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Welcome to the Music Business Worldwide podcast supported byVoly Music. 
Audius is one of the most talked-about new digital streaming startups in the music business today.
Powered by Web 3.0 technology, it describes itself as a “global decentralised music community and discovery platform that puts the artist in control”.
What that really means is that Audius enables artists to connect with their superfans, and offer those superfans the opportunity to pay more for access to coveted digital products, be that rare catalog recordings, or even the permission for a fan to remix a track.
Audius boasts 7 million unique monthly users on its platform, and has attracted investment from some impressive people, both music artists and music executives.
On this podcast, MBW founder, Tim Ingham, speaks to Audius’ co-founder, Forrest Browning, about what differentiates his company from other music streaming platforms. We also discuss how Audius’ model fits increasingly snugly with clamouring from major music company bosses, Sir Lucian Grainge included, for a better commercial relationship with music’s superfans…
The Music Business Worldwide Podcast is supported by Voly Music.

Welcome to the latest Music Business Worldwide podcast supported by Voly Music.

Austin Daboh (pictured) is one of the UK's most influential and forward-thinking major record company executives.
In addition to being EVP of Atlantic Records UK, he was recently promoted to President Of Black Music at the label.
A member of the Warner Music UK leadership team, Daboh also sits on the board of the Warner Music and Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund, where he has helped secure around £2 million in funding for Black-led British charities.
Prior to joining Warner in 2020, Daboh was a high-flying executive at Spotify, where he was Head of Music Culture & Editorial, and also at Apple Music, where he was Head of Editorial for UK & Ireland.
At Atlantic, Daboh, a music marketing specialist, has worked with artists including Burna Boy, Tion Wayne, Jack Harlow, Cardi B and Mahalia.
On this podcast, Daboh discusses the future of music marketing, social media in music, artificial intelligence – and why he believes that the industry should be striving to offer fans a "seamless music experience"...
The Music Business Worldwide Podcast is supported by Voly Music.

Welcome to the Music Business Worldwide Podcast supported by Voly Music. 

On this episode, MBW founder Tim Ingham speaks to Ola Sars, founder and CEO of Soundtrack Your Brand.

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Sars went on to become the co-founder and COO of Beats Music – the music subscription streaming service, associated with Beats By Dre headphones, that would become Apple Music.
 
In 2013, Sars launched Soundtrack Your Brand (then called Spotify For Business) as a JV with Spotify. The premise is simple: a music streaming service specifically made for businesses – whether multi-nationals or mom'n'pop shops.

In 2018, Sars spun the company out of that ownership structure as the independent Soundtrack Your Brand (although Spotify remains a minority investor today).

One of his key arguments: any business playing music from an individual's Spotify account is breaking the terms and conditions of their agreement with the service.  

Said businesses, according to Sars, should be paying a premium monthly fee for a streaming service that clears them to play music for their customers (and which, ideally, also recommends music designed to draw more purchase activity from consumers).

Sars calculates there are 100 million different types of public-facing businesses globally that are a target market for this kind of B2B music streaming service.

Between them, he says, they could bring in an additional $40 billion of revenue into the music industry. 

Right now, Sars is some way from that kind of target: In 2022, Soundtrack Your Brand turned over 214 million SEK, which works out at just over $20 million US dollars. 

However, that revenue wasn’t far away from doubling year-on-year – up 61% on 2021. 

As you read this, Soundtrack Your Brand has just over 54,000 paying monthly subscribers globally.

Sars says there's much more to come...
The Music Business Worldwide Podcast is supported by Voly Music.

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Trends from Music Business Worldwide (MBW) – where we go deep behind the headlines of news stories affecting the entertainment industry. Talking Trends is supported by Voly Music.

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As the years tick by, more and more DIY artists will earn a liveable chunk of annual cash from Spotify.
That's an inevitability, right? Wrong.

In 2022, according to Spotify's own figures, the number of DIY/self-releasing artists who generated over USD $10,000 in royalties on the platform annually – from both recorded music and music publishing combined – actually fell year-on-year.

That fact is revealed (and chewed over) in the latest episode of Music Business Worldwide's Talking Trends podcast, presented by MBW founder, Tim Ingham.

Ingham explains that, according to Spotify's Loud & Clear data, just over 14,700 DIY artists generated more than $10k on Spotify in 2022.

That figure was down on the number of DIY artists who managed to do the same thing in 2021... despite the total number of artists (i.e. DIY plus non-DIY acts) who annually generated more than $10k on Spotify growing last year.
The Music Business Worldwide Podcast is supported by Voly Music.

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Trends from Music Business Worldwide (MBW) – where we go deep behind the headlines of news stories affecting the entertainment industry. Talking Trends is supported by Voly Music.

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Why is Spotify pursuing a new design that borrows heavily from time-sucking short-form video services like TikTok?

That's the question on the mind of Music Business Worldwide founder, Tim Ingham, on the latest Talking Trends podcast.

As Ingham explains, Spotify's motivations for its much-debated new home feed (as well as its new AI-powered DJ) aren't likely to lie solely in its aid of artists.

Instead, he suggests, Spotify has made the move because it knows the power of its key USP in the view of investors – algorithmic recommendation – has been deteriorating.
The Music Business Worldwide Podcast is supported by Voly Music.

Welcome to the Music Business Worldwide Podcast supported by Voly Music. 

On this episode, MBW founder Tim Ingham speaks to Ed Newton-Rex, VP of Audio at Stability AI – and one of the world's foremost experts on generative AI in the field of music. 

An entrepreneur and inventor, Newton-Rex built the pioneering AI-driven music-making platform Jukedeck, before selling it to TikTok in 2019. 

He then went on to work at TikTok as Product Director of the company's AI Lab – as TikTok looked to build on Jukedeck's impressive song-forming technology. 
 
Newton-Rex left TikTok in 2021 to join music startup Voisey, which was subsequently sold to Snap Inc (parent of Snapchat).

These days, Newton-Rex is VP of Audio at Stability AI, which is best known as the home of AI-powered text-to-image creator Stable Diffusion.
The Music Business Worldwide Podcast is supported by Voly Music.