NPR's Microphone Check had an interview about the music industry with Julian Petty, an entertainment lawyer that currently represents rappers Earl Sweatshirt and Vince Staples as well as the estate of Biggie (and at one point represented A Tribe Called Quest, Michael Jackson, and Prince!). Petty sounds like an honorable person who really has the best interests of the artist in mind despite the surrounding pressure by record labels on many of these artists to go down the "get rich quick" scheme that may sound enticing without a real knowledge of the industry.

There are a lot of great tidbits from the interview, including Petty's take on the dying music industry:

"There are six revenue streams for recorded music. There's physical sales. There's digital sales. There's advertising. There's subscription. There's sync licenses. And then there's performance rights. Four of those things have pretty much come about in the last ten years. So when people talk about the music business or recorded music business is dying or in decline, I'm like, 'I don't know about that. I think the ecosystem has changed. And you have a lot more different pots. And like publishing, you're making money from a lot of smaller — smaller increments. More pennies and nickels. Whereas the recorded business was used to making money at the $16.99 CD. Yeah, that doesn't exist. But from the streaming side, especially with the indie artist, there's some real money to be made there."

He also talks the "360 Model" that artist sign that labels have been using more now since many avenues of revenue streams are drying up. The model basically means that the record label will take a smaller cut than usual in certain revenues, but they then get a cut of everything, hence the 360.

They also talked about the Robin Thicke vs. Marvin Gaye ruling which awarded Gaye's estate $7 million for copyright infringement in the song "Blurred Lines." Petty thought the case didn't come down to copyright law, it came down to Robin Thicke being an awful witness. If you haven't read Thicke's deposition on this case, it's sadly comical. Thicke admits he wasn't sober for one interview for an entire year and barely recalls anything he said because he was high on Vicodin and Vodka. He calls himself the White Marvin Gaye and says he really liked Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" after his own hundred songs. So yeah, Petty might have a point!

You can either check out the transcript here or listen to the Soundcloud clip embedded!