Can this entrepreneur unlock $40 billion in new revenue for the music business?

<p>Welcome to the Music Business Worldwide Podcast supported by <a href='https://www.volymusic.com/'>Voly Music</a>. <br/><br/>On this episode, MBW founder Tim Ingham speaks to Ola Sars, founder and CEO of Soundtrack Your Brand.<br/><br/>A graduate of Harvard Business School, Sars went on to become the co-founder and COO of Beats Music – the music subscription streaming service, associated with Beats By Dre headphones, that would become Apple Music.<br/> <br/>In 2013, Sars launched Soundtrack Your Brand (then called Spotify For Business) as a JV with Spotify. The premise is simple: a music streaming service specifically made for businesses – whether multi-nationals or mom&apos;n&apos;pop shops.<br/><br/>In 2018, Sars spun the company out of that ownership structure as the independent Soundtrack Your Brand (although Spotify remains a minority investor today).<br/><br/>One of his key arguments: any business playing music from an individual&apos;s Spotify account is breaking the terms and conditions of their agreement with the service.  <br/><br/>Said businesses, according to Sars, should be paying a premium monthly fee for a streaming service that clears them to play music for their customers (and which, ideally, also recommends music designed to draw more purchase activity from consumers).<br/><br/>Sars calculates there are 100 million different types of public-facing businesses globally that are a target market for this kind of B2B music streaming service.<br/><br/>Between them, he says, they could bring in an additional $40 billion of revenue into the music industry. <br/><br/>Right now, Sars is some way from that kind of target: In 2022, Soundtrack Your Brand turned over 214 million SEK, which works out at just over $20 million US dollars. <br/><br/>However, that revenue wasn’t far away from doubling year-on-year – up 61% on 2021. <br/><br/>As you read this, Soundtrack Your Brand has just over 54,000 paying monthly subscribers globally.<br/><br/>Sars says there&apos;s much more to come...</p><p>The Music Busine