Innovating Music

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Latest Episodes:

From our sister show: Creative Innovators, featuring Mike Butera, Artiphon Nov 20, 2023

Mike Butera has gone on some intriguing journeys, connecting music performance passions, philosophy and sound studies, and tech in creating new musical instruments for regular people to get into music. He shares his path to launching Artiphon after years in academic circles, ways he learned how to market new devices and thrive with Kickstarter, and how the adventure is going so far as they get ready to release the Chorda in late 2023.

Guest: Dr. Mike Butera, Founder & CEO, Artiphon

Dr. Mike Butera is the founder & CEO of Artiphon, a music tech company designing smart instruments that anyone can play. Mike received his Ph.D. in Sound Studies from Virginia Tech and was a professor of Sociology and Philosophy for 6 years. Prior to founding Artiphon, Mike was a consumer electronics product designer, a touring musician, and a public speaker in music & technology.

What are you most passionate about with your current work? : Inspiring people to be musical for just a minute every day!

Links:

From our sister show: Creative Innovators, featuring Jason Kramer, KCRW and more Nov 20, 2023

Jason Kramer shares his journey to being an EMT during the AIDS Epidemic, LA Riots, and Northridge Earthquake to Fox Sports to KLOS and KCRW. He talks about the magic of Sunday nights, how he created and drove his own luck through persistent work, asking for opportunities, and taking on new challenges. He shares a bit of his experience being present during the inception of Billie Eilish, including being in the opening scene of her documentary and playing himself in three movies. Jason discusses his various creative pursuits, including photography, directing videos, and teaching.

Guest: Jason Kramer, KCRW DJ, Music Supervisor, Photographer, and Educator

For the last 20 years, Jason Kramer has been in the field of music and radio. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Kramer worked as an EMT during the late 80s and early 90s; and through the 1992 Los Angeles riots. After changing his career as a medic in the hard streets of LA for ten years, he decided to work in radio starting in 1992 on KLOS, screening calls for the widely popular "Seventh Day." From that point on, Jason realized that music and radio were his calling.

During his transition, he started off with a stint working with SoCal favorites Sublime and their label Skunk Records. In 1996, he moved on to Fox Sports TV as their full-time music supervisor for 6 years, leading him to become a show producer on Fox Sports Radio. He has also worked in various other aspects of music including management, radio DJ, publishing, creative consulting, music photography, education, and as a music supervisor.

Jason started off as a KCRW volunteer in the mid-90s and has been on air since 1997 during a show called The Lab. You can hear Jason on his weekly show on Sunday nights on KCRW and KCRW.com, and can be found playing himself on several films and TV shows in the past few years.

Links:

KCRW: https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/jason-kramer
X: https://twitter.com/kcrwkramer
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2625239/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Kramer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jason.kramer.37
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liquidcourage/

Knocking Down Boundaries . . . with Jordy Freed May 02, 2023

Jordy Freed from Sony Corporation of America shared his journey from jazz saxophone and building websites to public relations and marketing. Twists and turns took him to radio, Blue Note, Grey Advertising, and finally to Sony. He shares the stories of his twists and turns and the challenges of managing and growing diverse brands. Jordy talks about what he's excited about now and what is changing the workflow of creators.

Guest: Jordy Freed, Head of Partner Marketing & Strategy, Brand & Business Development, Video & Sound Products, Sony Corporation of America

As the Head of Partner Marketing & Strategy, Brand & Business Development, Video & Sound Products at Sony Corporation of America, Jordy Freed leads marketing, business development, and communication strategy for the multinational company. A talented sax player who considered becoming a professional musician, the Philly native got his start as a publicist for the jazz firm DL Media, held marketing and PR roles at Blue Note, and made a quick foray into advertising at the top firm Grey. Upon returning to Blue Note in 2016, he partnered with Sony on the creation of NYC’s Sony Hall, the first venue to feature Sony’s immersive music experience, 360RA. This led to an in-house position at Sony, where he became the first U.S. employee on their Brand & Business Development team, with the remit to develop multi-million dollar business strategies. In this role, he has overseen collaborations with Doja Cat, Pink, Lil Nas X, Pharrell Williams, and Alicia Keys, struck deals to reimagine the David Bowie catalog in 360RA alongside immersive activations, led the company’s partnership with Amazon Music, and much more. He now leads marketing and business development for 360RA, as well as global branding activities for a host of sound products.

Mentioned Links

Sony Corporation of America: https://www.sony.com/en_us/SCA/index.html
Jordy Freed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordyfreed

I fell in love with IP . . . with Mike Huppe, SoundExchange Mar 01, 2023

Michael Huppe, CEO of SoundExchange, fell in love with IP and came into music through law. He had played keyboard and trombone as a young person and ended up at the Recording Industry Association of America, which led him to SoundExchange. He shares how SoundExchange is also a tech company, needing to help and represent its members with opportunities from new technologies, as well as providing a system's backbone for a growing streaming music industry.

Guest: Mike Huppe, President and CEO, SoundExchange

Michael Huppe is the President and Chief Executive Officer of SoundExchange, where he champions creators and spearheads the use of technology, data, and advocacy to power the future of music.

Whether he is leading efforts to launch new lines of business or advocating on the steps of Capitol Hill for creator-first legislation, every aspect of Michael’s work is undertaken on behalf of SoundExchange’s larger mission: to ensure that creators are compensated fairly, efficiently, and accurately for their work. To date, SoundExchange has distributed more than $9 billion in digital performance royalties to over half a million music creators.

In addition, Michael is an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School, a frequent contributor, published author, lecturer, and active community member. His opinions have been published in Variety, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, Music Business Worldwide, Billboard, and The Hill, among other outlets.

>What are you most passionate about with your current work? : "Being able to champion creators and helping to create a fairer, simpler, and more efficient music industry through innovative technology and data solutions."

Mentioned Links:

<SoundExchange website: https://soundexchange.org
Mike at SoundExchange: https://www.soundexchange.com/team/michael-huppe/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhuppe/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/soundexchange/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Huppe
Follow Michael on Twitter at @MikeHuppe
AI article in Forbes, 12-12-22, “Artificial Intelligence Has Big Implications for Ownership in the Music Industry”, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/people/michaelhuppe/?sh=6dd42e5140b2

Ask a Creative Lawyer . . . .with Dave Ratner Feb 22, 2023

Dave Ratner moved from skiing to managing bands into law, and now works with creative companies out of Boulder, CO to understand how to maneuver so many different new opportunities in music. He talks of innovation in his own life as to how to add capabilities, learn by doing, and then add that in with great creatives. He shares wisdom in how to evaluate risk, plan for success, and use both common sense and contracts to decide what innovations to pursue and how to understand the questions under the legal hood.

Guest: David Ratner, Managing Partner of Creative Law Network

Following a career in the music businesses as a tour manager, publicist, band manager, and founder of his own management agency, Dave Ratner is now the Managing Partner of Creative Law Network, a boutique entertainment law firm in Colorado. Dave counsels clients throughout the music industry on everything from contracts and licensing, to intellectual property registration and protection, to dispute resolution. He is a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Denver College of Law. Dave is an adjunct professor at the University of Denver College of Law, Chair of the Entertainment & Sports Section of the Colorado Bar Association, Advisory Committee Chair of Colorado Attorneys for the Arts, Vice President of the Swallow Hill Music Board, Secretary of the Board of the Colorado Independent Venue Association, and speaks frequently on entertainment law issues throughout the country.

What are you most passionate about with your current work? : Helping artists succeed!

Mentioned Links:

Creative Law Network: https://www.creativelawnetwork.com/dave-ratner/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/creativelawnet
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daratner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativelawnetwork/

Be An Artist . . . .with Kevin Breuner Dec 20, 2022

Many of our guests move on a nonlinear line between jobs and ideas. Kevin in one of our few guests who has been with a single company -- CD Baby -- for a long period of time. He shares his journey with both CD Baby and as an artist with Small Town Poets. We talk about challenges exploring new technologies that don't yet have revenue models, educating creators on how to better engage and focus, and producing the long-time CD Baby Podcast with more than 300 episodes. Guest: Kevin Breuner, CD Baby’s SVP of Engagement & Education

CD Baby’s SVP of Engagement & Education, Kevin Breuner, has spent over 25 years working in the music business, both as a recording artist and an industry professional. A San Diego native, Kevin went east to attend Belmont University in Nashville, TN where he studied Music and Music Business. After college he joined the Atlanta-based band Smalltown Poets who later signed a recording contract with a major label under the EMI umbrella. Their self-titled debut album received critical acclaim, selling over 200,000 copies and landing the guys with a Grammy nomination, plus multiple Dove Award nominations. Over their career, Smalltown Poets has amassed ten Top 10 songs on radio, with two reaching the coveted #1 spot.Now residing in Portland, Oregon, Kevin heads up CD Baby’s content marketing efforts and hosts their popular DIY Musician Podcast, with the goal of helping artist understand the vast opportunities they have in this new music economy.“I’m very passionate about helping artists understand that they can have a career on their own terms,” says Kevin. “I’ve been on a label and I've released music independently; I know what it feels like for an artist to pour their heart into a project and then send it out to the world.”Smalltown Poets (smalltownpoets.tv) recently celebrated the release of their 10th album titled NWxSE. Kevin has also had songs used by the NFL, Peacock, ABC, Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, and countless indie film productions.What are you most passionate about with your current work? : Helping artist understand how they can build a career on their own terms.Mentioned Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kbreuner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kbreuner
DIY Musician Podcast: https://podcast.cdbaby.com/
DIY Musician Blog: https://diymusician.cdbaby.com/
CD Baby: https://cdbaby.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-breuner-a512938
EDM article: The Changing Role of a Music Distributor in 2022: https://edm.com/industry/the-changing-role-of-a-music-distributor-in-2022
Small Town Poets: https://smalltown-poets.lnk.to/LITO and https://smalltownpoets.tv/

If I Hadn’t Been a Translator on a Wild Boar Farm . . . with Jessica Powell Dec 13, 2022

Jessica's journey -- what a ride! Music change agent Jessica Powell shares her Roads Taken, ranging from following a now-ex boyfriend across countries to using her languages at CISAC and on a wild boar farm (!!) -- to Google London, Google Asia, and to her current AI and Stems startup, AudioShake. And even that founding with her co-founder Luke Miner began as a "What If" exercise around bass lines and karaoke, before landing with Billy Mann and peermusic to experiment with AIs and stems to create a next-generation stem separation platform for artists and new creative technologies. We ran into her at Music Tectonics' annual conference as AudioShake won the "Swimming with Narwhals" Tech Startup Pitch Competition, the latest in a recent series of wins for this new company.

Guest: Jessica Powell, CEO and Co-Founder, AudioShake

Jessica Powell is the CEO and co-founder of AudioShake, which uses AI to separate songs into instrumentals and stems so that they can be opened up for new opportunities in sync licensing, remixing, and emerging immersive, education, and social media formats. The company won Sony’s Demixing Challenge, and was called the “cleanest stem separation tech” by DJ Mag.Powell spent over a decade at Google, where she sat on the company's management team, reporting into the CEO, and ran the company’s global communications organization. She began her career at CISAC, the International Society of Authors and Composers, in Paris. She is also an author and essayist, whose work has have been published in the New York Times, TIME, WIRED, and elsewhere.Mentioned Links:

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/themoku and https://twitter.com/AudioshakeAI
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/audioshake/ and
Website: https://audioshake.ai and https://indie.audioshake.ai
Music Tectonics' Swimming with Narwhals Music Tech Startup Pitch Competition: https://www.musictectonics.com/pitchcompetition
Billy Mann: https://www.billymann.com/
Mary Megan Peer and peermusic: https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/mary-megan-peer-named-as-new-chief-executive-officer-of-peermusic-as-ralph-peer-ii-shifts-to-executive-chair/
Donovan's Season of the Witch: https://youtu.be/GU35oCHGhJ0
CISAC (International Confederation of the Societies of Authors and Composers): https://www.cisac.org/
Her book, The Big Disruption: A Totally Fictional but Essentially True Silicon Valley Story - https://www.amazon.com/Big-Disruption-Jessica-Powell-ebook/dp/B07PK5S8D9/
Canadian Music podcast interview: https://www.canadianmusicianpodcast.com/episodes/audioshake-jessica-powell
Webby Awards info: https://www.webbyawards.com/news/jessica-powell-co-founder-audioshake/
Magnetic Magazine interview: https://www.magneticmag.com/2022/02/industry-insider-interview-audioshake-co-founder-jessica-powell/
Hypebot article: https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2022/08/how-to-make-money-from-song-stems-with-audioshakes-jessica-powell.html
NYU articles (as author): https://www.nytimes.com/column/jessica-powell

Bonus: Postcard Moments . . . with Gigi Johnson Nov 17, 2022

We are in post-production on new episodes, so our host, Gigi Johnson, shared a story about "Postcards" and Postcard Moments that has come up in prior episodes and in many recent conversations. She shares how a single postcard created a pivot that changed her direction when a TA offered the suggestion that she apply for USC Film School after a single class. She challenges us to explore "postcards" in our lives -- both given and offered. She also suggests that postcards are all over past episodes, which we'll call out with additional content in the future.

Mentioned:

Happenstance Theory - Krumboltz, J. D. (2009). The Happenstance Learning Theory. Journal of Career Assessment, 17, 135-154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072708328861
Example article: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/careers/2019/04/30/how-planned-happenstance-can-help-your-career/
NextCareer.me resources: https://nextcareer.me

Find Innovating Music on your favorite player:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/innovating-music/id1107854634
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6tlu2VMRUff34wIRUKmSJf
Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/0bcdc276-7fee-42ec-9e09-6ca9daceb07b/innovating-music
iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-innovating-music-28334239/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InnovatingMusicPodcast

Sibling Shows:

♦️ Creative Innovators: https://www.youtube.com/@creativeinnovatorspodcast ♦️ Amplify Music Conversations: https://www.youtube.com/ @Amplify Music

Simplifying Complexity for Indie Labels . . .with Bruno Guez Nov 03, 2022

Bruno shares his saga from playing the drums and enjoying international music, mixing songs and culture from Tunisia, France, and LA. Those facets led to studying at UCLA Ethnomusicology, becoming a DJ at KCRW, and building a record label in his living room. He shared work in place-based music and compilation records, in building the sonic architecture of hotels, vacations, and clothing brands -- creating soundtracks to vacations and lifestyles. His own independent label became his inspiration to work to streamlining the complexity of running a music label. His work in Filemaker Pro and Salesforce for his own company became the early stages of the 2015 go-to-market for Revelator. He became a “product guy,” helping labels in many regions with streaming music processing and accelerating catalog valuation and fractionalization processes. We closed with discussions from Web3 -- moving from an information-based to a value-based Internet -- and new types of marketplaces and tokenized economies that will go beyond what artists can do today.

Guest: Bruno Guez, Founder and CEO, Revelator

Founder of Revelator, and a former Director on the Board of Merlin Network, the leading music rights agency, Bruno Guez brings over twenty-five years of experience as a seasoned digital music executive working with Chris Blackwell’ Island Records and Guy Laliberte’s Cirque du Soleil. With a strong vision to retool the creative industry, Bruno saw the opportunity to provide a game-changing technology platform for global rights administration and royalty management using blockchain technology, with a goal of enabling efficient and fully transparent reporting, real-time payments and innovative revenue streams for rights owners, creators, artists, producers, and publishers around the world.

Links:

URL: revelator.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brunoguez/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brunoguez @brunoguez

Educated Luck and Building Digital Bridges . . . with Dick Huey [Creative Innovators] Oct 20, 2022

[Enjoy our podcast this week that we share with our sister Maremel Network podcast, Creative Innovators.] Dick Huey claims that his career jumps have been "educated luck." "Because they they are luck. And I'm, I'm I don't ever pretend that I have more information than everybody else does. But I think I'm good at identifying opportunity. So for me, this felt like opportunity. And I jumped at it. And then of course that launched a 25-year career in digital music." And so Dick shares with us his 25-year career, ranging from teaching software applications to getting his first music management client to building his digital music chops at Beggars Group to building Toolshed. He works now on his three-legged stool of interests: helping big picture enhancements of the music business, working with record companies, and engaging in ed tech and new technologies.

Guest: Dick Huey, Founder/President, Toolshed

Dick Huey moved to New York City in 1997 to work for independent label powerhouse the Beggars Group (XL Recordings, 4AD, Matador Records, Rough Trade. He created and staffed the group’s digital media department as global head of digital in the early days of digital music, determined the group’s strategic direction, and licensed its groundbreaking catalog of world-class independent music from artists like the Pixies, the Prodigy, Throwing Muses, and many others. Huey launched his NY Hudson Valley-based digital strategy company Toolshed in 2002, long before remote work was in vogue. Toolshed offered an early bespoke label and artist digital marketing, direct music service licensing, and download hosting service that created groundbreaking digital campaigns for Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco, and Aimee Mann amongst hundreds of hundreds of others. Labels and distributors including Matador Records, Beggars Group, The Orchard, Touch and Go, PIAS, Righteous Babe, and Merge Records were also clients. In 2010, Toolshed expanded into music rights acquisition for consumer brands, media, tech, sports, and entertainment companies. Spotify contracted with Huey to lead its US independent label licensing efforts prior to and during Spotify’s US launch in 2011. Red Bull Music Radio, SoundExchange, 8tracks, Digital Rights Agency, Red Mountain Ski Resort, Jaxsta, and Tunecore are all past clients or advisory relationships. Huey is currently a Business Development Consultant to AIMS API, an artificial intelligence music search platform based in the Czech Republic, as well as to Entertainment Intelligence, a high end music analytics platform for direct-license content owners. He is a music license consultant to the US independent record label Merge Records and to stealth cloud radio startup HijackRadio, and an advisor to Techstars accelerator winner Paperchain and Australian personal social media monetization platform OkTY. Outside of the music industry, Huey is a senior teaching assistant at NYU Professor Scott Galloway’s two-year old educational sprint startup Section4. Huey regularly TA’s online classes of up to 200 students on the topics of Subscription strategy, Brand, Platform, Product, Data Analytics, Growth Innovation (brand association with physical stores), and Storytelling. Several of the classes Huey TA’s are taught by Galloway himself. He held a 9-year board seat at SoundExchange representing Matador Records. He is a past Executive Director and board chairman of the Future of Music Coalition, based in Washington DC. He was chairman of the new media committee at the American Association of Music (A2IM) from its earliest days, as well as a consultant to independent entity the Association of Independent Music (AIM). Huey is a USSA-certified downhill ski racing coach and committed biker and mountain biker. He moved from the New York area to the Columbia River Gorge in 2021. He began his career as a musician, then a music manager, and signed and managed several artists to the Beggars Group and Glitterhouse Records.

Mentioned Links:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toolshed/
Twitter: @dhuman
Website: https://toolshed.biz | merge records digital | aims api | section4 | entertainment intelligence
blog: Digging in the Dirt

Building Blockchain and Music Tools . . . with Morgan Hayduk from Beatdapp Oct 11, 2022

Morgan Hayduk initially aimed for basketball and law -- and thank goodness kept going into building new tools and working with large organizations to fight fraud and manipulation in streaming music. He shares with us his adventures in building his personal Toolkit of marketing, scaling, and selling -- plus working with his blockchain wizard co-founders -- to launch the audit and anti-fraud muscle of Beatdapp. He shares what could be a great primer on the challenges of blockchain in music and why a million somethings can seem important for a startup.

Guest: Morgan Hayduk, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Beatdapp

Morgan Hayduk is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Beatdapp, an entertainment technology company. Ranked #2 startup in Canada and Top 20 Music Companies globally by TechCrunch, Beatdapp is building digital supply chain infrastructure for the streaming economy. Prior to founding Beatdapp, Hayduk led enterprise growth and partnerships for ZipRecruiter (NYSE:ZIP), was the Director of Federal Government Relations for TELUS Communications, and served as a consultant for Canada’s leading boutique government relations firm, Crestview Strategy. As a consultant, Hayduk specialized in entertainment & technology, representing Music Canada (the domestic trade association for Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music) and Hasbro's entertainment studio eOne, along with Facebook, Uber and TELUS. Hayduk was part of the team that led to the passage of Canada’s signature music copyright protection legislation, which extended copyright from 50 to 70 years. LA Clippers - Corporate Partnerships manager, Telus, Federal GovernmentRelations Hayduk earned his MBA and B.A. from Trinity Western University in Vancouver, British Columbia and resides in Toronto, Ontario with his wife and two children.

Mentioned Links:

Email: morgan@beatdapp.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgan-hayduk-9206b456/
Michael K Williams, Vice, Black Market - Rage Against the Machines - https://www.vicetv.com/en_us/video/rage-against-the-machines/61d74f386562686c0c1f2a51
Dec 11, 2017, Evan Symon, “The Hellish Reality of Working at an Overseas ‘Click farm’, https://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2550-the-hellish-reality-working-at-overseas-click-farm.html

Innovation is Messy...with Jack Conte Aug 17, 2020

Enjoy this final episode where Jack Conte blends the worlds of music creation (Pomplamoose and Scary Pockets) and solving creators’ problems with systems (crowdfunding and community with Patreon). He shares how he balances (or doesn’t balance at times) creating music with running a large tech business. He also shares what he has learned, how his companies have shifted with the work-from-home world shift, and how he has changed/staffed his own creative processes in this distributed era. His career journey has been an interesting mingling of music and science/technology, all the way back to his science teacher who got him interested (who he still connected with monthly over Costco pizza).

Guest: Jack Conte, CEO and Co-Founder of Patreon; band member of Pomplamoose and Stray Pockets

Jack Conte is a musician, filmmaker, half of band Pomplamoose and Scary Pockets, and a co-founder at Patreon, a membership platform that makes it easy for creators to earn salaries directly from their biggest fans. Patreon was founded in 2013, and is on track to pay out more than $500 million to creators in 2019 alone.

As a musician and filmmaker, Jack spent his days in a converted dog kennel-turned-recording studio in Sonoma County, making YouTube videos that have amassed over 120 million views. Now, he’s in full-time CEO mode at Patreon HQ in San Francisco where the company is paying millions of dollars to creators every month around the world. Jack also loves working with robots.

Mentioned Links:

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/creator-home
Patreon Twitter: https://twitter.com/Patreon
Pomplamoose: https://www.pomplamoose.com/
YouTube - Pomplamoose - https://www.youtube.com/user/PomplamooseMusic
Scary Pockets: https://www.facebook.com/scarypockets/
Personal: http://www.jackcontemusic.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jackcontemusic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JackConteMusic
IG: https://www.instagram.com/jackconte/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jackconte

Everything Old is New Again...with Ted Cohen Aug 05, 2020

This week on the Innovating Music Podcast, we are joined by Ted Cohen, who shared tales of doing things for the right reasons and seeing decades ago the dimensions of our current music streaming playlists and challenges. He talks about genuineness of artists vs. overproduction in livestreaming and concerts, pricing the risks of new markets, scarcity, negotiations, how business challenges repeat, and how some people don’t see or know the past launches in their very own businesses. He shares his search and joy for things that are “effing amazing” as a whole with elegant execution. And he shares the joy of paying it forward from those who got him started as mentors.

Guest: Ted Cohen, Head of Development, Mediatech Ventures; Managing Partner, TAG Strategic

Known as “part connector/part evangelist/always a futurist,” Ted Cohen is Managing Partner of TAG Strategic, an LA-based digital entertainment consultancy. Additionally, Ted is Head of Corporate Development for Mediatech.Ventures, the Austin-based VC/incubator/accelerator. Previously, as SVP-Digital for EMI Music, Cohen led global digital business development. Prior to EMI, Ted led Consulting Adults, clients included Universal Studios, Amazon, Microsoft, and Napster. Cohen also held senior positions at both Warner Bros Records & Philips Electronics. A 40+ year digital entertainment industry veteran, Cohen created & chaired MidemNet and served on the Grammy National Trustee Board. Ted continually looks for the next innovative technology & his next challenge, he really loves his life.

Livestreaming and Live Connecting with Dmitri Vietze Aug 05, 2020

A year ago, Dmitri Vietze launched a new thought leadership conference on music technology in Los Angeles, and had to move it with one day's notice. This year, he has moved his whole thought leadership with Music Tectonics online with virtual conferences and community gatherings. He shares his thoughts on crisis-driven shifts to music livestreaming, expanding new releases, and digital access, along with tidbits on intriguing companies in this current listen-from-home era.

Guest: Dmitri Vietze, CEO and Founder, rock paper scissors

Dmitri Vietze is the Founder and CEO of rock paper scissors, inc. It was his crazy idea to transform a global music PR firm into what has become a predominant music tech PR firm. Dmitri is a regular presenter at SXSW Music, SF MusicTech, Music Biz, APAP, and WOMEX. He is also the founder and CEO of StoryAmp.com. He has a jaw harp collection, can juggle five balls, and has a titanium leg.

Mentioned Links:

Rock paper scissors website: http://hello.rockpaperscissors.biz/
Music Tectonics Website: https://www.musictectonics.com/
Podcast: https://www.musictectonics.com/podcast
Blog: https://www.musictectonics.com/blog
Community App: https://www.musictectonics.com/community
Conference: Oct. 27-28, 2020 - https://www.musictectonics.com/conference
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitrivietze/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dmitri.vietze
IG: https://www.instagram.com/dmitrivietze/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dmitrivietze
Topeka: https://topeka.live/
YouNow: https://www.younow.com
Bandsintown: https://www.bandsintown.com/
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/
CD Baby: https://cdbaby.com/

Connecting the Music World: Portia Sabin, Music Business Association Jun 28, 2020

This week on the Innovating Music Podcast, we talk with Music Business Association President, Portia Sabin about the ways in which the music business is connected as a community. We discuss her journey through the music industry from performing as an artist to running a record label. We also look at other aspects of the music business and how they have been affected in light of the pandemic. This includes trade associations and their advantages for independent labels especially during the pandemic, and other ways in which cities can centralize their local music businesses to connect the music community at large.

Guest: Portia Sabin, President of Music Business Association

Dr. Portia Sabin is the President of the Music Business Association. While working on her Ph.D. at Columbia University, she played drums, recorded, and toured with NYC band The Hissyfits. She founded Shotclock Management in 2004 and took over running the legendary independent label, Kill Rock Stars, in 2006. She is the host of a radio show and podcast about the music business called The Future of What. Sabin is a former board member of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of The Recording Academy, the RIAA, and the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM).

Mentioned Links:

Website: https://musicbiz.org/

Facebook: @MusicBizAssoc

IG: @MusicBizAssoc

Twitter:@MusicBizAssoc

Reconnecting to Virtual Audiences: Jay Gilbert, Label Logic Jun 14, 2020

Innovation often answers the call to action made by changing environments. In this week’s podcast, we talk with Jay Gilbert, photographer and co-founder of Label Logic, about the new challenges artists in the music industry face in light of social-distancing and what their “new normal” will be as the world regains its rhythm. We look at new models for artist-fan engagement such as blended venues of live-streaming and live shows, as well as tools such as Bandsintown, Stageit, Bandzoogle, and Patreon. We also discuss the advantages of utilizing such platforms in terms of building new engagement metrics based on individuals rather than aggregate data and how this aids artists in strengthening and expanding their fanbases.

Guest: Jay Gilbert, Co-Founder, Label Logic; Photographer

As a teenager in the Pacific Northwest, Jay smuggled his Canon F-1 into rock concerts to get the perfect shot of the likes of Queen, Van Halen and Cheap Trick. After college, he toured as a musician gaining invaluable experience in what it takes to create and promote an album. He later translated that knowledge as an executive with Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music Groups. Jay moved to San Francisco and finally to Los Angeles for Universal where he worked for 18 years, most recently as VP New Media and Online Marketing for Universal Music Enterprises [UMe].

Jay has been on the cutting edge of Digital Sales & Marketing with Universal Music, Starbucks Entertainment, Fox Home Entertainment (International), and Warner Music Group. It is this unique perspective as a musician, music executive, and fan that makes his approach to Digital Strategy and Online Marketing so artist-friendly.

While at Universal, Jay launched the first digital-only label, responsible for all aspects of the operations. The groundbreaking label was featured on NPR, Billboard Magazine, Nights With Alice Cooper, and in the NY Times. Jay also created the industry's first sheet music + album download (for the Grammy award-winning “Fingerprints” album by Peter Frampton). He created and executed unique online marketing plans for Nirvana, The Police, KISS, Motley Crue, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Styx, Rob Zombie, Johnny Cash, Guns ‘N Roses, Smokey Robinson, Tears For Fears, Rick Springfield, Lisa Loeb, Ringo Starr, Ron White, Peter Frampton, The Temptations, Amy Grant, Melissa Etheridge, and many, many others.

Returning to his roots, photography remains Jay's creative outlet. He has photographed hundreds of artists in the studio and on tour.

Mentioned Links:

Website: www.label-logic.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/labellogic.net
Twitter: @jaygilbert
Your Morning Coffee: https://www.jaygilbertconsulting.com/your-morning-coffee
Jay Gilbert Consulting: https://www.jaygilbertconsulting.com/
Music Biz Weekly Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzDMG2H31uya2F8Bv3zp6Di2pPzRnOKZb

Blockchain as Buffet: Stefan Schulz, Bitfury Surround May 31, 2020

In this week’s podcast, Stefan Schulz, CEO and co-founder of Bitfury Surround, joins us to discuss the potential of blockchain technology for connecting not just content, but data and new value chains for content. Coming from a rich background at the intersection of music, business and evolving technology, Stefan explains why now is the time to decentralize the way we track ownership data and the countless opportunities to be unlocked.

Guest: Stefan Shulz, Co-founder and CEO of Bitfury Surround

Stefan Schulz is the CEO and co-founder of Bitfury Surround. He has been working in the music industry for more than 20 years, pioneering the use of technology for the benefit of artists. In 2001, Stefan became a founding member of Universal Mobile, a Vivendi business unit that went on to dominate the mobile music market. Later, while working in Universal Music’s Digital Business in Central and Eastern Europe, he was in charge of milestone deals with large players such as Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Nokia, Verisign, Apple, NTT DoCoMo, Deezer, Spotify and more. For both Universal Music and Vivendi, Stefan actively designed and developed new business models around audio and video content as well as licenses for equity programs and consumer platforms. In 2016, Stefan joined forces with Simon Fuller (XIX Entertainment) to create the first global pop group based entirely on social media and audience engagement. Most recently, he has led the design of digital live entertainment rights (including social media, AR/VR and streaming content) for artists, promoters and music labels. He has worked with globally known artists like Nelly Furtado, Eminem, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Snow Patrol, U2, Florence and the Machine, Gwen Stefani, Bon Jovi, Sting, and Andrea Bocelli.

Mentioned Links:

Website: https://surround.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bitfurysurround

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanconvert/

Learning to Compose Virtually . . . with Akira Nakano, LA Inception Orchestra May 17, 2020

Technology transforms the way in which we view opportunities and often creates new ones. This week on the Innovating Music Podcast, we rethink learning and education in music with UCLA alumnus Akira Nakano, the President and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Inception Orchestra. We look through the lens of applying virtual reality technology paired with original composition to the creation of educational programs that engage with local artist communities, and that bring music to underrepresented areas.

Guest: Akira Nakano, President and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Inception Orchestra

Akira Nakano grew up at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in both piano and percussion, soloing with numerous orchestras throughout Southern California as a youngster. He studied with Dr. Heewon Kwon with master classes from Jeffrey Kahane, Leon Fleischer, Ilana Vered, John Perry, and Daniel Pollack. He was the winner of the 1st Annual Herbert Zipper Award in Music Composition amongst other piano competitions. Entering UCLA on a full-ride piano performance scholarship, he won the UCLA Concerto Competition and graduated with a B.A. in Film & Television production.

Mr. Nakano spent over twelve years working as a video editor, writer, producer, and live event director at TRW Space & Electronics and went on to have 20+ years of video marketing/communications and film producing experience which will dovetail into the LA Inception Orchestra's Virtual Reality/360 music education program.

Mentioned Links:

Facebook: https://www.inceptionorchestra.org/
Twitter: @LAInceptionOrch
Asia American Symphony Association: http://aasymphony.org
Classical Saxophone Project: http://www.classicalsaxproject.org/
Gensler: nsler.com
Heart of Los Angeles: heartofla.org
Young Musicians Foundation: ymf.org
American Composers Forum: composersforum.org

Bridging Fans to Live Streams May 10, 2020

Adaptation is key when it comes to technology and innovation. In this week’s podcast, we discuss how technology evolves to fit the ever-changing dynamic between artists and their fan-bases with Fabrice Sergent, the co-founder and CEO of Bandsintown. We look at new ways in which Bandsintown supports its artists with new features such as WatchLive and a recent partnership with Twitch. We also discuss the shift in livestream viewing trends which have increased dramatically and what this means for artists and digital platforms.

Guest: Fabrice Sergent, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Bandsintown Group

Based in New York, Fabrice is an entrepreneur with experiences in the music and tech industries. He has spent 10 years in Europe and 13 years in the US, leading 2 start-ups from inception to over $100m in revenue. Fabrice is also a director of the Mobile Giving Foundation since 2009, serving 800 charities in the US and Canada. Fabrice launched his first start-up as Founder and CEO of Club-Internet in 1995, one of the very first and leading French consumer Internet Service Provider (ISP). Club-Internet was sold to Deutsche Telekom’s T-Online for €1.2 billion in 2000 with close to one million subscribers when he left the company.

Fabrice then co-founded Cellfish Media, a leading App publisher, and Bandsintown Group through organic growth and acquisitions. Fabrice served as a board member of several prominent media and internet companies in Europe such as the supervisory board of the publicly traded T-Online (largest German ISP), was a director of media/tech companies such as Le Monde Interactif (groupe Le Monde), Hachette Multimedia (Lagardere), Lagardere Active (TV and Radio).

He is regularly featured as a speaker or expert at key music and tech events including SXSW, DLD, Billboard Conference, Pollstar Conference, Midem, Mobile World Congress, MusicBiz. Fabrice has been selected as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company in 2018.

Mentioned Links:

Website: https://news.bandsintown.com/ https://www.twitch.tv/bandsintown/

Facebook: @bandsintown @bitforartists

IG: @bandsintown @bandsintownforartists

Twitter: @bandsintown @bitforartists

Evolution of the Creative Workflow May 03, 2020

Circumstances can spark innovation when changing work environments require new solutions. This week on the Innovating Music Podcast, we talk with Michael Gitig of G-Technology about the transformation of digital workflows and how his operation has transformed to connect "create from home" film, TV, and music creators. During the state orders to work from home, they had to close up their Hollywood community studio location and totally rethink their delivery of tech workflow services. They really have become the bridge to connect disparate technologies in this work-from-home era for digital creators. Michael shared many changes being made by creators and companies and the lasting effects these innovations may have on future workflows and work environments.

Guest: Michael Gitig, Commander of Intergalactic Business Development, G-Technology

Michael Gitig is a former music + entertainment industry worker turned tech intra- and entrepreneur. He has worked in business & strategic development, marketing, product management, and strategy for a variety of companies including Disney, Microsoft, and American Express, and was the co-founder of a music supervision company. His obsession with the convergence of media, technology, and commerce led him to pursue an MBA at the University of Michigan, where he graduated with distinction. While at the Ross School of Business, Mike led the consumer technology team of the Frankel Fund, a pre-seed student-run venture fund.

Mentioned Links:

Website: g-technology.com and gobbler.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GTechnology/
Instagram: @gtechnology
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gitig
Twitter: @foodforpods

Public Policy and Music: Innovation Bringing Cities Together . . .with Shain Shapiro, Sound Diplomacy Apr 19, 2020

This week on the Innovating Music Podcast, we discuss innovation in public policy with Shain Shapiro. He is the founder and CEO of Sound Diplomacy, an organization that works together with a wide range of clientele from city councils to property developers and more, in order to help music in cities thrive. We discuss music communities in cities as ecosystems and how public policy can support and protect them. We also look at the effects the COVID-19 crisis has had on the music industry and what they mean for the future.

Guest: Shain Shapiro, Founder/CEO, Sound Diplomacy

Shain Shapiro, Ph.D., is the Founder and CEO of Sound Diplomacy. Sound Diplomacy is the leading global advisor on growing music and night-time economies in cities and places. He is also the co-founder of the Music Cities Convention, the world’s largest event bringing together the music industry with city planners, developers, policymakers, and executives. Through Sound Diplomacy, he has consulted in over 60 cities and countries, including developing the Cuban official music strategy for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. He delivered the first-ever music presentation at a UN World Urban Forum and consulted at length with the Greater London Authority, including working on the development of London’s Night Czar and the Mayor of London’s music policy. He has delivered a TEDx talk on the value of music to cities and spoken at the European Parliament, MIDEM, MIPIM, SXSW, Smart Cities Expo, and others. He is also an accomplished journalist, frequently contributing to CityMetric, CityLab, and other outlets. Shain holds a Ph.D. from the University of London and was one of the top 10 Creative Entrepreneurs in Britain in the British Council’s h100 list.

Mentioned Links

Website: www.sounddiplomacy.com
Facebook: @sounddiplomacy / @musiccitiesevents
IG: @sound_diplomacy / @musiccitiesevents
Twitter: @SoundDiplomacy / @MusicCitiesSD
Linkedin: Sound Diplomacy
Email: shain@sounddiplomacy.com

AI Changing the Way We Edit Apr 05, 2020

Sometimes you have the right guest at the right time. Andrew Mason is founder and CEO of Descript, an AI-driven transcription software that promises to make audio editing as simple as using a word processor. In this week's Innovating Music podcast, we discuss the role of Descript in the current work-from-home experiment, as well as the features the company is rolling out to make podcasting more accessible to everyone. Along the way, we delve into Andrew’s entrepreneurial career, and how he turns lemons into lemonade as he transforms companies.

Public Health Outreach for Mass Gatherings Mar 25, 2020

In this special episode, we share the WebCall last week to hear what was happening on the ground in Seattle, WA and King County, WA, in the face of the COVID-19 closure of music venues and live experiences. Kate Becker talks about how King County is responding to the virus, what they are telling their music venues, businesses, artists and community, and generally shared her moving perspective on lessons learned throughout this process of pandemic and public health.

Guest: Kate Becker, King County WA Public Health for Mass Gatherings, Creative Economy Strategist

Before the current crisis, Kate Becker had been the Creative Economy Strategist for the Office of King County Executive Dow Constantine in Seattle, WA. For 5 years, she had been the Director of the Office of Film + Music in the City of Seattle, and had been a Commissioner for the Seattle Music Commission. Her prior background includes being Director of Development and Exec. Producer for the Seattle Theatre Group, as well as being heavily involved in arts and non-profit work for many years.

This virtual event was co-hosted by the Music Policy Forum, Music Cities Together, the Center for Creative Futures at the Maremel Institute, King County Creative, and Innovating Music @ UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

Mentioned Links:

Music Policy Forum
King County Creative on Facebook and their new website
COVID-19 Handbook for Creative Industries
Kate Becker on LinkedIn

Twitch Streaming for Musicians Mar 17, 2020

Karen Allen helps decode and make simpler streaming music for artists on Twitch. Twitch is a live streaming service, bought by Amazon in 2014, and has 2.2 million daily broadcasters and 15 million daily average viewers. It is mostly gamers, but also has creative and music channels for its highly creative audience. Karen shares her own explorations in learning to use YouNow and now Twitch. She shares what fan bases are there and how this type of engagement is different than what artists might have from other platforms. She shares how you can learn further with her book and online class, Twitch for Musicians.

Guest: Karen Allen, Author, Twitch for Musicians

Karen Allen created Twitch for Musicians, a book and an online course now in its second edition that demystifies the process of producing and growing a channel on Twitch. She features artists on the InRotation channel on Twitch, produces the MarinaVMusic channel, and manages Megan Lenius, a top music streamer. She is also a strategy and business development consultant to tech startups in music and entertainment and has held executive positions at the RIAA, Mobile Ecosystem Forum, and TAG Strategic.

Mentioned Links:

Website: https://www.twitchformusicians.com
Facebook: @twitchformusicians
IG: @twitchformusic
Twitter: @twitchformusic
MarinaV on Twitch
StageIt
EmmaMcGann on Twitch
YouNow
MonsterCat
Audible Magic rights management
Open Broadcaster Software (OBS)
Mixer
Caffeine.tv
Stream Labs
Tablo Publishing

Scratch Mixes to Pirate Radio to Software Instruments Mar 04, 2020

Matt Black has been intrigued by computers since reading "The Shockwave Rider" from a bookmobile in his small English village of his youth. Since then, he has created scratch mixes from a set of decks across London warehouse parties in the late 1980s, pirate radio, become the band Coldcut, created major hits, launched the label Ninja Tune, and developed mad programming skills. He builds what he calls "software instruments" for the iPad and (when he can) Android, expanding this year from Ninja Jam to JammPro, letting artists make their own tracks.

Guest: Matt Black, Co-Founder, Ninja Tune; Member of the band Coldcut

Matt Black is half of legendary DJ duo and multimedia pop group Coldcut, formed in 1987, and founders of Ninja Tune, the UK label. In 2020, Ninja Tune celebrates 30 years as one of the world’s leading electronic music labels and a beacon for the independent music spirit. In 2017 Coldcut celebrated 30 years in electronic music with a string of gigs releases and special projects. A new album is coming in 2020.

For over 28 years as part of Coldcut he has combined cutting edge artistic expression with positive activist themes in such pieces as Journeys by DJ, The Only Way is Up, People Hold On, Stop This Crazy Thing, Timber, Panopticon, Re:volution, Energy Union, Walk a Mile, True Skool, and many more. Coldcut have worked with a wild range of artists, activists and other groups and luminaries eg Steve Reich, James Brown, Mark E Smith, Queen Latifah, Jello Biafra, Saul Williams, Robert Owens, Lisa Stansfield, Crass, Roots Manuva, Lee Scratch Perry, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Greenpeace, and Avaaz.

In 2011 Matt designed the iOS app Ninja Jamm, Ninjatune's first music app which has had over 600,000 downloads; in 2020 the new advanced version Jamm Pro has been released. In 2017 2 more apps he designed were released: Pixi a visual synth, and Robbery a satirical video game. Midivolve, a music software collaboration with Ableton was released July 2017. The Zen Delay hardware unit released 2019 was also his co-creation.

At Splice festival 2017 Matt showcased his experiments with Style Transfer, a cutting edge new style of visual processing using AI techniques. For his AV show, done in conjunction with his wife filmmaker Dinaz Stafford, Jamm triggers visual clips so every sound has a matching visual. Matt collaborated with artist Wolfgang Buttress (the Hive, Kew) for BEAM AV installation Glastonbury 2019.

Links:

Jamm Pro Website: http://jammpro.net/
Jamm Pro for iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1148499320
Jamm Pro Competition - Win £1000: http://jammpro.net/jp1000/
Twitter: @NinjaJamm
Coldcut Twitter: @Coldcut
The Shockwave Rider, John Brunner, 1975
The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins, 1940
Tonto synth and Malcolm Cecil
Ableton Link
Kevin Kelly, The Next 5,000 Days on the Web, 2007, TED
Roger Hallam, Common Sense for the 21st Century; Extinction Rebellion

City Shapes, Streets, Layers, and Ecosystems Feb 19, 2020

Kwende Kefentse, both DJ Memetic and Music Lead for the City of Ottawa, and our host dig into the urban terrain, urban fabric, and politics of the city and music. He speaks deeply about urban terrain, urban fabric, and music, with the lens of "urban morphology" from his architecture studies in London and work with the city. He talks about topics as wide-ranging as the origins of hip hop in the South Bronx, trends in music cities where industry and community connect, distribution of music assets in neighborhoods, the music industry as intermediator, city metabolisms for music, missing dynamic models, and the role of media in a city. He brings the conversation back to his work with TIMEKODE, one of Canada’s most established independent dance parties, and the documentary in progress about its community impact.

Guest: Kwende Kefentse, Cultural Industries Development Officer and Music Lead, City of Ottawa; DJ Memetic; Host and Creative Director, TIMEKODE

Kwende Kefentse is the Cultural Industries Development Officer and Music Lead for the City of Ottawa. His work at the intersection of culture, space, public policy and the economy has been featured in outlets like CityLab, Spacing Magazine and Monocle Radio to name a few. Prior to completing a Masters of Research from UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture in Space Syntax Architecture and Cities (2017 - 2018), focussed on the spatial configuration of music industry value chains, Kwende played a leading role developing the council-approved Renewed Action Plan for Arts, Heritage, and Culture (2013 - 2018). Following from that, he led the development of the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition - a not-for-profit organization focussed on industry development, and the Ottawa Music Strategy (2018 - 2020) - a council-approved strategy for investing in, and developing the music industry. He now works on day-to-day implementation of the strategy while developing other cultural industry initiatives. Kwende serves on the boards of the Carleton University Art Gallery and FACTOR (Diversity and Inclusion observer) respectively. He is also the locally and internationally renowned producer and performer DJ Memetic, and the host + creative director of TIMEKODE, one of Canada’s most established independent dance parties. Over nearly 15 years of monthly events TIMEKODE has become a beacon of progressive pluralism in Ottawa. His solo + TIMEKODE original productions and remixes have received critical acclaim from international outlets like Vice Thump, Radio Nov and Wax Poetics.

Links Mentioned:

LinkedIn
Twitter @kwendeismemetic
City of Ottawa
Ottawa Music Industry Coalition
Space Syntax: Architecture and Cities @ UCL's Bartlett School of Architecture
TIMEKODE: http://timekode.com / http://timekode.tv
Richard Florida - Rise of the Creative Class (on Amazon)
Creative Index
Music Policy Forum website and Facebook
Santa Fe Institute
Urban Morphology
NOW Institute

Full transcripts can be found at innovatingmusic.org

Bonus: Updates on Move to Wed. and Live Events Feb 17, 2020

We're just sharing quick news that we are now 4 years into the Innovating Music podcast adventures and thank you for your friendship and community. We're shifting to Wednesday releases and planning upcoming live events/recordings. Let us know of suggested events, places, and guests you would like to see in this continuing exploration of tech and social change around music.

Making a Music City Home: Ft. Collins, CO Jan 20, 2020

Jesse Elliott helped create The Music District to support and work with music ecosystems in Ft. Collins, CO. He shares his earlier work with Richard Florida, his journey as a musician and a creative community organizer. Jesse shares the challenges and unique pilots that have worked locally, and his work with other communities globally.

Guest: Jesse Elliott, Director, The Music District

Jesse Elliott, Director of the Music District, is a lifelong champion of collaborative creative efforts, social entrepreneurship, and the power of music and storytelling. He is the founder and songwriter of two rock and roll bands, These United States and Ark Life, who have released 6 albums and performed live 1,200 times in the last decade, from SXSW and Glastonbury to Lollapalooza and your favorite local dive. Before music recaptured his heart, Elliott wrote books and speeches with economist Richard Florida, co-founded a community nonprofit at the University of Iowa, helped shoot a documentary on water rights in southern Mexico and Guatemala, and ran an Italian deli on the Jersey Shore. With his company Range Music Ecosystems, Elliott and his co-founder Dr. Bryce Merrill researched and wrote the music strategies for the City of Denver and the State of Colorado, and brought together international thinkers on music and community for the City of Austin, the Biennial of the Americas, and more.

Photo: Ty Hyten

The Music District brings together the art, business, technology, and community of one of humanity’s longest-standing sources of inspiration, communication, and collaboration. Equal parts creative laboratory, industry incubator, and town hall, the 57,000 square foot campus serves as a bridge between city and university, mountains and plains, in the free-wheeling innovation cauldron of Fort Collins, Colorado. Touring artists, scrappy start-ups, experienced technicians, global scholars, forward-thinking investors, and the hungriest music fans in the country will all find a home at the Music District. Seeded by Bohemian Foundation, which also puts its love, people, and money into other community, civic, and global causes, they will then bring that home to the wider world. Great songs, companies who care, and a commitment to the social fabric that makes life worth living are all at the heart of the District’s ambitious mission.

LinkedIn
Email: jesse@themusicdistrict.org
Twitter @musicdistrctfc
Instagram @themusicdistrict
YouTube
The Music District Website
Richard Florida - Rise of the Creative Class (on Amazon)
The World is Spiky, The Atlantic, Oct. 2005
These United States (band) (Wikipedia) and band site
Bohemian Foundation
Ground Waves with Murs; YouTube video
Storm Gloor, Univ. of Colorado, Denver
Michael Seman, CSU LEAP Institute for the Arts
Backline Music, Milwaukee, WI
Denver Music Strategy Report, 2018
Zoo Labs, Oakland, CA
Mercer Music
Music Cities Colorado 2020 -- September 23-26, 2020
Jesse TEDxCSU, 2017, "Music Ecosystems: Remixing Community
KRFC Radio
Sound Diplomacy
Surround Sound Bash

From a Sketch to an App to Change How We Sing Jan 13, 2020

Andrew Goren at 20 has built Harmony Helper, a newly launched app, from his own experiences and observations in the live stage rehearsal and audition environment. He has built his undergraduate program around this work, and brought together a team of professionals to see it launched. Andrew shares some of that journey as well as his experiences in building and launching a product based on drawings from when he was 13. Enjoy this perspective on building needed tools and think about your own journey . . . what could you have built by the age of 20?

Guest: Andrew Goren, Founder & CEO, Harmony Helper

Andrew Goren is the founder and CEO of Harmony Helper. As a passionate and young musical theatre actor, Andrew has been on a quest since the age of 12 to develop the perfect way to learn and sharpen singing and harmonizing abilities. From early work as a working performer, including time at the Paper Mill Playhouse Summer Conservatory, he has accumulated unique insights and vision have led to the creation of the newly launched Harmony Helper app. With his leadership of recruited professionals, Harmony Helper is designed to help singers effectively practice and improve singing performance anywhere, anytime... Andrew is on leave to launch the product from being an undergraduate in a custom-designed major in theatre, tech, business, and entrepreneurship at Drexel University.

LinkedIn: Andrew Goren and Harmony Helper
Harmony Helper Website
BroadwayCon
Paper Mill Playhouse
Twitter: @harmony_helper
Instagram: @harmonyhelper
Facebook: @HarmonyHelperApp

Recording, Live, Virtual, and Augmenting Experiences Jan 13, 2020

Roman Rappak is forging ahead on two parallel tracks -- creating recorded music for traditional channels and creating new systems to create mixed reality experience with the same music in live environments. Enjoy this episode where he talks about what drives him on these parallel and interwoven journeys with his new band, Miro Shot, and how they are building their own systems and processes to create a new type of live/virtual engagement for audiences. Guest: Roman Rappak, Lead Singer, Miro Shot; Founder, Mirocolabs

Roman Rappak is the lead singer of the band Miro Shot, releasing their debut album on AllPoints Records and Warp Publishing in 2020. CEO and Founder of Mirocolabs, a VR/AR content creation studio, and live events company. He has toured internationally, released two full-length albums with his last band Breton, appearing at festivals, on live TV and radio. He has won awards for short films and produced a live cinema/music show called Surrounded that toured from the UK to Australia, as well as directing music videos for artists such as Sinead O'Connor and music for brands such as Dior, Hermes, and Givenchy.

Band Website
Mirocolabs
LinkedIn
Twitter @romanrappak and @miro_shot
Instagram @miro_shot
All Points Music
Warp Publishing
Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson (2003)
Ready Player One (book) by Ernest Cline (2011)
Beat Saber (VR game)
Cannes XR
YouTube for Music Videos
Miro Shot live immersive concert demo video
Articles: Forbes, BBC Art & Culture, Clash Magazine, Spindle Magazine, Vox pop (Audience Reactions)
Voices Of VR Podcast

Enjoying the Path: Violin to Bass to One-Stop Shop CEO Dec 16, 2019

Kristen Agee has made her way from classical violin in Oklahoma to touring and studio bass to . . . CEO of a production music, publishing, and custom music company. She has built a one-stop shop and has learned a lot along the way. She shares the power of Asking, including her story about asking for bass guitar lessons from Darryl Jones. She launched 411 Music Group in 2014 as a way to find longevity in the music business beyond studio gigs and performing by aggregating music copyrights. Kristen tells us about technologies and tools that help her run and understand this IP-driven business. However, the core focus is how to create opportunities and step forward with persistence, great teams, and stepping forward to learn.

Guest: Kristen Agee, Songwriter, Composer, and Founder/CEO, 411 Music Group

Kristen Agee is a songwriter, composer, and Founder of 411 Music Group. 411 provides synchronization licensing, custom score, publishing, administration and digital distribution for music rights holders. Kristen secures global partnerships for 411 and oversees creative and strategic business development. She has spoken on panels and hosted workshops across the world. She grew up as a Classical violinist and started playing multiple instruments at the age of 7 before getting into sound engineering. In 2007, she built and opened a studio in Silver Lake, recorded LA Punk bands and wrote music for various artists. From 2008-2011, she toured with indie acts as a violinist and bassist before transitioning to full-time writing. After writing for various publishers, Kristen started 411 Music Group in September 2012 and launched an indie song catalog in January 2014. In March 2017, she was called to run the music department at All3Media America where she was the Executive In Charge of Music from April 2017 to August 2018. She curates writing teams and composes music for television shows, trailers, advertisements, video games, and promos.

Website: 411 Music Group
LinkedIn
IMDB
Twitter: 411 Music Group
Darryl Jones, bassist
Donald Passman, All You Need to Know About the Music Business, 2019: home site and on Amazon
WhatsApp
Music Maestro publishing accounting software
The Light & Dark London: listening links
MusicTech article on the concept album

Create and Collaborate in the Palm of Your Hand Dec 09, 2019

Omid Rahmat came into the music business from the tech and app world in order to solve music creation workflow problems with Joyner Lucas and Dhruv Joshi -- and now solves them for more than 350,000 creators through the Tully App. He talks in this podcast episode about ways to limit tech and financial overhead costs for entrepreneurial song creators. Omid brings us along on his journey in his team creating the toolset and how he sees the changing music business.

Guest: Omid Rahmat, COO, Tully

Omid Rahmat started his career working in computer graphics subsystems, visualization, and multimedia systems. His work in these technologies lead to his involvement in the earlier days of media streaming on the web and subsequently into media-based application development. He has worked as an executive in both hardware and software companies. Presently, he is COO of Tully App. Tully App was created by recording artist Joyner Lucas and music entrepreneur Dhruv Joshi. Tully is a total workflow solution for artists to go from ideation to distribution and career management. It is designed by artists for artists. Tully gives an artist the power to be entrepreneurial as well as creative, putting the artist in control of all aspects of their music and business.

From Piano and Beach Blanket Babylon to Pokémon: A Musical Journey Nov 10, 2019

Ed Goldfarb sees and hears differently. Where you and I might be just talking, he is hearing background music and seeing the notes in a manuscript. Ed shares with us his journey from professionally accompanying performances as a youth to creating live music for years for Beach Blanket Babylon in the Bay Area in California . . . to creating hundreds of motifs and a multi-location production team around hundreds of Pokémon episodes and films. He uses different senses and experiences along with collaborative music tech to build series music in his own unique way.

Guest: Ed Goldfarb, Madcap Labs Composer/Musician/Producer/Educator

Ed Goldfarb has scored more than 300 episodes of television and four feature films for the internationally beloved Pokémon anime and movies. He’s also collaborated with legendary film director Francis Ford Coppola on numerous projects including Apocalypse Now Redux. In the previous century, Ed was Music Director of San Francisco’s Beach Blanket Babylon, tried to produce hits (most successfully for Boyz II Men) and, before that, received a degree in Music Composition from the University of California, Berkeley. Ed lives in Marin County, CA, with his family, where, in addition to operating his studio Madcap Labs, he plays piano at an Italian restaurant on Wednesdays for dinner and tips.

Art of Mass Gatherings Oct 14, 2019

Matthew Ché Kowal is innovative in looking at a very specific set of overlaps in music. He has parlayed his experience in running festivals focusing on sustainability into work focused on mass gatherings. What can emergency workers learn from music festivals? What can festivals do to help heal from disasters? Matthew will talk about how he is bringing these two questions and other challenges together in Denver and beyond with his various projects and roles.

Guest: Matthew Ché Kowal, Founder, Majestic Collaborations; Denver Arts & Venues Music Strategy; Emergency Preparedness Consultant for Performing Arts Readiness

Majestic Collaborations consults with businesses, organizations and government agencies, and creatives to advance best design practices to enhance the preparedness, safety, and sustainability of gatherings. As the creative director of 100+ festivals for New Belgium (2005-2016), Matthew coordinated partnerships between brands, artists, and non-profit organizations to present highly participatory gatherings which raised over $5 million for community organizations, advanced the awareness of one million attendees about people-powered transportation advocacy, bicycle culture, art, and music causes while striving to address gender and diversity equity in talent booking and leadership. Currently, Majestic Collaborations works with Denver Arts & Venues on their Denver Music Strategy implementation, which has recently garnered a partnership grant from Performing Arts Readiness (funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) to be a regional circuit host in emergency preparedness planning practices for cultural entities. Through this partnership, he developed the Arts & Cultural Network for Emergency Preparedness survey and study to help develop new models for hands-on skill-sharing between event and festival production personnel and local agencies through power, waste, water, food and infrastructure systems, FEMA ICS integration, audience communications and community empowerment. By nature, performing arts and cultural entities are community hubs and often serve vital roles in disaster response and recovery; advanced planning, networking and resourcing within these groups enhances resilience for entire communities.

Website: Majestic Collaborations - with Co-Founder and VP Molly North
LinkedIn
Twitter @mateoche
The Reals Band Facebook page
Email: matthew@majesticcollaborations.com
Create Denver (Denver Arts & Venues)
FEMA National Public Infrastructure Pre-Disaster Hazard Mitigation (Section 1234)

Artificial Intelligence + Messy Music Data Sep 09, 2019

Hazel Savage and her co-founder Aron Pettersson have built Musiio in Singapore to bring artificial intelligence to the messy large data sets of the music industry. She shares her own past in retail and streaming music in the UK and Australia, then shares how and why they formed Musiio. It already has a unique and distinctive role in tagging mass music data sets. She shares how that is different than generative artificial intelligence and how AI is a broader definition than machine learning and algorithms. She'll share opportunities across Asia and especially China, and will share thoughts on couple of other leading companies bringing new tech solutions to music.

Guest: Hazel Savage, CEO and Co-Founder, Musiio

Hazel Savage is a music-tech lifer, guitarist, and one half of the co-founding team at Musiio. Originally from the UK and having spent the first 6 years of her career working in London, she spent the 5 years immediately following that working in Sydney, Australia and has spent the past 3 years living and working in Singapore. With 14 years experience in the music industry, the majority of it specifically working for music-tech companies, she is proud to list Shazam, Universal, Pandora and HMV as previous experience.

Music Cities: Connecting Stories of Music Lives Sep 03, 2019

Don and Peter shared their experience performing music ecosystem audits for four cities. The 2015 Austin Music Census and their continuing studies of Charlotte, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC are more than doing a venue count. They gather the personal, qualitative stories of local life as an artist and musician in a community. They also began to take a look at what really then happens post-study with a community, including what happens with local community groups. Folks can end up swimming in different directions. They are beginning to have enough information to look across cities to compare and contrast the lives of artists. And in some cases, they have gathered up to 12 different ways that a single musician makes a living through music in this live and digitally connected age. They have great insights to share about how local makes a tremendous difference in what the superpowers are for a city. They also share how some smaller organizations and some smaller cities are making a difference and how it's more than the city -- it also is the ecosystem of the region.

Guests: Don Pitts and Peter Schwarz, Co-Founders, Sound Music Cities

About Sound Music Cities: Based in Austin, Texas, Sound Music Cities was born from direct experience in music-related policy, music development program implementations, and leadership of sound management initiatives. Founded by Don Pitts and Peter Schwarz in 2017, the team has extensive experience in music strategy that balances the needs of the music and nightlife industry with the needs of the community. Their growing list of clients includes WYEP Pittsburgh, The City of Pittsburgh Office of Nighttime Economy, The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, The City of Seattle Office of Film and Music, and the Government of the District of Columbia Office of Cable TV, Film, Music and Entertainment.

Don Pitts: After 30 years in the music and entertainment industry, Don Pitts launched Sound Music Cities to help emerging and established music and entertainment cities find practical solutions to sound issues, and grow their music economy. Having garnered the nickname “The Sound Whisperer” from his tenure as the head of the City of Austin’s Economic Development Department’s Music and Entertainment Division where he reduced sound complaints by 70%, Don brings his experience and passion for creating vibrant music cities to Sound Music Cities and its clients. Originally from Nashville, Don has gone far and wide in the music industry, doing everything from managing bands and venues, to handling entertainment relations for Gibson Guitar, to co-founding the North American Music Cities Summit, to working in the public sector. His strategic perspective lies at the cross-section of these experiences – lending him the ability to navigate and bring together the political and industry landscapes. While with the City of Austin, Don’s leadership fueled programs to increase prosperity for musicians, music businesses and music venues – all important when building a sustainable economic engine. Don values political know-how, street-smarts and active listening skills – three things that help when beginning to connect the dots over the course of a large music ecosystem project.

Peter Schwarz: Peter Schwarz brings almost four decades of experience as a musician and a business leader to the team. He recently completed a long-term commercial music industry plan for the City of Austin’s Economic Development Department, Music and Entertainment Division, as well as authored research studies for “The Pittsburgh Music Ecosystem Study” and the City of Seattle’s 2018 Music Industry Survey. He was previously for 14 years the executive-in-charge of all of Ray Benson’s holdings, including Asleep at the Wheel and Bismeaux Records. He oversaw album releases and artist management for Carolyn Wonderland, Willie and the Wheel, Raul Malo, A Ride With Bob, Texas Tornados, Wheeler Brothers, Aaron Behrens, and the 2015 GRAMMY-winner Still The King. Earlier experience includes festival coordination, arts programming, album producing, touring musician and composer (as a member and manager of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys), protégé of master Cajun fiddler Dewey Balfa, and longtime musical collaborator with his father, Tracy Schwarz, of The New Lost City Ramblers. Schwarz is a graduate of Harvard College (BA) and the McCombs School of Business (MBA).

Website: Sound Music Cities
ATX Music Census and Needs Assessment Survey (2015)
Pittsburgh Music Ecosystem Study (2018)
Charlotte Music Ecosystem Study (2019)
LinkedIn: Don and Peter
Twitter @schwarzy

Connecting Creators and Social Impact with Fans Aug 05, 2019

Jeremy Gruber enjoys connecting artists, creators, and social impact forces directly with fans. He shared his adventures with Friends at Work, working with not only John Legend and Lindsey Stirling, but also emerging artists. We discussed the current state of streaming, playlists, and algorithms. He also shared his adventures in launching the music ad platform Found.ee.

Guest: Jeremy Gruber, Head of Digital Marketing & Strategy, Friends at Work; Partner, found.ee; Adjunct Professor, USC Thornton

Jeremy Gruber is the head of Digital Marketing & Strategy at Friends at Work, representing artists including John Legend, Lindsey Stirling and Raphael Saadiq. Jeremy has spent over a decade working with artists at all levels helping them grow their brand and businesses by bringing together traditional marketing with the latest technology. Both of his parents are classical musicians and music teachers and he picked up electric bass at 14 launching him into his passion for all forms of music. After graduating with a degree in Music Industry from USC, Jeremy started his career in artist management and marketing helping to manage the wine label, public speaking and corporate career of legendary drummer Mick Fleetwood at the boutique firm Sabre Entertainment. Jeremy went on to run digital for 10th Street Entertainment and Eleven Seven Music working with marquis rock bands including Mötley Crüe, Papa Roach, JET and Blondie. In 2010, he joined the leading independent label Concord Music Group helping to establish the direct to consumer team and later building the digital marketing & strategy department - there he worked closely with established legends like Paul Simon, Paul McCartney, Gregg Allman and James Taylor as well as up-and-coming stars including the launch of Nathaniel Ratliff & the Night Sweats. In addition to his artist marketing work Jeremy is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California's music industry program and is a partner at the marketing tech startup found.ee.

Data and Emotions: Painting on a Canvas Jul 29, 2019

Shelita joins the podcast to share how as an artist she uses data and emotions to connect with fans and create community -- and to create music itself. Most of us think about data and music about marketing -- which she has done well to attract more than 175,000 fans on a variety of platforms. Shelita also uses behavioral data, with fan permission, to design tracks to appeal to targeted emotions and life stories. In her recent album, she tells us of putting that process away and creating around emotion separate from data. She talks about using artificial intelligence to predict human behavior with an aim of benefiting humanity, and tech as a vehicle to enhance music as a creator. She discussed starting to learn to code at 8 and at first using computers to improve her community -- and then bringing that superpower to community through music.

Guest: Shelita, Pop Artist & Tech Innovator

Guest: Shelita, independent artist/writer/producer and tech innovation strategist

Shelita is a pop singer/writer/producer, data scientist and tech innovation strategist. Having amassed 20+ million streams with her EP, "Special" and reaching #24 on Billboard, Shelita has been a trailblazer in adapting new technologies such as blockchain to show the world a new artist model that puts artists first. Raised in Seattle, she left for Europe to pursue a music career and tour the world playing over 150 shows as a recording artist. She made her first appearance in the pop music scene going viral on social media. Shelita has just released her highly anticipated self-titled debut album, SHELITA.

SHELITA album link: https://shelita.lnk.to/SHELITA
Website: Shelitaburke.com
Twitter @ShelitaBurke
Instagram @ShelitaBurke
Facebook
YouTube
Soundcloud
Spotify
Shelita in Forbes in 2017 on blockchain

Music Cities and Evolving Songs Jul 09, 2019

Storm Gloor has been tracking how songs succeed since he was a young teen . . . and now explores anything from how music cities can succeed and how one-hit wonders thrive (or don't). We enjoyed talking about how cities create and sustain music scenes with help from civic organizations, which may come from government or from the community. We discussed Richard Florida's revised creative economy studies on the impact of creative communities on the rest of the city, and returned to how streaming may be impacting both local cities and how songs are constructed.

Guest: Storm Gloor, Associate Professor, Music and Entertainment Industry Studies, University of Colorado, Denver

Storm Gloor is an associate professor in the Music and Entertainment Industry Studies department of the College of Arts and Media at the University of Colorado Denver. He is the recipient of the university’s 2018 Excellence In Teaching award. In 2014, he developed and instructed what is thought to be the first Music Cities higher education course. Along with that course, Storm teaches Music Marketing and oversees the internships for the College of Arts & Media. As part of the First Year Experience program at CU Denver, he teaches a course on the Beatles. Professor Gloor is also a Faculty Fellow in the Center for Faculty Development, is the immediate past president of the Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association, and serves as a city councilman for Glendale, Colorado. He has presented at numerous events and programs, including SXSW.edu, South By Southwest Music, the Music Cities Convention, the MEIEA Music Educators Summit, the Future of Music Summit, the Underground Music Showcase, the Denver Music Summit, and the EdMedia world conference.

Storm at CU Denver
LinkedIn
Twitter @stormsignal and @cudenver
UC Denver Music & Entertainment Industry Studies
MusicinLA.org
Denver Arts & Venues
Denver Music Summit (2015)
Youth on Record
Balanced Breakfast
San Diego Music Foundation
Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class Revisited (2014)
Richard Florida's New Urban Crisis (2017)
Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA)

Social Justice Melded with Music May 27, 2019

Rehan Choudhry joined our podcast to discuss the upcoming second year of Emerge LV -- and to share his journey on how he re-melds social justice and music in this Facebook-embedded era. He walked us down his path through college, Homeland Security, Atlantic City, the Cosmopolitan, and Life is Beautiful. He then shared the challenges and importance of reconnecting social justice and heartfelt artists in this politically laden and fractured time.

Guest: Rehan Choudhry, Founder & CEO, A Beautiful Perspective; Founder, Emerge LV

After working for years in emergency management IT at the Department of Homeland Security, Rehan ran entertainment initiatives for an Atlantic City casino hungry to bring younger crowds to the city. After working with the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Rehan took the plunge into the festival world and became the founder and driving force behind Life is Beautiful. Rehan realized that the emotional tie, that sense of personal relevance, was missing at many events. This epiphany brought him to create Emerge LV, a thoughtfully curated annual event for emerging thoughts and voices in music and social impact spaces. This year’s festival revolves around four themes--Self, Protest, Fear, Sex--meant to drive conversations and discovery. For two days (May 31-June 1, 2019), festival goers will get a chance for a second year to focus on these themes at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Complexity on the Road May 13, 2019

Paul Bradley joined the podcast to talk about his adventures creating the tour management software system, Eventric. He shared how he started in band management and tour operations, along with being a drummer on tour, and created databases on a Compaq computer on Filemaker software. After years of developing databases and sharing them with other tours, he began to sell databases as a system and created Eventric. Paul shared his experiences with data security, possibilities of predictive data, environmental management trends, and other adventures happening in touring complexity for music and other experiential events. He ended with advise on how to enter the touring business for young people passionate about the live event space.

Guest: Paul Bradley, CEO and Founder, Eventric

Paul Bradley began his career promoting concert events in the early 1990s. His company HW Productions contracted and promoted national touring acts such as the Dave Matthews Band, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, the Samples, as well as dozens of local events and bands. In 1995, he began touring in a management and advisory capacity with various nationally recognized artists including the Dave Matthews Band and The Drovers. He developed multiple touring technologies that began to revolutionize the antiquated and fragmented business of live event touring, and formed Eventric in 2009. Eventric’s core products, Master Tour and Live Access, have powered over 1,000,000 live events and helps over 4,000 artists, bands, and corporations execute their events more efficiently and profitably. With offices in Chicago and Los Angeles, Eventric employs 15 people and is considered the “industry standard” for touring and live event technologies. Major clients include Red Bull, Marvel, The Black Keys, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Metallica, Wilco, Zac Brown Band, and The Who. Paul is a board advisor for Foundations of Music in Chicago and a member of the Economic Club of Chicago.

Changing Limiting Beliefs May 06, 2019

In this week's podcast, we enjoy Laura Escudé taking us on a tour of live performance music . . . and touring . . . and breaking negative beliefs about performance and ability through tech tools. She mixes Ableton Live, her own violin skills, tools like the Unreal game engine, and major tours and artists. She looks at how beliefs and technology change change the sense of what is possible and what creative limits we do and don't have as live performers. She also shares her personal shifts into training others and being a mentor in terms of both skills and thoughtful living.

Guest: Laura Escudé, Artist/Entrepreneur/Live Show Designer; CEO and Founder, Electronic Creatives

Based in Los Angeles, Laura Escudé is an artist, innovator, entrepreneur and live show designer with a deep understanding of complex technology, a profound passion for music and art and a unique talent for fusing the two. Career highlights include designing shows for Kanye West and Jay Z, opening for Miguel on his 2015 Wild heart tour and building a thriving international business populated by top-tier professionals. She’s released myriad albums, singles and EPs under the name Alluxe, synthesizing her skills as a classically trained violinist and her prowess as anavant-garde electronic producer. Escudé’s live performances are known for their sleek futuristic style and the raw emotion she elicits from her musical machines. She’s done official remixes for artists including M83 and Polica, with her violin playing featured on albums by Big Grams, Kanye West and Jay Z and many more. Technology is a second language for Escudé, who in 2008 became the world’s first Ableton Certified Trainer. In 2012, she founded Electronic Creatives, using her skills to hire and train programmers and playback engineers for artists including Logic, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Big Sean, Charli XCX and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. She’s brought massive productions to life for artists including Kanye West, Jay Z, Bon Iver, Missy Elliot, Herbie Hancock, and television megabrand American Idol. Escudé toured extensively with these shows, collaborating with artists to create fresh, thrilling experiences for audiences worldwide.

In 2017, she launched the Transmute Retreat, a week-long workshop incorporating yoga, meditation, nature, live performance workshops and community performances.

Website, Lauraescude.com
Website, ElectronicCreatives.com
LinkedIn
Instagram @ElectronicCreatives @lauraescude
Transmute
Elevate
Ableton Live
Unreal Engine
Byron Katie's The Work

An Invitation: Amplify Music in Los Angeles Apr 22, 2019

This brief episode features our host and Center director, Gigi Johnson, sharing an invitation to join us in person at UCLA (while supplies last) or via Zoom online for our May 15 Conference on Amplifying Music in Our Los Angeles. Gigi shares the questions that other Music Cities are asking -- how to amplify local music scenes in the face of (a) gentrification and (b) this streaming era. She outlines what the day will bring and how questions such as mapping and gentrification bring out other questions of whose LA and formal and informal LA.

Tickets are available for free at musicinla.eventbrite.com and the past Feb. 6 event recordings and information can be found -- along with a city map of formal venues -- at musicinla.org.

Down the Music Data Rabbit Hole Apr 01, 2019

In this week's podcast, Amadea Choplin, the COO from Pex, takes us down the online music data rabbit hole. She shares how official music distribution is just the beginning of the adventures of distributed songs, and how on average 99% of top artists' music use has moved beyond the original uploaded accounts to be reloaded into other spaces and purposes across the viral web. Pex tracks copies of fragments of songs across 30 online platforms across the global web. Amadea talks about her own journey from strategy and IPOs to Daily Motion to joining Rasty in this still new data company.

Guest: Amadea Choplin, Chief Operating Officer, Pex

Amadea Choplin is the COO of Pex, an LA-based video and music search engine with a fingerprinting technology that can identify re-used content, as short as a sample or a gif, across the web. This enables rights holders to understand the virality of their content, and claim copyrighted material at scale.

Pex.com
Pex on Twitter: @Pex
Amadea on LinkedIn
Amadea on Twitter: @amadeachoplin

Marrying Tech and Opera Mar 26, 2019

Marivi is connecting digital marketing to a more traditional, low-tech, multilingual art form. She shares practical ideas for building local audience while learning from other cities and building tourism tools for our local opera scene. She also shares ways to work with cultural and lifestyle influencers with opera and ways to engage with multiple audiences in this increasingly digital age.

Guest: Marivi Valcourt, Associate Director of Marketing, Advertising and Content, LA Opera

Marivi Valcourt is a lifelong concertgoer and advocate for music. Currently she is the Associate Director of Marketing at LA Opera, in charge of traditional and digital advertising as well as video content. A graduate of NYU's Music Business program, she spent over 10 years in the music industry working at the late Gary Kurfirst's Overland Management with artists including The Ramones, Talking Heads, Big Audio Dynamite, Jane's Addiction, Deborah Harry (Blondie), Thompson Twins and Dee-Lite. At Radioactive Records/MCA, she was instrumental in developing Angelfish (Shirley Manson/Garbage) and the platinum-selling artists Live. From there, she was part of the marketing/sales team at Capitol Records and then worked as the General Manager of Nettwerk America Records. When the music industry imploded around 2000, she moved to non-profit work, heading up marketing for the City of Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade for seven years. During that time she received her MBA from Loyola Marymount University. Marivi found a balance between live performance and non-profit, working in the performing arts with over five years at UCLA's Royce Hall and now at LA Opera.

LA Opera

Connecting Artists and Tech Feb 25, 2019

Seth Schachner returned to discuss the changes afoot in music and tech deal-making. Enjoy this continuing conversation of how deals are being made between artists and new technologies, and how artists and managers can think about connecting with new technologies in their marketing.

Guest: Seth Schachner, Managing Director of Strat Americas

Seth Schachner is Managing Director of Strat Americas, a Los Angeles and Miami-based consultancy that provides strategic guidance and helps clients with media and technology partnerships. Strat Americas has worked with clients in digital and social music, virtual reality, live entertainment, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software. Seth is an experienced business development executive who spent eleven years with Sony Music, where he held senior digital leadership roles in Latin America and for Sony’s Jive Records label in North America. At Sony Music Latin America, Seth created multi-million selling mobile handset partnerships for the artists Shakira and Ricky Martin. Previously, Schachner held business development roles with Microsoft, Liberty Media, Viacom, and Universal Music. Seth was one of AOL’s first business development executives, where he ran AOL’s very first music channel and oversaw AOL’s partnerships with the American music industry—including AOL’s first “official” digital music download. A graduate of Columbia University in New York, Seth has also served as Chairman of Florida's Film & Entertainment Advisory Council, which helped guide Florida on state film and entertainment growth strategies. Seth’s articles and posts have appeared in publications like Venture Beat and The Guardian, and he is a frequent public speaker.

Music,Marketing, and All That Jazz Feb 18, 2019

Mike Casey mixes jazz sax with marketing savvy. He shares in this podcast how he uses digital tech and music . . . and understanding his audiences . . . to spread the word on his music as an independent artist. Enjoy this discussion with Mike about how he has questioned everything about creating jazz in this modern, streaming world.

Guest: Mike Casey, Jazz Saxophonist and Digital Manager/Marketer

An award-winning, songwriter, saxophonist, and teaching artist with over 2 million streams worldwide (without a record label or team), Mike is bringing the joy of “jazz” across genre lines to a diverse audience around the world. Mike has performed with artists as diverse as DJ Logic, Nat Reeves, Benito Gonzalez, Brandee Younger, Zaccai Curtis, Tarus Mateen, Duane Eubanks, Justin Faulkner, and Marc Cary, through his project “The Harlem Sessions”. Through his apprenticeship with Marc Cary, he has performed at the NYC Winter Jazz Fest, Lincoln Center, NYC SummerStage, Ginny’s Supper Club, and Cape May’s Exit Zero Jazz Festival.

One More Canvas to Play With Feb 11, 2019

Iris Wu and Pei-Lun Hsieh from Ambidio were inspired to understand and create new ways for creative artists to design immersive sound for "regular" playback on computers, laptops, and phones. In this podcast, they share their journey in experimenting, connecting with Skywalker sound, and getting to their current jumping off point in connecting a new dimension of creative sound with video, music, and game creators.

Guests: Iris Wu and Pei-Lun Hsieh, Ambidio

Iris Wu is the idea generator and founder of Ambidio. She has a Master’s Degree in Music Technology from New York University. Iris is recognized as one of the Young Entertainment Professionals selected by Hollywood Professional Association and was listed on 40 Under 40 by Prestige as well as Asia’s Top 50 Rising Tech Stars by Tatler.

Pei-Lun Hsieh is the co-founder of Ambidio. He graduated from Columbia University with a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering and has worked at Weta Digital, Disney Research Zurich, and the University of Southern California. He wants to bridge creativity and technology to help artists tell and deliver better stories.

Site and Video Examples: Ambidio.co
Facebook Page: Ambidio
LinkedIn: Iris
Twitter: @ambidioCo

Forging Human Connection Feb 04, 2019

Jay LeBoeuf created Real Industry when he was guest lecturing and realized that his students did not really see what jobs and careers were out there in music in technology. After four years of growth, Real Industry now brings together 40 colleges and universities, mentors from around music and technology, and brands and sponsors to mission-driven challenges that change lives.

Guest: Jay LeBoeuf, Founder and Executive Director, Real Industry

Jay LeBoeuf is an executive, entrepreneur, and educator in the music and creative technology industries. Jay is the Executive Director of Real Industry, a nonprofit that educates, empowers, and inspires university students to thrive in industry. Real Industry is supported by a network of hundreds of industry mentors, leading companies, generous donors, and forward-thinking universities. As an entrepreneur, Jay founded Imagine Research, a music technology and artificial intelligence startup that built a search engine for sound. In 2012, iZotope acquired Imagine Research and Jay joined the iZotope executive team leading research & development, technology strategy, and intellectual property. Prior to creating Imagine Research, Jay was an engineer and researcher in the Advanced Technology Group at Avid Technology. There he led research that expanded the power of Pro Tools, the industry standard for digital audio workstations. Jay has been recognized as a Bloomberg Businessweek Innovator and awarded $1.1M in Small Business Innovation Research grants by the U.S. National Science Foundation. As an educator, Jay is a lecturer on media technology and business at Stanford University, University of Michigan, and Carnegie Mellon University. He leads the Stanford | Warner Music Group leadership initiative. As entrepreneur, Jay advises digital media startups including LANDR, SUBPAC, Humtap, and Kadenze.

Site: Real Industry
Facebook Page: Real Industry
YouTube
LinkedIn
Twitter: @Real_Industry

Los Angeles: Building a Grassroots Movement Jan 28, 2019

Ross Gardiner is co-launching the Los Angeles Nightlife Alliance, convening a group to bring together a love of LA's nightlife, government savvy, and community organizing. He shares his stories of how efforts in Berlin, Amsterdam, and London led to efforts in New York, which has led to this grassroots effort growing for the past year in Los Angeles.

Guest: Ross Gardiner, Co-Founder, LA Nightlife Alliance

Ross Gardiner is a founding member of the Los Angeles Nightlife Alliance, an advocacy and organizing coalition which represents the interests of the city’s nightlife community. Originally hailing from the Highlands of Scotland, Ross spent several years as music journalist and editor (Billboard, Mixmag, Vice), and a festival consultant with his boutique agency Black Circle Media. His clients include EDC, Tomorrowland, Electric Zoo, Oasis Festival, Red Bull, and Metro. Prior to founding LANA, Ross spent two years “apprenticing” with nightlife organizing thought-leaders Lutz Leichsenring (executive director, Berlin Clubcommission) and Mirik Milan (former Amsterdam Night Mayor). He served as the communications and creative director for their project the Creative Footprint, and helped launch their international consultancy VibeLab.

Digital Journeys, Old and New Jan 21, 2019

Seth Schachner shared a great history of how he has been able to be a long-time deal guy, helping with diverse deals in changing industries. He is now working across sectors to bring together deals across virtual reality, social music, spatial audio, and other arenas with skills he gained working at AOL, Microsoft, Sony, and Universal. Join us to think about early digital music deals and how they have parallels in new digital challenges.

Guest: Seth Schachner, Managing Director, Strat Americas

Seth Schachner is Managing Director of Strat Americas, a Los Angeles and Miami-based consultancy that provides strategic guidance and helps clients with media and technology partnerships. Strat Americas has worked with clients in digital and social music, virtual reality, live entertainment, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software. Seth is an experienced business development executive who spent eleven years with Sony Music, where he held senior digital leadership roles in Latin America and for Sony’s Jive Records label in North America. At Sony Music Latin America, Seth created multi-million selling mobile handset partnerships for the artists Shakira and Ricky Martin. Previously, Seth held business development roles with Microsoft, Liberty Media, Viacom, and Universal Music. Seth was one of AOL’s first business development executives, where he ran AOL’s very first music channel and oversaw AOL’s partnerships with the American music industry—including AOL’s first “official” digital music download. A graduate of Columbia University in New York, Seth has also served as Chairman of Florida's Film & Entertainment Advisory Council, which helped guide Florida on state film and entertainment growth strategies. Seth’s articles and posts have appeared in publications like Venture Beat and The Guardian, and he is a frequent public speaker.

DJs as Curators in this Streaming Era Jan 07, 2019

Stephen White shared his journey from Madison, WI, to various ventures combining music, communities, DJing, and tech, which led him to Gracenote and now Dubset and MixBANK. He shared his observations on early streaming and in shifting from one type of B2B model to another. He discussed international trends, the role of curation by DJs, and the hard challenges that Dubset had to overcome to get to this spot.

Guest: Stephen White, CEO, Dubset

Stephen is the CEO and Chairman for Dubset Media Holdings, and joined Dubset as CEO in February 2015. Prior to joining Dubset, he as CEO and President at Gracenote from 2012-2014. White held numerous roles for the company across 14 years and played a critical role in growing the company from a small start-up, focusing on music technologies and information, into a digital entertainment leader that now touches millions of music and movie fans around the globe. In his role as president, White oversaw all company strategy and operations, and was responsible for growing Gracenote’s core business.

Before joining Gracenote, he was VP of development for streaming music start-up Echo.com, which was one of the first companies to combine group content streaming and community features. Prior to Echo.com, he was a senior director and executive producer for CKS, a media consultancy based in Silicon Valley where he lead teams in the creation of web properties such as the Apple online store and GM.com. He began his career as a reporter and writer.

Site: MixBANK
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenhwhite/
Twitter: @dubset and @swhite415

Creating TV with Acoustic Heart Jan 02, 2019

Siddhartha Khosla is making magic on TV, combining acoustic instruments with rapid inspiration and all the benefits of remote teams and production. He is at the heart of music creation in this abundant world of peak TV, working across shows at his home studio with a remote team, while recording on acoustic instruments from the US and abroad. Siddhartha creates a wide range of environments, from the acoustic, Indian-inspired music he creates for "This Is Us" to his electronic score for Marvel's "Runaways." Siddhartha shares his approach to TV and film scoring, where instead of synthesized sounds he and other artists record it live.

Guest: Siddhartha Khosla, Singer/Songwriter, Music Producer

Siddhartha Khosla is an award-winning film and television composer, and singer/songwriter/producer of the critically acclaimed band, Goldspot. He currently scores NBC's hit Golden Globe and Emmy-winning drama series, "This Is Us," starring Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, and Sterling K. Brown. He also is currently scoring ABC's new Tim Doyle comedy series, "The Kids Are Alright;" Hulu's original series, "Marvel's Runaways," and E!'s first scripted drama series, "The Royals.". Additionally, he composed original songs for the musical film "Basmati Blues," recently scored CBS' comedy series "Me, Myself and I," starring John Larroquette, and comedy feature film, "Fat Camp," starring Chris Redd and Vivica A. Fox. He began scoring for television and film while fronting his acclaimed band, Goldspot, which was first discovered on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic." Goldspot's original songs have been featured on numerous TV shows, including "This Is Us," “How I Met Your Mother," "The O.C." and "The Neighbors," as well as in major advertising campaigns for Google, Target and Apple.

[REPLAY] Playlists: A Revolution for Artists Jan 01, 2019

[REPLAY] A 2018 podcast favorite -- Andrea Young sees playlisting as a revolution for artists. She shared a lot of basics of how to engage with both your fans and playlisters to create a thoughtful playlisting strategy for artists at different stages of their careers. Toolsets are available within different platforms to understand analytics and learn from where and how your fans listen to your music. We talked about how the new funnels are a bit more translucent than the old ones to get your music in the right places and to the right fans. How do you pitch the playlists? We talked about that a pitch is more than just sharing the song. Andrea shared tools like Chartmetric and Spot on Track, and the processes she uses to work with artists. We ended the conversation talking about the impact of smart speakers like Alexa in opening up the demographics for streaming to 2 year olds and to 90 year olds.

Guest: Andrea Young, Co-Founder, Partner and Chief Playlisting Officer, Koral Young

Andrea is an entrepreneur with extensive experience and expertise running projects and companies from startups to established brands. As a management executive she has worked for a major label and distribution company on campaigns for Tom Petty, Spyro Gyra, Chaka Khan, Elvis Costello and hundreds of lesser known artists; co-owned a music retail chain of 15 stores; co-founded the company that computerized over 2,000 retail and wholesale music industry stores and warehouses; was part of the group that created SoundScan; ran and chaired Aspen Colorado’s public radio station (APR), and continues to produce and host weekly radio news and music shows on APR. Recently she has focused her energies on music curation services, playlists, and working with emerging and established artists through label services offered at Koral Young.

Koral Young: http://www.koralyoung.com

Koral Young Spotlight Artist Spotify Playlist: Link

Chartmetric: https://chartmetric.io/

Spot on Track: https://www.spotontrack.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrea-young-8191447

Twitter: @aspenbeat

[REPLAY] Music 3.0 Jan 01, 2019

[REPLAY] A 2018 podcast favorite -- Vickie Nauman and Andrea Young joined us to talk about Music 3.0. Vickie had written an article for Rethink Music, a blog by the Berklee College of Music, about Music 3.0. Music 1.0 in this discussion was music sold as physical goods and Music 2.0 was the world of digital music. Vickie spoke about how the Music 2.0 world “bent” the existing ecosystems and infrastructures, trying to make them work for a downloading and early streaming world. Music 3.0 is needing new pipes and systems, and is not just direct-to-fan options. It is rebuilding assumptions on how we market, finance, and create music. New investment models have sprung up, many of which depend on the vast data now available about music use. The “containers” of the size and shape of songs both are changed to fit things like how Spotify measures a song played, and can go away with new modes of distribution. We talked about the effect of the streaming 1% concentration of business and how to make a living down the “long tail.” Andrea talked about this impact on artists, and how different artists will need different types of services, depending on where they are on their growth and development. Passion, data, and connections are all blend into parts of this Music 3.0 world, and people are moving between music and tech to make this happen.

Guests: Vickie Nauman, Founder/Owner, CrossBorderWorks; Andrea Young, Co-Founder, Partner and Chief Playlisting Officer, Koral Young

Vickie Nauman specializes in digital media and content strategy, the intersection of technology and music, and international business development. She founded the boutique consulting and advisory firm CrossBorderWorks in 2004 and is currently advising and consulting full time with a mix of forward-thinking companies in consumer electronics and music. A digital music pioneer, Nauman worked on licensing and product for one of the first legal digital services MusicNet (RealNetworks JV) in 2001, led strategic partnerships for connected device manufacturer Sonos (leading wireless music system), started and ran the US business for global music platform 7digital, and did digital business in Europe and China as a consultant. In addition, she built one of the first DMCA-compliant services at taste-making station KEXP in Seattle. Prior to 2001, she ran marketing programs and produced live broadcasts in traditional radio in the NPR network and started out at Procter & Gamble. Nauman has a broad network and experience in Europe, China, and US, and earned a 2006 MBA through the London School of Economics, NYU-Stern, and HEC-Paris, in the executive program TRIUM. She is currently on the board of the Future of Music Coalition and is an advisor to SXSW Music Panels.

CrossBorderWorks: http://www.crossborderworks.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vnauman/

Twitter: @vnvnvnvn

Andrea is an entrepreneur with extensive experience and expertise running projects and companies from startups to established brands. As a management executive she has worked for a major label and distribution company on campaigns for Tom Petty, Spyro Gyra, Chaka Khan, Elvis Costello and hundreds of lesser known artists; co-owned a music retail chain of 15 stores; co-founded the company that computerized over 2000 retail and wholesale music industry stores and warehouses; was part of the group that created SoundScan; ran and chaired Aspen Colorado’s public radio station (APR), and continues to produce and host weekly radio news and music shows on APR. Recently she has focused her energies on music curation services, playlists, and working with emerging and established artists through label services offered at Koral Young.

Koral Young: http://www.koralyoung.com

Koral Young “Spotlight Artist” Spotify Playlist: Link

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-young-8191447/

Twitter: @aspenbeat

[REPLAY] Changing Mindsets in Music Innovation Dec 31, 2018

[REPLAY] A 2018 podcast favorite -- To marketer Michele Tharp, innovation is creating a better way to do something, and working with an inner desire to make a change. She focuses - as we do - on changing mindsets -- new ways to work with technology, development, and platforms. She shares with us two current projects connecting both public radio stations and VR to artists and their audiences.

Guest: Michele Tharp

Michele Tharp is a marketing consultant at her own firm, which provides strategic and management leadership for creating and growing brands. Michele recently helped launch, and oversees marketing and engagement for the nonprofit start-up, VuHaus – a collaborative music video platform and network, comprised of over 20 of the country’s leading public radio music stations who share a common mission to support artists and be a source of music discovery for audiences around the world. She is also the music industry advisor to ACIDVR, a VR management platform, aimed to empower musicians to further engage with their fans through the power of VR and 360 video. Michele has held marketing positions with media companies including Capitol-EMI Records, Showtime Networks, Jones Radio Network, Paragon Media Strategies, and has consulted clients including CBS Radio News, TRX Training, TheBluesMobile Radio Show (with Dan Aykroyd) and the Public Radio Association.

Twitter: @MicheleTharp
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheletharp/
VuHaus: https://www.vuhaus.com/
ACIDVR: https://www.artists.acidvr.com/

[REPLAY] Songwriters + Global Digital Streaming = ? Dec 31, 2018

[REPLAY] A 2018 podcast favorite -- At MusicBiz in Nashville in May 2018, Joe Conyers III shared his thoughts and experiences about a wide variety of international and domestic songwriter royalty, rights, markets, and metadata issues. For more than 150,000 songwriters and more than 20,000 music publishers, Songtrust has been collecting songwriters’ royalties, creating systems that were ready for streaming’s global growth path. Joe Conyers commented that Songtrust was ready perhaps 5 years too early for global streaming’s current growth. We talked about Songtrust’s global operations, which includes their headquarters in New York and offices in Tokyo, Sydney, Los Angeles, Nashville, London, Amsterdam, and Paris. Tokyo and Sydney were added in the past few years, and we spoke on how Japan is “just about to” take off. We spoke of the impacts on streaming growth from cheaper smartphones in urban markets in China, India, the Middle East, and Africa, and growth in Latin America from the telco side. We then spoke of the challenges of “ancient infrastructure” and legacy systems from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s at the collecting societies, and the impacts from playlists having such global reach. We wrapped up with discussions on the futures of Alexa and terrestrial radio, with an optimistic spin on the opportunities coming from the “normalization” and “glorious years” of streaming in the future.

Guest: Joe Conyers III, Co-Founder and General Manager, Songtrust; VP Technology, Downtown Music Publishing

Joe was named a Digital Power Player by Billboard Magazine in 2017 and 2016. At Downtown, Joe oversees digital/new media licensing, product management, and other technology focused initiatives. In addition to his role at Downtown, Joe leads its Songtrust rights management platform, an online service that helps music makers and rights holders collect their royalties. Since joining Songtrust just after the launch of its prototype, Joe has led its growth from under 1,000 to over 100k writers with works recorded by Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, Selena Gomez, Frank Ocean, other GRAMMY winning/nominated artists. Joe advises a number of startups directly, through downtowns portfolio, as a Techstars Music Mentor and others less formally. Prior to entering the music industry, Joe worked in a variety of startup to large technology, media, and finance companies in strategy, product and analysis roles. Songtrust: https://www.songtrust.com/ Downtown Music Publishing: < https://www.dmpgroup.com/ Personal website: https://joeconyers.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeconyers/ Twitter: @JoeConyers

Reporting from the Leading Edge of Music and Tech Nov 19, 2018

Cherie Hu has grabbed a front-row seat to tech and music change. Forbes grabbed her after graduation from Harvard, bringing her interests in music and tech to their own digital pages. She also brings that magic to both Billboard, Variety, Pitchfork, and Music Business Worldwide, among other publications. She shares how she tracks both the news and how people react to the news into her own analysis of music change. Her own sandbox, Music and Water, is how she gathers many of the pieces of her reporting into one place to share. She talked with Gigi Johnson about new work in music and AI, her favorite conferences, her travel as a reporter, and her exploration of how music is merging with other industries. She shared thoughts on holograms in music and influencers as a merging of Artificial Intelligence and CGI, plus new ways to personalize sound with biometrics with adaptive music solutions. After Gigi asked her if there is a book in the works, she talked about her own interest in the intersection of music and startup culture.

Guest: Cherie Hu, Forbes, Billboard, Pitchfork, Music Business Worldwide

Cherie Hu is an entrepreneurial journalist passionate about documenting and propelling innovation in music, media and entertainment. In September 2017, she received the Reeperbahn Festival's inaugural award for Music Business Journalist of the Year. She focuses on reporting and analysis on music and tech for publications including Billboard, Forbes, Music Business Worldwide, Variety and Pitchfork, as well as blogging on artist strategy for Stem, Songtrust, Medium and others. She is working on research on media business models with NYU Journalism's Membership Puzzle Project. In addition to Midem, she has spoken at international conferences including SXSW, Sónar+D, Tokyo Dance Music Event, Sørveiv, FastForward, Hacking Arts and SF MusicTech. Previously, Hu spearheaded a research project on digital music business models at Harvard Business School, and interned in product marketing at Ticketmaster and in A&R at Interscope Records. She majored in Statistics at Harvard University with a minor in Music and certificate in French, and strives to weave her myriad passions for quantitative research, the performing arts, tech innovation and international cultures into her work.

Newsletter: Water & Music

Medium: https://medium.com/@cheriehu42

Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cheriehu

Twitter: @cheriehu42

Website: https://www.cheriehu.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheriehu/

2019 -- Future of Music in Los Angeles Nov 05, 2018

Gigi Johnson invites listeners of this Innovating Music podcast to join in research, events, and conversations in 2019 on the possible Future(s) of Music in Los Angeles. She discusses the Center's research so far in looking at tech's impact on live performance. She mentions work in many other Music Cities to look at how to help their live performance ecosystems.

The UCLA Center for Music Innovation (CMI) will be looking at how Los Angeles is both complex and perhaps different. Its 91 neighborhoods, diverse populations, and intertwining relationships with recorded music affect its local music environments. CMI welcomes different communities to join in this research and conversations about encouraging robust communities in Los Angeles for the future.

UCLA Center for Music Innovation: https://innovation.schoolofmusic.ucla.edu
The Mastering of a Music City report (Austin / Toronto)
Music Cities Events: https://www.musiccitiesevents.com

Music Beyond the Speakers Oct 29, 2018

Gigi interviewed Adam Moseley, a long-time producer/mixer/engineer who is exploring new adventures in spatial audio, mixed reality, and sound technologies. Adam also teaches at UCLA's Music Industry Program at the Herb Alpert School of Music. Adam shares the blockages and doorways from learning saxophone to a wide door into audio engineering at Trident in the UK. He tells us how technology has touched nearly every major change in his career. He shares how designing with his synesthesia had led to his multi-dimensional "Sonic Field" perspective, beyond the speakers.

Guest: Adam Moseley

Adam Moseley is a multitalented producer, engineer, mixer, composer, music supervisor, and UCLA lecturer at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Among his many accomplishments, he establish Trident II Studios in London, and he is involved in R&D with several audio and software companies and is exploring new immersive mixing in Surround Sound and Ambisonics. Adam has built an impressive reputation for his eclectic work with solos artists, bands and in film score mixing. Credits include John Cale, Wolfmother, U2, Nikka Costa/Lenny Kravitz, Beck/Jack White, Claudio Valenzuela, Lucybell, Roxette, Maxi Priest, Richard Marx, Galliano, The Cure, Kiss, Visage, Rush, Wet Wet Wet, Ketama, Buffalo Tom, Marla Glen, The Buggles, The Blow Monkeys, AJ Croce,Jose Carreras, Michael Brecker, Talvin Singh, Branford Marsalis, Vernon Reid, Bill Bruford, Tina Turner, Baaba Maal, Earth Wind and Fire, Melba Moore, Hoagy Carmichael and Georgie Fame. Film and TV credits, that include “The Big Wedding” (Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, Amanda Seyfried , Spike Jonze’s “I Am Here, “The Americans” (FX Channel), “True Blood” (HBO), “The Son” (AMC) and the multi award winning feature movie “The Dark Valley (2014). Various other credits include film and tv mixing with Nathan Barr, Lisbeth Scott, Matthias Weber, John Cale, Leonardo di Bernadini, Andrew Gross and Joel Douek.

Website: www.adammoseley.net

SF: Nurturing Music By the Bay Aug 20, 2018

We were joined by Maggie Weiland and Dylan Rice from the SF Entertainment Commission to talk about how they work to nurture music in San Francisco. Gigi had met them at an event hosted by Jocelyn Kane, who created many of the public policy rules and artist-supporting structures to help clubs and artists survive in a very high priced, high tech city. Dylan and Maggie share their challenges and dreams for helping venues, outdoor events, and artists continue to make San Francisco a culturally rich city that continues to build and grow.

Guests: Maggie Weiland, Executive Director, SF Entertainment Commission;Dylan Rice, Senior Analyst – Community and Cultural Events, SF Entertainment Commission

Maggie Weiland

Maggie is a Bay Area native, avid show-goer, and singer who is passionate about supporting musicians and artists so that they are not only able to survive, but are also able to thrive in San Francisco. Maggie has spent the last eight years in public service in San Francisco including working as Mayor Newsom and Mayor Lee’s Scheduler, as well as the Executive Assistant to the Mayor’s Chief of Staff. Later, she joined the Outreach Team at the Department of the Environment, campaigning for sustainability in San Francisco. Maggie then spent a year volunteering for the Harvey Milk Foundation as the Foundation’s San Francisco lead, working with a global community in the fight for equality in the 77 countries around the world that still persecute members of the LGBTQ community.

Prior to joining the Entertainment Commission, Maggie worked as a Film Coordinator at the San Francisco Film Office, focusing on increasing filming in San Francisco while supporting film productions that ranged from student projects to feature films. Maggie graduated from her Masters in Public Administration program at the University of San Francisco in December 2015, and hopes to deepen her work as a public servant through her experiences at the Entertainment Commission.

Dylan Rice

Dylan researches, analyzes and develops policies to improve the quality and sustainability of outdoor events. He began his professional career in Chicago, where he most recently helped establish the City of Chicago’s first music office as Program Director of Creative Industries-Music at the Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. He oversaw the creation of policies, research, programs and networks to support the economic vitality and cultural vibrancy of Chicago’s music sector. He played a key role in launching workforce and infrastructure development initiatives including Lake FX Summit & Expo, Chicago Music Summit, ChicagoMade, The Chicago Track, and the City’s first Venue Licensing Toolkit. Prior to his work at the City of Chicago, he spent seven years producing music and cultural events at Navy Pier, the Midwest’s top-visited tourist destination, working for both the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority and Navy Pier, Inc. At Navy Pier, Dylan spearheaded the Neighborhoods of the World festival and oversaw the booking and operations of the Beer Garden Summertime Concerts. Dylan is also an accomplished rock singer-songwriter, performing solo and with a band at national venues and festivals, and releasing three albums independently. He has opened for Paula Cole, Shelby Lynne, Eric Hutchinson, to name a few, and was lead vocalist of the synth-rock band Software Giant. He holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Northwestern University.

SF Entertainment Commission: https://sfgov.org/entertainment/about-us
SF Outdoor Events Network (SFOEN): https://sfgov.org/entertainment/sf-outdoor-events-network
So Far Sounds: https://www.sofarsounds.com/
AirBnB Experiences: https://www.airbnb.com/s/experiences #airbnbexperiences

New Songs for Global Singers Jul 30, 2018

Jonathan Stone shares the adventures of Rocket Songs, which connects songs with singers from around the world to discover and perform. He talked about the past century or so of relationships between singers and songwriters, and the challenge of connecting those dots now. Their own work in connecting international singers to music now includes master recordings as a licensed product as well. We discussed the challenges of marketing for artists in this prolific era.

Guest: Jonathan Stone, Co-Founder/President and Creative Director, Rocket Songs Before Jonathan co-founded Rocket Songs in 2013, he enjoyed a long history in music publishing. He began his career in the music business in 1974 with ATV Music in Los Angeles. Shortly after, he was offered a position with ATV in Nashville as Manager of Creative Services. In 1979, Jonathan moved back to Los Angeles as the Director of Creative Services for MCA Music. At MCA he secured many covers working with such writers as Glen Ballard, Robbie Neville, Mark Mueller, Brock Walsh etc. In 1985, Jonathan accepted a position with the legendary Quincy Jones as Vice President of Qwest Music Publishing/Quincy Jones Productions. In this capacity Jonathan oversaw all aspects of music publishing for Quincy. This also involved doing A&R for Quincy and his various productions including Michael Jackson, Patty Austin and James Ingram. In 1988 Jonathan accepted a position with Windswept Pacific Music, a company founded by Chuck Kaye, Joel Sill and Fujipacific Music of Japan. Under Jonathan's guidance Windswept went on to become one of the largest independent music publishers in the world publishing the works of Pete Townsend, The Spice Girls, Jeffrey Steele, Kings of Leon, Craig David, Chris Farren, Ashley Gorely, Beyonce, Alice Cooper, Corinne Bailey Rae, Snow Patrol, Wendy Waldman, Ginuwine, Smile Empty Soul, Steve Mac, Mike Elizondo, Matraca Berg, Bridget Benenate, Bruno Mars, etc. In 2007 Windswept was sold to Bug Music. In January 2009 Jonathan again joined with Fujipacific to form Radar Music. In 2013 Jonathan co-founded Rocket Songs, which provides artists with access to songs from professional songwriters, producers and publishers creating new content and opportunities.

Rocket Songs: https://www.rocketsongs.com/ Twitter: @rocket_songs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-stone-a3b31930

Bridging Cultures -- Translating Music Lyrics Jun 18, 2018

Robert has been on a 14-year quest: to translate music legally between languages and cultures. Lyrics are the #1 search term on the internet and Robert shares the story of LyricFind's path to creating a legal marketplace in the US for song lyrics, up to nearly a billion lyrics a month in volume. LyricFind is on a mission with far-reaching social implications: giving music subtitles, with many more translated songs than the top 50,000 and many more than 15 languages.

Guest: Robert Singerman, VP, International Publishing Robert joined LyricFind, the world’s leader in B2B Lyric Licensing, in 2013 as VP International Publishing and has opened its New York office. Before LyricFind, he had represented artists as diverse as R.E.M., James Brown, Gypsy Kings, and Fela Kuti, as well as Brazil, France and Europe in music export. Among his many adventures, he founded and directed the EU-funded European Music Office, US and the French Music Export Office, North America. Starting in 2004, he has worked on the challenge/obstacle of lyric translations solutions with many companies. He has spoken at conferences about lyric translation in Cannes, Brazil, Paris, NYC, Warsaw, Berlin, LA, Austin, Toronto, and New Orleans, and at the World Cultural Economic Forum. LyricFind: http://www.lyricfind.com/ Dotsub.com: https://dotsub.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsingerman/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosingerman

Tech as Trust and Relationships Jun 04, 2018

We caught up with Deborah Fairchild at MusicBiz in Nashille in May 2018. We talked about music tech as both a relationship and trust business, with VEVA Sound's role as an archive and validation company standing right in the middle of the boost in streaming and all that implies as to remixes, stems, and volumes of digital content, both old and new. We talked on how metadata needs a sexier name, which also was a theme of a MusicBiz panel conversation. She shared about the proximity effect of working in Nashville while expanding their company in Sydney and Toronto to match the growing needs in those cities. Deborah, both as an engineer and company executive, shared her joy at being in the middle of trusted relationships in a changing business.

Guest Deborah Fairchild, EVP, VEVA Sound

Deborah has been with VEVA Sound for 17 years and now resides in Nashville near their headquarters. She oversees client management in the New York, Los Angeles, London and Nashville offices. VEVA Sound (formerly BMS/Chace LLC) was founded in 2002 in Nashville.Through partnerships with The Recording Academy, The Library of Congress, DDEX, NDSA and NDIIP, they are actively at the forefront creating technologies that allow clients to identify and properly credit their music collections, whether they be legacy recordings stored on analog or digital tape or current born digital projects. A graduate of Middle Tennessee State University with a B.S. in Recording Industry Production Technology, Deborah also is a talented recording engineer and post-production engineer.

VEVA Sound: http://www.vevasound.com/team/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-fairchild-58b5a520/
Twitter: @VEVASound

Expanding Futures: Local and Global May 29, 2018

Gigi Johnson, our Executive Director, shares the new and expanded directions of this Innovating Music podcast. We are shifting its focus from looking at Innovation now in music to looking at how tech may be changing music in the future, both globally and locally.

The podcast will be looking at system changes to deal with rapid change toward streaming and real-time connections. It also will be following those changes globally as streaming and live music change by country and genre in different ways. It will be exploring these changes locally as gentrification, streaming, and smartphones change the nature of what it is to co-create and experience live music.

We welcome suggestions for future guests as we expand the podcast in new directions, locally and globally. Stay tuned and subscribe.

#livemusic #musiccities #musicfutures #streamingmusic #globalmusic

Solving a Problem Nov 15, 2017

Dennis Murcia shares his insights and experiences with innovation and Latin music. He shares how innovation is "solving a problem" and how it creates growing pains in traditional industry sectors.

Guest: Dennis Murcia, Global Business Dev. and Digital Strategy, CODISCOS

Dennis Murcia is an entertainment industry executive and producer with a background in A&R, marketing, and media sales. He has held positions at KRBE radio and Telemundo TV in Houston, and was international production consultant for Caracol radio, a network with stations in Colombia, Chile and France (now CADENA SER from Spain) as well as Clear Channel Broadcasting (now iHeart Media). He was Pop and Rock A&R for Sony Music, where he developed global multi-platinum artist Shakira. Has produced albums for Sony Music, Universal Music, Univision, Codiscos, Fuentes, and many independent artists. He currently holds a position as Global Business Dev. and Digital Strategy for CODISCOS, one of the oldest independent music labels in the America’s. Dennis is also a three-time Latin Grammy nominee as engineer and executive producer.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennismurcia
Twitter: @Rockohollica
CODISCOS: http://www.codiscos.com
Kobalt Music: https://www.kobaltmusic.com
Dubset: http://www.dubset.com

Making It Simple Sep 26, 2017

Jay Gilbert runs three organizations, each working to help artists expand their work and presence. To Jay, innovation is standing on the shoulders of giants, improving tools you have to grow your audience. He works to take complex tech and make it simple for the artists and organizations he helps.

Guest: Jay Gilbert, Label Logic

As a teenager in the Pacific Northwest, Jay smuggled his Canon F-1 into rock concerts to get the perfect shot of the likes of Queen, Van Halen and Cheap Trick. After college, he toured as a musician gaining invaluable experience in what it takes to create and promote an album. He later translated that knowledge as an executive with Universal, Sony and Warner Music Groups. Jay has created and executed unique online marketing plans for Nirvana, KISS, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Styx, Rob Zombie, Smokey Robinson, Tears For Fears, Kiss, Rick Springfield, Lisa Loeb, Ringo Starr, Ron White, Peter Frampton, Amy Grant and many, many others.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaygilbert01
Twitter: @jaygilbert
Photography: JayGilbert.net
Label Logic: https://www.label-logic.net

Creating Value Sep 12, 2017

Gary Young sees innovation as creating value for others, and does so with creating an auction system for intellectual property that creatives want to monetize. He shares with us how Royalty Exchange connects 20,000 buyers with creative rights across music, books, and other media, and how this process is right at the beginning of a long period of bringing future growth to the present for music.

Guest: Gary Young, Chief of Staff, Royalty Exchange

Gary executes strategic initiatives, special projects, business development, and partner outreach and relations. Formed in 2013, but hitting full stride in 2016, Royalty Exchange aims to connect musical creators with investors, who compete via auction to win whatever portion of royalty-earning rights the artist has for sale up on the block.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-young-800315ba
Twitter: @RoyaltyExchange

dotBlockChain: http://dotblockchainmusic.com/
DistroKid: https://distrokid.com/
STEM: https://stem.is/
CD Baby: https://www.cdbaby.com/
Tunecore: http://www.tunecore.com/
Royalty Exchange: www.royaltyexchange.com

Finding Fresh Approaches Aug 14, 2017

Bas wears both the innovator and analyst hat in music innovation, and in countries from The Netherlands to Bulgaria, to Turkey to Russia and now to Berlin. He shares his insights on how technological realities drive fresh combinations and possibilities, and how we can learn and grow new capabilities from "MySpace moments." He also muses on conversational interfaces like Alexa and how technology choices are changing songs with Playlist Cuts. He closes with suggestions to look at video and short-form content, and to get back to where creation is happening and shares thoughts on Instagram Stories as a place to watch for new ways that people express themselves.

Guest: Bas Grasmayer, Product Director, IDAGIO; Publisher, MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE

Bas Grasmayer is Product Director of IDAGIO, a streaming service for classical music. He's also a digital strategist and founder of MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE, a consultancy agency and newsletter about trends, innovation and technology, and how they impact the music business. His writings have been quoted or featured in publications like Forbes, Quartz, Hypebot, Techdirt, and Music Ally.

Twitter: @BasGras
Idagio: http://about.idagio.com IDAGIO_official
Zvooq: http://zvooq.com/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/stream
Native Instruments: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/
Ableton: https://www.ableton.com/en/
MySpace: https://myspace.com/
Ethereum: https://www.ethereum.org/
Big Chain DB: https://www.bigchaindb.com/
Resonate (Music Cooperative): https://resonate.is/
Aitokaiku http://www.aitokaiku.com/
TheWaveVR: http://thewavevr.com/
Turntable.fm: http://mashable.com/2013/12/03/turntable-fm-final-day
Music Hack Day: http://new.musichackday.org/

Blockchain and Ticketing Jul 31, 2017

Jason Robert takes us down the blockchain rabbit hole, introducing us to the many details that make up a new cryptocurrency business, which he calls a "social movement disguised as technology." His new platform to sell tickets with Ethereum is mere weeks old when we record this, and he takes us though some of his challenges innovating in both blockchain and ticketing at the same time.

Guest: Jason Robert, Co-Founder & CEO, HelloSugoi

Jason is Co-Founder & CEO of HelloSugoi, an event ticketing platform that leverages the Ethereum blockchain. He’s also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer. Jason has composed songs at BMG Production Music for high-profile TV shows on NBC, CBS, FOX, Netflix, and Showtime. He’s also released several albums as Lost Midas on the Tru Thoughts label to critical acclaim by the BBC and NPR.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hello-jason-robert
Twitter: @HelloSugoi
HelloSugoi - https://www.hellosugoi.com
How Jason Learned Empathy as an Apple Creative: https://medium.com/@jason.robert/what-i-learned-about-empathy-as-an-apple-creative-bfb23dc1e738
dotBlockchain - http://dotblockchainmusic.com/
RAC - http://rac.fm/
Ujo Music X RAC - https://rac.ujomusic.com/
JAAK - http://jaak.io/
Techstars Music - http://www.techstars.com/programs/music-program/
Resonate - https://resonate.is/
LostMidas.com - https://www.lostmidas.com/ Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hello-jason-robert/

China and The Long View Jul 24, 2017

Ed Peto started placing a bet on music in China in 2006, and has been waiting for the market to catch up. We caught up with Ed in Berlin, but it could have just as easily been in London or China. Please enjoy Ed's discussions of stepping early into China and helping work toward a system that is believing itself into a streaming market, as well as his journey to both understand and create change in this growing market space.

Guest: Ed Peto, Owner, Outdustry

A native of London, Ed Peto moved to China in 2006 to serve on the front lines of the music industry. He now owns and runs Outdustry, a unique music industry services business specializing in the Chinese recorded music industry. Typical clients include western talent, labels, publishers, services and CMOs for China market entry and representation.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edpeto
Twitter: @edpeto @outdustry
Outdustry: http://outdustry.com/
Tencent: https://www.tencent.com/en-us/index.html
Saavn Artist Originals: http://www.saavn.com/corporate/labels Article: http://musically.com/2017/02/28/saavn-commissions-its-first-artist-originals-track/
Ed's India article: https://blog.outdustry.com/interim-economy-an-introduction-to-indias-digital-music-industry-6304c7c80972

Creating Fearlessly - In Virtual Reality Jul 06, 2017

How do you create new and innovative systems for producing content in a new space? For Connor Illsley of Combo Bravo in Toronto, you innovate by "creating fearlessly." Connor schemes how to create the most amazing creative scenario that is true to the artist -- and THEN figures out how to make the new tech work to serve the artist. He shares the thought process behind Jazz Cartier's 2016 music video Red Alert/100 Roses pair, as well as projects since. He shares with us how VR can open up opportunities with music as it lets us create more abstract approaches that just recreating reality.

Guest: Connor Illsley, Co-Founder, Executive Producer and Technical Director, Combo Bravo

Connor co-created one of the most innovative new music Virtual Reality experiences for Jazz Cartier in 2016. Along with his business partner at Combo Bravo, John Riera, he has stepped into VR projects for the UN, Nordstrom, and GE. His work brings him around the world -- from Uganda to the Bahamas to a GE wind farm -- to bring innovative approaches to VR as a new art form to the 360 screen. Combo Bravo is a full service production house, working on immersive media and now volumetric scanning in capturing the real world in VR and AR.

Great links:

Connor's portfolio of work: http://connorillsley.com
Jazz Cartier 2016 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mu0Ebs4jRw
Making Of Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqHaPQmJ4Y4
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connorbeardsly

Data-Driven Touring Insights May 31, 2017

How can artists and managers use all the streaming and touring information to plan their markets and concerts better? Rossanna and Efrain from Cayo5 joined us to talk about how their are working to help artists manage disparate data sets to make decisions about where to go.

Guests: Rossanna Wright and Efrain Ochoa, Cayo5

Rossanna Wright out of Seattle and Efrain Ochoa in Mexico City are now building Cayo5, a new touring consulting practice to help artists' team design great touring strategies. Rossanna, an Emmy-award winning music publisher and tech advisor (among many other things), has teamed up with Efrain, a promoter and consultant, to use data to help artists find their next expanded communities.

Rossanna / LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virtualrossanna
Efrain / LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/efrain-ochoa-7a285814
Twitter: @MusicMBA
Cayo5: https://www.cayo5.com

An Artist from Thin Air: Artist as Code May 31, 2017

Elodie, Paco, and the team at Neweb Labs in Montreal have created Maya Kodes -- from code. She's not just a new girl group -- she is a new girl.

Maya is a fully scripted and created hologram in performance, based on a set of technology used to bring her to live audiences. In this podcast, Elodie and Paco share the decisions Maya had to make, the creative choices for creating a new "personality," and the quirky limits and opportunities from working with an artist without emotion or living soul. What does this provide in opportunities for localization, multiple locations, and artists?

Guests: Elodie Lorrain-Martin and Paco Mamouni, Neweb Labs

Elodie Lorrain-Martin is VP/Business Development for Neweb Labs out of Montreal, Canada. At Canadian Music Week 2017, we spoke with Elodie and with Paco Mamouni, the music producer that works with Neweb Labs to create Maya Kodes a holographic artist in pilots. Neweb creates "3D animated assets with interactive technology for use as holograms, on social media, digital displays and in mobile applications to be used for concerts, events, social engagement, brand activations and virtual humans."

Elodie / LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elodie-lorrain-martin-b02b1b107
Neweb Labs: https://neweblabs.com
Maya: http://mayakodes.com
Twitter: @MayaKodes @NewebLabs

Love, Passion, and Hard Work May 08, 2017

This episode lends more philosophically humanist than some of our more technical sessions. David Hernandez of Colonize Media preaches "love, passion, and hard work" in an online video and data-driven marketing world. In a world of tranformative tools and distribution system, he works with smaller artists to greatly expand their communities using data and "look-alike" audiences. Join us listening to David talking about the hard work and energy that is transforming concerts and direction for small artists, esp.for Latin artists.

Guest: David Hernandez, Colonize Media

David Hernandez launched Colonize Media as a distribution aggregator and Multi-Channel Network for Latin artists, and is expanding into American and even K-Pop. His passion for music, business and digital technologies converged and has enabled him to become the premiere digital content aggregator in the independent Latin music space.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdavidhernandez
Twitter: @colonizemedia
Colonize Media: http://colonizemedia.com

The Challenge of Unasked Questions Apr 03, 2017

Refik drives new combinations of music, architecture, technology, and design forward, always asking "unasked questions." In this podcast, he discusses many of his projects, where he is exploring "alternative reality . . how to live without bias in our reality." He believes that architecture is a canvas and light is material. He brings music into every moment in his life, noting it is a "tool of thinking" and storytelling, allowing technology to be visible. He discusses his work with the LA Philharmonic, Microsoft, and Esa-Pekka Salonen a few years ago. He also shares some his work now in his Residency with Google in Machine Intelligence where he is rethinking libraries. He discusses his work with Adam Gazzaley's neuroscience team at UCSF Neuroscape and LA Phil to analyze brain activity while subjects listen to music. He discusses his approaches to innovation, as well as the differences of working with other innovators, and how "alignments are the magic point."

Guest: Refik Anadol, Refik Anadol Studios

Refik Anadol is a media artist and director -- or perhaps a magician. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, he came to UCLA Design Media Arts, where he now is a lecturer and visiting researcher. As noted in the podcast, his current work is very exciting. Most recently, you may have seen his "Infinity Room/New Edition" at SXSW 2017, which had gotten an award in Germany. (Video: https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/13/refik-anadol-infinity-room-video/) Refik creates a hybrid relationship between architecture and media arts. Embedding media arts into architecture, he questions the possibility of a post digital architectural future in which there are no more non-digital realities. He invites the viewers to visualize alternative realities by presenting them the possibility of re-defining the functionalities of both interior and exterior architectural formations. his work suggests that all spaces and facades have potentials to be utilized as the media artists’ canvases. He is the recipient of a number of awards, prizes including Microsoft Research’s Best Vision Award, German Design Award, UCLA Art+Architecture Moss Award, University of California Institute for Research in the Arts Award, SEGD Global Design Award and Google’s Art and Machine Intelligence Artist Residency Award.

His work has included an interactive performance art piece at the Walt Disney Concert Hall (https://vimeo.com/113002444). and assistance with the LACMA Rain Machine project (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-warhol-rain-machine-20161020-snap-story.html). For the site-specific Disney Concert Hall installation, he used custom-built algorithmic sound analysis to listen and respond to the music in real time, using architecture as a canvas and light as a material. Additionally, the movements of Salonen, as he conducted, were captured by Microsoft Kinect hardware and 3-D depth camera analysis to inform the visuals displayed.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/refikanadol
Twitter: @refikanadol
Refik Anadol Studios: http://refikanadol.com

Combining Unrelated Ideas as Music Innovation Jan 26, 2017

Dmitri Vietze, CEO of Rock Paper Scissors and StoryAmp, joins us to share stories of how new combinations of unrelated ideas create innovation in music. Our conversation ranges from his own background in activism, ways to unlock new businesses, the slow/fast dynamics of music change, and the richness of human relationships in music. He discusses the blurring of creator and fan, and the challenges of making innovation work in the marketplace.

Our Guest: Dmitri Vietze, rock paper scissors and Story Amp

Dmitri Vietze is CEO of rock paper scissors, which started by helping global musicians market in the US, and now works as well with tech companies in music. He also launched and is the CEO of StoryAmp, which helps companies tell their stories through PR. Born in Nashville, Dmitri moved to NYC where he played in the subways while studying music at LaGuardia “the Fame High School” for Music and the Arts. After earning his business degree, he developed workshops using global music to show cultural differences as opportunities. He helped Portland record distributor Allegro set up a PR department, Dmitri started rps to focus on his global music and entrepreneurial passions. Dmitri is known for his crazy pants, infinite stream of ideas, and joyful engagement whether in writing, speaking one on one, or presenting at conferences ranging from SXSW to SF Music Tech. Rock Paper Scissors runs publicity campaigns for globally-minded performers, labels, festivals, websites, etc.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitrivietze
Twitter: @dmitrivietze
Rock Paper Scissors: https://www.rockpaperscissors.biz

Solving Intractable Problems Jan 19, 2017

Matt, founder of MetaPop, shares his perspectives on innovation as solving intractable problems, versus creative disruption.

Guest: Matt Adell, MetaPop, Native Instruments

Matt is Founder & CEO of MetaPop, and now is head of digital for Native Instruments. Previously, Matt was the CEO of Beatport for the five years before SFX bought it for more than $50 million. Matt's new company creates an environment to legally remix and distribute tracks across platforms like YouTube and Soundcloud.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madell
Twitter: @littlegreenmatt
MetaPop: https://metapop.com/
Native Instruments: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/
Beatport: https://www.beatport.com

Life as a "Data Nerd" : Dancing with Music Data Aug 29, 2016

Dae brings us his adventures from the start-up world. He shares his observations from living as a self-described "data nerd" while creating new business solutions in music tech as a "non-tech person." He talkes at length about data and issues like "choreography" between databases and companies, getting sets of data to "talk to each other." He calls out new tech areas of interest, and takes a quick look at blockchain as a possible new "container" of distributing data and artist funds.

Guest: Dae Bogan, TuneRegistry

As a serial entrepreneur, Dae is the founder of music & artist marketing agency, Maven Promo, and co-founder of TuneRegistry, a next generation music rights and metadata management platform that enables independent artists to take control of the information surrounding their catalog. Dae has founded a number of music-related businesses, and has provided services and guidance to a portfolio of music tech and digital media start-up. As a writer and speaker, Dae covers topics surrounding music, tech, start-ups, digital media, and the DIY indie musician on music industry websites and blogs including Hypebot, CD Baby’s DIY Musician Blog, and Indie On The Move.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daebogan/
Twitter: @daeboganmusic
TuneRegistry: https://www.tuneregistry.com

Transforming Music through Data Jun 30, 2016

Alex White has put together puzzle pieces to connect music and data, building Next Big Sound over the past six years and selling it to Pandora. He shared similarities between business-to-business (B2B) sales in music and other industries. He also shared what he sees coming up the road as problems to be solved in music and technology.

Guest: Alex White, Pandora, Head of Next Big Sound

As the Head of Next Big Sound at Pandora, Alex White oversees a NYC-based team of two dozen data engineers, designers, product managers, and data scientists focused on prediction research and cross-platform performance measurement. The team’s mission to make all the data that’s available about every artist in the world useful to music makers and Pandora’s brand clients. White and his Next Big Sound co-founders have been featured in Fast Company (#1 most innovative company in the music industry, 2015), and Forbes (30 under 30) in the music category three times, Billboard (10 best music companies).

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderswhite/
Twitter: @mralexwhite
Next Big Sound: https://www.nextbigsound.com/

Beyond Vinyl: Ceremony and Next Tech Jun 16, 2016

Beatie shares her pathways as a modern artist in a post-CD world. She shares her adventures in creating new forms of ceremony in music with both her NFC cards with Moo to her golden coat crafted from the elements of her music. She also shares her action research with new music -- not just recall of old music -- and dementia. All of these efforts are gathering interest and followers, and she shares a bit of her journeys of sharing these stories with major technology companies while growing her music career.

Guest: Beatie Wolfe, Singer/Songwriter

Beatie's career has taken her from being the artist who pioneered the World's First 3D Interactive Album App for her debut album 8ight - which led to a world tour with Apple - to being an Innovation Ambassador for London. For her new album Montagu Square, Beatie continues to innovate; releasing it as the world’s first Album Deck of NFC Cards and a Musical Jacket, cut by the Savile Row tailor who dressed Hendrix & Bowie in the ‘60s. Beatie is also the co-founder of a "profound" (The Times) new research project looking at the Power of Music for people living with dementia.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beatiewolfe/
Twitter: @beatiewolfe
Instagram: @BeatieWolfe
Spotify: link
Website: http://www.beatiewolf.com

Back to the Future: Cycles of Innovation Jun 09, 2016

Brian Zisk has worked across decade(s) of innovation in the music business, and he shared many of those tales with us. He also talks about interesting startups and how he sees companies needing to be ready for change in music. . . and change coming back in cycles.

GUEST: Brian Zisk

Brian Zisk produces the SF MusicTech Summit and the Future of Money & Technology Summit. He is a Co-Founder of the Future of Music Coalition and a Board Member and/or Strategic Advisor for a wide variety of tech companies and non-profits. At the turn of the millennium, Brian was a founder of The Green Witch Internet Radio, which was sold to CMGI. He also published the wildly popular events listing SanFranZiskGo!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianzisk/
Twitter: @zisk

Weaving Past and Future May 25, 2016

Sam shares his experiences in music management and rights management, both as an entrepreneur and in larger organizations. From that viewpoint, he shares thoughts on innovations past and present, ranging from trends in songwriting to opportunities in new VR experiences, distribution, evolution of the consumer, and continuing needs for rights systems in an innovating world.

GUEST: Sam Kling, SESAC’s Senior Vice President, Creative Operations

As part of SESAC’s senior management team, Kling is responsible for helping create and execute growth strategies for SESAC’s creative departments. He also manages the creative operations’ day-to-day department objectives. Before his position at SESAC, Kling served as Vice President at peermusic and was in charge of overseeing the independent music company’s Pop A&R as well as Film & TV creative operations. He holds a an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Bachelor’s degree from the New School University in New York City.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samkling/
Twitter: @slingasaurusrex
SESAC: https://www.sesac.com

Shifting to Daily Data May 11, 2016

Jim Lidestri, BuzzAngle's CEO, shares with us his perspectives on changing the process side of music data, and how his idea as a consumer turned into a daily data solution for music companies. He discusses why change is accelerating with streaming surging, and how his company thinks about process change. Jim also shares his surprises on the road of bringing daily data to music companies.

Our Guest: Jim Lidestri is the CEO of Border City Media. Border City Media is a New York-based music technology company that has developed an innovative service,BuzzAngle Music. It analyzes the daily sales, streaming and airplay activity of albums, songs and artists to benefit labels, distributors, artist managers, publishers, marketers, tour promoters, radio promoters, music tech companies, brands and advertisers. Previously, he was the CEO of AdSoft Direct, which provides an Internet-based, SaaS direct marketing service that manages direct marketing campaigns. He previously was an executive with IBM and Spring. He has an MBA from NYU Stern and a bachelors in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlidestri/
Twitter: @jimlidestri
BuzzAngle: http://www.buzzanglemusic.com

How Interface Design Matters . . . with Mike D'Errico May 04, 2016

Mike D'Errico, a doctoral candidate at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, shared his expansive thoughts on user interface design and the social context of innovating music. He discussed tensions and biases in user interface design and thoughts on integrating performers into the development of interfaces for new instruments. Mike shared thoughts on the next technologies in music creation and the nature of the future recording studio.

Our Guest: Mike D'Errico, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

Note: Mike now is the Music Department Chair, Director of Music Technology and Composition, at Albright College, Reading, PA Michael D’Errico is a unique voice in this podcast -- researcher, designer, and electronic musician. His realms of work are wide: hip-hop and electronic dance music, popular music and technology, video games and multimedia art, and sound studies. He was a Ph.D. candidate in the UCLA Department of Musicology and the Digital Humanities Graduate Certificate Program. Other projects include an ethnography of hip-hop and electronic dance music communities in Los Angeles, sound design for the RomeLab virtual world project, and the construction of Notes—a music and multimedia annotation app. From Boston to Los Angeles, he has performed as a DJ, drummer, and electronic musician for various experimental music acts.

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derricomusic/
Personal site: https://derricomusic.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theatticbat

Mapping Event Space with Sound . . . with Chris Ostoich, LISNR Apr 26, 2016

Chris Ostoich from LISNR, a multiple start-up founder, shares his experiences with innovating in music as an underlying technology firm. He shares thoughts on how working with concert venues and music industry companies contracts and compares it with working with retail and sporting events, and ways that innovation and music have rippled through his own life.

Our Guest: Chris Ostoich, LISNR

Chris Ostoich was a Co-Founder at LISNR, a new communication protocol that connects mobile with a speaker or microphone. Prior to LISNR, Ostoich was the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer for BlackbookHR. Ostoich founded BlackbookHR in 2008 and held the CEO role until January 2014. Ostoich attended the University of Cincinnati where he studied Communication, Public Relations, and Music (Jazz Performance).

Note: Chris Ostoich is now COO at TransientLabs in Cincinnati. OH, as of 2023.

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