Ditto Music is a digital music distribution company with offices in Liverpool and Nashville. As CEO of Ditto Music Lee Parsons overseas distribution and marketing campaigns for over 20,000 worldwide artists including Suzi Quatro, Finch, Lil Wayne, Prince, Sir Paul McCartney and Kid British. Starting from their bedrooms in 2007 Lee and His brother Matt launched the first ever unsigned artist into the UK Top 40 singles chart which got them into the Guinness Book Of World Records. Ditto Music have now had 11 UK top 40 singles, all with unsigned artists.
Design is a tremendous tool for improving and simplifying education and learning; creating experiences that are more delightful, functional and meaningful; developing businesses, organizations and initiatives that will have sustainable long-term growth, and a positive effect on the community and environment.
Josh shares a ton of hands on advice in this interview that will be invaluable to building your brand's visual identity.
Ariel is a thought leader in the digital PR world: the founder of a successful PR firm; international speaker & educator and the author of two books on social media and marketing for artists. Ariel’s Cyber PR® process marks the intersection of social media with engaged behavior, PR, and online Marketing.
Today I am speaking once again with Marty Neumeier. The last time we spoke it was on the topic of branding, a topic on which Marty is an internationally renown authority. He has written many books including Zag which was named one of the "top hundred business books of all time" for its insights into radical differentiation; and The Brand Gap, considered by many the foundational text for modern brand building. It fascinates me how often musicians are told to find a real job and that they will never be successful in terms of a career at their art. However, it seems that "real jobs" are less and less of a "real option" in today's economy as technology is taking over in what Marty is calling "the robotic age."
Mark has worked on a wide range of projects including Justin Bieber, The Roots, Mariah Carey, India.Arie, Whitney Houston, The Killers, Adam Lambert, Kelly Clarkson, Angie Stone, Maroon 5, Carrie Underwood, The Chieftains, Etta James, Jim Brickman, Andy Summers, Dave Douglas, Eliane Elias, Tom Harrell, Fourplay, Dominique Eade, Denyce Graves, Leontyne Price, a dozen Broadway cast albums including Urinetown, Avenue Q, Cabaret and Ragtime, and more than 15 opera productions at companies such as the Glimmerglass Festival, Glyndebourne (UK) and New York City Opera.
Today's podcast is with David Das, a sonic architect with a wide-ranging and unique background. He is an active composer, producer, and songwriter based in Los Angeles. His experience covers the range from films, TV shows, commercials, and other media work, over to pop/rock/jazz music production, choral and orchestral writing and arranging, and more. His clients include 20th Century Fox, Coca Cola, Delta Airlines, and Disney, and numerous pop, rock, R&B, soul, and jazz artists.
Rennie is arguably one of the most forward-thinking managers in the business. He understands which old school promotions methods still work and which don’t. He has opinions on which digital strategies produce measurable results and which are wastes of time and money. And he wants to share this knowledge with you free of charge with no strings attached. Steve Rennie pulls no punches. No topic is off-limits, ever.
In 2005 Doug Grean appeared on the 47 th annual Gammy awards with Velvet Revolver as keyboardist performing with an allstar cast including Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, Bono, Steven Tyler, Brian Wilson and Allison Kraus.
Doug Grean has worked or performed with many talented artist including. Sheryl Crow, Riki Lee Jones, Glen Campbell, Stone Temple Pilots, Scott Weiland, Slash, Velvet Revolver, Tim Mcgraw, Cindi Lauper, Annabella Lwin (Bow Wow Wow), Corey Glover (Living Color), The Crystal Method, Camp Freddy, DJ Hurricane and John Taylor (Duran Duran).
Mark has been working in the web space since the early 90′s, launching his first B2C ecommerce play in early 1996. In 1999, he co-founded echo, a company focused on building communities around entertainment brands. He was the co-creator of the patented platform echotools™, a direct to consumer delivery and data management system which ultimately grew to serve millions of users and distribute hundreds of millions of pages, data feeds, and e-commerce transactions. In 2007, the company was acquired by Barry Diller’s IAC/Ticketmaster for eight figures.
David has had great success working with some of the worlds most impressive brands, including Coca-Cola, Nike, Ford, Budweiser, Right To Play, P&G, and every mobile company to name a few. David was an integral part of the team that created the phenomenon that was “Dove Evolution,” and the campaign for real beauty. David also divides his time working on feature films, new media ventures and supervising music for A-list televisions series like HBO’s “Less Than Kind” and CBC’s hit comedy series “The Kids In The Hall - Death Comes To Town”. David is also lead music supervisor on the new Ubi-Soft video game “Shaun White Skateboarding.”
Bas Grasmayer is a futurist, communication consultant, DJ and music lover from The Netherlands. He is currently the Head of Information Strategy of Dream Industries - which operates Zvooq, Bookmate and T&P-. He majored in International Communication Management which looks into branding and identity, intercultural communication, trendwatching and concept development, as well as PR.
Cameo has been at the forefront of the digital music revolution from its earliest stages. Billboard Magazine named her one of the industry’s top mobile executives.
She has been involved in radio, from terrestrial to online, and was the rock and alternative music director for AOL Music. She spent three years as manager of label relations and music programming at iTunes and has been the executive VP of Universal MoTown Republic where her role included mobile, online and digital sales, promotions and business development for artists such as Drake, Amy Winehouse, Lil Wayne, and Jack Johnson to name a few.
Mike has had success with artists of all styles. Kelly Rowland "Unity" - released worldwide on her Diva Deluxe album - Top 10 radio hit in Canada, Delerium "Dust In Gravity" - Hipjoint were the top line writers on this track that achieved US Billboard #1 status on the Dance/Club Play chart in 2010, Calvin Klein CK1 - Hipjoint's song "We Are One" was used as the positioning track for Calvin Klein's worldwide relaunch of CK1 in 2009 Mika Nakashima "Candy Girl" - The Japanese superstar recently took this Hipjoint track to #4 on Japan's Oricon Weekly Singles Chart, Shiloh "Operator (A Girl Like Me)" - Hipjoint discovered this Canadian artist at 13 and wrote and produced her platinum debut hit for her (Universal Music Canada/Universal Republic), Nikon Cool Pix - Nikon used Hipjoint's track "Bounce With Me" by Kreesha Turner as it's positioning song for a series of Nikon Cool Pix ads featuring Ashton Kutcher, NFL Network - The NFL has chosen the Hipjoint written and produced "Crank It Up" by The Young Goulets to promote 2010 NFL Thursday Night Football.
Over the course of Michael's career he has been a touring musician playing 6 nights a week (sharing the stage with the likes of Bon Jovi), recorded over 6 albums of original material, had his music placed in T.V. and Film, owned and operated live music venues, produced countless artists, written hits for other artists in more that 6 countries with major label distribution, spoken at MIDEM, and whole lot more! Because of the fact that Michael's career has allowed him to see such a full spectrum of the industry, he was a great person to have come in to the classroom. Having been successful at everything he has put his mind to, I had a few question as to how he approaches each project so as to have successful outcomes!
This week I am interviewing Solveig Whittle. Solveig is involved in the North West Music Experience, a music conference debuting next year in Seattle. She is a singer and music marketer as well as a software developer. As she puts it: "I’m a high tech marketer who has a serious music habit I’ve been feeding for the past 30 years. I love how these two interests are finally coming together for me." Starting her professional career in music a little later in life she has applied her previous success in business to her career in music. With her own success she is helping other aspiring musicians to do the same.
Marty Neumeier started out as a graphic designer and he developed hundreds of brand icons, retail packages, and other communications for companies such as Apple, Adobe, Netscape, Kodak, and HP. Eventually, Marty evolved into an editor, and launched CRITIQUE, a magazine that quickly became the leading forum for improving design effectiveness through critical analysis. Later in his career, Marty started Neutron, a design think-tank focused on brand-building processes that drive organizational change. Today, as Liquid Agency’s Director of Transformation, Marty offers high level consulting for some of the world’s most respected brands, while also writing and lecturing worldwide on the subject of branding, business and innovation. Marty’s books have been hailed as breakthroughs by Fast Company, BusinessWeek, and Harvard Business Review. His books have been described as a “practical field guide on how to create and grow a world-class brand”, and “ZAG” was recently named one of “The 100 Best Business Books of All Time”.
Work your craft, hone your skills, become the best you can be, get out and play, learn from mistakes,... but do the business too! The reality is, that as an artist you're an entrepreneur and a business owner! If you can't invest time into to all aspects of your own career then no one will!
