Beatseeker

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 mu...

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 scen...

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...

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 ke...

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 r...

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 q...

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...

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 Law...

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 f...

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. Green...

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...

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...

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...

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 th...

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....

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 a...

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 Psycho...

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 Kat...

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...

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 tec...

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 an...

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...

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...

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 fan...

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...