Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds signal in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.

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My guest today is Cherie Hu.

Cherie is an award-winning researcher, founder, and educator forging new paths in music, technology, and business. Since 2019, she has run Water & Music, a global innovation platform for the music business. Through data-driven market research, online courses, consulting projects, and live events, Water & Music has helped thousands of industry professionals translate emergent music-tech trends into transformative opportunities in business and culture. She has also published hundreds of articles for Billboard, Forbes, NPR Music, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Variety, and DJ Mag, among many others. In Fall 2024, Hu will be joining Syracuse University's Bandier Program for Recording and Entertainment Industries as a Professor of Practice, focused on teaching emerging music business models and technologies.

Cherie is my go-to source for understanding key matters in the music business. Music is a domain where developments in technology often land early but have spillover effects in other industries. Think about how prominent sampling and remix culture have become through music, and the effect in domains like art, design, and video.

In our conversation, which we recorded in December 2023, Cherie artfully walks us through the music business, and in the process reflects on broader shifts in technology such as blockchain and artificial intelligence. She also makes a pretty big prediction for 2024—hop into the episode to find out.

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CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also directed, shot, and edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. You can learn more by visiting realitystudies.co. And if you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.

Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Past conversations include Taylor Lorenz, Asad J. Malik, Lia Halloran & Kip Thorne.

Cherie Hu: What's Next for the Music…