Emmanuel Zunz, the CEO and founder of ONErpm, has spent 16 years building one of the fastest-growing independent music companies in the world, across 40 territories, with a staff of over 500, and without a single round of outside investment. In this episode, he breaks down exactly how that happened.

This week on the podcast, Emmanuel and Dmitri get into why the traditional definition of independence is outdated, why Taylor Swift can be on a major label and still be completely independent, and what it actually means for an artist or company to be in control of their own destiny.

They also dig into the convergence happening right now between distributors and labels, the race to the bottom on margins that's pushing funded indie companies toward acquisition or collapse, and why Emmanuel believes the label of the future is built on scalable technology, diversified deal structures, and a global roster rather than big advances and market share at any cost.

If you work in music distribution, run an independent label, or are trying to build a sustainable creative business on your own terms, this one is worth your full attention.

The news

• The live-music boom has convinced some artists they're bigger than they are

• Live Nation pushes back on 'blue dot fever': 'It's a normal touring year'

• Listeners engage less deeply with music labeled as AI – even when it's actually human-made, academic study finds

The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit musictectonics.com to find shownotes and a transcript for this episode, and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

Get Dmitri's Rock Paper Scanner newsletter.

What does it actually look like to build a music career from the ground up as an artist in 2026?

This week Dmitri sits down with Aryyzona, a Brazillian-born, LA-based artist who has been posting videos on YouTube since 2009 and recently released her hyper pop EP Gacha World, complete with a custom video game.

With over a million YouTube subscribers and a devoted following across TikTok and Instagram, Aryy has a perspective on the creator economy that challenges a lot of assumptions. She breaks down why she refuses to call herself a social-first artist even though she posts constantly, how she balances paid brand partnerships with creative integrity, and what the traditional music industry gets wrong about creators who built their audiences outside the label system.

They also get into the emotional reality of being a music creator, including separating your self-worth from your analytics, navigating hate comments, and staying grounded when engagement is unpredictable. Plus, Aryy shares a story how her ukelele videos once landed her on a Southwest Airlines flight to Hawaii to teach an entire cabin of passengers how to play ukulele.

If you are a musician trying to understand the creator economy, a content creator wondering whether you can make it as an artist, or someone who wants an honest look at building an audience and a music career at the same time, this episode if for you

The news

• Sony in advanced talks to buy Blackstone's Recognition Music for up to $4B, reports Bloomberg

• YouTube allows creators to replace music with copyright issues with genAI songs

• Zuckerberg Personally Authorized Massive Copyright Infringement to Train AI, Multiple Publishers Allege

• Suno CEO Calls AI Platform "Ozempic of the Music Industry"

• How Duetti Finds Big Value in Small Catalogs: 'It's Not About Aggregating Rights… It's About Taking Care of Them'

• Nebula becomes latest fan-to-artist investment platform

The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit musictectonics.com to find shownotes and a transcript for this episode, and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

Get Dmitri's Rock Paper Scanner newsletter.

Most artists have no idea who their fans actually are. They know follower counts and streaming numbers, but they don't own the relationship, and according to Rob Sealy, that single problem is costing the music industry billions.

Rob is the co-founder of OpenStage, a platform helping artists from emerging talent to global icons like Paul McCartney, Oasis, and Lana Del Rey reclaim their fan data and build businesses that don't depend on platform algorithms. In this conversation, he shares why the music industry is massively undersized compared to sport, what it looks like when artists go directly to fans before they even book a tour, and how knowing your fans changes everything from ticket sales to merch to revenue you didn't know you were leaving behind.

Also in this episode: part two of our AlgoRhythms series where we asked conference attendees "Does AI make you hopeful about the future of music tech?"

The News

• The $6.4 Billion Bid Changing the Music Industry: Why UMG Is Selling Off Its Spotify Stake

• Spotify is now a fitness app too

• There's now a collecting society just for AI-generated music

• Why superfan subscriptions are dying out

The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit musictectonics.com to find shownotes and a transcript for this episode, and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

Get Dmitri's Rock Paper Scanner newsletter.