Topic
Music Business Strategy
How the music industry makes money, where it is heading and how companies compete in it. 20 conversations with founders, investors and experts, newest first.
Episodes (20)
Thierry Ascarez, Chief Business Officer at Winamp, explains why streaming rarely pays independent artists and how Winamp for Creators fills the gap.
Stager's Mike van Gaasbeek and CM.com's Yannick Corbeau on why ticketing startups get bought, why signing fees are loans, and who really sets the fees.
Becky Brook, a music and technology advisor, explains why Suno and Udio's talks with major labels and new AI copyright rulings make music licensing murkier.
Joseph Perla, founder of Hangout.fm and creator of TurnTable.fm, explains why music licensing took four years to secure before launch.
Ryan Schmidt of Foundation explains why artists need business knowledge alongside talent, and how two-to-five-minute lessons help close that gap.
Daniel Nordgård, professor of music industry management, explains why he is optimistic about streaming, AI generated music and artist careers.
Dan Fowler explains why streaming growth masks a real plateau, why consolidation is squeezing music tech, and where opportunity still exists.
Ola Sars, founder of Soundtrack, explains why businesses pay fifty dollars for a music subscription and how the company started as a Spotify joint venture.
Tajdar Khan, partner at Amplitude Ventures, explains why music is a passion economy and where B2B solutions actually make money in it.
Mike Holland, manager of Logic, explains why emerging artists should act as their own CEOs and use democratized tools while keeping their art intact.
Louis Marks and Fabian Brown of Rope-A-Dope discuss 25 years of independent music, Grammy myths, and a people-first approach to sustaining a label.
Becky Brook explains how AI is changing music licensing, from PRS and PPL collective licenses to generative model training and copyright.
Yvan Boudillet, co-founder of Music Tech Europe, explains how AI can reshape live music, from stage design to fan data, and why venues are labs for experiences.
Christopher Wieduwilt, the AI Musicpreneur, explains how musicians can pair AI tools with storytelling and automate content creation to build an audience.
Jonas Norberg, Head of AI at Tuned Global, shares Pacemaker's 18-year journey from iPod hardware to Spotify integration, AI DJ, and an eventual acquisition.
Serona Elton of the Mechanical Licensing Collective explains why songwriters miss royalties, how the MLC works, and what to do to collect what you are owed.
Jakob Wredstrøm tests an AI clone of himself as a podcast co-host on Sound Connections, exploring AI ethics and the future of music interviews.
Ken Kobori, founder of Surf, explains how AI reference search and direct pitching let songwriters reach labels without a middleman.
Stein Bjelland, chair of Music Norway, explains why artists must understand markets and how Norway could fund music firms without buying equity.
Josh Greenberg, founder of Green Mountain Lodge and former Red Bull and Spotify executive, traces how technology took over the music industry.
Questions these episodes answer
Why doesn't music streaming pay most independent artists a living income?
Ascarez says streaming works well for promotion and distribution but only about 0.5 percent of artists, meaning the biggest acts, actually make a living from it. That gap is why Winamp built a separate platform to help independent artists collect revenue beyond streaming.
What services does Winamp for Creators offer independent artists?
Winamp for Creators works like an ERP for music professionals, aggregating distribution, royalty and publishing collection, YouTube Content ID revenue, music licensing through Jamendo, fan shops and collectibles, plus a website builder and advertising tools, all built from scratch over about three and a half years.
What is the history of Winamp's parent company?
Ascarez joined the radio startup Radionomy in 2010, which acquired Shoutcast and Winamp from AOL in 2013 and later TargetSpot. The group sold to Vivendi in 2017, was bought back in 2019, sold Radionomy and TargetSpot in 2022 to focus on Winamp, and became Winamp Group, publicly traded on Euronext Paris.
Why did Utopia Music's acquisition strategy fail, in Ascarez's view?
Ascarez says Utopia Music bought seven to fifteen companies at once with people who lacked music and technology experience, expecting the combination alone to create one strong company. He believes that lack of vision and industry knowledge caused the failure, and prefers building core services with selective acquisitions instead.
Does Ascarez think music tech is a good space for young people to build a career in?
Ascarez admits he would not recommend his own son go into the music technology space because it is difficult and not the industry investors chase for returns. He still believes someone has to build in it, and that Winamp can become a European leader within three to five years.
Why do ticketing startups often get acquired instead of growing independently?
Most ticketing startups do not collapse, the guests say, they get bought. They point to a wave of recent acquisitions, Eventim buying See Tickets and Paylogic, and Eventix becoming Weeztix after Weezevent bought it, and says grabbing market share for a few years before a quick exit has become a real strategy for founders in the space.
Why do ticketing companies get blamed for high service fees?
Van Gaasbeek says it is always the promoter, and never the ticketing platform, who decides the service fee added on top of a ticket price. He argues it is easy and convenient for the public to blame the ticketing provider for grabbing money, when the organizer set that fee and pockets a share of it themselves.
How can a smaller ticketing platform compete on price with Ticketmaster or Eventim?
Van Gaasbeek says Stager simply calculates the numbers rather than competing on signing fees. If a client urgently needs upfront cash, Stager is not the right partner, but over a long relationship its lower ongoing fee beats a competitor's signing fee, which is really an expensive loan in disguise.
Is it still profitable to start a new ticketing company today?
Van Gaasbeek says ticketing still carries enough margin on multi-year contracts to make starting a company worthwhile, though deals are increasingly shorter term. That security of predictable revenue, alongside acquisition interest from larger players, keeps new ticketing startups entering the market despite thin transaction margins.
What is the biggest hidden responsibility in running a ticketing company?
Yannick Corbeau says CM.com functions as a promoter's bank, advancing the cash flow organizers need to book artists, pay permits and fund marketing months before a show. He says that fiduciary-like responsibility goes far beyond processing payment, which is why reliable banking and safety systems matter so much in ticketing.
Why are Suno and Udio talking to major labels about licensing while still being sued by them?
Becky Brook says once large language model companies like Suno and Udio want to discuss licensing, major labels have to engage, both because it makes commercial sense and because refusing to negotiate while suing them for lacking a license would undermine the labels' own legal position in court.
Does licensing music upfront actually get an AI company a better deal?
Brook says history does not reward companies for licensing first. Services like YouTube and Musical.ly, now TikTok, scaled for years unlicensed under old internet protections, and the precedent suggests fighting a lawsuit out in court can produce a better deal than paying for a license upfront, which frustrates startups that tried to do things properly.