#13 RadEO with David Alexander from Sheer Music Publishing

Radeo

In this episode of RadEO Ross talks to David Alexander from Sheer Music Publishing about royalties and copyrights on music and compositions. They talk about how the music industry has been the testing ground for new modes of billing and distribution like streaming that expand into other industries. They chat about how streaming platforms impact African music and musicians. David also shares his knowledge on where the industry is going and what we can do to support local artists. Subscribe on iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radeo/id1250841955) or Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/radeopodcast) More about David Alexander - David Alexander is the Founder, Owner and Managing Director of Sheer Music Publishing (Pty) Ltd, the fastest growing independent music publishing company in Africa. Sheer Publishing represents African songs and songwriters for the world. David founded Sheer Publishing back in 1996 to exploit a gap in the local Jazz scene. Today Sheer Publishing has a vast catalogue rich with diverse South African, African and International Chart music ideal for licensing purposes. Sheer Publishing offers the ultimate one stop solution for all deals and has music placements on movies such as District 9 and the Oscar winning Tsotsi and the Academy Award nominated Searching for Sugarman. Sheer Publishing has placed music on television shows such as Private Practice, Jacob’s Cross and Big Brother and has been instrumental in successful commercials such as Castle Light, Vodacom, MTN, Makro, Cadbury’s PS, Wimpy, Engen and Ackermans just to name a few. Sheer Publishing is very active on the African Continent and David has travelled to many sub-Saharan countries in search of new clients. David has given papers and served on panels at music industry conferences such as African IP Forum (Tanzania), Salaam Music Expo (Senegal), Womex, Kenya Music Week (Kenya), NIMEX- the Nigerian International Music Expo (Nigeria), Porto Musicale (The Brazilian Music Exhibition) and the Wami Conference (Western Australian Music Industry) as well as at Moshito, Music Exchange, KZN Music Imbizo in South Africa. David has also participated as a Mentor at Womex and Nimex. David is the Treasurer on the Board of CAPASSO (Composers and Publishers Association) which is the mechanical collection society in South Africa and has agreements with the recording industry, broadcasters as well as internet and mobile operators. David serves as a Director on the Board of the Music Publisher's Association of South Africa (MPA - SA) Find David’s business here- https://www.sheerpublishing.co.za/ Show Notes - Gives us your elevator pitch 00:41 Royalty Payment breaking down to fractions 03:02 Collaboration is increasing over time 04:15 How did you end up running the back office? 06:40 How has your business adapted to streaming? 14:50 CD’s versus album streaming and cost 24:22 Do you think streaming services are setting the trends for music to consumers? 26:05 Do you think indie artist publishing their own music on streaming platforms are changing the industry? 29:48 Can other smaller streaming platforms compete with Spotify and Apple Music? 30:30 Are you moving into blockchain? 34:30 What lesson can entrepreneurs learn from the SA music industry? 36:01 What piece of music should we go listen to right now? 37:47