Music Business Radio

Kevin Griffin formed the alternative rock band Better Than Ezra in 1988. The band had great success in the 1990s with hits such as "Good", "In the Blood", and "Desperately Wanting", and has continued in the 2000s with hits such as "Extra Ordinary", "A Lifetime", and "Juicy". As a songwriter, he's written for Howie Day, Meat Loaf, and Blondie, among others. David sits down with Kevin to talk about songwriting, performance, and longevity in the music business. For those not on the podcast...

Phin Daly runs Marathon Music Management. He is also known as the manager 3 Doors Down. Steve Robertson is SVP of A&R at Atlantic Records and has worked with acts like Collective Soul, Seven Mary Three, and Matchbox 20. For those not on the podcast...

Mark Steiner is the co-founder of GigSalad, a marketplace for booking bands, musicians, entertainers, speakers and services for parties, productions, and events of all types and sizes. We talk about the live event business and what acts need to know about booking high-dollar corporate gigs. For those not on the podcast...

Matt Bell was lead singer of The Pink Spiders and had a deal with Geffen Records. The act's major-label debut, Teenage Graffiti was produced by Ric Ocasek and the single "Little Razorblade" landed Teenage Graffiti on the Billboard 200. David Bell founded Music City Big Break, a showcase to assist talented up-and-coming musical acts. On this episode, we talk about what new acts need to know about the music business. For those not on the podcast...

Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Gretchen Peters has composed hits for Martina McBride, Etta James, Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill, and George Strait, as well as Neil Diamond and Bryan Adams. Gretchen received the Country Music Association Song Of The Year award for McBride's "Independence Day" in 1995, and was nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Country Song, in 1995 and 1996. As an artist, she has released seven albums of her own. She was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014.  Gretchen talks about her career including the stories behind the songs as well as let us hear songs from her new album, Blackbirds. For those not on the podcast...

Annalee Cantos sits in for David Hooper to talk with Mississippi singer/songwriter Charlie Mars. You're going to enjoy Charlie's hilarious stories about the journey to his success today. For those not on the podcast...

Jennie Smythe is CEO of the digital marketing agency, Girlilla Marketing. She's worked to market dozens of top-shelf artists including Darius Rucker, Ben Rector, Dwight Yoakam, Jason Aldean, and Nickelback. On this episode, we talk about her start in the music business, working for Elektra Entertainment, why she jumped the record label ship to join Internet company YAHOO! as Director of Marketing and Promotion for YAHOO! Music, and making the move to Nashville to start her own music marketing company. Topics discussed include how to get attention online, what makes an effective promotional campaign, breaking new artists, and more. For those not on the podcast...

For more than a decade pianist, sound-sculptor, and songwriter Marco Benevento has been amassing an extensive resume of composition and collaboration. His studio albums have set forth a vision for music that connects the dots between Explosions In The Sky and Tortoise on one side, Brian Eno and Brad Mehldau on the other, while in the live setting his performances reverberate with pulsating dance rock energy. Dan Buckley sits down with Marco and discusses his musical process. They travel through Benevento's successful career. Also discussed are the benefits of starting your own record company. For those not on the podcast...

Nick Palladino is the President and primary Director for Moo Creative. He's done work for Garth Brooks, OneRepublic, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, and Toby Keith, among others. On this episode we talk about the current state of music videos, getting better content using fewer dollars, building stature for yourself (and your music career), finding creative talent, and creating promotional content that is true to your vision as an artist. For those not on the podcast...

Two of Music Business Radio's favorite guests return this week -- Michael Omartian and Terry Christian. Michael alone has participated in sales of over 350,000,000 albums as a producer, arranger, artist and musician. He’s also been nominated for 17 Grammy Awards including Album and Producer of the Year. As a team, producer Omartian and engineer Christian, have worked with Steely Dan, Whitney Houston, Christopher Cross and Amy Grant, just to name a few. On this episode they introduce new artist Andrew Manzardo. You'll hear A&R, songwriting, and production stories as well as an in-studio performance from Andrew. Want more from Andrew? Check out his releases on iTunes. For those not on the podcast...

Steve Keller, CEO of iV Audio Branding, began his start in the Nashville music scene by making dance remixes of country hits for artists like Tim McGraw and Wynnona. He is an expert on all things related to audio branding. iV Audio is an audio agency that provides strategic audio branding for global agencies and brands (Olay, The Ellen Degeneres, CBS TV). On this episode, Steve talks about audio brand strategy and identity creation, branded content creation, channeling chaos as a creative construct, and much more!  For those not on the podcast...

David Dufresne is CEO of Bandzoogle, a platform for musicians to build websites, engage fans, and sell music and merch directly. More than 20,000 musicians and bands use Bandzoogle. David has a venture capitalist background and spent eight years placing bets on software, web, and video game startups. We talk about the parallels between "startup" culture and the music business, how the Internet has changed everything for musicians, and answer the question, "Do musicians really need a website?" For those not on the podcast...