Mike Smith

Yeah, you saw one of the big changes because when you came in, it was all like vinyl.

Well, no, it was just, no.

Well,

we'd moved from vinyl.

Yeah, we convinced everyone to sell records and buy CDs.

So when I came in, the industry was doing okay.

There was a lot of money going around still.

Yeah, yeah.

And everyone, all the record companies, and there were so many record companies.

You think of what it's like today and there's three major companies.

Back in those days, it felt like there was about 15.

And they were all in, like we were, really beautiful townhouses down in the West End of London.

It was amazing.

But yeah, as always happens, there was just merger after merger after merger.

And you watch the change go from...

From vinyl to CDs to the arrival of MP3s, everything going online, everything being available for free, piracy.

And then streaming comes in to sort of like turn it around.

And, you know, although not a lot of money's getting generated for the individual songwriter in the way that it used to be or individual artists like it used to be at least there is money coming in you know so

well it's sort of gone it's turned upside down used to be you went out on tour to promote the sales of the records now bums on seats is where you make your money

yeah it is yeah because it's it's very hard making proper money out of um out of the streaming services.

I think if you own your own copyrights, so like your own recordings, if you own your own publishing and you're streaming upwards of half a million a month, then yeah, you can make some decent money.

But when you think back to when you started out or when I first got into the business, you know, you could, as a small band, you could sort of like survive by selling, you know, you get a single out, sell 20,000 singles, do a John Peel session, you know, you get a bit of PRS off the radio from 20,000 singles.

That was a bit of money.

You could survive on that.

Or Fleetwood Mac selling, what was it, 20

Yeah, you saw one of the big changes because when you came in, it was all like vinyl.

Well, no, it was just, no.

Well,

we'd moved from vinyl.

Yeah, we convinced everyone to sell records and buy CDs.

So when I came in, the industry was doing okay.

There was a lot of money going around still.

Yeah, yeah.

And everyone, all the record companies, and there were so many record companies.

You think of what it's like today and there's three major companies.

Back in those days, it felt like there was about 15.

And they were all in, like we were, really beautiful townhouses down in the West End of London.

It was amazing.

But yeah, as always happens, there was just merger after merger after merger.

And you watch the change go from...

From vinyl to CDs to the arrival of MP3s, everything going online, everything being available for free, piracy.

And then streaming comes in to sort of like turn it around.

And, you know, although not a lot of money's getting generated for the individual songwriter in the way that it used to be or individual artists like it used to be at least there is money coming in you know so

well it's sort of gone it's turned upside down used to be you went out on tour to promote the sales of the records now bums on seats is where you make your money

yeah it is yeah because it's it's very hard making proper money out of um out of the streaming services.

I think if you own your own copyrights, so like your own recordings, if you own your own publishing and you're streaming upwards of half a million a month, then yeah, you can make some decent money.

But when you think back to when you started out or when I first got into the business, you know, you could, as a small band, you could sort of like survive by selling, you know, you get a single out, sell 20,000 singles, do a John Peel session, you know, you get a bit of PRS off the radio from 20,000 singles.

That was a bit of money.

You could survive on that.

Or Fleetwood Mac selling, what was it, 20