YouSaid · the spoken record

Sowmya Krishnamurthy

lines on the record: 30
first: 2025-09-09
most recent: 2025-09-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We're going to hire like Nas and AZ to do a one off freestyle. No, no, we're going to literally be a part of hiring artists, letting them do their thing over the course of several different campaigns versus, let's say, Gap in LL Cool Jay, where he literally shouted out foobu in a gap ad. But Gap didn't even know what Fubu was and they let that run. So they basically gave their competition a national platform at their expense. But that shows you where somebody wasn't thinking through it and not having these actual experts and not just hiring them, but listening to them.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I would say first have somebody in house who actually understands culture. And if that's not possible, actually hire genre experts, cultural experts, and actually rely on those authorities to help guide you because oftentimes the idea is, okay, we have a budget. We'll just throw it at the biggest name we can. We're going to look at their social media followers, and that's what's going to predicate whether we hire them. That has absolutely no thought or nuance or analysis. And that's why a lot of these collaborations just sort of fall flat.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not a worker, I do what I want. And that's all great, but it comes with actually a lot of work. And there's people who have the knowledge, people who do the thankless job. And it's easy to be on the cover of the magazine. But what about all those people that had to work to get you there? And I think with a lot of like celebrity businesses, you see their runway isn't very long. So it's almost like you start a company, give it that billion dollar valuation, fingers crossed, sell it and we never speak of it again.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think the hard part, though, is business and any of your listeners who are actually in business or entrepreneurs, it's not sexy. Most of the time you're doing work behind the scenes, looking a lot of P&L sheets, you know, doing math. Like these are not sexy things. And I think for a lot of artists and celebrities, they want to be the face of it. And I think that's what they do very well, probably more so on the marketing side and promotional side. But they probably, when it comes down to sort of brass tacks and talking about supply chain and seasonality and sourcing, they either don't have the knowledge. They don't want to learn the knowledge. And they're just not comfortable talking about it because I think now more than ever, everyone wants to be seen as an entrepreneur, you know, four-hour work week. It's all about, you know, being a boss. I know girl boss is kind of antiquated now, but just being a boss, you know, I'm”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Make a real commitment. And I think that's why people like Jay-Z. Even Kanye, at his height, puffy Dre, like all of their business extensions made sense. You wanted to buy headphones from Dr. Dra because he was supposed to have like golden ears as a producer. You probably wouldn't buy his tequila, but I think this is where the artists have to see what actually fits with them and what they're willing to learn about, talk about, and not just sell something for the sake of selling something.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nothing worse than when you see an artist becoming the face of some brand and it's totally inorganic. Like the consumer now is more savvy than oftentimes businesses give us credit for. And they can tell like this person doesn't use this skincare line or this person has never talked about their love of tequila all of a sudden it's a picture of them holding like an agave plant. Like we know you don't drink. So this was clearly a way to get like the second yacht or the fifth mortgage. And it's all about right now there's a proliferation of opportunities. Everyone wants to be seen as a business person, as a founder. Like these are like the buzzwords that people want to see. Like artists want to be on the cover of Forbes more than on the cover of Rolling Stone. It is what it is. Like they want to be seen as business people, but to be seen as a business person, you have to know business or at least partner with people who know what they're talking about.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know what's interesting. Had you asked me this question even like two years ago, I would have given you a laundry list because I think specifically Rihanna and then later Selena Gomez, they created a blueprint of artists becoming hyphenates in the fashion space, in the beauty space, so specifically with Fenti Beauty and Rare Beauty, which are two of the most successful artists turn beauty lines. But so many artists try to release like sort of their version of that and there were more flops than wins. So I think for artists right now, I'm sure they get so many deal offerings of, hey, you should sign on to be the face of this skincare line or beauty line or liquor line, like they're constantly getting opportunities. But I would really say they need to vet these opportunities, do what makes sense for them in an organic way, and what they're ready to commit to. I think there's no.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was the rise of people like Dapper Dan who would basically create these DIY creations using a logo of, let's say, a Gucci or Louis Vuitton or Fendi to make something for the hip-hop generation, then as time went on in the 90s and the aughts, hip-hop became the consumer. And now we're in an era where hip-hop is really the collaborator, where artists are working with these lines, they're the face of the line, they're the creative directors of these lines. But I think for luxury fashion, they're constantly trying to juggle all these balls of getting new fans, not alienating their old fans, not offending their political connections, not offending the stockholders, but I promise we're still cool guys. Like we're so cool. And we're expensive, so you should want us, and there's that aspirational element, but don't worry if you want that $100 keychain, we'll sell that to you as well. Like, there's a lot of things going on for these brands to stay relevant.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Me, again, it's all a business. So you always have to think about your corporate stakeholder, shareholders, luxury itself, luxury fashion is very much always trying to figure out how to stay relevant, maybe not culturally relevant, but commercially. And some of these biggest brands now, they're making more money selling, let's say, a nail polish or keychain or a lipstick at, let's say, $150 or $200, then selling an outfit at $10,000 because the luxury consumers also very much evolving and there is that schism between sort of quiet luxury and the, you know, we don't talk about what designers we wear, but houses, they want you to show off that logo in the beginning, hip-hop artists and those from the culture, they wanted to wear these high fashion brands, but they either couldn't afford it or if they did go into those stores, they weren't welcome.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hip hop artists are the ones sitting front row at Fashion Week. You see them all over the Matt Gala. I mean, as I mentioned in my book, back in the day, it was like Little Kim and Puffy were the first art rappers at the Met Gala. And now they're everywhere because somebody like Anna Wintor knows that this is a demographic that may be vogue, may not reach organically, but you can get these artists to post something on Instagram or live stream it and it keeps these sort of heritage institutions young and relevant to the new generation.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think high fashion specifically is really leaning on hip hop because, you know, designers, even historically, whether it's like a Gianni Versace or Tommy Hillfiger, they want to know what the young, cool kids are doing. And especially in places like New York and LA, Miami, Tokyo, Atlanta, that's where they want to see what are young people doing? How do they dress? How do they talk? And right now brands are still going to hip-hop. Again, I think they are more so going to what they think are like the safer bets. So they are going to people who are more established. You look at someone like Pharrell, who has his position at Louis Vuitton. You look at something like, you know, Chanel, who recently partnered with Kendrick Lamar, so they are going to these big superstars where I think they feel like they're going to get the guaranteed eyeballs and clicks and engagements, but absolutely compared to every other genre.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But sometimes they don't understand it in a meaningful way. And just throwing a Drake song on your brand's social media page or using hip-hop slaying in your social media content, that doesn't mean it's cool. Like, and in fact, people who are fans of the culture, they live this, they can sort of spot that out pretty quickly. So I feel like the commercialization of hip-hop is probably at its apex right now. A lot of companies are throwing money at artists and sinking records and utilizing parts of the culture. But how many are actually reinvesting it or having a long-term investment in a meaningful way? That's up for debate.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hip hop really has shaped and influenced culture across the board, from music to fashion, lifestyle, sports, the music, the slaying how people dress, how they walk, how they think. This has permeated every facet of culture. Unfortunately, even though hip-hop is over 50 years old, so technically it's a middle-aged man, even though it's in that life stage, it's still oftentimes treated as a niche art form. It's marginalized, and I think there's a lot of historic reasons for that, racial reasons for that. Like it's just still sort of, we want to extract the cool from it, but we don't want anything else that actually has to do with it in a meaningful way. And I think you look at, you know, you turn on the TV, how many commercials have like, you know, Biggie in the background or Tupac song. Brands want that cool factor.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Versions of the same album. I just heard the like target version just get announced. Like, she's guaranteeing herself a number one album. Like, that's not a secret. But to me, it's sort of as an industry, we can't just rely on that because it's not a business model that can be replicated by anybody, but maybe, you know, Taylor, Beyonce. Maybe Kendra. There's only a handful of people who can emulate what she does, it's so specific to her.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I think she's somebody who is a pop superstar in an industry that doesn't really have a lot of them. Anytime there is this success. Operating on her level when it comes to her masters, her music, her image. It's very curated. She's very much in charge, which I think is great. But, you know, she's also an anomaly. And for one Taylor Swift, very few other artists can do what she does. My always hope with people like her or those in similar positions is creating a new blueprint for other artists or opening doors for other creatives because she has that power. She has that leverage. I mean, I would love to maybe see her own label one day or publishing company signing unsigned artists or songwriters and helping develop them. Like I think as she gets older, she could take on a very interesting role as an executive. And I think a lot of artists would really respect her for doing that. But I think right now it really is. She's an album mode and we know one of her strategies is doing like very”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“99% are suffering and failing. And that's where I feel we're right now in the music business, whether it's an artist, the top 1% are doing amazing, but talk to the other 99%, the pennies that they're getting every month from streaming. We're really at a crossroads and it's very much the future of it is uncertain because as it is right now, record labels are almost catalog companies. They're just amassing money from back catalog, actively signing new artists, developing them, investing in them. That doesn't seem to be the ethos. And what kind of industry, music business, or otherwise can rely on being a catalog industry that's essentially a nostalgia industry, something that's looking at the past versus looking at the future. And to me, the VMAs were kind of indicative of that. And right now, to me, the industry seems to be at a bit of a sandstill. And I don't think AI or technology is going to solve this.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I pay attention to a few metrics. I absolutely looking at the billboard charts and seeing which artists as well as which genres are represented. I also look at, you know, especially the companies that are public when they do their quarterly calls or their annual calls. But being in the music business, I can tell you behind the scenes, like right now is a very dire time. Probably 90% of the people I know are unemployed right now. There have been massive layoffs over and over again at record labels, at tech companies. And it's a very jarring juxtaposition because on one hand, you'll see the public announcement this label had an amazing year, banner year. We're so happy with our artists. And by the way, we're cutting 10% of our staff or we're cutting 30% of our staff. And to me, that is not the sign of a healthy industry. It doesn't matter if the top 1% are doing well.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Rick Beato did a piece, I believe, on CBS this morning that they created like a female indie singer. And I just thought to myself, like, no one thinks it's creepy, a room full of men creating a young woman singer. Like, this can't go wrong, right, guys? Like, you just know where this is going to be taken and it's not in a good place. And I just feel like as an industry, of course, be on top of the technology, be cognizant of it. But we should be investing in human beings or using AI to help them versus replacing them.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think the problem with AI in the music business, it essentially enables people to just not work with human beings anymore. I can create this ideal group or band or rapper or singer, and they don't have all those pesky little feelings and thoughts that human beings have. They don't need to take breaks. They don't have any, you know, political inclination. So they're perfect for brands. Like it's literally made to sell stuff. And at that time, when music seemed so disposable and forgettable, I just don't feel as an industry we should be running to replace human beings. And everything I've seen, whether it's the group you mentioned or recently they did.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Artists that are missing. One cool thing I will say is TikTok oftentimes introduces a new generation to classic records. So we all remember what happened with Fleetwood Mac and Dreams. I think that's great. So I think for a lot of artists, they're really getting second and third and fourth lives because of the music discovery aspect of TikTok. But I always tell the music business like we cannot outsource our ears to technology. Technology, algorithm followers, that still doesn't tell you is this artist good? Is the music good? Like that should be a taste thing and that in my opinion still comes from people and the music business is so quick whether it's through AI or algorithms or social followings like that equates quality and it really doesn't.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think TikTok is very interesting because initially, I think the industry really saw it as a place for music discovery. You would hear about artists going viral on TikTok and off not even one record, like a segment of a record, like 10 seconds, and they were getting record deals. But what has happened with TikTok as well as so many other of these social media platforms, it's very quickly just become e-commerce. Like I feel everything is about this, buy this. And with the TikTok store, that integration is right there. And to me, that has nothing to do with music. What I say about TikTok is I think the industry should just view it as a discovery platform, but by no means should that replace actually seeing an artist perform them having an actual discography before getting a record deal, being able to see them live, like these things still matter. And I think those are aspects with a lot of new.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I think there was such a missed opportunity with YouTube because that's where people are consuming music videos for a very long time, probably much to the chagrin of MTV and similar channels. That's the way that music videos are consumed and shared. I mean, some people, especially in other countries, they use YouTube as their DSP. They're not even going to a Spotify or Apple. Oh, I want to hear that song. Let me go to YouTube. And that's the way that they're consuming music.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's the music business. Anytime we talk about art versus commerce, it's always that very tenuous balance. And right now commerce is winning, whether it be the fact that, you know, tech companies are really at the forefront of pushing music, record labels, admittedly are not really signing unheard of acts, wanting to develop them. It's all about follower numbers, engagement and clicks. So in that realm,”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Important to always respect the elders, respect the OGs, but is that also a reflection of the fact that The brand doesn't know who it's catering to. In my mind, it's always like a room full of people just like throwing ideas at a bulletin board and saying, yeah, this sounds like this is what the kids are doing, right? And again, it's sort of like if you try to cater to everyone, you end up catering to nobody. So I'm not sure who this show was really for. They want to get that TikTok audience. Like they were very much trying to speak to a lot of the Stan armies and getting them to watch and vote and be a part of it, but also those kids don't watch television.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, we don't talk about that tonight. It's about being happy and having fun. And to me, that just set the tone. It was a very pop night. Like it was a lot of women in pop and you had gaga. Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter, like all the big names came out. And like you said, this weird generational tension, you have LL Cooljay, then like Buster Rhymes performing, Ricky Martin getting an award, Mariah, who are all icons, but I grew up with them and I just wonder to a 17-year-old now.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, it's so interesting. I was trying to think okay, who is the demographic? And I would say probably about 17 to 25 is like that real sweet spot. But, you know, for people like myself in the industry, we should still be tuned in. And I can say honestly, my timeline, no one was talking about it. And the only people I even saw in attendance is because they had clients there. You mentioned LL and the way he started the show, he essentially told people, the audience, the artists, like today is going to be about the music. Like he didn't say don't be political, but he, you know, said don't be political. And I thought that was so interesting, especially given the CBS lawsuit following the Donald Trump lawsuit and that settlement. I just thought to myself, we're in such an era now. There's so much going on that affects young people and they're passionate. They want to talk about it. And the fact that a show is saying from Joe.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Talking about music videos, which everyone kind of watches on their phone. And, you know, I just like so many people. I caught little clips. I read a lot of the recaps. But I was overwhelmed. I mean, underwhelmed because it really just felt like it was a very safe show, a very kind of, you know, family-friendly, sanitized show. And there were so many opportunities to do something interesting or something that really would push through the noise or reflect just where we are as a society.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, we got to go back, Bob. When I was growing up, I remember so clearly from about 6 30 to 8 o'clock. I was glued to the television on the night of the VMAs. That was the red carpet. Everyone walking down, what were people wearing? Who was with who? 8 to 11 was the show. Somewhere in you would have to get dinner because your mom would be yelling at you. And then 11 to 11.30 was the after show. But we watched it so voraciously because the next day at school or the water cooler, everybody was talking about it. The VMAs really were about these incredible music moments, pop culture moments. I mean, who can forget like the Brittany Madonna kiss or Beyonce revealing she was pregnant, but fast forward to 2025, the MTV VMAs, first of all, being on CBS, I think tells you everything you need to know about this once like edgy, rebellious, cool show.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I'm going to be honest with you, I did not watch it. This shows you, I think, where we are in sort of the relevance of the MTV VMAs. I watch them on little clips on social media, which I think is very 2025, don't you agree”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really at a crossroads because as it is right now, record labels are almost catalog companies like they're just amassing money from back catalog, actively signing new artists, developing them, investing in them. That doesn't seem to be the ethos. And what kind of industry music business or otherwise can rely on being a catalog industry that's essentially a nostalgia industry, something that's looking at the past versus looking at the future. And to me, the VMAs were kind of indicative of that.”
2025-09-09 · Masters of Scale · Music biz at a crossroads: from Taylor Swift to AI, with Sowmya Krishnamurthy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT