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21khz: The Art of Money In Music

Jeff Price (Founder TuneCore, spinART Records and Audiam) and journalist Ted Gerstein (Author: Bomb Squad, Former Producer ABC News Nightline) explore the behind the scenes mechanisms of the music industry allowing artists, producers, record labels, songwriters and technology innovators to make money off music. Learn why $30 billion dollars is generated off of music and whose pockets it ends up in.
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21khz: The Art of Money In Music
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Now displaying: 2016
Aug 23, 2016

“People need to look at the Internet as a plantation sharecropper system - Yeah, you got your cotton really cheap but is that how you want society to go forward?”

Episode 012: East Bay Ray -  Safe Harbors and Cheap Cotton. 

From its infancy in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1970s to today, the enduring legacy of the Dead Kennedys, is due in no small part to its founding member, East Bay Ray.  Ray’s Music, The Oakland Tribune cited ray as penning, “some of the most recognizable and memorable guitar riffs to emerge from the initial West Coast punk movement”, and Ray’s drive have kept the band alive and relevant for more than three decades.  

So how does a self described, “middle class band”, one who managed to survive, Napster, The PMRC, and the wrath of local sheriffs survive in age of the internet? 

It’s not easy.  As someone who considers himself a modern, “Renaissance Man… someone who thinks with both sides of his brain”, Ray is worried about the future of music.  Since Google purchased YouTube, Ray argues, he has seen local artists in the Bay area’s, “income cut by half.”  He’s seen the Dead Kennedy’s music, - music he wrote, owns and preformed - misused and abused on YouTube; ”Our song, ‘holiday in Cambodia,’ there, a video of just our DK logo and our song playing, and it has I think 14 million “views and that's money for Google is not money for dead Kennedy’s.”  

As for the future?  He doesn’t see much hope for another band like the Dead Kennedy’s to break through the noise, “There will be music, but it will be blander - because you need an audience 11 times bigger.” And thanks to the fact that some of the internet giants of the world hide behind the nation’s “Safe Harbor” laws, there isn’t much money there for the musicians in any case.

“People need to look at the Internet as a plantation sharecropper system - Yeah, you got your cotton really cheap but is that how you want society to go forward?”

Its a fascinating look at the past, present and future of Music, through the eyes of one of the music industry giants. 

Jun 27, 2016

Shawn Stern didn’t set out to become a Punk Rock Icon.  When he - along with his two brothers - created the (now) seminal band Youth Brigade back in 1980, all they really wanted to do was play music and hang with friends.  Punk Rock, he quickly realized, was the perfect venue for that lifestyle, “We (could) play music, we don’t have to be really good,… and you could talk about the problems - that really still exist - that (pop music) won’t talk about.” 

But Punk Rockers need to eat.  So, when the major labels couldn’t care less about distributing BYO’s albums, when club owners didn’t want to book the band, and when promoters wouldn’t return his phone calls - Shawn went DIY.  Again with his brother, “This is a family affair,” Shawn cashed in his Bar Mitzvah Bonds (in the process screwing Bank of America) and started his own label - BYO Records.

“It’s not rocket science, We learned early on how businesses work without ever taking a business class, I don't know to me it's just logical.”  Suddenly, Shawn was more than Youth Brigades lead singer, he was an entrepreneur, de-facto CEO, and both President and CFO of his own company.

In this episode of 21KHZ, How Shawn Stern managed to run a punk rock label and still keep his soul.

Feb 24, 2016

“This is a labyrinth of rules…. “

Gino Olivieri, President Premier Muzik.

Are American Performers getting the money owed to them?  In many cases – no, and it’s all perfectly legal. 

Back on October 26, 1961, representatives from 26 countries signed the, “Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations”.  Among other agreements, the treaty’s signers agreed that Broadcasters must pay performers (think singers and band members) for the use of their music – your song gets played on the radio - You get paid.  Seems simple?

Yeah, Right.   

The United Kingdom signed the treaty, Ecuador signed the treaty, Congo signed the treaty.  The United States of America, however, did not sign the treaty and never has. 

So for the past 55 years, while performers from Moldova, Fiji and Togo (all signatories) have seen money when their music is played on the radio.  For Americans… nothing.

This is real money, over the years some billions (yes – “Billions”) of dollars have been left on the table.  That is money going into everyone else’s pockets, everyone except the American performers who are owed that money. 

Today we talk with Gino Olivieri, the President of Premier Muzik, a Canadian company who has made it their mission to see that all artists - especially Americans - get all the money, owed to them. 

 

It’s a complicated, fascinating and lucrative listen. 

 

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