Ep. 170: We bring you a bumper episode of Music Ally Focus, with four true domain experts, all sharing their advice, insight and strategies for you to use. (UPDATE: we fixed a surprising number of audio glitches!)

Music marketing is in a transitional era where traditional funnel marketing rubs up against wallet-draining superfan campaigns – and the desire to create deep, narrow direct-to-fan communities that will support an artist forever.

So... what's the right path? It's about building a community of people who are thrilled to be part of a fanbase, and who love spending time with each other. But this kind of fanbase might not generate those giant social media or streaming numbers that labels love. So what needs to change? It's a combination of hard work, daring to look past old behaviours, and "random acts of kindness", our experts say.

Our springboard was this article that guest Simon Scott wrote about music discovery and fan commitment: https://musically.com/2025/07/10/how-music-discovery-and-fan-commitment-are-inextricably-linked/

Guests are, in A-Z order:

• Aaron Bogucki – founder of direct-to-fan services company Big Cookie
• Keziah Reed – Digital Marketing Manager, Artist Services, UK, at Believe
• Robyn Elton – Head of Artist Strategy (Audience) at agency Blackstar
• Simon Scott – Founder & CEO of fan engagement technology company Push entertainment

Episode 169: This podcast is aligned with Music Ally’s newest International Focus report, which pulls together the last year’s worth of Country Profiles which we publish, plus some extra exclusive analysis. So, we’re joined by Stuart Dredge, Music Ally’s head of insight, to discuss some of the burning topics when we look at the international music market right now in summer 2025.

Stu talks to Joe Sparrow about:

- The new dominance of local talent and genres in markets around the globe.

- What are the current export trends, especially for local music which are increasingly reaching global audiences. And what about English-language acts in this newly-polyglot paradigm?

- Collaboration as a strategy - now seen as a standard strategy in gaining momentum and reaching wider audiences. But will we reach saturation point with all these feats – or is there still miles to go?

Music Ally's Reports - including this newest one – are available here: https://musically.com/category/reports

And if you’ve not looked at the Country Profiles for a while, we’ve recently doubled the size of them to include lots of vital, on-the-ground marketing and audience insight – so that you, our premium subscribers can get the latest info from leading industry figures in each market.

https://musically.com/countries

Ep. 168: we speak to Jorge Brea, CEO of Symphonic Distribution, and Guji Lorenzana, Symphonic's Territory Manager, Asia, to talk about successful strategies for international expansion. We talk about:

* What has worked well so far in their expansion into Latin America and Asia – and what didn’t go as planned?

* When you're entering a new market what are the very first steps you take? What are the absolute essentials for making it work?

* What are the key local insights they've uncovered that outsiders tend to miss?

* How do you evaluate and build label/distributor partnerships in new markets? What does a good partner look like?

* How do you manage the tension between “global consistency” and “local relevance”?

* What are mistakes companies or artists make when they try to expand internationally?

* If you’re a small-to-mid-level label or manager looking to grow in another country... what is the first move they'd recommend?

* What one move should artists or companies make this year if they’re serious about international growth?

Symphonic: https://symphonic.com/

Ep. 167: We speak to beatBread CEO Peter Sinclair – on getting more options, insight and choices in music funding, and how independent artists, labels and songwriters are getting better deals while retaining ownership of their music using beatBread’s game changing deal comparison tool.

Peter chats to Music Ally Editor Joe Sparrow in this episode of MA focus, in collaboration with Beatbread.

Website: https://www.beatbread.com/

Deal Comparison Tool: https://www.beatbread.com/compare

Music Ally Co-Labs: ⁠⁠musically.com/music-ally-co-labs

Ep. 166: Music Ally’s Head of Insight, Stuart Dredge joins Joe Sparrow to discuss two of the most meaningful topics relating to music streaming today: the value of music on DSPs; and the big DSPs' upcoming superfan plans.

This podcast connects to Music Ally's latest Insight Report called the State of Streaming in 2025 (https://musically.com/category/reports).

In this podcast we discuss:

• The value of music on DSPs – not just the ongoing subscription price rises, but the ad-supported tiers, and the increasingly loud grumbles around them.

• The big DSPs' superfan plans – superfans need to be super-served: so will the streaming platforms give fans and artists what they really, really want?

Artists, songwriters and music rightsholders can now free up capital using their music in so many ways, and the old days of simply seeking advances from labels or publishers are long-gone.

Sound Royalties provides a way to access tomorrow's music income today: over a decade ago the company pioneered a funding model they call “creative-friendly music finance”, where the company fronts money to artists and rightsholders based on future earnings from streaming – and other sources.

Those artists or rightsholders can then use that money to further develop their careers, and then even return to Sound Royalties for more capital – at a new valuation that reflects their newly-developed success.

In this Music Ally Focus episode, made in collaboration with Sound Royalties, Music Ally's Joe Sparrow met with CEO and founder Alex Heiche in London –and spoke about what he’s learned from ten years of offering new funding solutions, the new income streams that the company is offering advances for, and what future developments he sees in a world where capital is routinely raised in this way.

Sound Royalties: https://soundroyalties.com

Music Ally Co-Labs: ⁠musically.com/music-ally-co-labs

Ep. 164: Music marketing is always changing - and yet the fundamentals stay the same. So what's going to change in 2025 – and how can you change your strategy to make sure you keep cutting through? Liam James Ward is CEO/co-founder of social/digital music marketing agency Something Something, and he joins Music Ally's Joe Sparrow to look ahead.

And it's not just a bunch of hand-waving predictions – Liam digs into shifts he sees coming around some fundamental concepts:

• What does and doesn't work today and how to think about marketing ROI
• How the "vibe marketing" we saw in 2024 was perhaps an attempt to get feeling and curatorship back to the core of the fan experience
• How truly-useful online fan communities are actually about medium-term nurturing instead of trying to leap all the way down the funnel from virality to superfandom
• How niche tastemakers are back and more powerful than before (and why you should partner with them)
• How fans are seeking the feeling of being genuinely connected to friends and fellow fans on social media
• ... and there's a lot more in this Music Ally Focus episode, made in collaboration with Something Something

Liam also talks about the tech and platforms he sees increasing – and decreasing – in influence, and the kind of "big artist" strategies that anyone, regardless of size or fanbase, can use.

Something Something: somethingsomething.social

Guns N' Roses – Appetite For Destruction: youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n13hmdsIozcCRyaY4cRDuuviphpfbzPrw&si=rbiGgZpb71x-8Rcs

Music Ally Co-Labs: musically.com/music-ally-co-labs