Song Stories

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk with Theda Sandiford, who is the VP of Commerce at Republic Records and Island Records, where she handles VEVO, Spotify, Youtube and more. Sandiford got her start at WBLS and then became the first black programmer of a major market country station. In 1994, she was nominated for “Programmer of the Year Award” by the CMA. She moved to Billboard to run the Hot 100 chart, then went on to work at Def Jam. After spending time working with an online games startup, she came back to the music industry, and currently works at Republic. We talk to Sandiford about big data, music streaming, and gaming startups.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk with Jon Maples, the former VP of product at Rhapsody, who is now writing on his blog and consulting for companies. We ask Maples about the next crop of music startups and where they might take the music industry in the coming years.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk with Darren Hemmings, who runs the digital consultancy Motive Unknown and curates the daily music industry newsletter the Daily Digest. We talk with Hemmings about the top stories that happened in 2014 and what these developments might mean for the music industry in the new year.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business, we talk with Paul Cantor, a writer and producer, who recently published a piece on Medium about why television is killing the movie business and what that means. We talk to Cantor about his essay and what film and TV can learn from the music biz.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk with Archie Hamilton, who runs Splatter, China's first integrated music promotion and brand activation agency. His team manages campaigns for brands seeking to leverage music effectively in their communications strategy. He also runs Split Works, which promotes music independently, owns and runs three of China's biggest festivals and books artists all through SE Asia.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk with Dan Cantor, who is former CEO and co-founder of exfm, a social music discovery platform that enables people transform music blogs into playable mix. In recent months, his company was acquired by Rhapsody International and he became their VP of product. We talk to Cantor about his company, the music startup space, and Rhapsody’s future.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Eric Ronning, who is the EVP and Chief Revenue Officer for Digital at adLarge Media, a advertising sales representation organization. Prior to joining adLarge, Ronning served as the EVP of Emerging Media at TargetSpot and the founder and managing partner of Ronning Lipset Radio. We talk to him about the future of music streaming and targeted advertising in connected cars.

Beats Music executives have been overhyping their product for a long time. So the co-hosts of the Upward Spiral, Cortney Harding and Kyle Bylin, asked several friends to use the mobile app for a week and conducted research interviews over Skype to collect their feedback. Now everyone is speculating on whether Apple is buying Beats Electronics and what motivated the potential deal. Is the company worth 3.2 billion? What will Apple do with Beats Music? It’s too early to know for sure but here are some candid thoughts from regular people on their experience of the Beats Music service.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Scott LeGere, who is a serial entrepreneur and college educator. Over the past 15 years, Scott has played key roles in the ownership and operation of audio recording facilities, indie record labels, media schools, and commercial music production companies. During this time, he also engineered Grammy nominated albums, produced critically acclaimed indie projects, and lectured on the music business and audio production. In 2010, he co-founded NoWare Media, a composition focused sound agency. We asked Scott about how to educate and inspire the next generation of music business entrepreneurs.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to artist manager and music producer JJ Italiano about whether the concept of a “favorite artist” has changed. Today’s music listener has unlimited access to streaming music across any connected device. They can follow the activities of favorite artists on a variety of social media platforms. We share stories from our history as music fanatics and industry professionals. We dive deep into a wide ranging discussion about how digital technology has shaped music fandom.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Maggie Vail, who is the co-executive director of CASH Music, a nonprofit group that is building both open source tools and an educational curriculum for artists. Previously, she spent 17 years at the indie label Kill Rock Stars. She talks with us about how to make sure indie artists are paid for their creative works.

n this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Andy Weissman, who is a partner at Union Square Ventures. Prior to USV, Andy co-founded betaworks, which both created and invested in social, real time applications and services. We ask him how he thinks about the current music startup landscape and why people choose one music service over the other.

When news broke that Beats Music would be developing a music service, I got so excited. Finally, a company would make a product that regular people might care about. The reality is that most music services are for music fanatics — people who care about music. But most people don’t care about music. They do not make time to discover music or put together playlists. They want popular music — curated by experts — while they wash dishes and feed the cat. That is the promise of Beats Music, and that is the focus of the latest episode of the Upward Spiral. We discuss this and more with two digital music veterans: Jon Maples and Jonathan Sasse.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Alina Simone, who wrote an op-ed in the New York Times called “The End of Quiet Music.” In the piece, she depicts the struggles that artists face and the sacrifices they make. She has released albums sung in both English and Russian, and is the author of an essay collection called "You Must Go and Win." We discuss the myths about the artist-as-entrepreneur and why having to constantly hustle is bad for artists.

In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk to Daniel Savage, who leads North American operations for Musicmetric, a startup which offers behavioral data for the music industry. He gives us his perspective on the Iron Maiden story that recently made headlines around the interwebs and what role behavioral data plays in helping artists make decisions.

When Beyoncé dropped her fifth album on iTunes on December 13, it was a complete surprise. This has led many people to declare that she has changed the game by releasing an album that didn’t have any marketing or PR efforts behind it. So what should we make of all this? What does it mean for the music industry? Beth Martinez of Danger Village, a PR company that promotes emerging artists, and Alicia Yaffe of the Spellbound Group, a firm that develops online marketing and brand management for artists, discuss the Beyoncé album hype.

In episode 36 of the Upward Spiral, we talk with Ben Sisario, who reports on the changing landscape of the music industry for the New York Times. Sisario shares his thoughts on the beat he covers and how the stories he writes develop, YouTube’s plans for an music award show and subscription music service, and why streaming services more broadly haven't gained a larger foothold. We also deconstruct the recent virality of Miley Cyrus.

In episode 34 of the Upward Spiral, we talk with Matt Voyno, co-author of the New Rockstar Philosophy, a book that strives to be a road map for starting a musical project in the digital age. We were excited to interview Matt, because we have been virtual colleagues and friends through about five years now. We discuss how Matt and his co-author started blogging, what has changed in the music and technology sector since then, how theory of one thousand true fans and direct-to-fan marketing has evolved in recent years, and what this new age means for indie artists.

The story of Goldiblox and the Beastie Boys has gained traction in recent days, and for good reason — it's a nuanced conflict with no obvious resolution. Goldiblox is a start-up toymaker with the noble goal of getting girls into engineering and teaching them STEM skills. Their viral video gave the Beastie Boys' "Girls" a female-empowerment lyric makeover without the band's permission, and then Goldiblox slapped the Beasties with a lawsuit as a pre-emptive defense against any legal action. Should Goldiblox be protected under fair use? Pundits from all sides of music and tech have weighed in, and Upward Spiral co-host Jason Spitz gathered three intelligent and insightful voices for a lively conversation.

Last week TechCrunch reported that a huge percentage of Rdio staff were laid off. Months earlier, Slacker and Rhapsody also laid off staff. This trend begs several larger questions: Are these layoffs just the start of a correction and we will being seeing more soon? Are we on the verge of a major consolidation in the online music sector? Are the growth strategies and business models at the streaming companies sustainable? The Deep Dive examines these difficult questions alongside startup founder and industry pundit J Herskowitz.