Are we on the edge of a music industry revolution? Top investor and founder of indie publisher SONGS and investment company MUSIC, Matt Pincus, joins Billboard On the Record host Kristin Robinson this week to discuss how the landscape of music catalog investing has evolved.
From the rise of internet-driven copyright value to the shifting roles of labels and publishers, Pincus shares his insights on where the industry is headed and why we may be on the precipice of major change. He and Robinson break down how Taylor Swift has reshaped the conversation around catalog sales, whether AI is the next big disruptor for music creation and what all this means for the industry’s future. Plus, Pincus weighs in on one big question: is the music business truly recession proof?
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Billboard On The Record is a podcast in partnership with SickBird Productions.
Kristin Robinson: The vibes in the music industry feel off. That might not be the most eloquent way of putting it, but that’s how it feels amidst constant layoffs and restructuring at the three major music companies, Sony, Universal and Warner, since early 2024 AI becoming a more and more accepted reality in the creative process, Wall Street, increasingly buying into the music market, difficulty breaking through on TikTok, slowing growth of streaming service subscriptions and top markets, and to top it off, an overall shaky economy. It’s easy to feel unsettled, so let’s unpack that today.
Welcome back to On the Record, a music business podcast from Billboard and Sickbird Productions. I’m your host, Kristin Robinson, and today we are going to tackle a big question, which is, where’s the music industry going? Right now, if you ask around with folks working in the music business today, they will likely tell you that it feels like we’re in the middle of a shift, or, as I recently put it in a somewhat viral TikTok video, the vibes feel off.
So, I called one of music’s most respected entrepreneurs and investors, Matt Pincus, and asked him to come help us understand what is going on. And in case you aren’t familiar with Matt Pincus, He is perhaps best known for starting the independent publishing company SONGS. It was founded in 2006 and quickly became one of the most important players in the music business, working with artists like The Weeknd, Lorde, Pharrell, Diplo and more.
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