#147 Darren Hemmings: marketing CEO on the state of music, "the gap between Big Tech and art has never been wider""

Not A Diving Podcast with Scuba

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The last year of the show has been more squarely focused on musicians than the first two. We've talked about general issues in the industry, but the expertise has mostly been from the artist side. This week we widen the net.

Darren Hemmings is the Managing Director of Motive Unknown, a music-focused strategic marketing agency based in the UK. He's a previous Head Of Digital Marketing at PIAS and various other jobs at majors and independents across the industry. He's also the author of the Network Notes letter on Substack, in which he discusses trends and big stories in the industry.

We discuss the state of the industry today, the health of the streaming platforms and their changing approach to payment models and staffing, and the independent sector with its challenges and potential for a future breakout against the ongoing encroachment of the majors.

We also discuss a&r strategy, why dance music doesn't stream well, and the comparison between music companies and the decline of Nike.

This is a detailed excursion into the music business today... get involved!

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

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