Remember when Michael Bublé was an abominable snowman and chased people with snowballs? Well, maybe you don’t, but a lot of people do. Or what about when NLE Choppa showed up in FPS Ops? In this episode Dmitri talks with Mike Gubman of Chartis about the creative collaborations between musicians and game developers and what sort of opportunities those collabs create. Also, the News!

SiriusXM is launching a paid ad-supported tier. Will music streamers follow suit?

If your music strategy is ‘quick hits’ on the US charts in 2025… good luck.

Concert ticket prices increased 80.5% in 3 years, 4X inflation

HITS Act becomes law in a Big Win For Independent Artists

The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit musictectonics.com to find shownotes and a transcript for this episode, and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

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Today we have a fascinating conversation with Randy Nichols, artist manager and CEO of Force Media Management. Randy’s been at the forefront of attempting to figure out the ticketing strategy math, especially the scalper side of the equation. We hear about his dive into the cold hard data, scalper chat rooms, and that time he sent someone undercover to the Ticket Scalpers Convention. We also talk about the allure of the “super fan” and why that is… baloney. Also we get into merch, and the general state of live music today.

News!

YouTube to demonetize AI-generated videos starting July 15

Why fandom’s ‘more is more’ era could backfire

YouTube’s ‘Ask Studio’ feature adds AI insight to its analytics

Report: Threads is closing in on X’s daily active users total

Shoutouts!

Immensity_AI

Klaviyo

Openstage

The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit musictectonics.com to find shownotes and a transcript for this episode, and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

Get Dmitri’s Rock Paper Scanner newsletter.

Today we talk with Cullen Hendrix, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, about the impact of tariffs on musical instruments. A trained political scientist as well as having a background as a touring musician, Hendrix has a really distinctive lens in which to view the tariff news. We talk about how tariffs on Chinese imports could stifle the next generation of musicians, the potential consequences for the used instrument market, and the effects on American culture as a whole.

News!

The Velvet Sundown is an AI band after all, with its music created on Suno, confesses a spokesperson

AI in disguise? Music lovers angry at Spotify for promoting an allegedly fake band

Can the music industry make AI the next Napster?

Cloudflare launches a marketplace that lets websites charge AI bots for scraping

The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit musictectonics.com to find shownotes and a transcript for this episode, and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

Get Dmitri’s Rock Paper Scanner newsletter.