- 📍 1. CONTEXT / INDUSTRY SHIFTMassive Attack has formally requested that their full catalogue be removed from Spotify (globally) in protest of Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s investment via his VC firm in Helsing, a defense tech company developing AI-powered systems (including drones) and weapons systems. At the same time, Massive Attack joined the “No Music for Genocide” campaign, under which more than 400 artists and labels are asking that their music be geo-restricted in Israel as a protest against military action in Gaza and ongoing human rights concerns. This move escalates a growing trend: artists pushing not just for better royalties or exposure, but for ethical alignment with their platforms. It forces questions about the moral responsibility of streaming services, the separation (or lack thereof) between personal investments by execs and the platforms themselves, and how culture intersects with politics & human rights. - 📂 2. CASE FOCUS / BREAKDOWN • Massive Attack’s action — Formal request to their label (Universal Music Group) to remove music from Spotify globally, and geo-blocking in Israel for all streaming platforms. • No Music for Genocide campaign — Coalition of 400+ artists and labels, raising awareness and taking collective action via streaming restrictions, to protest alleged genocide & human rights violations. • Spotify / Helsing connection — Daniel Ek’s VC investment in Helsing, a defense-AI company. Spotify maintains the two businesses are separate, but artist backlash shows audiences see overlap. - 📈 3. STRATEGY OR BUSINESS PRINCIPLE Ethical alignment is becoming a core litmus test for both artists and consumers. -Platform leaders’ outside investments are under scrutiny, not just platform policies. -Collective action by artists amplifies impact, forcing labels and DSPs to address values, not just royalties. -Geo-blocking is emerging as a new form of protest, expanding how artists weaponize distribution rights.

Most of us are so busy creating that we don’t always stop to look at new tech that could impact our world. So let me give you a super simple breakdown of something I’ve been studying: Blockchain Think of a centralized parking garage. If a thief breaks into it, they could take or alter hundreds of cars at once. Now imagine instead that everyone keeps their car in their own garage at home. For a thief to steal everything, they’d have to break into thousands of houses at the same time. That’s what blockchain is: Instead of one big database controlled by a "central authority," the information is spread across thousands of computers (nodes). If someone tries to cheat, it doesn’t line up with the rest of the copies, and it gets rejected. That’s why blockchain is used for things like cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.). It’s just digital money that isn’t issued by a bank (central authority), but verified by this "decentralized" network. Transactions get logged in a permanent, tamper-proof chain. So, why should we care in music? I’ve been diving into some new topics at Berklee that I thought would be good to share here. Again, a lot of us are busy creating, so things like "blockchain" may not usually cross our radar.... but it’s starting to show up more and more in conversations about music and media. Another simple way to think about blockchain: It’s like a giant shared notebook. Instead of one company holding the “master copy,” everyone has the same notebook, and every time a new entry is written, all copies update together. If someone tries to change their page later, it won’t match the others, and the change gets rejected. That’s why people call blockchain “tamper-proof.” So how does this help us? Right now, music files are just audio. The old way (problem) - MP3s, WAVs, AACs — they’re just "dumb" audio files. - They can be copied infinitely, with no built-in way to prove who owns them or who should get paid. - Metadata (songwriter names, splits, publishers) can be added, but it’s not locked - anyone can alter it with a simple “file info” edit.

Since I missed Last week's, here is a bit of a fusion of 2 different topics in one.. — 📍 1. CONTEXT / INDUSTRY SHIFT Two signals are colliding this week. On one side, creators are seizing new ground. Reports from Epidemic Sound and Summit Partners (Sept 9–12, 2025) show how creators are demanding direct monetization, smarter AI tools, and ownership of their pipelines. The “middle class” of artists is being rebuilt around subscription models, live commerce, and community-powered economies. On the other side, legacy systems show cracks. In gaming, Nobuo Uematsu (Sept 8, 2025) warns that mainstream soundtracks are becoming “less weird,” more risk-averse, and more formulaic. Creativity narrows while independent spaces still experiment. Why it matters: as creators gain tools to monetize directly, large-scale institutions cling to safer formulas. The battle line is between empowerment and stagnation. - 📂 2. CASE FOCUS / BREAKDOWN • Epidemic Sound “Future of Creator Economy” report (Sept 9, 2025) – creators now want workflow speed, AI integration, and ownership, not dependency on legacy distributors. • Summit Partners trend note (Sept 12, 2025) – brands and creators are collapsing the “discovery to commerce” pipeline into one step. • Nobuo Uematsu (Sept 8, 2025) – mainstream game music has lost experimentation, with risk only showing up in indie titles. - 📈 3. STRATEGY OR BUSINESS PRINCIPLE The principle revealed: platform divergence. Where risk is punished at scale, creators are building their own economies where originality thrives. For music licensing, this means the most valuable placement opportunities will increasingly come from platforms, games, and communities that are structurally aligned with creator-led experimentation. Safe formulas dominate the mainstream, but new monetization models are rewarding uniqueness. - ✅ 4. TAKEAWAYS / ACTION STEPS 1. TRACK CREATOR ECONOMY TOOLS - Monitor how AI and subscription platforms are reshaping creator revenue. These tools will dictate future placement flows.

- 📍 1. CONTEXT / INDUSTRY SHIFT TikTok just folded Chordal’s InstantClear licensing tech into its Commercial Music Library (CML). On the surface, that’s another “integration headline.” But the weight is deeper: this marks a decisive turn from licensing as negotiation to licensing as infrastructure. TikTok’s CML already housed around 1 million pre-cleared tracks. With InstantClear, even songs with multiple co-writers and publishers can now be auto-cleared, fractionally split, and paid out in real time. No endless back-and-forth, no weeks of waiting. Why it matters: Music licensing is becoming invisible to the end-user. For brands, this means one-click access to soundtrack ads. For creators, it means your catalog either fits into the pipe -or gets left behind entirely. And the context is bigger: TikTok has been under fire for years (remember Sony yanking its catalog in 2022, the spats over unpaid royalties, lawsuits circling AI training data). CML was born from that pressure-to give advertisers a safe sandbox. Now it’s evolving into a full-scale licensing utility. Parallels abound. YouTube’s Content ID system once felt like a policing tool. Two decades later, it is infrastructure for billions in payouts. TikTok’s CML + InstantClear could become the Content ID of micro-sync. - 📂 2. CASE FOCUS / BREAKDOWN • TikTok × Chordal integration (MBW, Shore Fire, DMW) - Chordal’s InstantClear tech drops inside TikTok’s CML. Songs with fractional ownership can be cleared in seconds, and automated payout flows to rights-holders. • Chordal API expansion (Music Ally) - Chordal opened InstantClear to other apps beyond TikTok, signaling this isn’t a one-off. The goal: any platform that needs music licensing can plug into pre-cleared rights. • TikTok ad market scale - Global ad spend on TikTok crossed $15B in 2024 (Insider Intelligence), much of it reliant on music in branded campaigns. Now, the majority of that ad spend can flow through a single pre-cleared music pipe.

- 📍 1. CONTEXT / INDUSTRY SHIFT Studios and brands are cutting budgets but expecting more output, faster. Turnaround times expand while spend contracts, creating a paradox: do more with less. At the same time, trailer houses are leaning away from “composer demos” toward tracks that already behave like licensed songs — hook-forward, editorial-ready, cuttable without surgery. Why it matters: This pressure cooker makes bloated catalogs useless. Supervisors don’t have time to sift 500 tracks. They want small, intentional sets built for picture and delivered instantly. - 📂 2. CASE FOCUS / BREAKDOWN • LinkedIn expands creator video with 15s pre-roll ads and short series, forcing brands to commission faster, hook-first music. • India announces a centralized digital music licensing registry by October 2025 — signaling a global shift toward faster clearance and cleaner ops. • Universal Production Music’s 2025 trailer trends highlight “cinema-grade ads” and “pre-cut” song formats, mirroring supervisor demands for editorial-first tracks. --- 📈 3. STRATEGY OR BUSINESS PRINCIPLE This reveals the leverage of lean, high-impact collections: fewer, sharper tracks tuned to editorial use cases. The principle is selection speed. Whoever reduces friction wins. If a supervisor can find, clear, and cut a track in minutes, that source becomes the default. - ✅ 4. TAKEAWAYS / ACTION STEPS 1. CURATE SMALL, INTENTIONAL SETS Design 10–20 tracks per lane (trailers, sports promo, reality TV), each with obvious hooks and modular sections. 2. MASTER FORMAT-FIRST, NOT SONG-FIRST Deliver 15s, 30s, 45s, plus alt intros/outros and sting endings. Provide 16:9, 1:1, and 9:16 ratios by default. 3. ENCODE METADATA FOR EDITORS Include hit-point timestamps, labeled sections (intro, riser, drop, out), mood tags, BPM, and key. Speak the editor’s language. 4. KEEP CLEARANCE FRICTION AT ZERO One-stop rights, E&O insurance, stems and alt versions on hand, licenseable in under an hour.