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.
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February 2, 2026 – The Future of What Episode #279 — Artist-First Music Marketing: A Conversation with Danny Garcia of SongTools
After noticing artists spending more than they were getting at agencies, Danny Garcia developed SongTools to let music creators take control of their marketing campaigns via playlisting and ad tools. Though originally delivered primarily to artists themselves, SongTools has expanded to integrate within distribution platforms, producing success for partners like Symphonic where they drove a 70% client retention rate within 30 days. Here, Danny discusses the approach SongTools is taking to educate artists, how their playlisting ecosystem works &... Click Here To Listen
January 20, 2026 – 60 FOR 60: Help Music Biz Support Tomorrow’s Leaders!
Music Biz’s Scholarship Foundation has seen many achievements and changes since its inception in 1966, including its recent rededication in honor of our late colleague, Braylin Campbell. Throughout 2026, we’ll be celebrating the foundation and all it has helped young professionals achieve over the past six decades thanks to the generosity of our donors. Our goal for this year’s fundraising cycle is to match or surpass the $60,000 that was raised last year.... Click Here To Read
January 20, 2026 – [Keeping Tempo With Music Biz] — Why AI’s Most Critical Role in 2026 Will Be Rescue, Not Creation: Op-Ed from Noctil’s Jacob Varghese
Walk into any boardroom, or any room for that matter, in the music industry, and I bet that there will be at least one mention of Generative AI and how it will replace our artists. We spend hours debating deepfakes, voice cloning, and the dilution of human creativity. While these are valid concerns, they are a strategic distraction. We are so focused on the robot in the recording booth that we are ignoring the fire in the accounting department.... Click Here To Read
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
