Episode 151: We're joined by music industry psychologist and therapist Anne Löhr to get a snapshot of the state of mental health within the music industry, and her interpretation of how well the industry has supported the mental health of the people in it. SPOILER: uh-oh, it’s not been great – but it’s getting better. The music industry has, according to Anne, stuck to one approach when dealing with mental health: and the results have been disastrous. So we talked about the damage that has been done and whether now, in 2024, things are changing – and are they changing fast enough? We also ask ..read more

Episode 150(!): Suzanne Bull, founder of Attitude is Everything – which connects disabled people with music and live event industries to improve access – and Dr Teresa Moore, Director at A Greener Future – which helps organisations, events, festivals and venues be more environmentally sustainable – join Music Ally's editor Joe Sparrow. They spoke about how the twin issues of sustainability at music festivals and access for people with disabilities connect, and why they’re opening up a conversation about how the sustainability challenge can incorporate the needs of people with di ..read more

Ep 149: Sofar Sounds CEO Jim Lucchese joins Music Ally editor Joe Sparrow to talk about the current economics of live music and its impact on local, independent artists. Live music is a hard business at the best of times, but for smaller and emerging artists, it can be brutally tough. A good number of artists now get their start playing Sofar Sounds shows, so we ask Jim to explain what artists and people working in the local live industry are experiencing, and what are the main economic and infrastructure pressures on them at the moment. Joe also asks Jim what the solutions might be – at a loc ..read more

Ep 149: Sofar Sounds CEO Jim Lucchese joins Music Ally editor Joe Sparrow to talk about the current economics of live music and its impact on local, independent artists. Live music is a hard business at the best of times, but for smaller and emerging artists, it can be brutally tough. A good number of artists now get their start playing Sofar Sounds shows, so we ask Jim to explain what artists and people working in the local live industry are experiencing, and what are the main economic and infrastructure pressures on them at the moment. Joe also asks Jim what the solutions might be – at a loc ..read more

Ep 148: Gen Z music fans are able to immediately sense when an artist’s communications with fans feel inauthentic. But marketing has in its nature an element of inauthenticity – so how do you maintain a feeling of authenticity when marketing to this young, online-only generation? And how can artists and teams market effectively directly to these younger fans or potential fans? Keturah Cummings is founder/CEO of Forward Slash, a social media agency and content production studio that specialises in connecting with youth audiences – and she explains where marketing efforts should be focused ..read more

Ep. 147: Stuart Dredge, Music Ally’s Head of Insight, joins Editor Joe Sparrow to answer some of the biggest and most complex questions in the DSP space in 2024. This podcast is aligned with Music Ally’s new quarterly report and the Big Questions they chat about include: • Who are the winners and losers from artist-centric payment systems – and will creators and labels be satisfied? • How often and by how much should subscription prices change  – and are we now in an era of incremental increases? • What are the industry’s needs (or demands) around marketing from DSPs – and will a bol ..read more

Ep. 146: In this episode we ask: how do people search for music today and what do people really want in their results? We welcome Einar Helde, AIMS API co-founder and CCO, to the Focus podcast to answer that question, as well as to explain how technology is allowing people to search in novel and nuanced ways – and what that means for people who make music. The needs of people who make, share and use music have changed dramatically. Artists scramble to be discovered amongst the supposed 100,000+ new tracks uploaded each day, and equally, the people seeking music scramble to find what they reall ..read more

Ep 145: Joe Sparrow is joined by Sean Lee, CEO/co-founder and Kyungtae Kim, co-founder and Audio & AI Specialist, of Verses, an AI music platform that powers music generation in virtual spaces. We wanted to talk about the use of dynamic AI-created music in the metaverse, and how that music then connects to virtual items. Essentially: where three of recent years’ most hypebeast products – AI created music, NFTs and metaverses – all come together. Verses has recently been nominated for a 2024 CES Award for its “Beat-based AI music video generator”, aespa world, a tool that “au ..read more

Ep. 144: Tuned Global's CEO Con Raso joins Joe Sparrow to talk about something that sounds a bit intangible and distant: the cost of storing all the music that gets streamed. If it’s essentially free for owners of huge catalogues of music to upload their files to someone else’s server, then they will – and smaller rightsholders like DIY artists and labels will be under increasing competition against an ever-increasing volume. Con and Joe chatted about whether DSPs should charge for storage and what the effects of that may look like for large and small rightsholders - and they also ta ..read more

Ep 143: Marie Clausen worked hard to rise to a senior position in the music industry, only to find that she was often the only woman in the room. So she’s now driven to change that – and she explains to Joe Sparrow how she initiated Merlin’s Engage mentorship program, designed to boost the representation of women in the top ranks of the music industry. Marie is U.S. Managing Director at Ninja Tune, and is also Managing Board Director for Merlin, the digital rights music licensing partner organisation for independent rightsholders. We talk about her own career, how Merlin’s mentorship prog ..read more