This week we are joined by Nathan Barley Phillips senior A&R at Nuclear Blast Records.   Barly gives us his thoughts on what labels look for when signing artists, the role of an A&R in today's music industry and the long term strategy thinking that bands must adopt in order to last and succeed at being in a band over a long period of time.

Jerry Ewing, editor and founder of PROG magazine and the host of the annual Progressive Music awards, joins us for this week's Coffee or Beer. Come with us on a debaucherous trip into Jerry's past and how he came to start Classic Rock and PROG magazines. We find out about how much the industry has changed over the years and what's in store for the future of printed press.

He's back! After almost a year since the first episode with Lewis his career has rocketed into bigger and better places. We catch up with him to find out more about how shooting the recent videos for Pendulum and The Hunna was and what it was like being nominated for a VMA Award for his video he did with All Time Low.

When it comes to music education and mentoring musicians to strategise their career, Damian has proven he is the best in the world.  At 23, Damian founded and built The British Institute of Modern Music (BIMM - now known as BIMM Institute), currently valued at over $100m, and they are the largest set of music colleges in the world. Artists that studied at BIMM under Damian include George Ezra, The Kooks and James Bay.   In addition to this, Damian has worked as a professional bass player internationally, alongside artists such as Eric Clapton, Alanis Morissette, The Who and Bob Dylan.    After building BIMM, Damian went on to successfully build and invest in several other businesses, including a management company for musicians (DK Music Management), a live agency (Warble Entertainment) and a social media company (Black Rock Media).  The constant for Damian has always been educating & advising musicians throughout all stages of their career, whilst being at the forefront of navigating changes in the music industry.  Damian has built an online community of over 100k musicians online, through YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.  Damian has also released two Amazon best-selling books for musicians, The Rule Breakers Guide to Social Media & Stop Selling Music: Career Changing Lessons for Musicians.    Damian is inundated with messages every day from musicians wanting his expertise & guidance for their career.  He realised that he wasn’t able to keep up with the demand through YouTube & Instagram alone, so wanted to establish a community where musicians can have more access to him & his training.

Alex is a senior label manager at The Orchard one of the worlds largest distribution companies operating in 25 global markets.  We discuss how The Orchard releases music in today's market, strategies and services that are popular right now and other ways bands can distribute and market themselves effectively to promote their latest releases.  

For more information about The Orchard check out: https://www.theorchard.com

Is print dead? Or dying? Do people even read magazines anymore?   What role does a magazine like Metal Hammer play in today's music scene?  What are publications doing now to adapt and change with the times, how does their online presence complement their physical outlet and what do bands have to do to get featured in these publications?  All of this plus a whole lot more.   Support the Metal Hammer team by subscribing to the mag, following them on socials and checking out the podcast!

Years of hard graft, persistence and determination are what Sophie attributes to her success.  Conducting excellent live interviews with huge artists in high pressured situations is not easy. To gain the skills required takes practice, making mistakes and learning from them, and knowing your own strengths and weaknesses on the camera.  As well as presenting, Sophie produces video content and marketing campaigns for brands such as Primark and Ugg.    Sophie presents the Kerrang! Radio Breakfast Show and has worked for over 10 years in the music industry.

Ben Patashnik is the European Label Manager for Unified Music Group.  With a career in the music business expanding 10 + years, Ben’s seen a lot of change over that time when it comes to the success and development of artists.  In today's episode we touch on some vital points such as the importance of hard work and grafting, a right of passage that any band in the rock/metal scene, in particular, has to go through, how there is no such thing as an overnight success and the first and most important thing to do is write the best song you can.   We also discuss Spotify and how that shapes the way a label approaches an artist’s release as well as what skills are missing from the industry, but will be of the most benefit going forward that someone who wants to work in music could begin to learn now.

Jack has experienced and learnt from many aspects of the music industry over the past decade. He spent his earlier years writing, recording and touring the UK and EU in his band Giants (signed with Holy Roar Records) and working for Basick records, and he is now primarily recording/producing as well as running a digital marketing agency.  This incredibly talented and all round lovely bloke delivers some seriously sound advice for young artists. We discuss the world of streaming and how the way people consume music is changing, and what that means for artists releasing new material. He also covers playing live and the importance of running your band like a business.   

To find out more about Jack and the services he offers - drop him a line via the links below.  www.jacklongman.com [email protected]

Anurag Tagat is a freelance journalist who writes for multiple music publications including Rolling Stone India. He's been writing about the rock and metal scene in India for many years and has witnessed the genre grow and change.  We talk about how certain festivals are starting to embrace metal music more and more. We also discuss the difficulties in breaking a metal band in India, and the do's and don'ts live that can make the difference between a great review and a bad one.