Prof Snyder's Music Biz News

From the days of hipster musicians touring living rooms, to the present with major acts playing in backyards and bowling alleys, artists are skipping large venues and thinking small, the stage wherever they can strap on a guitar and play.

With fans having to finance tickets to go to concerts, the trend is for the artists to go to them. Bands like All American Rejects achieved over 4 Million dollars in marketing on their 'House Party Tour' by playing at skating rinks and homes.

Now the labels and marketers smell the money and are getting involved setting up fake fan pages on Tik-Tok, encouraging real fans to take and post videos and pictures of the performances, and then reposting them to potentially millions of fans.

But it's also a strategy that any aspiring artist can use to find places to play, hone performance skills, test new songs, and build followings. Shakespeare showed the way when he stated 'All The World's A Stage'.

Jonesy believes that every aspiring musician should be given a kitten before the first music lesson!

In this podcast, Jonesy the cat points to famous DJ and producer deadmau5: "While cats may sometimes be destructive, deadmau5 is a fan of having feline pals around." As cat-dad to Peanut, Dizzy and Dolly, even though they may be a pain at times, he believes that's 'The price of a cat'. And surely Peanut, Dizzy and Dolly simply tolerate a cat-dad that wears mouse ears! Sometimes, just giving a cat a little scratch behind the ears, or a belly-rub, is all you need to be at your most relaxed and your creative best. Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2025/07/deadmau5s-feline-secret-to-success-and.html

[Warning...this vid is a little philosophic] While watching an interview of David Gilmore about his newest album, Luck and Strange, I was reminded that music is a gift to humans. That AI will never wait for years to finish a song, always looking for that special something it needs to complete it. That AI will never be visited by a Muse. That AI will never experience music.

The Cambridge dictionary defines muse as: a person, or an imaginary being or force that gives someone ideas and helps them to write, paint, or make music.

In this video, Gilmore talks about the creative process of the song Between Two Points, sung by his daughter Romany. He had recorded it for himself, but never released it because it just didn't feel right. Then a Muse whispered the idea in his wife's ear, to let their daughter sing it, and she did it in one take. You can see how the music washes over Gilmore as he listens to it.

Creative types seek and call on their Muses for help. And sometimes the Muse provides that magic moment when you ask, "Where did that come from?"

Artificial Intelligence will always be artificial. Right now, AI is more and more creating music for humans. Will there be a backlash when humans will want to hear music only made by humans? Because only Muse inspired music can go deep into the soul of humans, and AI will never ever be visited by a Muse!

Link to Gilmore Interview:

https://youtu.be/O3OazxoPRK8?si=C6UMQnG9Yv4qAyRZ

Podcast at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOzs8lbX9g4

1 - Courts just opened the door for AI to copy copyrighted material under Fair Use, as long as they purchase 1 copy.

2 - The First Record Label to Exclusively Feature AI Artists: IT'S ALL FAKE. Artists, Music, Backstories, Videos...everything.

3 - "There's No Going Back!" 'Deezer' Chief Innovation Officer.

Sources at https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2025/06/is-it-real-or-is-it-ai.html

SubStack https://srfrjff.substack.com

A former exec at Meta (Facebook) said "...asking for permission from rights owners to train models would 'basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight.' "

In 1997, it was the new technology, MP3s, used by Napster, that the labels said would kill Music.

Back then the labels sued Napster, Kazaa, etc; today the labels are suing Suno and Udio. Is history repeating itself? Lot's of parallels!

A former exec at Meta (Facebook) said "...asking for permission from rights owners to train models would 'basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight.' "

In 1997, it was the new technology, MP3s, used by Napster, that the labels said would kill Music. Back then the labels sued Napster, Kazaa, etc; today the labels are suing Suno and Udio.

Is history repeating itself? Lot's of parallels!

Sources at https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2025/06/is-this-day-music-died.html

Your Fav Radio DJ Might Not Be Human!

Good news is radio listenership is reported to be good...but who are we listening to? For 6 months, listeners to a radio station had no idea that the DJ they were listening to, wasn't human. AI DJs are already popping up on the radio across the planet, replacing humans or serving as live sidekick/cohosts. "If a robot can blend in for half a year without anyone noticing, it might already be happening more than we think."

Podcast Video : https://youtu.be/EXTlSzfsaSY

For those who want to know about the significance of masters in the recording industry, here's a little dive into the background and history of artists, record labels, and the fight for masters ownership.

In what has been described as a brilliant strategy, Taylor Swift devalues her first 6 albums by rerecording them and then, as the songwriter, denied anybody licensing the originals in movies or commercials insisting they could only use her re-recorded versions; meanwhile sales of the originals dropped around 60%. To the point that the owners sold her the original masters of her 1st 6 albums, and more, for $360 million, close to what they paid for them. To the delight of the T-Swifties, she now owns it all (and makes all the $). Swift wasn't the first to re-record or buy the masters to gain total control of her music.

But now the labels are worried about being 'Swifted' as more legacy artists follow her lead. The value of a record label is determined by its ownership of, and profiting from, master recordings. How can record labels survive if their golden eggs, the legacy recordings they own, are effectively neutered by re-recordings?

Sources are linked on my blog: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot....

The Adele / Guinea Pig Experiment

https://youtu.be/1Cjo8p8pe8U

AI version of Jonesy the cat introduces and ends the podcast

Jonesy's Cat-Shit Crazy Music-Biz News, is that scientists exposed 2 groups of Guinea Pigs to Adele's 'I Miss You' for 7 days. The purpose to see how compression/loudness affects hearing. One group recovered in 1 day. The other group of Guinea Pigs now have long-term hearing damage and should probably seek legal advice! While both had hearing damage, one group recovered in 1 day. The other group of Guinea Pigs now have long-term hearing damage and should probably seek legal advice! The point being that heavily compressed music not only affects the listener's enjoyment, it also affects long-term hearing. So the message being for engineers to stop over-compressing audio just to make it louder.

Note: I had fun with AI, but the message about loudness and its affect on hearing is serious.

Sources at https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2025/05/guinea-pigs-forced-to-listen-to-adele.html

"It's about legacy, justice and the future of artist ownership."

Salt and Pepa are suing Universal Music Group for the rights to the recordings of their hit songs.

UMG is Pushing Back by taking down their music from streams.

Copyright law does allow artists to reclaim ownership of their recordings after 35 years, but UMG says they were employees and so the songs are work-for-hire and they don't want to give them up.

A good look into the battle for ownership of artist's recordings, especially as music catalogs are selling for millions of dollars.