How Does the Music Business Compare To Film And TV‪?‬ Trapital

Best-selling author Zack O’Malley Greenburg and I took a break for a new Dad-girl duties to talk about the latest headlines in the music industry — namely Irv Gotti selling a 50-percent ownership stake in Murder Inc.’s past music recordings. He got $100 million from Iconoclast for the deal, plus another $200-million credit line to fund future media endeavors Irv has planned. 

After the sale, Irv did an interview with Billboard and quipped that monetary-wise, the music industry is the “lowest form” in entertainment compared to film and television. Zack and I debated that during our episode comparing top-line revenues for each entertainment vertical, plus how Irv’s deal compares to other splashy catalog sales in the past two years. 

We also dived into a guest post on Zack’s Substack about how “moods” has become the new classification for music, not genres anymore. Discovery algorithms deployed by streaming services have pushed listeners toward moods — and away from regionalism (e.g. Houston-style “chopped and screwed”) and loyalty to particular record labels. It’s also another tell-tale sign that Gen Z is more fluid, less rigid than prior generations with their labels. 

Below are all the music-industry topics Zack and I covered throughout the episode, plus a special segment on becoming Dad’s in the past two months:

[0:55] Baby Duties For Zack & Dan
[4:11] Irv Gotti Calls Music Industry “Lowest Form” In Entertainment 
[6:09] Zack Still Gets Royalties for “Lorenzo’s Oil”
[7:52] Top-Line Revenues: Music vs. Movie Industry
[8:59] New Artist Perspective Skewing Perception Of Music Business
[11:04] Did Irv Gotti’s Deal Get Made Before Market Correction? 
[13:08] Irv’s Deal Was For Masters, Not Publishing
[13:50] Crowning Jewel of Murder Inc’s Catalog
[18:23] Why Mood Is The New Musical Genre
[19:26] Gen Z Uses Labels Less Than Prior Generations
[25:53] Post Malone The Genre-Agnostic Artist
[27:10] Did Streaming End Regionalism In Music? 
[29:53] Fan Attachment To Record Labels Has Disappeared
[32:30] Stories From Two New Girl Dads
[38:21] First Music Show For The New Babies?

Tiffany Ng’s article on music being categorized by moods, not genre: https://zogblog.substack.com/p/why-mood-is-the-new-musical-genre



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Host: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.co

Guests: Zack O’Malley Greenburg, @zogblog
 
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TRANSCRIPTION

[00:00:00] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Our generation, in general, is pretty hung up on labels. You know, everything from music to sexuality, to whatever, you know, it's like things have to be classified and, you know, there's kind of an obsession over putting things in buckets. Whereas I think Gen Z has a lot more about fluidity and sort of like, you know, questioning why we need these labels at all to begin with, or at least, like, maybe we should just loosen up a little bit about them, which I think makes a ton of sense, you know? 
[00:00:34] Dan Runcie: Hey, welcome to The Trapital podcast. I'm your host and the founder of Trapital, Dan Runcie. This podcast is your place to gain insights from executives in music, media, entertainment, and more, who are taking hip-hop culture to the next level.

[00:00:55] Dan Runcie: This episode is the first one I'd done in a little bit, took a quick break from recording. My wife and I welcomed our first child into the world last month, so took some time, focused on family, and finally, ready to get back into the swing of