Instrumental Intel - Ep 101 Resources for Poets (4-4-26)

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Achickwitbeatz presents ⁠the Instrumental Intel podcast⁠, bringing you information instrumental to your artistic career including music industry news & tips, insights & interviews, and beats for your inspiration. Listen on Saturdays at 7 pm EST on ⁠⁠⁠Grander Radio⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Achickwitbeatz.com⁠⁠⁠.
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Instrumental Intel Podcast

Achickwitbeatz brings you information instrumental to your artistic career including music industry news, insights, interviews, and beats for your inspiration. Listen on Saturdays at 7 pm ET on ⁠⁠⁠Grander Radio,⁠⁠⁠ Achickwitbeatz.com⁠⁠⁠, and your favorite podcast platform.

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Transcript Generated by Riverside

00:01

Hey, thank you so much for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I'm your host, music producer Achickwitbeatz, and I'm glad that you're here with me. Today's episode is special for National Poetry Month. I'm sharing resources for poets and of course songwriters, guess what? That qualifies you too. I'm also gonna be sharing music industry news as per usual  and beats by me for your inspiration. And so, before I go ahead and drop that first beat, I gotta give a shout out to my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. And with that,

00:30

Let's go!

[BEAT BREAK]

14:55

Hey, I'm Achickwitbeatz, multi-genre music producer and strategist to indie artists and labels. Visit achickwitbeatz.com for resources for artists and instrumentals in various genres available for songs, vlogs, blogs, podcasts, themes, TV, film, commercials, and more. Once again, that's achickwitbeatz.com. That's A-C-H-I-C-K-W-I-T-B-E-A-T-Z.com. Let's make something happen.

15:25

Hey, I'm music producer Achickwitbeatz back with the music biz brief. First up, Symphonic Distribution has acquired YouTube-focused distributor Distro Nation, bringing its roster of over 200 artists and channels under Symphonic's management. The deal also brings Distro Nation’s CEO into Symphonic to lead user-generated content and rights management as a part of a deeper push into YouTube monetization and creator-focused distribution.  Former Warner Music Group subsidiary Uproxx

15:53

says it now reaches 160 million monthly viewers in the US after spinning back out as an independent, repositioning itself as a music-focused TV network across connected TVs,  YouTube, and social platforms, as media brands tied to music are finding growth beyond traditional label ownership. Warner Music Group is set to acquire independent distributor Revelator, a platform that handles distribution, rights management, and royalty tracking, with the deal expected to close next quarter.

16:22

The acquisition adds more artist services infrastructure to Warner's ecosystem as more independent artists retain ownership of their music and rely on platforms like Revelator for back-end support. This is a good thing for Warner Music. We'll see how it works out for independent artists, but if you notice, there's kind of a trend going on of them snatching up some of these companies. And I can't help to think that it's to make sure that they maintain their share of the music market that indies were kind of eating into at one point.

16:49

Universal Music Group's 2025 annual report exposes a nearly 48% gender pay gap, with women making up more than half the workforce but earning significantly less than men. The gap actually widened year over year with no clear targets to address it. CEO Lucien Grange received 41.1 million euros, roughly 764 times the median employee pay, including a 12.5% raise,

17:16

and performance-based bonuses, even as the company's share price declined.  The report also shows 5.3 million euros spent on Granger's personal security, kind of drawing attention to both internal pay disparity and executive compensation.

17:32

Universal Music Group is launching its first ever 500 million euro, which is about $575 million, share buyback, showing confidence in its long-term growth despite a 29% year-to-date drop in stock value. The program aims to support the company's equity plan and optimize capital allocation while keeping dividends. Universal's strong Q4 2025 results

17:58

showed 3.6 billion euros in revenue with streaming and vinyl sales driving growth. The buyback may be adjusted or paused as needed and will be executed under EU market regulations.  The FBI's Nashville division is warning the music industry about increasing criminal and cyber activity targeting artists, employees, and fans. Scammers are using romance, overpayment, advance fee, and non-delivery schemes, as well as data breaches and extortion.

18:26

The FBI recommends using strong anti-virus software, unique passphrases,  multi-factor authentication,  and verifying emails before opening attachments.  Report any suspicious activity immediately to help prevent losses. SoundCloud has launched Follower Exclusive Releases, a new feature for artist pro subscribers that lets artists share music exclusively with their followers before a wider release. The tool allows early demos, surprise drops, or previews.

18:53

helping artists deepen fan relationships and build momentum. Dutch DJ Chris Stussy debuted his single using the feature ahead of his upcoming album. SoundCloud continues to expand fan-driven engagement and revenue tools, including keeping 100% of the distribution royalties to major streaming platforms. A coalition of major music industry groups, including the RIAA and National Music Publishers Association, has filed a legal brief supporting publishers in their lawsuit against AI company Anthropic over alleged copyright infringement.

19:23

The groups argue that using unlicensed song lyrics to train AI models is not fair use, pointing to growing evidence that AI-generated music can compete directly with human-created works.  They also highlight a rapidly developing licensing market for AI training, noting that other companies are paying for rights while Anthropic hasn't. The case adds to increasing legal pressure on AI firms as the music industry pushes to establish compensation standards for the use of copyrighted material,  and rightfully so.

19:50

Instagram's positioning itself as a hub for music superfans, with data it commissioned from Luminate showing 58% of superfans use the platform to engage with artists and music content,  and nearly one-third of daily music users qualify as superfans. The report also says artists who stay active on Instagram see sustained streaming growth on their platforms, while the company highlights stronger fan actions like live event engagement and vinyl purchases as it competes with TikTok for music discovery and fan activity.

20:19

Spotify is expanding its ad offerings with revamped sponsored playlists and a new swipeable carousel ads format. Brands can now take full control of ad space on major playlists, while carousel ads allow multiple visuals and links in a single placement. The updates announced during new fronts come alongside new research that emphasizes the effectiveness of advertising on the platform, while also pointing to audio ad performance and potential AI-driven advertising tools.

20:45

Alright, that's it for the music biz brief. I'm gonna take a quick pause for the cause and then I'll be back with resources for poets after this. Keep it locked!

[BEAT BREAK]

39:48

Hey, I'm Achickwitbeatz, multi-genre music producer and strategist to indie artists and labels. Visit achickwitbeatz.com for resources for artists and instrumentals in various genres available for songs, vlogs, blogs, podcasts, themes, TV, film, commercials, and more. Once again, that's achickwitbeatz.com. That's A-C-H-I-C-K-W-I-T-B-E-A-T-Z.com. Let's make something happen.

40:17

Hey, I'm back with resources for poets. First up, poet Ellen Waterston, now serving as Oregon's poet laureate, has spent 40 years drawing creative inspiration from the high desert. And so her namesake prize supports writers doing the same thing.  The Waterston Desert Writing Prize awards $3,000 to a literary nonfiction writer whose work explores the desert as both subject and setting.

40:41

Submissions are open through May 1st and the winner will be celebrated with a reading at the High Desert Museum in Oregon this fall. You can find more details at highdesertmuseum.org. Next, the 94th Annual Writers Digest Writing Competition is now open, with nearly 500 winners to be selected across categories like rhyming and non-rhyming poetry, memoir, essays, fiction, and more. One grand prize winner will receive $5,000, a feature in Writers Digest,

41:09

paid for a trip to their annual conference, and a pitch session with editors or agents. First place winners in each category will also receive $1,000 and publication. The early bird deadline is May 5th, and there's more information at writersdigest.com. Also, the Academy of American Poets is now accepting submissions for the 2025 James Laughlin Award, honoring a second full-length poetry collection slated for publication in 2026. The winner will receive $5,000.

41:38

a week-long residency at the Betsy Hotel in Miami, and distribution of their book to over 1,000 Academy members.  Eligible poets must be U.S. citizens or long-term residents and have one previous full-length collection.  Submissions are free and open through May 15th. Visit poets.org for details. Next, the Liwei Transformation Award offers 15,000 in unrestricted funding to women, transgender nonconforming artists in Greater Philadelphia,

42:06

who've been creating art for social change for at least five years.  Open to all mediums,  this award recognizes long-term commitment to using art to engage and uplift communities.  Applications are open now.  Visit leeway.org for details.  Also, the Great Lakes Colleges Association is now accepting publisher nominations for its 2026 New Writers Award, recognizing debut books in poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction published in 2024 or 2025.

42:34

While there is no cash prize, winners receive campus reading invitations with honoraria and broad literary recognition. Submissions are due by May 25th, 2025. Next, PEN America is now accepting submissions for the 2026 PEN Jean Stein grants for literary oral history. Two $15,000 grants will support unpublished nonfiction works in progress that use oral history to explore an event, person, place, or movement.

43:01

Projects must be authored by a single writer and remain unpublished through April 2026. Submissions are open through June 1st, 2025. Pen America is also offering two $5,000 Pen Bare Life Review Grants to support unpublished literary works in progress by immigrant or refugee writers. Eligible genres include fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. And again, projects must remain unpublished through April 2026. And these submissions are also open through June 1st, 2025.

43:30

Pen America is also offering 2026 Penheim Translation Fund grants to support works of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or drama translated into English. The grants range from $2,000 to $4,000 and prioritize early career translators and underrepresented languages. Submissions must be for unpublished or flawed older translations and are open through June 1st of 2025. You can find more information about all those grants by visiting pen.org for more info.

44:01

This next one is for poets working with a publisher. The Griffin Poetry Prize is a major opportunity to know about. With a top award of $130,000 Canadian dollars, it's the largest international prize for a single book of poetry, written or translated into English. Additional awards include $10,000 for each remaining shortlisted poets, a $10,000 Canadian first book prize,  and a $25,000 Lifetime Recognition Award. But please note, publishers, not individual poets, submit entries.

44:30

and self-published books aren't eligible. Submissions are free and open globally with deadlines in June and December depending on the publication date. Winners are announced from March through June and you can learn more at griffinpoetryprize.com. Also, Washington State Artists take note, grants for artist projects offers $1,500 in unrestricted funding to 65 artists across all disciplines. So of course, that includes poets.

44:57

The funds can be used for anything from artist fees to materials, travel, promotion, or just keeping a project going. Applications open May 16 and close June 23, with final decisions to be announced in the fall. To be eligible, you must be 18 or older, a Washington resident, and not currently a student or recent recipient of certain artist trust grants. For full details, check out artistrust.org.

[BEAT BREAK]

59:39

Alright, that's a wrap for this episode of instrumental intel. I've been your host, music producer Achickwitbeatz. Once again, I want to thank you for joining me. I'd like to thank my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. I got another episode of goodness lined up for you next week, so make sure you come back.

59:54

Till next time, you know where to find me, tune in, tell a friend and I'll see you then. Peace.