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Huntsville, AL - a.k.a. Rocket City. It's got NASA's Marshall Center, the Army's Redstone Arsenal, and a major FBI operational center. It's got the highest engineering degrees per capita in the whole U.S. And now, it has an administration who wants to build it into a Music City with intentional and committed policymaking.

But there's no guarantee that if you build it, they will come. I traveled to northern Alabama to interview folks involved, and hear their takes on why they think it will work - or not.

Export The Sound & Music Cities Events present: 

The Shoals & Huntsville

How to put a music city on the map - by leveraging its musical history, or making one

Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Percy Sledge, Bob Seger, the Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett, George Michael, Paul Simon... all trekked to the corner of Alabama to record in Muscle Shoals. I traveled to Northern Alabama to find out more about this history, and what the city is trying to do today to carry its cultural inheritance to future musical placemaking.

Export The Sound & Music Cities Events present: 

The Shoals & Huntsville

How to put a music city on the map - by leveraging its musical history, or making one

My guest today is Ibukun Ademoye, a manager, Artists & Repertoire (or A&R) executive, and all around hustler in the Nigerian music business based in Lagos. Ibukun has been recently setting his sights on going international by arranging a UK tour for an up and coming Afrobeat artist he's managing, Ladé, with more planned for the future.

SONGS

Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, the founder of Westside Music, Mattias Tell, joins me to discuss the ins and outs of booking Swedish indie bands in Europe and beyond: through the examples of psychadelic cocktail boogie outfit Boo Boo Bama Orchestra and shoegaze dream band Boy with Apple we learn how to book tours, what bands make the cut, and how booking within the European Union is a lot easier than elsewhere.

SONGS

The Boo Boo Bama Orchestra - THE HEAT

Boy with Apple - Strawberry Boy

In this episode, Ken Kobori, founder of Tokyo-based music marketplace SURF Music, joins me to talk about helping Western producers collaborate with East Asian record labels, Japan's unique lead publisher system, the formation of the K-Pop sound thru overseas collaboration, and karaoke, baby!

SONGS

Little Glee Monster - SPIN

In this episode, Diego Maldonado, global head of rights management for ONErpm, joins me to discuss the Latin American streaming market, what it takes to come up in this market as a new artist, Brazil as a musical planet, and why Latin America (or LatAm) needs a big education boost on music rights.

SONGS

Nanpa Basico - Flaca

Kevin o Chris - Incendeia

In today’s episode, I invite Dr. Shain Shapiro of Sound Diplomacy to discuss how music policy can transform a place: how it can make a difference in a place’s economy, tourism, and quality of life. We talk about Belfast and Anguilla as local examples, and a handful of national-level music policies as well.

Songs

Barnbrack - Belfast

Andy Palacio - Gimme Punta Rock

In today’s episode, I am joined by Stephen Dowler, head of Asia Pacific at Monstercat. We talk about Monstercat’s distribution approach across the variety of channels in the region, the labels’ community building efforts both online and offline, and the particular case study of Dexter King, a leading house producer and DJ from China.

Songs:

Sugar by Weird Genius & Sarah de Warren

Take Me Into Space by DEXTER KING & Dada Life

My guest today is Foza Fawehinmi, a Lagos based music lawyer, business executive, and talent manager working in the West African music industry for over a decade. She is truly a multifaceted player from both the law and the business side, working licensing deals with international entities like the NFL and the Ellen Show, while also developing up and coming talent like P.Priime, Tempoe, and Gbasky with the Sarz Academy.

Songs:

Love Nwantini by CKay

Logba Logba by Simi

Calm Down (ft. Selena Gomez) by Rema