Instrumental Intel - Ep 96 Beats & the Music Biz Brief (2-28-26)

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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 - Ep 96 Beats & the Music Biz Brief (2-28-26)

Achickwitbeatz

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 for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I am your host, music producer Achickwitbeatz.  And today's episode is gonna be a little bit different. I just got beats and music news for you.  Again,you know, hoping that the information that I share, the Intel and the Instrumentals, will help inspire Black history in the making as we close out Black History Month. 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, let's go!

[BEAT BREAK]

15:35

Hey, this is music producer Achickwitbeatz, and you're listening to my podcast, Instrumental Intel.

[BEAT BREAK]

24:35

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.

25:05

Alright, I'm music producer Achickwitbeatz, back with the Music Biz Brief. First up, Live Nation and Ticketmaster tried to get the DOJ to pause the trial so that an appeals court could review two key legal rulings before the jury selection begins on March  2nd. They argue that the exclusive ticketing contracts and tying of promotion services to amphitheater access claims shouldn't proceed, and they say that a successful appeal could significantly narrow or end the case.  This also comes at the same time that Live Nation has recently reported

25:34

$25.2 billion in annual revenue and also reporting a new record of 159 million attendees for Live Nation-promoted shows last year. But fun fact, it was the first time more music fans attended Live Nation concerts outside the US  than in it.  And if you've actually been paying attention to what's been happening with the US economy, you know why. The US Department of Justice is pushing back on their attempt to delay its trial,  calling it a needless move days before jury selection.

26:04

The government's lawsuit, joined by dozens of states, seeks to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster, alleging the companies violated the Sherman Act by locking venues into exclusive deals, coercing artists to use in-house promotion to access the amphitheaters,  and monopolizing ticketing.  Some claims were dismissed, but several will proceed as the trial moves forward.  Former Merlin CEO Jeremy Sirota has joined AI music generator Suno as chief commercial officer.

26:31

The company, which recently raised $250 million at a $2.45 billion valuation, faces ongoing copyright lawsuits for major labels. Sirota's move follows his departure from Merlin, a longtime champion of independent music, to join a firm that critics warn exploits artists' work in the AI space.  Very interesting choice there.

26:51

Artist representatives have launched the Say No to Suno campaign, accusing the company of training on copyrighted works without authorization and flooding streaming services with synthetic tracks that dilute royalty pools for legitimate artists. The campaign comes on the tail end of the aforementioned lawsuits and at a time when Deezer's reporting roughly 60,000 AI-generated tracks are uploaded daily with up to 85 % of streams on that content flagged as fraudulent and removed from royalties.

27:19

Speaking of royalties, Mogul says it's tracked $1.5 billion in previously uncollected royalties for artists since launching last year and has raised $5 million in funding, led by Yamaha Music Innovations Fund. The platform focuses on fixing metadata and registration gaps,  and this includes payers like Sound Exchange,  and claims users see an average 20 % revenue boost.  It's just dropped its free tier and expanded tools amid growing competition from Notes.fm and Claimity.

27:50

YouTube is adding offline downloads and background play to its $7.99 a month premium Lite tier, both features that were previously limited to the $13.99 full premium plan. Lite still includes ads on music content and no access to the ad-free YouTube music app, keeping music as the main incentive to upgrade. According to its parent company, Alphabet Inc., YouTube generated $60 billion in 2025 revenue

28:14

with subscription revenue up 17 % year over year and more than 125 million YouTube Music and premium subscribers globally. While these are helpful stats to know, it's actually really good to know that they're trying to use music to entice people to subscribe. So with them sweetening the pot, there is a chance that more people might actually switch over to YouTube music and something that I've always said is that you want to make sure that your music is wherever your fans are or will be, so definitely keep that in mind.

28:44

It'll be interesting to see how this gives them a bump in subscriber revenue.  right, Book My Show and IPL franchise Mumbai Indians are launching The MIX, which stands for Mumbai Indians Experience. And The MIX is a two-day music festival in Mumbai on March 21st through the 22nd,  blending cricket culture with live entertainment from electronic music producers, rappers, and pop singers.  The event will also include exclusive merch drops and panel discussions.

29:12

as the team expands its fan engagement strategy beyond sports into lifestyle and music experiences.  It's always good to kind of see how these new things come about and see if there are smaller ways that you might be able to apply it to your career as well. Collaboration and cross-promotion are always great things to keep in mind for independent artists.  Apple Music has revived Apple Music Connect as a business-to-business platform for labels and distributors, replacing its old fan-facing social feature.

29:39

The tool lets teams pitch upcoming releases for editorial and playlist consideration,  upload press photos, create social promo assets,  and manage campaign details in one dashboard with a 10-day minimum lead time for full consideration. Check it out and see if and how it can work for you.  And finally, the Circuit Group has launched BeatSwitch Music Services, a full-scale white label and rights management division for independent artists and labels.

30:05

After quietly building its operations over two years, Featswitch now supports over 20 indie labels offering distribution, royalties, publishing,  DSP pitching,  playlist strategy, marketing,  ANR, sync licensing, and Web3 services while letting artists retain full control of their IP.  So it aims to give indie labels major-level infrastructure, leveling the playing field, and helping creators build sustainable, scalable businesses without having to give up their rights.  Which is always a good thing.

30:35

Alright, that's it for this week's music biz brief. I'm gonna take a quick pause for the cause and get back to the beats. Keep it locked.

[BEAT BREAK]

59:38

Alright, that's a wrap for this episode. Once again, I'd like to thank you for tuning in. I'd like to thank my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Connect with me at A Chick with Beats on social media and your favorite streaming platforms.  Make sure you come back next week. I got more goodness lined up for you. So, till next time, you know where to find me. Tune in, tell a friend, and I'll see you then. Peace.