Music Biz Podcast

Beats Music executives have been overhyping their product for a long time. So the co-hosts of the Upward Spiral, Cortney Harding and Kyle Bylin, asked several friends to use the mobile app for a week and conducted research interviews over Skype to collect their feedback. Now everyone is speculating on whether Apple is buying Beats Electronics and what motivated the potential deal. Is the company worth 3.2 billion? What will Apple do with Beats Music? It’s too early to know for sure but here are some candid thoughts from regular people on their experience of the Beats Music service.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Scott LeGere, who is a serial entrepreneur and college educator. Over the past 15 years, Scott has played key roles in the ownership and operation of audio recording facilities, indie record labels, media schools, and commercial music production companies. During this time, he also engineered Grammy nominated albums, produced critically acclaimed indie projects, and lectured on the music business and audio production. In 2010, he co-founded NoWare Media, a composition focused sound agency. We asked Scott about how to educate and inspire the next generation of music business entrepreneurs.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to artist manager and music producer JJ Italiano about whether the concept of a “favorite artist” has changed. Today’s music listener has unlimited access to streaming music across any connected device. They can follow the activities of favorite artists on a variety of social media platforms. We share stories from our history as music fanatics and industry professionals. We dive deep into a wide ranging discussion about how digital technology has shaped music fandom.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Maggie Vail, who is the co-executive director of CASH Music, a nonprofit group that is building both open source tools and an educational curriculum for artists. Previously, she spent 17 years at the indie label Kill Rock Stars. She talks with us about how to make sure indie artists are paid for their creative works.

n this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Andy Weissman, who is a partner at Union Square Ventures. Prior to USV, Andy co-founded betaworks, which both created and invested in social, real time applications and services. We ask him how he thinks about the current music startup landscape and why people choose one music service over the other.

When news broke that Beats Music would be developing a music service, I got so excited. Finally, a company would make a product that regular people might care about. The reality is that most music services are for music fanatics — people who care about music. But most people don’t care about music. They do not make time to discover music or put together playlists. They want popular music — curated by experts — while they wash dishes and feed the cat. That is the promise of Beats Music, and that is the focus of the latest episode of the Upward Spiral. We discuss this and more with two digital music veterans: Jon Maples and Jonathan Sasse.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Alina Simone, who wrote an op-ed in the New York Times called “The End of Quiet Music.” In the piece, she depicts the struggles that artists face and the sacrifices they make. She has released albums sung in both English and Russian, and is the author of an essay collection called "You Must Go and Win." We discuss the myths about the artist-as-entrepreneur and why having to constantly hustle is bad for artists.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Daniel Savage, who leads North American operations for Musicmetric, a startup which offers behavioral data for the music industry. He gives us his perspective on the Iron Maiden story that recently made headlines around the interwebs and what role behavioral data plays in helping artists make decisions.

When Beyoncé dropped her fifth album on iTunes on December 13, it was a complete surprise. This has led many people to declare that she has changed the game by releasing an album that didn’t have any marketing or PR efforts behind it. So what should we make of all this? What does it mean for the music industry? Beth Martinez of Danger Village, a PR company that promotes emerging artists, and Alicia Yaffe of the Spellbound Group, a firm that develops online marketing and brand management for artists, discuss the Beyoncé album hype.

In episode 36 of the Upward Spiral, we talk with Ben Sisario, who reports on the changing landscape of the music industry for the New York Times. Sisario shares his thoughts on the beat he covers and how the stories he writes develop, YouTube’s plans for an music award show and subscription music service, and why streaming services more broadly haven't gained a larger foothold. We also deconstruct the recent virality of Miley Cyrus.

In episode 34 of the Upward Spiral, we talk with Matt Voyno, co-author of the New Rockstar Philosophy, a book that strives to be a road map for starting a musical project in the digital age. We were excited to interview Matt, because we have been virtual colleagues and friends through about five years now. We discuss how Matt and his co-author started blogging, what has changed in the music and technology sector since then, how theory of one thousand true fans and direct-to-fan marketing has evolved in recent years, and what this new age means for indie artists.

The story of Goldiblox and the Beastie Boys has gained traction in recent days, and for good reason — it's a nuanced conflict with no obvious resolution. Goldiblox is a start-up toymaker with the noble goal of getting girls into engineering and teaching them STEM skills. Their viral video gave the Beastie Boys' "Girls" a female-empowerment lyric makeover without the band's permission, and then Goldiblox slapped the Beasties with a lawsuit as a pre-emptive defense against any legal action. Should Goldiblox be protected under fair use? Pundits from all sides of music and tech have weighed in, and Upward Spiral co-host Jason Spitz gathered three intelligent and insightful voices for a lively conversation.

Last week TechCrunch reported that a huge percentage of Rdio staff were laid off. Months earlier, Slacker and Rhapsody also laid off staff. This trend begs several larger questions: Are these layoffs just the start of a correction and we will being seeing more soon? Are we on the verge of a major consolidation in the online music sector? Are the growth strategies and business models at the streaming companies sustainable? The Deep Dive examines these difficult questions alongside startup founder and industry pundit J Herskowitz.

1: Jade Nielsen, founder and president of Jade Presents, a North Dakota based concert and events promoter, talks about how he got started in the concert business and what it took for him to take his career seriously, what he thinks about the consolidation of the business over the last decade, and the different tactics he has tried out in recent years to sell more tickets. Nielsen has brought tons of national and emerging acts to Fargo, ND and the surrounding Midwest region, as well as launched a separate ticketing arm of his company called Tickets300.

In episode 33 of the Upward Spiral, we talk with JJ Italiano, who is a manager, producer, and major label veteran. Italiano got his start managing Flobots, who rose to alt-stardom with “Handlebars” and then signed a major label deal. After parting ways with them, he managed I Fight Dragons and MC Lars, among others, and also worked at Universal Music Group on the Gotye album. But more than any of this, Italiano is one of our favorite people to talk with about why the new music industry is still beholden to old-school benchmarks and music tech theories.