Producer Life Podcast

What's up Heroes, and welcome to episode 109 of the Producer Life Podcast. I've got a couple of big announcements so please listen all the way through to the end. Today I've got John Burke from Perfect Vocals Academy. John has been working in the music industry for 17 years and has experience in everything from being a touring musician to running a record studio to his current project, a remote mixing and mastering service with a specialization in vocals.

Bass Battleground is an epic online multi-format DJ battle spanning six months and culminating with a live performance in Atlanta this December. On Sunday, October 2nd Apetonix and Kyd Kong went head-to-head, opening up the second round of Bass Battleground. I interviewed Kyd Kong back in episode 101, so today I'm thrilled to introduce Apetonix.

Welcome to the Producer Life Podcast episode 107! Bass Battleground is an online multi-format DJ competition where your votes determine the winner. It spans six months, 16 DJs, and culminates with a live performance in Atlanta this December. Bass Battleground is curated by Emerald Summers Presents. This seventh battle between Dirty Lux and Raidenrok happens on Sunday, September 18th at 2pm eastern on the Emerald Summers Presents Twitch Channel.

Welcome to the Producer Life Podcast episode 106! Bass Battleground is an online multi-format DJ competition spanning six months and culminating with a live performance in Atlanta this December. It is being curated by Emerald Summers Presents. This sixth battle between Corgn and Feddywub happens this Sunday, September 4th at 4pm eastern on the Emerald Summers Presents Twitch Channel, and I'll be performing the opening set beginning at 3:45pm.

Bass Battleground is an online DJ competition running through mid-December and is produced by Emerald Summers Presents, an Atlanta based promoter. During this time, I'll be bringing you shorter interviews with each of the contestants. This week I interviewed Winter Atlas who is a DJ, producer, and multi-instrumentalist based out of Greenville, South Carolina. Winter Atlas has over a decade of musical experience playing with bands, as a studio session bassist, and as a vocalist. Winter Atlas will be going head-to-head against Rei Low: an Atlanta Based producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist who makes industrial pop, deep house, and techno. You can watch them compete (and me open!) starting at 4pm eastern on the Emerald Summers Presents Twitch channel.

Bass Battleground is an online DJ competition running through mid-December and is produced by Emerald Summers Presents, an Atlanta based promoter. During this time, I'll be bringing you shorter interviews with each of the contestants.

Bass Battleground is an online DJ competition running through mid-December and is produced by Emerald Summers Presents, an Atlanta based promoter. During this time, the Producer Life Podcast will be bringing you shorter interviews with each of the contestants. On Sunday, July 10th at 4pm eastern we have two new DJs for their first round: B-Riel, an Atlanta based freeform bass and dubstep DJ will face off against Vancouver native AltBraKz who specializes in glitch and Drum & Bass.

Bass Battleground is an online DJ competition which spans the next six months and is produced by Emerald Summers Presents, an Atlanta based promoter.   During this time, the Producer Life Podcast will be bringing you shorter interviews with each of the contestants. On Sunday, June 26th at 5pm eastern we have two new contestants for their first round, Apetonix: a bass producer and DJ from Atlanta who will be battling BaconUCrazy, an Atlanta based dubstep and EDM artist. Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts I wasn't able to get Apetonix on the show. However, I'm excited to introduce baconUcrazy, an up and coming Atlanta-based DJ and producer who is opening for Flux Pavilion on July 22nd.

Bass Battleground is an online DJ competition which spans the next six months and is produced by Emerald Summers Presents, an Atlanta based promoter.   During this time, the Producer Life Podcast will be bringing you interviews with each of the contestants. Today we're joined by Raidenrok who will talk about how the competition began and how it's going to be run. Afterwards, we go behind the scenes with KydKong who talks about her classical musical training, her hopes for the future, and how she's built a vibrant Twitch community. Finally, we talk with Skeletrek who talks about his background as both a DJ and producer and his experiences running a wildly successful cosplay dance battle at Momocon.

Today's guest is Alex Holmes: an English singer and songwriter for Pop and EDM music. She's worked with hundreds of producers and labels worldwide and is ranked the #1 five star vocalist on the Vocalizr platform. ​Her releases include tracks with Universal Music, Sony Music, No Copyright Sounds and Spinnin' Records, and she has featured on records with Sean Paul, Pitbull, Mashd N Kutcher and DJ The Prophet.

Ignacio Arfeli was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There wasn't much of a techno scene there, so he moved to the mecca for techno: Berlin. Ignacio's music blurs the line between the techno underground and the mainstream. 2019 was a breakout year for him as he landed some of the most respected labels in techno including Kraftek, Suara, Octopus Recordings, and several more. Charlotte De Witte has frequently opened festivals with his tracks, and he has had support from Alan Fitzpatrick, Eric Pryzd, Dense & Pika, and Dj Rush.

On March 2nd, Bandcamp announced they were partnering with Epic Games (yes, of Fortnite fame). What does that mean for the independent musician? In this episode I look at the announcements, the media coverage, and offer a few suggestions for what you should do now.

Today's guest is Yera, better known in the Atlanta techno scene as Shakes. Yera is a die-hard techno fan, fashionista and the founder of Twisted Lines. Twisted Lines began in 2018 in the alleyways of L.A., but has grown into an Atlanta-based community of techno and house music lovers who build art events inspired by the underground warehouse raves of the 90's. Her events are much more than just themed music nights: past events have incorporated sports car collectives, art installations, and they recently closed out Atlanta's Digital Art Week.

Vital is an incredibly powerful free spectral warping wavetable synth. I started experimenting with it last month and was so impressed, I decided to dedicate an entire episode to Vital.

Today we welcome back Sean Giovanni. Gio is an audio engineer, producer and the multitalented owner of The Record Shop in Nashville, Tennessee. During his career Gio has worked with big acts and labels to include: Alabama, John Legend, Lil Jon, Meatloaf, Sister Hazel, The Wallflowers, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, Universal, and many more.

Today we're talking with Bruce Zalcer from Panama. Bruce is a multi-instrumentalist who began with music in his teens playing in rock bands and DJing. After school, he largely left the scene and moved on to a more conventional life selling insurance and raising a family for many years until 2018 when he decided to return to music. Since then, Bruce's unique approach to techno incorporating synthesizers, drum machines, and sounds sampled from daily life has been making waves in the techno world. He's released a dozen tracks including his Lifeblood EP and already has tracks signed on some of the biggest techno labels in the industry including Terminal M, 1605, and Codex Recordings. Additionally, his first live performance in 20 years was in Amsterdam for ADE! Finally, because there isn't a huge techno following in Panama he created Dialectic Live: an organization that is dedicated to growing the techno movement in that country.

Today's guest is Mauro Somm, an up-and-coming techno producer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He's been signed on Christian Smith's Tronic label and has had support from some of the most creative artists in the industry, including UMEK,  Gallya, Joyce Mercedes, and Space 92. 

Today's guest is Heather Johnson, the CEO of the Nintey9Lives. Heather also serves on the advisory board of the American Association of Independent Music which advocates for independent music rights holders. This episode was actually recorded LAST April, but due to a super secret announcement at the end of the podcast, I couldn't release it until now.

Today I'm excited to introduce Sam WOLFE: a breakout techno star from Atlanta. His 2020 debut EP Triangulum reached #1 on overall Beatport releases which lead to a collaboration with techno legends the YellowHeads.  That collab, Hippodrome, then went on to chart #4 for Beatport hype and #16 on techno world top 100 and received support from top techno artists including UMEK.   Since then he's released his debut EP on Christian Smith 's imprint, Tronic, which topped the Beatport overall release charts at #1, and received support from Bart Skils, Joyhauser, Lily Palmer, Marco Carola and others.   In 2021 he signed exclusively with UMEK's 1605 label and has big plans for 2022.

We've been on a roll with interviews for a couple of months now and I wanted to pause and do a little reflecting on my Halloween gig at Line Creek Brewery and share some thoughts for mobile DJs. Today I talk about how I prepared, the gear I took, and what went right and wrong.   I also talk about why I recently swapped record pools from Promo Only to BPM Supreme and how that helped with music selection for the event.

on to being a DJ and producer, he hosts the popular Melodics podcast and owns the Southern Exposure Music record label.  As a producer, one of his recent releases “No Place To Hide” spent many weeks on the Beatport Top 100 list and has also released multiple tracks that broke into the top 10.

Beatport on the collaborative Devil's Breath release by Black Square Recordings, and has also released on a variety of labels including Pure Dope Digital, Format Recordings, Intact Dark Balance, Southern Exposure, and is a regular with White Line Music.  ZeXter's unique sound stems from his love of European dance music, his classical instrument training, and his degree in sound design. 

Today's guest is Kofla: a Columbian drummer who brings groovy Latin vibes to his tech house tracks and has been tearing up venues all over Atlanta from boat parties to major clubs.

Today I'm joined by David López, an audio engineer, consultant, educator, producer, DJ, and Ableton Certified trainer. As Didactic, he performs in various genres from electronic pop to reggae to downtempo to house music. He has over 20 years of experience and holds a degree in audio technology from SAE where he also spent seven years teaching recording arts and sciences.

Today I'm joined by Sai Aditya, better known as aboywithabag.  Sai is a multi-talented producer who was born in India and spent time growing up in both south India and in Chicago.  He's an up-and-coming house music producer with his first release on Dim Mak Records two months ago.  Sai has been generating a lot of interest online with his high-energy, danceable tracks which resulted in a recent interview with EDMIdentity.  

Today I'm joined by Kevin Breuner, a recording artist with Smalltown Poets who were signed to EMI and nominated for a Grammy and three dove awards. Additionally, he's the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Artist Brands at CD Baby.  Since 2007 he's been the host of the DIY Musician Podcast which just hit 279 episodes and was named by Variety magazine as one of the “13 essential music industry podcasts.”

Today's guest is Chris Robley: a singer-songwriter and award-winning poet who also happens to be one of the creative genius behind the marketing team at CD Baby.  For more than a decade he's edited the DIY Musician Blog and been the co-host of the DIY Musician Podcast, both of which are terrific resources I strongly encourage you to check out.  

I spent the last three days attended CD Baby's 2021 virtual music conference. On today's episode I'm recapping many of the surprising things I learned about Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, branding, and more. I'm not going to try to cover all three days in one podcast (I took 17 pages of notes!), so instead I'll highlight some of the most important, actionable takeaways. This is one of the most information dense, actionable episodes I've ever done... so make sure you're in a place to take notes! You'll Learn When to consider managementSpotify marketing resourcesMust-have's for your press kitWhy URLs rule Best practices for Instagram including the "Live waterfall" content techniqueAccounts to followHow a YouTube Official Artist Channel (OAC) can benefit youTips for booking yourselfQuestions to ask for authentic branding (Wendy Parr)Cool stuff to try with Pandora Amp (Michelle Solomon and Andee Connors) Resources SpotifySpotifycodes.comFanstudy.byspotify.comAds.spotify.comglobal-label-sales (at) spotify.com - Email address to sign up for marqueesAmazon Music for Artists (AMA) artists.amazon.com vs artists.amazonmusic.comBrandservices.amazon.comCD Baby's Release plan generatorPandoraSubmit.pandora.comAmpplaybook.comSignup for Pandora StoriesInstagram: @amp_pandoraTwitter: @PandoraAMPInstagram / FacebookInstagram: @Creators @IGmusicPartners Other helpful tools: Coda, Mailchimp, Squarespace, Later.com, Asana, Airtable.comCD Baby DIY Podcast2018 CD Baby DIY Conference notesPLP 052: How to Boost your Streaming Numbers with Spotify Canvas https://youtu.be/rcGXfW3UlFE I just dropped this bootleg remix on August 27th. Check it out and let me know what you think! Minor correction to the episode: Rick Barker runs the Music Industry Blueprint podcast.

Today on the podcast we're going to focus on tech house, a subgenre of house music that combines the minimal influences of techno with the grooviness of house music.   We'll be picking apart what that means, providing some examples, and giving you a sneak peak of a work in progress.   Also, make sure you listen through to the end of the episode because I want to tell you about a terrific free opportunity you're not going to want to miss.

Raheem Jarbo, better known as Mega Ran, is a nerdcore rapper and Guinness World record holder who fuses hip-hop with gaming and geek culture to create infectious beats and memorable music. Mega Ran's music and story have been featured on CNN, ABC, NBC, ESPN, Tosh.O, and WWE wrestling. Four of his albums have placed in the top 200 Billboard charts and he has more than 64,000 monthly plays on Spotify. Additionally, Mega Ran is an experienced podcaster, variously hosting the Random Encounters podcast, Mat Mania, and most recently Castle Grayskull Radio.  In 2020 he published his autobiography Dream Master which already has over 100 five star reviews on Amazon.  In his brutally honest, introspective and entertaining book he talks about his incredible journey from the streets of Philly to stages across the world and to the Guinness book of World Records.   You'll Learn Mega Rans' nearly unlimited source of inspiration His studio gear Useful websites for indie artists His process for booking his own tours Resources Mega Ran online: Website - music, discord, merch, event schedule, Patreon, and more) Spotify Twitter Instagram Dream Master - From the Stoop to the Stage to the Stars (autobiography on Amazon) Live '95 Album Kickstarter Castle Grayskull Radio Wikipedia Resources: Indie on the Move Songstats.com Anchor.fm Home Studio Gear: DAW: Reaper, Logic Pro, and Reason Akai MPK keyboard AT2020 microphone (home) or Neuman u87 (studio) Pioneer DDJ SB3 The 80/20 Show - Produce like a Ninja (House Ninja) https://youtu.be/1xMusiaR440https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO1lKirM

Today I'm joined by Dan Giffin: an Ableton certified instructor, producer, and performer who has worked with Grammy winning artists helping them level-up their Ableton skills.  As one of only 340 Ableton Certified instructors worldwide, Dan has taught Ableton Live workshops at SAE, Sweetwater, and dozens of recording studios.  He offers private lessons and has collaborated with major label artists including Mac Miller, Machine Gun Kelly, The Band Perry, and more. Additionally, Dan runs the LiveProducersOnline website, hosts his own podcast, and creates crazy Jazz-infused bass tracks under the artist name Philia. As Philia, Dan and his group have performed at major festivals and have shared the stage with Tiesto, Slushii, and Manic focus.  You'll Learn Multiple resources for learning Ableton and marketingWhat it means to be an Ableton Certified TrainerDan's music production workflowDan's performance setupHow he deals with imposter syndromeHis eight-week release strategy Resources Find Dan Giffin:Ableton Music Producer PodcastLiveProducersOnline.comPhiliaMusic.comDan's HardwareMoog Sub 37Push 2APC 40 mk IIRoland SPDAlso mentioned:DubspotIndepreneurAbletonDrummer.comStudioSensei.comAbleton Certified Trainer program https://open.spotify.com/artist/6WS2tulZgvxGCX2OnxPbMg?si=L_dSro_bQVi3vNl8rgp27Q&nd=1

Keith Piazza is an associate manager at Universal Music Group (UMG) where he handles film and TV clearance. Over the last five years he has worked with some of the biggest artists in the industry helping them negotiate fees to license their music for TV, movies, and video games. In this episode of the podcast Keith offers networking tips for landing your dream job, talks about what it's like working for a major record label, and discusses trends in music licensing.

his week we're joined by Zach Domer, better known as Pony. Pony is a CD Baby veteran hailing from the early days when they only offered distribution of physical CDs. More recently, he has served as the brand manager and public face of Soundrop, a CD Baby sister company which focuses on distribution for cover songs. Soundrop currently pays out over $1.5 million in artist earnings per month making it one of the top digital music distributors in the world.

This week we talk about Electronic Press Kits, or EPKs. A good press kit is one of your most important marketing tools. In this shorter episode we examine what goes into them, different formats for EPKs, and we'll review at a couple of different examples.

Today's guest on the podcast is James Landino: an internationally recognized video game composer and DJ based out of Los Angeles, California. His electronic music bridges the gap of gaming, anime, and nightclub culture and he has amassed millions of plays across multiple platforms. He is best known for his work on the musically acclaimed video game No Straight Roads along with other projects including Tower of God, Chunithm, Osu!, RWBY, Cytus II, Amplitude HD, and DropMix.

Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Skye Ramsay, better known by the name Skybreak. Ramsay's signature jazz-infused, melodic bass style has earned him support from Alison Wonderland, NGHTMRE & SLANDER, Spag Heddy, Chime, William Black and more.

Landon Fleury has written over 300 articles for YourEDM.com since 2015 and also maintains a popular YouTube channel where he conducts reviews and artist interviews. Recently he's transitioned to Outerloop Management where he develops up-and-coming coming artists including Rob Gasser, Skybreak and Ace Aura. During the interview we talk about what it's like being a writer for YourEDM.com, some of his most memorable interviews, and he shares his thoughts on artist management.

With things opening up again in the United States, I'm getting ready to perform live which has me thinking a lot about DJ techniques. In this review I condense over 40 pages of notes from Digital DJ Tip's (DDJT) Complete DJ Course into into my most essential (and surprising) takeaways.

Aaron Green is the Vice President and director of sales and business development at EasySongLicensing.com. Aaron has spent the last 16 years helping artists clear tracks so they can legally distribute cover songs as well as leading a team that handles custom licensing agreements. Easy Song Licensing has helped over 60,000 customers - myself included. In the last 60 days I used them to clear two different covers, my Techno Syndrome cover (from Mortal Kombat) as well a Simon & Garfunkel Scarborough Fair cover. I had a great experience with them both times, so I invited Aaron onto the podcast to talk about covers, remixes, mechanical licensing, derivative works, sampling, public domain and NOIs.

Today our guest is Mike Zimmerlick, the president of 80/20 Records in Phoenix, Arizona. Mike has over 15 years of experience with artist branding and development and has personally represented over 26 artists spanning genres like: Alternative, Pop Punk, Rock, Indie Folk, Singer-songwriter, Nerdcore / Hip-Hop, Progressive Rock, and Electronic. These artists have opened for acts such as Beck, and Animal Collective, and MR MS as well as performed on official NAMM showcases, CMJ, Summerfest, i-Voted Festival, and Vans Warped Tour.

Today's guest is Nathan Boutwell, better known as The Living Poof, an amazing bass and dubstep producer who lives in Los Angeles. His original tracks and remixes have racked up over 100,000 streams on SoundCloud, and he has over 12,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. In this episode Nathan and I geek out about learning to DJ in VR, his favorite plugins, his approach to producing and remixing, and his daily productivity habits.

Today we've got a really unique guest: I'm joined by Benji Harris, one of the members of the hit country music trio, Scarletta. As part of this band, they hit the Top 30 on Country Radio, toured arenas across the country, made an appearance on Good Morning America, the Today Show, and Late night with Seth Myers. Currently, Benji is focused on his corporate work with SongDivision where he puts his singing, songwriting, and guitar playing to use entertaining corporate clients and helping to reinforce key points in corporate events. SongDivision employees hundreds of contract musicians, including DJs, and corporate gigs can be really lucrative so you're not going to want to miss this episode.

I recently completed Armin van Buuren's masterclass at Masterclass.com. Masterclass creates highly professional courses with top-tier performers in a wide range of fields. In case you're not familiar with Armin van Buuren, he's been named one of the top DJs on the planet by DJ Mag five times, has had a Grammy nomination, and has 41 million listeners to his A State of Trance radio show. His record label, Armada Music, is one of the most diverse record labels in electronic music and was voted #7 for “Label of the Decade.”

Sean Giovanni is a producer, audio engineer, brand development coach, and owner of The Record Shop in Nashville, TN. During his career Gio, as he's known to his friends, has worked with big acts and labels to include: Alabama, John Legend, Lil Jon, Meatloaf, Sister Hazel, The Wallflowers, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, Universal, and many more. Gio also runs an artist development and coaching site called Mind Map Tribe which provides artists short videos, worksheets, and mentoring calls to help them achieve their dreams. In this broad ranging interview Gio talks about overcoming adversity and making his own path in Nashville, his multi-step process for working with clients at the Record Shop, how to differentiate yourself as a producer, and why a purpose statement is so powerful.

Back in mid-February I attended a virtual sync licensing meeting hosted by Dani Felt (who you may remember from episodes 55 and 56). Dani brought in Michael Elsner as the guest speaker. Michael has had over 2,000 placements of original music in TV, film, and commercials over the last 15 years. He gave a terrific talk about sync licensing and also runs a course at MasterMusicLicencing.com. Michael offered so much actionable advice, I had to share what I learned.

NFTs have become wildly popular over the last couple of weeks in the art and music industry, especially with Beeple's unprecedented NFT sale worth $69 million on March 11. This short episode is designed to help you understand the basics and then point you in the right direction to get started. I’ll talk about what NFTs are, how they’re currently benefiting artists and how they may one day change the industry as a whole.

Today is our interview with Noah Lloyd, better known as Haterade, a full time musician who made his name with his distinctive so-cal Trap style which has been played by Diplo, Skrillex, Carnage, Krewella, and others. He’s been making music since he was 14 and is now directing some of his focus to other genres of music through the music collective Greater Than with Zak Jablow. When he’s not making music as Haterade for his 30,000 monthly listeners, he’s making samples and beats for Cymatics or teaching his private students about music production.

This episode is all about Spotify and the five surprising things I recently learned from the Spotify Field Guide from Indepreneur.io. I'll also share results from a couple of my own direct-to-Spotify Facebook ad campaigns.

Today on the Producer Life Podcast we have Andrew Sinclair, better known as Approaching Nirvana. Andrew is a full time musician supported by his amazing online community. In the last decade he’s released 17 albums including over 300 songs. He has over 130 million Spotify streams alone, and if you count all platforms his catalog has over 300 million streams, all independent and without a label.

This is part two of our interview with Zak Jablow, also known as Professor Fox, a Grammy-nominated music educator, commercial song writer and record producer for major label clients and independent projects. You’ve heard his music in television commercials, motion pictures and television programming. Clients include Mac Miller, Curren$y, Wu-Tang Clan, Ab Soul, Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, GLC, Carbon Tigers and Sidewalk Chalk.

Today I’m excited to introduce Zak Jablow, also known as Professor Fox, a Grammy-winning music educator, commercial song writer and record producer for major label clients and independent projects. You've heard his music in television commercials, motion pictures and television programming. Clients include Mac Miller, Curren$y, Wu-Tang Clan, Ab Soul, Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, GLC, Carbon Tigers and Sidewalk Chalk.