The Future of What

By Music Business Association

What's The Future of What about?

A weekly podcast & radio show about the music industry hosted by Music Business Association president, Portia Sabin. Listen to new episodes here, or wherever you get your podcasts!

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The Future of What episodes:

04.23.2024
Episode #228 — Holistic Strategies For Selling Music Merch with Merch Cat’s Vanessa Ferrer
Merch sales is one of, if not the primary, revenue generator for artists at certain levels of their careers. Tie this into the fact that merch proudly worn or displayed by their fans helps spread the word about their music,...
04.09.2024
Episode #227 — Cosynd’s New Producer Copyright Registration Initiative
With almost a decade of experience securing copyrights for artists & rightsholders, Cosynd identified that music producers were being potentially priced out of registering their backlog of work with the U.S. Copyright Office. This led them to develop a new...
04.02.2024
Episode #226 — Creative Intell’s David Fritz & Steven Ship On Educating Today’s Artists
While looking into higher-ed music business programs, David Fritz and Steven Ship found that the segmented approach to curriculums was helpful for new students, but it did not help artists and songwriters who needed to know the ins-and-outs of how...
03.12.2024
Episode #225 — Vault & beatBread’s Funding Options For Indie Artists
With more artists creating and releasing more music now than ever, there is a major need for new revenue streams and funding options to help artists take their careers to the next level. This month on The Future of What,...
02.28.2024
Episode #224 — RAMPD’s Lachi & Precious Perez on Disability Awareness & Activism
RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities) was founded in 2021 as a collective of artists, performers and music professionals with disabilities seeking to raise awareness of disability culture in the music business. Since then the organization has worked...
02.13.2024
Episode #223 — Trevanna Tracks’ Tools For Improving Sync Licensing
Sync placements have become a highly lucrative revenue stream for artists and rightsholders alike in recent years, as the production teams behind tv shows & movies constantly search for the perfect tracks to set the scene in their latest project....
01.24.2024
Episode #222 — NIVA’s Journey From Survival To Advocacy
The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) was founded at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as a lifeline for small live music houses, pulling together federal grant money to ensure that venues would remain afloat until it was safe for...
01.10.2024
Episode #221 — Exceleration Music + Redeye: An Indie Music Powerhouse
Founded in 2020 by five tenured independent music professionals, Exceleration Music set out to invest in music rights, enter strategic partnerships and develop a suite of support services, all backed by authenticity and reverence for everything essential to indie music’s...
01.09.2024
Portia’s 2024 New Year’s Message
Tune in to this special message from Music Business Association President, Portia Sabin with some updates regarding our inaugural Trust & Safety In Music Symposium, Music Biz 2024, the Common Ground Webinar Series & our new Music Biz Events app,...
12.12.2023
Episode #220 — Supporting U.S. Indie Venues: An Interview With Live Music Society’s Cat Henry
The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic opened eyes across the world to just how vital touring & live music is to the entire music business ecosystem. As venues of all sizes closed to stop the spread of COVID, a...
11.15.2023
Episode #219 — LyricFind’s Darryl Ballantyne On New Tools To Enhance Lyric Offerings
In just a few short years, song lyrics have gone from a “nice to have” addition that music fans could seek out in liner notes or on the internet to a hot commodity on streaming platforms, graphics-heavy promotional videos, user-generated...
11.07.2023
Episode #218 — Dolby’s Christine Thomas Talks Dolby Atmos & Immersive Audio
While some say nothing quite captures the experience of listening to music performed in-person, new technologies are bringing unparalleled levels of immersion to the music listening experience. Enter Dolby Atmos, an immersive audio format which debuted for movies more than...
10.18.2023
Episode #217 — DAACI Talks AI Tools To Enhance The Creative Process
Bad actors have already learned how to exploit generative AI to either pose as popular artists or misappropriate copyrighted material. However companies like DAACI are working with artists, songwriters & composers to develop tools that are additive to the creative...
10.04.2023
Episode #216 — KYC Compliance To Fight Music Fraud: A Discussion With Too Lost’s Gregory Hirschhorn
After running a record label and finding common issues across several different music distribution platforms, Gregory Hirschhorn decided to enter the distribution space with Too Lost, paying extra attention to technologies and methods for combating fraud. The company uses Know...
09.26.2023
Episode #215 — Generative AI In Film, TV & Other Entertainment Spaces
While generative AI can be used to help human creators develop original works, concerns exist as major film & TV studios stand to reap huge financial benefits by using the technology to wholesale develop screenplays or substitute in digital recreations...
09.06.2023
Episode #214 — Music Fights Fraud: A Discussion on Streaming Fraud with CD Baby’s Christine Barnum
Recent months have shown an uptick in the frequency and variety of fraudulent music streaming practices, allowing bad actors to collect undue revenue by criminally inflating the number of streams for tracks they upload to DSPs. In the first of...
08.08.2023
Episode #213 — Building Community In Music With Web3: Interview With Revelator’s Bruno Guez
Originally hailing from the record label side of the business, Bruno Guez founded Revelator 10 years ago to help jumpstart an evolution in digital payments to help meet the needs of the increasingly digital music industry. Fast-forward to today, and...
07.18.2023
Episode #212 — 2023 Music Biz Presidential Award Winner, Gina Miller (MNRK Music Group)
The Presidential Award for Outstanding Executive Achievement is one of the Music Business Association’s highest and longest-standing honors, presented to individuals or organizations who have contributed greatly to the overall success of the music industry. In our latest podcast interview,...
06.21.2023
Episode #211 — Generative AI and the Music Industry: Interview with Danielle Aguirre of the NMPA
AI and machine-learning technologies have been utilized in various capacities in the music industry for decades now. However, the rise of Generative AI — which uses existing human-created art within its algorithms to generate content — presents new legal challenges...
06.06.2023
Episode #210 — Music Industry Mental Health: A Conversation With Amber Health’s Dr. Chayim Newman
At the outset, Amber Health was founded to analyze the mental health needs of artists & touring professionals and develop resources to support them navigate their incredibly taxing line of work. After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, its mission and scope...
05.23.2023
Episode #209 — ClicknClear & Performance Sports Music Licensing
The performance sports space offers an exciting new revenue opportunity for artists whose tracks are properly licensed for use in gymnastics, dance, cheerleading and beyond. This month we talk with Chantal Epp, the founder and CEO of ClicknClear, a tech-based...
05.09.2023
Episode #208 — 2023 Leading Light Award Nominees, Pt. 2(The Orchard, A to Z Media, WMG)
2022 marked the first edition of Music Biz’s Bizzy Awards program, a crowd-nominated series of honors recognizing music industry individuals and companies who strive to advance commerce in our industry and make it a better place to work. This ceremony...
04.25.2023
Episode #207 — 2023 Leading Light Award Nominees, Pt. 1 (TuneCore)
2022 marked the first edition of Music Biz's Bizzy Awards program, a crowd-nominated series of honors recognizing music industry individuals and companies who strive to advance commerce in our industry and make it a better place to work. This ceremony...
04.12.2023
Episode #206 — Black Lives in Music CEO, Charisse Beaumont
Black Lives in Music (BLiM) began as after Blackout Tuesday in 2020 to combat issues of systemic racism in the UK music industry. After learning there was no available data on the topic, the organization commissioned a survey of 2,000+...
03.28.2023
Episode #205 — BE THE CHANGE Gender Equality Study, Pt. 2
Released on International Women's Day 2023, the 3rd iteration of the BE THE CHANGE study showcases the perspectives of more than 1,500 music industry professionals across 100+ countries on how gender discrimination is both experienced and perceived across the music...
03.15.2023
Episode #204 — BE THE CHANGE Gender Equality Study, Pt. 1
Released on International Women's Day 2023, the 3rd iteration of the BE THE CHANGE study showcases the perspectives of more than 1,500 music industry professionals across 100+ countries on how gender discrimination is both experienced and perceived across the music...
02.22.2023
Episode #203 — Affordable Health Insurance For Indie Labels
For many years, smaller independent labels have found it challenging to provide health insurance options to their employees that were not cost prohibitive. This month we talked with A2IM's President and CEO, Dr. Richard Burgess about the A2IM Benefits Store,...
01.12.2023
Episode #202 — Continued Support For Inclusion & Mental Health in the Music Business
While major strides have already been made to improve the work culture of companies across the music business, it’s a never-ending task to ensure that EVERYONE who works in our industry is welcome, supported and truly happy in their day-to-day...
11.29.2022
Episode #201 — The Lazuli Collective & Mental Health In Entertainment Industries
Born from the renewed calls for focus on mental health & wellness during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lazuli Collective works to establish "a new cultural paradigm" that puts the human needs of both artists and music industry...
10.11.2022
Episode #200 — Capturing Creator Credits While In-Studio
It is of utmost importance for creators, especially in the age of digital music consumption, to log EVERY detail of who participates in the preparation of a song to ensure that all collaborators are properly paid. With his background as...
09.20.2022
Episode #199 — The Impact of the CRB Royalty Rate Increase
The recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to increase royalty payout rates for songwriters and publishers is a great step forward in fairly compensating creatives for their work. However given the complex nature of the industry, other segments...
08.24.2022
Episode #198: Ongoing Diversity Efforts In the Music Industry
Over the past two years, we’ve seen a major shift from pursuing incremental change to taking truly meaningful action in establishing a more inclusive and equitable workforce. In this month’s episode, we talk to three executives leading the charge to...
07.27.2022
Episode #197: Disability Pride Month — Interview with Lachi
In this month’s episode recognizing Disability Pride Month, Music Biz President talks with singer/songwriter and disability advocate, Lachi who founded RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), a coalition that works to build support for disability culture and inclusion...
06.29.2022
Episode #196: Pride Month & Queer Representation in the Music Business
Now more than ever, it is vital to amplify and celebrate members of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly in an industry like ours where they've had an immeasurable impact. In honor of Pride Month, we discuss the state of queer visibility...
05.25.2022
Episode #195: New Models of Funding Indie Artists
The financing options available to artists at all levels of their career are much more robust today than they’ve ever been, allowing them to accelerate their exposure and access tools to create music more in-line with their original vision. In...
05.04.2022
Episode #194: Record Store Day 2022
What began as a way for independent record store owners to bolster foot traffic and sales has grown into a shining example of, "if you build it, they will come." In celebration of Record Store Day's 15th anniversary in 2022,...
03.28.2022
Episode #193: The Orchard's 25th Anniversary
From its humble beginnings on Orchard St. in NYC 25 years ago to the use of wide-reaching distribution tools used by artists & their teams across the globe today, The Orchard's mission has not changed in its first quarter-century: work...
03.07.2022
Episode #192: An Overview on Streaming Fraud
We're excited to bring you the first new episode of The Future of What since 2020! Listen in for expert insights from Beatdapp co-founders, Andrew Batey and Morgan Hayduk, as they discuss the ins-and-outs and different types of fraud which...
06.05.2020
MusicBiz Live! w/ MLC
One of the more important pieces of the Music Modernization Act passed in 2018 was the establishment of the Mechanical Licensing Collective. Similar to SoundExchange, the MLC (as it’s commonly referred to) is a third party organization that exists for...
05.29.2020
Episode #190 - MusicBiz Live! w/ Live Music Venues
With states opening up more and more spaces to the public, the question on some minds is “When will live music return, and what will it look like once it does?” Can venues enforce social distancing responsibly? Will half capacity...
05.22.2020
MusicBiz Live! re: Music Consumption Metrics
Episode #189 : While the long term effects of the COVID-19 quarantine on the music business are yet to be known, there are lots of real-time metrics to be analyzed in the interim. With the postponement of Record Store Day,...
05.15.2020
MusicBiz Live! w/ Mental Health Professionals
While many have speculated about what the long term economic impacts of the COVID-19 quarantine might be, fewer have openly discussed what the long term psychological impacts on society might be. In this episode, Portia speaks with several mental health...
05.15.2020
MusicBiz Live! w/ Mental Health Professionals
While many have speculated about what the long term economic impacts of the COVID-19 quarantine might be, fewer have openly discussed what the long term psychological impacts on society might be. In this episode, Portia speaks with several mental health...
05.08.2020
MusicBiz Live! w/ EU & UK Music Organizations
Over the past several episodes, Portia has had countless discussions with the heads of music business organizations who represent various facets of the industry within the United States. This week, she’s speaking with their peers and equivalents in the U.K....
05.08.2020
MusicBiz Live! w/ EU & UK Music Organizations
Over the past several episodes, Portia has had countless discussions with the heads of music business organizations who represent various facets of the industry within the United States. This week, she’s speaking with their peers and equivalents in the U.K....
05.01.2020
MusicBiz Live! w/ MusicBiz Board
Episode #186 : While the effects of the COVID-19 quarantine on live entertainment and brick and mortar retail are already apparent, other sectors of the music industry like publishing haven’t truly felt the effects of the pandemic yet because of...
05.01.2020
MusicBiz Live! w/ MusicBiz Board
Episode #186 : While the effects of the COVID-19 quarantine on live entertainment and brick and mortar retail are already apparent, other sectors of the music industry like publishing haven’t truly felt the effects of the pandemic yet because of...
04.24.2020
MusicBiz Live! w/ Indepdenent Record Retailers
Episode #185 : It should come as no surprise that independent record stores have been particularly hard hit by the “shelter in place” orders established by many states around the country in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Some retailers...
04.24.2020
MusicBiz Live! w/ Indepdenent Record Retailers
Episode #185 : It should come as no surprise that independent record stores have been particularly hard hit by the “shelter in place” orders established by many states around the country in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Some retailers...
04.17.2020
MusicBiz Live! w/ NMPA, RIAA, CMA, A2IM & NSAI
Episode #184 : On this week’s episode, we’re revisiting another MusicBiz LIVE! event that features candid conversation about what music business trade associations are doing to help their specific constituencies navigate the COVID-19 quagmire. Joining Portia in conversation about the...

What's The Future of What about?

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The Future of What episodes:

Episode #228 — Holistic Strategies For Selling Music Merch with Merch Cat’s Vanessa Ferrer

Episode #227 — Cosynd’s New Producer Copyright Registration Initiative

Episode #226 — Creative Intell’s David Fritz & Steven Ship On Educating Today’s Artists

Episode #225 — Vault & beatBread’s Funding Options For Indie Artists

Episode #224 — RAMPD’s Lachi & Precious Perez on Disability Awareness & Activism

Episode #223 — Trevanna Tracks’ Tools For Improving Sync Licensing

Episode #222 — NIVA’s Journey From Survival To Advocacy

Episode #221 — Exceleration Music + Redeye: An Indie Music Powerhouse

Portia’s 2024 New Year’s Message

Episode #220 — Supporting U.S. Indie Venues: An Interview With Live Music Society’s Cat Henry

Episode #219 — LyricFind’s Darryl Ballantyne On New Tools To Enhance Lyric Offerings

Episode #218 — Dolby’s Christine Thomas Talks Dolby Atmos & Immersive Audio

Episode #217 — DAACI Talks AI Tools To Enhance The Creative Process

Episode #216 — KYC Compliance To Fight Music Fraud: A Discussion With Too Lost’s Gregory Hirschhorn

Episode #215 — Generative AI In Film, TV & Other Entertainment Spaces

Episode #214 — Music Fights Fraud: A Discussion on Streaming Fraud with CD Baby’s Christine Barnum

Episode #213 — Building Community In Music With Web3: Interview With Revelator’s Bruno Guez

Episode #212 — 2023 Music Biz Presidential Award Winner, Gina Miller (MNRK Music Group)

Episode #211 — Generative AI and the Music Industry: Interview with Danielle Aguirre of the NMPA

Episode #210 — Music Industry Mental Health: A Conversation With Amber Health’s Dr. Chayim Newman

Episode #209 — ClicknClear & Performance Sports Music Licensing

Episode #208 — 2023 Leading Light Award Nominees, Pt. 2(The Orchard, A to Z Media, WMG)

Episode #207 — 2023 Leading Light Award Nominees, Pt. 1 (TuneCore)

Episode #206 — Black Lives in Music CEO, Charisse Beaumont

Episode #205 — BE THE CHANGE Gender Equality Study, Pt. 2

Episode #204 — BE THE CHANGE Gender Equality Study, Pt. 1

Episode #203 — Affordable Health Insurance For Indie Labels

Episode #202 — Continued Support For Inclusion & Mental Health in the Music Business

Episode #201 — The Lazuli Collective & Mental Health In Entertainment Industries

Episode #200 — Capturing Creator Credits While In-Studio

Episode #199 — The Impact of the CRB Royalty Rate Increase

Episode #198: Ongoing Diversity Efforts In the Music Industry

Episode #197: Disability Pride Month — Interview with Lachi

Episode #196: Pride Month & Queer Representation in the Music Business

Episode #195: New Models of Funding Indie Artists

Episode #194: Record Store Day 2022

Episode #193: The Orchard's 25th Anniversary

Episode #192: An Overview on Streaming Fraud

MusicBiz Live! w/ MLC

Episode #190 - MusicBiz Live! w/ Live Music Venues

MusicBiz Live! re: Music Consumption Metrics

MusicBiz Live! w/ Mental Health Professionals

MusicBiz Live! w/ Mental Health Professionals

MusicBiz Live! w/ EU & UK Music Organizations

MusicBiz Live! w/ EU & UK Music Organizations

MusicBiz Live! w/ MusicBiz Board

MusicBiz Live! w/ MusicBiz Board

MusicBiz Live! w/ Indepdenent Record Retailers

MusicBiz Live! w/ Indepdenent Record Retailers

MusicBiz Live! w/ NMPA, RIAA, CMA, A2IM & NSAI