Trapital

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Trapital Summit: Sep 10 in LA. A few announcements... Jul 10, 2025

Show notes

This is the room for the leaders shaping what's next in music, entertainment, and technology. It's Wednesday, September 10 at NeueHouse Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA.

Register now. Early bird pricing ends July 24, two weeks from today.

You'll hear from:

Elliot Grainge, CEO, Atlantic Music Group
Steve Pamon, CEO, Verzuz | Board Member, IMAX
Erin Teague, CPO, Character.ai
Kakul Srivastava, CEO, Splice
Andrew Sanchez, Co-Founder and CEO, Udio
...More to be announced soon

Special thanks to our partners who helped make the summit possible:

Platinum: The Raine Group
Gold: Splice, Warner Music Group
Bronze: SoundCloud, Too Lost

Early bird pricing ends July 24. Come join us!

Record Labels Want Market Share, But At What Cost? Jul 03, 2025

Show notes

This episode’s a bit different, no guests. I’m going solo to break down a big topic. For record labels, the market share they have relative to peers drives major decisions both macro and micro. They spend a lot to maintain that position. Is it all worth it?

01:33 Market Share’s Financial Impact

05:49 Challenges & Critiques

07:21 Cross-Industry Parallels

12:54 Indies vs. Majors

Trapital Summit is on Wednesday September 10 in LA. Join us!

This episode is presented by State Farm, the home for your small business needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Listen in for our Chartmetric Stat of the Week.

How Will Taylor Swift’s Masters Ownership Saga Be Remembered? Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

Now that the dust has settled on Taylor Swift’s music rights saga, what’s next?

We unpacked the financial impact of all the transactions on key players like Scooter Braun, Scott Borchetta, Shamrock Capital, and Swift herself. While all of those parties made a lot more money, we took a deeper look into the potential losers over the years. And lastly, we tackle an important question: how will history remember this?

Join me and Tati Cirisano as we break it all down.

00:47 Scooter Braun’s Legacy 03:34 Taylor Swift Fans 07:12 Artists Reclaiming Their Music Rights 11:42 Superstar Leverage 24:25 Ticketmaster and the Eras Tour

This episode is presented by State Farm, the home for your small business needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Listen in for our Chartmetric Stat of the Week.

Trapital summit

Why Artist Development Matters More Than Ever Jun 12, 2025

Show notes

We’re joined by AWAL CEO Lonny Olinick. In the episode, we broke down why artist development still matters, how AWAL merges traditional record label services with its distribution business, giving artists creative freedom, global reach, and real ownership to AWAL’s artist-first approach often beats major label deals, what it means to be part of the Sony Music family, and how the future of music is being rewritten—deal by deal.

00:13 AWAL Business Model 03:57 Artist Development Focus 10:19 Sony’s Acquisition of AWAL 13:40 Global Expansion and Team Building 25:13 Industry Insights and Future Outlook

This episode is presented by State Farm, the home for your small business needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Listen in for our Chartmetric Stat of the Week.

Does Hip-Hop Still Run Luxury Fashion? Jun 05, 2025

Show notes

Hip-hop’s has had an outsized impact in fashion for decades, but where are we today? In this episode, I am joined by Fashion Killa author Sowmya Krishnamurthy. We unpack hip-hop’s relationship with fashion, how these partnerships have evolved, where they stand in 2025, and what we want to see more of.

01:41 Hip-Hop’s Cultural Impact vs. Sales Metrics 11:37 Nostalgia and the Evolution of Celebrity 23:22 The Future of Hip-Hop in High Fashion

This episode is presented by State Farm, the home for your small business needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Listen in for our Chartmetric Stat of the Week.

America Streams American. The World Follows. May 29, 2025

Show notes

American music still dominate the global stage, despite the world going local.

In this episode, I am joined by former chief economist at Spotify, Will Page. We explore the powerful global influence of American music and what it reveals about culture, commerce, and control in the streaming era.

From top-down industry power to bottom-up grassroots movements, we unpack how hits spread, why the U.S. music market is still growing despite predictions of global decentralization, and more.

00:28 American Music’s Global Influence 03:40 Glocalization and Market Dynamics 09:42 Hip-Hop an Country Music Trends 13:24 Economic Factors 27:50 Will Page’s Mixcloud

This episode is presented by State Farm, the home for your small business needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Listen in for our Chartmetric Stat of the Week. For Will’s 2025 DJ mix, here’s the full link

The Business of Soundtracking the Creator Economy May 13, 2025

Show notes

There are billions of videos uploaded to the internet daily. They all need the right music or sound effect. Many of them rely on Epidemic Sound to make that happen.

In this episode, I’m joined by Oscar Hoglund, co-founder and CEO of Epidemic Sound. We dive into how Epidemic Sound uses AI to enhance music discovery while ensuring fair compensation for artists through a unique revenue model. Oscar also shares valuable insights on industry trends, the growth of the creator economy, and where the next wave of value will come from.

01:50 Evolution of Content Creation 06:59 Epidemic Sound's Four-Pillar Model 21:01 The Acceleration of the Creator Economy 24:22 AI in Music Adaptation and Generation 28:18 Data and Distribution 36:24 Future Aspirations

This episode is presented by State Farm, the home for your small business needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Listen in for our Chartmetric Stat of the Week.

Tariffs, Tours, and Trade Wars: Why Music Investment Won’t Slow Down May 08, 2025

Show notes

Is the global market headed for another shake-up?

In this episode, we unpack the rising uncertainty in international trade and finance—from shifting geopolitical alliances to unexpected tariffs and policy pivots. What does this mean for businesses, investors, and everyday consumers? Tune in as Billboard’s Senior Finance Correspondent, Liz Dilts Marshall and I break down the trends, the tensions, and what might come next in the global economy.

00:31 Investor Interest in Music Assets 01:49 Earnings Reports and Market Reactions 09:04 Potential Impact of Tariffs 11:39 Touring and Live Music Challenges 17:12 Hipgnosis and Music Royalties 23:59 Comparing Music Value: 1999 vs. Today

This episode is presented by State Farm, the home for your small business needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

The 2025 Live Music Draft May 05, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, we’re shaking things up with our very first Live Music Draft 2025! Joined by MIDiA Research’s Tati Cirisano, we’re drafting our top music festivals, stadium tours, arena tours, concert residencies, over-performers, and under-performers of the year!

02:30 Music Festivals 09:21 Stadium Tours 14:04 Arena Tours (First Timers) 22:00 Vegas Residencies 25:07 Overperformers 28:53 Underperformers

29:51 Market Moves

This episode is presented by State Farm, the home for your small business needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Listen in for our Chartmetric Stat of the Week.

The $10B+ Blind Spot in B2B Streaming May 01, 2025

Show notes

There are millions of companies worldwide that use personal music streaming accounts for their businesses’ music. But if those companies had the business-level streaming they should, it would add billions of annual revenue to the industry. So why isn’t this a priority?

Well, it’s a priority for today’s guest, Ola Sars. He’s the founder and CEO of Soundtrack, which has been solving this problem for ten years. His business spun out of Spotify to tackle the SMB opportunity. He brought us under the hood to talk about how he convinces business to use his service, his revenue, churn, and plans for the future.

03:49 How Big is the B2B Market 13:04 Soundtrack’s Products and GTM 21:58 B2B vs Consumer Streaming Economics 25:54 How Labels Feel About Soundtrack

Trapital Summit: September 10 in LA. Get your tickets here!

This episode is presented by State Farm, the home for your small business needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

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