Music Tectonics

Songwriting is the heart of the music production process and with the soaring demand for music content, there's never been more opportunity for songwriters. John Cesario (JC) and Jonathan Stone join Tristra Newyear Yeager to discuss how Rocket Songs has cultivated the first global marketplace for songwriters to license their work directly to artists. Find out how Rocket Songs is finding new ways t...

Today's artists wear many hats from manager to social media marketer to advertiser and more: Beatchain is giving them the data science and digital marketing tools they need to succeed all in one place. Discover how Beatchain is actively and continuously reacting to the market space to determine what tools artists really need to reach their fans and make sales. Find out how state of the art tools s...

Dust off your record players, because it's time to talk vinyl—and CDs and cassettes! The pandemic has brought challenges across the music industry for retailers, manufacturers, and distributors of physical music formats, but AMPED hasn't missed a beat! Irregular host Tristra Newyear Yeager sits down with Jocelynn Pryor to discuss how AMPED is connecting independent artists and local retailers with...

Music has permeated nearly every aspect of our lives from ads to fitness to social media, made possible through the use of sync licenses. Syncfloor is making it easier than ever to navigate the world of sync licensing. In this episode, CEO/CTO Kirt Debique explores how Syncfloor is streamlining commercial sync licensing with Syncstores, a Shopify-like platform that lets artists license their track...

Make music with the actual sounds from retro 8-bit games, or sample FM radio to add local flavor to your beats. Swedish design and technology company Teenage Engineering packs off-the-wall features like these into portable, powerful gear for music making and listening that looks and feels  good. In this episode, Co-founder /VP David Möllerstedt explores Teenage Engineering's origin story and the i...

What are music industry solutions for monetizing fandom missing about the true power of fans? Jacquelle Amankonah Horton, founder of Fave, sits down with host, Tristra Newyear Yeager, to explore the wild world of fandom. Jacquelle discusses the inspiration for Fave, her own personal experience as a diehard fan, and the ever-evolving definition of what it means to be a fan. Discover how Fave, one o...

Special episode: We're sponsoring a Music Tech Meetup at SXSW 2021 Online, this Wednesday March 17! Plus, host Dmitri Vietze invites you to more virtual venue hopping events March 18-20. Explore eclectic online environments via 3D avatar, video chat, and voice. Mix and mingle with music and tech's brightest minds at fun, spontaneous meetups. We're teaming up with LyricFind, Strat Americas, Super H...

You probably heard that the Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) received $424 million in historical unmatched royalties from music streaming services. In this interview with MLC CEO Kris Ahrend, we find out where that money came from, who it is going to be paid out to, and when. What will the time frame be for additional collections and payouts moving forward? Get an inside look at this hist...

What do Prince, Justin Bieber, and Pepsi have in common? They all turn to John Petrocelli for amazing livestream concerts. When livestreaming boomed in 2020, the Bulldog DM founder already had 20 years of experience. John sits down with host Dmitri Vietze to dig into Bulldog DM's best practices for compelling, interactive livestream experiences for artists, brands, and the fans that love them. Fin...

What happens when Amazon and Spotify's "Audio First" strategies bring music, audiobooks, and podcasts into one audiosphere? Our guide to this new landscape is author, podcaster, and literary entrepreneur Joanna Penn. Joanna takes host Tristra Newyear Yeager on a tour of the evolution of audio and authorship, and how a digital revolution is shaking up that world too. Find out how the streaming econ...

When tech tools let you play with a song's component stems, the soundtrack of your life is no longer passive. In this episode, learn how Audionamix's AI-powered source separation tools unbake the musical cake, pulling out crystal clear individual tracks long after the original multitrack recordings have disappeared. Ellie McNeil and Cory Sims of Audionamix sit down with Tristra Newyear Yeager to e...

Dan Runcie's Trapital Media gives the business of hip-hop the rigorous coverage and in-depth analysis that it deserves. This week, Dan gives host Dmitri Vietze a picture of the state of hip-hop as a culture, a musical genre, and an influential business ethos— and how it's evolving faster than ever. Find out why emerging hip-hop artists are so focused on creating their own lane and owning their car...

In the age of data, A&R is no longer a Dark Art. Find out how music industry veteran Travis Rosenblatt created Meddling to deliver indispensable data and tools, so the label executives who spot new musical talent aren't operating on gut instinct alone. Travis gives occasional host Tristra Newyear Yeager his expert view on the shifting power dynamics between artists and labels, the pitfalls of bett...

Matthew Neutra, Lead Experience Engineer at Bose, tells host Dmitri Vietze about the audio company's focus on delivering musical experiences and solving human problems. Find out how their philosophy has kept them at the front line of audio innovation as music listening has evolved, from speakers, to headphones, to earbuds, and beyond. Hear the origin story of founder Amar Bose's pioneering noise c...

How do artists and songwriters navigate music industry revenue streams and royalty payouts to achieve financial independence? Damian Manning, founder and CEO of HIFI, explains how his company brings tech innovation to business management for the music industry. Find out how HIFI's Royalties Dashboard puts income data from many sources into one view, so artists and their teams can make smart financ...

Music Tech strategist and writer Tristra Newyear Yeager joins host Dmitri Vietze to dig into the highs and lows of the most tumultuous year for the music industry in decades. How did the pandemic accelerate the adoption of new technologies for professional artists, music consumers, and the growing number of creators who fall somewhere in between? Will 2020's lessons on scarcity and abundance chang...

Ecommerce platforms just aren't built for the music, merch, and tickets artists and their teams have to sell. Find out how Single Music solves their problems by making direct-to-fan music tools for the popular, powerful Shopify platform. Founder & CEO Tommy Stalknecht tells how the company builds feature sets and thrives in Shopify's app-based ecosystem, letting artists sell (and bundle) digital a...

You've seen the viral videos of celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Mark McGrath wishing happy birthday to their fans, now dig into how Cameo is innovating the monetization of fandom. Mat Devine, head of Music Partnerships at Cameo, sits down with host Dmitri Vietze to explore how fans and artists are connecting on Cameo. Learn how the platform makes its magic: fans get memorable video shoutouts and s...

Music Tech analyst Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Research explores what comes next after streaming saturation in this talk recorded at Music Tectonics' conference teaser event, The Shock Before the Quake. As the streaming market reaches saturation, where will new growth drivers arise? Which unlikely platforms are poised to take the lead in converting free users to subscribers? Why are we still mistaking...

When a sold-out show has empty seats and scalpers are selling choice tickets for an arm and a leg, it's hard on artists, fans, and everyone who counts on a live show to succeed. Lawrence Peryer, Chief Revenue Officer at Lyte, explains the live event ticketing landscape and how Lyte's ecommerce thinking is bringing it up to date. Find out how Lyte products help fans buy, exchange, and return ticket...

Bob Moczydlowsky (you can call him Bob Moz), Managing Director of Techstars Music, explains how the accelerator program unites Techstars venture capital with member companies across the global music business. Find out how Techstars Music selects 10 music startups from around the world for 13 weeks of intensive mentorship, development and investment every year, and which hot emerging companies the...

Music Tech journalist and researcher Cherie Hu wrapped up the recent Music Tectonics Conference with a fireside chat with Dmitri Vietze. Listen in on their conversation to get a taste of Cherie's upcoming book on how artists can run their music careers more like tech entrepreneurs. How is recording an album like developing software, and how has the pandemic led artists to change their approach? Mu...

Brett takes us on a wild journey through the outer edges of music tech and its impact on music making and listening. In a time when tablets can be studios and algorithms bandmates, he and Dmitri explore the tension between aesthetics and tools, music's evolving value frameworks and tried-and-true structures, and the fuzzy world springing up between makers and fans. No longer locked to a room, no l...

Roblox's Global Head of Music John Vlassopulos talks to Dmitri about how audio is playing a key role in the "imagination time" of the wildly popular Roblox gaming and world building platform. He and the Roblox team see themselves as "firestarters," those who provide the basic ideas and code and then see what people create. As music performances port to new virtual settings, Vlassopulos shows us ho...

Scott Fetters, the CEO of incubator and media/tech makerspace 2112, talks about the thrill of uniting a wide swath of Chicago's creative minds and startup stars under one roof--and how COVID helped them find new possibilities and partners. What started as a rehearsal space has turned into a media and culture production powerhouse, uniting fragmented industries, serving small businesses, and growin...