The Biztape

The Biztape is a weekly podcast that serves as a catch-all for music business and media news of the week. As music industry professionals themselves, hosts Colin McKay and Joe Wasilewski provide insight into the technical and business world of these closed curtain industries drawing from their research and expertise. In addition, Deep Cuts are monthly episodes providing an in depth analysis of one...

Colin explores and informs about the entire History of Piracy in Music from pirates to Piratebay for Joe and the listener. Learn how Mozart stole from the Vatican, how sound recordings weren't protected until the 1970s in the U.S. and how Napster flipped the music world upside down. The age old question drives the business: "why pay when I could get it for free?" Socials: Instagram, Facebook, Twit...

Colin and Joe are in the slowest season of music with COVID added on top. Colin and Joe talk about potential change in the music industry from the format of award shows, new personalities in podcasting, and the huge hole COVID is creating monetarily and personnel wise for the future of live entertainment. The real question is, “how many metaphors can Colin fit in this episode?” Join us for one of...

Colin and Joe are joined by Kennedy Murakami from Concord Music who works as a copyright licensing and royalty associate and together they figure out what 15%, Chance the Rapper, and 3 million dollars have to deal with each other. At the same time, Bob Dylan (Colin’s Trivia Gem) sells all his publishing rights to Universal while some people’s childhoods come to close with the end of Radio Disney....

Back from Turkey Day, Joe and Colin are surprised to find some heavy and important topics in the beginning of the traditionally slow season for the music industry. The Weeknd shows again the pitfalls of the Grammys, Bad Bunny shows the power of global reach, and Sia is...uh.. showing us how not to respond to criticism. Join us and hear our thoughts on all these issues, the Grammys overall, and mor...

New Beginnings is a central theme in Joe and Colin’s topics for this week. The highly viewed Taylor Swift’s Masters situation gets a new owner but still isn’t completely out of Scooter Braun’s financial gain. Highly viewed inside the music industry, the Billboard change to merch bundles and how they are counted for album sales has been already affecting many popular albums and how they are release...

Zach Wilbourn from metal band Thirty Nights of Violence comes on the show while the guys get the big picture with how a vaccine could be a savior for live events but not a catch all for problems live entertainment could have in the future. While in Nashville, Country and Hip Hop fight very different battles when it comes to relevance, marketing, and COVID. Unexplained territory is the name of the...

Colin and Joe talk about big choices that are being offered in the music industry.  Joe and Colin talk about Taylor Swift’s choice to walk away from a one in a million deal, the choice right holder’s have to use a new promotional tool from Spotify, and the choice of where many millions of dollars will go and who industry giants and their employees support in elections. Every choice has a pro and c...

Successful Lo-Fi Hip Hop Artist Thomas Reid joins Joe and Colin on this long debate filled episode. “Can this happen?” is the question of this podcast as Supersphere tries to make VR concerts a normal occurrence while Kanye talks about wanting to buy Universal Music Group. This contrasts with the hard facts including the many failures of Quibi and the disappearance of the solo songwriter number 1...

Joe and Colin are joined by old friend Destanie Banks who works at Universal Music Publishing Group working with North American Royalties. The gang talks about the third biggest concert promoter in the world, OSECA, while also trying to figure out why UFC music streaming exists. At the same time, Google is finally getting some attention from the Department of Justice in the form of a lawsuit while...

Colin and Joe have on this episode friend and industry professional Zach Green who works at SESAC on the creative services team! The boys and Zach talk about the negatives of a huge illegal event in Nashville and the ins and outs of a Radio Promoter accused of Payola. In positive news, they discuss how BTS is one of the few acts doing well in COVID and how TikTok has led to revived chart success f...

Our first ever guest episode with long time friend and indie musician, Drumming Bird A.K.A Austin Sawyer! Colin and Joe talk with Drumming Bird about the ups and downs of being an independent artist with concert livestreams and other revenue sources for artists! The word of this podcast is “Diversify” and the word “Yessirskii” is fighting to be copyrighted by 21 Savage. Find out why both words mat...

Welcome to our new monthly series where Joe and Colin dive into a topic fully in depth for an episode. In this Episode, Colin presents the Eurovision Song Contest! Over 65 years of contests and more live viewers than the Superbowl, Eurovision has been a giant spectacle of culture and talent for longer than any other music competition show. Learn the history, the rules and selection, impact and how...

Colin and Joe dip into the non-contemporary music realm with the union AMGA and their recent scandals. On the contemporary side, We talk TikTok V the US and Youtube creating  a new music show with K pop’s BlackPink. To top it all of, Colin and Joe talk about Kelly Clarkson being sued and how many puns of Clarkson’s songs Colin can fit in “A Moment Like This.” This episode is brought to you “Becaus...

Colin and Joe talk about the reasoning and movement from the larger talent agencies. While the talent agents of the world battle for what comes next, artists find ways to make merchandising the new income majority along with other new ventures. Find out more about that, Kanye’s interesting new vision for the music business, and why our sources are now apparently owned by the same parent company in...

Colin and Joe clarify on click bait when it comes to the updates to Facebook’s guidelines on music livestreams and the RIAA recorded music revenue report. The epidemic continues to do exactly what's expected in the music industry but also gets really really weird with streaming karaoke and a Lil Nas X children’s book. Are Colin and Joe more reliable sources than your friend reading just the headli...

Colin and Joe juxtapose the sad state of the music business with the power of “Memes” in music. Indies and Artist struggle while Travis Scott sells a 90$ chicken nugget pillow. For every problem facing the music industry, Fortnite is preparing another concert.  It’s getting a little weird in episode 15 of That’s Showbiz Baby . Socials: Twitter: @showbizbabypod Facebook: @thatsshowbizbabypodcast In...

Colin and Joe talk about Germany and US (Nashville) concerts as they try to find the balance in precautions and experience for the consumer while dealing with government ordinances. On the back-end, Crews across the world and industry battle with how to keep quality versus safety on sets. Joe and Colin also talk about the contrasting world of the VMAs and physical media who are both doing well in...

It’s Britney B*tch! Colin and Joe talk about her conservatorship as well as the newer stars breaking radio and YouTube records. Spotify moves into their first paid sponsorship ever while surprisingly Napster is being bought. Find out more in our concise breakdowns of the music business and media this week! Socials: Twitter: @showbizbabypod Facebook: @thatsshowbizbabypodcast Instagram: @thatsshowbi...

The music industry may be halted  but that doesn’t mean that the industry isn’t making moves. Joe and Colin discuss the Nicki Minaj v Tracy Chapman lawsuit, country music dealing with COVID, big companies moving into ticket events, and Concord music group’s acquisition of the Imagine Dragons back catalog. New precedents in sampling, the market of ticketed events, and how Concord could be the next...

Joe and Colin choose their words wisely as Amazon and China act to suppress what is said about them. Smash mouth gives a look at what could be the normal for shows for the foreseeable future with COVID-19 for the worse. Will Amazon come after Colin and Joe for having two topics about *REDACTED BY AMAZON*? Find out. Socials: Twitter: @showbizbabypod Facebook: @thatsshowbizbabypodcast Instagram: @th...

Joe and Colin talk how the tech giants and social media companies are making moves while the Big Three (WMG, Sony, Universal) show how they are doing with a whole quarter of COVID affecting the industry. Nothing is certain but this could be the next big moves for tech giants when it comes to music and media! Socials: Twitter: @showbizbabypod Facebook: @thatsshowbizbabypodcast Instagram: @thatsshow...

In this episode, Colin and Joe talk about live entertainment with the remains of the 2020 tour shown in the Billboard charts and the virtual festival of Tomorowland. The Ellen Show faces a toxic workplace investigation while The Chicks return to number 1 on the Country Charts. Chart reviews, the future of  traditional album advertising, TikTok’s huge publishing deal and more in Episode 9. Socials:...

Joe and Colin go into Logic’s retirement and Twitch deal, England’s social distancing concerts, and Juice World posthumously at No. 1. Joe and Colin also discuss the dumpster fire and disgrace that is the Burger Records shutdown. TRIGGER WARNING, our last story about Burger Records details graphic sexual assault and violence towards women. The podcast has a warning about this at the start of the e...

Joe and Colin explore the ongoing cases of the battle for Lady A and Migos suing their Talent Lawyer. Trademark law and lawyers are the main topic along with news of the destruction of the strategy commonly used to climb the Billboard charts.  Who could win, who could lose, and who's gonna pay for the lawyers in Episode 7 of That's Showbiz Baby. Socials: Twitter: @showbizbabypod Facebook: @thatssh...