Owning the Future — An AMA Hang with Lars Murray

March 20

🎧 Owning the Future — An AMA Hang with Lars Murray

By Joseph Perla, Founder & CEO of Hangout

In the first-ever AMA Hang, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Lars Murray, a brilliant mind from both the traditional and digital sides of the music industry. From his early days in college radio to shaping streaming strategy at Pandora, Lars brought the kind of lived experience and sharp insight that made our Hang not just fun — but essential.

For those new here: AMA Hangs are live music-fueled conversations hosted on Hangout.fm — part Q&A, part collaborative mixtape, part storytelling session (more here). As we talk, we play tracks live, trade memories, invite questions, and share our stories behind the songs.

👥 Bios

Joseph Perla
Technologist and music industry innovator, founder of Turntable.fm and Hangout.fm. Joseph’s work centers on reimagining how fans connect with music and artists through shared, community-driven digital experiences.

Lars Murray
A veteran of both the traditional and digital music industries, Lars has held senior roles at Pandora and multiple labels. He began in college radio and evolved into a key voice in music licensing, artist development, and digital strategy. He’s worked with legends like Daft Punk and Gorillaz on creative, cross-platform projects.

💬 What We Talked About

How Lars broke into the industry via college radio (free records were involved)
Lessons from the early days of MP3s, digital licensing, and the wild west of web music
Lars’s experience with Pandora, its legacy and how algorithms reshaped discovery
The cultural role of streaming, why direct-to-fan connection is more important than ever
The long game: artist ownership, data, and community-building

It was part oral history, part industry truth-telling, and part music nerding out — basically, everything we love about these Hangs. Thanks to the folks who joined LIVE and asked us Qs, we’ve included some of their comments below.

🎤 Full Interview with Lars Murray

Joseph Perla: So Lars, what first attracted you to the music business, and how did you get your start in the industry?

Lars Murray: I was just always a music freak—from birth. Apparently, I could hum TV themes before I could talk.

Joseph: Yeah, my daughter sings and makes up songs all the time, even at 2 years old.

💥 Career Breaks and Challenges

Joseph: Can you talk about the key turning points or "big breaks" in your career that led you to leadership roles at companies like Pandora?

Lars: When I got to college, I realized I could get free records if I worked at the radio station. Got hooked on that and eventually worked my way up to Music Director. I was terrible at being on the radio, though. I wanted to be closer to the creative process, so I went to work for a label. I was also not suited for promo, but I knew how to use computers.

Joseph: What was one mistake or challenge in your career that taught you the most, and how did it shape the way you work today?

Lars: So they threw me at tech, which eventually ended up being the internet, MP3s, and early streaming. In 1999, my label started selling MP3s. We did a five-figure deal for 275 songs with a digital distributor. My boss and I got called on the carpet and accused of insider trading on the company we did the deal with. I didn't even know that was possible—or lucrative. Maybe I should have... LOL. I learned a lot about ownership.

📡 Pandora and the Streaming Shift

Joseph: I'm really curious about your time at Pandora. I've never asked much about it, but it seems pretty formative?

Lars: Re-formative, for sure.

Joseph: Pandora really shaped the music tech industry.

Lars: In a lot of ways. Lots of folks stand on their shoulders, but they also didn’t see Spotify coming. Soon enough.

Joseph: How important is it that new music services are licensed? How do platforms like Pandora leverage user data to improve music discovery, and where do you see that evolving in the future?

Lars: OMG, one at a time! Very. Everyone wants to play ball as long as they know they are getting paid. That’s why they love Hangout and Suno/Udio not so much, and why they were suspicious of Pandora. Music folks don’t like to see tech folks get rich without paying them. Pretty simple. Pandora was just way ahead on developing an algorithm. Pandora was like a baseball glove—you had to break it in, but it got better with more use.

Lars: Any generation is just stew in the pot they grew up in.

Lars: I would say that Gen X has never felt any control. We did pioneer the internet, though—for better and worse.

Lars: Algorithms are reflective and recombinant.

Lars: And good business. But people feel stuff, and that’s why seismic shifts historically happened.

🎯 Advice for Artists

Joseph: What is the best piece of advice you’d give labels, managers, or artists trying to navigate today’s streaming-dominated landscape?

Lars: Direct-to-fan is everything. Artists and managers—own data wherever you can.

Joseph: What recent tech or industry innovation do you personally find the most exciting or promising?

Lars: Insist on owning your stuff and your audience community.

🌟 Creative High Points

Joseph: Is there a particular project or partnership you’re most proud of?

Lars: Hmmm. Hard to rank, but on the creative side, Gorillaz first—visionary, modern, smart, musical geniuses, cross-media, and a fun team to work with. That set the stage for working the second time with Daft Punk. Same stuff, even nicer people, even more collaborative.

Lars: Digital media entails constant evolution and self-examination. It used to be I’d reboot every 12–24 months. Now it’s like every six. But I’ve hit places where I thought I was never gonna work in the industry again a couple of times. Just had to find the value.

Joseph: In your experience, what are some of the most effective ways streaming services can help emerging artists?

Lars: Per above, enabling communities—artist, cultural, etc. It’s tech, but it’s also culture. Streamers have overcorrected toward algorithms.

🔮 Looking Ahead

Lars: We should shout out the MusiCares Fundraiser.

Joseph: Oh yeah, that’s happening. Please come and support musicians affected by the fire.

Lars: Perfect example of what I think more streamers should do—getting a few like-minded artists together to play music, for a good cause. Not just feeding Kendrick through an algorithm.

🎶 Lars’s Playlist + Liner Notes

Each of these tracks came with a memory — a mood, a story, or a lesson I picked up along the way. Here's the playlist on Hangout. And below, here’s what Lars played with Youtube embeds, and why:

🎸 Led Zeppelin — “Stairway to Heaven”

Lars: It’s the most obvious song in rock history. But it still hits. Overplayed for a reason. This is the Everest of rock storytelling.

💷 The Kinks — “The Moneygoround”

Lars: A sharp little jab at the industry machine. Ray Davies pulling back the curtain. Still true.

🎭 Kristin Chenoweth & Cast — “No One Mourns The Wicked”

Lars: World-building in under 5 minutes. It’s mythology, melody, and Broadway bombast. Love it.

💼 Pink Floyd — “Have a Cigar”

Lars: “Which one’s Pink?” is legendary. Every artist has lived this.

💰 Pink Floyd — “Money”

Lars: Talking royalties? This says it all. Still grooves.

🧨 Sex Pistols — “EMI”

Lars: Pure punk. Just blowing up the bridge behind them. Glorious.

🤖 Daft Punk — “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”

Lars: Worked with them. Precision + soul. This track is the blueprint.

🚐 The Nude Party — “Chevrolet Van”

Lars: A vibe. Van, no GPS, all the time in the world. Classic road trip energy.

🧱 Pink Floyd — “Hey You”

Lars: It’s heavy. Isolation and connection wrapped in one. Beautiful contradiction.

📼 The Smiths — “Paint a Vulgar Picture”

Lars: Posthumous sales takedown. Gets truer the more you’ve seen behind the curtain.

🕊️ Pearl Jam — “Better Man”

Lars: Tension, ache, and craft. It always lands.

🎙️ Nick Lowe — “I Love My Label”

Lars: Grateful or sarcastic? Yes. Perfect ambiguity.

🖤 Nirvana — “The Man Who Sold The World” (MTV Unplugged)

Lars: Masterclass in reinterpretation. Haunting and eternal.

🚀 What’s Next

We’re doing more of these — with artists, thinkers, creators, and curious minds across music, tech, VC, and beyond.

Want to do an AMA Hang with me? Reach out on X (Twitter) or via Hangout.fm. Let’s build something better than just another social post — let’s create a moment.

Thanks again to Lars for kicking this series off with wisdom, wit, and one hell of a playlist. You set the bar high.