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Music Tectonics: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Rock Paper Scissors, Inc. PR firm
The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. The podcast includes news roundups, interviews, and more. Our host is Dmitri Vietze, CEO of PR firm rock paper scissors.
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- 6 days ago35 min
The $300 Billion Industry Music Tech is Ignoring
What if the biggest opportunity in music monetization isn't streaming, social media, or live concerts? It's the $300 billion pro AV industry, and most musicians and music tech innovators have never thought about it. This week on the podcast, Graeme Harrison, vice president and general manager of Bluesound Professional, joins Dmitri to break down how commercial audio is reshaping the way brands use music in physical spaces. From 15,000 7-Eleven stores to NFL stadiums to the US Senate, Graeme's work sits at the intersection of music, technology, and brand experience in ways the music industry rarely talks about. In this episode, Graeme and Dmitri dig into why congruent audio and visual together are 1,200% more effective than either one alone, how commercial music licensing pays artists significantly more than residential streaming, and why the rise of AI-generated music in public spaces could trigger a second era of elevator music that cuts artists out of the equation entirely. They also get into the growing world of biophilic soundscaping, adaptive AI playlist curation, and what it means for a brand like 7-Eleven to use music not as background noise but as a core part of its identity. If you work in music tech, artist services, or brand strategy, this episode reframes where the money is and where it's headed. The News What's Next Now That Live Nation Has Been Found to Act as a Monopoly The MLC Re-Designated by the U.S. Copyright Office Suno raises over $400 million, pushing valuation to $5.4 billion Board Raises $20M Series A Led by Union Square Ventures as It Expands From Gaming Hardware to AI-Powered Creation Platform Ableton Extensions will let you code your own tools and actions for Live 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.
- 1 weeks ago51 min
Can Gamification Fix Music Discovery?
Remember when the best music recommendation you ever got didn't come from Spotify's algorithm, but from your coworker, your cousin, or a stranger in another country who loves the same obscure band you thought only you knew about? Eric West is the founder of Music League, a competitive music discovery platform with nearly 200,000 monthly active users across 160 countries. Players compete in themed rounds, submitting songs and voting on each other's picks, which means people actually listen rather than just passing along a link and forgetting about it. The result is something the streaming era largely eroded: real music discovery driven by real people whose opinions you have a reason to care about. This week on the podcast, Eric talks with our head of new business Jade Prieboy about how a music taste game accidentally became a community-building tool for workplaces and families, what the daily-to-monthly active user ratio reveals about how people actually engage with the platform, and what phase two looks like when artists get direct access to fans who have already been repping them inside the game for months. If you work in music tech, artist development, or fan engagement, this one reframes how discovery and community can work in the streaming era. The news The "quiet money" behind $4 billion music catalog deals Bollore urges UMG to reject Ackman's $64 billion bid Qobuz Is Suddenly One of the Fastest-Growing Streaming Music Platforms. But Why, You Ask? Why Spotify (SPOT) Is Up 19.0% After New AI Remix Deal And 2030 Targets The Active Listening Era of Music Begins Can you own a voice? Taylor Swift's latest legal move raises big questions for AI and copyright Swedish startup Tonada is making AI music for retailers 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.
- 2 weeks ago51 min
How TikTok Changed Sync Licensing (and What Cipher Music is Doing About It)
Why are most brands still stuck licensing royalty-free tracks nobody recognizes while short-form content runs on music? This week, we're sharing a conversation Jade Prieboy had at SXSW with Ferris Bseiso, founder of Cipher Music, breaking down how TikTok rewrote the economics of sync licensing, why major brands are getting hit with eight-figure copyright lawsuits over Instagram posts, and how Cipher is creating a volume-driven sync market designed specifically for the creator economy. Also on this episode, Jade and Dmitri swap takeaways from Music Biz in Atlanta and Mo Forum in New York. They dig into AI voice cloning and the concept of style laundering, Andrea Gleason's provocative idea about generative AI and streaming platforms, the rise of institutional catalog investment from companies like Apollo and Primary Wave, and what the KISS hologram deal signals about the future of artist IP. Music, technology, and internet culture are colliding in real time. This episode is right in the middle of it. 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.
- 4 weeks ago32 min
The Label of the Future: How ONErpm Scaled Without Investors
Emmanuel Zunz, the CEO and founder of ONErpm, has spent 16 years building one of the fastest-growing independent music companies in the world, across 40 territories, with a staff of over 500, and without a single round of outside investment. In this episode, he breaks down exactly how that happened. This week on the podcast, Emmanuel and Dmitri get into why the traditional definition of independence is outdated, why Taylor Swift can be on a major label and still be completely independent, and what it actually means for an artist or company to be in control of their own destiny. They also dig into the convergence happening right now between distributors and labels, the race to the bottom on margins that's pushing funded indie companies toward acquisition or collapse, and why Emmanuel believes the label of the future is built on scalable technology, diversified deal structures, and a global roster rather than big advances and market share at any cost. If you work in music distribution, run an independent label, or are trying to build a sustainable creative business on your own terms, this one is worth your full attention. The news The live-music boom has convinced some artists they're bigger than they are Live Nation pushes back on 'blue dot fever': 'It's a normal touring year' Listeners engage less deeply with music labeled as AI – even when it's actually human-made, academic study finds 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.
- May 12, 202653 min
The Reality of Being a Music Creator in 2026 (ft. Aryy)
What does it actually look like to build a music career from the ground up as an artist in 2026? This week Dmitri sits down with Aryyzona, a Brazillian-born, LA-based artist who has been posting videos on YouTube since 2009 and recently released her hyper pop EP Gacha World, complete with a custom video game. With over a million YouTube subscribers and a devoted following across TikTok and Instagram, Aryy has a perspective on the creator economy that challenges a lot of assumptions. She breaks down why she refuses to call herself a social-first artist even though she posts constantly, how she balances paid brand partnerships with creative integrity, and what the traditional music industry gets wrong about creators who built their audiences outside the label system. They also get into the emotional reality of being a music creator, including separating your self-worth from your analytics, navigating hate comments, and staying grounded when engagement is unpredictable. Plus, Aryy shares a story how her ukelele videos once landed her on a Southwest Airlines flight to Hawaii to teach an entire cabin of passengers how to play ukulele. If you are a musician trying to understand the creator economy, a content creator wondering whether you can make it as an artist, or someone who wants an honest look at building an audience and a music career at the same time, this episode if for you The news Sony in advanced talks to buy Blackstone's Recognition Music for up to $4B, reports Bloomberg YouTube allows creators to replace music with copyright issues with genAI songs Zuckerberg Personally Authorized Massive Copyright Infringement to Train AI, Multiple Publishers Allege Suno CEO Calls AI Platform "Ozempic of the Music Industry" How Duetti Finds Big Value in Small Catalogs: 'It's Not About Aggregating Rights… It's About Taking Care of Them' Nebula becomes latest fan-to-artist investment platform 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.
- May 4, 202649 min
You Don't Know Your Fans (And It's Costing You)
Most artists have no idea who their fans actually are. They know follower counts and streaming numbers, but they don't own the relationship, and according to Rob Sealy, that single problem is costing the music industry billions. Rob is the co-founder of OpenStage, a platform helping artists from emerging talent to global icons like Paul McCartney, Oasis, and Lana Del Rey reclaim their fan data and build businesses that don't depend on platform algorithms. In this conversation, he shares why the music industry is massively undersized compared to sport, what it looks like when artists go directly to fans before they even book a tour, and how knowing your fans changes everything from ticket sales to merch to revenue you didn't know you were leaving behind. Also in this episode: part two of our AlgoRhythms series where we asked conference attendees "Does AI make you hopeful about the future of music tech?" The News The $6.4 Billion Bid Changing the Music Industry: Why UMG Is Selling Off Its Spotify Stake Spotify is now a fitness app too There's now a collecting society just for AI-generated music Why superfan subscriptions are dying out 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.
- Apr 29, 202644 min
Music is Getting Physical Again (in the Age of AI)- AlgoRhythms 2026
What if the most surprising thing happening in music right now isn't what AI is creating, but what fans are reaching for instead? This week on Music Tectonics, we're bringing you highlights from the AlgoRhythms conference last month, where our team spent time on the ground talking to researchers and innovators about where the music industry is heading. First, Tristra NewYear Yeager sits down with Olivia Jones, senior analyst at MIDiA Research, whose latest report on fan behavior surfaces some unexpected data about how listeners are buying merch and discovering music. Then, Adam McHeffey speaks with Valtteri Salomaki, CEO of Edge Sound Research, about Embodied Sound that turns any material into something you can both hear and feel. Val's work is rooted in a simple question: if a creator makes something, how do you know the listener actually experienced it the way it was intended? Both conversations kept circling the same idea: as music gets more digital and more algorithmic, fans seem to be craving something more physical and tangible. Finally, we asked a handful of AlgoRhythms attendees whether AI makes them hopeful about the future of music creativity. The news How AI Rights Are Changing Record Contracts — and Why Music Attorneys Are Pushing Back AI Is Already Training on Music. The Real Question Is: Who Gets Paid? AI And Music Publishing Licensing – How Do We Get There? Social media doesn't feel social anymore – so where does online community go from here? 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!
- Apr 21, 202647 min
Adam Neely on the Hidden Cost of AI Music
What happens to music when everyone is only listening to what they made themselves? In this episode, Jade Prieboy sits down with Adam Neely, composer, bassist, and YouTuber educator with over 1.8 million subscribers. They go deeper than the usual AI debate, exploring what we actually lose when music stops being something we share. Adam draws a clear line between stem separation tools he genuinely uses and commercial generative AI platforms like Suno and Udio, explaining why lumping them together under the AI label distorts how people understand the technology. He also shares why he is cautiously optimistic about attribution models and how AI-generated lyrics reveal the limits of what machines can feel. The conversation turns philosophical when Adam introduces the idea of solipsistic listening, the tendency to only love music you personally generated while tuning everything else out. He then offers practical advice for musicians trying to build community and makes the case for why constructive critique from a real listen might be the most valuable thing a musician can receive If AI is changing what music is for, Adam Neely is one of the people asking whether we actually want to go there The news UMG's Michael Nash takes aim at 'false narrative of artist replacement' by AI – and 3 other things we learned from his HumanX panel with Splice's CEO Streaming platforms give us access to new music, so why are fewer people listening to it? Jury Finds Live Nation Acts as a Monopoly in a Victory for States Warner makes strategic investment in TuStreams – a distribution platform focused on Latin music Latin Music generated over $1 billion in US wholesale recorded music revenues in 2025, up 4.2% YoY 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
About Music Tectonics
The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. The podcast includes news roundups, interviews, and more. Our host is Dmitri Vietze, CEO of PR firm rock paper scissors.
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