Shows
Music Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT155: Turning Artists Into Pearls – Jason Davis (One One 7)Jason Davis, described by The 700 Club as “a music mogul,” has been in the music industry for more than two decades as an award-winning songwriter, author, president of a record label, executive TV producer, and entertainment consultant. Davis has worked with numerous worldwide stars, including Boyz ll Men, Sugar Ray, P. Diddy, Alabama, Lonestar, Dolly Parton, among many others. He has secured record deals with CEOs of companies like Capitol Records, Sony, Interscope, Island / Def Jam, Epic, and more.
Davis has also launched and runs several major companies, including One One 7, Radar Label Group (Jimmy Eat World, Plai...2020-05-2541 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT154: On Raising 30k Through A Crowdfunding Campaign – The Portnoy BrothersThe Portnoy Brothers (also known as PORTNOY) is an Israeli duo, Israel & Mendy, who recently released their new album called No Complaints. They successfully raised over $30,000 in an IndieGoGo campaign to fund the record.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, The Portnoy Brothers reveal which tactics were most impactful for their crowdfunding success, share how they almost launched the campaign on PledgeMusic (right before the company ceased their operations), and give content and networking tips.
Listen to the episode in full to also learn about their recent single, an anthem for musicians struggling with the...2020-05-1132 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT153: The Original Songs Marketplace – Jonathan Stone (Rocket Songs)Jonathan Stone is a highly regarded music-publishing professional and co-founder of Rocket Songs. Jonathan’s career highlights include executive positions at ATV Music, MCA Music, Quincy Jones Productions (where he handled A&R for the likes of Michael Jackson, Patty Austin, and James Ingram), and Windswept Pacific Music Publishing, a company that published the works of Bruno Mars, Kings of Leon, Beyonce, The Spice Girls, Snow Patrol, and many more.
On this Music Growth Talks episode Jonathan explains how Rocket Songs works for music artists who are looking for original songs to record, and for songwriters who wa...2020-04-2727 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT152: Thriving as an Artist in the Face of Adversity – MuyinzaThis week’s Music Growth Talks guest – an artist, songwriter and producer Muyinza – shows how he has been using his creativity to overcome hard times and succeed in business.
Muyinza’s family emigrated from Uganda to Canada in the mid-90s. After losing his mother to cancer in 2001, Muyinza and his family relocated to Boston, Massachusetts. Living in a dangerous neighborhood, Muyinza stayed home a lot to make music.
Starting to work at 13 years old to pay for studio time, eventually he would go to college for music, release two full-length albums, move to LA, and win...2020-04-1526 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT151: How To Make Music Greener – Bas GrasmayerBas Grasmayer is a digital strategist who has held various roles in music & tech over the last decade, most recently as Product Director at IDAGIO, a music streaming service dedicated to classical music. He’s the founder of the MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE newsletter and the Music Tech Network community.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Bas talked about one of his latest ventures, MUSIC x GREEN. Designed to “create more visibility for organisations and initiatives that make the music industry less impactful on the climate and ecology”, MUSIC x GREEN makes it easy to browse throug...2020-03-3029 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT150: The Unreasonable Way To Market Your Music – Matt BaconMatt Bacon is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. The founder of Dropout Media, Matt has worked with the likes of Phil Collen of Def Leppard, Coven, Exhorder as well as labels including Prophecy Productions, Artoffact Records and Ripple Music. Matt has also been dedicated to helping and developing young bands, through his numerous educational resources, the daily Instagram #BaconsBits series, and his podcast, Dumb & Dumbest.
In this Music Growth Talks episode, Matt talks about his journey from an unemployed 19 year-old college dropout living in Brooklyn to an industry...2020-03-1629 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT149: Beating Addiction to Find Success as a Musician – Judah HolidayJudah Holiday is a Miami-based singer/songwriter who delivers a timeless breed of pop music. He just released his first album, Feelings in My Head, and is already working on his next two, while performing across the US.
In this episode of Music Growth talks, Judah talks about how his music calendar is planned out, shares the story of his drug addiction and how quitting has impacted his life’s mission and music career.
Listen in to hear what advice Judah has for up-and-coming musicians who are confused about where to start and how they ca...2020-03-0228 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT148: Don’t Enter a Recording Studio Without the Splits App – Marcus Cobb (Jammber)Marcus Cobb is the CEO of Jammber, a company behind North America’s first self-serve, end-to-end royalty management platform called Jammber Splits. The app streamlines the process of metadata collection to help creatives receive proper credit and faster payment for their work. Jammber was founded in a Nashville's music tech accelerator, and has acquired over $5.5M in investor funding since 2013.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Marcus demonstrates how broken the current workflow is, with musicians often not being able to receive money owed to them, and describes the three key features of the Splits platform: tracking th...2020-02-2427 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT147: A Powerful One-Sheet for Booking Shows You Didn’t Know You Had – Vasja Veber (Viberate)Vasja Veber is a co-founder of Viberate, the biggest live music network designed to bring artists, promoters and fans together. It makes performing acts’ life easier by giving them a better version of an EPK, or even a traditional website. Viberate features over a million profiles of musicians, venues, events and festivals and employs over 100 people all over the world, with the majority in their offices located in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
In this episode of Music Growth Talks, Vasja shares how he launched the project with a fellow music manager Matej Gregorcic and a world-famous techno producer, UMEK, or...2020-02-1727 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT146: New Revenue Opportunities for Artists in the Gaming Industry – Andres Lauer (Five Vectors)Andres Lauer is a former UMG exec who is now a co-founder of Five Vectors, alongside an esports/gaming expert Wasae Imran. They are building a technology that will enable independent artists and labels to engage with gaming communities in their native environment.
In this episode of Music Growth Talks, Andres shares how music impacts people’s identity in the social space like gaming and how they’re using that to market artists’ music. He then explains how Five Vectors is going to create a new music interaction layer for gamers, while presenting new revenue opportunities for indepe...2020-02-1031 min
Dumb & DumbestEpisode 321 - Andrew Apanov of Dotted Music and Music Growth TalksAndrew Apanov is a unique and interesting guy. Having started years ago at Ultimate Guitar he has since leverage his success into Dotted Music - an agency for emerging artists. He also runs the awesome Music Growth Talks podcast! In this episode we go deep on music marketing and much more.
Check out Dotted Music: https://agency.dottedmusic.com/
Listen to Music Growth Talks: https://musicgrowthtalks.com/
Find him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dottedmusic/
Follow Andrew on Twitter: https://twitter.com/matterandrew
Support his P...2020-02-0636 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT145: Making It as a Sync Licensing Artist – Nat JayNat Jay is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has a vast experience in sync licensing: getting her music placed in movies and TV shows. She recently released a 10-song album which saw her make a shift from folk-pop to electro-pop while working with a new producer.
In this Music Growth Talks episode, Nat talks about how signing with a one-stop licensing company has lessened the burden of doing everything all by herself. She goes into detail about how the sync licensing industry works for both established and emerging artists.
Nat not only shares her story, but...2020-01-3034 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT144: Meet Beatchain, a One-Stop Platform for Indie Artist’s Marketing Needs – Steve JonesSteve Jones is a musician and co-founder of Beatchain, an online music marketing platform that offers guidance and growth tools to up-and-coming musicians. Several years ago Steve became interested in creating a platform where his band could advertise their content without the help of a record label. This later turned into a bigger project that now helps other artists grow their careers online.
On this Music Growth Talks, Steve explains how a combination of music and tech backgrounds of its co-founders created a platform designed to be a one-stop-shop for an artist’s marketing needs. He goes ov...2020-01-2327 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT143: The Power of “Being Solid” – D Grant SmithD Grant Smith is a syndicated radio host, personal development coach and speaker. He has two decades of experience guiding artists and creatives to become the best version of themselves. D’s latest venture is the exciting world of publishing, and in his latest book, Be Solid: How To Go Through Hell & Come Out Whole, he shares tried and true advice on how artists can overcome hardship, trial, challenge and difficulty for greater personal and professional success.
According to research from Record Union, the most underestimated and often misunderstood element required for building a successful career as a...2020-01-1635 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT142: Your Guide To Music PR And Spotify With The Indie Bible – David WimbleDavid Wimble started The Indie Bible over 20 years ago as a way to help independent artists across genres get their music reviewed and promoted.
Finding receptive resources and contacts that will actually make a difference for your music and give you the exposure you need can be tricky. The Indie Bible has your back with the directory of over 7,000 radio stations and music blogs, as well as 3,000 Spotify Playlists and 2,400 booking agents.
In this episode of Music Growth Talks, David goes over the daunting task of pitching your music to curators as an independent artist...2020-01-0930 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT141: Musician? Make Money With An Online Course – Jordan ValerioteJordan Valeriote is a music producer and engineer who started selling online courses around 3 years ago. Since then, he's generated over $1.5M with his courses, and now teaches other musicpreneurs how to do the same thing.
On this Music Growth Talks episode Jordan talks about the opportunity musicians have to supplement their income by teaching and selling their own online courses. He answered the questions you may have if you're new to the idea, such as the costs involved, how to find out what your followers want to learn, or how to combine your "artist" and "teacher"...2019-12-1134 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT140: Mental Wellness & Coping Techniques For The Music Industry – Katie ZaccardiKatie Zaccardi is a wellness and career coach for women in music, as well as host of The Out to Be podcast, focused around mental health & self-care in the music industry. She's also a songwriter, artist, and certified yoga instructor.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Katie shares her personal journey after being diagnosed with anxiety, and explains why we have to change our mindset around the "starving musician" stereotype and the misconception that in order to be successful you must work hard all the time. She then talks about finding triggers and coping mechanisms if you...2019-11-2830 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT139: The Artists Who Make It In The New Music Business – Ari HerstandAri Herstand is a musician and the man behind Ari's Take, a music business blog which became the go-to resource for independent musicians on how to run a successful music career. He's also the author of "How To Make It in the New Music Business," originally released in 2016.
The second edition of the best-selling book is out this week, and Ari shares what was changed and added with the Music Growth Talks listeners.
Listen to the episode in full for Ari's practical tips on building authentic brands and communities of fans, as well as numerous...2019-11-0727 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT138: Tips From An Indie Artist And Entrepreneur On Songwriting, Essentialism And Life – Steve WeltySteve Welty is a successful entrepreneur and singer-songwriter, who, as many of you, has to juggle a lot on a daily basis: from running a business and spending time with family to creating and promoting his music. The San Diego-based artist doesn't only practice healthy approach to living a balanced and fruitful life, he also shares his ongoing experiments and insights with others on Instagram and in the "Lit Up Life" video series on YouTube.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Steve talked about defining your "fascinating and motivating" category of activities, finding other songwriters to collaborate...2019-10-1736 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT137: Save Your Rage For The Stage – Bif NakedBif Naked, called the “Princess of Punk” and the “Rock Goddess”, is a Canadian recording artist and author. Her career heights have taken her around the world on tour for twenty years, with numerous hits in 90s and 2000s, and, quite recently, her candid memoir called “I, Bificus”.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Bif talked about everything... from social media to activism, vulnerability, veganism, embracing limitations, straight edge being a true representation of the DIY ethic, and more.
Listen to the full episode for Bif's practical career tips, and to learn more about her upcoming boo...2019-09-2640 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT136: An Ethical Way To Spotify Promotion – Michael Sloane (Streaming Promotions)Michael Sloane is the CEO of Nashville-based Streaming Promotions, a company specializing in music placement in streaming platforms. They primarily focus on Spotify, which gives artists more ways to market their music than any other competitor on the streaming market as of today.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Michael covered some of the most common topics surrounding the Spotify promotion. From avoiding companies who offer "guaranteed" streams and the differences between third-party and Spotify-curated playlists to how the platform's algorithm works, and why music will soon be mostly curated by "robots".
Listen to the...2019-09-1230 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT135: Your Shopify Music Store On Steroids – Tommy Stalknecht (Single Music)Tommy Stalknecht is the founder of Single Music, a Nashville-based company offering a music distribution component to Shopify. Over the years Tommy has overseen the development and management of many high-profile websites, including Sam Hunt, Kenny Rogers, Josh Turner, Larry The Cable Guy, and The Americana Music Association, among others.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Tommy explains how they help record labels and artists to sell directly via their official web sites with instant reporting to Nielsen for official Billboard chart tallying. We talk on what "direct to consumer" means in music today, the pros and...2019-08-1929 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT134: Vevo's Emerging Artist Program & Music Video Optimization Tips – JP EvangelistaJP Evangelista is Vevo’s Senior Vice President of Content, Programming & Marketing. His teams work with artists, managers, and record labels to secure and promote music videos, exclusive premieres, and live events across the Vevo platform. Over the course of the last 18 months, Vevo has been pushing original content creation and promotional strategies to support emerging artists, championing acts like Billie Eilish and Alessia Cara.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, JP explained how their DSCVR and LIFT programs work for artists at different stages of their careers (regardless of label affiliation), and gave tips on optimizing mu...2019-07-2926 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT133: Measure The True Reach Of Your Music – Amadea Choplin (Pex)Amadea is the COO of Pex, an LA-based video and music search engine with a fingerprinting technology that identifies reused content – even if it's a half-second sample in a remix, a GIF, or your song's melody in a cover video – across the whole web. This enables rights holders to understand the virality of their content, and claim copyrighted material at scale.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Amadea explained how Pex works, why their solution is more precise than YouTube's Content ID, and how Pex is opening the platform to indie creators. With data showing that 99% of fan...2019-07-1529 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT132: Your AI Songwriting Assistant – Taishi Fukuyama (Amadeus Code)Taishi Fukuyama is a co-founder and COO of Amadeus Code, an AI-powered songwriting assistant. The technology behind this mobile app breaks "centuries of melodies" down into constituent parts and transforms them into data, allowing the tool to generate an endless stream of melody.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Taishi, who's also a contributing writer at WIRED Japan, shared his thoughts on the current state of artificial intelligence in music and explained how his team aims to help songwriters and foster creativity with Amadeus Code.
Listen to the full episode to learn why each song...2019-06-2423 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT131: Defining Your Music Brand – Greg WilnauGreg Wilnau is the founder of Musician Monster, where he teaches independent artists to succeed in the music business, with the focus on branding and earning sustainable income through live shows.
In his second appearance on Music Growth Talks, Greg focused exclusively on branding. He listed three steps to defining a music brand, explained the importance of understanding how you want to impact others and why traditional branding doesn't work well for music, and showed how artists can integrate personal stories into their brands.
Listen to the full episode for Greg's merch advice, the 3-part...2019-06-0339 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT130: How To Register Your .MUSIC Domain Name – Constantine Roussos (DotMusic)After a decade of fighting for the rights to the .MUSIC top-level domain, alongside other applicants like Google and Amazon, DotMusic's application for the registry prevailed in April 2019.
.MUSIC is now a community-based domain name extension, supported by thousands of the most influential music organizations worldwide, representing over 95% of global music (probably including yours).
Constantine Roussos, the founder and CEO of DotMusic, shared with us the complicated history of the project, the numerous challenges they face prior to launching the domain next year, explained how artists will be verifying their identities, and commented on the...2019-05-2041 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT129: AI Generative Music And Producers' Future – Alex Kochetkov (Mubert)Alexey Kochetkov is the CEO and founder of Mubert, an AI generative music app. Mubert's algorithm creates unique audio streams from samples and loops uploaded by various electronic music producers. Each such stream is an infinite 'live' track that is constantly changing in real time. Listeners of the mobile app can choose from channels based on genres (e.g. Chill, Dub Techno, Hip Hop, House) and actions (e.g. Focus, Work, Sleep, Relax).
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Alex talked about musicians' role in the future of music AI; the increasing interest in generative music from...2019-04-2329 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT128: Fake It Till You Make It, Or How Not To Become A Con Artist – Aaron BethuneAaron Bethune, the author of “Musicpreneur: The Creative Approach to Making Money in Music” and founder of Play It Loud Music, Above the Noise and JAM, is back to Music Growth Talks. Listen to episodes #29 and #80 for more on Aaron.
This episode starts with the discussion of a blog post Aaron wrote about last year's scandal around the LA metal band Threatin, who faked their whole online presence to land a European tour no one attended, which led to the promoters exposing the band online.
Was the case all that shockingly new to the music indu...2019-04-011h 04Music Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT127: Getting A Second Pair Of Ears For Your Music – Matty HarrisMatty Harris is a music producer, mixing and mastering engineer from Boston, now based in LA. After touring with bands as a drummer as early as at the age of 14, he studied Music Production and Engineering at Berklee College of Music. Since then, he has worked on numerous records for Atlantic, RCA, WB, Sammy Adams, A$AP Rocky, and many more. He worked on the Grammy Award-winning song “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson and won the 2008 Boston Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Engineer and Producer.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Matty talked about a range of topics, from...2019-03-1124 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT126: Getting Work As A Freelance Musician – Elmo Lovano (Jammcard)Elmo Lovano is a professional drummer, musical director, producer and founder of Jammcard, the invite-only music professionals network. Dubbed a "LinkedIn for musicians" by Forbes, Jammcard is currently available in Los Angeles, Nashville and Atlanta.
Even if you don't have an account on the platform, there is a lot to learn from the educational content Elmo has been putting out on Jammcard. He interviews some of the world's most successful freelance musicians for backstage stories, gear insights, and the nitty-gritty of how they've landed their dream gigs.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Elmo talked...2019-02-1841 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT125: Make Money And Reach New Fans Through Your Lyrics – Darryl Ballantyne (LyricFind)Darryl Ballantyne is the founder and CEO of LyricFind, the global leader in lyric licensing. The Toronto-based company handles the vetting, licensing, and royalty splits and payments when lyrics are displayed in Google Search, Apple Music, Amazon, Shazam, Pandora, Deezer, and many more platforms and services. LyricFind works with over 5,000 publishers around the world to ensure that songwriters and rights holders are paid when their lyrics are shown.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Darryl talked about their recent African deal with CAPASSO, explained how and why to submit your lyrics to LyricFind, and showed the creative...2019-01-2828 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT124: Success In Music C.R.A.S.H. Course – Rich RedmondRich Redmond is an influential drummer, having toured and recorded with the likes of Ludacris, Kelly Clarkson, Bryan Adams, Joe Perry, Chris Cornell, and dozens of others. As the drumming powerhouse behind Grammy-nominated Jason Aldean, Rich has recorded 23 #1 singles with sales over the 10 million mark. Also a successful entrepreneur, speaker, educator, and an actor, Rich truly knows how to laser focus on his goals and to be one of the most prolific people in the business.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Rich shows how he's not only survived in the music industry, but has been thriving...2019-01-0735 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT123: How To Clear Your Mixtape, Remix, Or DJ Mix – Stephen White (Dubset)Stephen White, who served as the President at Gracenote from 2012-2014, is now the CEO of Dubset, an innovative music marketplace for DJs, artists, labels, publishers, and distributors. Dubset gets mixtapes, remixes and DJ sets the licenses they need to be distributed on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, and hence monetized.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Stephen talked about Dubset's history (some of you may still remember it as a place to host your DJ mixes), explained how complicated the clearance process has been traditionally and how a DJ, a producer or a label...2018-12-1025 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT122: How To Collect Your Publishing Royalties – Mandy Aubry (Songtrust)Mandy Aubry is a director of Global Business Development and Client Relations at Songtrust. Once named a "Top Music Startup" by Billboard, Songtrust now powers the publishing administration technology for over 150,000 songwriters and 20,000 music publishers worldwide, as well as more than 1 million copyrights. One out of every five new songwriters in the US use the Songtrust platform today, and the number seems to be growing steadily.
As you will hear, Mandy has a fascinating music industry background, having worked at Mercury Records, Roadrunner Records, and Fintage House prior to joining Songtrust's team in their Amsterdam office.
2018-11-2641 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT121: Developing A Highly Engaged Fan Base Through Video – iLLvibeiLLvibe is an acclaimed hip hop artist from Toronto, Canada, who also runs a lyric video company, LyricVids.com. He came on our radar after speaking at Future Music Forum in Barcelona, where he hosted a session called "The Importance of Musicians/Artists Thinking Like Content Creators".
As someone who creates a lot of high-quality content for himself and others, Illy had much to say on this Music Growth Talks episode. He gave examples of when lyric videos come particularly handy, explained why filming a low budget music video can “brand you down”, and talked about reaching new...2018-11-1234 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT120: Know And Engage Your Audience Directly With An LED Wearable – Betsy McHugh (Hurdl)Betsy McHugh is the Founder and Chief Product Officer at Hurdl, pioneering "the next generation of fan-based marketing" at live events (the statement which we endorse). Event attendees get an LED wristband upon entering a venue, which can then be activated via SMS to answer a short set of questions. Those who choose to answer survey in turn become a part of the light show, get special offers, merch deals, and any other incentives determined by the artist's team.
The Nashville-based startup claims to identify 8 times the data on who is in the audience versus other methods (for...2018-10-2229 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT119: Discover The Radio Airplay You Didn't Know You Had – Jesper Skibsby (WARM)Jesper Skibsby's life journey has taken him from working at a sea shipping company in Denmark to "shipping" a music tech startup, which is now the most accessible platform for tracking radio airplay. WARM, standing for World Airplay Radio Monitor, claims to be the first large-scale airplay monitoring service built specifically to serve individual musicians.
On this Music Growth Talks episode Jesper explained the technology behind WARM, and how they manage to track song plays even on small radio stations across the globe. You may be surprised where your tracks are being played. He also talked about...2018-10-0141 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT118: Insights From 2018 DIY Musician Conference – Kevin Breuner (CD Baby)Kevin Breuner, CD Baby’s VP of Marketing, is back to the Music Growth Talks podcast to talk about this year's DIY Musician Conference, which took place in Nashville on August 24-26th 2018.
On this episode, recorded a couple days after the event, Kevin explained what DIY means for a music artist nowadays, shared encouraging stats on musicians' royalties growing thanks to streaming, discussed the importance of understanding how platforms like Spotify and YouTube work to get the most out of them, and told a story of an artist who makes a living releasing cover songs.
...2018-09-1731 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT117: Peeking Inside A Box Of Growth Tools – Chris Tanner (Spektrol)As a musician and a record label executive, Chris Tanner has gone through the challenges all indie artists face when marketing their music online. Equipped with programming skills and frustrated by the lack of simple solutions for their promotional needs, Chris and his business partner Greg Ashburn started working on a set of scripts for their own projects. The two musicpreneurs quickly saw a huge potential and demand in what Chris was developing, and so Spektrol was born – a collection of marketing, analytics, and business apps now available to everyone in the industry. Today, there is over a dozen to...2018-09-0349 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT116: The Stories We Don't Talk About – Phillip Ryan BlockPhillip Ryan Block has been involved in a range of jobs, from sales to investment consulting, prior to pursuing his dream and launching the Independent Ear record label. The imprint is a "testament of his abilities to analyze, predict, project, produce and then change it all up when one business model doesn’t fit the next," according to Mr. Block's bio. As a prove to the latter statement, Ryan recently turned Independent Ear into one of the world's first non-profit labels. An experienced marketer and branding expert, he continues to work with various music projects, and also does a lo...2018-08-2040 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT115: 5-Phase Plan For Making Money At Every Gig You Play – Greg WilnauGreg Wilnau is the founder of Musician Monster, where he teaches independent artists how to brand themselves and earn sustainable income through live shows, among other music marketing and business topics. Two years ago Greg and his wife sold their house in Florida to start travelling the world and working remotely full-time.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Greg talked about his new lifestyle and finding the reason he was not making money with his own band, and how he acted upon the discovery.
Listen to the episode in full to learn Greg's five-phase strategy...2018-08-0639 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT114: Finding Or Becoming An Artist Manager – Jamie New Johnson (SmartistU)Jamie New Johnson is a retired artist manager, author, and educator from Toronto, who started her music industry career planning educational workshops with some of North America’s top artist managers. She then moved on to manage internationally touring artists independently, before shifting her focus back to education and starting Smartist University a.k.a. SmartistU (formerly Smart Band Management). SmartistU is a resource built for aspiring artist managers, self-managed artists, and musicians who want to start working with managers.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Jamie New explained a ton about the world of music management, fr...2018-07-1642 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT113: The Rediscovered Power Of An Indie Label – Tom Sarig (AntiFragile Music)Tom Sarig is a music business veteran of over two decades, who has helped a number of acclaimed music artists sell millions of records, either as their manager or as a label A&R, in genres ranging from electronic to rock, pop, and hip hop. Prior to launching the AntiFragile Music label, Tom has run Esther Creative Group, where he's managed the careers of artists such as Lou Reed, Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music, Rickie Lee Jones, CAKE, Against Me!, Blonde Redhead, and many others. For the 11 years prior to starting ECG, Tom served as a Grammy-winning Senior A&R...2018-07-0452 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT112: Promote Your Band By Promoting A Brand – Nathan Hanks (Music Audience Exchange)Nathan Hanks is the Founder and CEO of Music Audience Exchange (MAX), a company whose mission is to connect brands and artists "to engage fans together". MAX has built a platform for brands to reach their target audiences through "breakthrough" artists, who have growing and loyal fanbases yet who may not be signed to a major label, or selling out stadiums. This new model helps brands reach potential customers in a more authentic and human way, while allowing artists to grow their careers through meaningful investment from brands (e.g. buying radio play for a song, or sponsoring a...2018-06-1840 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT111: The Man Behind In-Store Playlists That Reach 150M People Per Day – Danny Turner (Mood Media)Danny Turner is a Global Senior Vice President of Creative Programming at Mood Media. Danny has over 25 years of experience in the industry, including helping launch XM Satellite Radio, or creating programs for the likes of Starbucks, MTV, VH1, United Airlines, and Oprah. At Mood Media (a company which acquired Muzak, the inventor of background music), Danny and his team of over 65 music curators design custom playlists for some of the biggest brands, like Target, CVS, McDonald's, Whole Foods, and many more. With 500,000 active client locations around the globe, and Mood's playlists reaching 150 million people per day across 40 countries...2018-06-0434 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT110: The Most Important Live Music App You've Never Heard Of – Shawn WilsonMuzooka is a free app allowing artists and their teams to manage their media assets across various platforms, such as festival, venue, or ticketing websites (i.e. no more ancient photos and outdated bios), as well as to report setlists to performing rights organizations for proper distribution of live performance royalties.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Muzooka's founder and CEO Shawn Wilson shared his story of building a product based on real needs of the industry, and explained in detail how their asset management and playlist reporting systems work for music acts.
Listen to...2018-05-1427 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT109: The Things You Wish You Knew Before Joining The Music Industry – Elroy 'Spoonface' PowellElroy "Spoonface" Powell (Spoon) is a British voice artist, actor, music publisher and social entrepreneur. After achieving international success as the voice behind a Black Legend hit, "You See The Trouble With Me", he experienced all possible ups and downs the music industry has got to offer. He shares his experience in a new short book he wrote, to offer fellow artists and musicpreneurs support with a focus on balance and wellness.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Spoon talked about his own path to sustainability, and gave a great creative advice to help you feel less...2018-04-3028 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT108: Building A Healthy And Productive Music Career – Suz PaulinskiSuz Paulinski is "a mindset coach for musicpreneurs", helping musicians and other music industry professionals reach their goals with custom time management solutions. Suz wrote and published The Rock/Star Life Planner, a tool for creatives to find focus in their daily lives.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Suz shares her journey from working at major record labels (and hating it), to getting a masters in psychology and becoming the Rock/Star Advocate. We talk about musicpreneurs having no choice but to care about their mental and physical health, the dangers of "sleep shaming", maintaining a...2018-04-1637 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT107: Musicians Marketing Themselves Like Tech Products – Cherie HuCherie Hu is a music tech columnist for Billboard and Forbes, who also contributes to publications like Music Ally, Cuepoint, Inside Arts and the Harvard Political Review. A musician passionate about technology, Cherie has written numerous impactful pieces about technology in the music industry. Her work was acknowledged at the Reeperbahn Festival last year, where she got the Music Business Journalist of the Year award.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Cherie comments on her Forbes article about the rapidly growing label and management company 88Rising, and explains how you can apply the tech adoption life cycle...2018-04-0239 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT106: A Story Of An American Hip Hop Artist Travelling To North Korea To Play Hockey – Alex FreconAlex Frecon is a hip hop artist and a media producer turned copywriter from Minneapolis. With many funny and experimental projects behind his back, the biggest one so far is a trip Alex made in March 2017... The trip was to North Korea. To play hockey against the North Korean Men's National Hockey Team.
Alex brought his GoPro along for the ride, and created a video about the trip.
Listen to this Music Growth Talks episode to find out more about Alex' experience in North Korea and how it helped promote his music, to see the...2018-03-1936 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT105: The AI Tool Label A&R Use To Sign Artists – Sony Theakanath (Asaii)Sony Theakanath is the CEO and Founder of Asaii, an automated machine learning lead generation A&R platform serving record labels, Fortune 500, booking and promoting agencies. Coming from Apple, Facebook, Uber, Salesforce, and Yelp, Asaii's team has built a product which focuses on in-depth analysis and prediction, instead of simply aggregating data across multiple sources.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Sony talked about their Discover and Track products, currently in private beta, and explained how exactly their clients use Asaii. He also shared tips for musicians aiming to be noticed by record labels and industry influencers...2018-03-0528 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT104: Baby Steps Towards A Successful Music Career – Ariel Hyatt🔓 Get your free physical copy of Ariel's "Crowdstart" book at bit.ly/crowdstartMGT
Ariel Hyatt is one of the world's leading music marketing experts, and has been running the Brooklyn-based Cyber PR for over 20 years. Ariel has worked with hundreds of creatives and entrepreneurs, spoken at more than 75 conferences in 12 countries, and written four books about social media.
On this Music Growth Talks episode Ariel exclusively revealed a free giveaway of her latest book, "Crowdstart: The Ultimate Guide to a Powerful and Profitable Crowdfunding Campaign." Follow this link http://bit.ly/crowdstartMGT, fill out the for...2018-02-2636 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT103: Declare Your Independence As An Artist – Ryan KairallaRyan Kairalla is a lawyer, author, podcaster, and teacher, helping his clients in the music industry with a variety of entertainment and business matters – from recording and publishing agreements, to music licensing, live performances, copyright counseling, and more. He has represented chart-topping artists and up-and-coming musicians alike.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Ryan talked about his “indie music lawyer” practice, including the Break the Business book and podcast, and shared a number of fascinating insights on surviving and thriving in the music industry today.
Among the topics we've covered: when to register copyrights for your s...2018-02-1236 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT102: How To Get Featured On Spotify – Janette Berrios (Symphonic Distribution)Janette Berrios is a marketing director of Symphonic Distribution, a digital music distributor based out of Tampa, FL. Positioning itself as a “One Stop Shop for the Music Industry", Symphonic does more than distribution though, and Janette explains how the company helps their clients on this Music Growth Talks podcast episode.
What Janette also talks about in detail is how to communicate about your releases with whatever distributor you're using in order to be considered for a feature by online music retailers and streaming platforms. Learn what kind of information to submit and by when, what factors ma...2018-01-2346 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT101: Fixing Promo Music Delivery For Labels – Paul Hamill (Inflyte)Paul Hamill is the CEO of Inflyte, a new music promotion platform that allows record labels and PR agencies to send out promo records to tastemakers such as DJs and media publications. The delivery happens through mobile pop-up notifications alongside clean and easy-to-digest emails. The releases then can be accessed and rated offline, and the sender gets detailed analytics on the promos' performance.
Paul, an experienced music artist who knows the needs of the market well, talks on this Music Growth Talks episode on how Inflyte has been helping their clients get more and better feedback on...2018-01-1530 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT100: Making Music Distribution Simple – Philip Kaplan (DistroKid)Philip Kaplan is a serial entrepreneur whose first widely known project was the Fucked Company blog, mocking failed startups after the dot-com bubble in 2000. Philip has since founded numerous successful companies, including AdBrite, TinyLetter (now acquired by MailChimp), a social networking website for musicians Fandalism, and DistroKid, an independent digital music distribution platform.
On this Music Growth Talks podcast, recorded a week before Andrew moderated a fireside chat with Philip Kaplan at the Slush Music conference in Helsinki, the DistroKid founder explained how the service was different from other distributors, and how they're managing to release around 1,200...2017-12-2640 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT99: Messenger Bots For Musicians – Tim HeinekeBefore launching POP in 2016, Tim Heineke had founded a leading digital music distributor FUGA and a music discovery service Shuffler. POP, "the simplest way to launch your own messenger-bot," allows music artists to reach their fans directly through Facebook Messenger, while giving the ownership of data back to the musicians.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Tim talks about what POP does, explains what a messenger bot is and isn't (hint: don't think of it solely as a chat bot), and makes it obvious how the Messenger is becoming a key channel in Direct To Fan marketing...2017-12-1132 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT98: How To Start Licensing Your Music – Joyce KetteringJoyce Kettering is an experienced full-time musician, and the person to go to if you want to learn about music licensing. In 2016 alone Joyce composed, produced and placed over 50 of her tracks.
Naturally, as someone who wants to learn more about music licensing, I talked to Joyce! As the result we've got this Music Growth Talks episode, and here are just some of the topics it covers: how to earn consistently through music licensing, what kind of income to expect, how much time it takes to submit your music to directories, how to research keywords for your...2017-11-0644 min
Break the BusinessBTB Ep 106: BTB Song Contest Announced!; Andrew Apanov on turning your fans into paying fansHi Podcast listeners! Thanks for downloading. Be sure to get a copy of the Break the Business audiobook, now available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes!This week, Ryan formally announces his Break The Business Seven Note Challenge Song Contest. To encourage listeners to enter songs in Serj Tankian's Seven Note Challenge (www.serjtankianchallenge.com), Ryan is having his own contest. It has the same rules as the Serj Tankian Challenge, but you need to submit your songs to breakthebusiness@gmail.com by December 8, one week before the Serj Tankian Challenge deadline. The Podcast will pick a winner among the entrants...2017-11-051h 12Music Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT97: From DJ Star To Artist Coach – JoeySukiJoey Lelieveld, more widely known under his stage name JoeySuki, has been a part of an international electronic music scene for over 10 years. He'd played Tomorrowland and Creamfields, produced a track with Hardwell (one of the top 5 DJs in the world), made the Beatport Top 100 several times, made remixes for Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull, and hit #1 in a Billboard Chart.
Joey had achieved the success so many indie artists desire, in other words. But he discovered the dark side of the lifestyle, as well... in 2015, he decided to put his music career on halt and started helping...2017-10-2341 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT96: The Price Of Success In Music Licensing – Mike GoudreauMike Goudreau, also known as Boppin Bluesman, picked up his first guitar at age 14 and hasn't stopped playing since. A full-time and prolific musician, Mike has made music licensing a key source of his income. Since 2007, Mike's songs have been heard on hundreds of network TV shows and feature films such as Bloodline (Netflix), NCIS Los Angeles (CBS), Life In Pieces (CBS), Gotham (FOX) , "Passengers" (2016), to name just a few.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Mike Goudreau shares what he's learnt during the 10 years of hard music licensing work. We talk about non-exclusive vs. exclusive deals...2017-09-1836 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT95: Kickstarting Music Gateway 2.0 – Jon SkinnerJon Skinner, the founder and CEO of Music Gateway, is back to the Music Growth Talks podcast to talk about the latest platform developments, such as Sync Portal and Demo Space, as well as their just launched Kickstarter campaign aimed to fuel the October release of Music Gateway 2.0.
The new version of the platform, which connects musicians and industry professionals, is promised to have a load of new tools for artists, including the mobile app.
And the crowdfunding campaign is quite interesting, with the rewards including experiences such as a creative writing weekend on a...2017-08-2829 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT94: Starting With Social Media From Scratch – Damian KeyesDamian Keyes is the founder of DK Music Management, a co-founder of The Brighton Institute of Modern Music, and an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience building businesses in music. Damian had never been active on social media until August 2016, when he decided to start a new project: to immerse himself in social media every single day.
Now, a year later, Damian shares with us his fascinating music industry journey, and the results of the experiment of living and breathing social media. This show is filled with actionable advice which will be interesting to all artists, and...2017-08-1435 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT93: Loudr, Revolutionizing The World Of Mechanical Licensing – Chris CrawfordLoudr is a San Francisco based company which helps artists, digital distributors, and music services identify rights holders, secure mechanical licenses, and pay royalties to music publishers. The technology behind the service parses publishing metadata and matches sound recordings to compositions, making it easy for anyone to clear mechanical licenses. For example, it allows you to start selling cover songs you've recorded, hassle-free. To date, the company has distributed over $1 million in royalties to songwriters and music publishers worldwide.
Loudr's CEO Chris Crawford, who used to be a part of the iTunes team at Apple, is a...2017-08-0730 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT92: How To Live Stream On Facebook To Grow Your Audience – Rick BarkerRick Barker is a leading music marketing expert, teaching indie artists the business side of music, all while assisting major labels and big media companies. Rick is a former manager for Taylor Swift, current advisor to Big Machine Records, and the social media mentor for American Idol, just to give a few examples.
On this Music Growth Talks episode, Rick names the only advantage majors have over indies, explains how to treat your social media strategy as a meal plan, shows one key approach to growth, and talks about the power of live streaming, on Facebook in...2017-07-2440 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT91: Getting Licensed Through Songtradr – Zac Harding, Ben FoySongtradr is a rapidly growing music licensing platform, delivering commercial music to brands, apps, TV and filmmakers. Their catalogue already counts over 60,000 artists and composers, across all genres and languages, and you're more than welcome to join the platform, as well. As you will hear from this podcast, it's risk-free... and literally free.
The marketplace's features for music creators include real-time push notifications on the progress of your catalog and song submissions, a unique blanket license, stats on who's opening and listening to your playlists, and more.
On this Music Growth Talks podcast episode, Songtradr's...2017-07-0332 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT90: Crowdfunding A Debut Album – Mike CaseyMike Casey is a jazz saxophonist and songwriter, who released his debut album, “The Sound of Surprise: Live at The Side Door” in February 2017. He used PledgeMusic to raise funds for the record, reaching his crowdfunding goal in way under a month.
On this Music Growth Talks podcast, Mike shares the nitty-gritty of the campaign, from preparation to fulfillment. While there is a few specifics to releasing a jazz album, Mike's tips are applicable to an artist in any music genre.
Listen to the episode to learn how running a crowdfunding campaign is much more time...2017-06-1936 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT89: Bree Noble's Resources For Female MusicpreneursBree Noble is the Founder and CEO of Women of Substance Music Radio, as well as the host of Female Entrepreneur Musician Podcast. An experienced singer/songwriter, entrepreneur, speaker, and coach who left a corporate job at a big Opera company to pursue her own music career, Bree now leads a whole suite of projects aimed to help female artists thrive in the music business.
On this Music Growth Talks podcast episode we went through a number of topics which Bree Noble has been covering with her guests on Female Entrepreneur Musician: music monetization, crowdfunding, Facebook Live...2017-05-2940 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT88: Musicpreneur Hub, A Quora For The Music Industry – Tommy DarkerThis is a premiere of Musicpreneur Hub, founded by Tommy Darker. The Hub is "a music knowledge platform," created to connect handpicked music industry experts with musicians and students looking for advice, Quora-style.
Listen to this Music Growth Talks episode to get a better understanding of Musicpreneur Hub, to see why it may be more like Airbnb than Quora according to Tommy, and to hear a few tips on asking questions on the platform. And then go to Musicpreneur Hub to ask a question yourself!
And if you don't know who Tommy is yet, then...2017-05-1541 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT87: Rotor, An App That Edits Music Videos For You – Diarmuid MoloneyDiarmuid Moloney is a co-founder of Rotor, an intelligent cloud-based app designed to help musicians create custom music and promotional videos.
The platform doesn't require a big budget, or even any video editing skills, as it automatically matches video content to audio. While you can use your own footage, even that is optional, as you can choose from multiple free stock video clips. It's also free to create a video: you pay only for exporting a file to then post it on your YouTube channel, social media profiles, or elsewhere.
On this Music Growth Talks...2017-05-0131 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT86: From Buying Economy To Playing Economy – Kevin Breuner (CD Baby)Kevin Breuner, CD Baby’s Director of Marketing, has spent over 14 years in the music business. And, as an artist himself, he knows what challenges musicians face well. His band, Smalltown Poets, grew from being a local indie act to securing a major label deal, with their debut album selling over 200,000 copies and bringing them a Grammy nomination. Still, the bandmates couldn't sustain their music careers and had to split.
Kevin knew there had to be platforms to help artists make successful careers, and eventually discovered, and later started working at, CD Baby. Today, Kevin Breuner leads CD...2017-04-1733 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicWeSpin Recipes is now Music Growth Talks!Same podcast, brand new name. Listen to this short episode to find out more!2017-04-0508 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT85: The Recipe For Building A YouTube Powerhouse – Peter HollensPeter Hollens is an a cappella singer and producer who's built a massive loyal following on YouTube and Patreon. With over 1.5 million subscribers and 125+ digital singles released, his videos have reached more than 250 million viewers since 2011. Hollens is on the advisory board for artist-focused companies such as Patreon, Loudr, and Tubular, and has collaborated with the likes of Brian Wilson, Jason Mraz, Hunter Hayes, Lindsey Stirling, George Watsky, and Tyler Ward.
In this WeSpin Recipes episode, recorded days before Christmas, Peter Hollens shares what it took to get where he is today, and, of course, talks about...2017-02-2035 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT84: The Art Of Crowdfunding – Jay CoyleJay Coyle is the founder of Music Geek Services, as well as a former marketing executive at EMI Nashville, a Berklee Online instructor, and someone who has worked with a myriad of bands over the years as an independent music marketing and business professional.
Jay is also the author of the new Soundfly course called "Crowdfunding For Musicians". The course combines instructional videos, step-by-step guides, downloadable resources, and more to help you build a successful campaign. You can enroll in that course, or any course at Soundfly, with a 20% discount using the WESPIN20 coupon code as a...2017-01-0945 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT83: Reaching 1 Million People With Your Music – How Tommy Darker Is Doing ItTommy Darker, the guest of the very first WeSpin Recipes episode, is back to our podcast! Over the past year, Tommy has been busy working on a new creative project called Kenophania. His goal is to get in front of no less than one million people, and Tommy will tell you how he's going to achieve that.
Kenophania is described as "a docu-style arced reality series about an ex-military, now savvy musician, who embarks on a journey to create a new musical style and make it commercial success." What makes it particularly interesting: Tommy had never played...2016-12-2729 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT82: Music Industry Predictions For 2017 – Chris Carey (FastForward)The big music industry conferences are where the bosses go, frequently leaving the junior staff in the offices. FastForward flips that upside down. The new annual event, which has created a lot of buzz in 2016, is aimed at under 35s in the music industry.
This week's WeSpin Recipes guest is the FastForward founder, Chris Carey, a music economist having worked with the likes of Universal Music, EMI Music, and PRS. He also runs a boutique research company called Media Insight Consulting, and made it to Music Week's 30 under 30 in 2014.
On this show, Chris' shared the...2016-12-1928 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT81: Dave Kusek's New Artist ModelDave Kusek is the latest WeSpin Recipes guest, and he's here to share his passion for coaching indie musicians. The founder and former CEO of Berklee Online, today Dave is focused on helping artists develop successful careers through his New Artist Model online music business school.
On the show, we talk about the program, how crazy and fascinating it is to be an artist these days, the need to understand what you're good at, building a team around your craft, time management, and why you may not want to chase the next shiny thing online.
...2016-11-2837 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT80: Want To Stand Out? Don't Fit In – Aaron BethuneYou are about to hear a story on how far creating your own path instead of doing what you're "supposed to" can get you. The story is about a successful US country artist, golfer, philanthropist, and public speaker Steve Azar, and it's told by his manager, Aaron Bethune.
Aaron is the founder of Play It Loud Music, Above the Noise and JAM, among numerous other projects. He's also the author of "Musicpreneur: The Creative Approach to Making Money in Music", which we covered in detail in the WeSpin Recipes episode number 29, over a year ago.
...2016-11-1449 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT79: Mastering The Hard Craft Of Music Production – Sam Matla (EDMProd)Over the last few years Sam Matla's EDMprod blog and podcast have become wildly popular among electronic musicians, and you most probably know why if you're a producer yourself. Even if you aren't familiar with the name though, we bet you will get a kick out of today's WeSpin Recipes episode with Sam.
On this show, "The Producer's Guide To Workflow & Creativity" author shares his online blogging journey from skateboarding and self-development to music, gives actionable tips on improving your music production skills (also fully applicable to songwriters), names two most common mistakes up-and-coming producers make, and...2016-10-3137 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT78: On-Demand Music PR & Copywriting – Dmitri Vietze (StoryAmp)Here's how StoryAmp works, in a nutshell. You create an account and add a "dispatch" either for a music release or a concert, providing all the related information. Then, StoryAmp emails relevant media contacts in each genre, or tour market, three separate times. The database of journalists (US and Canada only) is powered by the Rock Paper Scissors PR agency, and is updated all the time. You get the service either for a flat fee (for a release) or a monthly subscription (for a tour).
Pretty cool concept, isn't it?
We've been intrigued, too, and...2016-10-1730 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT77: One Tool To Monitor Charts, Playlists, And Airplay – David Weiszfeld (Soundcharts)Soundcharts is a real-time charts, playlists, airplay, and social monitoring web app. And, as you will learn from this WeSpin Recipes podcast, there is much more to it than analyzing performance of your own music projects. Think of Soundcharts as a stock market (or a growth hacking!) tool, which allows you to see how well relevant or interesting to you artists perform in different territories.
David Weiszfeld, the founder of Soundcharts, used to lead the International Development for Universal Music France, so the idea of building such a tool came from hands-on music marketing experience and understanding...2016-10-0339 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT76: Marketing Lessons From The NYC Subway – Josh Urban"As an artist, I don't need to reinvent the music industry. I need to reinvent how people consume MY music." That is just one of the many insights you're about to discover on today's show, with our long-term friend Josh Urban – a musician, entertainer, and a pseudo political candidate from the DC area.
Josh plays a home-built broom guitar, DJs on the street and at hospitals, and goes on a railroad tour across the East Coast every year. He's in the middle of one such tour, called "Join the Dance Party!", at the time this podcast is be...2016-09-1954 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT75: The Music Launch Summit Online Conference – Steve PalfreymanThis podcast episode is all about the unique online event called Music Launch Summit, coming out of Melbourne, Australia, and being broadcast internationally from September 13-30th. The digital conference features 40+ speakers from around the music industry, including Benji Rogers (PledgeMusic), Jennie Sager (Twitter), Rodney Holder (MusicBusiness Facts), Budi Voogt (Heroic Recordings), Ariel Hyatt (Cyber PR), Ian Clifford (Make It In Music), as well as the Dotted Music and WeSpin founder, Andrew Apanov.
In this WeSpin Recipes podcast, the Summit founder Steve Palfreyman talks on what's inside the Music Launch Hub, which took him almost a year...2016-09-0735 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT74: Fan Data And Growth Tools In One Platform – Theo Koolen (Hive.co)Hive.co is a platform built to analyze, grow, and communicate with your fanbase. Hive's "Engage" product allows you to capture fans' contact information with content lockers, sign up forms and contests, and then connect with them via targeted email campaigns. The "IQ" add-on indexes your followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud and Youtube, to then show who your most supportive followers are, what brands they like, where they are located, and more.
In this WeSpin Recipes podcast episode, Hive's Theo Koolen gave us an overview of the toolkit, and shared real-world case studies of how other...2016-08-1526 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT73: The Hidden Value Of A Facebook Event – Dave Blue (Spotcaller)Think about it: pretty much ever music gig, even the most niche and underground, has a Facebook Event created for it. Promoters, festivals, club owners, and music acts – even those who aren't good at promoting their events – rarely fail to announce a show on the world's biggest social network. But is it easy for music fans to discover something new and relevant to them in the myriad of Facebook Events? Truthfully, not much.
Dave Blue, today's WeSpin Recipes guest, saw the untapped potential of Facebook Events, and created Spotcaller – a web and mobile app aimed to simplify live m...2016-08-0141 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT72: Stream It Till You Own It With Resonate – Peter HarrisBeing involved in the worlds of tech and music over many years, Peter Harris always found the process of moving a casual listener to a dedicated fan too clumsy in the traditional music industry. Not seeing any tangible solutions coming to change it, he decided to take the initiative in his hands, and founded Resonate – a unique, cooperatively owned streaming platform currently in the works.
Resonate features an affordable "stream to own model" (with no monthly fees for listeners), where listening turns to owning – and where fans know that the money goes direct to the artists. It pres...2016-07-1142 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT71: The Music Business Is All About Who You Know – Dearbhla TrainorDearbhla Trainor truly has a well-rounded perspective of all aspects of the music industry. As a singer-songwriter, having worked at a major record label and a booking agency, Dearbhla (pronounced as Dervla) has collected a lot of invaluable knowledge and contacts over the recent years. And now, she shares the knowledge in her bi-weekly podcast, called The One Sheet. The show features one-on-one conversations with some of the biggest names in the business, and covers fields like booking, A&R, social media, or even music mastering.
Today, Dearbhla takes a role of an interviewee as a guest...2016-06-2737 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT70: Radio Promotion 101 – D Grant SmithThis WeSpin Recipes podcast episode features our conversation with D Grant Smith, a Growth Farmer (listen to the show to see what "growth farming" stands for), professionally coaching musicians and entrepreneurial businesses. He's been showcasing unsigned artists since 2003 as the Syndicated Host of The Appetizer Radio Show, and now released a book on radio promotion called "The DIY Musician's Radio Handbook".
In this show, D Grant talked on the role and influence of public radio, the ways (not) to pitch your music, building strong relationships with the industry contacts, the importance of having a great sound and...2016-06-2045 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT67: Getting Ready For Music Tech Fest Berlin – Andrew DubberMusic Tech Fest is "the festival of music ideas." The 10th edition of Music Tech Fest takes place from May 27 to May 30 at Funkhaus Berlin, the world's biggest recording studio. This WeSpin Recipes episode is an interview with Andrew Dubber, the director of the festival, and here we talk about all things #MTFBerlin.
(!) Exclusive discount for WeSpin Recipes listeners: If you want to be at Music Tech Fest Berlin, use the 5UPPORT3R code while purchasing a ticket at http://www.ticketbase.com/events/mtfberlin – for a 20% discount.
In a 3-day weekend of back-to-back performances, de...2016-05-0933 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT63: The 3 Most Important Things In Music Contracts – Sander PetitSander Petit is an experienced Dutch entertainment lawyer, specializing in dance music copyright law. A DJ himself, Sander works with producers, booking agents, managers, and publishers, and shares his vast knowledge in a DJ Mag column, as well as other respected music publications.
Andrew met Sander at Dancefair 2016, where he hosted a session titled "Legal 101: Making or Breaking the Deal". This WeSpin Recipes episode, recorded a month later, includes a ton of practical legal advice from Sander Petit – applicable to musicians in any territories, and in any genres. What to watch out for in a contract to cl...2016-04-0839 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT61: Mastering YouTube As A Musician – András Bodrogi (Google Ground Budapest)Andras Bodrogi is a digital music consultant, certified YouTube expert and Google Regional Trainer with years of experience in the music industry (starting at EMI Hungary, and then launching the first music distribution company in the country). Currently his primary role is helping local YouTube partners, brands and content creators reach their goals with audio-visual content at Google Grounds Budapest.
Several weeks after meeting Andras at the MENT music conference in Slovenia, Andrew interviewed him for this WeSpin Recipes episode. And, as you could guess, it's all about YouTube. Andras talks about different types of music-related content...2016-03-1149 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT59: The Roles and Struggles of an Indie Label – Chris Eckman (Glitterbeat Records)Chris Eckman is a co-founder of Glitterbeat Records, a German record label specializing in “vibrant global sounds,” which won the Best Label award at the WOMEX music conference in both 2014 and 2015. Chris talked to Andrew Apanov for our podcast right after the end of the MENT Ljubljana panel he moderated. The name of the panel was "The New Life of Indie Labels," and the speakers were Tony Duckworth ([PIAS] Poland, PL), Andy Bibey (One Little Indian Records, UK), Dace Volfa (I Love You Records, LV), and Miran Rusjan (Moonlee Records, SI).
In this WeSpin Recipes episode, Chris Eckm...2016-02-1227 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT48: Introducing WeSpin Tech – Dotted Music From BerlinIn this special WeSpin Recipes podcast episode, recorded in Berlin, Andrew Apanov is joined by the Dotted Music’s COO Frederic Sahyouni and CMO Cory Wolff to reveal their new community platform called WeSpin Tech: http://tech.wespin.co/
Listen to the conversation to learn more about the Dotted Music crew, what we do at our music marketing agency and the WeSpin growth training platform, and what kind of startups you will be able to find at WeSpin Tech (“the Product Hunt for music apps”).
The video recording of this podcast is available on YouTube at htt...2015-10-0353 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT46: Tape Express, Music Video Heaven For Indie Music – Conrad Fritzsch, Jakob Fricke (Tape.tv)Tape.tv, a Berlin-based “social music television web platform,” has just launched tape express, a free mobile app that offers a personalised music video discovery channel to users across 27 European countries. Tape express is powered by the largest dedicated indie music video catalogue in Europe, featuring 30,000 videos at launch, and allows music fans to curate their own music television experience as they watch, by swiping to ‘like’ or ‘skip’ videos.
In this WeSpin Recipes podcast episode, Andrew Apanov talks to tape.tv’s CEO Conrad Fritzsch and Project Manager Jakob Fricke just a week after the launch of tape expres...2015-09-1827 min
The EDM Prodcast#6: Andrew Apanov on Brand Building, Music Marketing Myths, and NetworkingIn this interview, I talk to Andrew Apanov. Andrew runs Dotted Music - a music marketing agency, and WeSpin, which is a growth training platform for musicians, bands, and producers.
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Download a free PDF containing tips from podcast guests: edmprod.com/podtips
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We delve into a range of different topics from brand building to networking. We discuss hot topics like:
- When should you start promoting yourself?
- Is it worth building an email list?
- Facebook advertising - yay or nay?
- What's the best craft beer?
And much more.
Cool things mentioned in the show:
...2015-08-301h 05Music Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT28: 5 Tips On Getting Music Press – James MooreJames Moore is the founder of the Independent Music Promotions agency, and the author of highly acclaimed book on music promotion called Your Band Is A Virus. In this WeSpin Recipes podcast with Andrew Apanov, James talked a lot about getting press – something that all artists want desperately. How do you craft your email? How to catch a journalist’s interest? What platforms to focus on?
Listen to the episode to learn James’ music PR insights, and check out James’ expanded edition of Your Band Is A Virus for more tips on music promotion.
Go to http...2015-02-2733 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT10: Try A Million Things Until Something Works – Jack ConteJack Conte, the "Internet musician," is the founder of Patreon (which is like a crowdfunding platform, but for content creators), and is one half of the legendary Pomplamoose – one of the first bands to go big on YouTube. In this We Spin Recipes podcast, Jack talked to Andrew Apanov about his projects, YouTube, if it's possible to replicate past success, tech trends, electronic music, and many other things.
• Patreon: what it is, and who uses it.
• Why it's hard to replicate the Pomplamoose's success.
• Building audience on Vine.
• Where to discover what can become "the next b...2014-08-1638 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT09: Musicians Should Focus On Sales – Leena SowamburLeena Sowambur, an established music business professional and a founder of Positively Music, has talked to We Spin's Andrew Apanov about marketing, investment, and sales. Mostly about the latter, and Leena explained why a musical act should never underestimate the importance of sales. In this podcast episode, you will also hear insights on getting funding in the UK and beyond, and learn why it's the best time to grow your creative project as a business.
• Differences between traditional and current online marketing.
• The power of data in marketing.
• Why it's a great time to grow a crea...2014-08-0649 minMusic Growth Talks by Dotted MusicMGT08: Why & When You Need A Music Studio – Giovanni (The Record Shop Nashville, Balcony TV)In this We Spin Recipes podcast episode Andrew Apanov talks to Sean Giovanni, the founder of The Record Shop Recording Studio and Balcony TV Nashville. It's an interesting look in the world of music studios and the legendary Nashville market – as you will learn from the show, the home to Country music has been going through a lot of musical changes lately (largely due to the growing popularity of electronic music).
Go to http://wespin.co/wsr08 for the show notes and musicgrowthtalks.com to subscribe to the podcast.
NOTE: This podcast was renamed from We...2014-07-2132 min