Music Ally Focus

Music Ally Focus Ep. 86: We’re joined in this episode by Janelle Mitchell and Estée Blu - two recipients of the Richard Antwi Scholarship, which aims to support Black and minority ethnic students living in the UK and awards a full scholarship for University of Westminster’s Music Business Management MA course. We wanted to know how these two ambitious young pros see the music industry from their p...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 85: Artist Love Ssega explains how he combines his music career with climate justice, and whether artists have a responsibility to not be silent on this issue. The climate emergency is the most meaningful challenge of our time, and one that the music industry can make a number of changes in relation to – whether that’s in terms of reducing music businesses carbon footprints, o...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 84: We’re joined by Gary Helsinger, SVP, Licensing & Creative at Melodie, who chats to us about the state of library music, but also tells all of the best rock n roll stories we have heard on the Focus podcast thus far. Gary has had a rich and varied background to say the least: for instance, he was Director, A&R at Chrysalis Music Group whilst also a member of platinu...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 83: We’re joined in this show by Michael Horan, VP of Product at Last.fm , which is just about to hit a remarkable milestone: 20 years as a music tech company. In that time Last.fm has gathered an enormous amount of data on how people listen to music – and we wanted to talk to Michael about what Last.fm has learned from a music business that has changed dramatically in two dec...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 82: We’re joined by multi-award winning UK beatbox champion, and live looping pioneer, Beardyman (AKA Darren Foreman) – who, like a number of artists, has created a significant extra income stream via a subscription model on Patreon. We talk to him about how he has made a model where fans do not merely support him – they collaborate with him: subscribers can present their trac...

Music Ally Focus Ep. 81: In this episode we’re discussing the past, present and future of Latin music on a global scale with Jesús Triviño Alarcón, senior director for Latin Global for streaming platform Tidal. Jesús has a deep connection with Latin music and culture: he is a Webby-nominated content creator who has covered music, TV, film and more for over 17 years as a reporter, editor, producer...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #80: In this episode, we’re going to talk about Equitable Remuneration (ER) and how it works out in practice, IRL, with two people who truly understand the economics and legality of it. What is ER? In the UK and some other countries, it’s the practice of dividing certain radio play royalties 50-50 between artist and label - and in the UK’s long-running parliamentary inquiry in...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #79: We're speaking to Sam Saideman, co-founder of Innovo Music Management about TikTok, influencer marketing, and how artists can do it effectively – it's a really interesting conversation, full of good ideas, and free of marketing blah blah.  Sam’s a big fan of TikTok – “it has an unlimited upside” he says – but if you get TikTok wrong, you can get it really wrong. “You...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #78: In the second of two episodes where we speak to artists about pressures they have felt from that industry, and the effect it has had on them as people, we speak to the artist Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs , or Orlando Higginbottom as he’s known to his family and friends. He talks about his experiences of working with record labels – and discussing the need for them i...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #77: In this episode, we discuss Music Ally SI:X – our new annual global showcase, contest and mentorship support program for early-stage music startups. We chat to representatives of two of the sponsors, Emma Cordell, Senior Communications manager of FUGA, and Gregor Pryor, Partner at Reed Smith – along with Music Ally’s CEO Paul Brindley – about what they consider to be...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #76: Recently we’ve reported a lot about artists being increasingly outspoken about the pressure on them to create content for social media. If big-name artists like Halsey are voicing their concerns and experiencing pressure, what about indie artists, who don’t have a team around them? This is the first of two episodes where we speak to artists about pressures they have felt...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #75: In this episode we’re joined by two up-and-coming managers who are part of the UK’s MMF Accelerator programme. We want to know what opportunities talented young managers are seeing, and how they are going to use them to take their nascent stars onto success. Cecile Dreyer and Pascal Balletti talk to us about the fresh approaches they are using - specifically with regards...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #74: "We confidently say that at least 10% of all streaming activity is fraud," – that's the opinion of Andrew Batey and Morgan Hayduk of Beatdapp, the streaming analysis platform that aims to uncover streaming fraud. We find out what the fraud looks like, how big it is, who’s doing it and why, how it works … and how much it would cost if we wanted to be the fraudsters. T...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #73: Geoff Taylor, CEO of the BPI – the British recorded music industry's trade association – joins us for his first interview since announcing he will step down from his role in 2023.  Geoff has led the BPI for 15 years, a period which has seen significant technological, economic and structural change. We speak to him about the changes he has seen, the work he and the BP...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #72: We’re looking at Country music, and how, as a genre, there are a number of communities that are underrepresented in it. We talk to people who are trying to change this. CMT and the Nashville-based management services company mtheory announced its Equal Access Development Program, designed to provide access and training for underrepresented demographics in the country musi...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #71: Buying show tickets is still an imperfect and sometimes frustrating – not to mention expensive – experience. You’ll have certainly felt the pang of annoyance as tickets you want are snapped up by bots, and then sold on the secondary market for inflated prices. So what does a better ticketing system look like? We welcome Chief Strategy Officer of “post primary” ticket...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #70: We speak to Lewis Jamieson, co-founder and Director of Communications at the environmental pressure group Music Declares Emergency . MDE recently partnered with the University of Glasgow, the BPI, and others to research the expectations of music fans. He’s here to talk about what environmental changes music fans expect from their favourite artists, festivals, gig ven...

Music Ally Focus Ep. #69: “If we had a pound from each of these people, our entire lives would change.” UK metalcore band While She Sleeps has been running its "Sleeps Society" for two years, and it has revolutionised the group's fortunes. We speak to two people from both ends of the equation – Mat Welsh from the band, and Oliver Smith, who is a top-tier Sleeps Society member. They expla...

Music Ally Focus #68: This week, we happily welcome music journalist and broadcaster Greg Cochrane, co-host of the Sounds Like A Plan podcast – which is in its third season, and explores how the music industry is responding to the climate crisis. The world is apparently speedrunning through the climate crisis and we all need to do our part to make the significant changes that will help minimise th...

We welcome Dorothy Carvello, former Atlantic A&R exec, and now author and campaigner for women in the music industry, to the podcast. Content warning: this podcast will discuss sexism, misogyny, and sexual assault. Carvello has recently launched her Face the Music Now Foundation, which aims to support women experiencing abuse in the music industry, and to force through widesprea...

It goes without saying that if you make or market music, you need to understand fans. The writer, journalist and broadcaster Jude Rogers is our latest guest, and she talks about the nature of modern fandom – and what it is that fans feel in the connection with their favourite artist. Jude has just published a new book, The Sound of Being Human , which tells the story of what it feels like to be a&...

We’ve spoken a lot about what music business web3 projects are, what artists can get out of them, what fans want in them and what the future may hold – but what about the actual underlying technology? And how do you get started with this famously complex tech? We’ve invited Tim Shank, CTO of Blockpool, and Brian Scudder, Head of Communications, to explain more. They say that now is the time to exp...

The PPL has just announced its 2021 results and, as with most business areas affected by covid, it’s a complicated story. We’re asking Peter to talk through those results, but also what will happen next in the slightly mysterious world of neighbouring rights. In 2021 the PPL saw more money come in but slightly less, due to covid, go out – and the money was shared amongst more people. He’ll also ta...

The Orchard was the first digital music distributor, and it's now 25 years old – so we asked co-founder Richard Gottehrer what he has learned along the way, and what the future holds for digital distributors. Richard is a man with a rich history of varied activity and success in the music industry: starting as a successful songwriter, he went on to form Sire records with Seymour Stein, produc...

We welcome Family In Music's chief innovation officer Kevin Bacon to talk about music metadata and blockchain tech. Kevin is no stranger to blockchain and web3 tech, having having been involved in early British blockchain startup Blockpool, which caused a stir when collaborating with Bjork in an early crypto-music experiment back in 2017. Before that, Kevin founded AWAL after a successful career a...