Scammed: How Musicians Are Targeted by Fake Licensing Deals

In this episode, John Malmborg speaks with musician Caleb Jerome Morales about the economic realities of independent music and the challenges of sustaining a creative career. Morales shares his journey juggling live performances, recording, and breaking into sync licensing while navigating the financial instability of gig work. They discuss how independent musicians face unpredictable income and exploitative systems.

Morales recounts his experience with an elaborate sync licensing scam, revealing how fraudsters manipulate artists’ ambitions and the broader implications for the music industry. The conversation expands into the structural challenges of creative labor, the increasing precarity of independent work, and how artists, like all workers, must build solidarity to protect themselves from exploitation.