Break The Business Podcast

This week, Ryan answers a listener question about PledgeMusic's recent payment issues. For the past six months, news outlets have reported the crowdfunding platform's problems with paying artists on time. As PledgeMusic announces that it is ready to take significant measures to get its company back on track, serious questions remain. On today's show, Ryan talks about where PledgeMusic has gone wrong, what artists should do about it going forward, and what this story means for the independent music industry as a whole.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show. Visit www.ryankairalla.com to find out more about Ryan's entertainment, education, and business projects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ryan sits down with comedy musician Carla Ulbrich. Carla has made a successful career out of creating funny and insightful folk music. Her comedy songs have been featured on Dr. Demento, the BBC and NPR. Carla gives us some great advice on how to break into comedy music and what to expect from venturing into that world. If you are interested in getting into this genre, or at least figuring out how to inject more humor into your performances, then this interview is for you. Carla's music currently appears on the compilation album “Madam Opus-Funny Songs by Funny Women," which also features former BTB guests Meri Amber and The Doubleclicks. It is available now and you can check it out here https://bit.ly/2ROY4hw. And check out the rest of Carla's terrific albums at www.carlau.com.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show. Visit www.rya

This week, Ryan talks to indie musician/producer Zak Sloan. A former teacher and lawyer, Zak talks to Ryan about how he transitioned from his non-music work into being able to do music full time. His journey is intriguing, and you will enjoy hearing about how he has weaved his former life into his art today. Zak also gives some tips on being effective on Twitter (hint: be a normal person and actually TALK TO PEOPLE!) and how he balances his work as a singer/songwriter and his work as a producer. Lots of great information and inspiration this week!Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show. Visit www.ryankairalla.com to find out more about Ryan's entertainment, education, and business projects.Check out this playlist of artists produced by Zak Sloan: https://open.spotify.com/user/netters83/playlist/3q1f4R4yVkxwEYcpJYqVRK? Hosted on Acast. See aca

This week, Ryan sits down with entertainment law expert (and one of his closest friends) Josh Morales. Josh is an attorney at Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein in Raleigh, North Carolina where he advises a wide range of entertainment clients on intellectual property and contract matters. Josh gives us some great tips about the role that trademarks play in your career as an indie artist, and provides some unique insight in negotiating contracts and protecting your exclusivity with your music. In addition to his law expertise, Josh is also an authority on all things Sherlock Holmes, and so Ryan gets Josh's thoughts on the new Holmes and Watson Will Ferrell movie. Follow Josh on Twitter at @JoshMoralesEsq and find out more about Josh's projects by visiting www.parkerpoe.com.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show. Visit www.ryankairalla.com to fi

Happy New Year, Podcast listeners! This week, Ryan gives some advice on making good New Years resolutions for 2019 for your music career. As part of that discussion, Ryan talks about Angela Mastrogiacomo's ReverbNation article "5 New Year’s Goals To Set For Yourself In 2019." Check it out here: https://bit.ly/2FhnVXQ. Ryan also talks about Apple's recent acquisition of label services company Platoon. Apple wants to increase its footprint in the music creation side of the business. What does this mean for indie artists? A lot!Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show. Visit www.ryankairalla.com to find out more about Ryan's entertainment, education, and business projects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ryan sits down with friend of the Podcast Cheryl B. Engelhardt to talk about a huge area of expertise for her: e-mail marketing. In addition to being an accomplished singer-songwriter, Cheryl also creates a lot of terrific educational resources for musician entrepreneurs. One of those resources is her "Rock Your E-mail List" course, which you can find at www.inthekey.co/emailcourse. In our interview, Cheryl breaks down a bunch of great strategies for helping you get your e-mail marketing game on-point. Whether you are well acquainted with e-mail marketing, or you have never sent an e-mail about your music career in your life, you can learn a lot of Cheryl's advice this week. Cheryl talks about why e-mail marketing is important, what to write in your e-mails to your fans, what to e-mail when you can't think of anything to write about, the best e-mail marketing platforms, how to grow your e-mail list, and MORE. Enjoy this week's fun and informative interview and be sure to check out all of Cheryl's e

This week, Ryan sits down with one of his favorite guests, Australian "geek pop" singer-songwriter Meri Amber. Ryan catches up with Meri about some great things that have happened in her life recently, including her recent marriage and her first trip to America (she was particularly intrigued by the deodorant and breakfast cereals that we have in the States!). We also get some great advice from Meri on how to livestream effectively as an indie artist. Meri's platform of choice is Twitch, and she streams on the platform several times a week because she loves the interactivity that it offers. Meri provides some tips on connecting to your community on the platform and how to reach "Affiliate" and "Partner" status. Meri is awesome, and you should check her out at meriamber.com and at twitch.tv/meriamber.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! An

This week, Ryan sits down with Martin and Jude Folkman, the founders of the Independent Music Awards. Martin and Jude talk to Ryan about the history of the IMAs, how winners are selected, and how artists can submit their works to be nominated. Now in its 17th Year, the IMAs are an annual celebration of the best in independent music, with its next award ceremony being held in New York City in 2019. The deadline for award submissions is December 7th! Submit your music NOW at www.independentmusicawards.com.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industry.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ryan sits down with music business journalist Amy X. Wang of Rolling Stone to talk about Taylor Swift's new record deal with Universal Music. Ryan talks to Amy about her story in Rolling Stone about Taylor getting Universal to share Spotify proceeds with all of the Universal artists. What does Taylor's move mean for the music industry as a whole? Why did Taylor Swift choose Universal over another label (or going independent)? What will happen to Taylor's Big Machine master recordings? Amy discusses all of this and more with Ryan on this week's podcast. Check out more of Amy's work at https://www.amy-x-wang.com and follow Amy on Twitter @amyxwang.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the M

This week, Ryan talks about how changes in the music industry allow artists to achieve success at any age. In an indie artist music business, there is no such thing as being "too old" to find a place for yourself in the industry. To articulate this point, Ryan discusses some famous examples of musicians who found success later in life. Ryan also talks about his own client, Richard "Catmandu" Barnhill, who just released his incredible debut album "Holes" at the age of 69. You can watch the music video of the album's title track here: https://bit.ly/2A5V18T. And you can get a copy of the "Holes" album by visiting this link: https://bit.ly/2OMUhed.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industr

This week, neo-folk singer-songwriter Eli Lev stops by. Eli is an world-traveling musician whose wanderlust has made him a better artist and has allowed him to build fan relationships all over the globe. Eli shares terrific insight about how he combines traveling, Patreon, and crowdsourcing in interesting ways to build a thriving career in music. Eli's new album Way Out West is out November 16th and the album’s lead single One Road is available now. You can check him out at his website www.eli-lev.com and at patreon.com/elilevmusic.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industry.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ryan sits down with musician, educator, and music entrepreneur Tommy Darker. Ryan talks to Tommy about the importance of failure as a tool to ultimately find success in one's music career. He also talks to Ryan about his upcoming online conference Whiisecon. Whiisecon is a free music conference that features 20 chart topping artists as speakers. The conference will be available online and will run from November 28th to December 2nd. Tickets are available now! Find out more about the conference by visiting https://bit.ly/2qyH67b.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industry.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ryan breaks down the latest music distribution news regarding Spotify getting into the direct distribution business. Spotify has recently announced that it will allow direct upload onto its services (and other streaming services) through its platform. They appear to be trying to make music distribution companies, like CD Baby, obsolete. But CD Baby is responding with some new services of its own. Spotify and CD Baby are competing aggressively, and they are making quick and powerful moves. We break it all down this week and discuss what it all means for indie artists. Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industry.”Also, Ryan is doing education industry podcasts now! Check out hi

This week, we continue our discussion from Episode 151 about Chris Castle's "Ethical Pool" streaming royalty model by interviewing Mr. Castle himself! Chris is an Austin-based entertainment lawyer who proposes an innovative model to get indie artists paid fairly by streaming services--and he thinks that the streaming services might actually be willing to do it! Give this week's episode a listen and check out Chris' article "Arithmetic on the Internet: The Ethical Pool Solution to Streaming Royalty Allocation" here: https://bit.ly/2PL34il. You can also follow Chris on Twitter @musictechsolve.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industry.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inf

This week, Ryan sits down with music entrepreneur and licensing expert Jessica Sobhraj. Jessica gives us some great advice about managing copyrights effectively when you work with collaborators. She also talks about her company Cosynd. Cosynd's platform allows you to efficiently structure copyright agreements with co-writers and also helps you with copyright registration (check it out at www.cosynd.com). We also talk to Jessica about her work with the awesome nonprofit Women in Music, which aspires to empower female musicians (www.womeninmusic.org).Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industry.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, with the Music Modernization Act's passage imminent, Ryan talks about what the next crusade should be for indie artists. He brings up two strong candidates: getting owners of sound recordings paid on terrestrial radio, and creating "Ethical Pool" royalties on streaming services so that indie artists can get paid more on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. The articles that Ryan referenced on the show can be found here:https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/politics/8478501/terrestrial-radio-music-modernization-act-essayhttp://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2018/10/arithmetic-online-the-ethical-pool-solution-to-streaming-royalty-allocation.htmlRate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music

This week, Ryan sits down with indie singer-songwriter Angela Soffe. Angela gives us some advice on how artists can keep from succumbing to self-sabotage in their careers. She also talks about her latest project "Be Moved" and her interest in the healing power of music. Find out more about "Be Moved" by visiting https://bit.ly/2NPspL3. And be sure to check out the rest of Angela's music at www.angelasoffe.com.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industry.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ryan breaks down two huge music stories from the past week: the Music Modernization Act passing the Senate, and Spotify announcing that it will start to allow artists to license music directly to its platform without using an aggregator. Ryan also sits down with Women Crush Music executive directress Ashley Kervabon to talk about her organization's latest crowdfunding campaign to support its initiatives for women in music. Find out more about WCM by visiting www.womencrushmusic.com. Support WCM's crowdfunding campaign by visiting https://bit.ly/2MTrZOd.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industry.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ryan talks about the rise of artificial intelligence in music and what its implications are for the industry as a whole. Music technologist Taishi Fukuyama stops by to talk about his Amadeus Code platform and how it can help songwriters create new projects. Find out more about Amadeus code by visiting www.amadeuscode.com.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Success in the Music Industry.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ryan talks about how indie artists can get into blogging, and specifically what artists can do when they cannot think of any topics to write about. Along the way, Ryan discusses the latest Bobby Owsinski article in Hypebot on the subject. It is titled "Running Out Of Things To Say? Idea For Musicians To Write About Online" and you can find it here: https://bit.ly/2N3trmp. In the second segment, we open the Break the Business Coffeehouse! South Florida blues/r&b duo Soulpax stops by for an acoustic performance and to talk about their debut album Inside/Outside, which is available now. Find out more about this awesome band by visiting www.soulpaxmusic.com.Rate/review/subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Follow Ryan @ryankair and the Podcast @thebtbpodcast. Like Break the Business on Facebook and tell a friend about the show! And visit www.breakthebusiness.com to get a copy of Ryan’s Book “Break the Business: Declaring Your Independence and Achieving True Succ