Beatseeker

In the epic 1968 Stanley Kubrick sci-fi film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, Hal, an artificial intelligence sings a song called Daisy Bell while being decommissioned by the space crew. Over 50 years later, AI is no longer sci-fi. It’s here and it’s real. In this episode we’re joined by Jon Gillick, a computer scientist that was part of the winning team of the 2021 international AI song contest. Their wi...

Who wrote that song? What’s that sample? When music went digital, listeners lost the liner notes along with the ability to easily discover the musicians and other individuals who made it. Enter the Deepr music app. Known as ‘Shazam on steroids’, Deepr uses audio recognition and manual search inputs to identify who was involved in making that music. The app shares interactive data behind the music:...

What were the biggest stories in music tech from 2021 and what might we see in the coming year? In today’s episode we recap the top trends of the year and make our predictions for what’s coming next. Tristra Newyear Yaeger and Dmitri Vietze join us from Bloomington Indiana for an end of the year round-up. Dmitri is the Founder and CEO of rock paper scissors , a music tech and innovation PR firm wh...

Have you ever listened to music while exercising? You were probably just trying to make it more enjoyable or pass the time more quickly. But, did you know that music can actually make you perform better as an athlete? Music has been proven to produce a measurable improvement in many types of athletic activities. We’re joined today by a world-renowned expert who will explain why music has this supe...

In this episode Ace Piva joins us from Brantford, Ontario. He is creator of the Lost Tapes of the 27 Club, which uses artificial intelligence to create new songs by artists lost to music's mental health crisis. Ace is a certified addictions counsellor who knows the ins and outs of the road and its associated pressures and struggles. He’s been there as a musician, tour manager, sound engineer, stag...

First there was the neighbourhood music teacher. Then along came instructional videos on YouTube. Now Helsinki-based Yousician dominates music education with more than 20 million users tapping the service each month to learn and play music. In this episode we learn about Yousician, the world’s largest music education platform. Yousician turns learning into a game (sort of like Guitar Hero, but wit...

In recent years, TikTok has exploded onto the social media scene, dominating the attention span of the youth set. TikTok’s users now spend more time each month watching content than YouTube users. Songs routinely surpass a billion video views and according to the company, 100 songs have racked up over 50 billion views on over 125 million creations. Five of these reached number one on Billboard’s H...

In this episode we look at the disappearance of record shops in the UK in the late 2000s, followed by a sharp resurgence that continues into the 2020s. While it seemed record shops were going the way of the 8-track and the cassette, the industry did a complete 180 and did the unthinkable - and boutique record stores started popping up again all over the UK. To take us through the downs and ups, Pi...

In this episode we dig into disruptive new business models for artists that use social tokens also known as creator coins. Creator coins represent a potential breakthrough for artists to earn a living and also for fans to participate directly in economy of the artists they want to support. Rally is a new platform for allowing - artists and creators of all types - to make and issue these coins. To...

In this episode we explore the world of Splice and the music creation tools they create for artists. We dive into the expanding world of DIY music tools that enable creators to make music in their bedrooms. We learn how the rise of new tools like Splice and creators like Murda Beats are disrupting the music creation process. To take us through this topic, Ale Koretzky joins us from Venice, Califor...

In this extended length episode we’re joined by Michael McCarty from Toronto. Michael is a veteran music publisher who was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in 2019. He was president of EMI Music Publishing Canada for 17 years, spent four years as the president of Anthem (formerly ole), and seven years as the Chief Membership Officer of SOCAN. McCarty has worked in various cap...

In this episode we speak with music of the future researcher Charles Holbrow. When we spoke with him, he was on the brink of earning his PhD from the Opera of the Future group within the famed MIT Media Lab. We talk to Charles about the fact that while new styles and new technologies are constantly emerging, recorded music itself has not fundamentally changed. We dig into the concept of adaptive o...

Nolan Gasser is a critically acclaimed composer, pianist, and musicologist – most notably, the architect of Pandora Radio’s Music Genome Project and the company’s chief musicologist from its founding in 1999. He holds a Ph. D. in Musicology from Stanford University. His original compositions have been performed in numerous prestigious venues. Pandora was a pioneer in music streaming - arriving on...

In today’s episode we speak with Joe D’Angelo who joins us from Annapolis Maryland. Joe is Senior Vice President of Broadcast Radio at Xperi - a company that is modernizing our FM dial in the form of HD Radio. You might be surprised at how many cars already use their tech and how HD Radio fits into the ecosystem. For years radio has been fighting off competition from satellite services but now the...

In this episode we speak to Anida Gurlit who joins us from Charlotte, NC. Anida is a Creative Director of Music Design at Mood Media. Mood Media is a leading in-store media solutions company whose goal is to create greater emotional connections between brands and consumers through the right combination of sight, sound and even scent. The company reaches 150 million consumers each and every day thr...

In this episode we speak to Dr. Robert Zatorre. Dr. Zatorre is a cognitive neuroscientist at the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University. He helped to pioneer a new field of study that focuses on the intersection of music and the brain and is a founder and the co-director of an  international laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound research. We all know that music gives us pleasur...

In this episode we get another artist perspective on the new technologies that are changing the industry, for better or worse. In this Artist Perspective episode we speak to Kellylee Evans, an award winning jazz vocalist. Kellylee has published six albums and has toured extensively around the world, opening for artists such as George Benson, Tony Bennett, Maceo Parker, Derek Trucks and Sharon Jone...

In this episode Alison Moses joins us from Los Angeles. Alison is a music supervisor at Aperture - a company that specializes in curating soundtracks for TV and movies. She oversees the music in projects including High Fidelity (Hulu), Good Girls (NBC), Fresh Off the Boat (ABC), Girls (HBO), and films including The Craft, Game Night, Neighbors, and Trainwreck. She knows how  to pick amazing t...

In this episode we speak to Antony Bruno. Antony is the director of communications for Royalty Exchange, an online marketplace for buying and selling music royalties. Investing in music royalties used to be something that only a small number of elite labels could take part in. That is no longer the case. Thanks to new marketplaces like royalty exchange, you can now buy the royalties from artists l...

In this episode we discuss the future of the Vinyl record with the CEO of Rebeat, Guenter Loibl. Guenter has been working at the intersection of music and technology throughout his career. He runs a music label, a digital distribution company and is now working on re-inventing the vinyl record. We reached Guenter in Vienna, Austria to discuss the surprising comeback of the vinyl record, and learn...

In today’s episode we speak with Matt Boerum who joins us from Boston, Massachusetts. Matt is a musician and recording engineer with a PhD in sound technology. He is co-founder and CEO of Audible Reality, an immersive audio technology company revolutionizing music engagement through unique and interactive AI-driven 3D audio software. When itunes launched 20 years ago, the MP3 took over from Cds. W...

In this episode Steve Caldwell joins us from Louisville, Kentucky. Steve is a lifelong musician, hip-hop junkie, and one of the founders of Mandolin. When COVID struck and the live music industry was turned upside-down, Steve and his partners saw the opportunity to revolutionize live-streaming. Steve tells the story of Mandolin and how they responded to the situation in a matter of weeks and how t...

In this episode we discuss the future of concerts and festivals with Mark Monahan. Mark is the CEO of Bluesfest, one of Canada’s largest festivals drawing over 300,000 concertgoers each year. When COVID struck, Mark’s organization needed to make the hard decision to cancel their summer event. They moved quickly to pivot their events to online. We chat with Mark about how the online experiment went...

What do artists think about new technologies that are changing the industry, for better or worse?  In this Artist Perspective episode we speak to Dan Kurtz and Jamie Shields. Longtime members of the Toronto music scene, Jamie and Dan (along with Darren Shearer) formed the New Deal in 1998  fusing electronic music with live improvisation. Dan also formed the electro-pop band Dragonette wi...

What can you do with an insane amount of data about an artist? Can you use that data to predict hitmakers? In this episode we speak to Jason Joven, Manager for Content and Insights at Chartmetric. A former US Navy cryptologic intelligence officer, Jason helps create actionable insights for Chartmetric via special client projects, deep-dive articles, podcast episodes and product development. Chartm...