episode 7: Liv Buli – Data Journalist for Next Big Sound

Next Big Sound has been culling terabytes of data from the internet since 2009, tracking every view, stream, “like”, and “follow” a musician receives. In an effort to reveal the narrative hidden within this data, Next Big Sound teamed up with Liv Buli — making her the world’s first musicdata journalist.

Listen to episode seven of Between the Liner Notes as Liv explains the process of using data as the basis for reporting, and how the newly-popular concept of Big Data will shape the future of journalism, the music business, and the world. She discusses topics ranging from her accurate prediction of the winner in the Best New Artist category at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards — to the social media ramifications of Miley Cyrus’ new hairstyle. Hear the complete interview exclusively on Between the Liner Notes.

episode 6: Indaba Music

Dan Zaccagnino (Left) and Jesse Chan-Norris (Right)

Indaba Music is an online music community that lets musicians collaborate, trade feedback about each other’s work, and participate in opportunities such as contests for remixing and songwriting for popular artists.

Listen to this Between the Liner Notes exclusive interview as two of Indaba’s founding members, Dan Zaccagnino and Jesse Chan-Norris, discuss how they grew the company from an idea to over 750,000 members, and the hurdles they faced along the way.

episode 5: Jeff Rabhan – Chair of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music

When a fateful timeshare tour in Sedona Arizona lead to a chance meeting with the then-unknown singer/songwriter Michelle Branch, Jeff Rabhan became her manager and helmed Branch’s meteoric rise to stardom. Michelle’s success launched Jeff’s career as one of the top artist managers in the world, with a client roster soon including artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Everlast, and Kelis. Rabhan’s company Three Ring Projects released Elliott Yamin’s debut album independently and broke the record for most units sold by an independent artist.

Currently, Jeff serves as Chair of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and uses his experience to guide students through the treacherous and ever-changing waters of the music industry.  Listen to Jeff Rabhan share his stories and hard fought wisdom exclusively on Between the Liner Notes.

episode 4: Kevin Maney – Author of Trade-Off

While a technology journalist at USA Today, Kevin Maney began to recognize a pattern that all successful products and brands follow: they are all either extremely high quality (high fidelity) or super convenient. He took his theories to the successful CEOs who inspired them and soon revealed these concepts in his USA Today column.  The article generated more emails from his readers than he had ever received and he quickly decided to detail his new concepts in a book, Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t.

Listen to this Between the Liner Notes exclusive interview as Kevin explains the Fidelity-Convenience trade-off and how it not only applies to the music industry but, could have saved it from the post-Napster implosion.

episode 3: John Raso – The Harry Fox Agency

John Raso is a music industry journeyman who has found himself in the middle of many historic moments.  He watched indie giant SST Records unravel when it began to oversaturate their fan base with too many record releases, and he was at Atlantic Records when the gangster rap controversy tore Warner Music Group apart. 

Listen to the latest episode of Between the Liner Notes as John talks about getting Sugar Ray on the Howard Stern Show, buying the underage band Live beer, and working at MCA records with an intern named Puff Daddy. He discusses his current role at The Harry Fox Agency and analyzes the new economics that streaming media and the internet have brought to the music industry. Listen to this exclusive interview on Between the Liner Notes.

Steve Albini analysis of Major Record Labels
Malcolm Gladwell’s Fleetwood Mac presentation