The Future Of What Podcast
A Podcast and Radio Show About the Music Industry
Founded by Music Biz President, Portia Sabin as a way to educate musicians on the realities of the music business, The Future of What Podcast has become a forum where the most significant voices in our industry discuss important issues of the day. Tune in as she hosts important industry figureheads and innovators alike in exciting discussions on where the music business is headed next!
February 28, 2020 – The Future of What Episode #180: Indie Label Spotlight — Ninja Tune
Matt Black and Jonathan Fine first joined forces in the late 1980’s, after a chance encounter at a local record shop. Now, some thirty-odd years later, the two are still working together in multiple capacities, and show no signs of stopping. They’ve released multiple albums as the electronic duo Coldcut, and helped produce several others, in addition to founding the highly regarded UK electronic label Ninja Tune, which is now in its thirtieth year of existence.... Listen
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 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
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
January 17, 2020 – The Future of What Episode #175: Nashville’s Project Music
Since 2015, the Nashville Entrepreneur Center has played host to Project Music, an accelerator program for tech start-ups whose focus is upon creating solutions for the music industry. This first of its kind accelerator program has supported five different cohorts to date, and several members of those cohorts have already gone to market with their unique solutions, as a result of the mentorship and fundraising help they received through the program.... Listen
January 10, 2020 – The Future of What Episode #174: Trends For 2020
After several years of growth, the music business no longer feels like its in freefall, and some hopeful industry insiders are hinting that the best is yet to come in the 2020’s. As streaming goes global, and the overall adoption rate goes up across the board, continued revenue growth will be the norm in 2020 and beyond, which is to say nothing of the new ways that music is being monetized in video games, short form video,... Listen
January 3, 2020 – The Future of What Episode #173 : The Evolution of Streaming
Today’s streaming market is a crowded arena that’s chock full of big brands, all of whom are vying for the same monthly subscribers, but none of them have truly distinguished themselves from the other. Yes, they all have different visual interfaces and apps, and some are even offering higher bitrates, but as listeners switch over to voice activated listening via smart speakers, how will users know the difference between Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, etc. when the interaction becomes purely audio?... Listen
December 27, 2019 – The Future of What Episode #172: Best of 2019
With 2019 coming to an end, it feels like the right time to highlight a few of our audience’s most listened to episodes and of the year, so we’re doing a best of 2019 this week! We went through this year’s stats, and isolated the top ten episodes of the year, and then culled the most informative and/or interesting interviews from that bunch. Listen in as we revisit our interviews with writer Cherie Hu, former Merlin CEO Charles Caldas,... Listen
December 20, 2019 – The Future of What Episode #171: New Tools For Developing Artists
While some artists are eschewing the traditional label route to market, there is no getting around the fact that artists simply can’t do everything they need to do in order to be successful on their own. Most developing artists need help with marketing, branding, social media strategy, booking, publishing, content creation and more, if they’re going to breakthrough the din of digital noise. On this episode, we speak with Chelsea Cressman (AGD Entertainment) and Cameo Carlson (mTheory) about the ways that their companies are helping artists build and hire teams to manage the tasks that are beyond their particular scope and level(s) of expertise.... Listen
