Welcome to  the debut episode of Music Business Worldwide's Talking Trends podcast.

Each week on Talking Trends, host Louise Porter and Music Business Worldwide founder, Tim Ingham, will delve behind the headlines of two major news stories affecting the entertainment industry.

In this episode, Ingham ruminates on where music's next big music rights buyout will come from – and the relevance of Scarlett Johansson's recently-settled Disney lawsuit for the music industry.

Talking Trends is supported by Voly Music, the new bespoke financial management platform for people in the music business.

The Music Business Worldwide Podcast

What will be music's next big buyout? And what can record labels learn from Scarlett Johansson?

On this episode of the Music Business Worldwide Podcast, we speak to a legendary entrepreneur in the world of dance and electronic music: Patrick Moxey.

Moxey hit the headlines last week after Sony Music confirmed it had acquired 100% of the famed record label he founded, Ultra Records.

According to Moxey, Sony acquired 50% of Ultra Records via a partnership deal in 2013, and has now acquired the remaining 50% stake – from Moxey himself – to take full control.

As such, Moxey is walking away from Ultra Records, the label he founded way back in the mid-nineties, after more than 25 years. (Ultra's history really is a who's who of dance music: the label has released music by everyone from Steve Aoki to Roger Sanchez, Kygo, Deadmau5, Benny Benassi and many, many more.)

There are, though, big plans afoot: Moxey says he's readying the launch of a new independent record label, for which he has already employed 38 staff worldwide.

He also talks NFTs, and why he thinks they will be an increasingly meaningful piece of the music business as it heads into the web3 era: Moxey says Ultra recently worked with DJ NGHTMRE on an NFT drop that raised $1.3 million within three hours.

The Music Business Worldwide Podcast is supported by Voly Music, the new bespoke financial management platform for people in the music business.

Patrick Moxey, Founder, Ultra Music: 'I'm completely reinvigorated.'

Imagine being able to tell an app exactly the type of music you'd like to create – the key, the tempo, the genre, the sub-genre – and then that app just... making it for you.

Imagine recording yourself singing a verse and a chorus into your phone, uploading this vocal to a platform, and that platform wrapping an entire professional musical production around it, all in the style of your choosing. And the result sounding so polished, it could comfortably sit in the tracklist of Spotify's Today's Top Hits.

This is Soundful.

The artificial intelligence-driven platform, currently in beta, was recently founded and created by San Diego-based entrepreneur, Diaa El All (pictured).

To date Soundful has raised somewhere around $4 million in seed funding – from "leaders" of companies such as Disney and Microsoft.

A fuller Series A round is expected to open soon.

Soundful's website describes the platform thusly: "Soundful’s music-theory trained algorithms put studio-quality tracks in your hands so you can produce the next hot album, make a viral-worthy TikTok or YouTube sound, or amplify your gaming stream."

It promises that anyone using it can "make tracks at the speed of sound".

On this Podcast (supported by Voly Music), Diaa El All joins Music Business Worldwide founder, Tim Ingham, to talk about the effect Soundful is about to have on the global music business. 

Soundful's founder is upbeat and optimistic about how his platform will help today's billion-plus online content creators worldwide find music to use in their content. 

He also suggests Soundful is already inspiring music makers to move in interesting new creative directions.

Ingham is a little more circumspect. 

He says: "In short, I'm a bit scared of Soundful. And I am utterly amazed by Soundful and its creator."

Music Business Worldwide

I have seen the future of music. It's scary, and utterly brilliant.

Former Sony Music UK, Island Records and EMI boss Nick Gatfield discusses his career and his new venture, Twin Music Inc. The Music Business Worldwide podcast is supported by digital delivery experts CI.

Nick Gatfield, CEO, Twin Music: 'A&R doesn’t necessarily sit inside a major label anymore.'

Glassnote Entertainment Group founder Daniel Glass discusses his career and working with artists such as Mumford & Sons and Phoenix. The Music Business Worldwide podcast is supported by digital delivery experts CI.

Daniel Glass, CEO, Glassnote: 'I wouldn’t sign an artist we wouldn’t have over for dinner.'

Chrysalis co-founder Chris Wright discusses his career, the major labels and how it feels to sell a music biz legend. The Music Business Worldwide podcast is supported by digital delivery experts CI.

Chris Wright, Founder, Chrysalis: 'Do I regret selling it? Yes.'

Creation Records/Management founder Alan McGee discusses his new label, Clark & McGee Ltd., as well as Creation, Oasis, Primal Scream and working with the major labels. The Music Business Worldwide podcast is supported by digital delivery experts CI.

Alan McGee, Founder, Creation Records: 'I really hate music biz events.'

From John Lennon to Ray Davies, Randy Newman, Hans Zimmer and One Direction, New York-born Downtown Music Publishing represents some of the most valuable and beloved songwriting copyrights in existence. Justin Kalifowitz is the New York firm's founder.

Justin Kalifowitz, CEO, Downtown: 'The amount of uncleared music online is insane.'

Music Business Worldwide's podcast supported by SoundExchange featuring an interview with Mike Caren, the founder of APG - the only label in the US to break two debut artist albums to Gold in the first half of 2016.

MBW Podcast

Mike Caren, CEO, APG: 'I hate the word rules.'

An interview with Justin Tranter, one of the most in-demand pop songwriters in the world today. 

Tranter has written hits for the likes of Selena Gomez, Fifth Harmony, Justin Bieber, Gwen Stefani and Britney Spears.

Justin Tranter, Songwriter: 'I'm just going to be honest...'

Universal Music Group SVP Jonathan Dworkin's speech at the NY:Lon conference in London on January 24, 2017. He discusses streaming, free vs. paid and other key music business issues.

JonathanDworkin

Jonathan Dworkin at NY:Lon

An exclusive interview with SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainor on the MBW Podcast.

Trainor, who took charge of SoundCloud in August last year, discusses a range of topics with MBW, including SoundCloud's power for emerging artists, the company's financial health, his hopes for the future of the industry and Spotify's recent flotation on the New York Stock Exchange.

Kerry Trainor, CEO, SoundCloud: 'We're in a much clearer place now.'

Music Business Worldwide podcast: Our guest is David Israelite, President and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA).

The NMPA is up in arms over the fact that Spotify and Amazon - in addition to Google and Pandora – are objecting to a ruling offering songwriters a streaming pay rise in the United States.

Apple Music has declined to oppose the royalty rate rise, which has been decided by the Copyright Royalty Board.

David explains: "[Spotify and Amazon] have shown their true colors. They don't respect songwriters, they are attacking songwriters to try to cut what they pay them. It's time for everybody to rise up and say: enough."

David Israelite, CEO, NMPA: Spotify vs. Songwriters

Stem is one of the most talked-about companies in music distribution. The Los Angeles-based company was founded by Milana Rabkin Lewis (pictured) in 2015, and has raised over $12m to date, reportedly from figures including Scooter Braun and Mark Cuban. Here, Rabkin Lewis sets out Stem's vision for the future of the music industry, and explains why Stem quit DIY distribution last year to focus on making tools – particularly financial tools – for VIP artists.

Milana Rabkin Lewis, CEO, Stem: 'Our ambitions are bigger than just being a distributor.'

Steve Stoute is the founder of UnitedMasters – the US-based music distribution and services platform that in 2017 raised $70m from backers including Google/Alphabet and 20th Century Fox.

UnitedMasters has signed brand partnership deals with the likes of the NBA and Apple Music, while helping break artists like NLE Choppa who – according to Stoute – signed an $8m deal with Warner Records last year.

Stoute knows about the major label world: he's the ex-President of Urban Music at both Interscope and Sony Music, and was an EVP at the former company.

On the podcast, Stoute explains why COVID-19 lockdown presents an opportunity for independent artists, why in his view modern record labels are over-spending and playing a "lottery" game with their money, and where UnitedMasters is going next.

Steve Stoute, CEO, UnitedMasters: 'That's not the record business, man!'

Merck Mercuriadis is Founder & CEO of UK-based Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which has acquired songs – or pieces of songs – that have fuelled hits like Rihanna's Umbrella, Al Green's Let's Stay Together, Ed Sheeran's Shape Of You, Beyoncé's Single Ladies, The Chainsmokers' Closer and many more. Hipgnosis floated on the London Stock Exchange in July 2018 and, according to Mercuriadis, as of April 2020, has spent over a billion dollars acquiring music catalogs.

Merck Mercuriadis, CEO, Hipgnosis: 'We've invested north of $1 billion in songs.'

Dooney Battle is CEO and Founder of Tha Lights Global – a record label, publisher and artist management company based in Florida whose clients include Dominic Fike and Lil Pump.

Lil Pump previously signed to Warner Records in an $8m deal but now, two albums on, is back independent and releasing with Tha Lights Global direct, via distributor Vydia. 

Battle initially built Tha Lights Global as a home for social media influencers, especially on Musical-ly – the karaoke app which would go on to power TikTok.

Here, Battle explains why Tha Lights Global and Lil Pump have spurned major record company offers to stay indie this time around – and what he’s learned from his time in the business so far...

Dooney Battle, CEO, Tha Lights Global

Mattias Tengblad is co-founder and CEO of Stockholm-based Corite, which believes it can revolutionize the way artists generate money from their recorded music.

Corite is, at first glance, a simple digital distributor, in the same core space as TuneCore, CD Baby, United Masters, Ditto etc. But it has a key difference: Corite enables fans to directly invest in artists themselves  – and then take a share of money paid out to these artists from future streaming royalties. As such, it enables fans to collectively act like a record label, financing artist campaigns while financially benefitting from an act's success.

Tengblad previously worked in eSports (as Head of Digital Development at MTG) as well as spending nearly five years at Universal Music Group as Commercial Director in Sweden, where he launched both UMG's flagship playlist brand, Digster, and the major's own DIY upload service, Spinnup.

Corite released its platform in beta in October 2019, and has since run over 25 campaigns that have raised over $30,000 for artists during its Swedish pilot. In the past two months, it has launched out of beta in Europe and raised an inside seed round to fund its growth.

Mattias Tengblad, CEO, Corite: 'The right artist could raise $1m on our platform this year.'

Jason Boyd aka Poo Bear is one of the most successful songwriters working in the modern US pop music industry.

During a storied and Grammy-winning career, he's written and/or produced tracks for the likes of Pink, User, Lupe Fiasco, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey and Ty Dolla Sign.

He's perhaps best known as a long-time collaborator of Justin Bieber, for whom Poo Bear has co-written hits like What Do You Mean?, Where Are U Now? (with Jack U) and Yummy, as well as working on Bieber's record-breaking remix of Despacito in 2017.

Poo Bear is now readying his own new solo album (set to be released via Platoon), Bars & Guitars – a follow-up to 2018's Poo Bear Presents... Bearthday Music, which featured the likes of Bieber, Jennifer Lopez and Zara Larsson.

We talk songwriting, the pandemic, Black Lives Matter, getting ripped off by the music business and much more.

Poo Bear: 'It doesn't matter how many hits I've written, I've gotta keep pushing...'

Is Larry Mestel about to raise a billion dollars? Don't bet against it.

Mestel's Primary Wave has already raised over $800m in the past four years via two IP funds: a $300m fund in 2016, backed by Black Rock, and a further $500m-plus fund launched last year.

This money has been used by Primary Wave to acquire assets that live up to the company's billing as "the home of legends". 

As such, Primary Wave now owns substantial stakes in the song catalogs of the likes of Ray Charles, Bob Marley, Whitney Houston, Smokey Robinson and the Four Seasons.

Now, Mestel tells the MBW Podcast that Primary Wave is plotting an additional raise of equity that will be "significantly bigger" than those that have come before – although he's remaining tight-lipped on what form this might take.

Other topics covered in this discussion between Mestel and MBW founder, Tim Ingham, include Primary Wave's record label-esque approach to marketing,  why the firm might consider a fundraise on the stock exchange, and the fiercely competitive modern music rights acquisition marketplace.

Larry Mestel, CEO, Primary Wave: 'We have close to $1.5bn in cash and assets under management.'

On paper, Richard "Biff" Stannard is having one of the toughest years of his life. But music, as it has time and time again, has steered him away from the shadows – and towards celebration.

Stannard says that his songwriting style has always been to "write myself happy". This approach has led to him writing and producing some of the fizziest and most successful pop songs of all time, including a run of Spice Girls' hits such as Wannabe – a timeless No.1 record in both the US and the UK.

"Writing himself happy" is also a big part of how Stannard has dealt with mental health issues across his whole life. That life began in East London in 1966, in a house typified, he says, by an "environment of hyper-masculine men". Stannard had a troubled relationship with his father, a boxer, who didn't take kindly to his son's childhood love of music.

In this candid MBW Podcast, Stannard discusses his personal journey, including his early relationship with British maverick impresario, Tom Watkins, who gave the songwriter his break working with boyband East 17 in the 1990s. 

Watkins sadly died earlier this year – as did Stannard's mother, at 91. Stannard says his mom was particularly "protective" of him during his youth, and the only member of his immediate family that didn't discourage his love of music and creativity. 

That's not the only trauma Stannard has faced in the past 12 months, either. Having re-invented himself as a weight-lifter – replete with muscles like beach balls – Stannard broke the UK record for bench-press in his age category during a competition. He walked off stage jubilant, an official master of yet another discipline... before suffering a life-changing heart attack.

This narrative, though – again, thanks to music – has a happy ending. Stannard has co-written two singles on Kylie Minogue's DISCO, which has just become the UK's fastest-selling album of 2020, even outstripping the first-week performances of new records from superstars like Lady Gaga.

As such, DISCO is Stannard's biggest career success since he co-wrote and produced Ellie Goulding's worldwide hit Lights six years ago – and the beginning of a new chapter in his book of triumphs.

Kylie has been a constant collaborator in Stannard's career, which has seen him work with everyone from U2 to Little Mix, One Direction and Leona Lewis – and win both Ivor Novello and ASCAP Awards.

Spice Girls, Kylie and a Near-Death Experience: Biff Stannard, Songwriter

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