Innovating Music

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

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: https://www.soundexchange.com/team/michael-huppe/https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhuppe/https://www.linkedin.com/company/soundexchange/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_HuppeFollow Michael on Twitter at @MikeHuppehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/people/michaelhuppe/?sh=6dd42e5140b2

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: https://www.creativelawnetwork.com/dave-ratner/https://twitter.com/creativelawnethttps://www.linkedin.com/in/daratner/https://www.instagram.com/creativelawnetwork/

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: https://twitter.com/kbreuner https://www.instagram.com/kbreuner https://podcast.cdbaby.com/ https://diymusician.cdbaby.com/ https://cdbaby.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-breuner-a512938 https://edm.com/industry/the-changing-role-of-a-music-distributor-in-2022 https://smalltown-poets.lnk.to/LITOhttps://smalltownpoets.tv/

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: https://www.twitter.com/themokuhttps://twitter.com/AudioshakeAI https://www.linkedin.com/company/audioshake/ https://audioshake.aihttps://indie.audioshake.ai https://www.musictectonics.com/pitchcompetition https://www.billymann.com/ https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/mary-megan-peer-named-as-new-chief-executive-officer-of-peermusic-as-ralph-peer-ii-shifts-to-executive-chair/ https://youtu.be/GU35oCHGhJ0 https://www.cisac.org/

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: Find Innovating Music on your favorite player: Sibling Shows: ♦️ Creative Innovators: https://www.youtube.com/@creativeinnovatorspodcast ♦️ Amplify Music Conversations: https://www.youtube.com/ @Amplify Music

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:

[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...

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.comLinkedIn: 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/61d74f386562686c0c1f2a51Dec 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

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: https://www.patreon.com/creator-homehttps://twitter.com/Patreonhttps://www.pomplamoose.com/ https://www.youtube.com/user/PomplamooseMusichttps://www.facebook.com/scarypockets/http://www.jackcontemusic.com/https://www.youtube.com/user/jackcontemusichttps://www.facebook.com/JackConteMusichttps://www.instagram.com/jackconte/https://twitter.com/jackconte

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.

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: http://hello.rockpaperscissors.biz/https://www.musictectonics.com/https://www.musictectonics.com/podcasthttps://www.musictectonics.com/bloghttps://www.musictectonics.com/communityhttps://www.musictectonics.com/conferencehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitrivietze/https://www.facebook.com/dmitri.vietzehttps://www.instagram.com/dmitrivietze/https://twitter.com/dmitrivietzehttps://topeka.live/https://www.younow.comhttps://www.bandsintown.com/https://www.twitch.tv/https://cdbaby.com/

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

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: www.label-logic.nethttps://www.facebook.com/labellogic.net@jaygilbert https://www.jaygilbertconsulting.com/your-morning-coffeehttps://www.jaygilbertconsulting.com/

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/

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: https://www.inceptionorchestra.org/@LAInceptionOrchhttp://aasymphony.orghttp://www.classicalsaxproject.org/nsler.comheartofla.orgymf.orgcomposersforum.org

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

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: g-technology.comgobbler.comhttps://www.facebook.com/GTechnology/gtechnologylinkedin.com/in/gitigfoodforpods

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.comFacebook: @sounddiplomacy / @musiccitieseventsIG: @sound_diplomacy / @musiccitieseventsTwitter: @SoundDiplomacy / @MusicCitiesSDLinkedin: Sound DiplomacyEmail: shain@sounddiplomacy.com

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.