Beatseeker

Abbey Road Studios is the most famous recording studio in the world, renowned for its creativity and technological excellence. It is a global icon that for the last 90 years has been the musical home to artists such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Ella Fitzgerald, Radiohead, Ed Sheeran, Kanye West, Lady Gaga,, Amy Winehouse and Adele. We wanted an insider take on this sacred studio so we could learn about the art of mastering and remastering music.  

Our studio guide is Simon Gibson. Simon is one of the world's leading audio restoration and remastering engineers and has 30 years’ experience at Abbey Road. He has mastered the work of some of the world's best known names in pop, rock and classical music, including The Beatles, Depeche Mode, Robbie Williams, and soundtrack albums to many Hollywood blockbusters. He is responsible for the audio restoration on the Grammy Award-winning The Beatles Album Remasters among numerous restoration projects in his illustrious career. 

At Beatseeker, we love music and we love games, so combining them in interesting ways is bound to get our attention. Our guest today blurs the lines between music creation and video games and he has even developed an arcade-style ‘Beat Machine’ which puts musical creativity at the centre of any private or public space. 

Meet Tim Shaw, AKA Tim Exile, a producer and performer of electronic music spanning drum and bass, IDM, breakcore and gabber. A classically trained violinist, Tim began experimenting with electronic music aged 12 and never looked back. Unsatisfied with the possibilities of conventional DJing, Exile first programmed his own performance tools to allow improvisational live sets.  In 2016, he launched Endlesss, a collaborative music-making app inspired by his Flow Machine, which he had previously used in live performances. The Beat Machine is his latest creation. He joins us from his studio in London England.

If administered correctly, can music be used as medicine? We reached out to a fascinating company called MediMusic for some answers. MediMusic creates individualized playlists that reduce heart rate and influence the Vagus nerve to stimulate a positive physio-endocrine response. The software uses algorithms to automatically create playlists based on a range of academic data on how people consume music –like age, gender and  nationality – that prompt a positive physiological and emotional response. 

Joining us today is Gary Jones, the CEO and Co-founder of MediMusic. Gary is an award-winning entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in music and content management. Previously, he worked on projects with Sony, Intel, Yahoo, PRS and News International. Gary Jones’s own musical journey began when his uncle bought him a plastic guitar for his 13th birthday in the mid-1970s. Inspired by his musical family, he taught himself how to play, started a school band and began putting gigs and events on in his local area. He joins us from Hull, England.

Ever get the chills when listening to some amazing music? It used to be something that occurred accidentally but is now being engineered by artists and influencers into a more potent form called ASMR.  ASMR or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, has captured the attention of the Internet with millions watching viral clips of whispered voices, delicate hand movements or tapping. 

Our guide to ASMR is Giulia Poerio, an associate lecturer at the University of Sussex. Dr. Poerio is a world-renowned expert on ASMR and was one of the first academics to conduct formal studies on the subject. She joins us from Essex, England.

The vast majority of people go to YouTube for video content on the web, but when it comes to music videos, Vevo is the OG. Jointly owned and operated by the big record labels, Vevo specializes in ​streaming music videos and artist-exclusive content. Even when you stream a music video from YouTube, chances are that it was served up by Vevo. 

Taking us inside the company is JP Evangelista, Vevo’s Senior Vice President of Content, Programming & Marketing. JP oversees Vevo’s original content, production, music programming, editorial, talent, events, label relations & social teams globally. He’s the ideal guest to explain how Vevo works, having been with the company since before its 2009 launch. We reached JP in New York City.

Music and other media are becoming increasingly globalized. Not so long ago, it was rare to discover music that originated far from your home. But now it’s increasingly easy to discover music, movies and TV shows made anywhere in the world. We now watch shows like the Korean hit Squid Game and listen to Puerto Rican sensation Bad Bunny without giving it much thought.  

To explain the rapid globalization of music and culture, we reached Srishti Das in Mumbai. Srishti graduated from Berklee Valencia with a masters degree in music business, and went on to work in different parts of the industry, including as a journalist, teacher and on project teams for various streaming applications.

The pandemic caused many of us to work from home. For most people this wasn’t a big deal but if you’re a world renowned composer who needs to collaborate with a big symphony, a zoom meeting just isn’t going to cut it. Today you’ll hear about a very unique work from home story that inspired a novel workaround. Like many pandemic innovations, it turns out this workaround had lasting benefits long after things have returned to normal.

Joining us today are the duo that developed this technology, Jody Elff and Anna Clyne. Elff is a Grammy Award winning audio engineer and sound artist. He has mixed countless televised network concert events and his orchestral collaborations include the LA Philharmonic and Lincoln Center Festival. London-born Anna Clyne is a GRAMMY-nominated composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music and one of the most acclaimed and in-demand composers of her generation. We reached them in New Paltz, NY.

It seems like there’s little room to enter the music streaming market with companies like Spotify, Apple, Amazon and Tencent dominating global market share, but innovators always seem to find a way in. Tuned Global is a B2B streaming technology provider that helps companies launch their own streaming services. Their technology has been used by some of the big names, including the UFC, Warner, Universal and Sony Music Group.

Joining us today is Con Raso, the founder and Managing Director of Tuned Global. Con is a life-long innovator and music technologist, who has created disruptive tech solutions in the transition from CD to download then streaming and now Web3. Con joins us from London, England.

Live streamed concerts gained some momentum during the pandemic, but will people keep attending now that things have returned to normal? To help us answer this, we spoke to the industry leader in live streaming - Kiswe. Kiswe’s two-way video technology enables audiences to both consume and contribute to live digital content. They have delivered the world’s largest digital pay-per-view events and serve some of the top sports, media, and entertainment companies.

Joining us today is Glenn Booth, CEO at Kiswe. Glenn was named one of Billboard's 2022 International Power Players and previously held senior positions at Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent. Glenn joins us from New Providence, NJ.

Music is an important tool for sports teams to get fans - and players -  amped up for a game. The tunes need to rock the arena to keep the energy level high and a DJ needs to pick the right song to match each game situation. We wondered what it must be like to be a pro sports DJ: what’s involved in preparing and what it’s like to spin tunes for a big game. Taking us behind the scenes is music producer and DJ, Cale Granton.

Cale has performed alongside top musical talents including Snoop Dogg, Lil Yachty, Sean Paul & Major Lazer.  A resident DJ at Drake’s private members-only Sher Club, he is often called upon by his extensive celebrity client list. Cale is also the Official DJ for the Toronto Maple Leafs where he spins for 20,000 Leaf fans at the Scotiabank Arena. We even got to meet up with Cale and check out his sweet setup overlooking a recent Leafs game. 

Follow Cale on social media @calegranton

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The launch of Napster in June of 1999 ushered in a new era for the music industry. Music was pulled kicking and screaming into the digital era and the demise of the CD format was not long off. The subsequent collapse in revenues for music, caused the industry to reluctantly embrace streaming platforms like Spotify it also caused far reaching ripple effects we are still living with today in both music and culture at large.

Here to explain is Dr. Aram Sinnreich. Aram is a Professor and chair of the Communication Studies division at American University’s School of Communication. His work focuses on the intersection of culture, law and technology, with an emphasis on subjects such as surveillance, critical data studies, intellectual property, remix culture, and music. He is the author of three books: Mashed Up, The Piracy Crusade, and The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property and has written for publications including The New York Times, Billboard and Wired. He joins us from Washington, DC.

The connection between music and human beings runs deeper than you might think. Humans are innately musical beings - and our relationship with music has been deeply intertwined since the homo sapiens first emerged. Our guest today is Michael Spitzer, who boldly makes the case that music is the most important thing we ever did; and is in fact a fundamental part of what makes us human.

Michael is a British musicologist and professor of Music at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of four books including his most recent, The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth. The book is the first 'Big History' of music,  a colossal history spanning cultures, time, and space to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species. He joins us from Liverpool, England.

At Beatseeker, we’re constantly looking for new ways to discover good tunes. HotDrop is a new app that guides music lovers and discoverers through a feed of underground indie music. In their words, HotDrop “... keeps your music taste fresh with millions of new songs you've never heard before.”

Here to tell us how it all works is HotDrop’s CEO Max Goldberg. Max and his co-founder Steven Segel founded the company in their Indiana University dorm room. Max is a self-taught app developer and sold his first app venture when he was still in high school. He joins us from Portland, Maine.

Any concertgoer will tell you that good tickets are hard to come by, cost an arm and a leg and charge an obscene amount of service fees. Ticketmaster has a firm stranglehold on the business of concert ticketing and ever since merging with promoter and venue operator Live Nation in 2010, critics have pointed to an unfair marketplace for consumers. Here to break down the problem is Krista Brown, one of the people fighting to break up the monopoly in an effort to put an end to their unparalleled influence over the ticketing market.

Krista is a Senior Policy Analyst at the American Economic Liberties Project. Previously, Krista was a research associate at Open Markets Institute where she focused on concentration in the technology industry, wealth inequality, and the disproportionate effects of monopoly power on low income and minority populations. While there, she helped draft the amicus brief in support of the FTC’s anti-monopoly suit against Qualcomm. We reached her in Boston, MA.

Classical music is making a big comeback. More and more people - including the younger generation - are enjoying music that was written hundreds of years ago. Do recent tech developments, like streaming and social media have something to do with reawakening these age-old works?

Here to help us understand the classical revival is Jess Gillam. Jess is the first ever saxophonist to be signed to Decca Classics and her debut album “Rise” shot to No.1 in the Official UK Classical Charts. She became the youngest ever presenter for BBC Radio 3 and hosts her own weekly show called “This Classical Life” in which she talks to musical friends and colleagues about the music that inspires them. She joins us from just outside of London, UK.

Today’s episode is our year end wrap-up where we look at the biggest tech trends impacting music and we contemplate where things may be headed in 2023 and beyond. We wanted to discuss the music metaverse, the state of Web3, the increasing popularity of old material and ‘streaming fatigue’. We discuss these developments with legendary storyteller Alan Cross.

Alan is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. Based in Toronto, he is best known nationally and internationally as host of the syndicated radio series The Ongoing History of New Music, The Secret History of Rock, and ExploreMusic. In his forty years in the broadcast and music business, he has interviewed the biggest names in rock, ranging from David Bowie and Ringo Starr to U2, Pearl Jam, Coldplay, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, AC/DC and the Foo Fighters. As avid listeners of Alan’s storytelling for decades, we are incredibly pumped to have him on the show today.

Can the music industry come together to lower our carbon footprint and save the planet? A unique organization is working to transform the music industry to address our climate emergency because in their words, there is #NoMusicOnaDeadPlanet”. Here to tell us about the initiative is Fay Milton.

Fay is co-founder of Music Declares Emergency, a group of artists, music industry professionals and organizations that stand together to declare a climate and ecological emergency and call for an immediate governmental response. She is a presenter of the music and climate podcast Sounds Like a Plan produced by New Allotment. Fay is also a drummer and music producer, having played in a Mercury-nominated apocalyptic post-punk band. She joins us from London, England.

Nashville. Seattle. New Orleans. These are but a few examples of cities that have organically developed incredible music scenes. But in fact, any city can encourage their local music scene so residents can benefit culturally, economically and in a host of other ways. Today we speak with Shain Shapiro who helps cities understand these benefits and create the right policies to enable them.

Shain is the founder of Sound Diplomacy and a globally recognised thought leader at the convergence of music, culture and urban policy. He has influenced over 100 cities and places to invest in music and culture as part of their overall growth strategy. He is also the co-founder of Music Cities Convention, bringing together the music industry with city planners, developers, policy makers and executives.  His debut book, This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better, is due out on Repeater Books in September, 2023. We reached him in London, England.

Biology would teach us that animal noises are purely functional - the sounds animals make for attracting mates or warning of danger are evolutionary adaptations necessary for surviving in the wild but nothing more. Our guest today contends the story is more complex than what you learned in bio class. Animals can make music and it’s even possible to jam with them.

To help us sort out this musical jungle is David Rothenberg - a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, with a special interest in animal sounds as music. He is also a composer and jazz musician whose books and recordings reflect a longtime interest in understanding other species such as singing insects, birds and even whales. Through Rothenberg's study of animal song and his experimental interactions with animal music, he is often called an "interspecies musician". We reached him in Cold Spring, New York.

Heavy metal music might not conjure up images of positive mental health, but research shows that for some people, a little metal might be just what the doctor ordered. It’s time to challenge those negative stereotypes and learn about the health benefits of metal. While we’re at it, we’re going to find out why sharks love heavy metal too.

Joe Daly is an award-winning music journalist who joins us today to explain the healthy metal paradox. Joe regularly contributes to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Men’s Health and Bass Player Magazine among other outlets. We reached him in San Diego.

Social media influencers have massive audiences that can help catapult a budding musician's career. The challenge for artists is how to get their attention. Unlike Coke or Pepsi, they can’t afford to pay for placement. Our guest today was working at a record label when she stumbled on a brilliant idea, why not create a matchmaking platform to connect these groups together. Enter Thematic, a platform that connects content creators with artists across YouTube and other digital platforms. Launched in 2018, the Thematic community has grown to over 400,000 creators in 220 countries.

Here to tell us their story is Audrey Marshall, one of Thematic’s co-founders and their COO. Audrey is responsible for leading the company’s product development, technical programming, and business development endeavors. She has been working with, and connecting, content creators with music artists, their labels and publishers, for the past 10 years as a lead executive with the music media venture, Spin Move Media. We reached Audrey in Los Angeles.

Most dating apps use sophisticated algorithms to help singles find compatible mates based on common interests and backgrounds. One company taking an entirely new approach is Beatmatch, the dating app that helps music lovers find love connections by matching people with similar music tastes.

Our guest today is Chudi Iregbulem, the founder and CEO of Beatmatch.  Chudi believes your music taste speaks volumes. Everything from how you talk to how you dress to how you think is influenced by the type of music you like. In other words, Chudi is on a mission to connect the world through music. He joins us from Los Angeles.

Stadiums, amphitheaters, bandshells, nightclubs - every live music venue offers a different type of experience. How about attending a performance in someone’s home? Musicasa is a startup that is helping facilitate such performances: intimate home concerts hosted by music lovers supporting independent and emerging musicians from the comfort of their house, apartment, or loft.

Here to walk us through the story is Beatriz Ayala, the founder and CEO of Musicasa. Beatriz comes from the advertising and communications world, having spent over a decade working for agencies and co-leading the strategy, comms, planning, media and creative initiatives for brands including Cover Girl, Bacardi, Snickers, and Hyundai. She joins us today from Miami.

Before the death of Buddy Holly, the conventional wisdom among record companies was: ‘stiffs don’t sell’. Times have certainly changed and the estates of some artists have become massive money makers. But how did this trend come about - and how might the artists feel about the posthumous commercialization of their work?

Our guest today is Eamonn Forde, an award-winning music business writer and author. Eamonn has been writing about all areas of the music business since 2000 in publications including Forbes, The Guardian and Music Business World. He is the author of three books, most recently Leaving The Building: The Lucrative Afterlife Of Music Estates (Omnibus Press). He joins us from North London.

The linkage between music and math is not well understood. People tend to think music is creative and math is perhaps the antithesis of the creative arts. But when you think about it, music is full of mathematical concepts: time signatures, sets, loops, patterns and recursion to name a few. There are even studies that show that children who play musical instruments are better at solving complex math problems. Helping us understand the music-math relationship is Marcus Miller.

Born in New Jersey, Marcus grew up in a house full of music. He took up saxophone at age nine and, with the help of renowned saxophonist Bruce Williams, developed a passion that put him on stage professionally at 13. With gifts extending beyond music, he graduated from Harvard with a degree in mathematics. After a short stint at a multibillion dollar hedge fund he moved to New York to pursue music full time. Marcus maintains his interest in mathematics and physics, giving talks, tutoring, and studying independently under scholars at Columbia and Princeton. In addition he works at Math-M-Addicts, a program for NYC children who are extraordinarily gifted in mathematics. He joins us today from New York City.

Back before streaming services, and before the internet ushered in widespread distribution, great music could be overlooked for one reason or another. Enter The Numero Group: an archival record label that researches and preserves musical gems by artists and entrepreneurs who found little commercial success upon their material's initial release.

Numero creates compilations of previously released music, reissues original albums and creates album reconstructions from a variety of musical genres. Here to tell the Numero story is Ken Shipley, a former A&R manager for the equally eclectic Rykodisc label and one of Numero’s founders. Ken joins us from Los Angeles. Joining us from Chicago is Tim Zawada, Numero’s  Managing Director.

This episode features a special guest, Barclay Crenshaw also known as Claude VonStroke. Claude is the founder of one of the hottest EDM labels - Dirtybird Records. He’s also world-renowned EDM DJ and artist, performing at virtually every major festival and club across the globe.

We start with the origin story of Dirtybird: how it started and how the label has evolved. Then we discuss the rave scene over the years. As you’ll hear, Dirty Bird is not your typical label and Claude isn’t your typical DJ. He curates unique experiences with fans to get the crowd in the zone and help them get weird.

We all know that music can be soothing; it can reflect your mood or enhance it - it can even change it. But did you know that it can be used as therapy for a wide range of conditions? We wanted to learn about music therapy and how it works, so we reached out to Dr. Joy Allen, a licensed music therapist and thought leader in the field.

Joy is an accomplished clinician, researcher and educator with extensive experience in psychological health, pain management, and trauma-informed education and supervision. She presents at music therapy and music-and health-related conferences. She is the editor of Guidelines for Music Therapy: Adult Medical Care, authored chapters on adult oncology, pain management, and medical music therapy. She serves in numerous capacities for the American Music Therapy Association - and is the founding and acting director of the Music and Health Institute. We reached Joy in Boston, MA.

The artist-to-fan relationship is constantly evolving. In the old days, middlemen at the record label used radio, TV and other marketing channels to promote an artist. Then, new tools and technologies emerged which enabled artists a direct relationship with their fans - or a ‘direct–to-fan’ model. Now things are advancing again towards a ‘fan-to-fan’ model - where the fans themselves become the key to reaching and engaging new fans.

Our guide today to this evolution is Tatiana Cirisano. Tatiana is an award-winning music industry journalist, analyst and consultant based in Brooklyn by way of Miami. As an analyst and consultant at MIDiA Research, she identifies the risks and opportunities in the rapidly-changing music market for leading global entertainment and tech companies. Before this, she was a music business reporter at Billboard, where she wrote cover stories on influential artists like Tame Impala, Travis Scott and Alicia Keys.

Social audio has gained some attention in recent years, with platforms like Clubhouse and new offerings from the likes of Twitter and Spotify. But what is Social Audio - and can it provide new opportunities for the creator economy? Today we’re speaking with Ryan Star, CEO and founder of Stationhead, a social audio app that enables anyone to start their own social, global radio program.

Ryan is a recording artist that got his big break playing at CBGBs in New York and then opening for Bon Jovi when he was still in high school. Today, he has more than 40 million plays on Spotify and around 200,000 monthly listeners. His music has appeared in films such as P.S. I Love You, shows including The Vampire Diaries and the theme song to Lie To Me.  He’s shared the stage with Imagine Dragons, Bon Jovi and Maroon 5 among others. Having worked in entertainment long enough to understand where there are gaps for creators, he created Stationhead in 2017 where some Stationhead show DJs have had over 200,000 concurrent listeners on their shows. He joins us from Brooklyn, NY.

While it’s now easier than ever to access music over streaming platforms, what we gain in convenience we lose in audio quality. Orastream is a company that helps audiophiles stream their music collection in high definition. Counting Neil Young as a customer and fan of their tech, Orastream’s mission is to restore high quality audio to your digital music.

Helping us understand what makes for good quality audio streaming these days is Frankie Tan, Oratsream’s founder. Frankie is an engineer by training and holds MSc degrees in Financial Management from University of London and in Strategic Management from Nanyang Technological University. He joins us today from Singapore.

The iPhone was first introduced in 2007. This world changing product brought us some amazing benefits but it also created some issues. Besides the screen addiction affecting us all, there is growing evidence that our constant use of  headphones might be creating a hearing loss epidemic - especially in younger people. We wanted to learn what listening habits might contribute to the problem and if there’s anything we can do about it.

To answer our questions, we reached out to one of the world’s leading experts on the topic, Dr. Shelly Chadha. She was trained as an otolaryngologist at the University of Delhi, India, where she also undertook doctoral studies in public health. Dr. Chadha oversees the WHO's work on prevention of deafness and hearing loss including advocacy for prioritization of hearing care; technical support to countries for development of hearing care strategies and development of technical tools and guidance. She joins us today from Geneva, Switzerland.

It’s no secret that concert ticketing is a mess. Service fees are sky high, sophisticated bots scoop the best seats and resale prices on secondary markets are too high for many fans. While the problem is widespread - help may be on the way. A promising startup called Lyte is creating solutions to level the playing field and ease the burden on fans’ pocketbooks.

Helping us dig into the issue is Lawrence Peryer. Lawrence is the Chief Strategy Officer at Lyte, a reservations technology platform that has reimagined event ticketing for artists, venues and fans. He has worked with and on behalf of artists including David Bowie, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones and Madonna, among many others, helping them grow and shape their relationships with their fans. He joins us from Normandy Park, south of Seattle, Washington

One theory explaining the recent comeback in record collecting is that its a backlash against the digitization of music. There’s a new company that is challenging this theory by integrating old school vinyl collections with a hot new digital collectible - NFTs. Vinylkey believes that by merging record collecting with NFTs, they can unlock new opportunities for artists to engage and delight their fans.

Taking us on a tour of Vinylkey are Gar Ragland and Sean Moore. Gar is a producer, musician, and entrepreneur - and the founder and CEO of Citizen Vinyl, a vinyl pressing plant, bar/Café, recording studio and store all on the same site. Sean is an entrepreneur and software engineer with over 30 years of experience who fell into the crypto rabbit hole in 2013 and pulled himself out long enough to rediscover vinyl. We reached them at Citizen Vinyl in Asheville, NC.

In past episodes we’ve covered how music can impact our brain’s chemistry. In this episode we look at an area of research that explores the relationship between musical preferences and our personality. What does your taste in music say about your character and can your personality traits predict what types of music you’ll like?

To walk us through his topic, we’re joined today by Dr. David M. Greenberg from Jerusalem, Israel. David is a psychologist, musician, and researcher at Bar-Ilan University and Cambridge University. His research examines music at the intersection of social science, neuroscience, genetics, and clinical treatment. David created the Musical Universe project which measures your reactions to musical excerpts and asks some questions about your character and then maps your unique musical and psychological profile.

The Eurovision Song Contest attracts over 180 million viewers and has been an annual event since 1956. Despite being such a huge success, the USA has never joined in on the action until now. This year NBC is running their own Americanized spinoff - The American Song Contest hosted by Snoop and Kelly Clarkson. Will it enjoy the lasting power of Eurovision or be a one and done flop?

Joining us today from North Edinburgh, Scotland is Ewan Spence. Ewan is a freelance broadcaster and journalist, with a particular interest in media, technology, music, and the arts. He has been the UK radio commentator for Junior Eurovision since 2013, and the US radio commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest since 2018. Ewan co-founded Eurovision Insight (escinsight.com) in 2010 and under his editorship it has grown to become an influential force in the world of the Eurovision Song Contest. He hosts its weekly Insight News podcast, the annual Juke Box Jury review show, and the daily coverage from backstage at the Song Contest every May. Ewan has written three books; including ‘Eurovision: Beyond The Sequins’.

In 2022, Neil Young left Spotify to protest the platform’s support of podcaster Joe Rogan and his alleged misinformation about COVID, bringing the role of music and protest back into the spotlight. Using music to effect social change is nothing new but much has changed since the days of Bob Dylan and social upheaval of the 60s.

To help explain this evolution, we reached James Sullivan, a music and culture writer and journalism teacher at Emerson College. His book “Which Side Are You On? The History of America in 100 Protest Songs” offers a survey of how songs have been embraced by various protest movements over the past century. He joins us from North of Boston.

Virtual artists have been around since the time of Alvin and the Chipmunks but have never really penetrated mainstream music. This could be about to change. Increasingly we’re seeing breakout hits from artists like Grimes’ War Nymph and Lil Miquela. And with the coming of the metaverse, virtual artists could have the platform they always needed to propel this niche into overdrive.

To help explain this trend, our guest today is Ian Simon who joins us from Los Angeles. Ian is a co-founder of Strangeloop Studios, a visual production company that has created music videos and concert visuals for artists like the Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar. Ian and his partner David Wexler also founded a new startup called Spirit Bomb. Spirit Bomb is a music label dedicated to virtual artists.

The role of music in video games has been constantly evolving. We started with background music in iconic games like Super Mario Bros, Zelda or Tetris.  Then games like Guitar Hero, Just Dance and Grand Theft Auto incorporated hit songs into the game play. More recently, popular artists have been performing concerts as avatars in game worlds like Fortnite and Roblox. Could the Metaverse be the next evolution? Where music can be streamed and concerts are reimagined in new paradigms that are immersive, interactive… and literally mind-blowing.

To help explain this trend, Inder Phull joins us from Los Angeles. Along with music visionaries and artists including Deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin, he is the co-founder of Pixellynx - a company that is building what they’ve dubbed the ‘Musicverse’. Inder has worked across music, entertainment and partnerships for the past 10 years, starting his first agency when he was 21. He has worked with some of the biggest global brands and was selected as the International Music Summit Visionary Winner - a global search for the next generation of industry influencer.

We can all remember a radio or TV jingle that's stuck in our heads. The first music jingle aired almost 100 years ago and since then advertisers have learned that music is critical to making a great ad. Who were the original mad men that discovered this innovation - and how has music in advertising evolved over the years?

To walk us through this interesting history, we’re joined by Dr. Timothy D. Taylor, a professor in UCLA’s Department of Music and an authority on music and advertising. Tim is an interdisciplinary social scientist studying capitalism, globalization, and consumer culture as they relate to music. He is the author of numerous books, including The Sounds of Capitalism: Advertising, Music, and the Conquest of Culture. He joins us from Los Angeles.

Streaming platforms have given us the gift of cheap, easy access to any song in the world but they have also attracted criticism from indie artists who complain that the royalty system they ushered in unfairly favors the top artists. SoundCloud was an early pioneer in streaming and always catered to the indie community. So it makes sense that they are trying to improve the economics for emerging artists, in part with a new system they call Fan-Powered Royalties.

We’re joined today by Drea Jackson, Manager of Artist Relations at SoundCloud. Drea walks us through the history of SoundCloud, how their Fan-Powered system differs from the Big Pool system used by the other big streaming platforms - and why it's better for indie artists. Drea joins us from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

Have you ever wondered why certain songs get stuck in your head or why certain memories are triggered when listening to music? In this episode we get into a mind-blowing discussion about everything from ear worms to how music can be applied as an Alzheimer's therapy.

We’re joined by Dr. Kelly Jakubowski, a researcher specializing in music and memory. Kelly is an Assistant Professor of Music Psychology at Durham University in the UK. She studied Music Performance (on the violin) and Music Theory for her undergrad at Baldwin Wallace University - and her Masters at Ohio State. She then pursued an MSc and PhD in music psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London.

When most people hear about crypto or blockchains, they probably think it’s all about Bitcoin. Turns out there’s much more to it. Audius is a new kind of music streaming company built on the foundations of the blockchain or Web3 technology. Despite being only 3 years old, Audius was named one of the hottest companies of 2021 attracting investment from top Venture Capital firms and artists like Katy Perry, Nas, Pusha T, Steve Aoki and others. In this episode we get the down-low on the hype around Audius and how a crypto-based streaming platform can provide radical new benefits to artists and their fans.

We’re joined by Roneil Rumburg and Forrest Browning. Roneil is a co-founder and CEO at Audius and previously co-founded Kleiner Perkins' early-stage seed fund. At KP, he was responsible for seed investments into Blockchain and AI companies. Roneil attended Stanford University and previously co-founded a Bitcoin peer-to-peer payment company called Backslash. He joins us from Lake Tahoe. Forrest is a co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Audius.  He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, and previously was a Co-Founder of StacksWare. Today he joins us from West Texas.

You probably know by now that Vinyl is making a comeback. Record sales have been growing like crazy for the past 10 years. But even before vinyl was cool again, Discogs was building a site to help collectors catalog their records and sell them to anyone around the world. Founded in 2000, Discogs has grown to become one of the top music sites on the web.

To help us get inside the vinyl underground and the rise of Discogs, we’re joined today by Jeffrey Smith, Director of Growth Marketing. Jeff has been with the company since 2017 and comes to Discogs after 13 years as Founder and Principal Publicist of Crash Avenue, a boutique music public relations firm. Jeff joins us from Louisville, Kentucky.

It’s not everyday that you hear about a brand new instrument. Today we’re joined by Mike Butera, CEO of Artiphon. Artiphon is developing new types of musical instruments that can be played by anybody. Their first product launched in 2014 and set a record with Kickstarter as the best selling musical instrument ever on that platform. Mike tells us how he was inspired to start the company and how technology is lowering the barrier to music creation and growing an army of new artists.

Mike founded Artiphon in Nashville, Tennessee in 2011. He holds a Ph.D. in Sound Studies from Virginia Tech, has toured the country as a multi-instrumentalist, taught as a professor of sociology, and consulted globally on consumer electronics. Today he joins us from Swan’s Island, Maine.

Music fans love their merch. How else do people know all the cool music you like if you’re not wearing the shirt? Merch has long been a way for fans to connect with artists and also a significant revenue stream for artists. When the pandemic hit, concert revenue died and merch revenue died with it. In this episode we hear the story first hand from a company that makes their living selling merch and how they pivoted to survive. We also learn about what makes a great concert tee and what genre of music sells more merch than any other.

Taking us through the merch revolution is Tersha Willis, co-founder of Terrible* Merch. Terrible* Merch is a full-service music merchandise and product management company that helps artists make more money from merchandise.

Tersha has a background in private equity, financial services and fashion. She’s also an advocate for women in music, female founders and sustainability. She joins us from London, England.

Web3, or what many think of as ‘crypto’ was a major story in 2021 and is continuing to develop in 2022, but web3 is much more than just crypto. Emerging business models and things like Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), for example, are a new type of entity with the potential to blow the doors off traditional centralized organizations. Web3 and its underlying blockchain technology have the potential to facilitate global IP rights administration and royalty management - paving the way for real-time payments and innovative revenue streams for rights owners, creators, artists, producers, and publishers around the world.

To help us wrap our heads around this tech and to separate the hype from reality,  Bruno Guez joins us from Jerusalem, Israel. Bruno is the Founder of Revelator, a digital asset and blockchain-based distribution platform for creative IP that transforms creative IP (like music) into digital assets, unlocking the value of tomorrow’s web3 ownership economy. Bruno is a former Director on the Board of Merlin Network, the leading music rights agency, and has over twenty-five years experience as a seasoned digital music executive working with Island Records and Cirque du Soleil.

Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs took the world by storm in 2021 turning digital art into digital gold. NFTs could be an important new revenue stream for artists but so far music has been mostly left out of the party. In this episode we talk to one of the companies trying to change this with a new platform to create and sell music NFTs. We hear the story of how new artists and veterans like Method Man are getting in on the NFT market.

We’re joined today by John Kohl and Alison Ball of TuneGO. John is the CEO and a co-founder of TuneGO and is a music lover and artist advocate. Alison is TuneGO’s president, a 25 year veteran of the music industry and former VP of A&R at Warner Bros. John and Alison join us from Las Vegas and Los Angeles, respectively.

Listeners connect with the artists on many different levels. Some are casual listeners, others might attend a concert or two and superfans make it a lifestyle choice. Consider ‘Deadheads’ who followed the Grateful Dead to hundreds of shows or the BTS Army that attacks online critics of the popular K-Pop group. What is it about some bands that create such rapid followings? Whatever the level of fandom, the ability for fans to connect to artists (and vice versa) has been ever evolving as new technologies have emerged: from snail-mail to email to social media to new dedicated fan engagement platforms like FanCircles.

In this episode we discuss fan engagement with Kevin Brown, who joins us from Canterbury, England. Kevin is the founder and CEO of FanCircles and has worked in the tech industry since writing his first game back in 1983. He went on to run various companies and exited several, most notably Affiliate Window where he was founder and CEO.

Music labels were once the gatekeepers of the music industry, handling every part of the music production and distribution process. Now this oligopoly has been disrupted by new technologies that lower the cost for artists to create music, distribute it and promote it themselves. The labels and the business models needed to support them have had to adapt to this new reality.

To walk us through this topic we’re joined by Kirt Debique, CEO of music label Bricklane and technology startup SyncFloor. Kirt was a 20 year Microsoft veteran who left tech to start an indie music label and a new technology company that helps artists license their music for commercial applications.