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Wow, Wow, Joy, preciousish h I Welcome back everybody. This
is Matt Connorton unleashed, and we are live from these studios of wm NH
ninety five point three FM in glorious Manchester, New Hampshire on Canal Street.
And of course today is Saturday, May four, twenty twenty four, and
Jenny is here with me as well. Oh why can't I hear you say
that again? I'm still president, Yes, yes, I'm here, yes,
yes. And that song we just heard is called the Final Pope and
the band is Cho shek. If I'm pronouncing that correctly, we'll ask the
guys, because we have the band on with us via Skype. Hello are
you there? Yeah? Hi, Hey guys. Now who do we have
from the band? Is it? Is it all all of you? Or
is it some of you? Or who's who's here with us? It's just
Jeremy and Jared? All right, Jeremy and Jared. Am I saying the
name correctly? By the way, cho Y, Yes, you got it?
Excellent? Excellent. Yeah. I was telling I was telling Jenny earlier
that you know, you sent us a few tracks to play and and I
listened to those really like them. I love that song Final Pope. And
then last night I was actually going through because You've got this album called seven
up on band camp and I I listened to the rest of the album.
I really really like it. I like what you're doing. You guys have
a unique sound. I like the I like the approach to where it's kind
of some of the songs, it's kind of minimal in terms of vocals,
but a lot of layered, textured guitar work and really cool. Definitely definitely
different from you know, a lot of what you hear on, say,
mainstream radio. Uh so, I like what what you guys are doing.
And you guys are from Pittsburgh, correct, yes, okay? And how
long is uh how long have you been around? How long has this band
existed? Three years? Yeah, three years and just started finally playing out
like the last year or so here Oh okay, okay, now why is
that? Why Why did it take a couple of years before you started doing
live shows? Were you just focused on recording and writing or or was there
another reason? Well, we had a we had an original lineup and then
COVID hit and that kind of through the wrench in the spoke, so to
speak, and after a lineup change and got everybody up to speed. So
okay, Okay, Now do you have other is this? Is this all
you've released so far? Is seven? Or do you have other music that
you've put out there? Because it sounds like again, you know, obviously
you were you were at it for a while before you before you started playing
out and of course, yeah, the pandemic really screwed things up for everybody
for a bit there. But is this all that you've released so far?
Yes, we're in the process of working on a twelve song full album here
oh shortly? Yes, Oh, very good, very good. Uh.
Where does the name come from? What does scho shek mean? Shock is
Well, it's a Hebrew word. I took it. It's a name of
a character in a whole story I have written out, and uh kind of
wanted people to be able to like guess what the story is about and engage
with it and kind of give their own spin on it. Yeah, there's
a whole like creation mythos and uh it's uh, it's pretty involved. Okay,
Okay, Now is there a story within these tracks from seven or is
the story a larger It sounds like the story is a larger, broader,
uh long term thing. Yes, there are some songs on seven that incorporated
in Uh, that's I'm trying to think of which one, like Bones of
Witches, the contract mainly the contract. Okay, okay, yeah, that's
I really like that one too. We'll we'll play that one too. Yeah,
really good stuff. What is the what is the process like in terms
of writing? Like? Who? Who? Who writes the songs? You
all write together? Is it? Is it? You two guys are because
like I said, what you're doing is is uh kind of unique. So
I'm really interested in the songwriting process. Well, first off, thank you
so much. I really appreciate that's very kind. The song process usually is,
uh, it's kind of me and Jeremy both are kind of the main
songwriters. What I'll do usually is write two riffs and then hand him off
to him and he'll make a skeleton of the song, and then we'll take
it to the rest of the band and we'll make tweaks and adjustments and changes
and hammer out the parts and what what we feel sounds good and what we
feel you know, can be omitted or shortened or lengthened or you know whatever
whatever you'd have. Yeah, yeah, is it intentional that, like I
said, some of these songs they're very sparse in terms of lyrics and and
you know, not all of them obviously, but some of them. Is
is that something that happens organically when you're putting these songs together or or is
that intentional? You know, do you go into the song saying, you
know, this one, we're gonna leave a lot of space lyrically, just
gonna be a couple of lines and then maybe repeats later. Is that is
that something you do intentionally or does that just is that just kind of how
it turns out. Yeah, it's kind of just how it turns out.
I mean, originally I'd left some I would I would have originally had a
female singer, and uh, like I said, with COVID and everything,
it just kind of through everybody's schedule and life into a mess as you know,
you know that. Yeah, so Carton, some of it was empty
for or like female vocals to be there. Now that that's not an issue,
you know, we're not going to be a thing. Well, you
know, I'll fill the space is a little bit better on songs that are
coming up. But that was the intension there was. There was supposed to
be like a female lines and male lines, but you know, yeah,
no, that makes sense. But what I like about what you've done is
with the songs, it's like, because you know they're not instrumentals, you
know as you're listening. At least this was my experience, like I said,
because I was I was listening. I listened to the whole thing last
night, and it's like the kind of the anticipation of you know, there's
going to be a vocal at some point, and then once it and then
once the vocal happens, you know, if it's one of the songs where
the vocals are very sparse, then once the vocal happens, you're kind of
anticipating or wondering, you know, is there going to be more vocals or
is that it? And and there's something about that that, for me as
a listener, just really pulled me in and riagued me because, like I
said, it's it's something that's that's unusual you guys, So you do have
an unusual sound in that respect, is it? Are there other bands in
your area that you kind of team up with in terms of doing shows or
you know, sometimes these partnerships happen very organically, I know from my own
experience, or do you find it's it's a little difficult to really work with
other bands on live shows because what you're doing is unique. I mean,
I would imagine you kind of stand out in the scene, right because what
you're doing is unique. A little bit of both. I'd say, like
we our biggest partner. We haven't played many shows with them, but but
uh, I'm in constant contact with him. Is grim Rock? Yep,
yep. He's a great guy. He's he's helped us out a lot.
But dud our unique sound. We we there's not too many bands that you
know, we fit right in with. It's like a glove. But we
can mold to different types of music. So if we wanted to play a
heavier show, we can do that, or if we wanted to go more
alternative, we can do that also. Yeah, grim Rock, That's who
I was asking Jenny this morning and I said, how did how did uh
how did this band come to us? And Uh, I suspected it was
it was grim Rock because you guys are from the same area. Yeah,
he's he's been on with us, I think a few times now. He's
amazing, absolutely absolutely anytime he sends me a recommendation, it's always us.
Oh yeah, always, and he's got a unique sound too. Really like
what he's doing. Yeah, yeah, Uh, you mentioned he's helped you
a lot. What what is What has he done that has been helpful to
you guys as a band? Well, first, I had a lot of
trouble setting up the Facebook page personally. Yeah, so he got me in
the right direction with that. But uh, beyond that, you know,
we just started sharing a lot of different connections and show opportunities. And he
he's he is very good at at marketing himself. So he shared a lot
of his insight with me on how he goes about that. Every day I
talk to him almost every day he's sending me something saying, hey, check
this out, or this is why I do this, or and it's it's
been extremely helpful. Yeah, that's that's very cool. Yeah, he's he's
really committed to to what he's doing with the visual of it. He was
telling us the last time he was on with us, he was talking about,
uh, you know, because he's got this whole costume and and face
paint and stuff, and he was talking about, uh, he he doesn't
like to put all of that on at the venue. He he likes to
do that ahead of time. And he was talking about stopping at a convenience
store somewhere on his way to his show, and he's he's already all made
up to look like that, and uh, you know, kind of the
looks and the interactions that he had or the looks that he gets in traffic.
He's on his way your show looking like that. But you know,
you got to admire that that commitment, and I think that's, uh,
that's really cool. And uh, yeah, really we really like his music
a lot. We're big fans. We're big fans. So what is what
is your live show like when you play out? Because is I mean,
do you do you just play the songs or is there some sort of theatrics
involved? Because it seems like this music would lend itself to some sort of
theatrics, but but not necessarily. I would love to do that at some
point. Yeah, but uh, as of right now, we're just kind
of we're finding ways to A thing that we've decided to do as of recently
for live stuff is to kind of kind of cut the you know, the
talking to the crowd, the stuff between songs. We're trying to write segues
to tie in one song. So when you're coming for a half hour,
forty five minutes, an hour or whatever, we're just gonna give you that
entire block of time of just music. Yeah, we're going to keep the
audio for for the the entirety of the thing. So that that's one thing
we've been trying to do eventually. Like you said, I'd love to incorporate
like stage antics and even like puppeteering or you know, something along those lines
to kind of like a big like a big rock opera type of stuff.
I think that would be fantastic when the uh, you know, the time's
right for that. Yeah, I can I can see that. I can
imagine that for you guys. But I do think it's cool though too that
you're not doing a lot of so it sounds like there's no stage banter or
anything with with the crowd between songs. I I admire that. I've I've
always personally, this is just me, I've always kind of hated it when
when between songs. Again, it's one thing if there's some sort of something
that enhances the show, but when it's just like you know, talking to
the crowd or whatever, it's like you know, it's like when you go
to a like if you go to an arena show and you know, the
lead singer asks the crowd, you know, are you all ready to rock
or whatever, and it's like, yeah, that's what we're here. Yeah
exactly, It's it's really not you don't have to ask us, we will.
We will gladly rock with you, you know exactly. That's kind of
our Our take on that too, is, uh, you know, you're
you know, money anymore, and you're paying good money to come to these
shows. We want to fill it with you know, entertainment. Yeah,
and like you just said, like asking you how you're doing or if you're
ready to rock or you know, I don't, I don't know. I
don't have anything against bands that do that or anything. It's just kind of
the path we want to take. That's all. We've watched several bands,
uh, in our opinion really bomb yeah talking. Yeah, so we we
were determined to not get down that route and kind of change it up a
little bit. Yeah. No, that's cool. I really admire that tremendolay.
When you play out, do you play uh, do you play new
material that's not on seven or are you waiting until you're ready to release something
new. Yeah, we we played quite a few. Yeah, excellent,
excellent. Have you guys made any videos, any music videos? That's that's
on the agenda. Yeah, coming up, not not quite yet. Yeah
yeah. And uh, are you playing out a lot? Like what's the
what's the scene like where you are in Pittsburgh? I assume you play other
other cities too, uh, in the in the region, but what what
what is the scene like there? It's it's it's pretty vibrant, like there's
there's a lot going on any given night. Yeah, we're fortunate that we
have a really awesome venue in in our hometown, Greensburg. Ye, just
about every night something's going on. There's not always music related, but uh,
there's there's a lot of bands competing for in a stage space here.
Yeah. Yeah is Greensburg, guys, who was a suburb of Pittsburgh.
Yes, okay, okay, cool? Cool? Yeah, And it's good
that you have a vibrant scene and you know, like you said, there's
a lot of bands competing for that space. But but I think it also
probably assume it helps a lot for you guys to be able to stand out.
Like I said, because what you're doing is uh is a bit uh
is a bit unusual. Where do you record? Were these songs that the
songs were playing today? Were these all recorded in the same place? Yes?
Is that? Uh? Yeah? Good? Go ahead. I believe,
I believe. I hope he doesn't get mad if he is listening here,
but I believe. It's called Cerebral Audio Productions. Okay. And uh,
Shane Oh, I can't think of his last name off my but uh,
he's fantastic. He's in a I think it's Shane Bushmeyer. He's in
a metal band himself, and they're pretty cool. I can't think of the
name off the top of my head right now. But we wanted to find
somebody that had like a little heavier approach to things. Yeah, and he
did a fantastic job. I think on this song. Is he really He
listened to everything that we wanted and he delivered on all of it. So
yeah, we did all seven songs with him. I think for this next
album though, I'd kind of like to have him do three songs, have
somebody else do three, so I have like four different people do just to
give like a kind of a uniqueness to all of them. And you know
see how that turns out. Yeah, that's that's interesting because that's not something
I hear from a lot of people, because there's there's I think some artists
kind of have this idea that if you're recording an album, there has to
be this you know, you can only work with one engineer or a producer
because you want because otherwise it's not going to be cohesive or whatnot. But
what you're saying is interesting that you know you want you want kind of different
different textures I guess to the songs, right, is that maybe a way
of putting it where working with different people will give you that. And I
think that's I think that's an interesting approach, And now it makes sense to
me. Well yeah, no, yeah, that's that's just that's just the
thing is, you know, we we have some heavier things, we have
lighter things, We have eclectic stuff like alternative stuff, uh uh, acoustic
song you know, and I'd kind of like to get an engineer with a
little more mindset towards those different kind of vibes and and have them really perfect
it and sound sound great. Then I can see, you know, saying
that most albums are done that way. As you know, one producer or
one engineer and you know their assistance and then you go from there. But
as kind of we, as you've said, we we kind of like to
do things a little bit differently and kind of give a different perspective on h
on music because it it's hard nowadays to stand out. I mean there's so
many great acts just everywhere, and uh, if you're up on YouTube or
you're up on spot, I mean you're competing with the entire world. Whereas
you know, back back in the day and now it sounds like an old
reveal my age here, but you know, you just had to review,
you just had to fight for space on the radio or you know, your
local venue. Whereas now you're you're literally competing with all entertainment that's ever been
and ever you know will be. So it's a tougher thing, but I
think we're up to it. Yeah, no, I agree with you.
And yeah, it's it's a double edged sword, I think, because on
one hand, it's it's, uh, it's easier than it's ever been to
put music out there because you don't you don't need a label. You can
do everything all yourself. And uh, you know, God bless the Internet.
You can you can distribute your music to the world. And uh but
like you said, it is the world that you're competing with, and you
know, right, yeah, you're competing with you know, I mean,
God only knows how much new music is being uploaded the Actually there's so much
new music. That we had talked. I think this was more than a
year ago, but I thought it was an interesting news item about Spotify was
actually starting to go through and clear out some some things on their platform that
they thought were maybe not up to snuff sonically, because you know, it,
it gets to a point where there's just too much data, there's too
many files and you've got to draw a line somewhere because I have no idea
how how many songs are on Spotify, but it's got to be in the
millions, I would think, so, you know, at some point,
you know, there's only so much room on these servers. So uh yeah,
yeah, but uh, if not millions billion, I mean billions,
I mean yeah, there is. There's just so much entertainment, so much
art out. It's like you said, it's a double edged sword. It's
a good it's good and bad, right, right, And we live in
a time where you're not just competing with all the other music, you're also
competing with you know, somebody's uh video of adorable kittens that they just put
up on YouTube, and and you know, we can't compete with adorable kitten,
right right, yeah, you know, and and uh and uh you
know all the gaming platforms and everything. So so the technology it uh yeah,
it it opens it up. It's it democratizes the creativity and that anybody
can put up anything at any time. But but then it's but yeah,
you've got so much competition. But when you put out seven, did you
put it out all at once? Or because a lot of the especially in
the last couple of years, a lot of the guests that we have on
the show are using a strategy where they put out individual singles and then eventually
those singles become an album or an EP. But it kind of the inverse
of how it used to be, where you know, an artist would put
out one single ahead of the album, but then the album comes out before
a second single is even discussed. What has your strategy been, Well,
we put seven out as one complete thing, like I wanted that to kind
of be our debut. Yeah, but but we're probably gonna take that route
just because of the nature nature of things that that kind of is like a
good way to do stuff now is and to keep people coming back. It's
kind of more for like the algorithms and stuff. I guess I was watching
a video on that that's that's what they least. So you're like constantly putting
out something new instead of just putting it all out at one time. Yeah,
yeah, you gotta feed that machine. Yeah, absolutely, you do,
absolutely well. Listen, guys, I really like what you're doing.
We're gonna in a moment, we'll let you go, and I'm gonna play
this track the Contract, because this is my personal favorite out of out of
everything from seven and what you sent us. I really really like this song
a lot. It's got some the dynamics of it. It kind of takes
you on a little bit of a trip, and I just think it's really
really cool. I love what you guys are doing. I'm looking forward to
hearing new music when it's ready. And what do our listeners need to know
about how to find you online? What should they know so they can keep
up with everything that you're doing and get access to your music and just be
aware of what's going on with cho shek. Well, our our main HOB
would be Facebook, which is Facebook dot com, slashock band. You can
get kind of get all the links to other socials there. Our music right
now is on band camp and it's we have it up on SoundCloud. We're
going to be doing Spotify here soon or in all the related platforms of that
nature. But you'll be able to get all that information. Everything runs through
Facebook first. Yeah, yeah, no, it makes sense, makes sense.
Jeremy and Jared, thank you so much for joining us today. This
has been really cool. Like I said, I'm a big fan of what
you're doing. I look forward to hearing new music in the future and I
love this song that we're about to play the contract. But we'll let you
guys go and say hi to grim Rock for us. We love him and
he's amazing. But guys, thank you so much for joining us today on
the show. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Thanks so much for having
us. I really appreciate it. Oh you got it. Thank you all
right, take care all right. That is the guys from Choshak And without
further ado, this is called the contract to sign to s silly, I
can say it's the new line on your lips and a shallow knee craves and
a girl I can see you saw on your hips and a shallow knee crasy.
Okay, so times to a time to do Okay, I just see
it all bad. What should called the the bolting? Do you tah?
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You wonder life because Saturdays and Sunday nights midnight to four am. This hour
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Their phone number is eight six six eight four one forty six hundred or on
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transmissions emanate from the zeed at of one thousand Elm Streets. Insure into the
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to enthrall you with its mes. Rising in Villain, you would have sny
of foundless All that's horns one dude. W m n H rip the novels
you're listening to w n H ninety five point you command God, don't get
so greenly matzelf, thank you, Welcome back everybody. It is Matt Connorton
Unleashed and we are from the studios of w m n H ninety five point
three FM on Canal Street in Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire, on this Saturday
May four, twenty twenty four. May the fourth be with you. As
Jenny reminded us earlier in the show, Jenny is here as well, of
course at the news table. And yes, yes, I'm sorry, I
didn't mean to cut you off and accounted for I guess, so, yes,
I guess. And thank you again to the band Choschek from Pennsylvania.
Oh good for skyping. And yeah, I really I love that song.
The contract that is that is so absolutely you even know the words already.
I was impressed. Yeah. Yeah, Well they don't load their songs as
we were talking about, they don't load up with a lot of lyrics,
so it's easy to learn them. No, but I really like them a
lot, so we will definitely have them back in the future. And coming
up in the third hour, we have Ray Coats skyping in from the UK,
and we're going to talk about some of his new music and one of
the tracks. It's kind of a special thing. One of the songs I'm
My Voice is included on the track, So looking forward to sharing that with
everybody. By the way, yes, yes, Also by the way,
in the Facebook live chat, we have Peter Cochrane, who's a name I've
never seen in my live chat room during the show, but do you remember
Pete? He he was a longtime roommate of mine, actually in Conqueror.
I brought you to his wedding, yes, which was memorable because Peter had
his own entrance music during his wedding. He came out to Darth. Yes,
we were talking about so it's it's appropriate that he be in the chat
room. Made the fourth because yes he was. He came out to His
entrance music was the Darth Vaders theme that, however, I've ever seen.
Yeah, that was pretty cool. It was awesome. That was very cool.
So that's what Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Yeah,
that was a That was a cool wedding. That was way back. Yes,
yes, yeah, it's been like a decade, not quite but close
yeah yeah close. Yeah. Congratulations to you guys. Uh if you would
like to join us on the program, uh six oh three two five oh
six oh seven. The studio line is open six oh three two five oh
six oh seven. You can also text us at six one seven nine one
seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connorton. You
can email me Matt at Matt Coonorton dot com. And of course you can
interact into opine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do
so that we can hear it enjoy your dolcient tones is to give us a
call at six o three two five oh six oh seven. Like I said,
we do have ray coats coming up in the third hour. But I
think we uh were going to uh talk a little bit about now TikTok is
in the news a lot. Now We're not going to uh discuss the uh
political aspects of it, because we don't really do that in this venue any
longer. But TikTok also there is news regarding TikTok in terms of the music
and and in fact, we were talking with Shoshak when they were on Skype
with us. We talked a little bit about, you know, because they
were saying how grim Rock has helped with some of their getting their social media
set up and whatnot, and the importance of that and how artists compete in
this social media world, in the Internet world that we live in, because
we're old enough to remember when there was no Internet, and the music industry
functioned very differently. When you know, an artist, would you know,
one single would go to radio ahead of the album, and then the album
would come out, and only after the album was out would would you get
a second single? And so forth. And the Internet has changed everything and
a big part of that has been TikTok not shortly, not long ago,
they pulled music and everybody said, TikTok's gonna die, yeah because the music
and apparently that all of it but a decent chunk. Well apparently yeah,
And apparently that's been resolved as far as a universal music group. But but
this does play a major, a major role in helping a lot of these
artists TikTok and in terms of you know, because and again this wasn't a
thing pre internet. But sometimes that's where an artist first begins to build a
following, very often is on social media. I think that's how if I
remember correctly, I think That's how Justin Bieber first started to become famous was
on YouTube. There are a lot of artists these days that get to come
up because they're out there where the people can reach them. Right, it's
not beholden to the record companies as so much anymore because it is easier to
release your own and to get that social following. A lot of artists have
work hard to get there and they make nothing nothing on social media. They
don't even get a penny. It's like a percentage of a penny, right,
So it's really hard for artists to make money. Well, Spotify doesn't
pay much money, No, that's for sure. Actually, do any of
them really the artists get what their worth? No, they don't. They
absolutely don't. So in this instance, well, there's an article here from
Music Businessworldwide dot com that says the TikTok era is over. Artists are not
being signed based on one thing going viral anymore. It says here. At
the beginning of this year, Michelle Harrison YouTube I'm Sorry. I ventured out
alone to launch her own management company, MPH Collective, following a twenty year
career that's seen her work with Alanis Morissett, Vampire Weekend and many more.
She founded the company after stops at Monotone, friends at work, and range
media partners. In realizing the desire to do things her own way, MPHS
founded on all right, I'm gonna skip down a little bit here. We
don't need her whole backstory. Well, I mean, we don't have time.
But okay, Harrison knew she wanted to work in music while growing up
in Los Angeles in the nineteen nineties and dating a member of the punk band
Pennywise. Skipping down some more. Okay, oh, you know what,
that's not the right article. Oh were you looking for what I sent you?
Now? This was something else. But let's go with this website is
kind of messed up, this music business website. They've got the uh,
well you know what, let me I'm looking for I've got Pitchfork. Yeah,
we'll go with that. The that they actually have some decent writing,
they really do. Yeah. Yeah, pitchfork dot com. Yeah, that's
another good site for music business news. So Universal Music Group, who has
like a ton of course of the major artists. Yeah, they pulled their
stuff, their artists from TikTok and I remember when this happened. You and
I talking and there were people writing articles out there are saying that this is
it, this is the death of TikTok right because they're gonna they're losing everybody,
including the likes of Taylor Swift Adell, I mean those old Universal's one
of the oldest and largest groups out there, and that created really there was
a battle between them and TikTok. TikTok wants to use their music, doesn't
want to pay so much, Universals saying, now, wait a minute,
we want money. Unfortunately, the bottom line is no matter when this pans
out, and as it has panned out, artists, I believe, no
matter what this this deal is, it's never gonna be enough. It's never
going to be correct for the artists, they make nothing. These companies make
so much money off of their hard work and sweat, which is why it's
so important to produce, to support local music and artists in general. But
these guys really had quite the standoff. And what I thought was kind of
surprising to me is that Universal used TikTok of being of intimidating, of being
intimidating and trying to keep their music and you know, being indifferent to artists,
being paid for their music, just wanting to utilize it and basically bully
Universal and the artists into letting them do as they please and pay pitdlings not
even a penny per song. So honestly, I wasn't I didn't expect this
to happen. Yeah, I really thought that this was going to be a
longer standing issue, and I thought there was the potential for other companies like
Universal to get into that bandwagon and say, wait a minute, we're going
to jump in it with you. But surprisingly we find there has been an
agreement. Yeah, yeah, it says here, and this is from Pitchfork
a Pitchfork the article wearing off on you. So Music Group preaches deal to
return music to TikTok. The licensing agreement ends a months long dispute that stripped
the platform of some of the world's biggest artists. So it says here,
UMG, which is of course Universal Music Group, has reached a licensing agreement
with TikTok that will return its artists of the platform. The deal secures improved
renumeration for UMG artists, as well as new commercial opportunities and protections against generative
AI. According to a joint press release from the companies. The bitter dispute
came to light in January when UMG published in an open letter accusing TikTok of
indifference and intimidation and contract renewal negotiations. The following month, UMG extended the
holdout to its publishing arm, affecting the likes of Taylor Swift, Adele and
The Weekend, though Swift's music returned to the platform last month for undisclosed reasons.
Yeah, that's interesting. The companies are now working expeditiously to return to
music from US and it's publishing arm to the platform. The music will return
and affected videos unmuted in the next one to two weeks, according to a
source close to the situation. Now we should stop there for a moment and
just clarify for people. So the videos unmuted part. So that means so
if you were a content creator making a video on TikTok using any the music
of any artists signed to UMG, your video, TikTok didn't take down your
video, but they muted the audio in the video. The music. Yep,
we know a little bit about that here because we over the years of
course of doing this show and streaming it to Facebook. Yeah, I have.
I am quite used to. I have a I just copy paste from
from a file the verbiage that I use to appeal every time Facebook says either
we've removed your video because of cop writed music or we've muted part of your
video because a copyright holder has that music that used in your video, and
I always appeal those And basically what I say in the appeal is we are
a federally licensed FM radio station. All content is used for the purpose of
a radio show. And I almost always win the appeal nine times out of
ten. Yep, they take away whatever restriction. Facebook takes away whatever restriction
they had placed on the video, So that's not really as big of a
problem as it used to be. There was a time when they would just
remove the videos if they if that came up, but they don't really do
that anymore, hopefully, Yeah, thankfully. Yeah. But so all these
content, so this didn't just affect the artists, It's also affected content creators
great, probably millions of them who had content featuring, you know, including
music from artists on UMG. I think it's interesting that the article points out
that Taylor Swift music got back on TikTok before this agreement was signed. She's
such a powerhouse. Yeah, I mean that's pretty intense, and she's you
know you're not you're putting mind back on there. Yeah, you know,
you're upsetting my people. And yeah, that that happened before they even had
an agreement. I mean, when you look at artists today, she's certainly
one that whether you like her or don't like her doesn't matter. The level
of power that she has in the industry US. Absolutely, he's definitely one
of the top, if not the top breaking artists traveling right now. Oh,
I think she is at the top. Yeah. Yeah. She gave
like all of her staff last year's tour or something, she gave them all
really expensive gifts. She does take care of her people, but yeah,
she's she's got quite the the powerhouse of money coming in. So I can
imagine the influence she had to get her music back on without an existing contract
from Universal. That's that's really kind of takes you back for a moment there.
If you know anything about the those things work, that's impressive, it
says here Lucian Grange, chairman and CEO of UMG said in the press release
quote. This new chapter in our relationship with TikTok focuses on the value of
music and the primacy of human artistry and the welfare of the creative community.
We look forward to collaborating with the team at TikTok to further the interests of
our artists and songwriters and drive innovation in fan engagement while advancing social media monetization.
Unquote, uh TikTok CEO Shao Chow said quote. Music is an integral
part of the TikTok ecosystem, and we are pleased to have found a path
forward with UMG. We are committed to working together to drive value, discovery
and promotion for I'm already bored. I'm not going to read the rest of
that statement anyway. So, but you know, it's it's it's all.
It's just a way of yeah, yeah, it's just a corporatized way of
saying, yeah, we we got everything, they got what they want to
make them happy. Although I'm sure it's it's not even to what it should
be for the artists, because it never is. It never is. Artists
do not make a lot of money at all in the social media realm.
Right, Melanie just said in the chat room. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Did Jenny just say swift has a lot of followers? Yes, I
believe they're called Swifties. Yes, yes, yes, they are an entity
of themselves. Not to be confused with the swiffer. That's something you used
to clean things on those Oh yes, now, oh what was I gonna
say? Though? You know, one thing though, that people outside the
industry don't necessarily realize is artists have never been paid well, yeah, in
that even under the old music industry, the record business, if you will,
artists generally have only been paid you know, pennies per unit of CDs
sold or before that, albums. Major artists make most of their the way
they become wealthy. Most of it is on touring, licensing of their music,
merchandise sales. But it's never really been I mean, if your if
your music is you know, in terms of licensing and publishing, if your
music is being used in commercials and so forth, that brings in a ton
of money. But as far as actual sales of your music, as far
as actual CD sales, cassette sales, vinyl sales per unit, you know,
you're you're really not making much. I think I remember it's like a
quarter of a percent of a percent of a penny. I think I remember
years ago reading an interview with meat Loaf, of course passed away a few
years ago, but where he had said, you know, bad out of
Hell, the original Bat out of Hell sold, it's sold something like twenty
five million copies over the years. But but that he only gets like a
quarter per unit of that. You know, the money is in touring.
That's that's where you make the big money. So artists have never really been
paid well as far as again in terms of you know, so when we
talk about they don't get much money for these streams on Spotify for example,
Yeah, it is horrible. It's it's so robbery. But but they've never
been paid well to begin with, unfortunately. So what I'm looking at here,
says a creator fund reports show that musicians on TikTok make between two to
four cents per one thousand views. Yeah, sounds about right. Sense per
a thousand that sounds about right on TikTok yeah, wow, yep wow.
And just in general streaming services on average about six cents per one hundred streams.
Yeah, so you can how much money how many plays do you need
to buy a loaf of bread? Yeah, let's see. Geez, how
many plays would it take to get one gallon of gas out of that?
So yeah, musicians do not make money, especially from when a service is
involved, because they take a ton of money before it ever gets to the
artists. Yep. Whenever you can buy something directly from an artist, absolutely
do it. If you download the song from their website, then do that.
Your money is actually getting into that artist's pocket instead of going to these
giants like TikTok who take whatever money they make off of it and occasionally throw
out a few crumbs to artists. Because that's one thing that has not been
favorable. Social media has given us a whole new world to see new artists
and be around new people, but it has not translated into real dollars for
the artists themselves. Right right, absolutely, well are we are already approaching
the top of the hour. So what we're going to do is we had
to get in one more ad break and then we're going to play one of
these songs from Ray Coats and then he's going to join us via Skype all
the way from the UK, and we're going to talk about the soundtrack,
and we'll talk about everything with Ray and really looking forward to that, and
we will of course play for everyone the song Horsepower. We're gonna play that
later, but we're gonna play that. That's a song that I'm on.
So I'm excited about that. That's pretty cool and I do really appreciate Ray
inviting me to participate in that. So let's take a quick break. We're
gonna show some love to our amazing sponsors of course, like the hop Not
and Morgan Self Storage and all the great sponsors here at WM and H,
and then we'll come back. We'll play a song from Ray Coats and then
we'll have Ray join us via Skype. Really looking forward to that. Always
always enjoy speaking with Ray Coats. But so plenty more to come, don't
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