Music Ally Focus

Episode 111: in this episode we’re joined by Rebecca Berman, SVP of International at Concord, a large independent company that operates in music publishing, a label, and in acquisition – and which has artists and repertoires licensed all over the world. We talk to Rebecca about how she and Concord views the potential in exploding markets like Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Her job involves...

Episode 110: We speak to Ines Dunn, a young songwriter from London, who has writing credits in songs like Maisie Peters’ “Not Another Rockstar”, and is one of the first songwriters to be featured by Spotify’s RADAR programme. One of the biggest fillips an artist’s career can receive is by being part of one of the major streaming platforms’ artist programmes – which at its most flashy, can result i...

Episode 109: Music Ally’s Head of Insight, Stuart Dredge chats in depth with Joe Sparrow about the big picture issues that music streaming platforms, its users and economy will need to face  this year. We’ve just published our latest Quarterly Report which comprehensively breaks down each of the big global DSPs in a “Report Card” format – and to accompany it, Stu forecasts what might happen around...

Episode 108: in this episode we’re joined by Adam Webb, from FanFair Alliance - a UK-based organisation campaigning against industrial-scale online ticket touting- or scalping if you prefer. I chatted to Adam about the state of ticketing in the UK, and what does FA see as the most pertinent issue that needs fixing/changing? He also talks about speculative ticketing is, why he thinks it’s harmful,...

Episode 107: We’re joined by Pamela McCormick and Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE of London-based organisation United Development – they talk to Joe Sparrow about supporting and developing young black musicians and industry talent, the state of representation in the UK industry, and what you can do to help make gradual improvements around representation in the music business. Pamela McCormick is founde...

Episode 106:  Joe Sparrow talks to two UK music entrepreneurs who have grown a substantial and influential business from the ground up. TK and SK, co-founders of London-based independent record label and management company Finesse Foreva, which is home to artists/producers including Russ Millions, Skengdo & AM, and JB Made It. The company has received multiple Platinum certifications, worked w...

Episode 105: For a man whose name is rhyming slang in the UK for something going wrong, most of what Pete Tong touches goes very right. He’s been enormously influential in the international electronic music scene for four decades: as a broadcaster, a jet-setting DJ who has released dozens of mix albums, at the influential FFRR and Three Six Zero labels, and now, as co-founder of the International...

Episode 104: A Very Special Episode this week: We’ve wanted to make our daily Bulletin newsletter into a podcast for a long time, and now, we’ve created one – with the help of a text-to-voice AI . We're now sharing it here, so that you can hear the results too. The AI twist is that we have cloned the voice of our Learning Operations Manager, Sarah Seukeran, and it’s “her” that you’ll hear on t...

Episode 103: Laura Kidd has been a fully independent artist for a long time – and her recent "Obey Robots" project managed to hit the UK albums chart at #14 (ahead of Artic Monkeys and Lewis Capaldi and just behind ABBA and Fleetwood Mac). It’s a hugely impressive achievement for a DIY/indie artist - so how did she do it? In this podcast she explains to Joe Sparrow how she used email, Yo...

Episode 102: we’re joined by Sarah Woods, the Deputy Chief Executive of UK charity Help Musicians, a UK charity that offers career help for musicians in the form of a number of services, including financial support. She talks to Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow about what she calls “reverse globalisation” of the music industry: a situation where UK artists become confined to touring in the UK due t...

Episode 101: We talk to Andy Robinson, of Boutique rights management company Interstellar Music Services. In the modern music business paradigm, managers can do everything – so we’ll discuss how you can not do everything – and avoid burnout whilst providing the best service possible to artists. He talks about making tough choices, transparent conversations with artists, and how he regularly finds...

🎉 Music Ally Focus Ep. 100 🎉 – We talk about about Neurodiversity in the electronic music business with Finlay Johnson, interim CEO of the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM) and Tristan Hunt, who is an ADHD coach for musicians and people working in the music business, and is also an ex-regional manager at the AFEM. There is increasing awareness about neurodiversity, and more people are...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 99 : Successful songwriter Niclas Molinder co-founded the music credits ecosystem Session along with two other Swedish songwriters, Max Martin and Bjorn Ulvaeus in 2019. Music Ally's editor Joe Sparrow asks him about what he’s doing to make sure that as much new music as possible has all the correct credits and metadata baked in from the start – and ask him why getting mu...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 98 : This episode is for anyone interested in building a long, sustainable career as a musician. We're joined by Keith Jopling, of the Art of Longevity podcast, in which he talks to notable musicians - like, for instance Suzanne Vega, Nile Rodgers, Gary Numan and Norah Jones – about their careers in music and how they kept them going for so long. We ask him what he’s learned,...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 97: “It was sampling that revitalised – and continues the life of – a lot of music that we would never have otherwise heard… it deserves a lot more credit than it gets” Sampling has been the backbone of a number of modern music styles, from house to hip hop. Deborah Mannis-Gardner of DMG Clearances has just helped pull off something that many thought may never happen: getting...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 96: Artists have been increasingly vocal about the pressures of the music industry and the impact on their mental health. And it’s not just artists: everyone can experience unique stresses in the industry. In this episode, Joe Sparrow talks to Adam Ficek and Jeordie Shenton of UK charity Tonic Rider about what they are doing to provide music industry-specific support. Music in...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 95: Time is flying and we’re now one month into 2023, so we asked Music Ally's Head of Insight, Stuart Dredge, to flex his insight muscles and speculate on what might happen in the rest of the year. We analyse some of the biggest issues in the music business: The recent comments made by UMG’s Lucian Grainge about how income from streaming should be shared Job cuts in music tec...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 94: Dr. Jennifer Otter Bickerdike is a rock ’n’ roll cultural historian and author, who recently wrote the critically acclaimed and best-selling books You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico and Being Britney: Pieces of a Modern Icon . We spoke to her about the pressures placed on music stars, including burnout, overwork, and (social-) media stress – with Br...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 93: What does a music publication need to be in 2023? We talk a lot on the podcast about marketing from the artist-side: getting projects to launch and connecting to as many people as possible. But what about the point after that - when music fans debate and discuss music – and explore and discover music they don’t know that they don’t know? Sean Adams, of Drowned in Sound, ex...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 92: We’re joined by Annabella Coldrick, Chief Executive of the Music Managers Forum to talk about the new realities of touring in the post-covid world. The Music Managers Forum recently held a round-table event with its members and it revealed a lot of concerns and issues around touring.  Artists are now facing a completely different touring environment: where a transform...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 91: WTF is "web3 music"? In this episode we’re joined by Dan Fowler, Director of Open Source Projects at web3 music incubator HIFI Labs, and a man with deep experience working at where crypto, web3 and music meet. Joe Sparrow asks Dan the stupid questions so that we can all find out what web3 music is, and what it will mean for the music industry. Most of us now have a surface...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 90: This episode, just like the Wu-Tang Clan, is for the children. Or rather, the parents of those children: we’re joined by the founders of Parenthood In Music , which aims to improve working conditions for parents in the music industry. Parenthood, they believe, remains one of the main drivers of inequality in the workplace. We find out why, and what changes they’re hoping t...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 89: Music Ally has just released its Campaign of the Year report ( Get it for free here !) and so we finish the year with our annual podcast that highlights some of the best campaigns from 2022, chosen by the experts at Music Ally. The 2022 issue of our utterly essential Campaigns of the Year report has 60 highly-detailed case studies packed with data, KPIs, ideas an...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 88: We’re thrilled to be joined by Dan Runcie, founder of Trapital, which offers music business insight with a strong focus on the business of hip-hop – the world’s pre-eminent genre of pop music. Trapital has recently published its first big report on the business and culture of hip hop – and Dan, a true thought leader in this space, has a lot of interesting things to sa...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 87: In this episode we’re joined by Kyran de Keijzer, co-founder of Muso. AI, the music credits platform that brings together data on the people that make songs, and allows music professionals to edit and manage their legacy metadata. Kyran says he looked at the most popular tracks ever made, and then looked at the metadata that reaches streaming platforms and found lots of ga...