Blog posts and interviews on the music industry
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Music Industry Interviews
Welcome to Producing Out Loud, our series where we discuss a wide range of topics related to music production, business, and technology. In this episode, Pyramind’s Greg Gordon and Jeff Straw sit down with Aaron Bethune, author of Musicpreneur: The Creative Approach to Making Money in Music. They discuss ways to network, strategize, and nurture your fan base.
Allen Adamson is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding. He’s worked with a broad spectrum of clients in industries ranging from packaged goods and technology to health care and financial services, to hospitality and entertainment, as well as brands in the non-profit sector. Given his perspective and depth of experience, Allen has helped his clients not simply understand, but, more critically, put into play strategies that enable them to shift ahead of the market and the competition, generating long-term value and increased brand equity.
Lisa Brigantino has worked in the fields of music supervision, talent acquisition, branding, and rights clearance for over 25 years. She got her start in the business as Director of Licensing for BZ/Rights and Permissions, Inc. and then went on to become a founding partner of Creative License, Inc. and then later served as the company’s Vice President and Director of Business Affairs. Lisa then went on to start her own company, Hidden Pond Productions, Inc.
Justin Kalifowitz operates Songtrust and serves as President of Downtown Music Publishing. Prior to Downtown, Justin spent six years with Spirit Music Group acting as Head of A&R, and held positions with RCA and Virgin Records. Justin has been named in Billboard Magazine’s “30 Under 30" Faces to Watch and Crain’s “Forty Under 40" Rising Stars of New York Business. Justin is on the Board of Directors for the NY Chapter of the Association of Independent Music Publishers.
Since returning to her native Sweden in 2015 after 25 years in the US, Jo coached executives in the advertising and children’s educational gaming industries. As Head of Executive Coaching and Business Development, she co-created the Executive Coaching Division of The Roll AB, of the SSE MBA LeadershipLive Program and the SSE MSc. Finance Career Development Accelerator Program (CDA) at the Stockholm School of Economics.
"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.
Ben's publicist reached out to me a while back when he was in Vancouver with Lionel Ritchie. She connected the two of us which lead to this interview. It was fascinating hearing Ben's story of how he got the gig playing with Lionel Ritchie, Brittany Spears, Christina Aguilera, John Fogerty, Tony Braxton, Don Felder and many more. I will hint that it had something to do with playing all the open mics and jam nights in NYC. Equally as interesting is hearing about how he is pursuing a parallel solo career as an independent artist.
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.
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."
