How To Fix The Music Business

My guest on the show this episode is Justin Barker, Founder/Director of Slice Music, a UK based streaming and content consultancy. He is also the Director of Streaming Strategy, Global Artist & Label Services for PIAS, and previously held curational and operation digital roles at Universal Music Group dating back to 2006. Justin has been riding the edge of the streaming music wave for a decade, and has a unique perspective on the history and evolution of the streaming music space.

After more than 15 years of destruction and decline in the music business, there is a glimmer of hope again. Even as physical product and digital download sales continue to whither, the explosive popularity of streaming music services like Spotify and Apple Music have brought growth back to an industry that’s been shrinking for so long, it almost forgot the meaning of the word.

On-demand Subscription streaming music services have been around for a long time. Rhapsody launched way back in 2002, and the current King of the Mountain, Spotify, launched in 2008. It’s really hard to survive as a standalone music service, and many players have either shut down or been acquired and absorbed into other entities. Spotify has over 40 million paying subscribers, but lost 200 million dollars on revenues of 2 billion in 2015. Despite the challenges, new services are being introduced by Amazon and iHeartRadio, and Pandora is offering an expanded pay service. Each of these services must find a way to differentiate themselves from the other players in the space; to win the favor of potential subscribers.

But they’re not just competing with each other, they’re competing with YouTube, which is arguably the world’s biggest streaming music service - and YouTube is free.

How content is promoted and consumed on Spotify is evolving at a lightning pace. Adapting to these ongoing changes has proven challenging for many labels and artists. Justin’s here to kick around some history with us and shine a light into the playlist mists.

Slice on Twitter: https://twitter.com/slice_musicuk

PIAS: http://www.pias.com

Nicolas Jaar: http://nicolasjaar.net

Jim's Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/trickness/playlist/18NgBUrRgZnEAPBk8zsu4J

My guest on the show today is Sheryl Crow's Music Director & guitarist Peter Stroud.

Peter Stroud gets around. It’s funny how often I am flipping around the channels late at night and see Peter on stage somewhere. He’s played with Pete Droge, Sarah McLachlan and Don Henley, recorded on albums with Stevie Nicks, The Dixie Chicks, Shawn Mullins and Michelle Malone. As a guitarist and Musical Director of Sheryl Crow’s band, Peter has been a recurring player in her creative legacy going all the way back to her smash album The Globe Sessions. Alongside Sheryl, he has shared the stage with Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Prince, Chrissie Hynde and countless other musical legends.

That’s a full plate by anyone’s measure, but like I said, Peter gets around. He co-founded a hugely successful guitar amplifier company, 65 Amps, and is a partner in the recently launched the Emerging Artist Network, a company that connects developing artists with brand patronage.

Peter also is part of a band called Big Hat with guitarist Audley Freed and a band of killer musicians. In 2012, Big Hat self released their debut EP, with no record company involvement, so all the promotion and marketing was up to the band. The track “Feather In The Breeze” was added by fans to a couple of popular playlists on Spotify and over time, got over a MILLION plays. Because there was no record company involved, the money went straight to the band. There’s a lot of debate and mystery about where the money goes in streaming, so when I invited Peter on the show, I asked him if he could share the real numbers of what the band got paid...he gracefully agreed. I think you’ll all find this very interesting, I know I did - its not often that artists share this kind of information.

Of course we riff about a ton of other stuff too - this is a good one!

Stuff we talk about on this podcast:

Peter Stroud on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loudstroud

Peter Stroud on Twittter: https://twitter.com/PeterStroud

Big Hat: http://www.bighatband.com/about-us

Sheryl Crow: http://www.sherylcrow.com/

65 Amps: http://www.65amps.com/

Emerging Artist Network: https://emergingartistnetwork.com/

Chris Shiflett's Walking The Floor Podcast: http://walkingthefloor.com/

Jason Isbell: http://www.jasonisbell.com/

Pete Droge: http://www.puzzletreemusic.com/

Yacht Rock Review: http://www.pleaserock.com/tributes/yacht-rock-revue

Peter's Music Recommendations:

Sturgill Simpson: http://www.sturgillsimpson.com/

The Shelters: http://www.thesheltersmusic.com/

These days, success in the music business is about survival.

Major labels can lose millions and still stand because they’re owned by giant corporations. A couple of consecutive bad years for a major and there’s usually a purge, new management brought in, the roster overhauled, maybe they’re merged with another label. And a dreadful side effect of risk aversity that follows these changes is that the music that gets signed and released becomes progressively “safer”.

It’s different for independent labels. Successful independents constantly reinvent themselves, and rarely play it safe with the artists they sign and music they release. The best indies are on point, way out in front of the majors, showing us where music is going. It’s inherently risky, especially when you’re paying the bills yourself.

Which is why the accomplishents of Beggars Group are all the more stunning. Founded by Martin Mills as the Beggars Banquet label in 1977 during the height of punk rock, Beggars Group has deftly navigated 40 years of changes in musical tastes and technology. They haven’t just survived, they’ve thrived. Evolving into a label owner and distributor, Beggars Group handles Matador Records, XL Recordings, Rough Trade Records, Young Turks and 4AD. A cursory glance at the roster of acts they distribute is staggering. Jack White. Alabama Shakes. FKA Twigs. Radiohead. Warpaint. Grimes. The National. Adele. And over the past 40 years, they’ve been instrumental in bringing some of the most important alternative music ever created into the world by artists like Gary Numan, The Pixies, The Prodigy, Dead Can Dance, and Cocteau Twins.

At the helm of Beggar’s digital business is our guest on the show for this episode, Simon Wheeler. As the largest independent music group of labels in Europe, Beggars Group can change the landscape of digital music with their strategic decisions; and Simon has helped crafted and execute these strategies at Beggars since 1997. He’s been inside the guts of every significant digital music opportunity the industry has faced since the beginning. And in this episode, we get deep inside the streaming music landscape, what it means for independent labels, and where Simon feels we’re heading after 20 years in digital music.

Beggars Group: http://www.beggars.com/

Simon Wheeler on Twitter: https://twitter.com/afc99

Music we talk about in this episode:

The Lemon Twigs: https://www.facebook.com/TheLemonTwigs/

The National: http://americanmary.com/

Jim's A2iM Keynote Address: http://www.trickness.com/blog/the-digital-music-business-and-the-rashomon-effect

They say you can’t sell music as a product anymore. Nobody wants CDs. Download sales are tanking as streaming grows in popularity. People don’t have the attention span to listen to a whole album, we’re in singles world now. Cherry pick my favorites, put them in a playlist, hits of the 90’s, workout jams, I don’t need artwork, I don’t want to know who played on the record, or who wrote the songs. Shuffle it up and fire it into my head like musical Pez, one sweet little brick at a time. Zero footprint. That’s what they say.

But what about the resurgence of vinyl?

Our guest on the show today is Cameron Schaefer from Vinyl Me Please, a record club that is all about bringing vinyl to their members that will transport them into the present moment and delight them. Cameron is a partner and Head Of Label Relations at Vinyl Me Please and yes, he does have one of the best jobs in the world. We’re going to talk about what vinyl means to the future of the music industry, and yeah we geek out a bit.

Vinyl Me, Please http://vinylmeplease.com/

Cameron's music recommendations:

Colin Blunstone: http://www.colinblunstone.co.uk/

The California Playboys: https://www.omnianmusicgroup.com/products/trying-to-become-a-millionaire

Angel Olsen: http://angelolsen.com/#/my-woman

Devendra Banhart: http://www.devendrabanhart.com

Preoccupations: http://preoccupationsband.com

It’s a well worn music industry cliche - a kid sees The Beatles' debut American performance on the Ed Sullivan show on February 9th, 1964 and right then and there, they decide that rock and roll is what they want to do with their life. People from all corners of the music business were influenced by Beatlemania, and it shaped the future of the industry.

But one 5 year old boy heard the music of The Beatles and grew up to become a masterful vagabond of the guitar, playing on many hit records and thousand of gigs, until 40 years later, incredibly, he found himself standing beside Paul McCartney - as a bandmate.

Our special guest for this episode is that kid, all grown up - Rusty Anderson, lead guitarist for Paul McCartney. He’s got a brilliant new album out with his band Rusty Anderson Afternoon called "RAA" and we chat about how the record came together. He talks about making and marketing his own records, working with the legendary McCartney, his experiences playing in the band Ednaswap and on hit records by a long list of major artists. But Rusty also shares his thoughts on the state of the music industry.

We hear a lot from record labels and technology companies about how things should work, about what is and isn’t fair about the music business. But we don’t hear often enough from the actual creators who give life to music, and how the changes are impacting them. We’re going to try to get more artists into the mix on these issues on the podcast. We’re honored to have Rusty Anderson as our first guest artist on "How To Fix The Music Business”.

Rusty Anderson Official: http://www.rustyanderson.com/

Paul McCartney Official: http://www.paulmccartney.com

DOJ Consent Decree info: http://futureofmusic.org/article/fact-sheet/ascap-bmi-consent-decrees

Music we talk about on the show:

Tomita "Snowflakes Are Dancing" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflakes_Are_Dancing

Rusty's podcast episode with Jeremy Dylan about Frank Zappa's Hot Rats: http://mrjeremydylan.com/post/147079759375/my-favorite-album-147-rusty-anderson-on-frank

Band Of Horses: http://www.bandofhorses.com/whyareyouok/

Spotify rules the streaming music world, although not everyone agrees that's a good thing. Has Spotify made it impossible for artists to make a living, or is the best thing to ever happen to them? In the episode, we talk with Sandy Smallens, who for the past 4 1/2 years was the Head of Artist Marketing and Original Content at Spotify. As the former bassist for 90's indie rock darlings Too Much Joy AND one of the first guys to run a new media department at a major label, Sandy has a rare ability to look at the digital music business from a multitude of perspectives. We dive deep into how Spotify has changed the landscape for artists and labels, and the controversy around artist compensation in streaming services. We chat about how artist development worked in the old days versus now. We lament the passing of the great NYC indie record store, Other Music, AND we play a round of the game "Marry, F**k, Kill" with YouTube, Freemium and Downloads as the contestants. AND Sandy tells us about his rad new podcast storytelling company, Audiation. This episode KILLS!

Bands we mention in this podcast:

G.L.O.S.S. (Sandy is very happy their music is BACK on Spotify) https://girlslivingoutsidesocietysshit.bandcamp.com

WUSSY is from Cincinnati, NOT CLEVELAND. http://wussy.ella.net

PUFF PIECES: https://puffpieces.bandcamp.com/releases

SKEPTA: https://www.helloskepta.com

Tim Bierman has worked with Pearl Jam for nearly 20 years, managing their highly successful direct-to-fan platform Ten Club. Years before the music business realized how important direct-to-fan was, Pearl Jam was cultivating a unique relationship with their fans and with their label, Epic Records. Tim and I chat about the band's unique live gigs & the community and creativity that have made them a modern day Grateful Dead. We talk about the band first steps into the digital world around their 2000 album "Binaural", building an affinity team internally vs. outsourcing, Periscope and fans live streaming gigs. Tim also shares his advice to artists on what they should prioritize, and we geek out on Repo Man and World Party, Alabama Shakes and Blake Mills. 

Links to stuff we chat about: 

Nugs.Net: http://nugs.net

Repo Man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo_Man_(film)

World Party: http://www.worldparty.net/

Gypsum "Follow Me" https://soundcloud.com/gypsum-band/follow-me