Audio Products Podcast

By Wojciech OzimekTechnology Music Music Interviews

Audio Products Podcast episodes

October 15 3 Audio Legends. 3 Big Lessons
🎙️ Here are the top 3 episodes from Season 2 of the Audio Products Podcast

Building products with Andrew Scheps - 3x time-Grammy-winning mix engineer
Exploring music technology with Jordan Rudess - legendary keyboard virtuoso and music innovator
Inside soothe3 with Hannes Andersson(CEO) and Atte Karm (Marketing Director) from oeksound (recorded in their Helsinki office)
3 min
August 17 #36 Inside Focusrite Group: How Great Audio Products Get Made
Our guest is Will Hoult, Head of Product: Focusrite and Novation at Focusrite Group.

In this episode we talk about:

✅ Product leadership across Focusrite and Novation

Will's work sits across recording interfaces, pro audio systems and electronic music workflows. We dig into what changes when product discovery moves between different users, brands and product categories.

✅ From PM to Head of Product

Will's path from RedNet Product Manager to Head of Product for Focusrite and Novation gives a clear view into product career progression. We talk about what changes when you move from owning one roadmap to leading a broader portfolio across multiple user groups and product lines.

✅ Focusrite culture and long-term careers

Will joined Focusrite in 2010 and has grown through multiple roles there. We talk about why people stay at Focusrite for a long time, what keeps product people motivated and how long-term company culture shapes better audio-product work.

If you are a product manager, audio-product builder, DSP engineer, hardware/software team member, R&D leader, indie founder, or anyone building professional or creator audio products - this episode will provide a lot of inspiration.

➡️ Join our Discord
https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events
https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr
1 hr 1 min
August 03 #35 What MusicTech Can Solve and What It Can’t
Our guest is Maciej Dulski, Co-Owner and Managing Partner at MusicTech Lab and Co-Founder of MusicTech Poland.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ Trends in music tech
Maciek shares which music-tech trends matter most right now, and why AI provenance is the big one.

✅ What software can and cannot fix in music
Royalty dashboards, streaming analytics, superfan apps, music marketing tools, and DSP integrations can make real work clearer.

✅ How music-tech startups move beyond demos
We talk about traction, fundraising, MusicTech VCs and the product choices behind independent and major-label workflows.

If you are a music-tech founder, product manager, investor, accelerator team, or part of a music business team - this episode will provide a lot of inspiration.
➡️ MusicTech Poland
https://www.linkedin.com/company/musictech-poland/

#MusicTech #AudioTech #MusicBusiness #AIProvenance #MusicStartups
1 hr 15 min
June 29 #34 How Moonbase fixes indie plugin launches

Our guest is Tobias Lønnerød Madsen, Founder of Moonbase - a storefront system built for audio plugin companies.

Moonbase is a sponsor of Audio Product Jam Stockholm #1 that will be hosted at XLN Audio on September 10th.

👉 Learn more about Moonbase:
https://moonbase.sh/a/product-jam

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ Why audio plugins need their own commercial stack
Generic checkout tools break down fast when a plugin company needs partial bundle upgrades, offline activations, subscriptions, cross-grades, and long product lifecycles. Tobias explains why licensing, storefront, marketing data, and customer ownership need to work as one product system.

✅ Licensing and installation as customer experience
For plugin companies, activation is not a detail hidden in the backend. It shapes first impressions, support load, and trust.

✅ Data as a key asset of the product launch
When a company knows what a customer owns, it can build smarter upgrades, loyalty discounts, trials, bundles, and launch campaigns. That changes how indie audio companies sell products without copying generic SaaS logic.

✅ Challenges that audio founders have
Tobias talks about the challenges of plugin developers he works with as well as his dilemmas as a founder.

If you are an indie founder, product manager, DSP engineer, UX designer, or part of an audio software team - this episode will provide a lot of inspiration.

🎙️ After the premiere, the episode will be available on all streaming platforms.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe to Audio Products Podcast:
https://audioproductacademy.com/

Cheers!
1 hr 4 min
June 15 #33 Breaking Into Audio: the state of the Job Market
Our guest is Zach Kornhauser — Editor-in-Chief of our 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. He is also a Billboard-charting, RIAA-certified mastering engineer with more than fifteen years of experience shaping the sound of contemporary music. Formerly the head mastering engineer at Atlantic Records NYC.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ Navigating the Audio Tech Career Path
How Zach navigated the professional audio space to his current role, and the key lessons learned along the way.

✅ The State of the Audio Job Market
A deep dive into the current hiring landscape for professional audio product teams, and how the roles companies are hiring for are shifting.

✅ AI and Macroeconomic Factors
The real impact of AI, tariffs, and supply chain shifts on product management and engineering roles in audio.

✅ Why did we start the Audio Products Newsletter?
We discuss the vision behind the newsletter, what readers can expect from it, and why now is the perfect time to launch.

You can sign up here
👉 https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr
1 hr 7 min
May 25 #32 Inside soothe 3 and oeksound’s product philosophy

Our guests are Hannes Andersson and Atte Karm from oeksound. Hannes is CEO and Atte is Marketing Director at the company behind Soothe, Spiff, Bloom.

They have just released soothe 3, the newest version of their flagship plugin, loved by mixing and mastering engineers all around the world. We visited oeksound HQ in Helsinki before the official launch and had a great conversation about their products and business philosophy.

We talked about:

✅ oeksound's product strategy
We chatted about oeksound's history and how they came up with ideas for products and the process of launching them to the market.

✅ How a small audio team stays trusted
oeksound has remained focused: a small specialist team, a tight product line, and tools that engineers actually use in real sessions. We discuss how that discipline shapes product decisions, positioning, and growth.

✅ What is new in Soothe3 and what comes next
We also talk about what is new in Soothe3, what this release says about oeksound's current direction, and how the team thinks about the company's next chapter

More about soothe3
👉 https://lnkd.in/gggpGXnM

If you are an audio founder, product manager, UX designer, product marketer, or indie audio company building professional tools — this episode will provide a loooot of inspiration.
Follow us:

➡️ Join our Discord
https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events
https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

➡️ All streaming links
https://audioproductacademy.com/podcast/
2 hr 36 min
May 11 #31 Marketing Ethical AI in Music: From Hype to Trust with Varda Caspi
Our guest is Varda Caspi — VP Marketing at Aiode. Aiode is an Abbey Road -backed company building ethical AI tools for music creation

👉Learn about Aiode here:
https://aiode.com/

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ What ethical AI actually means in music tech
Varda breaks down what "ethical AI" should mean in practice: transparent training methods, clear consent from musicians, and business models where artists are not just data sources but participants in the value chain. We also discuss how royalties can work when models are trained on real performances and generate stems based on that material — and why compensation frameworks will be critical if AI music tools want long-term trust from creators.

✅ Marketing AI when the product is the controversy
Aiode sits at the intersection of creative tools and generative AI — a space that artists, labels, and publishers are still actively debating. Varda explains how to build credible positioning and trust in a market that hasn't settled on the rules yet.

✅ The Product × Marketing handshake
When founders build first and hand off to marketing at launch, they're already late. Varda shares how she structures early-stage collaboration between product and marketing at Aiode and what drives growth in an AI company.

If you are a founder, product marketer, growth lead or PM building music tech or AI audio products, this episode will offer plenty of inspiration.

➡️ Join our Discord
https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events
https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

1 hr 58 min
April 27 #30 Marketing playbook behind top audio brands with Amanda Whiting Gerstle
Our guest is Amanda Whiting Gerstle — a strategic marketing leader in music tech and pro audio, who worked with iconic brands like Universal Audio, Splice, and Roland Corporation.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ How startups should build marketing from scratch
We go deep into what early-stage audio companies should focus on first, how to avoid common mistakes, and when it makes sense to bring in external expertise

✅ Marketing funnels, channels and what actually drives sales
We explore how funnels really work in audio, what channels matter in 2026, and why most companies struggle to convert attention into revenue

✅ How to build and scale marketing in audio companies
From product marketing to branding — Amanda shares how marketing should work with Product and Sales, and where it should sit in the organisation

We also discuss AI, market saturation, and what it really takes to stand out today.

If you’re building an audio startup, Amanda can also help you through her work as a Fractional CMO at Synthesize Marketing
→ https://www.synthesize.marketing/

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events
https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

➡️ Join our Discord
https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR
1 hr 36 min
April 13 #29 Make Hardware Great Again with Ross Totino
Our guest is Ross Totino — Product Developer, Sound Designer, and expert in audio hardware and DSP systems who worked on many iconic products we love.
In this episode, we talk about:
✅ How to build a career in hardware product development
Ross shares how he moved from technician roles into sound design and product development in Electro-Harmonix and Line 6 and how those helped me to further work with iconic brands Eventide Audio.
✅ How analog gear is modelled in the digital world
We explore DSP modeling, perception vs. accuracy, and how developers recreate character — not just circuits.
✅ Why Silicon Valley VC capitalist mentality severely impacted the economy and the music industry
Can we get away from the totally software-focused, short-term profit-seeking, fake it ’til you make it” approach?
✅ The state of the industry today
“𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦… 𝘏𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺’𝘴 𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳.”
➡️ Join our Discord
https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events
https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

Ross's band

➡️ Fans of Collision Bandcamp:
https://fansofcollision.bandcamp.com/

➡️ Fans of Collision Sounds on Gumroad:
https://rtotino.gumroad.com/

Products Ross worked on:

➡️ EHX Holy Grail:
https://youtu.be/tCXxuyu_N8g?si=6hLGibQaBsvERIsK

➡️ Line 6 ToneCore:
https://youtu.be/SKWbT6gbFeM?si=QpB8A7UFd40zMYHm

➡️ Umlaut Audio:
https://youtu.be/Vc8nwi5Attk?si=3atLHm7XFCzhBJ28

The other mentioned gear

➡️ Media Overkill:
https://mok.com/

➡️ Twisted-Electrons:
https://www.twistedelectrons.com/megafm

➡️ Kawai K5000s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawai_K5000

➡️ Korg DSS-1:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korg_DSS-1
2 hr 6 min
March 30 #28 What is Audio Product Academy?
This time Wojciech in the solo episode.

We want to pause to:

✅ Reflect on what is actually missing in the audio business education space
✅ Discuss why generic content does not translate into real-world audio product skills
✅ Explain what Audio Product Academy is and why it exists (besides the podcast)

➡️ Check our course platform
https://audioproductacademy.com/

➡️ Our audio PM meetups - Audio Product Jams
https://audioproductacademy.com/

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content
https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

➡️ Join our Discord
https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events
https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr
38 min

About Audio Products Podcast

From the publisher's feed

We are meeting with pro audio industry veterans: founders, product managers, UX designers to learn how they build and manage the products we love.

You will get tips on how to navigate your career in audio and how to develop a successful audio product – from musical instruments, through audio plugins and gaming middleware to music distribution platforms and consumer electronics like headphones, mics or even automotive speaker systems

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Audio Products Podcast

Audio Products Podcast episodes

About Audio Products Podcast