21khz: The Art Of Money In Music

Right before Thanksgiving, 2021 Spotify took down a large number of comedy albums.  The question is why. The answer has to do with the fact that just because a comedian like Robin Williams says the words "Reality, what a concept" as opposed to sings them doesn't mean he does not have a copyright that needs to be licensed and a royalty paid when it streams. What happens if a streaming service like Spotify streams comedy albums without the needed licenses.  The answer is not funny at all.

Comedians' works are streamed and broadcast across Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, SiriusXM, and more. However, unlike music where royalties are paid for two copyrights (composition and master recording), Comedians have only ever been paid royalties on the recording of their performance, not on the underlying literary work (equivalent of a composition). Jeff Price, founder of Word Collections and previous founder of Tunecore, Audiam, and more is setting out to fix that by helping comedians license and collect royalties owed to them for their unlicensed literary works.

Season 2/ Episode 7 Rachel Francine/ Co-Founder and CEO, SingFit Andy Tubman/ Co-Founder and Chief of Therapeutics and Music, SingFit If there is one that I have learned doing this podcast for the past two years, it’s that music contains value beyond the cost of a CD, an iTunes download or a Pandora stream. This show proves that music has a value beyond money. Rachel Francine and Andy Tubman are a brother and sister pair of entrepreneurs who have taken the best from each of their careers and combined them into a new company with a mission. Andy Spent years working as a music therapist, working with patients with brain trauma or dementia utilizing difference musical processes to help retrain the brain and to attain clinical goals. Rachel spent years working in the worlds of technology, media, and entertainment.  This particular set of skilled gave her the perfect background to deal with the ins and outs of music publishing and copyright. A few years back the two realized that both of those parts make the perfe

Gregory Roach Season 2/ Episode 8 Sometimes, you just want to sit back, have a cup of coffee and listen to war stories from a bygone era. This is that kind of Podcast.. Gregory Roach has had an eclectic career. He worked at "Grendel's Lair", the storied nightclub in Philadelphia, worked as the lighting guy for a comedy club in New York City, went on the road with Billy Joel and Pat Benatar, he even designed a "Rubber Juice Bar" for Studio 54. It's a conversation that proves that sometimes it's the guys behind the scenes that have all the fun.

Judith Finell - Judith Finell, Music Service Season 2/ Episode 8 You probably didn't watch, but on a Saturday night in April of 1983, "The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair," aired on NBC. Trust me on this; it was a classic of 1980s television - paunchy middle-aged heroes, central casting villains, backlot sets, stock footage explosions - The 12-year-old me could not get enough. Our intrepid heroes even cross paths with a fellow spy - a suave Brit, wearing a dashing tux, driving an Aston Martin (complete with the license plate, "JB"). His car featured cool gadgets, he had a starlet on his arm, and there was that memorable James Bond theme. "James Bond!!! They got James Bond - Cool" The 12 year old me was - again - thrilled out of his mind. The thing is, "they" didn't, "get" James Bond. They got an actor (admittedly, the actor happened to be George Lazenby, reprising his role as James Bond, so there wasn't much question), they got an Aston Martin, they even got the James Bond th

Judith Finell, Musicologist, president of Judith Finell Music Services Season 2, Episode 6 Ever started explaining something to a friend, and you can tell, usually, immediately, this person has no idea what you're talking about (you can see it in the eyes). When that happens, I always make up a little story... “It’s like trying to describe the idea of fusion to a clueless platypus.” Or... “It’s like explaining the theory of general relativity to a stupid rabbit.” Or... “It’s like discussing the concepts of thermodynamics with a slow turtle. ” With that in mind, the best way to describe this podcast would be,  "Trying to describe Music Theory to a Dimwitted Penguin." And, in this case, the "Dimwitted Penguin" happens to be me. That's mainly because this episode covers the ideas of plagiarism, music, copyright, and the law. Three things I can't always wrap my brain around. The background for this episode revolves around the "Blurred Lines" court case from a few years back. It started back in 2013 when the Marvi

Paul Resnikoff - Founder, Digital Music News Season 2/ Episode 5 The second season finale of the original Star Trek back in 1969 was an odd episode. You will see where I am going with this in a moment..... Yes, Kirk and Spock are in the top of the show, Kirk and Spock are at the close of the show, but the meat of the show, the entire episode, is taken up with the story of some guy named - "Gary Seven." Gary Seven is a human who, as it turns out, was kidnapped by aliens and sent back to earth to protect us from... whatever, that's not the point... The point is (and was), Gene Roddenberry was using one show - Star Trek, to promote another show, in this case, a show about some guy named - Gary Seven. (In the end the show, something of a Doctor Who Ripoff, never got picked up and the whole affair is now nothing more than a fantastic bit of a Star Trek Trivia... but, again, that's not the point.) So with all that in mind you will notice that Jeff and I are in the top of today's show, we are in the close of the clo

What a piece of the Merrie Melodies? How about Bette Midler? Etta James? Santana? Well, they have all been for sale. One of the goals of this podcast has been to figure out all the ways music can generate money. We know about album sales, we've talked endlessly about streaming rights, we've discussed those "big fat juicy contracts" (that don't exist anymore). But what about music futures? Ever wanted to be modern versions of Randolph and Mortimer Duke? (Go ahead look it up, I'll wait). What if you could buy the rights to a piece of music that already exists, and is already generating an income? Well, Royalty Exchange, a company based out of Denver, Colorado allows you to do just that. But buying a song is different than buying Frozen Concentrate Orange Juice futures. Music brings along its own set of regulations and mechanisms for reporting and tracking sales and distribution. The ASCAP's and BMI's of the world see to it that music is monitored and reported with the idea of eventually paying the owner any par

Danny Turner - Monetizing Moods. Global Senior Vice President for Creative Programming at Mood Media Season 2/ Episode 3 I've never been able to get the final scene from the "Blues Brothers," out of my head. Jake and Elwood spend the entirety of the (in my opinion fantastic) movie racing to the Cook County Assessors office, desperate to pay the back taxes on the orphanage. The final few moments of their quest (chased by thousands of members of Illinois law Enforcement) spent waiting in the elevator, staring at the blank walls, while the dulcet tones of "The Girl from Ipanema,"plays over the loudspeakers. The scene doesn't need words, and we've all been there. Staring at elevator walls, avoiding any eye contact, canned elevator Muzak playing over the elevator speakers to fill the silence. Just say the word, "Muzak," and "The Girl From Ipanema" jumps immediately to mind. But here's the thing, Muzak, as we thought we knew it, no longer exists. Muzak hasn't been a company since 2011 when it was acquired, for $345

"Wait … You were in a Christian Rock Band?  And you had to talk with Mr. Potty mouth - Me?" "It's OK Jeff, I've been in the music business a long time" Season 2/ Episode 2 - John Barker, and Everything you ever wanted to know about licensing - but (of course) were afraid to ask. I like to quote Donald Rumsfeld (Sorry, but I do) ... "There are things that we know we DON'T know, and there are things we didn't even know we needed to know." This is one of the episodes where we ask the questions you didn't know needed to be asked.  We talk with John about music publishing, administration, songwriters, copyrights,  licensing, collection, why it's crucial to do so, and what happens if you don't.  John Barker knows these things, for nearly 20 years John has run his company, Clearbox Global out of Nashville to help songwriters and music publishers deal with exactly these kinds of questions. Plus, he regales us with stories of Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton and Emmy Lou Harris.

Season 2/ Episode 1: Carin Gilfry – “Carin – Like Car in the Garage” Three things you need to know about today’s podcast… First, “yes” we have been away for a little while. Life, work, family – all the things that get in the way of a successful podcast, managed to get in the way of our successful podcast. But we’re back, and we have close to a dozen podcasts lined up and ready to go. Second, Carin pronounces her name, “car-in” as in, “the car is in the garage.” Third, you might have already heard of Carin because she’s kind of famous for being locked in a closet and you can listen to that part of her interview down below. So why Carin? I like deep dives into particular professions because they invariably have great stories. So I figured, “Let’s talk to someone who does voice-overs,” see what we can find. Starting her career as an opera singer (I liked to picture her belting out an aria wearing Viking horns while grasping a spear), Carin didn’t disappoint. Despite singing at some of the world’s most famous ven

“People need to look at the Internet as a plantation sharecropper system - Yeah, you got your cotton really cheap but is that how you want society to go forward?” Episode 012: East Bay Ray -  Safe Harbors and Cheap Cotton.  From its infancy in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1970s to today, the enduring legacy of the Dead Kennedys, is due in no small part to its founding member, East Bay Ray.  Ray’s Music, The Oakland Tribune cited ray as penning, “some of the most recognizable and memorable guitar riffs to emerge from the initial West Coast punk movement”, and Ray’s drive have kept the band alive and relevant for more than three decades.   So how does a self described, “middle class band”, one who managed to survive, Napster, The PMRC, and the wrath of local sheriffs survive in age of the internet?  It’s not easy.  As someone who considers himself a modern, “Renaissance Man… someone who thinks with both sides of his brain”, Ray is worried about the future of music.  Since Google purchased YouTube, Ray argu

Shawn Stern didn’t set out to become a Punk Rock Icon.  When he - along with his two brothers - created the (now) seminal band Youth Brigade back in 1980, all they really wanted to do was play music and hang with friends.  Punk Rock, he quickly realized, was the perfect venue for that lifestyle, “We (could) play music, we don’t have to be really good,… and you could talk about the problems - that really still exist - that (pop music) won’t talk about.”  But Punk Rockers need to eat.  So, when the major labels couldn’t care less about distributing BYO’s albums, when club owners didn’t want to book the band, and when promoters wouldn’t return his phone calls - Shawn went DIY.  Again with his brother, “This is a family affair,” Shawn cashed in his Bar Mitzvah Bonds (in the process screwing Bank of America) and started his own label - BYO Records. “It’s not rocket science, We learned early on how businesses work without ever taking a business class, I don't know to me it's just logical.”  Suddenly, Shawn was more

“This is a labyrinth of rules…. “ Gino Olivieri, President Premier Muzik. Are American Performers getting the money owed to them?  In many cases – no, and it’s all perfectly legal.  Back on October 26, 1961, representatives from 26 countries signed the, “Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations”.  Among other agreements, the treaty’s signers agreed that Broadcasters must pay performers (think singers and band members) for the use of their music – your song gets played on the radio - You get paid.  Seems simple? Yeah, Right.    The United Kingdom signed the treaty, Ecuador signed the treaty, Congo signed the treaty.  The United States of America, however, did not sign the treaty and never has.  So for the past 55 years, while performers from Moldova, Fiji and Togo (all signatories) have seen money when their music is played on the radio.  For Americans… nothing. This is real money, over the years some billions (yes – “Billions”) of dollars have be

So what happens AFTER you disrupt an entire industry? When last we saw him, Michael Robertson and MP3.com managed to uproot the business model of the entire music industry.  Physical media, he realized, didn’t matter.  People weren’t interested in CDs, cassettes or vinyl; they wanted music, and they wanted to it digitally. For Michael Robertson, the man who took a chance and spent $1000 on “Two letters and a number,” the world was never the same.   Suddenly, Wall Street players, who wouldn’t return his calls came knocking.   Soon after that, there were IPOs, and truckloads of money.  Then came the Lawyers, those big labels, the ones who refused to play ball, dragged Michael into Court.  Even the US Government, was breathing down his neck.    

  “So, I told my wife, I bought this new domain and she said, ‘what did you pay?’” I told her, ’a thousand dollars’. She was dumbfounded, ’That’s just two letters and a number!”  So, I said, ‘no no no… trust me… it’s going to be big!’” - Michael Robertson, Founder, mp3.com    Today’s episode isn’t so much about the music industry as it is about the life of an entrepreneur.   It isn’t so much about being lucky, as it is about making your own luck.   Let's go back to the early days of the internet when even with a, “Blazing fast,” 96k modem, it took more than 45 minutes to download one song - 45 minutes that is, if you could even find any music to download. Fresh out of college, newly minted, “computer consultant”, Michael Robertson was looking for his edge.  As the founder of “FILEZ.com” an early software search engine, Michael began noticing odd search trends.  Sure, people were searching for files with the terms, “spreadsheet” or “word processor,” but they were also looking for files with terms like, “sex” o

Episode: 007 Will Musicians Survive in the Age of Free When the "Bottle" is worth more than the wine? Interview Subject: Count "I think we can all agree, if somebody has millions of streams and they are popular enough to be a household name they should be able to pay their rent…" - Count (Producer: Radiohead, Rolling Stones, New Order, Frank Sinatra, Blackalicious) They say we are living the, "Golden Age" of media: endless streams of music, more television then hours in the day, enough books to read in twenty lifetimes. The buzzword for this amazing content, - "free." For the consumer, it's a golden age. But music producer and filmaker Mikael "Count" Eldridge sees a dark side for, the artists, creators and writers that might bring the entire golden age to an end. For the past twenty years, Count has been working, "on the other side of the glass " as as an A-list music producer working with some of the top artists in the world, from Radiohead to Frank Sinatra to DJ Shadow to the Rolling Stones and more, Count

“Musicians say they want to be in the business of music and yet they don’t understand the very basic concepts - it’s very strange to me.”   Everyone wants to be a musician but according to George Howard nobody understands the business.  George Howard, understands the music business.  He’s worked with big stars (Carly Simon), he’s been a label executive (President of Rykodisk), he’s an MBA, h’s a Lawyer - he’s literally written the book on how make money in the music industry, “An Insider's Guide to the Record Industry and Music Publishing 101.”  George knows what he’s talking about.     So what’s an artist to do? Not as much as you think.  

Why are artists so angry about their royalties from streaming music services like Spotify? Is there really no money or is there money but a crazy math formula that calculates who gets what is, well, just wrong.   Could the problem really be a bad math equation?   Meet Sharky Laguana.  Front man and founder of the band Creeper Lagoon and founder of a band van rental service Bandago.   Now construct a venn diagram of the music industry and rental services, Sharky sits right in the sweet spot.      As the founder and lead singer of the seminal 1990s alternative rock band, “Creeper Lagoon” Sharky knows the music industry.  As the founder and CEO of the van rental company Bandago, Sharky understands the economics of rentals.    With the launch of Apple Music and Spotify, the emerging trend of renting music, as opposed to buying or downloading a track, is hitting the mainstream.  So when Sharky sat down, took a look at how the current music services - Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, Apple Music… etc, calculated how artists

“Our function is to create new acts.  Our function is to make famous.  That is what we do, that is our unique skill set. We take artists, we develop them, we promote them, we make them the biggest most popular artists in the world.” - Avery Lipman, President, Republic Records   The age of the sunglass wearing, leisure suit clad, cigar chomping, deal making music mogul may have gone the way of the dinosaur.  But Avery Lipman still walks the earth, still makes million dollar deals, doesn’t smoke and is a much snappier dresser.     In the era of youtube, iTunes, and Spotify, Avery has found the secret sauce to staying relevant, finding the right acts at the right time, and still making a profit.  Since 1995, as the co-founder and President of Republic Records he (along with his brother Monte) figured out the magic formula to breaking some of the biggest names in the music industry.     Republic Records is today home to (among others), Colbie Caillat, Amy Winehouse, Akon, Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nelly, Taylor Sw