The Future of What

Latest Episodes:

Episode #275 — Standing Out in the Crowded DSP Space: A Conversation with Qobuz's Dan Mackta Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

What began in 2007 as a hi-res music download store has grown into a vital platform for global music fans eager for a human-curated, high-quality listening experience. Qobuz has had a massive 2025, which saw them peak at #4 on the iOS App Store thanks in part to viral posts calling out their 24-bit hi-res streaming & download offerings and editorial team-led recommendations. This month, we talk to Qobuz's Managing Director, Dan Mackta about the company's history & recent success, how the Qobuz experience is akin to shopping for music at your local record store, the many ways it differentiates from the top DSPs of the day, and more!

Episode #274 — Louis Posen Reflects on 30+ Years of Hopeless Records: Indie Success, Charity and the Future Dec 09, 2025

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Hopeless Records has passed its third decade in business since we last had label founder Louis Posen on the podcast, so we caught up with him once again to talk all things Hopeless and indie labels! In this episode, Louis walks us through the unique origin of Hopeless, its early ties with Fat Wreck Chords, and their strong commitment to charity – housing Sub City, Songs That Saved My Life and Hopeless Music Academy as a part of the Hopeless Foundation. He also dives into the importance of knowing both the creative and business side of the industry, the interesting place that indies sit in the music ecosystem today, and how the industry can better approach issues like supply & demand and AI.

Episode #273 — Unifying the Music Industry's Data: A Conversation with Artist Growth's Matt Urmy Nov 19, 2025

Show notes

The digital age has created a plethora of data resources for artists and their teams, but it has also highlighted the glaring disadvantages of unorganized, siloed workflows within our industry. As an event management, project management and business intelligence platform, Artist Growth is a testament to how more centralized information creates a better picture of exactly what is and isn't working for an artist in real time. Hear from Artist Growth co-founder & CEO, Matt Urmy as he walks through the platform's history, examines parallels between data sharing practices during the emergence of both streaming and AI, and details two current marketplace pressures that are helping to break data siloes.

Episode #272 — Updates on Indie Music Retail from The Vinyl Groove Records, The Sound Garden and Zia Records! Nov 12, 2025

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In this episode, we caught up with David Wolfe of The Vinyl Groove Records, Brian Burkert of The Sound Garden, and Mike Durham & Christina Wilson of Zia Records, who highlight the everlasting importance of physical music by diving into exciting happenings at each of their stores. Our guests discuss the impact of the recent Luminate + Street Pulse deal, how Black Friday serves as "Record Store Day Lite," the resurgence of the CD, and the younger generation's affinity for vinyl. They also touch on the role of record stores as hubs for community and music curation, trends affecting both their customer base and the products hitting the shelves, and much more!

Episode #271 — Safeguarding Our Industry: Inside Vobile's Fight Against Fraud Nov 04, 2025

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The need for meaningful rights protection will always exist across both the video and audio content industries. Expanding their arm into the audio field with the acquisition of Pex, Vobile now provides solutions for both. We brought Vobile's SVP of Sales, Larry Mills onto the podcast to discuss the robust sector of the music industry that is fighting against the mass scale of fraud occurring on a daily basis. Mills identifies the important differences between fraudulent assets and fraudulent behavior, along with improvements in fraud-fighting from distributors, and shares upcoming announcements from Vobile on how they're ensuring ethical AI use!

Episode #270 — How Mamas In Music is Caring for Caregivers in Our Industry Oct 28, 2025

Show notes

Consideration of those in a caregiving role is often an afterthought in many industries, but creative industries add an extra layer of challenge due to inconsistent income and schedules. While looking for support in her journey of motherhood while maintaining a career in music, Mamas In Music co-founder Tiff Randol noticed a lack of community, and banded together with Mary Leay to create this support system. We connected with Tiff to discuss the events, partnerships and other initiatives Mamas In Music is looking to put forward, how we as an industry can collectively support mothers better, and much more!

Episode #269 — Reinventing Music Search: AIMS' Solution for Precision and Unbiased Results Oct 21, 2025

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Searching large catalogs via tags can be time-consuming, reinforce biases toward what we already know to save time, and leave a large portion of artist works unexplored. AIMS API looks to utilize AI as an assistive tool for objective and accurate full-catalog discovery via search options that include natural language prompts, similar audio matching, and lyric search to benefit clients working as editors, sound designers, music supervisors, and beyond. In this episode, AIMS CTO Einar Helde unpacks the company's origins, how their search technologies work, and their upcoming search tool that has already become a sought-after product.

Episode #268 — How Bootleg Is Super-Serving Superfans With a New Kind of Merch Oct 14, 2025

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Superfans have been discussed as a promising new revenue stream for artists, and Bootleg is leaning into this concept with an app designed to allow fans to purchase limited release, high-quality audio merch captured from live shows. This platform not only creates direct revenue for touring artists, but helps fans across genres build a community with fellow concert-goers. We spoke with founder Rod Yancy about the app's offerings, the value The MLC provides in licensing music, how labels are looking to participate with the service, and what's on the horizon!

Episode #267 — Gut Instincts and Data: The Constants of A&R's Evolution Oct 07, 2025

Show notes

Killphonic Rights is a creator-founded, full-service music company, with Michelle Fantus serving as Head of A&R. Michelle has witnessed the evolution of artists and repertoire over her tenure in the industry, seeing music consumption go from iTunes downloads to streaming, and now music discovery being redefined by AI & algorithms. While some things have changed for A&R over the past decade, the practice remains the same at its core. In this episode, Michelle walks through the performance measures that A&Rs of both the past and present evaluate, the two "buckets" A&Rs tend to fall into, what this new era of music discovery brings, and more!

Episode #266 — ONErpm's Artist-First Approach to Business Sep 30, 2025

Show notes

As a distributor, publishing company, creator of DIY platform OFFstep and one of the world's largest music MCNs on YouTube, ONErpm is considered a full-service, modern record label. The company puts artists at the forefront by emphasizing transparency & education at both the front end and back end, and even has its own CMS platform for artists to track spending & marketing plans. In this episode, Head of Marketing Jenna LoMonaco details how ONErpm supports & helps to develop their artists' vision, along with the company's strategic incorporation of modern tech, and clears up misconceptions on exploitation in the industry.

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