PODCAST · news
Music Tectonics
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.
Episodes
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How AI is Transforming the Music Business
AI in music is about more than generating songs. How could it transform the business behind the music? This week on the podcast, Dmitri talks with Matt Urmy, co-founder and CEO of Artist Growth, about how AI can help music companies work smarter, connect their data and systems, and spend less…
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Rising Tide: Why You Need to Be at Music Tectonics 2026
What does a rising tide look like when the whole music industry rows in the same direction? This week, we close out the Rising Tide miniseries witha recap conversation between host Dmitri Vietze and Eleanor Rust, director of marketing at Rock Paper Scissors and Music Tectonics, recorded in the...
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Format Shifts: New Products for Music Fans
What happens when music becomes more than something you stream, but instead something you can hold? This week, we're wrapping up the Rising Tide miniseries with the 8th and final revenue multiplier: new products for the music buyer. First, Jennifer Sullivan of KiTbetter explains how the KiTalbum...
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How Direct-To-Fan Unlocks Revenue
This week on the podcast, we're on revenue multiplier 7 on our Rising Tide miniseries: direct-to-fan. First, Mag Rodriguez, founder and CEO of EVEN, makes the case that most artists are leaving serious money on the table by skipping direct-to-fan entirely, and why you don't need a big mailing…
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Fan Growth Tech: More Fans, Buying More Things
What does it actually take to turn followers into fans who buy? This week, we're digging into Fan Growth, one of the 8 revenue multipliers in our Rising Tide miniseries. First, DJay Brawner of TUFF MGMT and MANAGR breaks down why the real work often starts before you grow your audience, making…
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More Music Means More Growth: The New Job of Distributors
What is a music distributor actually responsible for in 2026? This week on the Music Tectonics podcast, we're focusing on distribution and artist services as a revenue multiplier. It used to mean one thing: getting your music onto Spotify and Apple. Now the companies doing that are pitching...
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What if Generative AI Grows the Music Business?
What if generative AI actually grows the music business instead of shrinking it? This week, Dmitri Vietze tackles the AI question everyone's tired of hearing about, but from a different angle. First, Matt Adell, co-founder of Musical.ai, breaks down the $20 billion opportunity sitting inside AI...
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New Forms of Licensing: How Businesses, Apps, and Games Pay for Music
What happens when businesses, apps, and games use music without really paying for it? This week we're on the third revenue multiplier of our Rising Tide miniseries: new forms of licensing hiding in plain sight. First, Soundtrack CEO Ola Sars breaks down the 40 billion dollar market for background...
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How Music Catalogs Get Valued and Sold
What is your music catalog actually worth, and how would you even find out? This week we're on the second stop of our Rising Tide miniseries, tackling catalog valuation, one of the revenue multipliers we're covering ahead of the Music Tectonics Conference this October. First, music lawyer and...
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Revenue Recovery: How to Recover Lost Music Royalties
There's no lost and found for your royalties. If you don't claim them, they don't come looking for you, and depending on where the money's sitting, you may only have a few years before it's gone for good. This week we kick off a new thread inside our Rising Tide miniseries: the eight revenue...
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Eight Revenue Multipliers of the Music Industry
What's your music catalog actually worth, and where is the industry still leaving money on the table? This week, Dmitri is joined by our chief writer Tristra Newyear Yeager for a deep dive into eight revenue multipliers that they believe can grow the total addressable market for music. Building…
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What Multiplies Revenue for Music? (Bonus Episode)
We interrupt this miniseries for a special bonus episode! Last week, we laid out a theory on what technology can do to grow the value of music, so this time we wanted to hear from someone who is actually betting billions of dollars on the answer. Sam Hendel is the managing partner of Chord Music...
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What If Tech Grows the Music Industry Instead of Disrupting It?
That's the question host Dmitri Vietze presents to Vickie Nauman, founder of CrossBorderWorks, in this episode of Music Tectonics. Vickie has spent over two decades at the intersection of music and tech, working on sync licensing for video games and virtual worlds, and pioneering the concept of...
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State of the Music Industry: What Happens After Streaming?
Streaming built the modern music industry, but its growth is slowing in the US and other mature markets. So what comes next? This week on the podcast, Dmitri sits down with Monica Corton, CEO of Go to Eleven Entertainment, to unpack where the total addressable market for music grows from here.…
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Why is the Music Industry So Small?
Why is the value of the music industry so small compared to other forms of entertainment like gaming and television, even though music seems to be everywhere in our lives? This week on the podcast, Dmitri kicks off a new miniseries built around this year's conference theme, "Rising Tide: Grow the...
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How Do You Value Music Catalogs in 2026?
How do you actually put a price on a music catalog in 2026? In this panel from our recent Grow the TAM event, Billboard's Elizabeth Dilts Marshall sits down with three experts who each value catalogs from a completely different angle. Rob Frech of Raine Group has advised on catalog and M&A deals...
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How Will Music Be Monetized in 2030?
What will the music business actually look like in 2030? In this special panel from the Grow the TAM summit, Tatiana Cirisano, VP of Music Strategy at MIDiA Research, leads a wide-ranging conversation about the future of music monetization with three industry veterans: Liz Moody, partner and…
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8 Ways to Grow the Value of Music in 2026
In this episode, Dmitri and Eleanor walk through eight revenue multipliers reshaping the music business in 2026, including catalog valuation, revenue recovery, music licensing, and more. This conversation sets up the theme for this year's Music Tectonics conference: "Rising Tide: Grow the Music,...
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Every Object Can Sound: How Playtronica is Reimagining Music Creation
What if you could make music with anything around you? Fruit, water, human skin, or even the weight of objects on a kitchen scale? That's the question Playtronica has been answering for over a decade This week on the podcast, Adam McHeffey sits down with co-founders Sasha Pas and Aglaya Demidenko...
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Is Music Making Up for Grabs?
What if every fight over music technology throughout history has actually been the same fight, and we're just now facing a version of it we've never seen before? In this special episode, Dmitri shares a keynote he gave at the Algo Rhythms conference last month called "Is Music Making Up For…
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How Hunna G Turned "Take a Seat, Rap on the Beat" into a 150M View Platform
What happens when a beat-selling side hustle accidentally becomes a social media phenomenon? In this episode, music producer and content creator Hunna G (@hunnagbeats) joins Dmitri to talk about building "Take a Seat, Rap on the Beat," a series now sitting at over 150 million views and more than…
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Dom McLennon on Creativity, Community, and Hacking Music Tech
This week, Dmitri is joined by Dom McLennon, artist producer, and creative strategist from Hartford, Connecticut. Best known as a lead vocalist and assistant producer for BROCKHAMPTON, Dom also runs COURTVISION, a creative agency connecting artists and brands across gaming, education and…
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Should Artists Admit They Use AI? (ft. Dr. Joel Carnevale)
What happens to an artist's reputation the moment they admit they used AI? Does admitting how they used AI make a difference? New research suggests the stakes are higher than most realize, and the answer is far from simple. This week on the podcast, Dr. Joel Carnevale, assistant professor of...
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Is the Music Supply Chain Ready for the AI Boom?
Everyone's talking about the AI boom in music, but is the industry's infrastructure actually ready for it? Bjorn Lindvall, CEO and co-founder of MusicInfra, has spent his career at the intersection of music rights and finance, first as co-founder and COO of Hipgnosis Songs, where he helped build…
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What Music Can Learn From Mobile Gaming
Is gaming really the next frontier for music, or is that just wishful thinking? In this episode, Dmitri sits down with Jenn Garcia, co-founder and CEO of Metamoki, the mobile gaming studio behind Mob Wars and Wiz Khalifa's Weed Farm. With nearly two decades of experience in mobile gaming, social...
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Beyond the Catalog: The KISS Deal and the Future of Music IP
What happens to a rock band's legacy when the touring stops forever? When Pophouse acquired the KISS catalog, brand, name, image, and likeness rights, they didn't just buy music. They bought the blueprint for keeping one of rock's most iconic bands alive indefinitely through digital avatars,...
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What Founders Get Wrong About Exits
Most founders think about building. Fewer think carefully about selling. In this episode, Dmitri talks with Phil Barry, the founder of music rights and licensing platform Blokur, about what he learned from nearly a decade of building and ultimately selling his company to Music Reports in 2024.…
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Building AI for Music Without Breaking Trust
Where does AI stand in the music industry as we move through 2026? In this conversation, Dmitri talks with Mike Pelczynski, Chief Strategy and Impact Officer at Voice-Swap, about the evolution from fear to curiosity around AI in music, and why building ethical AI systems from the ground up…
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NAMM 2026, pt 2: The Creator Shift (ft. Modern Biology)
For Part 2 of our NAMM 2026 recap, we explore how music creators are building sustainable careers outside of the traditional music industry model. As streaming revenue continues to fail musicians and CD sales decline, artists are pioneering new paths through direct-to-fan experiences and…
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NAMM 2026, pt 1: AI's Inflection Point (ft LANDR and Yamaha)
For the next two weeks we'll be talking about all things NAMM and getting into some of the exciting innovations we spotted on the show floor, along with some trends that we noticed this year, starting with AI's inflection point in the music industry. Last year, the conversation around AI was…
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Blanco Brown on AI, Authenticity, and "Walk My Walk"
What happens when AI starts reflecting an artist's voice back to them? This week, Dmitri talks with artist, songwriter, and producer Blanco Brown. Blanco first broke through with the viral hit "The Git Up," becoming a defining voice of the intersection of country and hip hop, also known as…
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The Science of Sound with Russell Wedelich of Eventide
This week, Dmitri chats with Russell Wedelich, the President and CTO of Eventide Audio. Eventide has been shaping Eventide has been shaping recorded music since 1971, and Russell has used his background in both electrical engineering and musical engineering to help create products like the Space...
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Are Trade Shows Still Worth It In 2026?
Episode 400! This week, we thought we'd do something a little different and talk about trade shows and whether or not they're still worth it in 2026. Fresh from CES 2026, Dmitri shares why trade shows remain valuable for business development and lead generation in the music tech industry. He also...
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Optimization is Not Enough: Are You Ready for Streaming's Reckoning?
This week, we're kicking off 2026 with our opening keynote from last year's Music Tectonics conference: "Optimization is Not Enough: Are You Ready for Streaming's Reckoning?" In this keynote, Tatiana Cirisano from MIDiA Research joins Dmitri to ask a provocative question: Is the music industry so...
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Music Tectonics 2025: Three Innovations We Spotted
This week, we're wrapping up 2025 with something special: three rapid-fire interviews from last month's conference with companies that represent some of the most fascinating developments happening at the intersection of music and tech First, we'll hear from Rachel Francine of SingFit, who's...
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2025 in Music Tech: The Year's Top Stories
As 2025 comes to a close, Dmitri and Tristra look back at the year's most significant music tech stories and what they mean for the industry ahead. From AI music settlements and catalog securitization to sustainability initiatives at live music venues and the future of streaming royalty rates…
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Conference Conversations: Creative Collaborations Everyone Can Agree To
This week, we're continuing our Conference Conversations series from last month's conference with a panel called "Brands and Creators: Creative Collaborations Everyone Can Agree To." This panel covers all things brand partnerships, from what makes brands say yes to working with artists, as well…
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Conference Conversations: Where Investors See Creator Tools Thriving Alongside AI
This week, we're continuing our Conference Conversations series from last month's conference with a panel called "Betting on the Future: Where Investors See Creator Tools Thriving Alongside AI." In this panel, Andrew Kahn from Yamaha Music Innovation sits down with three venture investors who are...
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Conference Conversations: Founders on Building Defensible Companies in the AI Economy
This week, we're continuing our Conference Conversations series from last month's conference with a panel called "Building to Scale: Founders on Building Defensible Companies in the AI Economy." In this panel, Conor Healy from the Yamaha Music Innovation Fund sits down with Stanley Vergilis from...
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Conference Conversations: Rethinking Distribution with Hollywood Reporter's Ethan Millman
This week on Music Tectonics, we're continuing our Conference Conversations series with highlights from the Music Tectonics Conference. Over the next several weeks, we'll be sharing our favorite discussions, interviews, and panels that capture what's happening right now in music innovation.…
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Conference Conversations: Inside the Yamaha Music Innovation Fund
This week on Music Tectonics, we're doing something different. We're kicking off a series of highlights from the Music Tectonics Conference that wrapped up just a couple of weeks ago. Over the next several weeks, we'll be sharing our favorite discussions, interviews, and panels that capture…
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Crossroads: Streaming's Time to Choose with Mark Mulligan
This week as we have just wrapped up the Music Tectonics Conference in person in Santa Monica, I thought I'd do something a little bit different and release a clip from our pre-conference a couple of months ago by Mark Mulligan of MIDiA research called "Crossroads: Streaming's Time to Choose." In...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
Rock Paper Scissors, Inc. PR firm
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Music Tectonics have?
Music Tectonics currently has 434 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Music Tectonics about?
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.
How often does Music Tectonics release new episodes?
Music Tectonics publishes regularly with 434 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Music Tectonics?
You can listen to Music Tectonics on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Music Tectonics?
Music Tectonics is created and hosted by Rock Paper Scissors, Inc. PR firm.
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