
07:08 - I started off managing Stars
08:51 - Music Management is not rocket science, if you have a driver’s license, you have a usable skill
10:15 - The basics skills required to manage a band
11:00 - How did Pop Montreal get started/Peter Rowan
13:20 - The importance of alternative weeklies
14:37 - Posters were cool
16:20 - Montreal’s moment in the sun (when it comes to indie rock)
20:15 - Why did you start Pop Montreal?
25:30 - Pop Montreal was for the artists
28:20 - Byta.com
29:35 - You can not just go and play at a festival, you need to do more
32:10 - Booking agents are now key
36:00 - Opinions on Social media
38:20 - there are more gatekeepers
41:20 - Michelle Cable artist manager
43:10 - Daniel’s work as an artist manager
45:42 - Have to have the passion, and do your homework
50:56 - You have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty - Chris Blackwell
52:44 - Find the passion & the hustle will follow.
54:25 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
"If you really, really love an artist, reach out and buy their record, buy their T-shirt, send them money, and appreciate how much blood sweat and tears go into that song that you listen to every day."
Our guest on today’s episode is Andee Connors, Pandora’s Senior Manager of Catalog & Creator Services. Pandora is only accessible in the USA, but it has over 60 million subscribers. The streaming service has a great history of human-led curation. Andee’s background is steeped in the DIY music ethos. His band bought a van, toured pre-cell phone and circled the USA, with stops in Europe, many times even before a record deal was on the table. He is an anomaly, both old school and very much a part of the modern music ecosystem. He brings to this conversation a great many insights, perhaps the most important being, to make sure you know what success means to you and then go after it.
Andee discusses how a Black Metal drummer with DIY coursing through his veins ended up working with Pandora at a job that no one wanted. He also explains what makes Pandora different from other streaming services, one thing is AMP, which stands for Artist Marketing Platform. This discussion also goes in the direction of modern-day music discovery. Is it better today? How have things changed, and how can people take advantage of those changes? When should you send your music to Pandora to get playlisted? Pandora has 60 million subscribers!! What about Radio VS streaming services, what role do they each play today? Why is Bandcamp awesome, because streaming your favourite artists is really not enough to support an them if you really love the music and they make you happy, you need to buy merch too, so says Andee.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Pandora
SiriusXM
00:10 - Byta.com
05:09 - Running Aquarius Records
07:15 - I also had a label: tUMULt Records
08:13 - What is Pandora AMP
09:52 - Listing to thousands of demos
11:35 - The early days at Pandora
13:10 - The effect of things going digital
15:50 - Touring & recording back in the day
17:20 - How Pandora got its start
22:00 - Pandora is only in the USA but you can still use it to find fans
23:00 - Mike Warner - Book: Work Hard Playlist Harder
25:00 - Send your art to those that inspired you
29:00 - Community was your only connection before the internet
32:00 - What are your expectations, your barometer of success?
38:00 - Being a musician in 2023 is a lot of work
40:00 - Houston Pandora has a problem with submissions
45:00 - Timelines to get your music to Pandora
48:00 - Metadata
50:00 - AMP (stands for Artist Marketing Platform)
52:30 - Radio VS streaming
57:40 - How to better support the artists you love
59:30 - Are there too many platforms?
102:00 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
"Sometimes I feel like smaller labels are often better because they can help you without you having to do things you don’t want to do. When you sign to a big label, you need to play the game if you want to get the max benefit."
Our guest on this episode is May Mahmoudi, A&R at Ninja Tune’s Big Dada Records, as well as working in the sync department of Ninja Tune’s Just Isn’t Music. This episode is an insightful introduction to publishing and record label deals. How to get your music synched and what are the expectations from artists at the various levels of the music ecosystem? May was brought on to do A&R when Big Dada decided to do a big relaunch in early 2021. The label put a new focus on where they wanted to go and who was going to take them there. They are now actively working to amplify Black, POC and racialised voices. Big Dada Records looks to shift the narrative around this music, bypassing stereotypes to allow and encourage the freedom to express oneself for who they are and want to be. The goal: supporting and offering resources to a new generation of artists. May approaches music first by relating the vibe and the artist’s community. Then it is the nitty-gritty of how the music might be properly promoted and what the artist’s vision is, who they are and what they want. Having someone who works both the publishing side as well as the label side of the music ecosystem in for a conversation brought up a lot of new strategies. May is also very interested in having artists develop their music and career, being ready for their next step, whatever level that might be.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Ninja Tune
Big Dada Records
May Mahmoudi reviewed by Pitchfork
00:10 - Byta.com
03:36 - Virginia Tech, Beach Fossils, Wild Nothings
05:00 - Me and my friends all moved to LA, I got a job at Universal Music
06:23 - How got my job at Ninja Tune
08:36 - The difference between the publishing world and the record label world
10:00 - What don’t artists know about publishing
10:35 - Just DM Beck…
11:24 - What does May’s day-to-day look like
12:51 - What are publishers looking for in an artist
14:42 - Chicken and Egg, how do artists get synchs?
15:28 - What does synch-able mean exactly?
17:03 - Bid Dada is looking for people pushing boundaries
18:11 - How do most indie labels approach new signings these days?
19:18 - The luxury of being Big Dada Records, under Ninja Tune.
20:42 - What are publishers looking for in an artist
21:10 - Why would anyone sign a record deal?
23:25 - Bandcamp is your best option
25:22 - May’s back story and her music career
27:50 - Byta.com
29:00 - You need to be ready for the level of label you sign to
31:16 - Music pollution
34:45 - Technology has changed everything & made music more accessible
38:09 - The importance of giving back to your community
40:00 - HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
41:18 - How does May find new music and artists
43:41 - How does A&R work inside the label
46:12 - What makes a great songwriter
47:30 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
"I'm reaching out to people because of their work ethic and because of their consistency. I believe in their journey and I feel like it's only a matter of time before something huge happens"
Our guest on today’s episode is Obinna Agwu. Newly appointed A&R Executive at Horus Music Nigeria, Obinna Agwu is also an artiste manager and music business consultant and podcaster with years of experience working in the Nigerian music industry. He is experienced in working closely with a variety of industry partners and managing internal/external relationships. As mentioned he also hosts a music industry-based podcast known as The Listening Sessions Podcast.
Prior to joining Horus Music, Obinna worked at Boomplay as their Artiste Relations Manager, executing over twenty major releases and securing top talents like ILLBliss, Laycon, Hotyce and Ugochee for Boomplay’s Hip-Hop initiative, “Pass The Mic”. Obinna also oversaw planning and rollout for El Dee The Don’s ‘Undeniable’ whilst working at Trybe Records, and while at the Chocolate City record label (generally regarded as one of the most successful indigenous urban record labels in Africa) he oversaw the Plantation Boiz’s Plan B album, And The Bass is Queen by Lindsey Abudei, M.I Abaga’s debut album ‘Talk About It’, and many other projects.
Marc and Obinna talk about how artists can be better prepared to help move their music and careers forward. They also talk about the history of the music industry in Nigeria, the Afrobeats explosion and why there is more to Nigeria than Afrobeats.
Obinna spoke to us from Lagos, Nigeria.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Horace Music
Horace Music Nigeria
Trybe Records, and the Chocolate City record label
Boomplay
West & East Africa
Afrobeat
The Listening Sessions Podcast
00:10 - Byta.com
02:35 - From Boomplay to Horace Music Nigeria
04:22 - Radio promotion back in the good old days & A&R
09:11 - Artists out front, maybe too soon
11:46 - People expect excellence
15:10 - South African music industry
17:00 - Nigerian music industry relationship with South Africa
22:53 - From radio to steaming and Boomplay
27:00 - How do new artists approach the music industry in Nigeria
29:30 - Are Nigerian artists looking to sign to major labels
35:35 - How does Horace Music support creators
37:25 - How do artists get to 20 000 streams
42:45 - How do artists decide how to develop their careers
45:43 - A&R is a new concept in Nigeria. Payola
50:40 - the vibrant music scene in Nigeria
54:00 - The Listening Sessions Podcast
55:00 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
"When I first hear a song, it doesn't matter if it was released today, one year ago or 10 years ago. It's new to me, the moment I first hear it, and that's the same for your fans."
Our guest on today’s episode is Mike Warner, founder of Work Hard Playlist Hard – The DIY playlist guide for Artists and Curators. Mike is also the Head of Editorial Marketing Partnerships for North America at Believe, the global music distributor. As the go-to authority at the forefront of the digital music world, for all things streaming, we get into it with Mike. Find out how he got started as a DJ in Australia and then eventually made his way to California. How unemployment can lead to some great ideas, opportunities and even a book. Let's find out about the path that led to Mike eventually ending up at Believe USA for his day job, yes he loves a day job. Throughout this episode, Marc brings a bucket of questions to the table. Mike gets more specific about some excellent strategies, timelines and how to approach building a team. He also explains a few unique ways artists can get noticed by the many Digital Service Providers (DSP) out there.
The biggest lessons offered up:
- Don’t give up and don’t ignore any of the streaming services.
- Artists should always be talking about their work no matter when the music was released.
- A song is “new” the moment people hear it, even if it is 1 or 10 years old.
Mike spoke to us from California, USA.
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Believe
Work Hard Playlist Hard – The DIY playlist guide for Artists and Curators
Chartmetric
00:10 - Byta.com
02:20 - I grew up in Australia
03:39 - All I wanted to be was a DJ
06:10 - I moved to the USA and could not work so researched streaming services
08:40 -Pay a fee & get on a streaming platform: DistroKidt, CD Baby, TuneCore
09:00 - Other platforms provide services on top of that- The Orchard Ingrooves and Believe
11:55 - The band Date Night
13:00 - Writing the book: Work Hard Playlist Hard
20:18 - Fill in the forms and pitch your music to the DSPs
27:52 - What is an editorial playlist
29:07 - Spotify only allow you to pitch one track at a time
30:18 - Amazon Music: Pitch your music everywhere
32:00 - Pandora, only in the US, but a lot of listeners and great artist support
36:15 - Tidal for artists, “Rising Artists”
40:23 - Make a plan, talk up your music
43:31 - 8 Weeks before release, stick to a schedule
47:05 - Don't be disheartened, people take longer to discover new music today
49:30 - Its new the first time you hear it
51:56 - Finding your team- ask lots of questions.
56:00 - How I got on the Starbucks playlist
59:00 - Reach out on LinkedIn
59:30 - Creating your own playlists and exchanging music with other curators
1:03:20 - Working with labels and distributors
1:04:00 - The New Spotify user interface, Spotify canvas
1:10:00 - What are publishers looking for?
1:12:00 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
“I didn't know anything about the music industry. I didn't know that there were publicists trying to push stuff. I was clueless. So getting emails at the start was really cool, especially when it was from artists that I recognized.”
Our guest on today’s episode is Jason Grishoff the founder of SubmitHub. With just a hop, skip and a jump, Jason moved from the world of high finance to working at tech giant Google. Then a side hustle and hobby – the Indie Shuffle Blog (it’s music discovery powered by real people.), led to founding SubmitHub. The goal was to efficiently and transparently connect artists with curators, the “right” people, in order to get music heard more efficiently.
One of the key stages of getting your music heard and promoted outside of your own network is accessing the world’s music curators, but who are they? How can artists and creators access these curators and influencers themselves? This is what SubmitHub is an expert in. The platform was built with musicians and curators in mind. You upload your music, then use pay-for credits to submit it to trusted and user-scored curators (there is a free song-submission feature as well). They listen and then respond directly from within the SubmitHub platform.
Byta’s Marc Brown has always tried to impart as much wisdom as possible to anyone wanting to operate within the music ecosystem. DIY is your best first step, finding out how everything works, by trying and often failing for the first time. There are no shortcuts. This was a great conversation between two people trying to do similar things in different ways.
Jason spoke to us from Cape Town, South Africa
Show Notes:
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
SubmitHub
Indie Shuffle
00:10 - Byta.com
03:15 - NAPSTER
03:57 - 2007 music
07:54 - Indie Shuffle
09:00 - MP3 Blogs
09:40 - Web Sheriff
13:18 - The advantage of a publicist
17:36 - SubmitHub explained
21:23 - Solving the problem of email inconsistency
25:33 - Hype Machine
27:38 - Knowing who you are and what you want as an artist
33:30 - How to approach advertising your music
39:00 - Who should I send my music to?
43:03 - How to take advantage of playlists
48:32 - The difference between followers and listeners
55:46 - Playlist pitfalls
58:35 - Pay for playlisting/fake playlists
1:01:00 - What else is an artist to do?
1:03:00 - TikTok
1:06:00 - Take Spotify out for drinks, if you can find them
1:08:00 - Get as much traction in your first 28 days as possible
1:12:00 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
"A fan a day" is basically anything that you’re doing to grow. Everything that you do should be cognisant of building an audience...
This episode features a panel discussion moderated by Marc Brown, Founder & CEO, Byta / byta.com
Our guests are: Mira Silvers (Head of Music, FORT Agency), Nikisha Bailey (GM, Nvak Collective Executive Board, The Recording Academy Global Co-Chair, Diversity & Inclusion, Women In Music) & Phil Loutsis (VP Community, AWAL)
Live music, festivals, and conferences. All of a sudden people were back in the same rooms listening to and talking about music again. 2022 was the year music finally came back from COVID. Some of the same old challenges that have always been there did not go away. This episode comes up with a few ideas to move a music career forward.
Here is a little more information on our panelists:
Mira Silvers
Originally from Atlanta, Mira Silvers is a young music executive & polymath, who serves as the General Manager/Co-Founder of VICEVERSA, an emerging social-based record label and artist incubation platform. Additionally, she is an artist manager and the Head of Music at FORT, an independent female-led and Brown-owned agency focusing on a highly curated roster of artists for live development.
Phil Loutsis
Phil focuses his energies on helping indie artists build their careers. Part of his role at AWAL includes curating content to help creators and managers make the best use of their resources. A big part of building and sustaining those music careers – harnessing community with artists, creators and their teams. He enables artists and their teams to better tell their stories.
Nikisha Bailey
Forbes “Next 1000 list 2021” honoree, Nikisha Bailey is a community-driven entrepreneur, entertainment executive, and philanthropist with a lifelong commitment to music. Professionally, she is the General Manager for the Nvak Collective – a next-generation record label & artist advocacy collective that embraces web3 to drive change for creators and intellectual property. She also serves as Vice President for The Recording Academy’s New York Chapter and is an Ambassador for the Academy’s Black Music Collective (BMC).
Even if you stumble on this podcast deep into 2023, or further down the road, the ideas, strategies and inspired conversation that take place in this episode are well worth a listen, are still relevant. Sustaining a career in music has never been easy but the landscape seems to be changing at an increased pace... or is it. Some things remain the same- like hard work and treating your music and yourself like a business, other things- streaming, TikTok offer up new opportunities and challenges.
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
00:10 - Byta.com
02:49 - FORT Agency, MMF Canada, VICEVERSA Records
03:51 - AWAL
04:32 - Nvak Collective, The Recording Academy, Women In Music
14:13 - Chartmetric
19:57 - Girl In Red
25:53 - 1000 Super Fans
30:49 - Byta
33:00 - Muni Long
33:31 - Jazmine Sullivan, Denzel Curry
40:15 - Artist as CEO
51:57 - SubmitHub
55:21 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
Bonus Material:
MethodToMyMusic weekly interviews
Digital Dialogue Guest Blogs
"DO IT TOGETHER- You learn by doing, you navigate the systems and the complicated processes, by jumping right into it with curiosity and humility, learn as you go, and then share what you're learning."
Our guest on today’s episode is Kevin Erickson, Director of The Future of Music Coalition (FMC). Kevin has contributed opinion pieces to outlets as disparate as The Nation and Pitchfork, volunteers with Positive Force DC, and remains active as a musician and record producer, operating Swim-Two-Birds recording studio in DC, alongside husband Hugh McElroy. Before joining FMC’s team in 2012, he directed the All Ages Movement Project, a national non-profit network of all-ages music venues and youth music programs. The Future of Music Coalition is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization supporting a musical ecosystem where artists flourish and are compensated fairly and transparently for their work.
The FMC’s work is rooted in the real-world experiences and ambitions of working musicians, whose perspectives are often overlooked in policy debates. The FMC works with musicians, composers and industry stakeholders to identify solutions to shared challenges. They promote strategies, policies, technologies and educational initiatives that always put artists first while recognizing the role music fans play in shaping the future.
This episode does not just talk policy and lobbying, but real work tips and tricks on helping musicians connect, develop community and more than anything else pay attention to what the world at large and larger corporations are imposing on creative musicians.
Kevin spoke to us from Washington, DC
Show Notes
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
Future Of Music Coalition, Staff
All Ages Movement Project
Positive Force DC
00:10 - Byta.com
12:00 - Universal Music Group
13:21 - Clear Channel, iHeart Radio
17:00 - Ticketmaster, Live Nation
24:00 - Puppets, more here
26:00 - Music Modernization Act
30:00 - Byta.com
35:00 - Healthcare for Musicians USA
36:00 - Affordable Care Act
38:00 - Terrestrial Radio Royalties
40:00 - House Judiciary Committee
43:30 - Huw Stephens
50:00 - DIY, DITO
55:00 - Future of Music Coalition YouTube
56:00 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
"Radio will never die…"
"You have to define yourself and create your own brand. I normally don’t like that ethos that you have to create a brand, but you can definitely do it in a way that stays true to yourself."
Our guest on today’s episode is Saidah Blount, Executive Producer at SONOS Radio, she is also their Primary Impact Storyteller. What does that job title mean exactly? She lets us know. Storytelling is at the heart of what Byta believes is one of the most important elements of promoting one’s self: always control your narrative. So Marc and Saidah get into it. Saidah followed a very unique path from the midwest to New York, one that included music journalism, stopping off at NPR for a few years and eventually landing at SONOS. Her north star was always music and trying to figure out how she could somehow incorporate that into her work life. She realized early on that working in the music industry proper was not for her, so she had to figure out another way, to do it on her own terms. She is a big fan of radio, having grown up in Kansas City one of the first big radio markets in the USA, plus both her parents were big music fans. Marc has a long history in Radio as well, so they discuss the differences between curated playlists (by real people VS AI), and old-school radio, and the future of “radio”. How can musicians make contact with the people at SONOS to have their music heard and played? Spoiler alert- persistence seems to be the answer. It is a great conversation that goes down some surprising and very insightful paths and Shazam.
Saidah spoke to us from Brooklyn, New York
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
00:10 - Byta.com
01:58 - Sonos Radio
05:14 - Kansas City Radio
08:22 - NYC 2000s
11:15 - Interview Magazine
14:05 - National Public Radio
16:06 - radio.SONOS.com
22:40 - Shazam, auto Shazam
25:25 - Byta.com
26:00 - Imaginary Sound Track
28:10 - Black is Black, DJ Lindsey Caldwell
29:00 - Jamaican & country music
30:00 - Women in Sound, Women in Sound ‘zine
32:00 - Bob Boilen
34:00 - Bandcamp
42:00 - Huw Stephens
45:00 - DEI initiatives
50:00 Thom of Radiohead
51:00 - Erykah Badu
52:00 - Dolly Parton
53:00 - Tems
57:00 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
"The number one thing to never, ever do, would be to set a release date before your music is done."
Our guest on today’s episode is Kevin Breuner, Senior VP of Engagement and Education at CD Baby. Kevin’s job at CD Baby is all about making sure musicians are as prepared as possible when planning to release their music into the world. Marc and Kevin talk about how Kevin went from being a Grammy-nominated musician to working with CD Baby. Along the way, Kevin also offers up all kinds of great advice on being ready when you release your next album or single.
Previously VP of Marketing at CD Baby, Kevin’s new role reinforces what CD Baby is all about: making sure musicians are as prepared as possible when planning to release their music into the world. At CD Baby, Kevin created the DIY Musician brand, which has become the cornerstone of CD Baby’s mission statement.
Kevin came to us from Atlanta, Georgia
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
00:10 - Byta.com
02:14 - Music Biz
02:16 - CD Baby
02:55 - CD Baby podcasts, blog, conferences
04:03 - Smalltown Poets
04:11 - Belmont University
04:20 - Producer John Hampton
06:46 - The 90s Christian music scene
08:00 - GRAMMY nominated, Dove awards
11:15 - iTunes(Apple Music)
11:40 - MP3 players
12:15 - DIY podcast
14:30 - Streaming changed everything
26:555 - Grassroots marketing
28:30 - KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid
29:20 - Set a release date before your music is done
36:45 - CD Baby release plan generator
42:22 - Discover Weekly
52:36 - People like seeing videos
57:00 - You want to own the relationship
1:04:00 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
"The better the song, the more likely it is to get synced and the more people will listen to it."
This episode’s guest is Miller Williams, Senior VP Creative at Kobalt Music Publishing. Miller’s role at Kobalt covers A&R, songwriter services, and catalogue acquisitions. He also works with their international agents and sub-publishers to exploit their songs and help their writers with co-write opportunities. Signings include Becky Hill, Milow, Jef Martens, Houston Comma publishing, Carla Monroe, AJ Tracy, Martin Sjolie, and Alex Clare. Williams has also held similar A&R and/or creative positions at Sony ATV UK, BMG Records UK, PWL Records UK, and Terrace Music (Nashville). In this episode, Miller talks about going from zero to hero, getting synchs and how things work when you are writing and pitching songs to K-Pop and J-Pop artists. They also get into how things are working in Africa these days and of course how Miller made it into the music ecosystem to start with.
Kobalt is one of the most successful independent companies for music publishing, label services and rights management. In his role as Senior Vice President of Creative there, Miller works across A&R, collaborations and music marketing.
"Yeah! Usually what I find is that if you scratch beneath the surface, the artists who have become successful have done a ton of work behind the scenes that no one has known about. I don’t think there’s any shortcut to success. Lil Nas X did become famous quite quickly through TikTok, but he’s proven that he can write hit after hit which is another important thing - longevity. That’s a real skill to be able to keep going and reinvent yourself."
HowWeListen Live: In Conversation
00:10 - Byta.com
02:06 - Kobalt
6:15 - Belmont College
6:20 - PWL
6:22 - Global Talent Publishing
8:45 - BIMM & ICMP
10:18 - Berklee Music
12:12 - Orbital
16:55 - MP3s and downloads
23:00 - NTFs
27:35 - Japan
30:27 - Katie Gregson
36:13 - Vaccines
38:40 - Justin Bieber finds Omah Lay
41:44 - Ultra Records
44:10 - Adapter
45:42 - Ive released “Love Dive”
48:34 - emPawa Africa
49:09 - Chioma Onuchukwu.
51:24 - WizKiz, BurnaBoy, Mr Eazi, Tems
52:37 - SAMRO
53:00 - Sheer Music
53:42 - SOCAN
54:33 - Sentric Music
55:48 - Artist Journey
58:24 - PRS (Performing Right Society),
MCPS (collects and distributes mechanical royalties to songwriters, composers and publishers)
1:01:43 - Corinne Bailey Rae, Like a Star, “Put Your Records On”
1:05:57 - Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
This episode’s guest is Chioma Onuchukwu, Head of TuneCore, West & East Africa. Chioma is perfectly positioned to provide insights and opinions on the African music ecosystem. Before joining TuneCore, Chioma worked as the Marketing Manager at uduX Music, a Nigerian music streaming platform, where she worked with artists like Davido, Yemi Alade, Patoranking, Kizz Daniel and more. Starting in August of 2021 she also sits on the Women in Music Nigeria board as the chapter’s Co-Chair. Based in Nigeria, Chioma oversees West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. She also looks after East Africa: Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and more. Chioma is dedicated to understanding and supporting the needs of local artists, which involves education and securing partnerships beneficial to their success and the growth of TuneCore in her markets.
"I tend to see a lot of people saying that they love Afrobeats or they love one specific artist but a lot of times they won’t know where this artist is from whether it’s from South Africa, Nigeria, or anywhere else. … I do not often hear “I love South African music” or “I love Nigerian music”, it’s more of a genre thing. "
@MarcBrown
@ChiomaOnuchukwu
@TuneCore
@WestAfrica
@EastAfrica
@Nigeria
@Ghana
@amapiano
@Afrobeats
@Highlife
00:10 - Byta.com
01:48 - Chioma Onuchukwu
02:07 - TuneCore
02:41 - Master's degree
04:14 - African Music Market
05:33 - South Africa
09:14 - African popular music, The music industry in Africa today
09:30 - Grammys
10:00 - African streaming service Boomplay
11:31 - Afrobeats, Best African music
13:39 - Amapiano
14:43 - James Brown
15:49 - Highlife: Prince Nico Mbarga: Sweet Mother, an example of Afrobeats: WizKid - Don't Dull
17:44 - Ghana music, Nigerian music
20:00 - #HowWeListen
21:00 - Music Business Academy by Godwin Tom, Godwin Tom & Sony
22:00 - Juls
25:00 - Women In Music, Women In Music, Nigeria
30:54 - African sub-genres
33:00 - African music conferences
34:00 - The 4 P’s of marketing
40:00 - Ice T, Power record
44:00 - Grants
45:40 - Afrochella
46:00 - Lagos music festival
48:00 - Byta.com
This episode's guest is Michelle Cable, founder of Panache Booking and Panache Management. Michelle Cable founded Panache in 1998. Live music is quickly returning as artists scramble to get back out on the road. In a pre-COVID world, touring was becoming key to monetising a music career. After putting everything on hold for 24 months, “live” has never been more important. What does the future hold? Panache has been in the touring industry for over two decades and has always adapted alongside the live music industry as it has evolved. Michelle has had an incredible journey from 14-year-old Fanzine founder & publisher in Eureka, California, to a key player in touring and management. Panache prides itself in its ability to stay independent, resolute, and specifically cater to each of their Artist’s individual needs while helping them have sustainable careers while still maintaining its indie ethos. As both a booking agency and a management company, Panache and Michelle have a unique perspective on helping to guide musicians’ careers, now more than ever.
“I’ve always evolved when I needed to and that has worked for me so far. As a manager, you are involved in every aspect of an artist's career so it is an intimate relationship. With booking, it was more straightforward and short term but with management, it’s more of a longer-term process over many years.”
@MarcBrown
@MichelleCable
@PanacheBooking
@PanacheMusic
@TySegall
2:12 - Panache Booking
2:12 - Panache Artist Management
3:18 - Eureka, California
5:34 - Humboldt State University
5:40 - The White Stripes
7:17 - The Flaming Lips
7:20 - Scott Booker
7:35 - Raining Sound
7:45 - The Hives
10:10 - Panache Magazine #26
12:00 - Humbolt Country weed
12:10 - Twin Peaks
13:59 - Arcata
14:53 - Denny's
15:00 - Bummer Fest
17:50 - Shellshag
22:04 - AEG and Live Nation
23:12 - Ty Segall
23:30 - Mac DeMarco
26:50 - Black Flag Tour Callendar
30:42 - Peaches
32:34 - The 48 Laws of Power
36:51 - SheSaid.So
38:00 - Music Industry
41:00 - Jenny Kaufman
42:50 - Talent buyer
1:06:00 - Byta.com
This episodes guest is Sarah Hamilton, Regional Manager for Australia & New Zealand at Ditto Music.
In the digital age do bands no longer have to break out of their small town, then leap to the big city to conquer their country in order to go international? What does community mean in the music streaming era? It is easier to get on an international playlist but is anyone listening? Marc speaks with Sarah Hamilton, Regional Manager for Australia & New Zealand at Ditto Music. Marc and Sarah talk about the best steps that artists can take to self realize their goals, “Stay Independent”. Sometimes it can be hard to promote yourself, but no one else will. Sarah explains how she pitches Australian music to the world. Sarah also talks about the charity she co-founded called One of One. A website that highlights women and non-binary people in the music industry. Sarah has been working in digital distribution in Australia since 2008, with a short stint in New York City. She loves working with independent artists and seeing them gain access to the same opportunities as artists signed to major labels.
“I do start by asking artists questions to gauge what they’d be like to work with and how well they know the market. It’s a bit of a red flag when I ask someone what kind of artists they like or might be similar to, and they say that they don’t listen to music or are just concentrating on themselves.”
@MarcBrown
@SarahHamilton
@Ditto
@OneofOne
@GigLifePro
2:08 - Gig Life Pro
3:45 - Kulin Nations
4:51- Ditto Music in New Zealand and Australia
5:20 - One of One
5:58 - Queensland
7:44 - Netflix
10:37 - Ditto, DistroKid, CD Baby, Ditto Plus
14:06 - Joanna Cameron, The Power 50, One of One events
16:52 - Huw Stephens
25:23 - Canadian bands
35:37 - AViVA, My Chemical Romance,
36:30 - YouTube, Mr Suicide Sheep
37:00 - AViVA Book
40:16 - Qsic, Soundtrack Your Brand
41:52 - Junior Foster, Napster
44:59 - Timeline
45:59 - Ditto Philippines
47:50 - Filipino R&B
48:00 - MUNGMUNG
49:34 - Solomon Islands/Papua New Guinea, Record label
50:00 - Afrobeat in Australia
50:49 - Ghana
51:49 - Wallace
57:00 - Byta.com
Our next guest is Corbyn Asbury, Label Relations Manager at YouTube.
YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, but how do emerging artists best maximise their promo power there? How does one secure maximum discoverability?
Marc speaks with Corbyn Asbury, Label Relations Manager at YouTube, If you are not quite sure what YouTube has to offer to the music community, Corbyn has you covered. He explains some of the tools that YouTube are continually working on in order to specifically help musicians? He also worked at Apple and Universal Music. Corbyn joined YouTube (owned by Google) at the start of 2018 to help with the launch of YouTube Music. Since then, he has worked on large scale campaigns with superstar artists, including Little Mix, The 1975, Dua Lipa, and Mabel. Corbyn also led YouTube’s emerging artist program, Artist On The Rise, which is all about breaking new artists and amplifying music’s most compelling up-and-comers. Corbyn is your indie on the inside. Marc and Corbyn discuss tips and tricks when using YouTube to launch new music. Strategies and the best practices that can help bring more attention to both singles and full albums on the platform also gets discussed.
"YouTube.com is pretty much all algorithmic, but YouTube music is a playlist system so it takes you out of the echo chamber that you might get into on youtube.com and give you more of a genre or theme-specific playlist experience. It’s primarily audio with a bit of video, but 80% of the consumption that happens is audio first and background listening."
@MarcBrown
@CorbynAsbury
@YouTube
@BytaLtd
2:07 - Google
3:14 - Today At Apple Program
5:50 - Label Relations Manager
6:51 - Liverpool Sound City
7:00 - YouTube History
9:36 - YouTube’s Official Artist Channel.
10:00 - YouTube Premieres
12:48 - YouTube Music
15:33 - Gen Z
17:59 - YouTube 1st Video
22:58 - Youtube Shorts
27:27 - Foundry Fund
28:00 - MMF (Music Managers Forum)
30:15 - Metadata / Descriptions
30:26 - Edit the Metadata
31:44 - Youtube.com/trending
33:05 - Proper File Tags
35:10 - SEO (search engine optimisation)
36:43 - YouTube studio app
41:24 - Byta.com
Our next guest is Head of Music for The Great Escape Festival, Adam Ryan.
What goes into curating, booking and presenting Europe’s largest festival and conference dedicated to the discovery of new music? Marc’s guest, Adam Ryan, has spent the better part of his adult life tirelessly discovering, promoting and presenting new music locally, nationally and internationally. He is now the Head of Music at The Great Escape Festival, taking place annually in Brighton, UK. How different is it curating a renowned three-day festival versus booking a venue? What can today’s artists learn about building strong live promoter relationships? Can artists book themselves onto festivals before having a team? How important is it to “be nice” to your promoter and your sound person? COVID decimated the live music community around the globe. Has any good come from an entire industry needing to pivot and re-evaluate what it means to present live music? What does the future hold for the industry? Marc asks all of these questions, whilst finding out how we all bounce back (if we have not already).
"I always say, to be export ready, you need to have the start of a team, it could be a manager, it could be your mum! It could be anybody, just somebody who comes with you, so when you’re performing, you only have to focus on that, and somebody else is doing your networking."
@MarcBrown
@AdamRyan
@TheGreatEscape
1:00 - The Great Escape
1:49 - Farringdon
4:19 - Radio One
4:29 - The Great Escape Conference
5:34 - Towcester (pronounced toaster)
5:40 - Fred Perry
5:45 - Barfly
9:03 - Creation
9:34 - KOKO
10:47 - Mama and Comp., Jon Mack, Reading & Leeds, Martin Elbourne, Glastonbury,
13:21 - Independent Promoters
14:55 - Partners, Showcases
16:49 - The First Fifty
23:55 - French export office, Sounds Australia, CIMA(Canada), Estonia,
24:30 - Mac Demarco
27:13 - Korea
29:03 - Canadian Music Associations
30:05 - USA
30:37 - Holland Music Festival
32:44 - Export ready
34:56 - The Great Escape online events
36:00 - Cancelled events
40:44 - Huw Stephens
41:37 - #HowWeListen, music discovery
42:04 - Coldplay
46:16 - Byta.com
Our next guest is Bonsound Co-founder and Managing director Gourmet Délice.
Understanding and planning for multiple angles in an artist’s career can be challenging. Today, full “services” for artists can mean many things. Twenty years ago one record label looked around and realised they might have to do more than just release recordings if their artists were to see any success. Marc is joined on this episode by Bonsound Co-founder and Managing director Gourmet Délice. Bonsound is a music company offering multiple types of services to artists. Established in a very unique marketplace: Quebec, Canada.
Bonsound is an organisation that works at the service of its artists and does not own their intellectual property. The company offers a full range of professional and personalised services to contribute to the sustainable development of the careers of its artists.
They are a record label, music publisher, booking agency, concert producer, artist management and PR team. They also run two sub-labels: Make It Rain and Blow the Fuse records.
“(Bounsound) came out of a necessity for me and my other 2 business partners, and also the needs of musicians in Montreal. It has snowballed into a 30-employee company doing all of these services in the music industry. It created a kind of movement. We looked around and we saw that there were no services that understood the philosophy of the underground bands we were working with and also offered services at a reasonable price.”
@bytaltd
@GourmetDelice
@bonsound
2:15 - Unison Fund
7:23 - Gourmet
9:19 - Montreal
10:53 - The Hives / Buzzcocks
12:40 - Dare To Care Records
19:31 - Malajube
19:35 - City Slang
19:40 - DJ Champion
22:07 - Pop Montreal
22:07 - Third Side Music
22:15 - Montreal -40
23:48 - SXSW
44:50 - Canada Council
44:55 - FACTOR
44:60 - CALQ
1:00:00 - Here To There
1:04:00 - Byta.com
The conversation with Phil Loutsis, the VP of the AWAL Community Team, revolves around release planning, securing editorial support, building a team & marketing your music. All extremely important when it comes to moving a music career forward. At AWAL, Phil focuses his energies on helping indie artists build their careers. Part of his role includes curating content to help creators and managers make the best use of their resources. He enables artists and their teams to better tell their stories. He wants you to think of digital distribution as the canvas for the campaign rather than a bolt-on service. Phil talks about how he went from recording and playing live in a band out of Sheffield, England to being one of the early hires at AWAL. Marc and Phil get into playlisting, how to work with DSPs (Digital Service Providers/streaming platforms) and some tips and tricks on getting a little more traction when you release new music. There is also advice offered up regarding paid marketing.
“From a delivery standpoint, having your cover art, your audio and your metadata nice and early is really important. Assets like photos for your marketing efforts should all be in a folder where everyone can easily access them from the get-go. Similarly, I’d be thinking about your video content very early too. It’s less of a concern getting your short-form videos out early as a lot of them like Instagram or TikToks are in real-time, but music videos and things like that can be done early. “
@PhilLoutsis
@BytaLtd
@AWAL
2:23 Phil’s band, AWAL
4:56 Getting “There”
7:00 Getting noticed
17:53 Byta.com
24:59 Hugh Stevens on #HowWeListen Live
27:00 Mike Warner’s book Work Hard Playlist Hard
34:38 Bandcamp, merchandise focused
38:24 Junior Foster
39:37 LAUV album
41:36 Spotify daily uploads
49:41 Paid marketing
50:26 SubmitHub and PlaylistPush, B00ST.com
57:00 Collaboration, Mental health
1:04:00 Byta.com
Junior Foster, was Deezer’s Head of Global Artist Relations at the time of this conversation. Now he is over at Napster doing the same. No matter where he is, Junior works directly with artists, labels and managers to help with marketing campaigns across all major and independent labels. He talked about best practices when working with digital streaming platforms and how to build a proper music career. As the key contact for the international artist management community, Junior is responsible for implementing best practices for the entire artist marketing team to ensure the most successful outcomes and results. Junior talks about his long and winding road into the music ecosystem and what exactly a Head Of Global Artist Relations does. Marc asks about his process when working with artists, and Junior explains the “conversation”. This episode offers up some great insights when it comes to DSPs (Digital Service Providers/streaming platforms), and we find out about a surprise release for Junior.
“If you are a new artist, I feel that you need to not only think about streaming platforms and DSPs but you need to be, now that the world is re-opening, you need to be out there playing live. If you can. You need to be growing your social following, your fanbase. You have to do that because before you get to us, you need to be your best you. You need to understand your stuff, you need to know what your fans like, and you need to be building that fanbase because when you come to us, in the same way, you would’ve gone to radio, we will be asking you “Ya, ok we like this music but what else is going on?” Then we need to have those conversations.”
@JuniorFoster
@BytaLtd
@Deezer
@Napster
3:39 London Sound System
4:10
5:23 Head of Global artists relations
9:26 J Balvin
17:19 Deezer playlists
22:00 Byta.com
22:33 #HowWeListen
27:17 Lewis Capaldi
31:54 Gerry Cinnamon
34:39 Inversions 80s
36:00 Holly Humberstone, Benny Sings, Laura Mvula, CSS
38:15 Amber Horsburgh
39:00 ASMR campaign, ASMR explained
41:00 Tom Jones whispering it to you, Alicia Keys
41:30 Beethoven Re-Mix
44:00 Fresh List, Brand New UK
45:52 Dry stream
55:27 Squat raves
1:02:00 Byta.com
What are the best steps when building a branding strategy? Our next guest is Amber Horsburgh, a music marketing consultant and digital strategist. Amber is expert in developing strategies for artists and music brands. She has worked as a marketing executive to majors, indies & brands including Interscope, Atlantic, Downtown Records, Spotify, SoundCloud & YouTube Music.
Amber runs a music strategy newsletter called Deep Cuts, which is read by 15,000 music industry professionals globally. This led to her recently founding The School of Deep Cuts. The course is the sum of every tool, case study, best practice and quick tip she has learned and implemented throughout her career in helping to break artists. Amber has worked in NYC, LA, Seoul & Melbourne.
“I think releases are your gateway into the music industry, it’s what you build your brand off of. If you don’t have the music, nothing else can happen. We’re in a very singles focused market, and I always encourage artists to treat each of those singles as a mini-campaign and come up with a blueprint for every release, that’s repeatable. In doing so, every time you launch and relaunch you learn so much more that will make your promotion more effective.”
@AmberHorsburgh
@BytaLtd
@ThePush
1:42 - Amber’s #HWL interview
5:43 - Deep Cuts, Blog
8:30 - SFX, EDM festival, OneLove
11:17 - School of Deep Cuts
17:58 - Byta.com
32:00 - Gatekeepers, brand building
36:47 - Hugh Stevens
38:30 - Jenny Kaufman
42:25 - Triple R Radio
46:00 - Release timeline, Toolbox
53:45 - North Star
1:02:00 - Marketing
1:04:00 - Byta.com
Christine Osazuwa is the Founder of Measure of Music and was the former Global Marketing Director of Data & Insights at Warner Music Group at the time of this chat. After Warner, she became the UK Director at shesaid.so and the Strategy Director at Pollen. Christine uses numbers for good and believes that business can be an art and art can be a business. Some of the questions this conversation answers: What does it mean to oversee and develop a marketing data strategy? How does one identify and break global priority artists by creating benchmarks and KPIs to ensure long-term global artist growth? Christine has managed to combine all of her passions, music, marketing, and data into consulting with various music startups, venues, festivals, radio stations and labels, bridging the gap between music, data & business. Christine explains how data and numbers are no substitute for a good story & passion (but, you better have some damn good numbers to back it up). She also reveals a giant list of stories and tips on making your way into and through the music industry.
“I think people get overwhelmed by the fact that there are so many places that you could be looking at, so I think the first thing to do is kind of think about what has worked for you. As an artist or manager, you probably intuitively know some of those things, and you don’t need the data to tell you. Then experiment a bit. Let’s start with something really simple. Let’s say Spotify is your strongest platform and then figure out the other part of it, what’s your strongest social platform. Is it TikTok? Is it Twitter? It’s it Facebook? Is it Instagram?”
1:15 - Christine Osazuwa
2:00 - All Time Low, Warped Tour
5:00 - Python
6:00 - Nigerian in Sweden, Chief Data Officer, Burna Boy
10:00 - Posting Jobs
11:20 - Baltimore Music
13:53 - YouTube
17:41 - Metadata panel
19:00 - Merch/sales
24:00 - Street Team
35:00 - Jenny Kaufman
36:15 - Measure of Music
47:00 - Representation in the Music Industry
51:29 - UK Music Diversity Report
54:57 - Christine web site / Blog
1:03:00- Chocolate City Music
1:06:00 - Byta.com, The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC)
Bruno brings not only a love of music but a wealth of experience to his new role as Head of TuneCore Brazil, which is already expanding throughout Latin America. He has become an advocate for independent artists in Brazil and continues to work closely with artists while forging new relationships with key partners and growing brand awareness for TuneCore Brazil.
“...I started in music about fifteen years ago here in Brazil. Long story short, I moved to Los Angeles in 2010 and I had the opportunity to work at Sony Music in the Latin division. I stayed there for a couple of years before I returned to Brazil to work in different parts of the music industry. I was invited to join Tunecore in 2020 to start strategic operations in Brazil. Then it extended it to all of Latin America which is an amazing opportunity to bring Tunecore to this part of the world. The first step for any local artist is to not think outside of your market. For a Brazilian musician to be successful, they need to be a successful artist in their country. This is one of the most important and difficult steps in their career, to develop their music and career inside of their own country.”
@BrunoDuque
@BytaLtd
@TuneCore
2:00 - Rio
2:30 - Stockholm
3:18 - SONY Latin Music
6:40 - TuneCore
10:00 - DSPs
16:11 - Brazilian Funk
19:33 - Sertanejo, Reggaeton
21:35 - Anitta
28:10 - Bieber, Maluma
41:45 - Brazilian Telenovelas (Soap Operas), Chavez
51:52 - YouTube Music
53:00 - WhatApp
54:54 - North Eastern Music
56:00 - Cumbia,
1:01 - IATEC, PUC, Byta.com
Brendan Canning is the co-founder of the Toronto supergroup Broken Social Scene, which includes members of Metric, Do Make Say Think and Stars, as well as Grammy-nominated Feist. One of the most enduring and influential alternative bands of the 00s. Their record 'You Forgot It In People' defined the "indie rock" era and paved the way for Canadian acts like Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade to break out. Canning also has released three solo recordings.
“...I think it was just an innate sense. It's basic. You got to open up for the cool bands. You got to build up your own following, right. Then you build up your following and maybe that leads to your entering a radio station contest? And you get your songs on the radio? It was the Grunge rock era, sort of like the Bitcoin era, you know, there was money to be made. You could make money without being that talented. But because you looked a certain way you wore enough flannel or army shorts or long underwear under your army shorts, it was possible …”
@brendancanning
@bytaltd
2:25 - Sled Island Music & Arts Festival
5:35 - Dodos
6:00 - Posies, Scott Kannberg
8:58 - Hhead, IRS Records, Elliot Lefko, Now Magazine
10:48 - CFNY
12:23 - Bare Naked Ladies
13:38 - Spooky Ruben
13:57 - By Divine Right
14:25 - Steal My Sunshine, Treble Charger, Cookie Duster
17:37 - Charles Spearing, Kevin Drew, KC Accidental
23:35 - Paperbag Records
23:53 - Stewart Berman, Rough Trade Records
26:11 - Jeffrey Remedios,
29:09 - David Newfeld
34:34 - Bruce McDonald
34:58 - Love Crimes, Snow Cake, Half Nelson
40:22 - Stereolab / Beetle
43:03 - Fitzcarraldo
49:42 - Much Music
54:26 - Howard Billerman
1:03 - Byta.com
Jenny Kaufman at the time of this interview was the Head of Digital Strategy at Terrorbird Media, a boutique music marketing firm with offices in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Sacramento. (She is now Head of Streaming and Sales at Crush Music) All through this conversation, Jenny emphasizes a creative and authentic approach to digital promotion, facilitating meaningful positioning and support from online partners and digital storefronts. The conversation looks at Spotify, playlisting strategies, converting listeners to fans and positioning. Over the last couple of decades, some things have changed but a lot has stayed the same, playlists are maybe the biggest new shift and opportunity. Discover which platforms are best and remember to always encourage fan engagement. Jenny even touches on TikTok, Twitch and advice on user-generated playlists.
During her time at Terrorbird, Jenny facilitated campaigns for Toro y Moi (Carpark Records), Jay Som (Polyvinyl Records), Cloud Nothings (Carpark Records), and Hatchie (Double Double Whammy) among others. When she isn’t nerding-out about the ever-evolving digital landscape, Jenny is recharging with her three-legged tuxedo cat, Scooter.
“...I interned at The Fader for a while. I was at Beggars Group, at XL Recordings for a while. I think that breaking into the music industry just doesn't always come easy. It required a lot of tenacity and having the mentors that I'd had along the way to help me, you know, push my career forward."
@jennykaufman
@bytaltd
@CrushMusic
2:30 - Baby’s All Right
4:20 - Glassnote Records, Maggie Rogers
5:07 - Save Our Stages Act
9:00 - XL Recordings
14:10 - CD Baby
18:28 - DSP
29:34 - Virgin Megastore in Times Square
33:42 - Lorem Playlist
36:26 - Oyster Playlist
38:46 - Arlo Parks
40:53 - Paramour
41:08 - New Music Friday
44:19 - Get Out, Redbone
46:07 - Good 4 U - by Olivia Rodrigo
50:56 - Hi Fi Audio
1:00: - YouTube Music
1:07 - DistroKid
1:09 - Byta.com
Our music is by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu
Huw joined BBC Radio 1 at 17, becoming the youngest ever Radio 1 DJ. He has broadcast live from Glastonbury, Reading Festival, Sonar, South by Southwest, Eurosonic on BBC Radio 1, as well as live from Radio 1’s own Teen Awards and Big Weekend. His passion for new music has meant he has been the first to champion countless new artists early on. He has contributed to BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, 6Music and presented on BBC Radio Wales, and presents regularly on the BBC World Service. Huw talks about music discovery, which means sometimes being one of the only people in a club watching that new band play live for the first time. Also, the importance of musicians developing a supportive community, and how singing in Welsh can work for you.
“...I ended up in the UK, where we had hospitals that have radio stations in them.
It was a big thing for DJs to get practice. If you're a geek about radio, hospital radio was the place to start. It is still brilliant and doing great things. They play artists and they take requests from the patients. It's a real community. So that's how I started and then I managed bands…
I would write reviews for local fanzines and I would do the usual review songs on the radio, I'd answer phones for the local BBC radio station and all of that. I met a BBC producer called Bethan Elfyn. I was 17 and she knew that the BBC funded Radio One station was looking to set up a new show, called The Nations, specifically for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland…”
@huwStephens
@BBC Radio
2:20 Focus Wales
3:27 Andy Jones
5:07 Ryan Reynolds
5:44 Cat Morris, Clwb Ifor Bach
7:46 Poptones Records
8:21 Hospital Radio
10:44 Zane Lowe,
12:30 BBC Radio Wales
15:05 Annie Mac
18:09 Upload your Music Here
24:00 Sŵn Festival
26:30 Flohio
30:00 Break Out West
33:00 Boy Azooga
34:00 Gwenno
44:00 M for Montreal, 9Bach
47:00 Byta.com
Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu