Matt Connarton Unleashed 5-4-24 hour 2

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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

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transmissions emanate from the zeed at of one thousand Elm Streets. Insure into the

hearts of our creative realm at one nineteen Canal Street, where innovation and sound

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of Manchester, New Hampshire, USA. Enrich your auditory journey with the depth

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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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