Music Tectonics

What if payments in the music industry could be as seamless as paying for your rideshare or food delivery? In this bonus episode, host Dmitri Vietze is joined by Justin Butler, L.A.-based Director of Global Sales at Hyperwallet. Hyperwallet provides payment solutions for many companies to manage payouts for 200 plus companies and teratorries. Hyperwallet was recently acquired by PayPal and functions on the backend to move money around. Although they work across all spectrums and verticals, in the music industry they currently are working with DSPs to streamline their payments process. The music industry is more accessible than ever. Take a look at the gig economy, where payment approaches true seamlessness. Historically in the music industry it hasn't been this way, and it's ripe for disruption. Intrigued? Find out more about Hyperwallet at the Music Tectonics Conference in LA- Justin will be speaking on the panel "Rethinking Royalties: How the Entertainment Industry Can Modernize Payments." The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Independent music isn't on the margins any more: It makes up 40 percent of the industry. This week on the podcast, Kevin Breuner joins host Dmitri Vietze to talk about how Independent self empowered artists are changing the game. Kevin knows independent music: He's VP of Marketing at CD Baby, host of the DIY Musician Podcast (going strong at 241 episodes!), and an indie musician himself. The rise of the DIY Musician means that mainstream artists are having to work harder to maintention the same attention level. Pre-streaming, labels used to be genre specific—radio too—and other artists were viewed as competition. Now other artists are partners because there are a ton of opportunities to cross promote and work together to grow their collective fan bases. There are fewer gatekeepers now and the floodgates are open, and success is coming from surprising places so it's the perfect time to experiment as an independent artist. CD Baby has long been a prime mover in a number of the tech-driven seismic shifts in the music biz we've been tracking: Broken Gates, Self-Driving Artists, Many Paths to Success, the list goes on. We're grateful that they signed on early as a Supernova Sponsor of the Music Tectonics Conference where we'll explore these shifts and more. Kevin will be there, along with CEO Tracy Maddux and SVP Christine Barnum. Connect with them in LA! The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Data Everywhere? Music In Slices? Hands of the Masses? WTF are all these Seismic Shifts we keep talking about? Podcast host Dmitri Vietze explains it all in this episode recorded live in Los Angeles at General Assembly. Dmitri revealed 18 of the biggest seismic shifts shaking up the music biz as a result of technology and innovation, all distilled into the fun visual medium of trading cards. If you're a regular listener, you heard co-host Tristra Newyear and Music Tech Seismologist Mark Mulligan challenge him to do it, and he did. Listen in as Dmitri riffs on everything from IKEA lampspeakers to Instagram as a music discovery app. Hear the audience chase the rabbits Dmitri lets loose. We're releasing card designs day by day on our website, so check out the visuals while you listen at MusicTectonics.com/seismicshifts! Collect all 18 cards only at the Music Tectonics Conference, October 28-29 in Los Angeles—and add some Shift Talker speaker cards to your deck! Just wait till you see that Golden Mulligan. . . Did Dmitri miss any major shifts that are shaking up your corner of the biz? What should the next series of trading cards feature? Let us know @MusicTectonics on Twitter & Facebook, or shout at Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What music fan hasn't dreamed of playing a solo with their favorite band, or immersing themselves in every detail of their favorite song? In a Music Tectonics first, this podcast episode spans five cities (on two continents) to explore the emerging interactive music market. Leaders of three start-ups explain how their apps invite fans into the music in unique ways: Sarah Janiszewski (Jammer), Frank Østevold (oiid), and Dave Park (SongAI). All these apps use the stems of a song—the individual guitar, bass, drums, and vocal tracks—to let users become co-creators, not just passive listeners. These new ideas were all developed with the support of Universal Music Group's global digital innovation program, so Bill Gagnon, SVP Business Development at UMG, chimes in to give a big picture view of the program and the thinking behind it. UMG is working closely with start-ups to help spawn innovation and bringing fans and artists closer, and the development of the interactive music market is just one of the spaces where new ideas are growing. Get a first hand look at the interactive music frontier: play with all three apps at the Music Tectonics Conference in LA Oct. 28-29! UMG is creating a start-up playground in our exhibitor hall where you'll be able to try them out yourself. The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

When you stream music, how much are you actually hearing? What happens to audio quality as a track makes its way from the studio to your earbuds? Find out from Dan Mackta, Managing Director at Qobuz USA. Qobuz lets audiophiles stream studio-quality music from any device, not just the lossy mp3s offered by the streaming giants. Dan dares music lovers—especially jazz and classical fans—to try better audio and find out for themselves how much more there is to hear. Learn how "brick wall compression" has shaped the sound of pop music and why audiophiles think of music like cocaine. Want to give it a try? Dan gives his expert picks for the essentials you need to start your own audiophile journey. The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Why are cover songs so popular? And it's not just with fans but with Hollywood too. Jeff Van Driel knows: he's CEO of mVibe, a platform for sync licensing cover songs. This week on the podcast, Jeff gives host Dmitri Vietze a micro-to-macro view of the music biz starting from mVibe's B2B niche. Jeff explains how mVibe's platform offers tech solutions that are unique to connecting music supervisors with the perfect cover song, but have the potential to scale to solve larger industry problems. From his past at the classical music giant NAXOS (classical music is all cover songs, after all!) to the rapid growth of sync licensing in recent years, get Jeff's perspective from that sweet spot where music and tech meet. Find out how mVibe cuts through the noise in the marketplace and why cover songs are so hot right now. What are the next big innovations on the music for picture horizon ? Why isn't Jeff worried about A.I. music creation? What's next for mVibe's platform? The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

We talk a lot about seismic shifts in the music industry, and Mark Mulligan is a true music tech seismologist. If you've read his Music Industry Blog, followed his work with MIDiA Research, or seen him speak, you know that his data-powered approach is unparalleled for understanding, explaining, and predicting upheavals in the music tech landscape. This week Mark takes Dmitri and Tristra on a whirlwind tour of the seismic shifts he's tracking. Find out why Mark believes that this is "The Age of the Empowered Artist." Who has the resources to navigate a music industry that's increasingly fluid? What are streaming services in Europe and North America getting wrong about social listening and fandom? Why isn't music the teenage cultural touchstone that it used to be? How can you get a Mark Mulligan trading card? Mark delves into it all, with mind-blowing truth bombs around every turn. If you like this episode, don't miss Mark's keynote at the Music Tectonics Conference, Oct 28-29 in LA! The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Put it on the blockchain! That was the cry at music industry conferences over the past couple of years, while industry veterans stood at the back of the room snickering. At Music Tectonics we are facing the tension straight on with a Blockchain Cage Match at our October 29 conference in L.A. Enthusiasts and skeptics will face off on stage. We announce the event on this episode featuring Vezt CEO Steve Stewart, who is not afraid to face the heat and who has come up with an interesting business model that uses blockchain to track investments by fans in artists' songs. Meanwhile, Vezt does not require the rest of the industry to adopt blockchain for the business to function. Host Dmitri Vietze rapid-fires skeptical questions and Stewart bats them away with grace and agility. We thought the industry skeptics might win the cage match, but now we're not so sure. Tune in to see where you land, then come to the conference to see the Cage Match in action. The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

In the music streaming era, how do fans find out who's playing on their favorite tracks? What happened to all the credits that used to fill album liner notes with fine print? Finally, there's an IMDB for music: Jaxsta. CEO and co-founder Jacqui Louez Schoorl sat down with podcast host Dmitri Vietze in a quiet corner at DIY Musician Conference to tell how she went from working on Star Wars to building the world's largest official database for music credits. Jaxsta puts music discovery tools back into fans' hands, so you can follow the sounds and artists that matter to you. Track down that amazing backup singer and that killer sax player and listen to everything they've ever worked on! Jacqui has years of experience in the film and music industries, so she knows why credits are critical for crew and performers, too. Find out how Jaxsta works with data partners to get authoritative credits, what's next for Jaxsta as a business, and how music discovery might change thanks to the rabbit holes that Jaxsta opens up for avid listeners. What will you discover? Go digital cratedigging at jaxsta.com. The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

There was a time when album sales, ticket sales and radio airplay were the only numbers that mattered in the music industry. Now, streaming generates extremely granular data about who is listening, when, where, and how. Greg Delaney and Erik Gilbert of the data management company Entertainment Intelligence sat down with hosts Dmitri Vietze and Tristra Newyear Yeager to dig into how this data explosion is changing the music business. Which came first, the profusion of data about listeners, or a music market that required pinpoint targeting to squeeze out the most from those penny fractions? Is follower count, skip rate, or average streams per day a more meaningful number? Which metrics really help labels and artists understand users and build audiences, and which ones are just snake oil? Who suffers when streams are farmed? Find out how Entertainment Intelligence is creating indie benchmarks that rival what the majors do, and how as a neutral party they can work like an "escrow account" for data. The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.