Merlin Works Magic For Indies

08/02/19 • 46 min

Episode #163 : For the last eleven years, Merlin has been championing the independent music community in a variety of ways. During that time the organization has put over two billion dollars into the pockets of indie labels and distributors, through its negotiated deals with DSP’s like Spotify, et. al., and the organization is only continuing to grow its reach internationally. On this episode, we talk to Charles Caldas, the man at the helm of Merlin for the past eleven years, along with Jorge Brea of Symphonic Distribution and Katie Alberts of Reach Records, who both use Merlin’s services for their businesses to great advantage.

Previous Episode

The Current State of Music Journalism

In previous episodes, we’ve discussed the diminished role that music criticism plays in today’s market, and now we’re turning our focus towards music journalism at large. With more and more magazines and newspapers going out of business, writers find themselves with even fewer publishing options, and they’re being forced to look for work outside of the music industry. Join us this hour as we cover this topic with journalists, PR folks, and band managers, and talk about what comes next for this side of the industry.

Next Episode

The Future of Artist Management

Episode #164 : Like every other role in the music industry, the face of management is changing to meet the current needs of artists. With fewer and fewer labels investing in artist development, the work of building a team up around an artist has started to land more and more on the shoulders of managers. In our exploration of this topic, we speak with Brian Dubb of Centralized.me, who has developed a web based “virtual management” application that helps developing artists manage themselves, as well as Adina Friedman who works for the management company, “Friends At Work.”