Episode 637 – Why New Platforms Can No Longer Access Spotify’s Artist Data ft. Oskar Eichler

On this week’s episode, reliable music data is getting harder to access, and Oskar Eichler explains why the artists and companies that know how to interpret it now have a serious advantage. As CEO of Songstats, Oskar has helped build a real-time music analytics platform that tracks streaming, playlist, chart, radio, and social media performance […]

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Episode 636 – Meet Anukari, The Totally Unique 3D Physics Synthesizer ft. Evan Mezeske

On this week’s episode, indie plugin developers who want to launch a genuinely new synthesis tool will recognize their own blind spots in Evan Mezeske’s story. Evan left Google after 11 years building large-scale fraud systems to create Anukari, the first commercially available 3D physics modeling synthesizer that runs in real time. He discovered that […]

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Episode 635 – Oeksound’s Hannes Andersson Talks Soothe 3 and More

Audio plugin developers who assume machine learning is the right tool will find the process used by Hannes Andersson and the team at Oeksound genuinely surprising. Hannes is CEO of Oeksound, the creator of Soothe, the dynamic resonance suppressor that became so dominant on Spotify’s Top 50, yet it’s team rebuilt the algorithm from scratch.  […]

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Episode 634: Why Your Voice Memo Proves Nothing in a Copyright Dispute ft. Nadim Rahman 

Song copyright protection for musicians who record ideas with a voice memo at 3am proves nothing in a dispute. That original moment completely unverifiable. On this week’s episode, I speak with Nadim Rahman about Songproof, a dual-blockchain platform that recognizes that musicians needed an irrefutable timestamp at the exact moment inspiration strikes, not after the […]

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Episode 633 – Labels, Streaming, YouTube, And Gear News And Views

Music industry professionals still betting on major labels to develop artists should know the system has structurally exited that business. On this week’s episode I break down the data showing UMG and WMG now redirect spending toward catalog acquisitions rather than new careers. . . . . . have made AI licensing deals explicitly designed […]

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Episide 632 – Jeff Graves Talks LUFS Mastering

On this week’s episode, mastering engineer Jeff Graves talks about what happens when independent musicians upload masters that are so hot that they lose transient detail the moment streaming platforms apply loudness normalization. Jeff spent two and a half years measuring 214 audio fingerprints across 15 samples per genre to build a 24-stage AI mastering […]

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Episode 631 – Session Vocalist Darlene Koldenhoven Tells How She Charted Without A Manager Or Label

On this week’s episode, session vocalist Darlene Koldenhoven tells us how her music hit #4 on the Billboard classical crossover chart with no manager or label. The common assumption that a major-label infrastructure is required to chart is exactly what her story dismantles, and she walks through the specific decisions that produced number-one worldwide radio […]

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Episode 630 – Why Chasing Algorithms Is Killing Your Music Career With Keith Jopling

On this week’s podcast, I speak with Keith Jopling about what separates artists who last from those who burn out chasing the wrong metrics. Keith spent 25 years inside the business, including time at Spotify, before interviewing 80 artists and bands to write Riding the Rollercoaster. The creative director model he extracted from that research […]

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Episode 629 – Erasing Leakage But Keeping The Drummer’s Performance DNA With Dr. Bill Evans

On this week’s episode, I speak with Dr. Bill Evans, audio scientist, producer, educator, and inventor of the Performance Restoration methodology. Bill believes that drum recording has always involved a painful tradeoff, but it doesn’t have to. Most engineers accept mic bleed as an unavoidable character of a drum sound, questioning whether removing it could […]

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Episode 628 – How Female Producers Regain Control With Xylo Aria

Female artists who hire producers risk losing creative control before a single song is released. On this week’s episode, Xylo Aria, founder of Music Production for Women (MPW), tells us how she learned this the hard way, by paying for sessions where male producers overrode her vision, leaving her with music she never put out […]

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Episode 627 – Elliot Easton Talks The Cars, Guitars, And Interesting Tours

On this week’s episode, Elliot Easton, guitarist for The Cars and Creedence Clearwater Revisited, takes us through his journey with the band and beyond. Easton looks back at The Cars’ origins, from getting a label deal the old fashioned way, to connecting with famed producer Roy Thomas Baker, to recording the band’s initial albums, to […]

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Episode 626 – The Latest Music Business And Production News

Is the music industry heading into another major reset? On this week’s solo episode, I break down the biggest shifts happening across the music business and music production. In This Episode: And much more. Chapters: 00:00:00 – Coming up… 00:00:52 – Why this music business update matters now 00:01:13 – Are streaming subscriptions reaching the […]

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Episode 625 – Talking Postproduction and Music Licensing With Gary Gray

What matters more in the music business, mastering every plugin, or becoming the kind of person people want to hire again? On this week’s podcast episode, I talk with songwriter, producer, engineer, and educator Gary Gray about music licensing, post production, rhythmic integrity, AI, immersive audio, and the character traits that keep people working in […]

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Episode 624 – Rebuilding Les Paul’s Original Recording Studio

What can Les Paul’s original recording studio reveal about the way modern music production really began? On this week’s episode, I talk with with Tom Camuso, Director of Engineering at The Les Paul Recording Studio, and Michael Braunstein, 3rd Generation Les Paul Manager. We discuss restoring Les Paul’s groundbreaking recording gear, rebuilding his historic studio […]

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Episode 623 – Creator Of The Distressor Dave Derr

What makes the Empirical Labs Distressor such a lasting studio classic? In this episode, I sit down with Dave Derr, founder of Empirical Labs and creator of the Distressor. Among the things we talk about analog compression, product design, the birth of Nuke mode, FATSO, Mike-E, plugins, and the studio lessons that shaped his gear. […]

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