Above the Noise

My friend Adam Spencer interviewed me for his Australian podcast. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and thought you might too! We discuss the importance of setting goals, seeing the big picture while also focusing on the next small step.

Big Data has become a term that we hear a lot these days. We are all trying to tap into our own data and find ways to turn it into useful information. That's where Data Scientists and Data Journalists come in. They are the ones that interpret the information and then turn that information into insightful information that we can all understand.

There are some great tools out there available to the general public. With some great companies helping make sense of it all, a few of which are focused on the music industry. They help turn relevant data into gold mines of information that can help advance your career and build your brand.

I have been a big fan of Next Big Sound and personally reaped the benefits of their product, as have my clients. In combination with other tools, it has given us creative marketing ideas, a new perspective on how and where to release music, the types of venues to focus on, concepts for custom merch designs that appeal to a specific demographic, and even the type of outside the box partnerships we have developed.

Liv Buli has been successfully turning the raw data into insightful articles that make even the least tech savvy person find an interest in big data. As she puts it, she uses data to decipher the business of music.

Liv has traveled all over the world talking about what she does – from Brisbane, to Chile, to NYU classrooms. She has been invited to speak and participate in panels at SXSW, CMJ, Music Biz, Future of Music Policy Summit, SF Music Tech, BigSound, ByLarm and more. Lately, she has been giving thought as to how to visualize data in simple, elegant ways to build better stories. As she says "...the best data journalism strikes a balance between finding (data science), showing (data visualization), and telling (journalism) a story."

I enjoyed this conversation and as always learned something from it. I hope you do too!

This episode was edited by Andy Warren of www.applesandchocolate.com

Aaron Bethune

Music Specialist. Author. Manager. Creative Collaborator. Speaker.

http://www.playitloudmusic.com

Big Data has become a term that we hear a lot these days. We are all trying to tap into our own data and find ways to turn it into useful information. That's where Data Scientists and Data Journalists come in. They are the ones that interpret the information and then turn that information into insightful information that we can all understand.

There are some great tools out there available to the general public. With some great companies helping make sense of it all, a few of which are focused on the music industry. They help turn relevant data into gold mines of information that can help advance your career and build your brand.

I have been a big fan of Next Big Sound and personally reaped the benefits of their product, as have my clients. In combination with other tools, it has given us creative marketing ideas, a new perspective on how and where to release music, the types of venues to focus on, concepts for custom merch designs that appeal to a specific demographic, and even the type of outside the box partnerships we have developed.

Liv Buli has been successfully turning the raw data into insightful articles that make even the least tech savvy person find an interest in big data. As she puts it, she uses data to decipher the business of music.

Liv has traveled all over the world talking about what she does – from Brisbane, to Chile, to NYU classrooms. She has been invited to speak and participate in panels at SXSW, CMJ, Music Biz, Future of Music Policy Summit, SF Music Tech, BigSound, ByLarm and more. Lately, she has been giving thought as to how to visualize data in simple, elegant ways to build better stories. As she says "...the best data journalism strikes a balance between finding (data science), showing (data visualization), and telling (journalism) a story."

I enjoyed this conversation and as always learned something from it. I hope you do too!

This episode was edited by Andy Warren of www.applesandchocolate.com

Aaron Bethune

Music Specialist. Author. Manager. Creative Collaborator. Speaker.

http://www.playitloudmusic.com

A while back I interviewed Canadian radio promoter, Bill Miller of Sharp 9 Music. I first crossed paths with Bill when he was heading up Pitt Bull Promotions and had successfully developed the company into one of Canada's leading radio promotion companies. He has since started Sharp 9 Music. I was officially introduced through a mutual friend. The friend's band had successfully had their single go top 20 thank's to Bill and Pitt Bull's Promotion machine behind it.

Part of the rockstar dream is to have your music on the radio. Every band wants it but not many understand how to make it happen. Hopefully, this interview will give you a better understanding!

I am a big advocate of hiring people that are experts in their field, rather than try and do everything yourself. That said, I believe it is important to know how things work so that you can better understand the job of the person you are hiring. I have heard mixed opinions around promoting your own single to radio. A hard part is being turned down when pitching your own music, not everyone is cut out to take that with a smile. Some radio promoters have told me that they like it if an artist has tried promoting their first single as it means some of the ground work is done and can even at times lead to bringing the costs down of their services.

For more information on Bill you can visit his website here.

Aaron Bethune

Music Specialist. Author. Manager. Creative Collaborator. Speaker.

www.playitloudmusic.com

A while back I interviewed Canadian radio promoter, Bill Miller of Sharp 9 Music. I first crossed paths with Bill when he was heading up Pitt Bull Promotions and had successfully developed the company into one of Canada's leading radio promotion companies. He has since started Sharp 9 Music. I was officially introduced through a mutual friend. The friend's band had successfully had their single go top 20 thank's to Bill and Pitt Bull's Promotion machine behind it.

Part of the rockstar dream is to have your music on the radio. Every band wants it but not many understand how to make it happen. Hopefully, this interview will give you a better understanding!

I am a big advocate of hiring people that are experts in their field, rather than try and do everything yourself. That said, I believe it is important to know how things work so that you can better understand the job of the person you are hiring. I have heard mixed opinions around promoting your own single to radio. A hard part is being turned down when pitching your own music, not everyone is cut out to take that with a smile. Some radio promoters have told me that they like it if an artist has tried promoting their first single as it means some of the ground work is done and can even at times lead to bringing the costs down of their services.

For more information on Bill you can visit his website here.

Aaron Bethune

Music Specialist. Author. Manager. Creative Collaborator. Speaker.

www.playitloudmusic.com

Sitting here in my hotel room in Nashville I am happy to finally have some time to post this interview with Ruth Blatt. There are many of these yet to come!

I first found out about Ruth when reading one of her articles in Forbes. She writes about popular music using research on management and entrepreneurship. She shows a different side of musicians and music industry professionals by writing about them as navigators of their own careers, as leaders of small businesses, and as part of self-managed creative teams.

Since becoming a father I have thought many times about all the great things music can do to help a person develop their communication skills, relationship skills, leadership skills, how it helps to build confidence and it's many other positive results. I would love and encourage for my children to experiment with music so as to experience the benefits that it has to offer. Most of all to have fun and be creative. Ruth's articles include these same thoughts and present them as business insights to companies, entrepreneurs and the general public. I wanted to ask her some questions of my own so as to gather more insights this time geared towards musicians.

Ruth has a Ph.D. in Management and Organizations from the University of Michigan and taught Entrepreneurship to MBAs at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She has written for TheAtlantic.com, Psychology Today and Wired.com.She currently writing a book about the history and production of rock concerts. If you want to learn more about her you can visit: http://www.therockbandproject.com

This episode was edited by Andy Warren of http://www.applesandchocolate.com

Aaron Bethune

Music Specialist. Creative Collaborator. Author. Musicpreneur

Sitting here in my hotel room in Nashville I am happy to finally have some time to post this interview with Ruth Blatt. There are many of these yet to come!

I first found out about Ruth when reading one of her articles in Forbes. She writes about popular music using research on management and entrepreneurship. She shows a different side of musicians and music industry professionals by writing about them as navigators of their own careers, as leaders of small businesses, and as part of self-managed creative teams.

Since becoming a father I have thought many times about all the great things music can do to help a person develop their communication skills, relationship skills, leadership skills, how it helps to build confidence and it's many other positive results. I would love and encourage for my children to experiment with music so as to experience the benefits that it has to offer. Most of all to have fun and be creative. Ruth's articles include these same thoughts and present them as business insights to companies, entrepreneurs and the general public. I wanted to ask her some questions of my own so as to gather more insights this time geared towards musicians.

Ruth has a Ph.D. in Management and Organizations from the University of Michigan and taught Entrepreneurship to MBAs at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She has written for TheAtlantic.com, Psychology Today and Wired.com.She currently writing a book about the history and production of rock concerts. If you want to learn more about her you can visit: http://www.therockbandproject.com

This episode was edited by Andy Warren of http://www.applesandchocolate.com

Aaron Bethune

Music Specialist. Creative Collaborator. Author. Musicpreneur

Ben's publicist reached out to me a while back when he was in Vancouver with Lionel Ritchie. She connected the two of us which lead to this interview. It was fascinating hearing Ben's story of how he got the gig playing with Lionel Ritchie, Brittany Spears, Christina Aguilera, John Fogerty, Tony Braxton, Don Felder and many more. I will hint that it had something to do with playing all the open mics and jam nights in NYC. Equally as interesting is hearing about how he is pursuing a parallel solo career as an independent artist.

We talk about how he got into music, the importance of practicing, having the right support, persistence, playing out, remembering your beginnings, attitude, personality, learning the hits and how it has affected his personal career, as well as life on the road and his new album.

This is an interview that a lot of you that are working hard to get the big break you've been waiting for will find inspiring and insightful.

This episode was edited by Andy Warren of www.applesandchocolate.com

Aaron Bethune.

Music Specialist. Creative Collaborator. Author. Musicpreneur.

Ben's publicist reached out to me a while back when he was in Vancouver with Lionel Ritchie. She connected the two of us which lead to this interview. It was fascinating hearing Ben's story of how he got the gig playing with Lionel Ritchie, Brittany Spears, Christina Aguilera, John Fogerty, Tony Braxton, Don Felder and many more. I will hint that it had something to do with playing all the open mics and jam nights in NYC. Equally as interesting is hearing about how he is pursuing a parallel solo career as an independent artist.

We talk about how he got into music, the importance of practicing, having the right support, persistence, playing out, remembering your beginnings, attitude, personality, learning the hits and how it has affected his personal career, as well as life on the road and his new album.

This is an interview that a lot of you that are working hard to get the big break you've been waiting for will find inspiring and insightful.

This episode was edited by Andy Warren of www.applesandchocolate.com

Aaron Bethune.

Music Specialist. Creative Collaborator. Author. Musicpreneur.

I recently had a great conversation with David Dufresne, CEO of Bandzoogle, an amazing company that probably a lot of you all ready use to build your websites. Bandzoogle is based in Quebec and have made a major impact on the independent music scene giving tools to musicians to help build their career.

In our conversation we discussed ways you can ensure visitors to your website are converting into fans and spending their time and money where you want them to, website dos and don’ts, apps and responsive websites as well as knowing your audience and who consumes your content. With David’s background as a venture capitalist he shares his unique perspective on this new music industry.

This episode was edited by Andy Warren of http://www.applesandchocolate.com

Take a listen!

Aaron Bethune.

http://www.aaronbethune.com

Music Specialist. Creative Collaborator. Author. Musicpreneur.