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 24, 2020 – Kobalt’s Willard Ahdritz to Receive Music Business Association’s 2020 Innovator Award

February 24, 2020 — The Music Business Association (Music Biz) today announces that Kobalt Music Group Founder and Chairman Willard Ahdritz will receive the organization’s 2020 Innovator Award during the annual Music Biz Awards Dinner, taking place Wednesday, May 13 at the JW Marriott Nashville as part of the Music Biz 2020 Conference. Observing how technology rapidly transformed industries in the late 1990s, Ahdritz saw an opportunity in music and wanted to take the music industry into the digital age.... Read More

February 21, 2020 – The Future of What Episode #179: New Tools For Booking Tours

Touring has quickly become one of the most effective ways for bands and artists to earn money in the streaming era, despite the fact that getting around is more expensive than it’s ever been. Thankfully, some new technologies have made planning and booking a tour easier than ever, so that bands and artists can push into new markets, without the same level of financial risk that was associated with doing so in the past. Join us this week as we speak with Fabrice Sergent (BandsInTown),... Listen

February 18, 2020 – [Keeping Tempo With Music Biz] — Artist Brand and Its Role in Music Entrepreneurship

In today’s content-driven attention economy, a strong playlist or synch placement can help an artist’s latest single skyrocket in popularity, virtually jumpstarting successful careers overnight. This has unfortunately resulted in a new obstacle: how can modern day artists pull in more engaged, lifetime fans that will not just listen to their latest release, but truly embrace the artist in their lives? To best resonate with music consumers, it is paramount for artists and their teams to create a clear,... Read More

February 17, 2020 – The Future of What Ep. #178: Licensing Music For Podcasts

While music consumption has pivoted away from piracy and downloads, the spectre of the past is once again looming over the industry, as podcasts become an even more dominant medium. Generally unregulated, most podcasts contain at least one musical work, that is likely unlicensed, which means that those episodes you’re downloading are really no different than the unauthorized downloads of the past. So, will the industry coalesce around a standard blanket license to solve this issue?... Listen

February 7, 2020 – The Future of What Episode #177: Where Do Black Box Royalties Go?

When you hear people within the industry referring to “The Black Box,” they’re most likely referring to the growing sum of undistributed and/or undistributable royalties that have been collected on an artist’s behalf by organizations like SoundExchange. What happens with this “Black Box” is a hotly debated topic within the industry, as every collection society that has one deals with these unclaimed royalties differently. Join us as we discuss the problem and its potential solutions with John Simson (American University),... Listen

February 6, 2020 – Music Business Association Announces CD Baby as Recipient of 2020 Music Biz Independent Spirit Award

February 6, 2020 — The Music Business Association (Music Biz) today announces that independent music distributor CD Baby will receive the organization’s 2020 Independent Spirit Award during the Music Biz 2020 Annual Conference, taking place May 11-14 at the JW Marriott Nashville. The award will be presented during the annual Music Biz Awards Dinner. CD Baby was founded in 1998 as a way to easily sell independent music on the internet, circumventing distribution deals of the time that made this difficult.... Read More

February 4, 2020 – [Keeping Tempo With Music Biz] — Uniting Everyone from Pros to Fans: How Jaxsta’s Platform Benefits All Players in the Music Business

The music business’ rapid embrace of technology has greatly helped flatten its structure, allowing everyone from emerging artists to legacy acts and industry executives to make lasting connections and collaborate. Of course, this counts on all parties having access to the same data resources, events calendars, and directories. In this interview with Jaxsta’s co-founder and CEO Jacqui Louez Schoorl, we discuss what opportunities industry professionals may be missing out on in our newly democratized industry that the company’s Jaxsta Pro platform can assist with,... Read More

February 3, 2020 – Music Biz Announces Spring 2020 Common Ground Webinar Series

Music Biz is excited to announce the Spring 2020 lineup for our Common Ground Webinar Series! Taking place on Thursdays from 2-3 pm ET, our webinar series will feature case studies of products and services that will solve emerging issues in the industry, and offer a virtual forum to discuss the latest tech, legal, and business concerns facing our industry. Stay tuned in the coming weeks, as additional webinars will be added to round out the lineup.... Read More

January 30, 2020 – Music Biz 2020 Program Schedule Announced!

Once again, we asked the Music Biz community to submit ideas for our 2020 educational program, and you delivered. The response was tremendous — you made narrowing down to the best of the best very difficult! But, we did it and are excited to share with you the FIRST LOOK at the Music Biz 2020 Program! CLICK HERE TO ACCESS Be sure to visit our website often, as we will continue to add more of the things that you’ve come to expect from the Annual Music Biz Conference: Featured Presentations with executives and artists rarely seen on the speaking circuit;... Read More

January 27, 2020 – The Future of What Episode #176: New Tools For Songwriters

As we move into 2020, two things have become all the more apparent: artists have to view themselves as small businesses in order to survive, and income streams within the industry are increasingly fragmented. Thankfully, these trends have been tracked for several years in a row, and there are a multitude of services available to bands, artists, and songwriters to help them collect these fractionalized income streams so that they can keep their creative businesses afloat and their rights secure.... Listen