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Speaker 1: M h. Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties weekly podcast featuring

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Speaker 1: conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment.

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Speaker 1: I'm Shirley Halprin, executive editor of Music at Variety, and

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Speaker 1: today on the podcast we have Steve Martosi, the founder

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Speaker 1: and CEO of Spice Spices, an online music marketplace where

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Speaker 1: for a monthly fee, creators can acquire the parts that

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Speaker 1: make up music and use them fully licensed in royalty free.

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Speaker 1: So we're talking about things like loops, one shots, or

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Speaker 1: specific drumbeats that can be used and manipulated different instruments,

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Speaker 1: and sounds that are both synthetic and analog. With two

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Speaker 1: million sounds and four million users, Spice has become the

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Speaker 1: go to for hit makers and novices alike, and It's

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Speaker 1: DNA can be heard on songs by some of the

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Speaker 1: most popular artists of today, artists like Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber,

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Speaker 1: Doja Cat and even Rumor has it Adele. How it

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Speaker 1: works is a little like this. If you're looking for

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Speaker 1: a particular African drumbeat, Splice Senegal Sessions might have the

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Speaker 1: ticket in the form of an instrument, sample or loop.

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Speaker 1: There are more than five hundred from that particular pack

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Speaker 1: to choose from. Multiply that by every sound imaginable, and

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Speaker 1: you have a sense of the Splice ecosystem. When Steve

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Speaker 1: Martosi founded Splice in he'd already had plenty of experience

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Speaker 1: as an entrepreneur, and a successful one at that. He

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Speaker 1: was a co founder of Blade, the helicopter ride sharing service,

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Speaker 1: and of group me, a group text messaging service that

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Speaker 1: was acquired by Skype. But music is an industry not

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Speaker 1: for the faint of heart, with its complex web of

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Speaker 1: rights related to publishing recorded works used on social media

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Speaker 1: content i D hangups, and any number of scenarios that

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Speaker 1: can stifle even in the most promising idea or platform.

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Speaker 1: There are so many corpses along the way, from Napster

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Speaker 1: to lime wire to my Space and so on. And

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Speaker 1: as the music business has evolved, so has the needs

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Speaker 1: of its creators. From Splice's point of view, here's what

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Speaker 1: music makers don't need. An expensive recording studio with all

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Speaker 1: manner of gear and instruments that charges by the hour,

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Speaker 1: cost prohibitive, platform specific plugins that you may or may

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Speaker 1: not end up using, opting instead for cracked versions that

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Speaker 1: may or may not work as a piece of music

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Speaker 1: progresses from one person or platform to another. Steve explains

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Speaker 1: the mechanics of the company and this interview, which we

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Speaker 1: should point out include some sector specific terms like daw

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Speaker 1: D a W for digital audio workstation. Those who make

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Speaker 1: the sounds of the populate Splice are also benefiting financially.

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Speaker 1: They earn a cut of every download of their sound,

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Speaker 1: and a popular sound like one from the Oliver pack,

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Speaker 1: named for one of Splice's top creators, can be downloaded

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Speaker 1: more than a million times. The COVID pandemic has only

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Speaker 1: helped Spice grow as more people are indoors tinkering with

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Speaker 1: music production. In fact, a recent study noted that sixty

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Speaker 1: of independent artists made more music during COVID and thirty

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Speaker 1: six percented more online collaboration during lockdown. This is all

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Speaker 1: good news for Spice and brings more challenges for Steve Martosi,

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Speaker 1: who's managing a staff of over two hundred, a third

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Speaker 1: of which were hired during the pandemic. His ambition and

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Speaker 1: passion is what drives Splice daily, and Steve has done

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Speaker 1: an admirable job marrying the tech with the music. As

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Speaker 1: this conversation, which took place in December reveals. Welcome back

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Speaker 1: to Strictly Business. Here's our talk with Splice wounder and

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Speaker 1: CEO Steve Bartosi. Something that I really love that you

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Speaker 1: guys wrote, and I think it's a good entry into

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Speaker 1: your musical background. It says on the site we're people

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Speaker 1: who love music to the point of distraction. Explain that

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Speaker 1: and also explain you know what you kind of grew

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Speaker 1: up with, what informs your musical taste. Wow. I mean, look,

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Speaker 1: in terms of the distraction thing, there's so many of

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Speaker 1: the Spice employees are musicians themselves or just you know,

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Speaker 1: rabid music fans. I've got a whole studio of stuff

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Speaker 1: here in the background that's a constant inch away from

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Speaker 1: distracting me from doing work at all times, which is

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Speaker 1: really fun. But look for me personally, you know, my

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Speaker 1: journey started pretty young. I remember getting into Pearl Jam

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Speaker 1: by ninth grade. I had snuck out of the house

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Speaker 1: to go to a concert there's at Randall's Island, and

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Speaker 1: it was there was mosh pits and all like the

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Speaker 1: live music experience, and I remember I actually did that

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Speaker 1: alone and that ran into some friends who are willing

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Speaker 1: to give me a ride home. But they had done

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Speaker 1: so many encores this night. It's like a very famous

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Speaker 1: program show. And they were like, we can give your

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Speaker 1: ride home. I'm like, but they wanted to leave before

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Speaker 1: it was over, and I wouldn't leave, So I ended

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Speaker 1: up going home by myself because I needed to see

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Speaker 1: the whole show. You know, live music in particular and

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Speaker 1: music that you know, music just gets me, you know.

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Speaker 1: The vision statement for the company is a world of

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Speaker 1: more transcendent musical highs, and that's like a little hippieish, right,

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Speaker 1: but it's for two sides. It's that fans with those

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Speaker 1: deep connection to music, but it's also for the creators.

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Speaker 1: And you know, you know that like when you're in

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Speaker 1: your flow state, when you're in your musical bliss creating,

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Speaker 1: it's the best feeling in the world. And you know,

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Speaker 1: our goal is to create that for musicians, particularly through

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Speaker 1: their relationship with technology. So yeah, it's a great vision

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Speaker 1: and the employees kind of represent it very well. Do

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Speaker 1: you have any like musical background. Did you study music

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Speaker 1: at all or you self taught? Honestly, like music? For

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Speaker 1: me as a creator, it was just difficult. I would

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Speaker 1: i because I loved it, but I would be pretty bad,

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Speaker 1: Like I played a pretty bad guitar and I would try,

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Speaker 1: but it's just like the dexterity that my rhythm was

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Speaker 1: always off and I couldn't really connect. But you know

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Speaker 1: I did connect on the fans side, and also this

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Speaker 1: like collaborative fans side, you know, I know we we

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Speaker 1: discussed this earlier. We're both fans of the band Fish

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Speaker 1: and I found them in tenth grade. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I've gotten to almost two hundred Fish concerts and hundreds

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Speaker 1: of this other band, the Disco Biscuits, in which I'm

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Speaker 1: kind of a collaborator of theirs and help come up

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Speaker 1: with different ideas and right set lists and all that

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Speaker 1: kind of fun stuff. So like, I found my niche

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Speaker 1: in giving the most I can to the thing that

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Speaker 1: I love and that has been really by by building technology.

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Speaker 1: I say, code is my canvas. Okay, So explain the

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Speaker 1: reticence of the investment world to go into music, which

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Speaker 1: I imagine has actually probably changed in the last few

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Speaker 1: years because there's so much money being poured into music

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Speaker 1: copyrights right now from making money perspective, you know, music

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Speaker 1: is really difficult, and it's one of those ones that

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Speaker 1: vcs really just do not want to invest in because

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Speaker 1: for a good reason. Right for many times, there's been

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Speaker 1: so many great ideas that have been killed from rights

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Speaker 1: issues and people not solving things the right way. There

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Speaker 1: the other big fear that people had for a long time,

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Speaker 1: and it's changing now a lot, is what is the

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Speaker 1: total addressable market of music, especially music creation? How many

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Speaker 1: people are actually creating music? And you know, there's so

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Speaker 1: few companies that had any numbers that they could find

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Speaker 1: at scale that it would make it feel very, very small.

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Speaker 1: But you know, as I had seen, you know, the

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Speaker 1: if you go to any of the torrent the piracy websites,

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Speaker 1: you know, you literally see it. It's like Microsoft Windows,

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Speaker 1: Microsoft Office, the Adobe stuff, and then all the music

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Speaker 1: creation apps. So these are this is like the most

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Speaker 1: downloaded software in the world. And the you know, the

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Speaker 1: industry just doesn't it doesn't believe they don't have real

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Speaker 1: they haven't seen people pay for it. So the mix

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Speaker 1: of rights issues that all these great ideas they've invested

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Speaker 1: in over the years have had that have failed, and

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Speaker 1: then assuming that creation has got to be smaller than

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Speaker 1: you know, the listening side with all these things. That

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Speaker 1: that was the that was the struggle for a long time,

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Speaker 1: and you've said a third of the world makes music.

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Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I've said that, and I think that.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you think of think of all the

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Speaker 1: kids in public school in in the US, like I

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Speaker 1: remember playing the recorder, it wasn't a choice. You know.

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Speaker 1: On top of that, all the people who you know

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Speaker 1: bang on a drum and you know have some inclination

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Speaker 1: like musics are a universal language of humanity and similar

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Speaker 1: to me as a kid, the analog worlds can be

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Speaker 1: very difficult. You know, picking up a guitar for the

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Speaker 1: first time and it's sounding good is nearly impossible. So

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Speaker 1: we talked about this creator curve, which is like the

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Speaker 1: percentage of people who are inspired to try to create

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Speaker 1: is the top? Then can you make something you like?

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Speaker 1: There's a huge drop off from are you inspired to try?

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Speaker 1: Can you make something you like? You know? Can you

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Speaker 1: make something other people like which means you have to

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Speaker 1: share it, which is terrifying, And then can you make

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Speaker 1: a dollar? Can you make a career? Can you be

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Speaker 1: a superstar? And then those just drop off the whole

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Speaker 1: way along. You know, a lot of our missions to

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Speaker 1: raise that curve up, more people inspired to try, more

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Speaker 1: people having success earlier on digital and the laptop and

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Speaker 1: you know, potentially mobile interfaces. These things make it easier

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Speaker 1: to get to that point where you don't just give

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Speaker 1: up out of frustration. You know that. I want people

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Speaker 1: to be able to see themselves as a lifeline musician,

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Speaker 1: not just to say like, oh, I'm not I'm not musical.

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Speaker 1: I can't do that. I think there's so much opportunity

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Speaker 1: to convert all these people who love it and give

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Speaker 1: them a real shot. So it's interesting because the name Splice,

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Speaker 1: it's an analog term, right, It's it's about cutting a

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Speaker 1: piece of tape and making an edit. And this is

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Speaker 1: about the most like non analog platform I could think of.

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Speaker 1: I guess we should actually just explain for the layman

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Speaker 1: what is the purpose of Spice. So if we really

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Speaker 1: think about in collaboration and bringing things together, is the

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Speaker 1: kind of like centerpiece and why the name works so

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Speaker 1: well because really, you know, you're that the splicing part

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Speaker 1: isn't the slice, it's putting the two pieces together that end.

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Speaker 1: And you know, fundamentally, I always look at Splice as

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Speaker 1: a collaboration company in music, and we started off with

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Speaker 1: you know, a backup and and version control system that

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Speaker 1: allowed people to collaborate on session files, and then there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of problems with that where people would

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Speaker 1: try to work with each other, but they wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: the same sounds and the same tools. So we need

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Speaker 1: to fix that, and we launched Splice Sounds, which is

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Speaker 1: our you know, experience for accessing royalty free samples and loops,

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Speaker 1: you know, a low monthly subscription rate. You can use

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Speaker 1: these things royalty free in your track, no attribution necessary.

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Speaker 1: And that was a huge hit, right because so much

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Speaker 1: of that was being done through buying these a la

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Speaker 1: carte banks of sounds that were you know, hundred five,

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Speaker 1: four hundred sounds and you might want one of them

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Speaker 1: or you just end up pirating it because the business

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Speaker 1: model didn't make sense, you know. We really came in

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Speaker 1: and got really known for that. We also have a

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Speaker 1: marketplace of plug ins, which are really the digital tools

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Speaker 1: people using the space to create music, and we sell

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Speaker 1: sold those on a model that made sense stars as well.

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Speaker 1: We've but we did this rent to own model which

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Speaker 1: allowed people to not have to pay up front for

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Speaker 1: six dollars for a tool they might not like. And

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Speaker 1: so we really just listened to the frustrations that users

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Speaker 1: were having with essentially trying to enable creative flow both

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Speaker 1: for the individual artists, but more interestingly across the world

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Speaker 1: in between people so that they could truly collaborate with

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Speaker 1: each other. You know, we've been evolving, We've added education,

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Speaker 1: we've got our own creator tools now in our on

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Speaker 1: our creator plan, and there's a lot more over the

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Speaker 1: next year that are going to continue to see, you

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Speaker 1: know how splices connecting this entire creator ecosystem. And so fundamentally,

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Speaker 1: I think the name really works when it's applied to

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Speaker 1: that ethos of collaboration. And this isn't an open ecosystem.

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Speaker 1: You know, you hit me on a that's pain point

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Speaker 1: from me. I wanted to be an open ecosystem. In fact,

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Speaker 1: our value proposition that we use inside the company talks

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Speaker 1: about building an open ecosystem, and the you know, with

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Speaker 1: something like sounds, the need for trust in the library,

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Speaker 1: both from a quality perspective because we can't waste your

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Speaker 1: time on bad sounds, and on a rights perspective are

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Speaker 1: so important that we've had to very much work with

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Speaker 1: you know, trusted partners with strong content guidelines and all that.

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Speaker 1: To open it up. We have an older part of

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Speaker 1: the system that our community tab that was like an

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Speaker 1: open ecosystem for sharing session files. We're going to revamp

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Speaker 1: that whole concept. We're really growing discord right now. If

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Speaker 1: you're a producer and you haven't checked out our discord,

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Speaker 1: it's grown really fast. There's over twenty producers on it

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Speaker 1: right now, and there's some incredibly cool beat battles and

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Speaker 1: challenges and drops going on there. And so my well

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Speaker 1: is to actually open this up surely as much as

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Speaker 1: I can. And it's just about you know, building the

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Speaker 1: right processes and technology so that everyone can share their

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Speaker 1: works in progress, their collaborative pieces with each other and

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Speaker 1: monetize them. We have a lot of in house producers

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Speaker 1: now who create content for us. We work with a

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Speaker 1: growing number of artists and amazing sound designers from around

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Speaker 1: the world, Like we have whale sounds on the platform,

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Speaker 1: Glacier sounds, you know, like really trying to grow the

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Speaker 1: library out. My friend Geo Israel has done a really

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Speaker 1: great set of sounds. He started with this Middle Eastern

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Speaker 1: Essentials pack and it's just capturing these instruments that you

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Speaker 1: would be so hard to find, you know, anywhere else.

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Speaker 1: You know, We're constantly looking to expand it and grow

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Speaker 1: as as much we can, as long as we can

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Speaker 1: hit the quality standards. I loved what you guys did

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Speaker 1: with musicians in Senegal where you were able to record

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Speaker 1: these local sounds, local instruments. Can you tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit about that, Yeah, the sound of golf hacks. Like.

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Speaker 1: One of the things we're trying to do is really

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Speaker 1: continue to bring the sounds of the world to Splice

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Speaker 1: and figure out the best way for us to do that.

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Speaker 1: And so in steen of goal, we went in I

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Speaker 1: think we did sixteen packs. We with local producers. We

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Speaker 1: then also used the proceeds to build a school so

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Speaker 1: that we could leave things better than when we found them.

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Speaker 1: And uh, and so that's like kind of you know,

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Speaker 1: this is really really fun. Part of the journey right

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Speaker 1: now is to figure out how to bring these sounds

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Speaker 1: of the world into the hands of producers everywhere and

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Speaker 1: then leave things better than we found them. Talk to

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Speaker 1: me about the price point of Splice and also payouts

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Speaker 1: to creators, and I would love to run through some

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Speaker 1: of the numbers with you. You guys have paid out

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Speaker 1: forty million dollars to creators so far, that's an older

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Speaker 1: number of definitely cross fifty five now probably getting close

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Speaker 1: to sixty, but definitely north of fifty five. I know

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Speaker 1: that which has been just wonderful. I mean, like when

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Speaker 1: the pandemic hit, it was how can we put as

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Speaker 1: many people to work as possible creating sounds and and

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Speaker 1: so like essentially how the model works, right. We collect

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Speaker 1: a monthly subscription the kind of entry price point right now,

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Speaker 1: and you get a certain number of download credits every month.

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Speaker 1: You can buy more, you can have grade plans, but

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Speaker 1: essentially we take the revenue that comes in towards this

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Speaker 1: and we do a pro rated distribution of it to

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Speaker 1: what gets downloaded every month, so where the credit spent,

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Speaker 1: and then you know those payout and every artist deal

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Speaker 1: is a bit different because we have some in house content,

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Speaker 1: we have licensed content. We really stress that everybody has

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Speaker 1: a royalty associated with it. And remember this is royalties

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Speaker 1: meaning just like percentage of subscription revenue, not royalties from

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Speaker 1: the tracks that get created, because you know, if they're

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Speaker 1: stuff successful, we want to see them be successful. And

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Speaker 1: you know, so much of what I'd love to see

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Speaker 1: in the world as people who are are signing really

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Speaker 1: great deals throughout the kind of traditional music space and

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Speaker 1: participating appropriately and things like they're publishing in their masters

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Speaker 1: and like we're constantly craft thing the deals that make

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Speaker 1: sense giving every artist situation. I mean sometimes when first

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Speaker 1: artists check, We've had many people go full time and

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Speaker 1: music because of what they've been able to do on Splice.

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Speaker 1: They're working, you know, whether it's at Jersey Mike subs

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Speaker 1: or retail jobs and then able to make it from

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Speaker 1: our platform, which is probably my favorite metric is seeing

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Speaker 1: people go full time. So does it ever become Because

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Speaker 1: spice sounds are used in so much music. I think

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Speaker 1: I've read somewhere that half of top forty music and

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Speaker 1: it's definitely a month when we saw those numbers like

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Speaker 1: on the charts and as wild, you know, like it's

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Speaker 1: it is so widely used also internationally, you know, like

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Speaker 1: we're pretty big in Korea, you know, we're big in

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Speaker 1: these places around the globe that we're only starting to

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Speaker 1: understand how wide it is. But yeah, the amount that

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Speaker 1: gets used in commercial top tracks is quite high. So

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Speaker 1: how do you sort of combat the you know samenus,

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Speaker 1: Like when you create songs, you always have to be

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Speaker 1: so ahead of the curve. You know, this seems a

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Speaker 1: little bit more like on the curve. What's your take

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Speaker 1: all that? And I mean, I love the question because

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Speaker 1: it's something that I feel like we spent so much

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Speaker 1: time in this digital era figuring out how to make

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Speaker 1: everything accessible to everyone, and now we're like in this

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Speaker 1: new era with everything happening in crypto and things like

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Speaker 1: that around creating scarcity again, which has been a fascinating

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Speaker 1: just transition in the world. And so for us, there's

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Speaker 1: millions of sounds on splace, our algorithms have popularities and

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Speaker 1: charts and things like that. So the very short term

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Speaker 1: things you're gonna cease from us is the ability to

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Speaker 1: just find the rare stuff. How do you really create

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Speaker 1: dive on the platform, which is exciting? Should the content

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Speaker 1: be always available all the time, which is also interesting.

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Speaker 1: That's what is limited edition. You know, we just released Invada,

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Speaker 1: a new version of our desktop app. It's kind of

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Speaker 1: a foundation and the end of a whole lot of

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Speaker 1: platform work that we've done. So you get to the scale,

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Speaker 1: you have a whole lot of issues to deal with

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Speaker 1: getting up to it. And now we're in the spot

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Speaker 1: where we can listen to like what is happening now

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Speaker 1: that we are this and how do we evolve from here?

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Speaker 1: You know, I I will say, I think you're going

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Speaker 1: to see the most innovative year ever from Splice in

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Speaker 1: two and addressing some of that stuff head on. Is

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Speaker 1: uh is something we talked about all the time. Does

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Speaker 1: it ever come up we're splice music is identified on

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Speaker 1: content ID systems? It does. It's not just Splice, right.

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Speaker 1: This is this issue of kind of royalty free content

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Speaker 1: in general, and we get our name associated to it

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Speaker 1: a lot just because we're like the brand in the

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Speaker 1: in the space. And I'm okay with that that You've

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Speaker 1: got major platforms out there, you tech platforms, You've got

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Speaker 1: major right holders. These people have a lot of power

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Speaker 1: and a lot of control over this. They've had to

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Speaker 1: because of how much just flagrant you GC there was

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Speaker 1: for a while using their stuff. But there's a middle

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Speaker 1: ground that's that needs to be found that really independent

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Speaker 1: creators are properly represented in that. And we have great

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Speaker 1: ongoing dialogues with platforms around that. We have tactical solutions

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Speaker 1: to look at as well, and I think when we

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Speaker 1: think about this relationship in general, we're going to be

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Speaker 1: doing our best to represent the independent creators. This is

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Speaker 1: just this is a way bigger than Spice problem. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I think that we have a really good angle

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Speaker 1: and a really good way to help pay how things

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Speaker 1: should look going forward. I mean, especially now as we're

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Speaker 1: like living in this creator economy. You know, I think

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Speaker 1: the last thing you want is to have these hurdles

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Speaker 1: once your music is created and finished and put out there.

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Speaker 1: I can imagine that would just be awful to have

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Speaker 1: to deal with. I think it's interesting that you guys

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Speaker 1: have gotten into creating your own instruments, selling your own presets.

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Speaker 1: If you had asked me three years ago when I

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Speaker 1: first heard of Spice that if this was the future

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Speaker 1: of the company, I I don't know that I would

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Speaker 1: have gone there. That seems like a big load to

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Speaker 1: take on. So explain your sort of pivot towards actually

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Speaker 1: having proprietary instruments. Well, look, I think that we really

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Speaker 1: see this as a as an entire ecosystem play to

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Speaker 1: make music creation better, and we think there's a window

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Speaker 1: to build connected tools. A lot of the tools in

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Speaker 1: the space are not They have no concept of connecting

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Speaker 1: to the cloud, they have no content of of really

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Speaker 1: like discover ability of content beyond what's already available on

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Speaker 1: your computer, and so we're trying to change the relationship

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Speaker 1: between the tools in the space and the content. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's just the beginning. We just put out our own synth.

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Speaker 1: We put out our own beat Maker, and they in

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Speaker 1: the very first release they didn't have a full cloud connectivity.

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Speaker 1: But if you check it out now, they're starting to

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Speaker 1: have the kind of functionality we've been looking for where

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Speaker 1: you have this giant library of content available at your

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Speaker 1: fingertips and making it easy to discover exactly what you're

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Speaker 1: looking for. The more context we can have about where

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Speaker 1: you are on your t AC, where you are in

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Speaker 1: your process, can we help you find that sound? You know,

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Speaker 1: we love the partners and the stuff that we sell

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Speaker 1: through rent to Own. It's some best stuff in the

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Speaker 1: world for for creating. But we're also trying to both

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Speaker 1: show people what the connected ecosystem can look like and

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Speaker 1: then try to make those tools and those like connections

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Speaker 1: with a p I S and the functionality available to

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Speaker 1: anyone who's creating software in the space. So I think

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Speaker 1: that's the thing that's really interesting and why you know,

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Speaker 1: I've been at this for so long as I just

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Speaker 1: think there's so many different parts of the creative process

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Speaker 1: to improve for musicians that you'll probably see us in

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Speaker 1: more unexpected places over the next few years too. I

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Speaker 1: feel like you're taking on these issues that are just

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Speaker 1: that have been many years of just difficulty, like the

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Speaker 1: whole hacked plug ins where you loaded up into your

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Speaker 1: daw and then it doesn't work anymore because you don't

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Speaker 1: actually have the proper license for it. Logic and pro

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Speaker 1: tools Enableton sort of have I think, very similar structure,

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Speaker 1: but then there's all these little things that you can't

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Speaker 1: take from one to another. So these are like really

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Speaker 1: pressing issues for music creators, music producers especially, So I

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Speaker 1: guess I should thank you for taking care of these things.

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Speaker 1: And look we're and and by the way, it's gonna

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Speaker 1: be a long road till it's totally ironed. Now that's

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Speaker 1: where we're going to do the best we can with

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Speaker 1: content and providing things that connect to those ecosystems. And

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Speaker 1: then sometimes you have to build things too. And because

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Speaker 1: we just don't think that producers creators should be in

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Speaker 1: a place where they are so limited from letting their

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Speaker 1: creativity flow between each other. And that comes back to

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Speaker 1: that kind of core concept as a collaboration coming. We

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Speaker 1: need to take a quick break, but we'll be back

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Speaker 1: with more from Steve Martosi of Splice. And we're back

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Speaker 1: with Splice founder and CEO Steve Martosi. Since we're just

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Speaker 1: coming up on the end of here. Do you know

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Speaker 1: what the most popular sound was last year? I think

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Speaker 1: one of the most popular packs we had was Oliver's

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Speaker 1: Power Tools three. You know, we just did these Splice Awards,

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Speaker 1: which we're really happy about, and that's the way that

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Speaker 1: you celebrate. We did a couple of different kind of

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Speaker 1: editorial categories and then also give out awards for people

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Speaker 1: who had one million downloads or or five thousand downloads.

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Speaker 1: And it's just so cool to see these sound designers,

433
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:30,359
Speaker 1: you know, some of them, some of the winners are

434
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:33,040
Speaker 1: known producers like Murder Beats, and then you have these

435
00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:36,399
Speaker 1: people like Virtual Riot, you know, Origin Sound, Disciple Sound,

436
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:39,359
Speaker 1: these guys that are that are just sound designers and

437
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 1: just so good at their craft, and to see them,

438
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:45,879
Speaker 1: to get a chance to honor them, it surely reminds

439
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:48,119
Speaker 1: me a lot of you know, what your variety of

440
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:50,840
Speaker 1: done with hit makers. We've collaborated on that we're getting

441
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,119
Speaker 1: a little nerdy with it, you know, getting down and

442
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:55,359
Speaker 1: really showing the art that is sound designed. You know,

443
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 1: those we were able to give those awards out. We've

444
00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 1: still gotta hey, we still got eight days left, nine

445
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:01,679
Speaker 1: days left in this year. But let's se where these

446
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:05,520
Speaker 1: charts end up with the under twenty two. Oh surely

447
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:07,959
Speaker 1: one thing I left out is that the Oliver you know,

448
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 1: the stuff from Oliver's pack that you might have been

449
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: hinting at is his sounds have showed up on duliteas

450
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:17,760
Speaker 1: Don't Start Now, uh doja cats say so hits from

451
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:22,359
Speaker 1: Justin Timberlake, Carol g and Marshmallow and someone even said

452
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: there's a Oliver sound on the new Adele album too,

453
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:27,880
Speaker 1: Can I get it? What I love too is they

454
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:30,120
Speaker 1: get recognized for it. I've had a couple of our

455
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:32,959
Speaker 1: producers come up to me and say, I get more

456
00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:36,560
Speaker 1: recognized by people from being from my Splice packs and

457
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:41,200
Speaker 1: my Splice videos than my live music, which is like,

458
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 1: you know, you look at people who are inspiring to

459
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,119
Speaker 1: people in their lives and you form this bond to

460
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 1: be like I'm like, oh, this person inspired me so much.

461
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 1: But the fact that they can release this thing that

462
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: you use and actually create from is like another level

463
00:24:56,200 --> 00:25:00,040
Speaker 1: of inspiration and connection between you know, a fan and

464
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:04,040
Speaker 1: a creator. It's this creator to creator bond. And that's

465
00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 1: also what I love about the future of community in

466
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,679
Speaker 1: the space something the progress happening on our discord and

467
00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:11,080
Speaker 1: what we're studying in there about how people want to

468
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:13,399
Speaker 1: connect with each other in this kind of more modern

469
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:16,840
Speaker 1: music creation ecosystem. We're really watching it and we're really

470
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,680
Speaker 1: thinking about how to foster more collaboration between people. There

471
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 1: amazing and especially during these last couple of years with

472
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,560
Speaker 1: covid and everyone working with home, I had I had

473
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 1: one person at the Splice words and let them be anonymous,

474
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:30,399
Speaker 1: but come up to me and they said their accountants

475
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 1: said to them, they're like, you know, you're really smart

476
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 1: making that bet on doing Splice packs before this pandemic hit.

477
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:40,320
Speaker 1: A lot of their money came from Live and between

478
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 1: that and putting as many creators as we did to

479
00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:45,439
Speaker 1: work through it, Yeah, it's definitely a feel good part

480
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:47,760
Speaker 1: of the job. Can I nerd out a little bit

481
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:52,440
Speaker 1: more and ask how much is like submitted sounds versus

482
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,880
Speaker 1: assigned packs, Like things where you're like you identify we

483
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:59,640
Speaker 1: need more of this. Oh man, I love that question.

484
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 1: I don't know that I have a great answer to that.

485
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:06,479
Speaker 1: I do know that we have definitely actively tried to

486
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:09,160
Speaker 1: fill our gaps, you know, like reggaeton was a big

487
00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:11,560
Speaker 1: genre that we were under serving for a while, and

488
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:14,640
Speaker 1: now I think we're also trying to show what's trending

489
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 1: in which countries to like there's been a I think

490
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:20,400
Speaker 1: there's been a resurgence we saw this year in rock

491
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:23,360
Speaker 1: on our charts that like a lot of guitar searches

492
00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:26,679
Speaker 1: on the platform, you know, I think we're constantly analyzing it.

493
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,120
Speaker 1: I don't have the number of where it breaks down.

494
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 1: But if we have a hole, like truly, like people

495
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:34,520
Speaker 1: are searching for things and we don't have it, you

496
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:37,280
Speaker 1: have to believe that we are going to immediately be

497
00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:41,440
Speaker 1: commissioning that work. It's a healthy blend, got it. And

498
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: I assume people tell you what You're like, hey, that

499
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 1: you don't have enough of this, or you need this,

500
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 1: or I'm sure it's constant you hear that. You also,

501
00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,640
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes that's a failure. Of the most most

502
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:55,119
Speaker 1: painful is when people are like, oh, you don't have

503
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: enough live strings. I'm like, oh my god, we have

504
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 1: so many lives. That just means that, like product experience

505
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: didn't get you right, you didn't dig, you didn't dig

506
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:05,240
Speaker 1: deep enough in the create I'm not ever going to

507
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:07,400
Speaker 1: blame them. I'm gonna blame me, and I'm gonna say

508
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 1: I didn't present those results them enough. I take that

509
00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:16,680
Speaker 1: feedback as listen to them, go investigate, see if it's

510
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,439
Speaker 1: a content problem, a product problem messaging, and how we

511
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,160
Speaker 1: can make that experience better. And so that's that other

512
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: thing we talked about in the beginning about the team

513
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:28,359
Speaker 1: being musicians is we can get that feedback inside the

514
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:30,840
Speaker 1: house from the team. But also they're all listening and

515
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:33,000
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, I know, and like some of them

516
00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:35,120
Speaker 1: have these ears. On the content team we're talking about

517
00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 1: identify examples like they can they know what kick. The

518
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:43,159
Speaker 1: ears are just incredible and I'm just so impressed by

519
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:45,760
Speaker 1: the way their brains work, let alone, like what they're

520
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:47,879
Speaker 1: able to do. There's just something I know I don't

521
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:52,199
Speaker 1: have that I really admire them. It's actually amazing because

522
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 1: you know, to be around musical people who have those ears,

523
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 1: like you know, the ears are just they're an intangible

524
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 1: that I think will probably really enjoy working for Splice.

525
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 1: I don't know what your turnover is, but I would

526
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 1: imagine someone who's just who has that golden sense of hearing,

527
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:10,679
Speaker 1: this would be a good place for them, in a

528
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:14,639
Speaker 1: welcoming place. I mean, it's an interesting mix between tech

529
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,320
Speaker 1: and music right and then are we at tech company

530
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:20,360
Speaker 1: and music company were definitely straddling the line in those places,

531
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 1: and the music roles are unique, and to be able

532
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:25,760
Speaker 1: to have these kind of music roles in a tech

533
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:29,760
Speaker 1: backed environment, it's a rare sense of stability for people

534
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:33,920
Speaker 1: with these uh you know, incredible musical gifts and yeah,

535
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 1: like I always heard about the audiologists and stuff inside

536
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 1: the labels who could identify things and litigate court cases

537
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 1: and stuff, and then to see some of them firsthand

538
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 1: in Splice, it's fun to watch. Do you know any

539
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 1: of the numbers right now in terms of the library

540
00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:48,960
Speaker 1: or how many users? Um, let me see what I

541
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,360
Speaker 1: got here. So in terms of numbers, we've got over

542
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 1: two and a half million sounds that are fully cleared

543
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:57,320
Speaker 1: on the platform. And then the team has been growing.

544
00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 1: I mean, my favorite thing that we said, we did

545
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 1: our holiday hall. It's like a fun celebration on Friday

546
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 1: for the team. And we had seventy new hires this

547
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 1: year and it took two thousand, three hundred and seventeen

548
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 1: interviews to bring seventy hires. And just that you know

549
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 1: they're super hard working and you know that the growth

550
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:20,760
Speaker 1: is always solid. It's been interesting. It flows really big

551
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 1: during certain months in covid uh certain months people go outside.

552
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:26,480
Speaker 1: But you know, we've seen about we've see about fift

553
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 1: growth from So what about the future Splice? Someone had

554
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:34,960
Speaker 1: asked me, was the Splice stream music or could they

555
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 1: one day be a streaming service? What's your take on that?

556
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 1: I would say no, and I would say very clearly why.

557
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:47,360
Speaker 1: I think that the needs of fans from content discovery,

558
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 1: all the tools and amazing things that happened on the

559
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 1: pure here's my master I want to listen to it

560
00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 1: out in the world. That is the job of these

561
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: incredible companies that dedicate all their time to it. Some

562
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:01,960
Speaker 1: of my Spotify or the huge departments of Apple Music.

563
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 1: Like these people, they're dedicated to the fan experience. What

564
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:07,760
Speaker 1: I think Splice wants to be is the up center

565
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 1: of creation, revamping our community so that people can discover

566
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:14,280
Speaker 1: the pieces of work from each other, the unfinished that

567
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 1: I want to work with you. I want you to

568
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 1: remix this, I want you to create this with me.

569
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 1: And it's unfinished. You know, unfinished might be the wrong word.

570
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:24,000
Speaker 1: It's alive. It's a living piece of music. It's not

571
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:29,040
Speaker 1: a finished piece of music. And um that from a community,

572
00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:32,400
Speaker 1: from any kind of like listening concept, the intention won't

573
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 1: just be, you know, for background listening. It will be

574
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 1: about how do I integrate this into my creative process?

575
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 1: What about something like n f t S. Yeah, look

576
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 1: the Explosion and n f t S and Crypto. It's

577
00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:48,400
Speaker 1: been incredible to watch, and I think that we're really

578
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: going through a boom right now in people really collecting

579
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 1: digital art, which has been an incredible thing to see

580
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 1: artists be able to monetize work that they never were

581
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:01,719
Speaker 1: able to do before digitally or at least at scale.

582
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 1: So I think that era has been has been really

583
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: nice to watch. I think we're much more interested in,

584
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:09,640
Speaker 1: just as I said, how can we properly let people

585
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:13,040
Speaker 1: exchange content with each other track it from a rights

586
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:16,280
Speaker 1: management standpoint, reward people for doing There are kind of

587
00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: more creative elements and I think there's a lot of

588
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:22,560
Speaker 1: things that are well intentioned about what daves are trying

589
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: to do. You know, some people are starting to think

590
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 1: about real rights management on the n f T and

591
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 1: blockchain side. I'd really like to focus on just making

592
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: sure I'm solving the right problem, Like I know what

593
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:34,800
Speaker 1: my problem is, I know how I wanted to be solved,

594
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: and then look at you know, a crypto n f

595
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 1: T s as a potential technical solution to the problem.

596
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,040
Speaker 1: But I think we're much more focused on really defining

597
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 1: how people should be working together, what the experience should be,

598
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:51,880
Speaker 1: and then understanding the underlying kind of technical implications of it.

599
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:54,840
Speaker 1: With with those kinds of things. Have any splice sounds

600
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,600
Speaker 1: or splice creations ended up on TikTok uh? You know,

601
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 1: definitely right, because there's so much short form distribution. It's

602
00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 1: just it's been a wild thing to watch. I think

603
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 1: you're going to see something really cool from us pretty

604
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 1: soon in terms of enabling short form creation on particularly

605
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 1: with TikTok and all these different things. As you know,

606
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:16,680
Speaker 1: we talked about that beginning of the journey. Am I

607
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,400
Speaker 1: inspired to create? Can I make something I like? Can

608
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:22,760
Speaker 1: I share it? There's an opportunity with the distribution mechanism

609
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:24,720
Speaker 1: of TikTok to really just like we talked with the

610
00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:27,400
Speaker 1: asumtow to drop off of that curve, but being able

611
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 1: to really raise it up where you're like, wait a second,

612
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:33,000
Speaker 1: I made something, I love it, I'm going to share

613
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 1: it out to others, and so like that opportunity is

614
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 1: fascinating as the beginning of someone's musical journey. It's so

615
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 1: hard to even track where Splice music is going, but

616
00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 1: where we want to make it easier to flow directly

617
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:49,680
Speaker 1: to is is something we're going to be experimenting with.

618
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:53,280
Speaker 1: But let's say I'm just gonna throw out a hypothetical.

619
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 1: Let's say there's a loop that is just you know,

620
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 1: perfect for like you're in the mirror, you're not in

621
00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:04,080
Speaker 1: the mirror, whatever, and that becomes a viral video on TikTok.

622
00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:06,400
Speaker 1: Let's say two million people make videos out of it.

623
00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:12,560
Speaker 1: That creator only gets paid once for that download because

624
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:16,360
Speaker 1: because it's not royalty based, So if it goes viral,

625
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:20,080
Speaker 1: yes it's maybe bragging rights or maybe even the attribution

626
00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:24,440
Speaker 1: of that sound, but there's no money to be made, right,

627
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 1: You are correct on that. I mean some people come

628
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 1: in to go find more of those samples. You're also

629
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:33,960
Speaker 1: not supposed to redistribute the sample in its original form.

630
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: You really need to mix it into a creative work

631
00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:40,360
Speaker 1: that is not just putting it out on its own,

632
00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:42,680
Speaker 1: if you will. So there's some edges I think to

633
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 1: the licensing there, and I think there's some opportunity there

634
00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 1: to think about what could the relationship with short form

635
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: content be for these amazing sound designers of building the

636
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 1: short form loops. And so you have me back on

637
00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 1: another episode and now you'll have a lot more to

638
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 1: talk to you about on this space. I wanted to

639
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 1: ask you about being a founder CEO because we just

640
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:08,320
Speaker 1: saw with Twitter Jack Dorsey, I think made a really

641
00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:12,439
Speaker 1: interesting comment when he stepped down, which was the role

642
00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:16,920
Speaker 1: of a founder CEO is changing, and I'm just curious

643
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 1: what your take is on that. I mean, look, I

644
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,400
Speaker 1: think you're hitting out with something that's always really top

645
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 1: of mind for me because I know how to found things.

646
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:31,239
Speaker 1: I've founded multiple things. I like building things zero to one.

647
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:36,400
Speaker 1: Being a CEO is a very different set of responsibilities. First,

648
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:38,279
Speaker 1: got to make sure there's a vision, got to make

649
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:40,360
Speaker 1: sure it's inspiring, got to make sure it's got a

650
00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,879
Speaker 1: path to be impactful and big in the world. Got

651
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:45,600
Speaker 1: to make sure there's money in the bank so that

652
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 1: you can execute and do this, and then you got

653
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:50,359
Speaker 1: to hire a great team to execute and those are

654
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:55,400
Speaker 1: you know, the primary responsibilities. And it's been a really

655
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 1: long journey. I wouldn't be doing this for as long

656
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 1: as I have if I didn't continue to believe in

657
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:04,680
Speaker 1: how much we're nowhere close to being the most iconic

658
00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:06,919
Speaker 1: company in music. We're on a journey will probably would

659
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:10,080
Speaker 1: be one of the iconic companies in music history. That'll

660
00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:12,799
Speaker 1: be awesome. But I I am so inspired by what

661
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:18,200
Speaker 1: is left to do here, both on operationalizing the core

662
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:21,080
Speaker 1: of what we already have and figuring out how to

663
00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:24,800
Speaker 1: build a relationship with with innovation and creating things that

664
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 1: are new. It's extremely challenging, right it is. This is

665
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:31,719
Speaker 1: not an easy task when your ambitions are as big

666
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:34,600
Speaker 1: as ours are. And you know, I say the word ambition,

667
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 1: it comes within what I think we can do for creators,

668
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:41,719
Speaker 1: the impact we can make, the positive impact we can make.

669
00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:44,359
Speaker 1: I really believe, you know where things like AI are

670
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:48,759
Speaker 1: going that it's important that Splice has a seat at

671
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,160
Speaker 1: the table of that future. So we do it for

672
00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 1: creators in the industry, and I feel a sense of

673
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:59,719
Speaker 1: duty and responsibility towards doing something really hard, which is

674
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: being being a at scale CEO. And I think there's

675
00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 1: there's so many lessons that you have to learn. There's

676
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 1: a constant amount of growth that you need to do

677
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,160
Speaker 1: and I'm still I'm always on that journey. It's not ending,

678
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:15,799
Speaker 1: you know. I think it's that's probably a number one

679
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:18,560
Speaker 1: topic for me that I think about the most because

680
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:21,840
Speaker 1: it is stretching into you know, uncharted territories. Two hundred

681
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:24,319
Speaker 1: employees of the company, like, we have a lot of

682
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 1: people who depend on us in the world for their

683
00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:30,719
Speaker 1: creative creativity, and I want to do what's best for

684
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:33,680
Speaker 1: the for the organization, for the world, for the users,

685
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:37,719
Speaker 1: and man, it's that role is ever changing, and you know,

686
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,840
Speaker 1: I think that I'm going to try to be the

687
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,120
Speaker 1: right steward for it and build the right team around

688
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:44,720
Speaker 1: me and make sure that we can go the distance.

689
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:50,000
Speaker 1: Are there people in the greater entertainment community or the

690
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:53,879
Speaker 1: music industry that you admire as the as the tech

691
00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:56,239
Speaker 1: side of the house. I can't not have, you know,

692
00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 1: a huge amount of respect for Daniel Ac and what

693
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:01,759
Speaker 1: you know, Spotify has done, and the going country by

694
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:04,840
Speaker 1: country and getting this thing rolled out and doing it

695
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:07,040
Speaker 1: in the face of all the adversity and getting to

696
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 1: where he has like that, just you know, I'm always

697
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 1: going to have deeply have that. Um. You know, it's

698
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 1: been really great to be building my relationship with Matt Pinkus,

699
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,400
Speaker 1: who's on our board and a huge supporter of Spice,

700
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:21,719
Speaker 1: like someone who's built independent publishing up like he has.

701
00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:25,160
Speaker 1: Publishing is complicated and hard, and you know, anyone in

702
00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:28,960
Speaker 1: that space doing like really pioneering good. I'm always I'm

703
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:32,239
Speaker 1: always interested in the thank you for your service type

704
00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:35,799
Speaker 1: mentality because it's so complicated and hard. And then you know,

705
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:37,920
Speaker 1: I also like, similar to you, I think surely I

706
00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:41,600
Speaker 1: love the people who are trying to elevate people behind

707
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:44,719
Speaker 1: the scenes, right like when, especially like in this era

708
00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,560
Speaker 1: of representing writers and producers and treating them at the

709
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 1: next level, like what the Milk and Honey guys do

710
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:52,880
Speaker 1: and Lucas does over there, Neil Jacobson doing that with

711
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:56,239
Speaker 1: his artists as well. Like it's about people really elevating

712
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:59,319
Speaker 1: that kind of behind the scenes and and bringing them

713
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:02,400
Speaker 1: up in the way that they should be represented. What

714
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:07,480
Speaker 1: is the valuation of Splice currently? Great question? Uh, you know,

715
00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:09,080
Speaker 1: like we haven't raised a round it a bit. We

716
00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:12,760
Speaker 1: did raise that the last round from Goldman, and it's honestly,

717
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 1: it's not a question I like answering, right, I really

718
00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:18,840
Speaker 1: anytime we've announced the fundraising round, I talked about how

719
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:21,879
Speaker 1: much paid out to artists, and then we sneak in, yeah,

720
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:24,800
Speaker 1: we raise this amount of money, because raising money isn't

721
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:27,320
Speaker 1: like a milestone. Yes it's nice, yes it's good, but

722
00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:29,239
Speaker 1: it's it's really about what are you doing with it?

723
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:32,000
Speaker 1: What impact are you making, what value are you creating?

724
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:35,040
Speaker 1: And it's very rare that we will put out any

725
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:37,120
Speaker 1: kind of celebrate. My team doesn't love it. We never

726
00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:41,239
Speaker 1: celebrate our finances, our financings or anything like that. And

727
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:43,879
Speaker 1: you know they definitely want to. But you know, for me,

728
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 1: I do think we have an opportunity to build something

729
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:52,680
Speaker 1: uniquely big here because of how fragmented this space is

730
00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:56,319
Speaker 1: and how broken music creation is, and and also how

731
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 1: you know, little attention has been paid to it for

732
00:38:59,239 --> 00:39:01,520
Speaker 1: so many years. There's nice milestones along the way, but

733
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:03,479
Speaker 1: I really want to grow this into it is something

734
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:06,279
Speaker 1: that can become a multigenerational company, and I'm just gonna

735
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,719
Speaker 1: keep focus on looking ahead there. Steve, thanks so much

736
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:13,640
Speaker 1: for being on Strictly Business. Shirley, thanks for having me.

737
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:23,080
Speaker 1: This is wonderful. Tune in next week for another episode

738
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:24,719
Speaker 1: of Varieties Strictly Business