Association News
Below, you’ll find the latest Association press releases, updates on our upcoming events, introductions to our newest member companies, links to the latest content from Music Biz and our partners, and more.
Sign up for our weekly email feed to have this news delivered directly to your inbox on Fridays.
January 13, 2026 – The Future of What Episode #278 — From Label Power to Artist Power: How Green Tea Distro Supports Modern Musicians
While traditional label models still dominated in 2014 when David Dann founded Mind of a Genius Records, the pendulum has swung in favor of artists and distribution deals in the digital era, setting the stage for the creation of Green Tea Distro. GTD provides support to artists at all stages and budgets, offering services from song development to monthly workshops to day-to-day A&R support. David joins us on the podcast to share his extensive artist development knowledge,... Click Here To Listen
January 7, 2026 – The Future of What Episode #277 — The Future of Fraud Protection: Beatdapp’s Trust & Safety OS Explained
After analyzing nearly 7 trillion streams and 70 trillion data points in the past 18 months, Beatdapp continues to advance the industry’s fraud protection efforts with their new Trust & Safety Operating System. Marking a milestone for Beatdapp, this platform is their first to provide for all sectors of the music industry while also being portable to gaming, creator platforms, streaming video, television and publishing. In this interview, Beatdapp’s Morgan Hayduk and Andrew Batey break down the five unique capabilities of the OS,... Click Here To Listen
January 5, 2026 – The Future of What Episode #276 —How the MFFA Is Taking Ownership of the Music Industry’s Fraud Issue
Two years after the formation of the Music Fights Fraud Alliance (MFFA) and almost one year into Michael Lewan’s appointment as Executive Director, the organization has reached many milestones – including helping put together this year’s iteration of our annual Trust & Safety in Music Symposium! In this episode, Michael details the specific issues the MFFA tackles, what the alliance has accomplished since he joined last February, and discussion points he’s helped program for the symposium.... Click Here To Listen
December 16, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #275 — Standing Out in the Crowded DSP Space: A Conversation with Qobuz’s Dan Mackta
What began in 2007 as a hi-res music download store has grown into a vital platform for global music fans eager for a human-curated, high-quality listening experience. Qobuz has had a massive 2025, which saw them peak at #4 on the iOS App Store thanks in part to viral posts calling out their 24-bit hi-res streaming & download offerings and editorial team-led recommendations. This month, we talk to Qobuz’s Managing Director, Dan Mackta about the company’s history &... Click Here To Listen
December 10, 2025 – The Future Of What BEST OF: Our Most-Played Episodes in 2025!
2025 was a fantastic year for Music Biz’s The Future of What podcast! We sincerely want to thank the 40+ guests who joined us this year, as well as everyone who listened the the show week in and week out! We’re hard at work planning out slate of interviews for 2026 — in the meantime, check out what episodes were listened to the most over the last 12 months. And if you like what you hear,... Click Here To Read
December 9, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #274 — Louis Posen Reflects on 30+ Years of Hopeless Records: Indie Success, Charity and the Future
Hopeless Records has passed its third decade in business since we last had label founder Louis Posen on the podcast, so we caught up with him once again to talk all things Hopeless and indie labels! In this episode, Louis walks us through the unique origin of Hopeless, its early ties with Fat Wreck Chords, and their strong commitment to charity – housing Sub City, Songs That Saved My Life and Hopeless Music Academy as a part of the Hopeless Foundation.... Click Here To Listen
November 19, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #273 — Unifying the Music Industry’s Data: A Conversation with Artist Growth’s Matt Urmy
The digital age has created a plethora of data resources for artists and their teams, but it has also highlighted the glaring disadvantages of unorganized, siloed workflows within our industry. As an event management, project management and business intelligence platform, Artist Growth is a testament to how more centralized information creates a better picture of exactly what is and isn’t working for an artist in real time. Hear from Artist Growth co-founder & CEO, Matt Urmy as he walks through the platform’s history,... Click Here To Listen
November 18, 2025 – [Keeping Tempo] — Trust, Safety & Integrity in Music Distribution: Op-Ed from Yoktan Haddad at Revelator
How to Build Systems That Protect Artists and Their Royalties In a world where anyone can upload a track, open a label, or launch a distribution company, integrity has never mattered more. Digital distribution has opened the gates for millions of artists around the world. That’s something to celebrate. But with that opportunity comes real responsibility, not just to move music quickly, but to protect it properly. With unprecedented access has come unprecedented risk: fraudulent streaming,... Click Here To Read
November 17, 2025 – MUSIC BIZ x DEEZER: FREE Event December 10th!
Join us on December 10th as Deezer’s CMO, Maria Garrido dives into the findings of the world-first study conducted by Deezer and Ipsos, which surveyed 9,000 people across 8 countries to understand how listeners perceive fully AI-generated music. One of the most striking discoveries: 97% of listeners were unable to identify which tracks were fully AI-generated during a blind test. In this webinar, we unpack what this means for the music industry, how audiences feel about the rise of GenAI music,... Click Here To Read
November 12, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #272 — Updates on Indie Music Retail from The Vinyl Groove Records, The Sound Garden and Zia Records!
In this episode, we caught up with David Wolfe of The Vinyl Groove Records, Bryan Burkert of The Sound Garden, and Mike Durham & Christina Wilson of Zia Records, who highlight the everlasting importance of physical music by diving into exciting happenings at each of their stores. Our guests discuss the impact of the recent Luminate + Street Pulse deal, how Black Friday serves as “Record Store Day Lite,” the resurgence of the CD, and the younger generation’s affinity for vinyl.... Click Here To Listen
