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...'

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.

The Music Business Worldwide Podcast

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

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

Music Business Worldwide (MBW) is the leading information and jobs service for the global music industry.

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

Music Business Worldwide

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