Music Ally Focus

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/

Ep 173: We're refreshing Focus (or should that be re-Focusing?) for our many music marketing listeners – we'll now be publishing regular episodes that spotlights recent excellent music marketing work. We're calling it "Genius Steals", so get ready to be inspired as regular host Joe Sparrow asks the stupid questions to Music Ally's marketing expert Marlen Hüllbrock.
She'll explain why a bunch of great campaigns caught her eye recently, including a Lily Allen USB stick that you might get behind, Sleep Token's colouring book, The Kinks' tea, and lots more. Also: is Marlen smug about her Spotify Wrapped Age? (Yes, she is.)
It's ideal for anyone who wants to get up to speed quickly and be inspired by* good recent marketing ideas.
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Music Ally's team is constantly on the lookout for the latest and greatest music marketing campaigns. download - for free! - our huge Campaigns of the Year report for 2025 here: https://musically.com/best-music-marketing-campaigns-of-the-year
And dig into all our marketers' resources right here: https://musically.com/marketing-insight
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Here's a load of links to all the stuff Marlen mentioned:
Lily Allen (https://www.instagram.com/p/DRzjmtIjOGF/?igsh=dGttbWc0bTdpYnRl)
• Lily Allen (https://lilyallen.tmstor.es/product/west-end-girl-usb-nrd)
• Fred again.. (https://www.reddit.com/r/fredagain/comments/1pdi19n/usb_necklace/)
• TOMORA (https://www.instagram.com/tomora)
• TOMORA (https://soundcloud.com/tomoraofficial/ring-the-alarm?si=6d087a14f2ca44bf9ef224a0fb000418&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing)
• Sofi Merone (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRzsZJYDZc1/?igsh=YTR2eGg0MW1zNmkx)
• Sofi Merone (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DR78m79jdJV/?igsh=dGF4YjkwYzA1eHcy)
• SAILORR (https://www.instagram.com/p/DR5k_JMASWs/?igsh=dW4waWV4eWxkc2R1)
• The Kinks (https://thekinkstea.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopokPr8qjspz3-4VY96ARYCj5VpGMKLREN4_TeWaPYV2rW7k4Hg)
• berlioz (https://krankbrother.seetickets.com/event/berlioz-presents-deep-in-it/finsbury-park/3560930?pre=pre&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email)
• JADE (https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/1peg1x8/jade_thats_showbiz_baby_the_encore/)
• Sleep Token (https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/sleep-token-coloring-book-even-in-arcadia-album-1236130093/)
• Eli (https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRLC713Y/)
• Eli (https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRLXJBuq/)
• Eli (https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRLXNhNQ/)
• Gunna (https://www.instagram.com/p/DR2nl-eEZcC/?igsh=MTU4Yzk3M2kwcWp0ag==)
• Katseye (https://www.instagram.com/p/DRiQpMvDyS8/?igsh=MW00dHQ4eWE3YXJoNQ%3D%3D)

*genius steals, remember

Ep 172: Taking the pulse of music-tech in 2025. We asked Music Ally’s head of insight, Stuart Dredge, to chat to our managing editor Joe Sparrow about the state of music-tech – and they talk in depth about AI doing your admin, the proliferation of tools designed to empower artists, direct-to-fan monetisation tech,  and more!
This podcast connects to Music Ally's latest Insight Report on music-tech in 2025 (https://musically.com/category/reports).
This year is the third “Year Of AI” in a row, by our reckoning. So how will people in the industry actually use AI – and in mundane ways? How much can be automated and when do humans need to step into the decision-making process? And if you automate away the mundane tasks, where do entrants in the industry start?

Ep. 171: We speak to Idan Dobrecki, the co-founder of Aiode, an AI music-making platform that emphasises two key features: its ethically-trained system that shares earnings with the musicians whose music is used, and its “virtual collaborator” approach. Idan compares the latter to having a talented musician “riding shotgun”, and music producers can call on the skills of the virtual (real) musicians to augment their songs.
If you’re wondering how that works from a music production perspective, you can hear it working in real time in this episode.
Idan also chats to Music Ally Editor Joe Sparrow – in this episode made in collaboration with Aiode – about the future integration of AI with the music industry as a whole, and to music production in particular; the ethical use of music training data, and how doing it ethically “makes better business sense”; and how sharing money with rightsholders makes for a better product.
Aiode: https://aiode.com
Music Ally Co-Labs: ⁠⁠⁠musically.com/music-ally-co-labs