Bobby Owsinski

One of the things that’s particularly hard for artists and bands to determine is what genre their music fits into. The fact is that if you’re doing it well it probably fits into several, or none at all. That said, Spotify has tried to cover just about every genre from every part of the world that you can think of, and it’s constantly adding new ones. To show you how […]

On my latest podcast episode: Artist manager and president of Women In Music Nichole Barsalona talks about how she observed her famous father’s influence on the music business as she was growing up, how we’re at a turning point for music promotion, the importance of meet and greets, the most sought-after person on a management team today, her role in Women In Music, and much more. A look at the […]

It’s always been known that many music streaming services pay out a lot more in song royalties than Spotify. Even though the numbers that are reported are vague averages (more on that in a bit), it’s still illuminating that Apple Music is paying out almost twice as much as Spotify. You can see for yourself with Manatt’s streaming royalty calculator. As you can see from the graphic above, Apple Music […]

Most artists and bands start by playing cover songs, but once they cross over into doing their own music, feel that they have to leave the covers behind. That might be a mistake however, as this new report conducted by Sonarworks indicates. Cover songs, especially on YouTube, can be a viable way not only to kick off an artist’s career, but enable them to make some real money as well. […]

Home / Inner Circle Podcast / Singer/Songwriter Drew Ryder Smith, Radio Airplay Royalties, And The Las Vegas Sphere Sound System On My Latest Podcast On my latest podcast episode: Country music singer and award winning professional songwriter Drew Ryder Smith, who’s also the owner of Gray Sound Recording in Nashville and Charlotte NC, about how songwriting has changed in Nashville, doing remote recording in India, prepping artists for going into […]

Much to the dismay of music business-types, TikTok is still one of the best ways for users to discover new music. While there’s no sure way to have music go viral on the TikTok video platform, labels are hoping that might be different with the service’s new music-only platform called TikTok Music. To get in front of other distributors, Distrokid announced a deal to make indie music available on TikTok […]

It’s been rumored for quite some time that music streaming services would change how they pay artist royalties, and it looks like Spotify will be one of the first to do so. A report from Music Business Worldwide says that there will be upcoming changes to the existing streaming royalty structure that will have some massive ramifications. The report cited three major changes. It will: Introduce a threshold of minimum […]

Over the nearly 500 episodes of the Inner Circle I’ve had some incredible guests. One is the legendary engineer Elliott Scheiner, and this special replay is from way back on Episode 51 in April of 2015. You certainly have heard Elliot’s work as he’s been instrumental in the sound of The Eagles, Steely Dan, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Sting, Foo Fighters and too many others to mention. He’s received 27 […]

There are so many glowing reports about the music business being stronger than ever, making more money than ever before, and thriving like no one ever thought possible. While there may be a grain of truth to those assertions, if you closely analyze the music industry revenues over the years you’ll find that we live in good times in the music business, but perhaps not as good as they once […]