Music Ally Focus

Ep. 178: Collective management is no longer just about collecting royalties; it's about innovating infrastructure and offering direct services. So we're joined by Julien Lefebvre, the Head of Innovation and Sacem Lab, to talk about the Lab project, its startup partnerships, and the strategic decision to open up certain proprietary technologies (including blockchain applications) to all creators, redefining the role of a CMO as a global tech enabler.
He discusses: balancing Sacem's priorities with the current volatile music ecosystem; the Musicstart service, where anyone –Sacem members or not – can use their tool to secure permanent "proof of creation" of their music; how the organisation is collaborating with fellow CMOs like GEMA and ASCAP; and how the music-tech startup landscape is moving away from "hype" tech.
Read more here:  SACEM, Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (https://presse.sacem.fr/?lang=en)
This is the second in a special series of Music Ally Focus made in collaboration with Sacem, exploring the evolution of collective management in the modern music industry – looking at technology, policy, copyright and more.

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In the first episode in the series, David El Sayegh, Deputy CEO of Sacem, discussed how the organisation is defining the future of copyright.
Over the next two episodes, we will continue to dive into how collective management is having to move with the times: exploring how one of the world’s leading CMOs is navigating a landscape redefined by artificial intelligence, global scaling, and the changing needs of modern creators.
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This is a Music Ally Co-Labs podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/music-ally-co-labs⁠⁠.
Co-Labs content is created by publishing partners in liaison with the Music Ally Editorial Team. We work closely with partners to ensure that it adheres to Music Ally's high expectations of quality, thoughtfulness, and usefulness.

Ep. 177: Generative AI, copyright, and collection. Welcome to a special Music Ally Focus podcast series made in collaboration with Sacem, exploring the evolution of collective management in the modern music industry – looking at technology, policy, copyright and more.
In the first episode: Generative AI is no longer a future concept – it is a fundamental tool in today's creative process. But as the amount of AI-generated content increases, so do the complexities of music rights – and the number of questions that songwriters, artists and rightsholders have.
So we spoke to David El Sayegh, Deputy CEO of collecting society Sacem, to discuss how the organisation is defining the future of copyright. We explored Sacem’s strategic approach to the AI revolution, from building a shared understanding of policy to the practical technologies being tested in the Sacem Lab, to protect human creativity and ensure fair revenue exists in this new landscape.
And, we ask El Sayegh: if we are in the middle of a huge shift in AI-driven music creation and consumption, what are the revenue opportunities – and financial risks – for creators and CMOs stemming from this?
It's a broad and deep discussion from the top: he also discussed Sacem's official stance on AI training models, how they are protecting the notion of human creativity – and the new technologies being developed to ensure creators are fairly compensated in an AI-driven world. 
Explore more: https://flyer.sacemenligne.fr/IA/EN/index.html
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Over the next three episodes, we continue to dive into how collective management is having to move with the times: exploring how one of the world’s leading CMOs is navigating a landscape redefined by artificial intelligence, global scaling, and the changing needs of modern creators.
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This is a Music Ally Co-Labs podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/music-ally-co-labs⁠.
Co-Labs content is created by publishing partners in liaison with the Music Ally Editorial Team. We work closely with partners to ensure that it adheres to Music Ally's high expectations of quality, thoughtfulness, and usefulness.

Ep. 176: In 2026, labels, artists, musicians and creators are all working differently: generating millions of micro-royalties every month across global campaigns that involve multiple of partners across dozens of countries. Getting your music out there is easier than ever, but processing that increased volume of payouts becomes more complex – and we all have an expectation to get paid fast, and see what’s going on and what we’re owed at any given time.
So to find out what’s happening at the point where all those payment pipes meet, in this latest episode of Music Ally Focus, we partnered with a fintech company that processes tens of billions of payments each year – Tipalti, which works closely with labels like Ninja Tune to pay their artists what they’re owed.
We chatted to Tipalti’s Travis Hughson about what labels need in 2026, what artists want when it comes to payments, and how to maintain trust and transparency to keep all parties happy.
Some more Tipalti resources for the music business:
Automated Royalty Payouts to Nurture Artists
Ninja Tune Enhances Artist Satisfaction and Cuts Payouts Processing Time by 50% With Tipalti Mass Payments
Fast, Secure Global Payments Anywhere
Royalty Rate Explained: How to Determine Your Royalties

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This is a Music Ally Co-Labs podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/music-ally-co-labs.
Co-Labs content is created by publishing partners in liaison with the Music Ally Editorial Team. We work closely with partners to ensure that it adheres to Music Ally's high expectations of quality, thoughtfulness, and usefulness.

Ep. 175: Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Research joins us to talk about labels in 2026. It's jam-packed with great advice for labels of all sizes and ambitions, including:
The value shift between labels and streaming platforms in terms of the 'ownership' of the music consumer
How labels should "specialise" - and what that means for the labels who try to do it all
He advocates for labels to 'nurture' artists with long-term artist development. He explains why – and how a label boss might need to justify a three-year slow-burn strategy when they're under so much pressure to deliver now
What revenue streams or opportunities might labels be labels ignoring because they're too focused on protecting the streaming status quo?
There's also a fairly unexpected chat about Nu-Metal, Limp Bizkit, and UK Garage.
Midia report: The future of labels – https://www.midiaresearch.com/reports/the-future-of-labels-shifting-sands
Ride - Vapour Trail – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVhNi5cU8mo
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Ep. 174: What's going to give you or your artist cut-through in 2026? At the start of last year we published one of our most popular podcasts of the year: when we asked Liam James Ward, CEO/co-founder of content strategy studio Something Something to look ahead into 2025’s upcoming marketing trends. Never let it be said that Music Ally Focus likes anything more than pushing against an open door, so when we had the opportunity to get Liam back on the show, we said yes.
(It was a timely recording too, as Something Something were recently named Agency of the Year in Music Ally’s 2025 Music Marketing Awards.)
Thus in this special episode of Music Ally Focus we’ll look beyond the bland and get clarity on the key changes and surprising developments in digital and social music marketing that emerged last year and what you can do in 2026, whether you’re a big budget high-flyer or a scrappy and ambitious DIY-er. 
Liam also digs into fan accounts, the atomisation of content, and crafting fun and sticky videos that stretch the idea of authenticity into exciting new places. We’ll talk about clipping, communities and crafting constellations of content, and we’ll talk about how marketers already instinctively know what strategy they should take for their artist and that artist’s audience.
Something Something: https://www.somethingsomething.social/
Contact Liam: [email protected]⁠ 
Music Ally Campaigns of the Year: https://musically.com/best-music-marketing-campaigns-of-the-year/