Music Ally Focus

Ep. 190: At a time when streaming dominates and independent labels are supposedly fighting to survive, Frontiers Music has marked its 30th anniversary by taking Megadeth to No.1 on the Billboard 200. It’s the first US chart-topper of the band’s career.
In this episode of Music Ally Focus, made in association with Frontiers Music, we talk to the label’s founder, Serafino Perugino. He tells the story of how he quit his job in Naples in 1996 with two kids at home, no salary and a huge CD collection. That became a global rock label that has worked with Journey, Toto, Whitesnake and now Megadeth.
In this episode:
The road to No.1: how Frontiers built an international team that could handle a release the size of Megadeth’s – and why it put out around 15 different vinyl variants.
Expanding beyond classic rock: Serafino explains the BLKIIBLK (metal) and FLG (alternative) imprints.
Legacy acts in the modern market: backing heritage artists that the majors had dropped, and pushing legends to keep raising their game.
Staying independent and profitable: why knowing your limits and not overpaying kept Frontiers going from the CD era into streaming.
Physical still rules: why physical formats still bring in most of the label’s revenue, and how to make variants that fans actually want rather than cynical cash-grabs.
What’s next: we talk about the Frontiers Rock Festival 2027
Plus: the one record Serafino would keep forever, and the artist who inspired him to start Frontiers.

Links:
Frontiers Music: ⁠https://frontiers.shop/⁠
Frontiers Rock Festival: ⁠https://www.frontiersrockfestival.com/en/⁠
Megadeth – Megadeth: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJaod-oManGRhs9rwllXZsQNz1I0BseW&si=5jzotzMIS1w4y0nr
Journey – Escape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GlUFI6iWdU

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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. 189: Earlier this year, German rights society GEMA took generative music platform Suno to court in Munich, and won — demonstrating legally that AI models memorise human compositions and then reproduce them. But securing that win inside a courtroom is only half the battle.
In this episode, Music Ally chats with Dr. Kai Welp, General Counsel at GEMA, and he walks us through the nuts and bolts of how they proved Suno was infringing copyright, why US fair use didn't protect them, and the hard truth about why court wins alone won't solve the AI dilemma.
We also dig into the race against so-called “synthetic data,” why GEMA believes songwriters must be compensated on the output side whenever AI music is monetised, and what the EU AI Act actually delivers versus what creators genuinely need.
Here's GEMA's page of information about their legal case, including the sound files we discuss: https://www.gema.de/en/news/ai-and-music/ai-lawsuit
And here's more on the case, including Suno's response: https://musically.com/2026/07/31/german-collecting-society-gema-wins-its-copyright-infringement-lawsuit-against-suno/
Here's GEMA's PLAI dataset: https://www.gema.de/en/about-gema/ki-hub/plai-by-gema
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Ep. 188: If you own an indie label, publishing company, or back-catalogue, there is a very high chance your IP is leaking revenue right now. Between messy global metadata, unclaimed rights, and passive distribution, most independent rightsholders are leaving serious cash on the table.
In this new episode of Music Ally Focus, in association with Indie Music Rights we sit down with Pål Sigvaldsen to break down the lowest-hanging fruit for plugging those leaks, the unsexy admin fixes that drive immediate returns, and how a new “cash-plus-equity” co-ownership model is helping independent creators cash out without walking away from their legacy. (Disclosure: Music Ally holds an equity stake in Indie Music Rights.)
In this episode:
Indie rights, right now: we get past headline-grabbing mega-deals to examine what the acquisition and catalogue market actually looks like for mid-sized indie rightsholders.
Plugging the leaks: where labels lose money every day – and why fixing “unsexy” stuff like metadata and broken claims often beats chasing viral TikTok moments.
Auditing your catalogue: Pål explains the high-impact checks busy label managers can perform right now to stop revenue bleeding.
Rethinking catalogue sales: Why traditional “hand over the keys” catalogue deals can alienate indie founders, and how a shared-equity model aligns long-term incentives.
Active caretaking: What happens behind the scenes during the first six months of optimising a newly acquired catalogue?

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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. 187: Back-office admin – from distribution and DSP analytics to neighbouring rights and D2C sales – remains a massive operational drain for indie labels, publishers, and self-releasing artists. In this episode, in collaboration with Absolute Label Services, we sit down with Simon Wills (Co-founder & MD) and Paul Purcell (Director of Platform) to explore how modern "music operating systems" are replacing clunky, fragmented tech stacks, and endless open browser tabs.
We discuss why Absolute built their own platform, Anthology, how private AI empowers lean teams to operate with major-label firepower, and what the future holds for independent rightsholders aiming to scale without expanding headcount.
Anthology: absolutelabelservices.com/anthology
And here's what we discussed:
Ditching spreadsheet hell: Why juggling dozens of portals is breaking indie workflows, and why music-led teams build better tools than tech bros.

Taming the admin monster: Unpicking the daily operational time-killers and centralising rights, metadata, and D2C into a single engine.

AI that's safe for your data: How to use private, walled-off data models that supercharge your catalogue without risking your IP.

The 2028 indie blueprint: How a three-person team can punch with major-label firepower - and why AI is here to kill busywork, not take your job.
Unlocking hidden catalogue cash: Turning passive data into active revenue, automated restocks, and slept-on sync opportunities.

=======
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 186: Forget AI music for a moment: more humans are making music than ever before – and they're using powerful, accessible tools to do it. One of those tools is the digital audio workstation FL Studio – and we spoke to Constantin Köhncke, CEO of Image-Line, the company behind FL Studio, and chief product and technology officer Robert Linke about navigating the creator environment in 2026.
They talk about the delicate balancing act between human creativity, generative AI, and accessible production tools in modern music making.
Originally created in 1997 as Fruity Loops, FL Studio has developed into a dominant digital audio workstation responsible for defining major electronic and hip-hop sub-genres.
Constantin and Robert also discuss FL Studio's strict ethical guardrails around AI training models; how they use the DAW's famous "pay-once, get free lifetime updates" business model to their advantage; and how they meet the needs of millions of music creators, from bedroom producers to those at the top of the Billboard charts.

FL Studio Beta: ⁠https://fl.studio⁠
Boards of Canada – Amo Bishop Roden:
https://youtu.be/sFBMIra45lU
Radiohead – Everything in Its Right Place (Gigamesh remix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHp370aZvsM
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