Last October the Planet Money podcast announced that it was starting a record label — with one song: “Inflation” by Earnest Jackson. The song was independently released 47 years previously, but failed to reach any kind of “hit” status. Planet Money thought current economic conditions warranted a re-release, and also wanted to learn about the economics of the music business. So the podcast crew put the song on Spotify (after negotiating all necessary agreements).
It was not only advocacy of a cool and catchy song that motivated the Planet Monday team. An additional motivation was to learn first-hand about the business economics of publishing music. The first learning: “Just sounding good isn’t enough and turning a profit in the music business means being creative, patient and knowing the right people.”
That part presumably went fairly well, because now Planet Money is claiming a hit, with over a million streams on Spotify. The song is also on several other music streaming services.
