Ep. 249: Rick Beato | Songwriters Got Poorer. AI Is Next. So Where Is Music Going?

Today's guest is a multi-instrumentalist, music educator, interviewer, producer, and songwriter. He is also one of the most influential independent music voices online. His real story isn't the channel he built after a 90-second video of his son's perfect pitch hit 80 million views overnight, it's his incredible value to the music community and the conversations he sparks online about the state of the music industry and his conversations with some of the biggest creators within it's orbit.This is one of the more unflinching conversations we've had about what's actually happening to music. Two musicians from different generations of the same fight, working it out in real time. Where do you stand when the rules of the music industry keep changing under your feet?And The Writer Is... Rick Beato!In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on:How getting dropped in 1999 built a YouTube empire 16 years laterWhy Ringo would be a co-writer of every Beatles song in 2026The Eli Mercer experiment: building a fully fake AI artist with Claude — and what happened when he uploaded itThe NPR EDM stunt: 4 million monthly Spotify listeners, 6,300 followers, and what that math says about AIThe 90-second video of his son's perfect pitch that hit 3 million views by 10pm and 80 million total"There's no two current artists with the gravity of Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder" — and Ross's case for their modern counterpartsWho is the Michael Jordan of pop music? Queen at 3 billion streams enters the chatWhy Ross is still bullish on songwriting — and what the Music Modernization Act got right that the No Fakes Act needs to finishAnd much more...Hit subscribe and turn on notifications. Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.Follow us on socials: @andthewriterisA special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishers Association. Your support means the world to us.Chapters0:00 Intro2:14 The beginning of Rick Beato's music career3:11 The rollercoaster of an early music career5:32 The Napster era and the dawn of digital recording9:16 Producing Shinedown — and how "Simple Man" became the hit10:54 Why "Yellow Ledbetter" was a B-side — and why bonus tracks are back12:48 What country radio still gets right about hits14:54 Inside Nashville sessions and the number triangle17:28 The future of AI in music — and the No Fakes Act21:20 The future of prompting and curating music23:54 Would The Beatles be a four-way publishing split in 2026?25:39 The modern music economy: are album tracks worthless now?27:58 American writers are chasing global stars now34:30 The Eli Mercer experiment: a fake artist built with Claude36:52 The NPR EDM stunt and what it proved about AI on Spotify41:18 4M monthly listeners. 6,300 followers. AI is winning the algorithm.42:58 How Rick Beato built a YouTube empire45:22 The "What Makes This Song Great" era51:49 1984 vs now — and the search for a modern Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder54:18 Who is the Michael Jordan of pop music?55:51 Queen at 3 billion streams — what counts as "biggest"1:00:28 Golden, Blinding Lights, and what makes a 2020s standard1:06:53 Songwriter similarities and the lawsuits that never happened1:09:42 "Best era of pop music. Am I wrong?"1:13:56 1998: how Clear Channel and Cumulus consolidated radio1:20:14 The Music Modernization Act and what's actually next1:24:54 Is the future of songwriting still bullish?Credits:Hosted by Ross GolanProduced by Joe London & Jad SaadEdited by Jad SaadPost-Production VFX by Pratik Karki Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.