Break the Business

This week, Ryan is joined IN STUDIO by music industry consultant and blogger Clara Charron of the Pop of Colour blog. For the next two episodes, Clara trades her normal surroundings of Ottawa, Canada for our studio in Miami. Clara talks to Ryan about her trip to Miami (including an exciting misadventure involving an Uber Pool) and she also shares an excellent list of music conference hacks. If you...

This week, Ryan sits down with New York-based pop, EDM, and soul artist Lachi. Lachi's musical journey has led to her collaborating with artists like Patti LaBelle, Questlove, and Snoop Dogg. And her personal story is as inspiring as her music is as exciting and enjoyable. Lachi talks to Ryan about how being legally blind from birth has influenced her art and given her a unique perspective on movi...

This week, Ryan sits down with award-winning singer-songwriter James Lee Baker. James talks to Ryan about the interesting way he created his two most recent recording projects. For his 2017 album "Home Again", he was able to recruit musicians from all over the world (and on a modest budget) by using the website Fiverr. And for his most recent project, James will be going into the Leesta Vall Recor...

This week, Ryan sits down with Independent Country Music Hall of Famer Richard Lynch to talk about Richard's incredible career. They talk about changes in Nashville's music scene, why Richard embraces "traditional" country music, and Richard's charitable work with the Love Tattoo Foundation. Richard gives some terrific advice on the value of persistence in achieving success as an indie artist. Fin...

This week, Ryan sits down with one of his favorite indie artists, singer/songwriter/author Charlotte Eriksson. Known professionally as "The Glass Child," Charlotte's latest project is her podcast "Behind the Glass." Charlotte's podcast gives her the opportunity to have interesting conversations with her favorite artists, while also giving Charlotte the opportunity to bear her soul to her fans and...

This week, Ryan answers a listener question about PledgeMusic's recent payment issues. For the past six months, news outlets have reported the crowdfunding platform's problems with paying artists on time. As PledgeMusic announces that it is ready to take significant measures to get its company back on track, serious questions remain. On today's show, Ryan talks about where PledgeMusic has gone wro...

This week, Ryan sits down with comedy musician Carla Ulbrich. Carla has made a successful career out of creating funny and insightful folk music. Her comedy songs have been featured on Dr. Demento, the BBC and NPR. Carla gives us some great advice on how to break into comedy music and what to expect from venturing into that world. If you are interested in getting into this genre, or at least figur...

This week, Ryan talks to indie musician/producer Zak Sloan. A former teacher and lawyer, Zak talks to Ryan about how he transitioned from his non-music work into being able to do music full time. His journey is intriguing, and you will enjoy hearing about how he has weaved his former life into his art today. Zak also gives some tips on being effective on Twitter (hint: be a normal person and actua...

This week, Ryan sits down with entertainment law expert (and one of his closest friends) Josh Morales. Josh is an attorney at Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein in Raleigh, North Carolina where he advises a wide range of entertainment clients on intellectual property and contract matters. Josh gives us some great tips about the role that trademarks play in your career as an indie artist, and provides so...

Happy New Year, Podcast listeners! This week, Ryan gives some advice on making good New Years resolutions for 2019 for your music career. As part of that discussion, Ryan talks about Angela Mastrogiacomo's ReverbNation article "5 New Year’s Goals To Set For Yourself In 2019." Check it out here: https://bit.ly/2FhnVXQ. Ryan also talks about Apple's recent acquisition of label services company Plato...

This week, Ryan sits down with friend of the Podcast Cheryl B. Engelhardt to talk about a huge area of expertise for her: e-mail marketing. In addition to being an accomplished singer-songwriter, Cheryl also creates a lot of terrific educational resources for musician entrepreneurs. One of those resources is her "Rock Your E-mail List" course, which you can find at www.inthekey.co/emailcourse. In...

This week, Ryan sits down with one of his favorite guests, Australian "geek pop" singer-songwriter Meri Amber. Ryan catches up with Meri about some great things that have happened in her life recently, including her recent marriage and her first trip to America (she was particularly intrigued by the deodorant and breakfast cereals that we have in the States!). We also get some great advice from Me...

This week, Ryan sits down with Martin and Jude Folkman, the founders of the Independent Music Awards. Martin and Jude talk to Ryan about the history of the IMAs, how winners are selected, and how artists can submit their works to be nominated. Now in its 17th Year, the IMAs are an annual celebration of the best in independent music, with its next award ceremony being held in New York City in 2019....

This week, Ryan sits down with music business journalist Amy X. Wang of Rolling Stone to talk about Taylor Swift's new record deal with Universal Music. Ryan talks to Amy about her story in Rolling Stone about Taylor getting Universal to share Spotify proceeds with all of the Universal artists. What does Taylor's move mean for the music industry as a whole? Why did Taylor Swift choose Universal ov...

This week, Ryan talks about how changes in the music industry allow artists to achieve success at any age. In an indie artist music business, there is no such thing as being "too old" to find a place for yourself in the industry. To articulate this point, Ryan discusses some famous examples of musicians who found success later in life. Ryan also talks about his own client, Richard "Catmandu" Barnh...

This week, neo-folk singer-songwriter Eli Lev stops by. Eli is an world-traveling musician whose wanderlust has made him a better artist and has allowed him to build fan relationships all over the globe. Eli shares terrific insight about how he combines traveling, Patreon, and crowdsourcing in interesting ways to build a thriving career in music. Eli's new album Way Out West is out November 16th a...

This week, Ryan sits down with musician, educator, and music entrepreneur Tommy Darker. Ryan talks to Tommy about the importance of failure as a tool to ultimately find success in one's music career. He also talks to Ryan about his upcoming online conference Whiisecon. Whiisecon is a free music conference that features 20 chart topping artists as speakers. The conference will be available online a...

This week, Ryan breaks down the latest music distribution news regarding Spotify getting into the direct distribution business. Spotify has recently announced that it will allow direct upload onto its services (and other streaming services) through its platform. They appear to be trying to make music distribution companies, like CD Baby, obsolete. But CD Baby is responding with some new services o...

This week, we continue our discussion from Episode 151 about Chris Castle's "Ethical Pool" streaming royalty model by interviewing Mr. Castle himself! Chris is an Austin-based entertainment lawyer who proposes an innovative model to get indie artists paid fairly by streaming services--and he thinks that the streaming services might actually be willing to do it! Give this week's episode a listen an...

This week, Ryan sits down with music entrepreneur and licensing expert Jessica Sobhraj. Jessica gives us some great advice about managing copyrights effectively when you work with collaborators. She also talks about her company Cosynd. Cosynd's platform allows you to efficiently structure copyright agreements with co-writers and also helps you with copyright registration (check it out at www.cosyn...

This week, with the Music Modernization Act's passage imminent, Ryan talks about what the next crusade should be for indie artists. He brings up two strong candidates: getting owners of sound recordings paid on terrestrial radio, and creating "Ethical Pool" royalties on streaming services so that indie artists can get paid more on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. The articles that Ryan refe...

This week, Ryan sits down with indie singer-songwriter Angela Soffe. Angela gives us some advice on how artists can keep from succumbing to self-sabotage in their careers. She also talks about her latest project "Be Moved" and her interest in the healing power of music. Find out more about "Be Moved" by visiting https://bit.ly/2NPspL3. And be sure to check out the rest of Angela's music at www.ang...

This week, Ryan breaks down two huge music stories from the past week: the Music Modernization Act passing the Senate, and Spotify announcing that it will start to allow artists to license music directly to its platform without using an aggregator. Ryan also sits down with Women Crush Music executive directress Ashley Kervabon to talk about her organization's latest crowdfunding campaign to suppor...

This week, Ryan talks about the rise of artificial intelligence in music and what its implications are for the industry as a whole. Music technologist Taishi Fukuyama stops by to talk about his Amadeus Code platform and how it can help songwriters create new projects. Find out more about Amadeus code by visiting www.amadeuscode.com. Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitc...

This week, Ryan talks about how indie artists can get into blogging, and specifically what artists can do when they cannot think of any topics to write about. Along the way, Ryan discusses the latest Bobby Owsinski article in Hypebot on the subject. It is titled "Running Out Of Things To Say? Idea For Musicians To Write About Online" and you can find it here: https://bit.ly/2N3trmp. In the second...