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This week the boys welcome writer from Earmilk and owner of beatlymusic.com, Alexander Zwerner . The gang dives into how Drake continuously dominates charts upon every release as well as Universal Music Group’s insane first day of public trading. Later they discuss how Nashville country labels are partnering with their Pop counterparts as new crossover artists begin to flourish. This and more on The Biztape!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, it's Bobby here. Thanks for listening and being
subscribe to the podcast. I didn't want to take a
second when we don't put anything up like today and
give you a sample of a show called The Biz Tape.
It's our newest podcast here on the Nashville Podcast Network.
It's kind of a media podcast, a music podcast hosted
by two guys named Joe and Colin. They break down
the nerdy side of the music industry, so they do
(00:20):
a lot of research from the biggest music topics, from
the charts, music law, and more. They even't have on
music lawyers and writers. So it's a great podcast if
you want to learn more about the music business side
or just be smarter than your friends when talking to music.
This episode, they talk about how Drake always dominates the charts,
and they talk about universal music groups Insane first day
of public trading. They also talk about how Nashville country
labels are partnering with their pop counterparts to make sure
(00:43):
the crossover artists happen from country music. So check it
out and also, if you like it, go subscribe to
The Biz Tape wherever you listen to podcasts. All right,
here you go. Here's an episode of the biz tape
Drake Dominates Charts, g Goes Public and Nashville Country Pop
(01:03):
Bill Biz Tape. Welcome to episode fifty one of the
biz tape You're All Thinks, Music, Business and Media Podcasts.
I'm your host Colin, with my co host Joe and
(01:24):
our wonderful guest Alexander zee Warner, who is a writer
over at Your Milk and also has his own fun
little enterprise we'll get into called Beatley Music Beatley Music
dot Com. Can I do that for you if you
get with Beatley Music, like, do your little radio ads
like Beatley Music dot Com. Yeah, can we go to radio.
I'll definitely have you up out there doing it for me. Sweet.
(01:47):
It's definitely got the radio voice out of the two
of us. Beatley Music dot Com you know what I mean,
what were those like sites back in the day. They
would do that all the time on radio. It would
oh it was go Daddy, Go Daddy would do that
the Go Daddy dot Com Like, oh yeah, yeah, they
cleaned up their acts. Really weird associate Alexander with that
in anyway? Just good? Sorry, Um, well, we're so glad
(02:12):
to have you on. We really appreciated. Alexander reached out
to us and we were very impressed with what he's
got going on. So I was like, come on, and uh,
I mean, first off, you have like I wanted to
talk to you about, like, what do you kind of
do in the music space? What do you what is
your kind of role? Yeah? Sure, well, you know, my
(02:32):
two main jobs right now in the music space, I
would say is obviously I have a lot of writing
U You know, through my life I've done writing for
my own personal blog, and then I also wrote a
book on the history of hip hop. You know, growing up,
I played a lot of travel basketball, and one of
the big things with travel basketball is like you have
kids from Atlanta in New York and Texas all come together.
(02:54):
And one of the big things I brought us together
was music, and specifically hip hop music, and so it's
always been a massive genre for meum and led me
to write the book The History of Hip Hop, which
I was able to publish on Amazon. And one of
the best best things I would say about publishing an
Amazon is, you know it's an international company, right, So
I had guys from Japan and the UK and a
(03:17):
bunch of different countries buying books. Um, it was. It
came with pousitive and negatives. You know, it was great
to see like how international hip hop is. Um, but
I also did get I got an email from an
angry UK buyer that told me he was like, man,
there was no UK hip hop in here, like what
are you doing? I was like from America, Like I
(03:38):
I can't, like, I don't really know that much about
UK hip hop. But maybe for part two, maybe for
grime book next time, you know, yeah, exactly, I gotta
I gotta piece for my customers. So like, um, I mean,
just so I'm aware, Alexander, how old are you? I'm
only nineteen right now. That's crazy. Why do you think
(03:59):
I brought him on? Yeah? It's like book already. Yeah
we're not. We're not even through even to book level
in my career yet. So you're doing something right, sure, sure,
thank you. If we had if we had a short play,
that'd be pretty pretty intense. Oh yeah yeah, but yeah,
(04:20):
so that that's crazy. Okay, here we go. Here's another
impressive reason. So you're also a writer at ear Milk.
I know that, um, which makes sense a lot because
that publication focuses a lot with hip hop and rap
and pop. So that makes sense. If you have, you know,
such a love for hip hop and wrote a book
about it, I'm sure they've loved to have you obviously. Yeah,
(04:40):
you know, I reached out to ear Milk. I knew
a couple writers in the Lanta area that are writing
for them, and I was like, hey, like, you know,
I've been doing a couple essays and writings and news
posts on my own blog and I've been also wrote
this book, and I was like, I love to come on,
get a like broader experience talk to some new artists.
And they emailed me and said, hey, like come on, Like, well,
(05:03):
we'll see see how it goes. So that was definitely
a great experience. I Mean one of the crazy things
for me was like when I was on my own
blog and writing for that, you know, I had to
reach out to artists to get them to come on
and do interviews. But now I'm like having people reach
out to me because I'm writing for ear Milk. So
that was definitely a crazy switch up and has opened
my eyes to the massive amounts of genres in the
(05:26):
music space. You know, I've originally coming on I was
really just a hip hop writer. I've definitely expanded to
alternative indie, a lot of those types of genres that
ear Milk has really found in themselves on UM. So
I feel like it's been a great experience just all around.
Do you think like the blog space, because I know,
for a long time, like especially in the early twenty tens,
(05:48):
that's how a lot of indie acts and a lot
of wrap acts got their start was through blog interfaces,
and like just you know, getting more exposure through that realm.
Do you think that's coming back a little bit more? Yeah,
you know, UM actually leads up to my idea for
my next for my company. I'm working on Beatley music,
(06:10):
you know, one of the big things for me. You know,
obviously in the modern streaming like the modern music streaming world,
there's just so much music put out every single day.
You know, there's thousands and thousands of albums and songs,
and you know, writing for Earmoke, we have to pick
through all those thousands of songs that put out every
single day and find something that we really like. And
like many times when I was writing articles for Earmoke,
(06:32):
it was taking me longer to find the music than
to actually write about the music, and I was like,
this is ridiculous, Like I need to find something that's easier.
And I thought, you know, like if I was able
to see an album cover for a song or an
album or project and see what other critics think, but
with just a like average critic score on top of that,
it would just be so much easier for me to
(06:53):
like with like we down all the songs to find
something I liked. And that basically led me to create
Beatley Music, which basically brings together the best of like
IMDb and Ron Tomatoes to music. So we average critic
ratings from a bunch of repertal sources like Anti Pantano,
Complex or Not Complex, Pitchfork, a lot of those sort
(07:15):
of critic reviewers, and then we average them together to
get one critic rating, and then you can go on
the website and see the average critic ratings for all
the best albums Donda CLB anything you want. Wow, that's crazy.
I mean, that's a very unique idea that I haven't
heard in the music space before. So that I think
you're definitely definitely onto something for sure, because I feel like,
(07:37):
you know a lot of music reviewers, the people people
go to are like the people you named Complex, Pitchfork,
Anthony Pantano, you know, up against the two megalists. But yeah,
it's it's definitely interesting because I think it's almost like
there's so much combination with the entertainment industry now with
(07:57):
kind of like you interfaces like that, and bringing the
things that worked with maybe traditional media into more of
just audio based media as well. So that's super interesting, man.
That is That's something that I'm definitely going to hit
up a lot of the time. And I will say
when I was a music programmer, I would have fucking
(08:20):
loved to use that thing for my automation when I
was uploading ship to automation because like, I'm with you, man,
like we used to get I mean, your email is
probably like this too. I would get on a day.
On an average day, I think I got like five
hundred emails like and just people. Yeah, and it's like
(08:42):
how do I how do I sift through this crap?
I don't know, like who's good who isn't. So you
kind of just have your few reputable people that you're like, oh,
I know they're gonna give me good stuff, you know,
But this is kind of making it more for like
general public can tell you what they want, which I
think is very unique. So dope, it's also aggregated, which
(09:02):
I think is great because you know, everybody, every reviewer
has their own personal flavor, so like it's great to
have a resource where you can look at all these
different things combined, you know, and kind of get more
of a general consensus. So do they do they comment?
Like do they kind of leave their own like review
space kind of like Rotten Tomatoes where it's like you
have a chain of like reviews and stuff like that. Yeah,
(09:24):
So if you go onto the website and you click
say the Donda album, we'll see an excerpt from each
critic reviewer just with a general idea about the review,
and then the critic score they gave. And then you
can also go on as a user and give your
own user score, which you'll see right next to the
critic scores. Um. So you know, like obviously the critic
(09:47):
scores are important. You know, critics definitely have a you know,
I would say, have a very good sense of like
what music does well well music doesn't do well. But
the users and the fans are also eat as important.
M I vue um. And so I'm trying to create
the platform that highlights critic viewers but also equally highlights
(10:07):
the Fanner years as well. First thing I want to
talk about, which you would be qualified for, especially since
you already raffled off saying it as we're going to
talk about CLB, which for the uninformed, Certified lover Boy UM,
which is so funny to me to say, um, it
sounds like a yacht rock band, Like that's what I mean,
(10:30):
rod band. Okay, So this man, I'm sure Alexander knows,
just destroyed all the charts and everything. Like we had
down to come up first, and we're like wow, and
then Drake came up and we're like what is going on?
So Certified Lover Boy launched at number one on the
Billboard two hundred with six hundred thirteen thousand equivalent album
(10:54):
units according to MRC data, making the biggest weekly sum
for an album in over a year, and he becomes
the eighth artist with ten or more number ones in
chart history. So here's the other thing Drake has, which
is what I want to talk about, and I kind
of have a fun low game for us, is Drake
has insane like Billboard and chart like records that are
(11:17):
so big. So, for instance, in the sixty three years
of the Hot one hundred, this is only a second
time that an artist has controlled twenty one spots of
the top forty, including all the top ten. And the
only other time was also Drake with Scorpio the Spider
Man Mean where he points out us, ye, who's hitting
(11:39):
me off the chart my own album, So yeah, man,
it's insane. He also has drastically extended his lead of
the most top forty hits with one hundred and forty three.
Oh my god. Yeah. He also has appeared on the
top one hundred, two hundred and fifty eight times, two
(12:00):
and a half. Dude, it's insane. So they were labeling off,
and we can get into a Drake discussion after this,
but I wanted to do this little game thing for you,
is they were labeling off kind of who has the
most Top one hundred appearances after Drake. Drake has two
undred and fifty eight. So the first I thought we
(12:20):
could guess what these are, I blacked them out kind
of shittily in the Google docum. So the first that
I should have made I should have made both black
instead of this like one kind of whider um. So,
first off, who's directly behind Drake Joe? Do you have
(12:41):
a guess of the most appearances on the top one
hundred behind Drake? Drake's a two fight. Okay, I can
give you hints, and Alexander feel free to butt in.
I know it's weird with zooms. I'm gonna go left field.
I'm gonna say Taylor Swift, but I don't think that's correct. Okay,
Taylor Swift, Alexander, do you have a guess? I would
have to go with maybe someone older, maybe like Michael
(13:03):
Jackson or something like that. Okay, that's a good guest too.
I'm gonna preface now that you two will not get this,
but it makes sense after I reveal what it is.
So the second highest is the Glee cast seven get
out of here. It makes sense though. I always joke
(13:26):
with my spouse is I'm very glad that we're out
of the time period where like Acapella was like the
rage and everything and that was about Yeah, that was
like late two thousand's, early twenty ten. Sorry Acapella fans um,
but yeah, right, come back. They got two hundred and
seven and that's just you know, that's close like and
(13:49):
but sadly, unless the Glee reunion happens, I don't know
if they're gonna beat that ever. Um, but it makes sense.
I mean it was a huge deal, huge show, and
that was kind of thing. They kind of kids bopped
a bunch of songs too, to make them, you know,
family friendly. So I'm surprised Kids Bop isn't up there.
It's not up there. I'll tell you that right now.
They're not up there. In Europe, I'm pretty sure, right, Yeah,
(14:13):
they have a huge international presence. Um, okay, let's go
to number three. Number three, I'll give you a hint.
Is a rapper, but it's an older rapper. And again
this is top one hundred appearances to one. Okay, rapper,
but older rapper, yeah, not too old. Don't think like
old doctor dre Okay, that's your guest. Let's go with that.
(14:34):
And then Alexander. Um, I'm gonna go with Eminem Okay,
around that time period. It's around that time period. But
it's little Wayne. No what yeah, little Wayne. You have
to think about it like this, Drake. The same reason
that Drake has such high that's different number from how
(14:56):
many times he's personally been on the board with his
records feature how many times his little Wayne been He
did the Rihanna thing. He was on like every other
record for a while. You know, now he just gets
really depressed to a Blink one eighty two concert. But like,
which have you never seen that video? I don't know
if you ever seen that Alexander is He went on
(15:17):
tour with Blink one eighty two and it was the
weirdest pairing of bands, and he basically just like gave up.
He was like he it was really save up on stage, right,
he was just like, I can't buck this and he
was like enjoyed Blink one eighty two, And it was
just because the tour was so weird and people weren't
getting hype. He was the opener for Blink wyn eighty two. Yeah,
(15:39):
it was a kind of a weird pairing up right,
Who would you who would you book for that? Um?
I will let me start the story and then I'll
get into that. Um. But actually I went to this
concert with post Malone and Aerosmith. Oh, the difference in
crowd was ridicul list right and like ninety year old
(16:02):
like Grandpas and Grandma's up there like shaking their canes,
like all hype for Aerosmith. And we had like a
bunch of like sixteen year old, like seventeen year old
kids like who's Aerosmiths? And I was sitting there like
I know Aeron Smith, Like I was up there for
both of them, and like up there like going crazy
all the people that were from the eighties and the like.
(16:23):
When post Malone came out, did this grandpa next to me?
He was like this is not real music? And I
was like, I think it's pretty solid. Like he's got
a bud light up there. There's a lot of people
that would claim Aerosmith isn't real music. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, Okay,
I'll leave you with the last two. The last two
are usual suspects. These are the people that you would imagine.
I'll give you a hint. You said one of them earlier.
(16:45):
Of who would be in the top one hundred the
most times, Taylor Swift? Okay, that's one. Who's the other one? Um,
I'm gonna go with Kanye You got them both right? Wow? Um,
do you want to guess who's ahead of any other? Dude?
Do you want to guess who's ahead of the other.
I mean Taylor, Taylor's ahead of the other. I thought
maybe I was like, I thought I could fake you
(17:06):
out with that because the other ones, no one would
have guessed. You know. So Taylor has one hundred and
thirty six and Kanye has one hundred and thirty three,
so their neck and neck. Oh wow? Yeah, Okay, I
believe the Strake thing with the number one right now
right now from Drake was way too sexy, which is
a weird song, but whatever. I don't think it's my
(17:29):
favorite on that album. But it marks the fifty second
week that Drake has reigned, encompassing cumulative weeks of all
nine of his number one hits. So he's been a
number one for a year in terms of like adding
up all the time that he's had a number one record. Wow.
And then he's the fourth act to reach the one
year mark, which I'm just going to tell you what
(17:51):
the other ones were. The number one who's been the
longest number one is Mariah Carey with eighty four weeks,
then Rihanna with sixty and the Beatles with fifty nine. Wow,
which is I'm honestly impressive. Yeah, he beat out Mariach Carry. Well, no,
he hadn't beat out Mariah Carry. He's uh, yeah, he's fourth.
(18:13):
He's behind the Beatles, which is weird because then Drake
can go, I'm bigger than Jesus, I'm bigger than the Beatles.
You know that's gonna be coming up in the next album. Yeah, dude, Uh,
this man is just insane. Like I was saying before
you knew the guy from de Grass, that's what I
think of dude. We're like, we're on the we're on
(18:34):
the cup. Well, Alexander, I think, is really on the cusp,
but we're on the cusp of the people that understand
that reference, because people younger than Alexander are like, what
the hell are you talking about? And I'm like, he
was Jimmy in the wheelchair. You don't remember that in
the school shooting thing, But like I was, I was
probably I was like eight or nine years old, watching
like Nick Nick fourteen or whatever, you like, right, it
(18:56):
was on the way out when you were I was
on the way out when Yeah, when I was getting older,
I caught the reference a little bit. But people my age,
you'd ask him, what's grass he is? They're like, is
that like a movie or like they would have no
clue what you're talking about that grass treatment, Like, let's
talk about it. Like Drake is insane with his chart
(19:17):
presence and has always been, which is interesting because he
had this whole feud with Kanye West about like who's
going to have a bigger album and their speculation if
like even parts of that are real, you know. And
so why do you think he's so successful? Jay got
an opinion? Why do you think he I think he's
easily digestible ye for mass audience consumption in a genre
(19:40):
that historically was not appealing to white audiences. Yea. To
be honest, I think that's kind of like Drake's almost
like a gateway drug for a lot of people into
round and hip hop. What do you think thought? I
feel like he I honestly, I feel like he's mastered
how to make a pop hit almost you know, even
though some times than music may not be like have
(20:02):
that much depth. I mean, I don't think anyone out
here would say way Too Sexy is like a very
deep song with like heavy lyrics. I think he's mastered
the way to appeal to his audience. You know, Obviously
a lot of the massive hits. Right now, we're coming
off of TikTok, and to me, Way Too Sexy is
a very much a TikTok song, and I feel like
(20:23):
he definitely plays his audience and where people are digesting
music at the time. Yeah, that's a good point because
there has been a lot with people that we've talked
to but also the industry about getting that like really
good sub thirty seconds of a song, especially for TikTok.
As we've talked multiple times on the show about the
power of TikTok, and there's people that you know, almost
(20:47):
I've literally talked to some people that are going like, well,
the chorus of this song is good, it's just too long.
Can you make it shorter? And literally it's because of TikTok,
which I think is insane. And he does a really
good and you know, rapping hip hop specifically, it's all
based on hooks, So if you got a good hook
in there, that's perfect for a TikTok. Yeah, and he's
(21:09):
very good at hype cycles, So I was gonna say
that was my reason. He's very good at like having
these periods of time and making like like his albums
together are not like that crazy apart in time, but
he creates a hype cycle that's like if the Beatles
were releasing a new album, like which is insane and
like it's just like crazy interaction with fans and stuff.
(21:31):
And he has that thing like you're saying, it's digestible
where it's like it's almost like it's cool music, Like
it's like you know, hip music, but like it's not
too hip that you don't understand what's going on or
like what he's saying. I think too, like he was
really on the on the end when hip hop was
becoming the standard like popular genre. Yeah too, And I
(21:54):
think that helped a lot for his growth as an
artist because of that, and then I mean, obviously the
Degrassi thing helped. But yeah, I do think it is
like just very digestible. Um. I mean, if you play
like Drake in front of your family, like even if
it's like a conservative family or something, right, they're probably
(22:16):
gonna be okay with it for the most part. Whereas
if you contrast that with like Kindrick Lamar or Kanye
Yeah or Kanye, where it's a bit more grittier and
it's a bit more like I I kind of want
to say real, but like you can you can have
your own opinion on that where it's like it's a
bit more harsh, I guess for for the listener, the
(22:40):
the there is a stark like contrast in that. Um,
and he knows he knows how to just be consistent too.
I think that's another huge thing where I expect a
Drake record record every year at this point, you know,
it comes out with one like the new iPhones. Yeah, exactly,
every new iPhone comes with the Drake record. Who is it?
(23:03):
Is it? Ja Cole? That was like I got the feature.
Somebody was like that for a while. Um, but like
that's what Drake does very well too. He's got a
big number of features on there as well from big artists,
like he has features on his record, on his record,
and also the opposite fair point is that he has
big features on other people's songs as much. Anymore. It
seems like he has the ability to you know, demand like,
(23:27):
oh you want to come on to my record, I
don't have to go under yours sometimes. But that seems
it was crazy to me. I mean it was crazy
to see that, like Kanye had this massive album roll out,
you know, he had one, two, three listening parties with
massive attendance on Apple Music, and Drake was still able
to beat him out for numbers in the first week.
That's what was so crazy to me. That's how powerful
(23:48):
Drake's music is. That is point, like Kanye had to
put on the Kanye circus and Drake just had to
you know, Drake literally had to get up and just
hit this. Yeah, he just had to say some shit,
know like and be like I'm putting out a record
and you know, give some beef with Kanye and be like,
I got these people on it and have good marketing team.
And that was it. Kanye I had to put on
(24:09):
three shows and this whole thing. And like, I don't
think he had to. I think I definitely by a
lot because it was like yeah, yeah, so yeah, what
what I mean Kanye is wild drinking going anywhere. That's true. Hey,
We're gonna be like doing the Tutsie Slide in twenty forty. Yeah,
(24:31):
what's your favorite Drake song? Mine? Yeah? Um, honestly, I'm
gonna go with the Tutsie Slide right now because I
just like, how like goofy that song is the other
thing I want to say before we move on. Is
Drake is fucking creepy as hell with people. Sometimes you
can't I don't know, like and there's like lines on
(24:51):
the wall that I just can't ignore it. So I
don't want anybody to be like, I'm a Drake fan
and like I'm just gonna like let that go. But
U It's just it's definitely interesting because that that will
be interesting in this future, I think if he decides
to do that. But at the same time, Kanye has
done that. He's done fucking things that people find horrific
(25:12):
and terrible and survived. But I don't know if he's
too hard then I don't know if grooming was necessarily
a thing that I heard about Kanye. Yeah, Buch is
way different in the public sphere. I mean, like that
would be way easier to cancel people for rightfully. So yeah,
but making out with the sixteen year old girl on
stage isn't exactly. Yeah, that was not the best not
(25:34):
the best time. Yeah. But besides that, Sandrew, what's your
favorite drink song? I would have to go with the
Starter from the Bottom that, I mean, absolute classic year
growing up. That was always the song people play it at,
you know, basketball games, at basketball hype matches like the
(25:55):
a lot of school stuff. I think it's one of
those Drake songs that's catchy, but it has like that
deep down internal meeting that like is perfect to put
on whenever you're going on a run, doing a test,
anything like that. Yeah, yeah, mine is hot wyven bling.
I think that was pinnacle. Drake was was the Yes,
(26:15):
it was the music video it was. It was the
best thing I've ever seen in my life, the best
dance moves I've ever seen. That brought dance back in
my opinion. All Right, well, we're gonna jump into something
a little bit heaty, and what I mean by hetty
is like you're gonna get a headache because there's gonna
(26:35):
be a lot of numbers involved, and I just want
to We're trying our best. It's a big deal. It's
a lot of stuff going on, but it is definitely
something you need to know about, which is Universal Music
Group goes public for the first time. Oh my god, yeah,
I know. It is crazy. It is the highest valued
music business to go public, uh general and in ever
(27:01):
so with just one day of public trading on the
euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange, UMG shares were up thirty six
point five percent, which the valuation of UMG is now
fifty four point three billion dollars, which makes sense after
analyzing the absolute bedlam that was the first day of trading,
which was literally all of the music business outlets were
(27:25):
just like, guys, it's happening, right they remembering It was like,
it's like tuning into ESPN to go, like we got
twenty four seven coverage on this stock. Right now, here's
the chart. I remember, let's getting this Like when we
first started the podcast, people were having rumblings. So now yeah,
it's well, apparently it's been happening since twenty eighteen because,
(27:46):
according to Variety, rumblings over the announcement of the IPO
began in twenty eighteen and continued with Chinese media giant
ten cents acquisition of twenty percent of the company and
billionaire Bill Ackerman's acquisition of ten percent. So they basically
it was owned collectively by Vivendi, which if anybody knows,
(28:07):
it's like one of the biggest like yeah, of all time.
And so they decided or they didn't really decide. I
think like a lot of laws and trading laws were
put into place here where they can't necessarily buy stock
going public if it's owned under them, I'm pretty sure
(28:28):
is kind of the reasoning. I was trying to look
more into it. There might be a little bit more
nuanced to it that I just couldn't find. But basically,
over the past couple of years, they've been selling it
off bit by bit by bit, and they sold off
ninety percent of it. So VIVINDI, like back in twenty
seventeen had one hundred percent and now it only has
(28:50):
ten percent. Yeah, which is crazy. But the reason they
did that is because they wanted what's called pure play opportunity,
which means they have a chance of getting higher market
share in the music scene with the US trade amount,
which was like, basically, the US trade amount for last
year was twelve point two billion dollars, which accounted for
(29:14):
more than half of twenty one point six billion dollars
in global revenue reported by the International Federation of the
Phonographic Industry. Now, pornographic, phonographic, audio, sonographic gets your mind er,
So let me mark. So you're saying that Universal had
twelve point two billion dollars of trade, So I'd say
(29:36):
it's out of twenty one point six billion in global revenue.
So no, it's just US trade amount in general. But
because that number is so high and it's fifty percent,
that's kind of the business reasoning behind them selling it
off and then buying more shares into it because they
know that like it's going to propel forward. Okay, if
(29:56):
that if that makes sense, because because if they kept
it all together, than like they would be more locked down,
they'd probably be more likely to have like you know,
maybe monopoly kind of stuff of the business expanded all
that kind of they wouldn't be able to really shift
around as much. And what is the biggest money maker
for the company, do you think? So, there's a lot
(30:17):
of big moneymakers. It's actually the let me pull it
up here. It is the world's largest label group and
second largest music publisher, which, honestly, the past couple of years,
the music publishing has really rose a lot, especially like
here where we are in Nashville. It's the publishing capital
of the world, and so a lot of their dominating
(30:41):
resources are being funneled into publishing. At least a lot
of the behind the scenes stuff that I've heard from
people and like I've seen it's that a lot of
the publishing money is kind of a huge focus for them,
especially since they just invested that thirty million dollars. Yeah,
(31:03):
sorry mister zero there. Sorry sorry mister Dillon, But yeah,
it's it's kind of all over the place. I think
they still make a lot of money on mechanical when
it comes to streaming, Um, that's their biggest money maker
for sure, but they also do get a lot of
publishing royalties for the publishing, especially like their sinc licensing,
(31:26):
their distribution. I mean, when you're that big of a company,
you're getting so much money from different channels that it's
hard to compare to a lot of other I guess
smaller indies or something like that. So it is, it
is kind of insane. But yeah, I would say, final
answer locking it in here. I think streaming is probably
(31:47):
their highest revenue. But that's something else that I wanted
to get into is kind of um, why does this matter?
Because how does this affect the music industry? Well, essentially,
it's showing that the growing value of music is having
an impact on companies such as streaming platforms, labels, publishers,
film studios, and more, as well as health of the
(32:10):
overall industry except asterix artists because you know, fuck them. Yeah,
that's kind of how the music business operates. As we've seen,
there's actually a lot of grumblings over the CEO of
UMG is getting like one hundred and fifty million dollar
bonus and each year he gets So he gets one
(32:33):
hundred and fifty million dollars this year, then next year
I think it's two hundred million, and then next year
it's three hundred million. Which there's a really great article
that will link that Rolling Stone did like breaking the
whole situation down, but they kind of talked about like
isn't this kind of crazy? Like he may have earned
(32:54):
the payout, but like, isn't this kind of nuts where
it's like this business is making big billions of dollars,
but artists on Spotify aren't getting paid a living wage? Right?
You know? Isn't that kind of a disparity that we
need to come to terms with? So, yeah, that's something
(33:15):
that is very interesting and I want to ask you guys,
do you think do you think that this is like
just kind of like a one off thing, or do
you think music value is actually increasing now because of this?
That's an interesting question. Um so we saw previously, Well,
Sony is obviously under the giant corporation of Sony, so
(33:39):
like they're technically part of that company in that way,
and so they're you know, if that's doing well, the
stock will do better. But still they could have, you know,
if they wanted to, they could split off that side
and make that public. But the other big one of
the big three, WMG, had recently just gone public as well,
I think in the last two years. Yeah. And actually,
(34:02):
just to cut in because of this, uh this launch
of UMG wmg's position in their stock, their estimated growth
was grown by like a billion dollars. Wow. Just from
just from that, I think you're seeing more of the
(34:23):
like you're saying, kind of divesting of some people are
bigger conglomerates from these companies to try to umbrella them
and make them bigger in terms of having more investors
and all that kind of stuff. And I am kind
of excited from that from you know, a lot of
record labels and all this kind of stuff. I mean,
let's be honest, they're very clicky, they're very you know,
(34:43):
small insider trying to get into a room kind of stuff.
So if you have more accountability from you know, public stockholders,
then I'm fine with that. I would I actually kind
of applaud it because you know, let's say, obviously these
are multimillion dollar companies buying it, but it actually gives
the opportunity as opposed to you know, you owning just
(35:06):
Vivendi stock of being like, oh okay, well, like who's
like a Bill Ackerman who owns ten percent of it?
Like if he came in and was like, I need
I think you guys should up it because I owned
ten percent of like the payouts for artists, because like,
UMG's getting shipped on with the public and it's making
our stock look bad and all that kind of stuff.
That kind of helps more having all those outside perspectives.
(35:27):
But at the end of the day, it's like you
got to be billionaire Bill Ackerman, you know, to really
have like this giant change, or you have to be
ten cent giant Chinese media giant or something like that.
So it's kind of like what you're saying is like
it definitely shows I think an increase of how music
(35:48):
is being monetized. We've seen that from a lot of
different places, especially like the crackdown on Twitch and YouTube,
you know, trying to crack down on unauthorized song use
or TikTok signing giant lissing deals for the music. So
I think we're seeing, you know, these companies kind of
rastle back from the two thousands, where you know, music
(36:08):
was free, everything's free, who cares? And so now they're
like finally getting these companies to be like, you have
to pay us. But I think that's why it's expanding,
like music in general, it's because they're finally going, Okay,
we've been on this streak of like you scratch my back,
I'll scratch yours. Like our artists gets bigger, so we
get more money in streams, but you get to do
(36:28):
the songs for free. Now they're like, nah, we know
this is an incentive of your platform, so you have
to give us some money. Now whatever money comes down
to the artist is very low. So Alexander, what do
you think? Yeah, I mean, I totally have to doree
what you're saying. You know, like, obviously technology has been
a big thing in decreasing the revenue of a lot
of artists. You know, right when technology came out with Napster,
(36:51):
the artists are getting paid nothing and their music was
getting streighted millions and millions of times. And as we
developed the technology and a lot the music to anology
space has increase in importance. We've seen a increase in
the revenue of a lot of these artists. You know, obviously,
like you said, with the TikTok licensing and Spotify, you know,
artists have slowly started to get the revenue to increase, increase, increase,
(37:15):
And personally, I'm really interested in a lot of the
the NFT type space for music. I think there's gonna
be a lot of great innovation in the music technology
space that's going to continue to increase a lot of
the artists revenue back to the days of the nineteen
fifties and nineteen sixties where these artists are making tons
of money out vinyl and stuff like that. Recorded music, yeah, up,
(37:37):
recorded music. Yes, I think I think recording music will
continue to gain importance with stuff like NFTs and increases
in Spotify revenue. That's right, I completely agree with that.
I mean, just the new technology for that is crazy.
I mean, Jared, you want to say anything on it before, Yeah,
I mean I think I agree that's a direction I
(37:59):
definitely kind of want more. I do kind of want
the industry to kind of go back into. Um is
the emphasis unrecorded music revenue being source of money for artists? Yeah, exactly,
because I do think and like looking back historically again
like the way that record labels have kind of almost
(38:22):
where there's there isn't anate value right that we have
of recorded music now and it is obvious with this
that record labels are making money from streaming, right, Yeah,
but where is it going? That's kind of my thing.
I mean clearly upward exactly, So it's not going to
the artist like we we you know, are seeing that clearly.
(38:45):
So it's it's kind of one of those things where
it's like I do hope that NFTs kind of create
that space where it's like you get an exclusive album,
you get you know, whatever thing that adds the value
back into kind of more of like a physical format
kind of deal or I guess more just like the
ownership over something right where you're like, you feel like
(39:06):
you're supporting an artist. But what I worry is how
oversaturated NFTs are getting, and especially how they're going to
react to big, big businesses coming in or I think
sixty of like taking revenue front. I mean, what would
stop a record label from doing what they do with
(39:27):
merchandise and you know other more of doing it. Yeah,
just adding another clauset and you're going, okay, well I
get this percentage you know, which I guarantee you is
already a thing. I bet you it's already a thing
in three sixty deals and and everything is. They got
an NFT clause they have atmack dab and the record
contracts about like it says like and or future technology
(39:48):
of like it, which is where it comes from. So
that's what they're trying to do is expand that and
then be like, well it's technically underhere, so now we
can clarify it in your contract. Yeah. But then some
I'm worried about. When I'm worried about because I've talked
a lot of artists, I'm like, you know, how how
are you increasing your revenue? And they're like, oh, I'm
looking into NFTs, I'm looking into live streaming on Twitch,
(40:10):
I'm looking into creating tiktoks, and you know, I've talked
I'm like, all right, so like, are you gonna be
getting all this revenue? Like obviously these are new sort
of paths, and all of them been like, yeah, like
the record labels have been cracking down on NFTs for
a lot of artists because you know, there's seen there's
been so many news articles about artists making a million
two million dollars just off of releasing an NT of
(40:32):
an album, which is crazy. Yeah, and it's because it's
the new thing right now, right where it's like it
obviously like maybe three years from now, it's not going
to be the case, like you're not going to get
a million dollars probably unless you have like some hype,
you have some like crazy ass you get an Apple
to do another record, you know, and they just release
it on there. But it is just kind of one
(40:56):
of those things that I worry about giving more ammunition
and too labels because labels have had a huge issue
of cannibalizing the industry and have really taken a lot
of the power away from the artist. So that's something
that a lot of artists are very worrisome over now.
(41:18):
And with you know, TikTok, with all this other new
medium stuff, do you guys think that labels are even
we need them at this point? I think for the
distribution and marketing. It's still very important for a lot
of things. Well. See, here's my thing is, like i
feel like the lines between publisher and label are getting
(41:40):
blurred or super day by day because I've talked to
publishers that do things that label heads would have been
doing twenty years ago. You know, yeah, I mean for me,
you know, you look at some of the big artists
right now, dreat Kanye, will nus X, you know, it
feels like they're so like warmth thin. You know. Willnos
(42:01):
X is doing tiktoks and twitters and Instagram. He's on Facebook,
you know, and he's also doing all this marketing stuff.
Like a lot of these artists that have to put
their hand in so many pots now, I think record
labels are almost essential for those type of artists, the
ones that are like all over the place to even
be able to like focus on your music, because it's
(42:22):
just willnos X is in so many different avenues that
it would be almost impossible for him to do it himself.
In my opinion, Yeah, I mean, you would get spread
very thin. But also do you think that's the managements
take at that point? That's true, that's true. I feel
like you would need a very good management. And you know,
obviously a lot of artists have come out and been like,
(42:44):
my management so bad. So I feel like it's very
important to find that manager that's really going to be
that type of person to make sure to keep track
of everything because there's just so much right now for
the modern artists. Yeah, I mean, we know somebody with
two managers, you man, Yeah, yeah, And I guess a
day to day at that point, but yeah, day to
(43:04):
day and big picture. It's literally the office thing. It's
like I handled day to day. He handles big day
to day is literally like actually doing the management stuff,
and then the manager is doing big picture. I guess, well,
most of the time it's gonna make your money most
of the time. It's like the day to day manager
who started out then becomes the big picture manager and
then they hire the day to day person like to
(43:25):
do that because they're tired of it. All right, Colin,
what else are we getting into? Okay, I want to
talk about this because it's really big and I kind
of pulled our Instagram about it. But I'll get into
that in a second. So Nashville specifically, where we are
in labels in it are turning to pop partners as
(43:47):
streaming changes the game. And this is an article by Billboard,
and specifically they're talking about country music, which I think
is a really interesting question because people have been asking,
you know, for years, like what's the difference between country
music and pop music as we get more infused and
fused and fused. So we're seeing a lot of examples
with this, like, for instance, all the big three labels
(44:08):
are basically doing it. So we're seeing Sony Music Nashville
partnering with RCA to promote some of their country roster,
including Taniel Towns and Kane Brown, who have released songs
with several acts on RCA's pop roster, including Khalid and
Her and so Billboard points out that these partnerships are
so common now that they used to do like a
(44:29):
one off you know, I kind of reference like Nellie
back in the day doing like a country song. Well
they're so popular now they have to have these long,
you know, agreements between them because they're like, oh, this
is just gonna be a regular occurrence with country people.
It's not like a one off thing. And so they
have basically a bunch of different definitions for it, and
it kind of depends on the deal, and there's no
(44:51):
like standardization of it. Some of them are like we're
doing a fifty fifty split. Some of them are like,
you take part of the revenue here, you take part
of the regular here. I'll give an example. Billboard says
the particulars of how to split the revenue differ from
each deal, from moving around a few percentage points for
services provided to joint ventures with an even split. Then
(45:11):
there's the issue of market share designation, which sources say
can vary wildly but is usually connected to label ownership
of the primary deal, basically meaning like you get part
of this country, and I get part of this country
like actual countries like the United States or Canada. And
then also everything is negotiable, so radio share is usually
(45:32):
split by genre, so you know, came Brown did really
good on the pop stations or on the pop playlist,
then like OURCA would get it or Sony would you
get the more country stuff. But there's just no rules.
So it's really interesting to watch, like all these deals,
you know, kind of for the first time really be
long term deals instead of one offs. And the idea
(45:54):
is to have both of these labels like doing their
best on both different sides. So you have you know,
up RCA being like, we're handling the pop side of this,
and then Sony's like, well, we're in Nashville, we know
country music. And so it also works the other way,
which is interesting because there's acts that try to come
into the country realm. But I want to put an
(46:15):
asterisk on that, because the people were coming into the
country realm are basically people that kind of should be
in country anyway. Like where we've seen I remember it
was a kid G which they mentioned, who is a
country hip hop rapper, right, so it's like he's kind
of already kid G k I D. Which yeah, right.
(46:41):
So like they had a story about Big Machine apparently
was trying to get him to sign because he had
such big TikTok presence and stuff, and he went with instead,
like uh, I think it was a Rebel music and
Geffen Records, and so Big Machine came back and was like,
let's promote you on the countryside and then we'll let
Geff and handle of the pop side. But those are rare,
(47:03):
but you're seeing this literally everywhere, like we've seen it
with Morgan Wallen and Blanco Brown and l King and
they all have different deals, and people brought up that
this isn't technically the first time, but the popularity of
them has increased a lot. They basically said like, this
is what Taylor Swift did when she was on Big Machine.
And then Republic came in and was like, we'll help
(47:24):
you get more pop stuff, which makes sense because if
you're a country artist, in my opinion, you want to
be a t Swift. You want to be like I
started out country and every everybody likes me. Every country
artist is like, I just love Taylor Swift so much.
And then you've been bringing an older example of Shania Twain,
because Twain used to and t but Shania, as I
(47:44):
talked on the show before, it has a weird thing
of like she we're gonna have a rock and roll Well,
it's like nineties country used to do this shit that
you don't see now, where it was like, this is
the country version of this song, and this is the
pop version of the song, which would be so fucking weird.
Of Taylor was like, this is the country version of Fearless,
and this is the pop version of Fearless. So yeah,
(48:05):
it's really fucking weird, and it gets to this point
where there's like, oh, there's just no rules to this.
It's like there's no consequences from Also apparently there is
from a lot of insiders. They say, you have to
watch out for one market that country still dominates, which
is the radio market. Oh man, because the radio people
(48:29):
and Billboard says it says country radio has quote been
notoriously possessive of acts and often accuses artists of trying
to cross over to pop, of abandoning their base. Oh yeah,
all the time. I mean the fan base. Yeah, the
fan base does that too. Once. I'me I researched like something,
things that weren't country enough for whatever, right that, like
(48:50):
people thought weren't country enough, and literally everything I came
across and my research was just like, oh, it doesn't
sound like my generation of countries, so therefore go yeah. Yeah,
which is interesting because we've talked about it on the
show how that ideas kind of died but still very
prevalent in country radio. Clearly it seems like they're ten
(49:12):
years behind every every time. Well, here I'll give you
an example. Apparently, Gabby Barrett wrote a song called and
has a song called I Hope, which is one of
the biggest songs of twenty twenty one country and then
just in general stuff. But apparently her label, Warner Music
Nashville said they quote waited to market the song outside
of the country sphere so country radio could claim and
(49:32):
it discovered the singer songwriter, so like they you know,
so like some guy or some girl somewhere you'd be like,
you know, she was a country singer and then she
got famous. I don't know why that's such a big deal,
but it is, which is really interesting. So it's it's
(49:54):
it's crazy for me because man, like I've been so
on hip hop country for the past like two years.
I ever since I saw the Little Oozy vert feature.
I think it might have been on a Kid G
song and the Little nos X Old Town Road. I
think in the future maybe maybe if you're listening to
this in five years, you'll come back and say I'm right.
But I think hip hop country is going to be
(50:14):
the next big thing. Like I think one artist is
going to come out figure out the formula how to
create a hit for hip hop country and he's really
going to smash the Billboard charts again. Yeah, we'll clip
that out well, I'll send it to you. I you know,
I have been at a lot of country events, and
I can tell you that it is literally just hip
hop with country lines on top of it. It's funny
(50:36):
that you mentioned that because we were talking about at
the beginning of the show how rapping hip hop has become.
You know, what's pop now in a lot of ways
versus you know what rock and roll music is. So
when I was growing up, and then even you know,
you can kind of see it shift in Nashville now
if from mixing country bands, it's like all these like
older country songs are just rock songs, like they were
(50:59):
just like I was listening to these guitar solos and
I was like, they would never do that in a
country song. They just like ripped that from example, like
we talked about before Aerosmith, And so now I think
we're seeing the same thing where rock was popular back then,
that's why they were stealing all that kind of stuff.
And then with rap now they're like, Okay, if we
still want to be popular, we want that crossover, So
(51:21):
let's go into that. Let's go into rap and hip hop.
And it's interesting to see the market try to integrate
with that especially, you know, you get the whole dynamics
of you know, the two different cultures of rap and
hip hop versus country, which seems so diametrically opposed that
I can't even you know. So it's it's weird to
(51:44):
see that happen, but it makes sense because at the
end of the day, you want a bigger audience, you
don't care who they are, which is one of the
people in this article said basically, but yeah, I thought
it was interesting from that perspective, and I kind of
I asked our fans they said, like, do you I
basically asked them, I said, are you you know, are
(52:05):
you happy that country music is going more and more
to a pop sound? And I got like a pretty
like fifty fifty. I think it ended up being like
sixty percent said no, they're not happy about it, and
forty percent said, yeah, we like it. But it's interesting
because at the end of the day, it's all about crossover,
you know. I mean, if you wanted to be a
(52:27):
bigger star, you want to be the biggest star, you
got to go to everybody, you know. So I think
if you take country out of it, because they've always
tried to do it, and take it with like more
niche or genres. It's like less of a thing to like,
you know, understand, Like if we talked about DM music,
for example, you know it's a niche, it's a niche
(52:47):
er genre. But they're all like, oh, we want a
top hit, we want a bunch of people dancing in
the clubs to this, we want that if this was
on Billboard to be great. And then you see them
like just like these people collaborate with pop artists and
do all that kind of stuff just with EDM music.
But it's interesting to see country kind of hold on
and be like, no, we don't want to lose our
identity because of pop music. Yeah. I feel like a
(53:11):
lot of that is country radio not wanting to waste
their identity. That isn't because I think they know the
end is near. Well, we also know it's an older
fan base on the stereo side. But with an older
fan base, older people get older, right, and where's the
fan base. It's it's definitely strange to watch them kind
(53:33):
of battle with it and figure out like what is
the comfortable balance? And uh, you know, I've been making
this joke for years. It's just like country music now
is like one direction with a catfish line included in it,
because that's what it is. And like, I don't you
know all these catfish line and like a pro bass
right exactly styles and like zaying up there, you know,
(53:56):
being like Harry Styles and his chiseled ab just with
a best pro right. So like that's what it is.
And to be honest with you, if you're you know,
I'm not a big country fan, so I don't really
have like a lot of like shed in the game.
I'm not like, oh, this is gonna upset me so much.
But I think personally, if you're of that mindset, welcome
(54:17):
to Americana music, because that's where you'll find your real
country music. That's where it is. If you're like of
that mindset, is that kind of because that's what Americana is.
It's like it's literally like preservation in a lot of
ways of a lot of those older styles. So if
you're complaining about that, that's where I would point you towards. Yeah,
(54:37):
I think country is like one of the only genres
that is so adamant on keeping sort of that old
type of music, that old style. I mean a lot
of genres, hip hop, pop like they've evolved into new things,
and generally, at least for hip hop, I would say
they're generally okay with advancing and getting into these new
(54:58):
type of genres. Obviously, like there was a real backclotch
when auto tune came out and hip hop um, which
I think you could say are some similarities to what
country is right now. I think country is one of
the most adamant genres on keeping sort of country how
it is, I would say, right continuing the regression as
opposed to like the progression of it, like and being like,
(55:19):
let's try this new thing. Yeah, but we'll have to
see I mean again, I'll clip you out of that, Alexander,
I'll clip you that. But then if we're right in
five years from twenty twenty six and like everybody's hitting
it up, we'll be like, Alexander got this shit in
episode fifty two, like go to this man, Well, I
(55:41):
guess it's time to get to our final, final, final thing. Here.
You made that sound like we were on the Bachelor
and we're like time to give your final Yeah. We uh,
if you guys can't tell we Me and Calling are
a huge fan of trash TV. We love. I want
to put that on the record. Okay, I haven't watched
(56:03):
The Bachelor yet. It's lame. Watch Love Island. It's all
lame called any That's why we love it. So this
is the worst segue ever. We listen to trash music too,
So let's talk about what music we've been listening to.
Would you like to go first year? Yeah? I guess so. Yeah.
I've been listening to the new Hatchee single this and
(56:25):
enchanted or disenchanted is basically how it's supposed to sound,
but it's disenchanted um. And then I've been listening to
a band called Hill laker Um and they're kind of
like pop punk, but like it's like pop punk with
like Pine Grove like had a baby and the baby
was like a thirteen year old going through teen angst.
(56:49):
That's kind of what it's like. So it's really if
you like that show, it's pretty cool. So that's sweet,
Alex Alexander, Sorry, I don't know what you're yeah, um yeah,
I mean I'll give you two two main ones. I
give you a mainstream answer and an underground answer. Um,
you know, I think mainstream wise, I've been listening to
Lanos X's new album, which I was very surprised by
(57:13):
actual tune to his last ep. You know, it was
a little spotty for me. I wouldn't give it a
great score if I was on beatly music. UM. But
you know, with Leans X's new album, I think it
was a really good progression for him. You had rock,
you had pop, you had hip hop, you had a
bunch of different genres, a bunch of different influences. I
really liked what he did with the album. UM and
(57:35):
I from my underground answer, I'm gonna have to put
y'all onto this new artist called Binky b I n
K I Oh, I love Binky. I made Colin listen
to Binky's so much memory, So good dude, He's so good.
I I it was so funny. So a guy reached
(57:56):
out to me PR He was like, I got this
really good artist. I know your love him him. I
was like, oh, ye'aall listen to him. Took one listen
to like the new EP that was coming out, and
I was like, wow, like this is really good. Has
that like alternative like rock, but has a little hip
hop influences into it's I really love his music. I
can't wait for his new stuff coming up. Yeah, I
(58:16):
think he's gonna blow up. Yeah, I just think it's
gonna happen. So Colin, where are you listening to? So
I got I gotta go the same same half as Alexander.
I'll give you a new and old. I also I've
been listening to a little and usum really like the album.
Was pleasantly surprised how it flows as an album, Like
I love the theming of it, and you know, him
talking about the repression that he's dealt with and all
(58:39):
the adversity and stuff was really good. The features were
really good. As I joke with Joe though that I
still say as once she was on the whole album.
That really makes that Jack Harlow feature seemed way worse
than like the rest in my opinion. But I just
like I've I mean, it's hard to compete when you
got like a Dojaquet and like Miley and Elton John.
So it's do you really like it? I think it
(59:01):
holds up. I'd saw Fantana put on the red shirt,
so we disagree about that, but uh, yeah, I thought
it was really good. I'm very excited to see what
he does next to be honest, and it's it's amazing
to me if you have a good album when I
like the B sides of stuff, especially if I like
the B sides more than the A side, so at
(59:22):
other time and so like there's one in particular where
he's like talking about his dad. I can't remember which
one it is, UM, but like it's really deep and
like really talks about like what he's dealt with and
like how his identity has evolved, especially being who he is,
especially in terms of rap music. It's very touching to
listen to UM. Then UM weird one as always, UM,
(59:46):
I was listening to, Well, there's there's a plethora of things.
I could stay here, but what would be weirder? Well, first, yes,
I listened to September today, UM, which if you don't know,
UM nine tw one always the best day to listen to. September,
the twenty first of September. And there's a guy who
I'm gonna I'll find him. I'll find him right now.
(01:00:08):
There's a guy who does a video about September every
year and I fucking love him and he basically yeah,
his name is Oh, this is gonna be hard Demi.
And then it's like Demi A, let's just call day.
I'm not gonna try that, but like you just look
up to dates, like if you literally look up nine
(01:00:28):
twenty one, like nine slash twenty one slash, and then
all the way at the beginning of twenty fifteen, you
can watch him progress to do these like crazy dances
with the music and it's like September edited, so it
just says twenty first of September like twenty times. But
like it's hilarious if you watch it, because the production
value just gets up. Like first it starts in his
(01:00:49):
room and he's got a confetti gun, and then last
year it was like him in a modeled truck, and
then like it's of his room but you don't know
it's a truck and he comes out and there's like
a plane going by. It says twenty first of September
and all this kind of stuff, and uh, it's great.
I think I haven't watched new one today, but it's
an eight minute video. He's a great guy, Dammia. I
(01:01:13):
would look it up. It's so good. But twenty first
to September good, think it. Let's come out the twenty
second not as fun. Now we gotta go to wake
me up till September ends, and that's just worse. Well, Alexander,
thank you so much for joining us on the show.
We really appreciate it reaching out and everything and uh,
you know, check him out from Beatley music dot com
(01:01:34):
and you know where you're right on Earmilk and everything.
Anything else you want to shout out for us or
anything before we Um, well, I just like to say
thank you so much for having me on. It's been
a it's been a pleasure. Um. But yeah, I mean
definitely go check out here milk, go check out Beatley Music. Um,
I'm buying your book, man, I'm gonna buy your book. Yeah,
(01:01:55):
yeah awesome, But yeah, I mean it's been great. Thank
you guys so much. Maybe I can put on the
title of this acclaimed author. Yeah, we'll do that for sure. Guys,
thanks for listening to the business tape. You're all thanks music,
business and media podcasts. You can follow us pretty much
anywhere TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, I don't know MySpace maybe anyway,
(01:02:18):
thanks so much. Thanks for our guess Alexander. Check out
Weekly Music and his articles over at Earmilk and his
book on Amazon about the history of hip hop and rap.
It's been awesome. We appreciate you listening. Thank you so much.
Come back again.
Hey guys, it's Bobby here. Thanks for listening and being
subscribe to the podcast. I didn't want to take a
second when we don't put anything up like today and
give you a sample of a show called The Biz Tape.
It's our newest podcast here on the Nashville Podcast Network.
It's kind of a media podcast, a music podcast hosted
by two guys named Joe and Colin. They break down
the nerdy side of the music industry, so they do
(00:20):
a lot of research from the biggest music topics, from
the charts, music law, and more. They even't have on
music lawyers and writers. So it's a great podcast if
you want to learn more about the music business side
or just be smarter than your friends when talking to music.
This episode, they talk about how Drake always dominates the charts,
and they talk about universal music groups Insane first day
of public trading. They also talk about how Nashville country
labels are partnering with their pop counterparts to make sure
(00:43):
the crossover artists happen from country music. So check it
out and also, if you like it, go subscribe to
The Biz Tape wherever you listen to podcasts. All right,
here you go. Here's an episode of the biz tape
Drake Dominates Charts, g Goes Public and Nashville Country Pop
(01:03):
Bill Biz Tape. Welcome to episode fifty one of the
biz tape You're All Thinks, Music, Business and Media Podcasts.
I'm your host Colin, with my co host Joe and
(01:24):
our wonderful guest Alexander zee Warner, who is a writer
over at Your Milk and also has his own fun
little enterprise we'll get into called Beatley Music Beatley Music
dot Com. Can I do that for you if you
get with Beatley Music, like, do your little radio ads
like Beatley Music dot Com. Yeah, can we go to radio.
I'll definitely have you up out there doing it for me. Sweet.
(01:47):
It's definitely got the radio voice out of the two
of us. Beatley Music dot Com you know what I mean,
what were those like sites back in the day. They
would do that all the time on radio. It would
oh it was go Daddy, Go Daddy would do that
the Go Daddy dot Com Like, oh yeah, yeah, they
cleaned up their acts. Really weird associate Alexander with that
in anyway? Just good? Sorry, Um, well, we're so glad
(02:12):
to have you on. We really appreciated. Alexander reached out
to us and we were very impressed with what he's
got going on. So I was like, come on, and uh,
I mean, first off, you have like I wanted to
talk to you about, like, what do you kind of
do in the music space? What do you what is
your kind of role? Yeah? Sure, well, you know, my
(02:32):
two main jobs right now in the music space, I
would say is obviously I have a lot of writing
U You know, through my life I've done writing for
my own personal blog, and then I also wrote a
book on the history of hip hop. You know, growing up,
I played a lot of travel basketball, and one of
the big things with travel basketball is like you have
kids from Atlanta in New York and Texas all come together.
(02:54):
And one of the big things I brought us together
was music, and specifically hip hop music, and so it's
always been a massive genre for meum and led me
to write the book The History of Hip Hop, which
I was able to publish on Amazon. And one of
the best best things I would say about publishing an
Amazon is, you know it's an international company, right, So
I had guys from Japan and the UK and a
(03:17):
bunch of different countries buying books. Um, it was. It
came with pousitive and negatives. You know, it was great
to see like how international hip hop is. Um, but
I also did get I got an email from an
angry UK buyer that told me he was like, man,
there was no UK hip hop in here, like what
are you doing? I was like from America, Like I
(03:38):
I can't, like, I don't really know that much about
UK hip hop. But maybe for part two, maybe for
grime book next time, you know, yeah, exactly, I gotta
I gotta piece for my customers. So like, um, I mean,
just so I'm aware, Alexander, how old are you? I'm
only nineteen right now. That's crazy. Why do you think
(03:59):
I brought him on? Yeah? It's like book already. Yeah
we're not. We're not even through even to book level
in my career yet. So you're doing something right, sure, sure,
thank you. If we had if we had a short play,
that'd be pretty pretty intense. Oh yeah yeah, but yeah,
(04:20):
so that that's crazy. Okay, here we go. Here's another
impressive reason. So you're also a writer at ear Milk.
I know that, um, which makes sense a lot because
that publication focuses a lot with hip hop and rap
and pop. So that makes sense. If you have, you know,
such a love for hip hop and wrote a book
about it, I'm sure they've loved to have you obviously. Yeah,
(04:40):
you know, I reached out to ear Milk. I knew
a couple writers in the Lanta area that are writing
for them, and I was like, hey, like, you know,
I've been doing a couple essays and writings and news
posts on my own blog and I've been also wrote
this book, and I was like, I love to come on,
get a like broader experience talk to some new artists.
And they emailed me and said, hey, like come on, Like, well,
(05:03):
we'll see see how it goes. So that was definitely
a great experience. I Mean one of the crazy things
for me was like when I was on my own
blog and writing for that, you know, I had to
reach out to artists to get them to come on
and do interviews. But now I'm like having people reach
out to me because I'm writing for ear Milk. So
that was definitely a crazy switch up and has opened
my eyes to the massive amounts of genres in the
(05:26):
music space. You know, I've originally coming on I was
really just a hip hop writer. I've definitely expanded to
alternative indie, a lot of those types of genres that
ear Milk has really found in themselves on UM. So
I feel like it's been a great experience just all around.
Do you think like the blog space, because I know,
for a long time, like especially in the early twenty tens,
(05:48):
that's how a lot of indie acts and a lot
of wrap acts got their start was through blog interfaces,
and like just you know, getting more exposure through that realm.
Do you think that's coming back a little bit more? Yeah,
you know, UM actually leads up to my idea for
my next for my company. I'm working on Beatley music,
(06:10):
you know, one of the big things for me. You know,
obviously in the modern streaming like the modern music streaming world,
there's just so much music put out every single day.
You know, there's thousands and thousands of albums and songs,
and you know, writing for Earmoke, we have to pick
through all those thousands of songs that put out every
single day and find something that we really like. And
like many times when I was writing articles for Earmoke,
(06:32):
it was taking me longer to find the music than
to actually write about the music, and I was like,
this is ridiculous, Like I need to find something that's easier.
And I thought, you know, like if I was able
to see an album cover for a song or an
album or project and see what other critics think, but
with just a like average critic score on top of that,
it would just be so much easier for me to
(06:53):
like with like we down all the songs to find
something I liked. And that basically led me to create
Beatley Music, which basically brings together the best of like
IMDb and Ron Tomatoes to music. So we average critic
ratings from a bunch of repertal sources like Anti Pantano,
Complex or Not Complex, Pitchfork, a lot of those sort
(07:15):
of critic reviewers, and then we average them together to
get one critic rating, and then you can go on
the website and see the average critic ratings for all
the best albums Donda CLB anything you want. Wow, that's crazy.
I mean, that's a very unique idea that I haven't
heard in the music space before. So that I think
you're definitely definitely onto something for sure, because I feel like,
(07:37):
you know a lot of music reviewers, the people people
go to are like the people you named Complex, Pitchfork,
Anthony Pantano, you know, up against the two megalists. But yeah,
it's it's definitely interesting because I think it's almost like
there's so much combination with the entertainment industry now with
(07:57):
kind of like you interfaces like that, and bringing the
things that worked with maybe traditional media into more of
just audio based media as well. So that's super interesting, man.
That is That's something that I'm definitely going to hit
up a lot of the time. And I will say
when I was a music programmer, I would have fucking
(08:20):
loved to use that thing for my automation when I
was uploading ship to automation because like, I'm with you, man,
like we used to get I mean, your email is
probably like this too. I would get on a day.
On an average day, I think I got like five
hundred emails like and just people. Yeah, and it's like
(08:42):
how do I how do I sift through this crap?
I don't know, like who's good who isn't. So you
kind of just have your few reputable people that you're like, oh,
I know they're gonna give me good stuff, you know,
But this is kind of making it more for like
general public can tell you what they want, which I
think is very unique. So dope, it's also aggregated, which
(09:02):
I think is great because you know, everybody, every reviewer
has their own personal flavor, so like it's great to
have a resource where you can look at all these
different things combined, you know, and kind of get more
of a general consensus. So do they do they comment?
Like do they kind of leave their own like review
space kind of like Rotten Tomatoes where it's like you
have a chain of like reviews and stuff like that. Yeah,
(09:24):
So if you go onto the website and you click
say the Donda album, we'll see an excerpt from each
critic reviewer just with a general idea about the review,
and then the critic score they gave. And then you
can also go on as a user and give your
own user score, which you'll see right next to the
critic scores. Um. So you know, like obviously the critic
(09:47):
scores are important. You know, critics definitely have a you know,
I would say, have a very good sense of like
what music does well well music doesn't do well. But
the users and the fans are also eat as important.
M I vue um. And so I'm trying to create
the platform that highlights critic viewers but also equally highlights
(10:07):
the Fanner years as well. First thing I want to
talk about, which you would be qualified for, especially since
you already raffled off saying it as we're going to
talk about CLB, which for the uninformed, Certified lover Boy UM,
which is so funny to me to say, um, it
sounds like a yacht rock band, Like that's what I mean,
(10:30):
rod band. Okay, So this man, I'm sure Alexander knows,
just destroyed all the charts and everything. Like we had
down to come up first, and we're like wow, and
then Drake came up and we're like what is going on?
So Certified Lover Boy launched at number one on the
Billboard two hundred with six hundred thirteen thousand equivalent album
(10:54):
units according to MRC data, making the biggest weekly sum
for an album in over a year, and he becomes
the eighth artist with ten or more number ones in
chart history. So here's the other thing Drake has, which
is what I want to talk about, and I kind
of have a fun low game for us, is Drake
has insane like Billboard and chart like records that are
(11:17):
so big. So, for instance, in the sixty three years
of the Hot one hundred, this is only a second
time that an artist has controlled twenty one spots of
the top forty, including all the top ten. And the
only other time was also Drake with Scorpio the Spider
Man Mean where he points out us, ye, who's hitting
(11:39):
me off the chart my own album, So yeah, man,
it's insane. He also has drastically extended his lead of
the most top forty hits with one hundred and forty three.
Oh my god. Yeah. He also has appeared on the
top one hundred, two hundred and fifty eight times, two
(12:00):
and a half. Dude, it's insane. So they were labeling off,
and we can get into a Drake discussion after this,
but I wanted to do this little game thing for you,
is they were labeling off kind of who has the
most Top one hundred appearances after Drake. Drake has two
undred and fifty eight. So the first I thought we
(12:20):
could guess what these are, I blacked them out kind
of shittily in the Google docum. So the first that
I should have made I should have made both black
instead of this like one kind of whider um. So,
first off, who's directly behind Drake Joe? Do you have
(12:41):
a guess of the most appearances on the top one
hundred behind Drake? Drake's a two fight. Okay, I can
give you hints, and Alexander feel free to butt in.
I know it's weird with zooms. I'm gonna go left field.
I'm gonna say Taylor Swift, but I don't think that's correct. Okay,
Taylor Swift, Alexander, do you have a guess? I would
have to go with maybe someone older, maybe like Michael
(13:03):
Jackson or something like that. Okay, that's a good guest too.
I'm gonna preface now that you two will not get this,
but it makes sense after I reveal what it is.
So the second highest is the Glee cast seven get
out of here. It makes sense though. I always joke
(13:26):
with my spouse is I'm very glad that we're out
of the time period where like Acapella was like the
rage and everything and that was about Yeah, that was
like late two thousand's, early twenty ten. Sorry Acapella fans um,
but yeah, right, come back. They got two hundred and
seven and that's just you know, that's close like and
(13:49):
but sadly, unless the Glee reunion happens, I don't know
if they're gonna beat that ever. Um, but it makes sense.
I mean it was a huge deal, huge show, and
that was kind of thing. They kind of kids bopped
a bunch of songs too, to make them, you know,
family friendly. So I'm surprised Kids Bop isn't up there.
It's not up there. I'll tell you that right now.
They're not up there. In Europe, I'm pretty sure, right, Yeah,
(14:13):
they have a huge international presence. Um, okay, let's go
to number three. Number three, I'll give you a hint.
Is a rapper, but it's an older rapper. And again
this is top one hundred appearances to one. Okay, rapper,
but older rapper, yeah, not too old. Don't think like
old doctor dre Okay, that's your guest. Let's go with that.
(14:34):
And then Alexander. Um, I'm gonna go with Eminem Okay,
around that time period. It's around that time period. But
it's little Wayne. No what yeah, little Wayne. You have
to think about it like this, Drake. The same reason
that Drake has such high that's different number from how
(14:56):
many times he's personally been on the board with his
records feature how many times his little Wayne been He
did the Rihanna thing. He was on like every other
record for a while. You know, now he just gets
really depressed to a Blink one eighty two concert. But like,
which have you never seen that video? I don't know
if you ever seen that Alexander is He went on
(15:17):
tour with Blink one eighty two and it was the
weirdest pairing of bands, and he basically just like gave up.
He was like he it was really save up on stage, right,
he was just like, I can't buck this and he
was like enjoyed Blink one eighty two, And it was
just because the tour was so weird and people weren't
getting hype. He was the opener for Blink wyn eighty two. Yeah,
(15:39):
it was a kind of a weird pairing up right,
Who would you who would you book for that? Um?
I will let me start the story and then I'll
get into that. Um. But actually I went to this
concert with post Malone and Aerosmith. Oh, the difference in
crowd was ridicul list right and like ninety year old
(16:02):
like Grandpas and Grandma's up there like shaking their canes,
like all hype for Aerosmith. And we had like a
bunch of like sixteen year old, like seventeen year old
kids like who's Aerosmiths? And I was sitting there like
I know Aeron Smith, Like I was up there for
both of them, and like up there like going crazy
all the people that were from the eighties and the like.
(16:23):
When post Malone came out, did this grandpa next to me?
He was like this is not real music? And I
was like, I think it's pretty solid. Like he's got
a bud light up there. There's a lot of people
that would claim Aerosmith isn't real music. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, Okay,
I'll leave you with the last two. The last two
are usual suspects. These are the people that you would imagine.
I'll give you a hint. You said one of them earlier.
(16:45):
Of who would be in the top one hundred the
most times, Taylor Swift? Okay, that's one. Who's the other one? Um,
I'm gonna go with Kanye You got them both right? Wow? Um,
do you want to guess who's ahead of any other? Dude?
Do you want to guess who's ahead of the other.
I mean Taylor, Taylor's ahead of the other. I thought
maybe I was like, I thought I could fake you
(17:06):
out with that because the other ones, no one would
have guessed. You know. So Taylor has one hundred and
thirty six and Kanye has one hundred and thirty three,
so their neck and neck. Oh wow? Yeah, Okay, I
believe the Strake thing with the number one right now
right now from Drake was way too sexy, which is
a weird song, but whatever. I don't think it's my
(17:29):
favorite on that album. But it marks the fifty second
week that Drake has reigned, encompassing cumulative weeks of all
nine of his number one hits. So he's been a
number one for a year in terms of like adding
up all the time that he's had a number one record. Wow.
And then he's the fourth act to reach the one
year mark, which I'm just going to tell you what
(17:51):
the other ones were. The number one who's been the
longest number one is Mariah Carey with eighty four weeks,
then Rihanna with sixty and the Beatles with fifty nine. Wow,
which is I'm honestly impressive. Yeah, he beat out Mariach Carry. Well, no,
he hadn't beat out Mariah Carry. He's uh, yeah, he's fourth.
(18:13):
He's behind the Beatles, which is weird because then Drake
can go, I'm bigger than Jesus, I'm bigger than the Beatles.
You know that's gonna be coming up in the next album. Yeah, dude, Uh,
this man is just insane. Like I was saying before
you knew the guy from de Grass, that's what I
think of dude. We're like, we're on the we're on
(18:34):
the cup. Well, Alexander, I think, is really on the cusp,
but we're on the cusp of the people that understand
that reference, because people younger than Alexander are like, what
the hell are you talking about? And I'm like, he
was Jimmy in the wheelchair. You don't remember that in
the school shooting thing, But like I was, I was
probably I was like eight or nine years old, watching
like Nick Nick fourteen or whatever, you like, right, it
(18:56):
was on the way out when you were I was
on the way out when Yeah, when I was getting older,
I caught the reference a little bit. But people my age,
you'd ask him, what's grass he is? They're like, is
that like a movie or like they would have no
clue what you're talking about that grass treatment, Like, let's
talk about it. Like Drake is insane with his chart
(19:17):
presence and has always been, which is interesting because he
had this whole feud with Kanye West about like who's
going to have a bigger album and their speculation if
like even parts of that are real, you know. And
so why do you think he's so successful? Jay got
an opinion? Why do you think he I think he's
easily digestible ye for mass audience consumption in a genre
(19:40):
that historically was not appealing to white audiences. Yea. To
be honest, I think that's kind of like Drake's almost
like a gateway drug for a lot of people into
round and hip hop. What do you think thought? I
feel like he I honestly, I feel like he's mastered
how to make a pop hit almost you know, even
though some times than music may not be like have
(20:02):
that much depth. I mean, I don't think anyone out
here would say way Too Sexy is like a very
deep song with like heavy lyrics. I think he's mastered
the way to appeal to his audience. You know, Obviously
a lot of the massive hits. Right now, we're coming
off of TikTok, and to me, Way Too Sexy is
a very much a TikTok song, and I feel like
(20:23):
he definitely plays his audience and where people are digesting
music at the time. Yeah, that's a good point because
there has been a lot with people that we've talked
to but also the industry about getting that like really
good sub thirty seconds of a song, especially for TikTok.
As we've talked multiple times on the show about the
power of TikTok, and there's people that you know, almost
(20:47):
I've literally talked to some people that are going like, well,
the chorus of this song is good, it's just too long.
Can you make it shorter? And literally it's because of TikTok,
which I think is insane. And he does a really
good and you know, rapping hip hop specifically, it's all
based on hooks, So if you got a good hook
in there, that's perfect for a TikTok. Yeah, and he's
(21:09):
very good at hype cycles, So I was gonna say
that was my reason. He's very good at like having
these periods of time and making like like his albums
together are not like that crazy apart in time, but
he creates a hype cycle that's like if the Beatles
were releasing a new album, like which is insane and
like it's just like crazy interaction with fans and stuff.
(21:31):
And he has that thing like you're saying, it's digestible
where it's like it's almost like it's cool music, Like
it's like you know, hip music, but like it's not
too hip that you don't understand what's going on or
like what he's saying. I think too, like he was
really on the on the end when hip hop was
becoming the standard like popular genre. Yeah too, And I
(21:54):
think that helped a lot for his growth as an
artist because of that, and then I mean, obviously the
Degrassi thing helped. But yeah, I do think it is
like just very digestible. Um. I mean, if you play
like Drake in front of your family, like even if
it's like a conservative family or something, right, they're probably
(22:16):
gonna be okay with it for the most part. Whereas
if you contrast that with like Kindrick Lamar or Kanye
Yeah or Kanye, where it's a bit more grittier and
it's a bit more like I I kind of want
to say real, but like you can you can have
your own opinion on that where it's like it's a
bit more harsh, I guess for for the listener, the
(22:40):
the there is a stark like contrast in that. Um,
and he knows he knows how to just be consistent too.
I think that's another huge thing where I expect a
Drake record record every year at this point, you know,
it comes out with one like the new iPhones. Yeah, exactly,
every new iPhone comes with the Drake record. Who is it?
(23:03):
Is it? Ja Cole? That was like I got the feature.
Somebody was like that for a while. Um, but like
that's what Drake does very well too. He's got a
big number of features on there as well from big artists,
like he has features on his record, on his record,
and also the opposite fair point is that he has
big features on other people's songs as much. Anymore. It
seems like he has the ability to you know, demand like,
(23:27):
oh you want to come on to my record, I
don't have to go under yours sometimes. But that seems
it was crazy to me. I mean it was crazy
to see that, like Kanye had this massive album roll out,
you know, he had one, two, three listening parties with
massive attendance on Apple Music, and Drake was still able
to beat him out for numbers in the first week.
That's what was so crazy to me. That's how powerful
(23:48):
Drake's music is. That is point, like Kanye had to
put on the Kanye circus and Drake just had to
you know, Drake literally had to get up and just
hit this. Yeah, he just had to say some shit,
know like and be like I'm putting out a record
and you know, give some beef with Kanye and be like,
I got these people on it and have good marketing team.
And that was it. Kanye I had to put on
(24:09):
three shows and this whole thing. And like, I don't
think he had to. I think I definitely by a
lot because it was like yeah, yeah, so yeah, what
what I mean Kanye is wild drinking going anywhere. That's true. Hey,
We're gonna be like doing the Tutsie Slide in twenty forty. Yeah,
(24:31):
what's your favorite Drake song? Mine? Yeah? Um, honestly, I'm
gonna go with the Tutsie Slide right now because I
just like, how like goofy that song is the other
thing I want to say before we move on. Is
Drake is fucking creepy as hell with people. Sometimes you
can't I don't know, like and there's like lines on
(24:51):
the wall that I just can't ignore it. So I
don't want anybody to be like, I'm a Drake fan
and like I'm just gonna like let that go. But
U It's just it's definitely interesting because that that will
be interesting in this future, I think if he decides
to do that. But at the same time, Kanye has
done that. He's done fucking things that people find horrific
(25:12):
and terrible and survived. But I don't know if he's
too hard then I don't know if grooming was necessarily
a thing that I heard about Kanye. Yeah, Buch is
way different in the public sphere. I mean, like that
would be way easier to cancel people for rightfully. So yeah,
but making out with the sixteen year old girl on
stage isn't exactly. Yeah, that was not the best not
(25:34):
the best time. Yeah. But besides that, Sandrew, what's your
favorite drink song? I would have to go with the
Starter from the Bottom that, I mean, absolute classic year
growing up. That was always the song people play it at,
you know, basketball games, at basketball hype matches like the
(25:55):
a lot of school stuff. I think it's one of
those Drake songs that's catchy, but it has like that
deep down internal meeting that like is perfect to put
on whenever you're going on a run, doing a test,
anything like that. Yeah, yeah, mine is hot wyven bling.
I think that was pinnacle. Drake was was the Yes,
(26:15):
it was the music video it was. It was the
best thing I've ever seen in my life, the best
dance moves I've ever seen. That brought dance back in
my opinion. All Right, well, we're gonna jump into something
a little bit heaty, and what I mean by hetty
is like you're gonna get a headache because there's gonna
(26:35):
be a lot of numbers involved, and I just want
to We're trying our best. It's a big deal. It's
a lot of stuff going on, but it is definitely
something you need to know about, which is Universal Music
Group goes public for the first time. Oh my god, yeah,
I know. It is crazy. It is the highest valued
music business to go public, uh general and in ever
(27:01):
so with just one day of public trading on the
euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange, UMG shares were up thirty six
point five percent, which the valuation of UMG is now
fifty four point three billion dollars, which makes sense after
analyzing the absolute bedlam that was the first day of trading,
which was literally all of the music business outlets were
(27:25):
just like, guys, it's happening, right they remembering It was like,
it's like tuning into ESPN to go, like we got
twenty four seven coverage on this stock. Right now, here's
the chart. I remember, let's getting this Like when we
first started the podcast, people were having rumblings. So now yeah,
it's well, apparently it's been happening since twenty eighteen because,
(27:46):
according to Variety, rumblings over the announcement of the IPO
began in twenty eighteen and continued with Chinese media giant
ten cents acquisition of twenty percent of the company and
billionaire Bill Ackerman's acquisition of ten percent. So they basically
it was owned collectively by Vivendi, which if anybody knows,
(28:07):
it's like one of the biggest like yeah, of all time.
And so they decided or they didn't really decide. I
think like a lot of laws and trading laws were
put into place here where they can't necessarily buy stock
going public if it's owned under them, I'm pretty sure
(28:28):
is kind of the reasoning. I was trying to look
more into it. There might be a little bit more
nuanced to it that I just couldn't find. But basically,
over the past couple of years, they've been selling it
off bit by bit by bit, and they sold off
ninety percent of it. So VIVINDI, like back in twenty
seventeen had one hundred percent and now it only has
(28:50):
ten percent. Yeah, which is crazy. But the reason they
did that is because they wanted what's called pure play opportunity,
which means they have a chance of getting higher market
share in the music scene with the US trade amount,
which was like, basically, the US trade amount for last
year was twelve point two billion dollars, which accounted for
(29:14):
more than half of twenty one point six billion dollars
in global revenue reported by the International Federation of the
Phonographic Industry. Now, pornographic, phonographic, audio, sonographic gets your mind er,
So let me mark. So you're saying that Universal had
twelve point two billion dollars of trade, So I'd say
(29:36):
it's out of twenty one point six billion in global revenue.
So no, it's just US trade amount in general. But
because that number is so high and it's fifty percent,
that's kind of the business reasoning behind them selling it
off and then buying more shares into it because they
know that like it's going to propel forward. Okay, if
(29:56):
that if that makes sense, because because if they kept
it all together, than like they would be more locked down,
they'd probably be more likely to have like you know,
maybe monopoly kind of stuff of the business expanded all
that kind of they wouldn't be able to really shift
around as much. And what is the biggest money maker
for the company, do you think? So, there's a lot
(30:17):
of big moneymakers. It's actually the let me pull it
up here. It is the world's largest label group and
second largest music publisher, which, honestly, the past couple of years,
the music publishing has really rose a lot, especially like
here where we are in Nashville. It's the publishing capital
of the world, and so a lot of their dominating
(30:41):
resources are being funneled into publishing. At least a lot
of the behind the scenes stuff that I've heard from
people and like I've seen it's that a lot of
the publishing money is kind of a huge focus for them,
especially since they just invested that thirty million dollars. Yeah,
(31:03):
sorry mister zero there. Sorry sorry mister Dillon, But yeah,
it's it's kind of all over the place. I think
they still make a lot of money on mechanical when
it comes to streaming, Um, that's their biggest money maker
for sure, but they also do get a lot of
publishing royalties for the publishing, especially like their sinc licensing,
(31:26):
their distribution. I mean, when you're that big of a company,
you're getting so much money from different channels that it's
hard to compare to a lot of other I guess
smaller indies or something like that. So it is, it
is kind of insane. But yeah, I would say, final
answer locking it in here. I think streaming is probably
(31:47):
their highest revenue. But that's something else that I wanted
to get into is kind of um, why does this matter?
Because how does this affect the music industry? Well, essentially,
it's showing that the growing value of music is having
an impact on companies such as streaming platforms, labels, publishers,
film studios, and more, as well as health of the
(32:10):
overall industry except asterix artists because you know, fuck them. Yeah,
that's kind of how the music business operates. As we've seen,
there's actually a lot of grumblings over the CEO of
UMG is getting like one hundred and fifty million dollar
bonus and each year he gets So he gets one
(32:33):
hundred and fifty million dollars this year, then next year
I think it's two hundred million, and then next year
it's three hundred million. Which there's a really great article
that will link that Rolling Stone did like breaking the
whole situation down, but they kind of talked about like
isn't this kind of crazy? Like he may have earned
(32:54):
the payout, but like, isn't this kind of nuts where
it's like this business is making big billions of dollars,
but artists on Spotify aren't getting paid a living wage? Right?
You know? Isn't that kind of a disparity that we
need to come to terms with? So, yeah, that's something
(33:15):
that is very interesting and I want to ask you guys,
do you think do you think that this is like
just kind of like a one off thing, or do
you think music value is actually increasing now because of this?
That's an interesting question. Um so we saw previously, Well,
Sony is obviously under the giant corporation of Sony, so
(33:39):
like they're technically part of that company in that way,
and so they're you know, if that's doing well, the
stock will do better. But still they could have, you know,
if they wanted to, they could split off that side
and make that public. But the other big one of
the big three, WMG, had recently just gone public as well,
I think in the last two years. Yeah. And actually,
(34:02):
just to cut in because of this, uh this launch
of UMG wmg's position in their stock, their estimated growth
was grown by like a billion dollars. Wow. Just from
just from that, I think you're seeing more of the
(34:23):
like you're saying, kind of divesting of some people are
bigger conglomerates from these companies to try to umbrella them
and make them bigger in terms of having more investors
and all that kind of stuff. And I am kind
of excited from that from you know, a lot of
record labels and all this kind of stuff. I mean,
let's be honest, they're very clicky, they're very you know,
(34:43):
small insider trying to get into a room kind of stuff.
So if you have more accountability from you know, public stockholders,
then I'm fine with that. I would I actually kind
of applaud it because you know, let's say, obviously these
are multimillion dollar companies buying it, but it actually gives
the opportunity as opposed to you know, you owning just
(35:06):
Vivendi stock of being like, oh okay, well, like who's
like a Bill Ackerman who owns ten percent of it?
Like if he came in and was like, I need
I think you guys should up it because I owned
ten percent of like the payouts for artists, because like,
UMG's getting shipped on with the public and it's making
our stock look bad and all that kind of stuff.
That kind of helps more having all those outside perspectives.
(35:27):
But at the end of the day, it's like you
got to be billionaire Bill Ackerman, you know, to really
have like this giant change, or you have to be
ten cent giant Chinese media giant or something like that.
So it's kind of like what you're saying is like
it definitely shows I think an increase of how music
(35:48):
is being monetized. We've seen that from a lot of
different places, especially like the crackdown on Twitch and YouTube,
you know, trying to crack down on unauthorized song use
or TikTok signing giant lissing deals for the music. So
I think we're seeing, you know, these companies kind of
rastle back from the two thousands, where you know, music
(36:08):
was free, everything's free, who cares? And so now they're
like finally getting these companies to be like, you have
to pay us. But I think that's why it's expanding,
like music in general, it's because they're finally going, Okay,
we've been on this streak of like you scratch my back,
I'll scratch yours. Like our artists gets bigger, so we
get more money in streams, but you get to do
(36:28):
the songs for free. Now they're like, nah, we know
this is an incentive of your platform, so you have
to give us some money. Now whatever money comes down
to the artist is very low. So Alexander, what do
you think? Yeah, I mean, I totally have to doree
what you're saying. You know, like, obviously technology has been
a big thing in decreasing the revenue of a lot
of artists. You know, right when technology came out with Napster,
(36:51):
the artists are getting paid nothing and their music was
getting streighted millions and millions of times. And as we
developed the technology and a lot the music to anology
space has increase in importance. We've seen a increase in
the revenue of a lot of these artists. You know, obviously,
like you said, with the TikTok licensing and Spotify, you know,
artists have slowly started to get the revenue to increase, increase, increase,
(37:15):
And personally, I'm really interested in a lot of the
the NFT type space for music. I think there's gonna
be a lot of great innovation in the music technology
space that's going to continue to increase a lot of
the artists revenue back to the days of the nineteen
fifties and nineteen sixties where these artists are making tons
of money out vinyl and stuff like that. Recorded music, yeah, up,
(37:37):
recorded music. Yes, I think I think recording music will
continue to gain importance with stuff like NFTs and increases
in Spotify revenue. That's right, I completely agree with that.
I mean, just the new technology for that is crazy.
I mean, Jared, you want to say anything on it before, Yeah,
I mean I think I agree that's a direction I
(37:59):
definitely kind of want more. I do kind of want
the industry to kind of go back into. Um is
the emphasis unrecorded music revenue being source of money for artists? Yeah, exactly,
because I do think and like looking back historically again
like the way that record labels have kind of almost
(38:22):
where there's there isn't anate value right that we have
of recorded music now and it is obvious with this
that record labels are making money from streaming, right, Yeah,
but where is it going? That's kind of my thing.
I mean clearly upward exactly, So it's not going to
the artist like we we you know, are seeing that clearly.
(38:45):
So it's it's kind of one of those things where
it's like I do hope that NFTs kind of create
that space where it's like you get an exclusive album,
you get you know, whatever thing that adds the value
back into kind of more of like a physical format
kind of deal or I guess more just like the
ownership over something right where you're like, you feel like
(39:06):
you're supporting an artist. But what I worry is how
oversaturated NFTs are getting, and especially how they're going to
react to big, big businesses coming in or I think
sixty of like taking revenue front. I mean, what would
stop a record label from doing what they do with
(39:27):
merchandise and you know other more of doing it. Yeah,
just adding another clauset and you're going, okay, well I
get this percentage you know, which I guarantee you is
already a thing. I bet you it's already a thing
in three sixty deals and and everything is. They got
an NFT clause they have atmack dab and the record
contracts about like it says like and or future technology
(39:48):
of like it, which is where it comes from. So
that's what they're trying to do is expand that and
then be like, well it's technically underhere, so now we
can clarify it in your contract. Yeah. But then some
I'm worried about. When I'm worried about because I've talked
a lot of artists, I'm like, you know, how how
are you increasing your revenue? And they're like, oh, I'm
looking into NFTs, I'm looking into live streaming on Twitch,
(40:10):
I'm looking into creating tiktoks, and you know, I've talked
I'm like, all right, so like, are you gonna be
getting all this revenue? Like obviously these are new sort
of paths, and all of them been like, yeah, like
the record labels have been cracking down on NFTs for
a lot of artists because you know, there's seen there's
been so many news articles about artists making a million
two million dollars just off of releasing an NT of
(40:32):
an album, which is crazy. Yeah, and it's because it's
the new thing right now, right where it's like it
obviously like maybe three years from now, it's not going
to be the case, like you're not going to get
a million dollars probably unless you have like some hype,
you have some like crazy ass you get an Apple
to do another record, you know, and they just release
it on there. But it is just kind of one
(40:56):
of those things that I worry about giving more ammunition
and too labels because labels have had a huge issue
of cannibalizing the industry and have really taken a lot
of the power away from the artist. So that's something
that a lot of artists are very worrisome over now.
(41:18):
And with you know, TikTok, with all this other new
medium stuff, do you guys think that labels are even
we need them at this point? I think for the
distribution and marketing. It's still very important for a lot
of things. Well. See, here's my thing is, like i
feel like the lines between publisher and label are getting
(41:40):
blurred or super day by day because I've talked to
publishers that do things that label heads would have been
doing twenty years ago. You know, yeah, I mean for me,
you know, you look at some of the big artists
right now, dreat Kanye, will nus X, you know, it
feels like they're so like warmth thin. You know. Willnos
(42:01):
X is doing tiktoks and twitters and Instagram. He's on Facebook,
you know, and he's also doing all this marketing stuff.
Like a lot of these artists that have to put
their hand in so many pots now, I think record
labels are almost essential for those type of artists, the
ones that are like all over the place to even
be able to like focus on your music, because it's
(42:22):
just willnos X is in so many different avenues that
it would be almost impossible for him to do it himself.
In my opinion, Yeah, I mean, you would get spread
very thin. But also do you think that's the managements
take at that point? That's true, that's true. I feel
like you would need a very good management. And you know,
obviously a lot of artists have come out and been like,
(42:44):
my management so bad. So I feel like it's very
important to find that manager that's really going to be
that type of person to make sure to keep track
of everything because there's just so much right now for
the modern artists. Yeah, I mean, we know somebody with
two managers, you man, Yeah, yeah, And I guess a
day to day at that point, but yeah, day to
(43:04):
day and big picture. It's literally the office thing. It's
like I handled day to day. He handles big day
to day is literally like actually doing the management stuff,
and then the manager is doing big picture. I guess, well,
most of the time it's gonna make your money most
of the time. It's like the day to day manager
who started out then becomes the big picture manager and
then they hire the day to day person like to
(43:25):
do that because they're tired of it. All right, Colin,
what else are we getting into? Okay, I want to
talk about this because it's really big and I kind
of pulled our Instagram about it. But I'll get into
that in a second. So Nashville specifically, where we are
in labels in it are turning to pop partners as
(43:47):
streaming changes the game. And this is an article by Billboard,
and specifically they're talking about country music, which I think
is a really interesting question because people have been asking,
you know, for years, like what's the difference between country
music and pop music as we get more infused and
fused and fused. So we're seeing a lot of examples
with this, like, for instance, all the big three labels
(44:08):
are basically doing it. So we're seeing Sony Music Nashville
partnering with RCA to promote some of their country roster,
including Taniel Towns and Kane Brown, who have released songs
with several acts on RCA's pop roster, including Khalid and
Her and so Billboard points out that these partnerships are
so common now that they used to do like a
(44:29):
one off you know, I kind of reference like Nellie
back in the day doing like a country song. Well
they're so popular now they have to have these long,
you know, agreements between them because they're like, oh, this
is just gonna be a regular occurrence with country people.
It's not like a one off thing. And so they
have basically a bunch of different definitions for it, and
it kind of depends on the deal, and there's no
(44:51):
like standardization of it. Some of them are like we're
doing a fifty fifty split. Some of them are like,
you take part of the revenue here, you take part
of the regular here. I'll give an example. Billboard says
the particulars of how to split the revenue differ from
each deal, from moving around a few percentage points for
services provided to joint ventures with an even split. Then
(45:11):
there's the issue of market share designation, which sources say
can vary wildly but is usually connected to label ownership
of the primary deal, basically meaning like you get part
of this country, and I get part of this country
like actual countries like the United States or Canada. And
then also everything is negotiable, so radio share is usually
(45:32):
split by genre, so you know, came Brown did really
good on the pop stations or on the pop playlist,
then like OURCA would get it or Sony would you
get the more country stuff. But there's just no rules.
So it's really interesting to watch, like all these deals,
you know, kind of for the first time really be
long term deals instead of one offs. And the idea
(45:54):
is to have both of these labels like doing their
best on both different sides. So you have you know,
up RCA being like, we're handling the pop side of this,
and then Sony's like, well, we're in Nashville, we know
country music. And so it also works the other way,
which is interesting because there's acts that try to come
into the country realm. But I want to put an
(46:15):
asterisk on that, because the people were coming into the
country realm are basically people that kind of should be
in country anyway. Like where we've seen I remember it
was a kid G which they mentioned, who is a
country hip hop rapper, right, so it's like he's kind
of already kid G k I D. Which yeah, right.
(46:41):
So like they had a story about Big Machine apparently
was trying to get him to sign because he had
such big TikTok presence and stuff, and he went with instead,
like uh, I think it was a Rebel music and
Geffen Records, and so Big Machine came back and was like,
let's promote you on the countryside and then we'll let
Geff and handle of the pop side. But those are rare,
(47:03):
but you're seeing this literally everywhere, like we've seen it
with Morgan Wallen and Blanco Brown and l King and
they all have different deals, and people brought up that
this isn't technically the first time, but the popularity of
them has increased a lot. They basically said like, this
is what Taylor Swift did when she was on Big Machine.
And then Republic came in and was like, we'll help
(47:24):
you get more pop stuff, which makes sense because if
you're a country artist, in my opinion, you want to
be a t Swift. You want to be like I
started out country and every everybody likes me. Every country
artist is like, I just love Taylor Swift so much.
And then you've been bringing an older example of Shania Twain,
because Twain used to and t but Shania, as I
(47:44):
talked on the show before, it has a weird thing
of like she we're gonna have a rock and roll Well,
it's like nineties country used to do this shit that
you don't see now, where it was like, this is
the country version of this song, and this is the
pop version of the song, which would be so fucking weird.
Of Taylor was like, this is the country version of Fearless,
and this is the pop version of Fearless. So yeah,
(48:05):
it's really fucking weird, and it gets to this point
where there's like, oh, there's just no rules to this.
It's like there's no consequences from Also apparently there is
from a lot of insiders. They say, you have to
watch out for one market that country still dominates, which
is the radio market. Oh man, because the radio people
(48:29):
and Billboard says it says country radio has quote been
notoriously possessive of acts and often accuses artists of trying
to cross over to pop, of abandoning their base. Oh yeah,
all the time. I mean the fan base. Yeah, the
fan base does that too. Once. I'me I researched like something,
things that weren't country enough for whatever, right that, like
(48:50):
people thought weren't country enough, and literally everything I came
across and my research was just like, oh, it doesn't
sound like my generation of countries, so therefore go yeah. Yeah,
which is interesting because we've talked about it on the
show how that ideas kind of died but still very
prevalent in country radio. Clearly it seems like they're ten
(49:12):
years behind every every time. Well, here I'll give you
an example. Apparently, Gabby Barrett wrote a song called and
has a song called I Hope, which is one of
the biggest songs of twenty twenty one country and then
just in general stuff. But apparently her label, Warner Music
Nashville said they quote waited to market the song outside
of the country sphere so country radio could claim and
(49:32):
it discovered the singer songwriter, so like they you know,
so like some guy or some girl somewhere you'd be like,
you know, she was a country singer and then she
got famous. I don't know why that's such a big deal,
but it is, which is really interesting. So it's it's
(49:54):
it's crazy for me because man, like I've been so
on hip hop country for the past like two years.
I ever since I saw the Little Oozy vert feature.
I think it might have been on a Kid G
song and the Little nos X Old Town Road. I
think in the future maybe maybe if you're listening to
this in five years, you'll come back and say I'm right.
But I think hip hop country is going to be
(50:14):
the next big thing. Like I think one artist is
going to come out figure out the formula how to
create a hit for hip hop country and he's really
going to smash the Billboard charts again. Yeah, we'll clip
that out well, I'll send it to you. I you know,
I have been at a lot of country events, and
I can tell you that it is literally just hip
hop with country lines on top of it. It's funny
(50:36):
that you mentioned that because we were talking about at
the beginning of the show how rapping hip hop has become.
You know, what's pop now in a lot of ways
versus you know what rock and roll music is. So
when I was growing up, and then even you know,
you can kind of see it shift in Nashville now
if from mixing country bands, it's like all these like
older country songs are just rock songs, like they were
(50:59):
just like I was listening to these guitar solos and
I was like, they would never do that in a
country song. They just like ripped that from example, like
we talked about before Aerosmith, And so now I think
we're seeing the same thing where rock was popular back then,
that's why they were stealing all that kind of stuff.
And then with rap now they're like, Okay, if we
still want to be popular, we want that crossover, So
(51:21):
let's go into that. Let's go into rap and hip hop.
And it's interesting to see the market try to integrate
with that especially, you know, you get the whole dynamics
of you know, the two different cultures of rap and
hip hop versus country, which seems so diametrically opposed that
I can't even you know. So it's it's weird to
(51:44):
see that happen, but it makes sense because at the
end of the day, you want a bigger audience, you
don't care who they are, which is one of the
people in this article said basically, but yeah, I thought
it was interesting from that perspective, and I kind of
I asked our fans they said, like, do you I
basically asked them, I said, are you you know, are
(52:05):
you happy that country music is going more and more
to a pop sound? And I got like a pretty
like fifty fifty. I think it ended up being like
sixty percent said no, they're not happy about it, and
forty percent said, yeah, we like it. But it's interesting
because at the end of the day, it's all about crossover,
you know. I mean, if you wanted to be a
(52:27):
bigger star, you want to be the biggest star, you
got to go to everybody, you know. So I think
if you take country out of it, because they've always
tried to do it, and take it with like more
niche or genres. It's like less of a thing to like,
you know, understand, Like if we talked about DM music,
for example, you know it's a niche, it's a niche
(52:47):
er genre. But they're all like, oh, we want a
top hit, we want a bunch of people dancing in
the clubs to this, we want that if this was
on Billboard to be great. And then you see them
like just like these people collaborate with pop artists and
do all that kind of stuff just with EDM music.
But it's interesting to see country kind of hold on
and be like, no, we don't want to lose our
identity because of pop music. Yeah. I feel like a
(53:11):
lot of that is country radio not wanting to waste
their identity. That isn't because I think they know the
end is near. Well, we also know it's an older
fan base on the stereo side. But with an older
fan base, older people get older, right, and where's the
fan base. It's it's definitely strange to watch them kind
(53:33):
of battle with it and figure out like what is
the comfortable balance? And uh, you know, I've been making
this joke for years. It's just like country music now
is like one direction with a catfish line included in it,
because that's what it is. And like, I don't you
know all these catfish line and like a pro bass
right exactly styles and like zaying up there, you know,
(53:56):
being like Harry Styles and his chiseled ab just with
a best pro right. So like that's what it is.
And to be honest with you, if you're you know,
I'm not a big country fan, so I don't really
have like a lot of like shed in the game.
I'm not like, oh, this is gonna upset me so much.
But I think personally, if you're of that mindset, welcome
(54:17):
to Americana music, because that's where you'll find your real
country music. That's where it is. If you're like of
that mindset, is that kind of because that's what Americana is.
It's like it's literally like preservation in a lot of
ways of a lot of those older styles. So if
you're complaining about that, that's where I would point you towards. Yeah,
(54:37):
I think country is like one of the only genres
that is so adamant on keeping sort of that old
type of music, that old style. I mean a lot
of genres, hip hop, pop like they've evolved into new things,
and generally, at least for hip hop, I would say
they're generally okay with advancing and getting into these new
(54:58):
type of genres. Obviously, like there was a real backclotch
when auto tune came out and hip hop um, which
I think you could say are some similarities to what
country is right now. I think country is one of
the most adamant genres on keeping sort of country how
it is, I would say, right continuing the regression as
opposed to like the progression of it, like and being like,
(55:19):
let's try this new thing. Yeah, but we'll have to
see I mean again, I'll clip you out of that, Alexander,
I'll clip you that. But then if we're right in
five years from twenty twenty six and like everybody's hitting
it up, we'll be like, Alexander got this shit in
episode fifty two, like go to this man, Well, I
(55:41):
guess it's time to get to our final, final, final thing. Here.
You made that sound like we were on the Bachelor
and we're like time to give your final Yeah. We uh,
if you guys can't tell we Me and Calling are
a huge fan of trash TV. We love. I want
to put that on the record. Okay, I haven't watched
(56:03):
The Bachelor yet. It's lame. Watch Love Island. It's all
lame called any That's why we love it. So this
is the worst segue ever. We listen to trash music too,
So let's talk about what music we've been listening to.
Would you like to go first year? Yeah? I guess so. Yeah.
I've been listening to the new Hatchee single this and
(56:25):
enchanted or disenchanted is basically how it's supposed to sound,
but it's disenchanted um. And then I've been listening to
a band called Hill laker Um and they're kind of
like pop punk, but like it's like pop punk with
like Pine Grove like had a baby and the baby
was like a thirteen year old going through teen angst.
(56:49):
That's kind of what it's like. So it's really if
you like that show, it's pretty cool. So that's sweet,
Alex Alexander, Sorry, I don't know what you're yeah, um yeah,
I mean I'll give you two two main ones. I
give you a mainstream answer and an underground answer. Um,
you know, I think mainstream wise, I've been listening to
Lanos X's new album, which I was very surprised by
(57:13):
actual tune to his last ep. You know, it was
a little spotty for me. I wouldn't give it a
great score if I was on beatly music. UM. But
you know, with Leans X's new album, I think it
was a really good progression for him. You had rock,
you had pop, you had hip hop, you had a
bunch of different genres, a bunch of different influences. I
really liked what he did with the album. UM and
(57:35):
I from my underground answer, I'm gonna have to put
y'all onto this new artist called Binky b I n
K I Oh, I love Binky. I made Colin listen
to Binky's so much memory, So good dude, He's so good.
I I it was so funny. So a guy reached
(57:56):
out to me PR He was like, I got this
really good artist. I know your love him him. I
was like, oh, ye'aall listen to him. Took one listen
to like the new EP that was coming out, and
I was like, wow, like this is really good. Has
that like alternative like rock, but has a little hip
hop influences into it's I really love his music. I
can't wait for his new stuff coming up. Yeah, I
(58:16):
think he's gonna blow up. Yeah, I just think it's
gonna happen. So Colin, where are you listening to? So
I got I gotta go the same same half as Alexander.
I'll give you a new and old. I also I've
been listening to a little and usum really like the album.
Was pleasantly surprised how it flows as an album, Like
I love the theming of it, and you know, him
talking about the repression that he's dealt with and all
(58:39):
the adversity and stuff was really good. The features were
really good. As I joke with Joe though that I
still say as once she was on the whole album.
That really makes that Jack Harlow feature seemed way worse
than like the rest in my opinion. But I just
like I've I mean, it's hard to compete when you
got like a Dojaquet and like Miley and Elton John.
So it's do you really like it? I think it
(59:01):
holds up. I'd saw Fantana put on the red shirt,
so we disagree about that, but uh, yeah, I thought
it was really good. I'm very excited to see what
he does next to be honest, and it's it's amazing
to me if you have a good album when I
like the B sides of stuff, especially if I like
the B sides more than the A side, so at
(59:22):
other time and so like there's one in particular where
he's like talking about his dad. I can't remember which
one it is, UM, but like it's really deep and
like really talks about like what he's dealt with and
like how his identity has evolved, especially being who he is,
especially in terms of rap music. It's very touching to
listen to UM. Then UM weird one as always, UM,
(59:46):
I was listening to, Well, there's there's a plethora of things.
I could stay here, but what would be weirder? Well, first, yes,
I listened to September today, UM, which if you don't know,
UM nine tw one always the best day to listen to. September,
the twenty first of September. And there's a guy who
I'm gonna I'll find him. I'll find him right now.
(01:00:08):
There's a guy who does a video about September every
year and I fucking love him and he basically yeah,
his name is Oh, this is gonna be hard Demi.
And then it's like Demi A, let's just call day.
I'm not gonna try that, but like you just look
up to dates, like if you literally look up nine
(01:00:28):
twenty one, like nine slash twenty one slash, and then
all the way at the beginning of twenty fifteen, you
can watch him progress to do these like crazy dances
with the music and it's like September edited, so it
just says twenty first of September like twenty times. But
like it's hilarious if you watch it, because the production
value just gets up. Like first it starts in his
(01:00:49):
room and he's got a confetti gun, and then last
year it was like him in a modeled truck, and
then like it's of his room but you don't know
it's a truck and he comes out and there's like
a plane going by. It says twenty first of September
and all this kind of stuff, and uh, it's great.
I think I haven't watched new one today, but it's
an eight minute video. He's a great guy, Dammia. I
(01:01:13):
would look it up. It's so good. But twenty first
to September good, think it. Let's come out the twenty
second not as fun. Now we gotta go to wake
me up till September ends, and that's just worse. Well, Alexander,
thank you so much for joining us on the show.
We really appreciate it reaching out and everything and uh,
you know, check him out from Beatley music dot com
(01:01:34):
and you know where you're right on Earmilk and everything.
Anything else you want to shout out for us or
anything before we Um, well, I just like to say
thank you so much for having me on. It's been
a it's been a pleasure. Um. But yeah, I mean
definitely go check out here milk, go check out Beatley Music. Um,
I'm buying your book, man, I'm gonna buy your book. Yeah,
(01:01:55):
yeah awesome, But yeah, I mean it's been great. Thank
you guys so much. Maybe I can put on the
title of this acclaimed author. Yeah, we'll do that for sure. Guys,
thanks for listening to the business tape. You're all thanks music,
business and media podcasts. You can follow us pretty much
anywhere TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, I don't know MySpace maybe anyway,
(01:02:18):
thanks so much. Thanks for our guess Alexander. Check out
Weekly Music and his articles over at Earmilk and his
book on Amazon about the history of hip hop and rap.
It's been awesome. We appreciate you listening. Thank you so much.
Come back again.
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Mike D
Abby Anderson
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