Home » interviews » Page 2

Tag: interviews
Posted inNews

Spotify CEO talks Covid-19, artist incomes and podcasting (interview)

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Spotify announced its latest financial results yesterday, with growth in listeners and subscribers at the top end of its forecasts, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. CEO Daniel Ek talked to Music Ally after the financials were announced, starting with his view on the growth.

“It’s very encouraging. Already last earnings call we were seeing a lot of the numbers stabilising and it was looking very promising, so it’s nice to see that stability and to see more and more regions get back to normal again, with a continuing trend from Q1,” said Ek.

One of the lines that jumped out of Spotify’s Q2 earnings announcement was “Gone are the days of Top 40, it’s now the Top 43,000” – referring to the fact that the streaming service’s ‘top tier’ of artists – those accounting for the top 10% of its streams – now number more than 43,000, compared to 30,000 a year ago.

Posted inNews

CISAC report reveals growth in global music collections

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

CISAC, the global collecting-societies body, has published its annual ‘Global Collections Report’ setting out the collections of its 239 members in more than 120 countries.

As ever, it’s a useful counterpart to the IFPI’s annual Global Music Report: while that publication focuses on recorded-music royalties, the music section of CISAC’s report quantifies collections for songwriters and publishers.

(CISAC’s report also covers collections for audiovisual content, drama, literature and visual arts, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll be focusing on its music data, which accounts for 88% of CISAC members’ total collections.)

Posted inNews

Transgressive Records at 15: ‘Sometimes great things take time…’

Avatar photo by Eamonn Forde

On paper, 2004 was one of the worst years in living memory to set up a record label. The decade-and-a-half decline in recorded-music revenues was well underway, with CD sales falling off a cliff. And the main lifeline in sight, Apple’s iTunes Store, was unbundling the traditional album. Optimism was in short supply.

And yet: Transgressive Records was founded in London in 2004. From the start, it was a curious blend of analogue and digital, and the tension between the two was arguably what made the company stand out. Co-founders

Transgressive Records was founded in London in 2004. Co-founders Tim Dellow and Toby L met at a Bloc Party concert, with Tim’s Trash Aesthetics label having put out their debut single, which Toby had given a five-star review on the Rock Feedback site that he ran.

Posted inNews

Amuse CEO talks growth, Old Town Road and artist-friendly deals

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

“What have you done for me lately?” Diego Farias, CEO of music distributor and label Amuse, is on the other end of a video call to Music Ally, singing the chorus of Janet Jackson’s classic track with a smile on his face, but thankfully no wardrobe malfunctions with his clothing.

It’s not (just) for the love of famous mid-80s hits. The phrase has just come up as Farias explains the impact he thinks Amuse and other distributors are having on the wider music industry, in terms of artists’ expectations when they’re talking to the labels that they’re already signed to.

“Someone at one major label here in Sweden was telling me that they find themselves in a really weird negotiation because of deals like the ones Amuse offers,” he says. “Artists really do come in and ask ‘What have you done for me lately?’ They’re asking what are they getting in return?”

“Increasingly, it’s difficult to answer that question. The true disruption is about the control the majors had on breaking stars in the past, versus the loosening grip that they have on that now.”

Posted inNews

Feed.fm talks music in fitness apps: ‘It’s about ROI’

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Music is proving its value to fitness apps and other health-focused startups, according to Lauren Pufpaf, co-founder and COO of B2B music firm Feed·fm.

Health and fitness is a key vertical for her company, which handles licensing and playlist curation through to the APIs / SDKs and analytics required to offer music within such apps.

ClassPass, Tonal and MoveWith are among the apps featured in the case studies section of its website, along with non-fitness clients like retailer American Eagle Outfitters and basketball team the Golden State Warriors.

Posted inNews

Boomy talks AI music: ‘We want to make music that’s meaningful’

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

“Our goal was never to make music that was good! Maybe someday we will, and people will say it’s good. But our goal is to make music that’s meaningful. That’s a different kind of thing…”

Alex Mitchell is the CEO of Boomy, one of the youngest startups exploring the idea of… well, I would say AI-generated music, but as he’ll explain later, he thinks that particular term is meaningless. Nevertheless, Boomy has developed artificial-intelligence technology that anyone can use to create songs, using its web-based interface.

You log in, choose one of two styles (‘Beats By You’ or ‘Relaxing Meditation’) then a filter (modern, high intensity, maximum thump, electronic, vintage, ambient or unlimited in the former case, and pulses, natural or electronic in the latter), with a third ‘Advanced’ style for people who want to tweak more variables.

Once chosen, it takes around 13 seconds for Boomy to create you a song. Play it, then either click ‘Try Again’ to get another one; ‘Save’ to save it to your collection, or ‘Edit’ to dive in and tweak its settings and arrangements. The more you use it, the better Boomy learns your preferences, and tries to adapt to them whenever it creates you new songs.

Posted inNews

Can startup Endlesss become the TikTok of music-making?

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

“I wonder whether we’re experiencing the death of content. Or rather, the fall of content and the rise of relationships. The value of content as a leanback experience that’s measured in ‘attention’ diminishes, and what increases is the measure of response: replies, interaction, engagement…”

Don’t worry: Tim Exile, the CEO of British music-making-app startup Endlesss, is as uncomfortable with the word ‘content’ as you (hopefully!) and I are.

At one point during Music Ally’s interview with him, we spend five minutes fretting over why we end up saying the word so often, and what might be a better alternative when talking about music, videos, photos, writing and all the other stuff that people are creating in the digital world. Maybe ‘stuff’ is the better word.

Endlesss isn’t a commercial product yet: it began testing its app last year, and remains in beta. However, a buzz is beginning to build around its app, especially with it having been the joint winner (with another music-making app, Jambl) in the ‘creation and education’ category in June’s Midemlab startups contest.

Posted inAnalysis

Gleam Futures’ Dom Smales explains move into music management

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Managers have always been an important part of the music industry, and in recent years, they’ve been getting more involved in the digital side of their artists’ careers.

Meanwhile, over in the world of YouTubers (and increasingly Instagrammers and Snapchatters too) managers are also playing a prominent role – and in some cases, are taking over from the multi-channel networks (MCNs) that were first to spot and sign up digital stars.

Verify your email

We'll send a verification code to .

Gift this article