King Liar, one of Liverpool's best live bands, are about to embark on their first ever tour, taking their act to Leeds and Manchester alongside Garden of Humans. I sat down with frontman Adam Ainsley to discuss how the band organised their tour entirely independently, how to break out of your local scene and their analytical approach to amazing live shows.

Get tickets for King Liar's tour: https://linktr.ee/kingliar.gardenofhumans.tour

Decided to try something a bit different this week, an episode with no guest! I wanted to talk through the recent news of an open letter against AI Music from the Artist Rights Alliance, signed by hundreds musicians including Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Jon Bon Jovi to name but a few.

I talk through my thoughts on how AI could effect musicians jobs, why AI seemingly came out if nowhere, and what the future of the music industry could look like.

Let me know what you think of this type of solo episode, might start doing more of these, but if you hate it I don't mind not!

Would you become a shareholder in your favourite artists? Is Blockchain technology the key to the future of the music industry?

This week I spoke to Karl Parsons, founder of music tech startup BandShare about his solution to a problem so many artists face: not having the money upfront to pay for costs like recording, marketing or touring, creating a cycle where grassroots artists can't break out of their scene without securing highly-competitive grants or a record deal advance.

Karl shares his thoughts on my the industry is at a breaking point, and how Blockchain technology could be a gamechanger.

Check out BandShare here: https://www.bandshare.io/

New features are the easiest way to make the algorithm love you; social media platforms release updates with new ways of sharing content every year, and are desperate to push these to the top of your feed to show users. This episode is all about how artists can take advantage to promote their music.

I spoke to social media experts Eloise and Georgia from the Social Commuter podcast about Instagram's latest artist-focussed features, the downfall of Twitter and how to build your brand online.

Listen to the Social Commuter Podcast: https://linktr.ee/socialcommuterpodcast

This week, I spoke to photographer, promoter and local legend Johnsy about how her journey from taking photos on her lunch break to building a sustainable career as a music freelancer, working on everything from giving bands their first gig at The Jacaranda to taking photos at some of the biggest festivals in the UK. We discuss how she made the leap to freelance, building a live music community and her dream to own her own music venue.

📷: https://www.instagram.com/johnsysshots/

This week I spoke to Danny West, Partnerships and Publishing Lead at Leeds-based music development organisation and label Come Play With Me, to get an introduction into the ever growing world of brand partnerships. Collaborating with companies can be a great way to fund your music career without giving away any rights to your music, and opportunties are becoming more and more popular.

Danny dives into how he's facilitated major brand partnerships with the likes of JD Sports, Adidas & Universal, securing sync deals and the stragest pitch he's ever been sent (I promise you'll never be able to guess what it was).

Why does music need a union? This week, I spoke to Simeon Scheuber-Rush, regional officer for the Musicians' Union to find out why the MU exists and what it does to support its members. We also delve into some of the biggest issues facing musicians today, such as composer buyouts, the impact of the pandemic and underpaid session work, as well as exploring the Musicians' Union's campaigns to create a fairer music industry, such as their support of Universal Basic Income and for reform in the streaming economy.

To access loads of amazing free resources, or join the Musicians' Union, visit: https://musiciansunion.org.uk/

In this episode, we sit down with Liverpool pop artist Laro to discuss how she’s harnessed the power of TikTok to build a loyal and engaged fanbase. Laro shares her unique approach to creating the tight-knit 'forget-me-nots' community, from exclusive group chats to personal fan interactions that have given her a small but rapidly growing group of superfans. Discover her strategies for staying consistent on TikTok, the secret to making quality social media content without getting burnt out, and finding confidence as an independent artist in the digital age.

Stream Laro's new single Hung Up: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4YUJTIjBtm5Zhp4q9mI1JA?si=kSia-hHyQcCbB8aDGnXx2Q

Music publishing can be complicated, but it's an underutilised tool that earns artists around the world millions every year. To demystify how this crucial revenue stream works, I sat down with Simon Pursehouse, one of the founding members at Sentric Music, a company that over the last two decades has tranformed from a university project into one of the biggest independent publishing companies in the world.

In this episode we break down how streaming royalties work, why most artists are missing out on live royalties, the secret to getting your music onto tv shows, and whether songwriters deserve a bigger piece of the pie financially.

More information on how publishing works: https://www.sentric.com/wtf-is-music-publishing