Q&A: Larry Mills of We Are The Hits Talks YouTube, the Music Industry, & How Everybody Wins

Larry Miller

 

At Musonomics, we often talk to more people than we can fit into an episode. As a result, some great wisdom gets left on the cutting room floor. While researching our latest episode, “YouTube’s Big Red Elephant is Loose in the Music Industry’s Room,” we got on the phone with Larry Mills, CEO and founder of We Are The Hits, a company that has devised a way for amateur artists to legally cover hit songs in YouTube videos and then share revenue from those videos with the rights holders of the covered songs — no small feat in today’s convoluted music industry. In this Musonomics Q&A,  Mills shares some great insight on YouTube’s dominance, it’s importance to the music industry, and how We Are The Hits has tried to create an environment where everybody wins.

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CMJ Music Marathon 2015 Recap

Larry Miller

CMJ

R. Yibing Guo Jia is a first-year graduate student in the NYU Steinhardt Music Business Program and a junior staff member here at Musonomics. Last week, she attended the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City. In this blog post, she shares some of her thoughts on the mini-festival that brings industry heads and indie fanboys alike to New York City to discover new music and learn about the business behind that music.

Being a college radio kid, CMJ Music Marathon has always been an exciting time for me. Those four or five days in early fall are like summer camp for music enthusiasts. This year, many things changed for CMJ. Under new leadership, the location moved from Kimmel in Washington Square Park to a trendier, less academic setting at Dream Downtown in Chelsea.

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YouTube’s Big Red Elephant is Loose in the Music Industry’s Room

Larry Miller

itunespodcast1-300x300

Season 2 of The Musonomics podcast kicks off today with the release of episode 8, “YouTube’s Big Red Elephant is Loose in the Music Industry’s Room.” We’ve talked a lot on previous shows about the streaming wars; Spotify vs Tidal vs Apple Music vs Deezer vs an ever-growing list of new faces — but there’s one streaming service whose user numbers dwarf the competition, and that streaming service is YouTube. In just 10 years, YouTube has become the biggest streaming service in the world.

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Monday Reading List

Larry Miller

Monday Reading List

Another week, another batch of industry news and long reads for our Monday Reading List. On this week’s list Pandora gets dealt another tough blow, The Economist theorizes on the age of music festival-goers, Bandcamp makes some changes in pay structure, and Music Business Worldwide says what we were all thinking about new streaming service/device the Electric Jukebox. Then, because here at Musonomics, we can’t ignore that hotline when it blings, artist James Turrell confirms that neither he, nor his woes, had anything to do with Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video.

Check out this week’s Monday Reading List after the jump.

 

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Monday Reading List

Larry Miller

Monday Reading List

Welcome to the first installment of the Musonomics Monday Reading List!

Every Monday we’ll post a list of the previous week’s best reads. Amongst our curated list of the best music industry writing, you might find an explainer on the latest music industry merger, or a Q&A with an artist or an industry player of note — or maybe just a terrific essay penned by a music legend.

No matter what, our picks will always shed light on some unseen part of the industry, bring clarity to a hot-button issue, or provide a new perspective on an old problem.

Check out this week’s Monday Reading List after the jump:

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Summer Festival Fever Spreads from Newport to Tennessee – The Summer Music Festival Part 2

Larry Miller

Today we released the second installment of our two-part series on the state of the summer music festival, “Summer Festival Fever Spreads From Newport to Tennessee — The Summer Music Festival Part 2”
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George Wein and the Newport Legacy – The Summer Music Festival Part 1

Larry Miller

In the first half of a two episode series on the business evolution of summer music festivals, Larry Miller interviews George Wein, founder of the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals. On the 50th anniversary of when Bob Dylan “went electric” and the 60th anniversary of Miles Davis’ debut, 90-year old impresario George Wein shares vivid memories and insights on Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan — along with musical moments and a discussion on the business influence of his summer music festivals.  The Newport Folk Festival is this weekend, July 24-26.  The Newport Jazz Festival is the weekend of July 31-August 2.

It’s a truly special interview with one of the most influential music programmers of the 20th century, and we hope you enjoy it.

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Apple, Music, and the Launch of Apple Music

Larry Miller

Episode four is here, and it’s just in time for the launch of Apple’s new music streaming service, Apple Music.

Apple Music launches Tuesday, and we’re taking a deep dive into what the app will mean for the industry. We look back at Apple’s prosperous relationship with music, from the first iPod ad through to last month’s WWDC keynote and launch announcement. We’ve got a ton of great guests.  Josh Friedlander of the RIAA chats with us about the emergence of the streaming industry, and artist manager Emily White gives us a view into Apple’s relationship with artists. Dick Huey of  the Toolshed marketing agency sheds light on what stats to watch in the wake of Apple Music’s launch, and David Pakman sits down for an insightful chat about what success will look like for Apple Music.

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Apple’s Swift Turnaround: Episode 4 is On The Way

Sam Behrens

swift

 

Taylor Swift is more powerful than we could have imagined.

Sunday, Swift penned an open letter to Apple, condemning the Cupertino company’s decision not to pay artists royalties for music streamed during Apple Music’s 3-month free trial. She ended the letter with a firm charge for Apple’s decision-makers: “Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”

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