Music Ally Focus – Details, episodes & analysis

Ep. 159: Dhruv Chopra, co-founder/CEO of Brooklyn venue Elsewhere, joins Joe Sparrow to talk about finding new ways of running local independent venues. Dhruv and Elsewhere are reaching around to find a new business model in a new gig-going world. Today, music is consumed, created, performed, played, discovered, experienced and valued differently – and yet, the basics of live music are the same: a group of people in a room while some music happens. 

So Elsewhere is trying something that is both the same, and yet different – by exploring what a local live music venue can be in 2024, and how it can make money. The model that they have landed on involves a subscription membership, a digital Discord community, and a real-life “cultural epicentre”. It’s perhaps all the things that local venues have always been, but with more explicitly-defined models and platforms.

Dhruv also talks about the state of the small venue ecosystem in a post-pandemic era, when young consumers are demanding more from their live experiences than cheap beer, and $150 stadium show tickets are monopolising the budget of gig-goers.

Elsewhere: https://www.elsewhere.club

Dhruv's music pick: Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker & Roy Hargrove - Directions In Music - Live At Massey Hall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8nB_kzUf2w

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Ep. 158: When Jamie Oborne's career as a musician ended, he decided that the second best thing was to be an artist manager. He also decided that he'd stay independent, write contracts different to the one's he'd signed, and work closely with his artists. Twenty years on, Oborne's approach seems to have worked well enough: he runs management company All On Red and indie label Dirty Hit; both of which have a host of globally successful acts, most notably The 1975.

Jamie joined Music Ally's editor Joe Sparrow to discuss his career and his thoughts of the future of management: how the role will change and the shifting responsibilities of a manager in an era where you can do it all in-house.

They also talked about how artists – from DIY to arena-level – are aiming to create a D2C business model; how managers should trust their artists' decisions and work with them to nurture their instincts yourself; and what advice he'd have given himself when he was starting out in management.

Jamie also shared some of his favourite current artists that he's working with:

Saya Gray: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4EnymklUyqZwvmHQGlRssl

Bleachers: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2eam0iDomRHGBypaDQLwWI

beabadoobee: https://open.spotify.com/artist/35l9BRT7MXmM8bv2WDQiyB

The 1975: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3mIj9lX2MWuHmhNCA7LSCW

Jamie's music pick(s):

Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kd9KDl7SAnHcZABxeLCU3JDz2oQmUEeZo

The Smiths – Meat is Murder: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mz0YHCuq_IeMVDk67mtgUccsBqg-DOzvM

The Stone Roses: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kmlwGGQH_U-X7qCB0Vn6H6VnNqp4swuGY

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Ep 149: Sofar Sounds CEO Jim Lucchese joins Music Ally editor Joe Sparrow to talk about the current economics of live music and its impact on local, independent artists. Live music is a hard business at the best of times, but for smaller and emerging artists, it can be brutally tough. A good number of artists now get their start playing Sofar Sounds shows, so we ask Jim to explain what artists and people working in the local live industry are experiencing, and what are the main economic and infrastructure pressures on them at the moment.

Joe also asks Jim what the solutions might be – at a local grassroots level, but also the responsibilty of bigger players in the live space.

Sofar Sounds: https://www.sofarsounds.com

⁠Most bananas peeled and eaten in one minute⁠: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-bananas-peeled-and-eaten-in-one-minute

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In this fascinating and entertaining episode, we're joined by two people who are asking complicated questions about the nature of music copyright: Damien Riehl, technologist, technology lawyer and musician, and coder and technologist Noah Rubin. You may have heard of them previously – together, Riehl and Rubin created software that composed every single possible melody – and then they released them into the public domain. We ask them about their work, and Damien gives his forthright opinions on the recent Ed Sheeran plagiarism court case, copyright trolls, whether the copyright law as it stands is fit for purpose, and what music copyright law should look like.

All the Music: http://allthemusic.info

Damien’s TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/damien_riehl_copyrighting_all_the_melodies_to_avoid_accidental_infringement

Damien’s music choice: Phoebe Bridgers 

Noah's choice: Beardyman 

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Ian Matthews and Sam Bates to talk about how a Web3 business becomes a DAO and what happens when a smart linking service is added to the mix. You may know Ian's work as a member of the wildly successful UK band Kasabian – whose songs have been streamed billions of times – but he is also in the Web3 business, as co-founder of a community-owned, not for profit web3 organisation. We’re going to ask him what his soon-to-be-DAO does, what he hopes to achieve with it, and what excites him about this space – and he's joined by Sam Bates, the CMO of one of the companies that Ian's organisation has acquired: smart linking service Amplify. So how will web3 tech work in a world where artists are keen to own their direct fan relationships?

Ian’s DAO: https://www.chapel.earth

Amplify: https://amplify.link

Ian's music pick: The Atomic Mr Basie

Sam's music pick: Nas' Illmatic

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Andrea Czapary Martin, CEO of PRS for Music, which represents the rights of over 160,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers in the UK and around the world. The last few years have seen income in the music industry fluctuate wildly due to the impact of coronavirus – and PRS for Music has just released its 2021 results, including how much money it has collected and has paid out to songwriters during that period of disruption. So we spoke to Andrea about those results, and also about the future of music being used in new technology spaces – like, you guessed it – the metaverse.

One quick note about the Ukraine campaign that Andrea mentions – she’d like to make it clear that this is a CISAC initiative that PRS for Music supports – and you can read about – and support – it here: cisac.org/Newsroom/news-releases/cisac-solidarity-fund-ukraine

PRS for Music: prsformusic.com

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Last year, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative examined over 4,000 executives from 119 music companies and found that only 7.5% were Black. In this episode we’re joined by Jaia Thomas, founder and president of Diverse Representation, and Amity Paye, senior director of communications at Color Of Change, two organisations that recently announced the launch of the Diverse Representation Music Database, which connects music companies directly with Black talent across the USA. They’ll be talking about representation and equity in the music business, as well as the ambitions of the database, and the corporate accountability of the industry at large. Amity and Jaia also suggest how you can get started and be part of the change – even if you think you’re not powerful enough to make a difference. (Spoiler: you are!)

Color of Change https://colorofchange.org

The Diverse Representation Black Professionals Music Database https://www.diverserepresentationmusic.com

The #ChangeMusic initiative https://changeindustries.org/changemusic

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We warmly welcome Godwin Tom and Elizabeth Sobowale to talk about developing the next generation of music industry executives in Africa. They oversee Music Business Academy (MBA) for Africa – a training program that aims to develop that next generation. Godwin is CEO of iManage Africa and Elizabeth is Programme Director of MBA for Africa, which has developed the program in partnership with Music Ally and Dr. Carlos Chirinos of the Music Business Department at the New York University.

Runs between July and November 2022, the program will teach students about a range of music business trends and technologies, as well as giving them hands-on experience in releasing and promoting music to create sustainable careers for artists.

We wanted to talk to Elizabeth and Godwin about the changes they have seen in the African markets, the kind of training and education needed to develop the people who work in the industries there, and their thoughts on the future of the African music industry – and the music itself.

Music Business Academy for Africa: https://musicbusinessafrica.org

Godwin Tom: https://www.instagram.com/godwintom

Elizabeth Sobowale: https://www.instagram.com/elizabeth_sho

CIIF Africa: https://www.instagram.com/ciif.africa

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Music Ally Focus #54: Vickie Nauman, founder of music consultancy CrossBorderWorks, recently worked on a notable metaverse project, which involved the music licensing for 20 of David Guetta’s songs for an event where he – via his virtual avatar – DJ’ed in Roblox earlier this year. So we wanted to talk to Vickie about licensing music – something tricky enough in normal circumstances - in the metaverse. She tells us what she learned, and what she thinks the future of music in the metaverse will look like.

This Focus podcast is another in a series that digs into the burgeoning web3 space: the new concepts, ideas, and conventions and how they relate to the music business. 

Vickie/CrossBorderWorks: https://www.crossborderworks.com

David Guetta's Roblox party: https://roblox.fandom.com/wiki/David_Guetta_DJ_Party

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Josh Empson, CEO of Tempo Music Investments, joins Joe Sparrow to explain what it’s like to have a $1 billion-plus fund to invest in the purchase of music rights, and what these purchases mean for music and rightsholders. We are fascinated by this space, where huge sums change hands for ownership of songs – so we talked to Josh about how catalogues are chosen for purchasing, whether music is under- or over-valued at the moment, the long-term strategy of these investments, and what the impact might be on mid-tier songwriters and artists.

Josh/Tempo: https://www.tempomusic.com/people/josh-empson

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