On this episode, we switched things up! Instead of a standard interview, I talked about a few recent topics with the best-selling author, Zack O’Malley Greenburg. He has long had his pulse on the music industry. Between his past time covering the business at Forbes, writing acclaimed books on the likes of Jay-Z and Michael Jackson, or his current Substack blog, Zack has formed both a macro- and micro-view of the entire industry. He’s the perfect person to bring onto Trapital to discuss the stories reverberating across the music business today.

One of those stories is Spotify’s floundering performance as of late. The streaming leader’s stock has cratered to all-time lows, partly due to so-so performance, but also as a byproduct of Netflix’s own struggles. But if you ask Zack, the commonalities between Netflix and Spotify aren’t as close as critics will have you believe. Specifically, Spotify’s “unlimited buffet” business model is a massive differentiator.

And then there’s Apple officially discounting the iPod after 21 years. Whether it gets the credit or not, the innovative product re-shaped the music business into what we see today. As a “legal Napster”, it laid the groundwork for today’s streaming-dominated industry — not just for music, but podcasts too.

Check out all the topics Zack and I covered in this episode of Trapital:

0:46 First Memories Of The iPod
5:22 Steve Jobs First iPod Keynote
10:01 iPod As A Gateway Into Apple Ecosystem
12:23 Will iPod Have A Resurgence Like Vinyl?
15:01 U2’s Free Album On Apple Backfires
18:33 Spotify’s Current Business Struggles
25:50 Why Spotify Shouldn’t Be Compared To Netflix
28:21 Do Spotify And Netflix Have Content Problems?
34:45 Examining Big Bunny Meteroic’s Rise In Six Years
41:40 Latin Music Succeeding In US Despite Language Barrier
44:25 Did Jay Z Ruin Robinson Cano’s Career?

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