Ari Herstand

Did you know that there is a law on the books in California that states a company cannot bind someone to a personal services agreement for longer than 7 calendar years - unless they are a RECORDING ARTIST?! That’s right, in 1987 the slimy, slippery, soulless major record labels successfully lobbied the California legislature to add an amendment to exempt recording artists from this law meant to protect people from long-term, predatory contracts. But finally, California might have a chance to right these historic wrongs with the new Bill AB-2926 (Kalra) that has been introduced.

Spotify just released their new Loud and Clear report today which profiled a lot of really interesting figures. The three most surprising things that stuck out to me from this report are: How many DIY, self-released artists are earning...

Trousdale is a pop-folk trio born out of the USC's popular music program, consisting of band members Quinn D'Andrea, Georgia Greene and Lauren Jones. In this episode of the New Music Business, we discussed what their creation process entails, self-producing their last releases, as well as how they stayed productive during the pandemic and successfully embraced TikTok.

Over the past two decades, David’s work as a performer, talent scout, publicist, and programmer has led him to work closely with an enormous range of artists from the emerging to superstars, playing a pivotal role in artist development and content strategy. With indie rock quartet The Middle Eight from 2007-2016, David performed hundreds of shows, most memorably at The Kennedy Center in DC and in the major motion picture ‘The Rebound.' Most recently, his work as Head of Artist & Label Relations at Vevo has helped to shed light on some of the most talented new artists working today.

More Fatter is an indie-funk pop band from San Francisco, California, currently based in Los Angeles. During the summer of 2021, they embarked on a fully-independent statewide tour performing primarily in backyards. On this episode, half of the band members Tommy and Théo join Ari to discuss exactly how they successfully pulled this off, and share some very insightful tour stories throughout.

Talya Elitzer is the co-founder of Godmode, a GRAMMY-nominated artist development company whose label and management clients include genre-breaking artists like Channel Tres, JPEGMAFIA, and Yaeji. Prior to Godmode, Elitzer was a Senior A&R at Capitol Records (Katy Perry, Sam Smith, Beck), and a previous booking agent for WME (Britney Spears, Grace Jones) and Mick Management (John Mayer, Sarah McLachlan). At Godmode, Elitzer takes an unorthodox approach to artist development and marketing, with an unusually high track record for breaking artists who don't quite fit into pre-existing formats. She focuses on building sustainable operations for her artists, so they can maintain an uncompromising approach to their work.

What was that song from the new season of Lucifer? "High and Mighty" by Annabel Lee. It kicked in, during season 5, episode 11, when Lucifer and Chloe were at the police station talking about the body that Ella has downtown....

Dan Mangan is the co-founder of Side Door, the “any space is a venue” marketplace platform that matches creatives with spaces to host shows anytime and anywhere they choose.

On this episode, Ari breaks down the whole Spotify issue of the moment and why the music industry seems to be up in arms. He discusses the discrepancy between streams and sales, why the per-stream rate is the wrong conversation to be having, how songwriters can get paid more from streaming, why everyone’s anger is misguided, how indie artists can monetize their audience, and how many artists are actually earning $10,000+ from Spotify royalties.

Hilary Gleason is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Backline, a non-profit that provides free mental health and wellness resources to music industry professionals and their families. In this episode, Hilary breaks down Backline’s positive impact within the industry, and the various programs they offer such as weekly support groups over Zoom as well as therapy through their Case Management Program.