Music Business Worldwide

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Trends, the weekly podcast from Music Business Worldwide – where we go deep behind the headlines of news stories affecting the entertainment industry. Talking Trends is supported by Voly Music.

This week on Talking Trends, host Louise Porter asks MBW founder, Tim Ingham, about a raft of new changes coming to TIDAL – the music streaming platform founded by Jay-Z, and acquired by Jack Dorsey...

Welcome to the Music Business Worldwide Podcast, supported by Voly Music.

Tempo Music has been sitting on a billion-dollar-plus fund to buy music rights since 2019. This fund is bankrolled by a private equity giant – Providence Equity – that has over $45 billion in assets under its control.

Josh Empson (pictured) is the CEO and founder of Tempo Music, and the guest of this episode of the MBW Podcast.

According to Empson, Tempo is quie...

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Trends, the weekly podcast from Music Business Worldwide – where we go deep behind the headlines of two major news stories affecting the entertainment industry. Talking Trends is supported by Voly Music.

This week, host Louise Porter asks MBW founder Tim Ingham about the news that Warner Music Group is raising $535 million in order to part-fund three new potential acquisitions.

Ingham suggests...

It's the biggest story in the modern music business, certainly for those whose eyes are drawn to dollar signs:  acquisition funds buying up music rights.

From Blackstone to KKR and beyond, recent months have seen some of the world's most powerful investment institutions throwing billions at the music market to quickly capture market share.

Many investors presumed that year zero for this trend began when Hipgnosis Songs Fund f...

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Trends, the weekly podcast from Music Business Worldwide – where we go deep behind the headlines of two major news stories affecting the entertainment industry.

This week, host Louise Porter and MBW founder Tim Ingham discuss the tragic news that eight people have died, with hundreds injured, following a crowd crushing disaster at Travis Scott's Astroworld in Houston.

What level of respons...

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Trends, the weekly podcast from Music Business Worldwide – where we go deep behind the headlines of two major news stories affecting the entertainment industry.

This week, host Louise Porter and MBW founder Tim Ingham discuss the music industry's "quiet giant" – the DIY distribution and tools sector.

One leading player, UnitedMasters, recently secured a valuation of $550 million, v...

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Trends, the weekly podcast from Music Business Worldwide – where we go deep behind the headlines of two major news stories affecting the entertainment industry.

This week, host Louise Porter and MBW founder Tim Ingham discuss the shock news that, following a long and successful partnership, Korean superstars BTS (via HYBE) have ended their relationship with Sony Music / The Orchard / Columbia...

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Trends, the weekly podcast from Music Business Worldwide – where we go deep behind the headlines of two major news stories affecting the entertainment industry.

This week, host Louise Porter and MBW founder Tim Ingham discuss a hostile regulatory environment for the major record companies in the UK market.

On Tuesday (October 19), the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced ...

Late yesterday (October 14), the National Music Publishers' Association made the claim that a number of digital service owners – including Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and Pandora – are trying to cut the amount of money they pay songwriters in the US to the "lowest royalty rates in history".

That claim was made by David Israelite, CEO and President of the NMPA, in reference to a new rate-setting procedure in the States involv...

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Trends, the weekly podcast from Music Business Worldwide – where we go deep behind the headlines of two major news stories affecting the entertainment industry.

This week, host Louise Porter and MBW founder Tim Ingham discuss the return of Adele with her new album 30, now confirmed for release on November 19.

In Ingham's words, we're already seeing strong evidence of the British supers...

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

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

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

Online marketplaces selling music beats and samples are big business. Los Angeles-based Splice has raised over $150 million to date, including a recent round led by Goldman Sachs.

The latest entrant to this fast-growing sector comes with a twist. Multi-grammy-winning producer Timbaland is launching Beatclub alongside his long-term manager, Gary Marella, who is our guest on the Music Business Worldwide podcast here.

Marella is founder...

Troy Carter has seen the music business from all sides.

He was the manager of superstar artists like Lady Gaga and Eve at Los Angeles-based Atom Factory; he was also an early investor in Spotify, Uber and Lyft. Now, he's the latest guest on the Music Business Worldwide podcast.

In 2016, he joined Spotify full-time as the platform's global head of Creator Services, with a direct line into Spotify CEO & founder, Daniel Ek....

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

Stannard says that his songwriting style has always been to "write myself happy". This approach has led to him writing and producing some of the fizziest and most successful pop songs of all time, including a run of Spice Girls...

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

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

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

As such, Primary Wave now owns subs...

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

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

He's perhaps best known as a long-time collaborator of Justin Bieber, for whom Poo Bear has co-written hits like What Do You Mean?, Where Are U Now? (...

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

Corite is, at first glance, a simple digital distributor, in the same core space as TuneCore, CD Baby, United Masters, Ditto etc. But it has a key difference: Corite enables fans to directly invest in artists themselves  – and then take a share of money paid out to these arti...

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

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

Battle initially built Tha Lights Global as a home for social media influencers, especially on Musica...

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