Summary: In this episode of the Upward Spiral, a music business podcast, we talk with Theda Sandiford, who is the VP of Commerce at Republic Records and Island Records, where she handles VEVO, Spotify, Youtube and more. Sandiford got her start at WBLS and then became the first black programmer of a major market country station. In 1994, she was nominated for “Programmer of the Year Award” by the CMA. She moved to Billboard to run the Hot 100 chart, then went on to work at Def Jam. After spending time working with an online games startup, she came back to the music industry, and currently works at Republic. We talk to Sandiford about big data, music streaming, and gaming startups.
