Blog posts and interviews on the music industry
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Aaron Bethune Blogs
"Here’s a brief outline of this interview with Aaron. Aaron tells the story of turning back a mere 200 meters from the summit of the highest mountain in South America and how this is an allegory for defining success as a MusicPreneur. This decision to turn back led to Aaron saving the life of a fellow…"
Liv has traveled all over the world talking about what she does – from Brisbane to Chile, to NYU classrooms. She has been invited to speak and participate in panels at SXSW, CMJ, Music Biz, Future of Music Policy Summit, SF Music Tech, BigSound, ByLarm and more. Lately, she has been giving thought as to how to visualize data in simple, elegant ways to build better stories. As she says "...the best data journalism strikes a balance between finding (data science), showing (data visualization), and telling (journalism) a story."
A while back I interviewed Canadian radio promoter, Bill Miller of Sharp 9 Music. I first crossed paths with Bill when he was heading up Pitt Bull Promotions and had successfully developed the company into one of Canada's leading radio promotion companies. He has since started Sharp 9 Music. I was officially introduced through a mutual friend. The friend's band had successfully had their single go top 20 thank's to Bill and Pitt Bull's Promotion machine behind it.
A little while back I was interviewed by Casino Gobbet from Yahoo Brazil.
I really enjoyed the questions Casino had and I thought you may find interesting reading our conversation.
Ruth has a Ph.D. in Management and Organizations from the University of Michigan and taught Entrepreneurship to MBAs at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She has written for TheAtlantic.com, Psychology Today and Wired.com.She currently writing a book about the history and production of rock concerts.
I recently had a great conversation with David Dufresne, CEO of Bandzoogle, an amazing company that probably a lot of you already use to build your websites. Bandzoogle is based in Quebec and have made a major impact on the independent music scene giving tools to musicians to help build their career. In our conversation we discussed ways you can ensure visitors to your website are converting into fans and spending their time and money where you want them to, website dos and don'ts, apps and responsive websites as well as knowing your audience and who consumes your content. With David's background as a venture capitalist he shares his unique perspective on this new music industry.
Greg Van Bastelaar is somebody I met at Rifflandia in Victoria while participating at a music industry panel. At the time Greg was marketing Director of Deezer Music Canada. After speaking with Greg I was immediately interested in interviewing him for the podcast. He has a lot of experience in the music industry ranging from working for FACTOR (The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent On Recording) and seeing artists get funded for records to becoming the marketing director for the European streaming service Deezer Music.
Mark Maryanovich is a Canadian photographer based in Santa Monica, CA, born in Windsor, Ontario and raised on Canada’s rainy west coast. He has won a number of awards for photography and is a referenced source of inspiration by many in the industry. His clients have included Chris Cornel, Randy Bachman, Gibson Guitars, Bob Rock, Chad Kroeger and Henry Rollins to name a few. His work has appeared on the cover of books, in Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Canadian Musician and that’s just skimming the surface.
Two years ago I started writing a book, today I am excited to tell the world about it.
I was fascinated with what set successful musicians in today's music industry apart from those with talent but no music career in their future. Research for the book had me taking a serious look at successful musicians and artists through to CEO's, athletes and the world of neuroscience.
A while back I interviewed radio host, author and music marketer David Hooper about his book Six Figure Musician. We did the interview in Nashville about a week prior to the launch. At the time he told me about his plans for the book and how he intended to market it. I thought it would be interesting to follow up with him and find out how his marketing strategies were working and what he had learned about his audience.
Today's interview is with Gregg Stewart, a marketing expert with over 13 years of first hand experience in the entertainment industry. As the Associate Director, Music Marketing Strategy & MuchFACT he's the main point of contact for music industry partners at Bell Media Inc. when it comes to music and entertainment.
Finding success in music or business is all about the accumulated experience and knowledge that allows us to recognize and seize the opportunity that ultimately results in what the general public observe to be "overnight success." I was curious as to what those opportunities had been for Jeff. With his experience and first hand stories to tell about artists and their careers I was curious as to what advice he could offer for those looking for a career in music.
Today's interview is with my friend Robbie Grayson from Franklin Tennessee. Robbie is the CEO of TraitMarker, a way for you to discover the "real you." As it states on the website: "Chances are that your personality lies buried beneath years of expectations and demands that life has heaped upon you. TraitMarker uncovers the genuine you lying beneath it all..."
Martin is a guy that has "been there, done that..." he has played with everyone from Johnny Rotten in his band Public Image, Ltd to Pig Face, Killing Joke, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Flea, Danny Carey from Tool, and many others... He owns a record label and is an in demand speaker at music conferences around the world as well as a professor at Columbia College in Chicago. He is the author of many books including most recently Tour Smart.
While meeting with a songplugger friend in Nashville, he asked me if I would interview some clients of his that were in town. The truth be told I was not really interested. I have always tried to keep my personal interviews (unlike when I am being hired...) to be with people that I have actively searched out. This situation was a little different and also a perfect example of how the industry really is based on relationships. I didn't want to offend my friend and I understand in this biz that if you scratch my back I'll scratch yours. So I said "sure."
Oscar is a renowned Canadian radio promoter who has worked with the likes of Sarah McLachlan, Tiesto, Swollen Members, Classified, and Marcy's Playground to Jets Over Head, Madeleine Peyroux, Robbie Robertson and Jordan Knight. He focuses on commercial radio in Canada and knows exactly what it takes to break on radio.
This week's interview is with Bill Caywood. Bill is a graphic designer and branding expert, he is the CEO of Brett Manning's Singing Success, the Creative Director of TraitMarker, founder of NashvilleParties.com, co-founder of Festivalus and the co-founder of Caspian Productions. His clients range from Faith Hill and Jimmy Eat World to Interscope Records, EMI and Warner Brothers.
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.
Today's Interview is with vocal coach extraordinaire, Brett Manning. Brett has worked with many well known artists including Taylor Swift, Hayley Williams, Keith Urban, Wes Hampton and has also coached several Grammy and CMA Award winners, as well as recent Broadway casts of Les Miserables, Jekyll & Hyde and Elton John's Aida.
Karen Kang is a recognized brand strategist and the CEO and founder of BrandingPays LLC, a corporate and personal branding company (www.brandingpays.com). She is the author of BrandingPays: The Five-Step System to Reinvent Your Personal Brand. She has trained thousands of professionals on the unique BrandingPays™ System for personal branding.
