Amy Thomson: How To Fix The Music Business in 3 Easy Steps

Amy Thomson has pretty much done it all as an artist manager, and is now disrupting the modern music industry from another angle as Chief Catalog Officer of Hipgnosis Song Management. Before joining Hipgnosis in 2020, Amy ran her company ATM artists, and has managed acts including Seal, DJ Snake, and Swedish House Mafia. Most famously, Amy took Swedish House Mafia from being a baby band to kings of the globally dominant EDM scene of the early 2010s. She also worked closely with Kanye West on the stunning marketing campaigns launched during his Yeezus era. On this MBW Podcast (supported by Voly Music), Amy discusses the three areas of the music business that she believes need drastic change. Those areas are: (1) NDAs. That's nondisclosure agreements in artist and songwriter contracts; (2) Data – as in the flow of data to music makers and the vast inefficiencies that bad data is causing; and (3) Service and royalties, particularly the level of service that catalog artists are receiving from labels. Claims Thomson: "I think that the service of record labels for 99% of artists since 2006 has been absolutely shocking. In 2006, when streaming was launched 30 million records got re-released [on streaming platforms]...  "Labels are getting better at [marketing catalog records]. But when I say better, that means instead of 500 catalog projects a year [being prioritized for marketing by the major record companies], maybe there's now 700 catalog projects a year. "There are 30 million records on Spotify. [And] 75% of streaming is catalog, and that grew 10% last year."The Music Business Worldwide Podcast is supported by Voly Music.