Episode #262 – Digital Music And The Environment, Hearing Loss For String Players, And Music Registry’s Ritch Esra

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:42 — 45.5MB)

Ritch Esra is the former promotion coordinator for A&M Records and director of A&R for Arista Records, where he worked extensively with the publishing and songwriting communities for material for Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Melissa Manchester, Tanya Tucker, Jennifer Warnes and Jermaine Jackson, and various major motion pictures.

Since 1992, Ritch has been running the Music Business Registry service, which includes The A&R Registry, The Publisher Registry, The Music Business Attorney Registry, The Artist Managers Registry and The Film and Television Music Guide. He also co-founded MUBUTV, which is an online video channel dedicated to educating recording artists, bands, and musicians on the realities of developing a career in music today. Ritch has also taught various classes on the music business at Musicians Institute, SAE and the UCLA Extension.

In the interview we talked about the state of A&R over the years, the most difficult challenge that an artist has today, why fewer American hits go global, the biggest misconception about label A&R, and much more.

On the intro I’ll take a look at how streaming seems to be worse for the environment than CDs or vinyl, and how an orchestral viola player’s suit against the Royal Opera House for hearing damage has played out.