Florian Simmendinger was on the Forbes 30 under 30 list and has built a fantastic wearables company with the aim to make music practice addictive. Based in Hong Kong his company Soundbrenner builds a smartwatch that acts as a metronome through vibration and allows band members to sync up to always stay in rhythm.

We speak about how his products help beginners to learn music, and professionals to be even better. Furthermore we discuss how he got the idea for the device, how it was iterated and how it has been key for the company to be based in Hong Kong.

Please subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss the next episodes. And I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can reach me via the website musicinnovatiopodcast.com .

Enjoy the interview.

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In this special episode we talk to one of the industries most powerful people: the CEO of Sony Music GSA, Patrick Mushatsi-Kareba. He’s been at the forefront of innovation in the music industry for more than 20 years, working at Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), Napster, Apple, Universal and now Sony.

He’s revitalising and adapting this major label to remain competitive in the changing landscape of the music industry.

We discuss his background, how a major label stays relevant in the times of increasing need for independence by artists, and importance of new communication channels.

Please subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss the next episodes. And I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can reach me via the website musicinnovatiopodcast.com .

Enjoy the interview.

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Today we speak to Jeremy Gruber.

He’s a partner at Found.ee and Head of Digital at ‘Friends At Work’, working with artists such as John Legend and Lindsay Sterling.

Found.ee is an extremely powerful marketing platform for artists and their teams. Jeremy talks us through how to grow and engage your audience.

Please subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss the next episodes. And I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can reach me via the website musicinnovatiopodcast.com .

Enjoy the interview.

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Welcome to the MIP.

I’m Florian Wilisch. In this podcast I interview people from the music industry to discuss the newest tools and techniques. I’m interested in uncovering how innovation can make the music industry better for artist and fans!  

Today I speak with Simon from the DJ duo Andhim. Since 2010 Andhim have been playing clubs around the world and releasing music.

In 2013 they produced a remix of the song “Wine And Chocolate” by Theophilus London that got them a lot of attention, and they’ve gone from strength to strength ever since. Now they play 150 shows a year and are constantly on the road.  

In my opinion they have a slightly different way to approach the industry and certainly their relationship to the fans, and that’s why I thought that it would be great to hear their opinion on these subjects.

If you haven’t done so yet, please subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss the next episodes. And I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can reach me via the website musicinnovatiopodcast.com .

Enjoy the interview.

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A few month back we spoke talking to Fabrice Sergent from Bandsintown.

Fabrice is a fascinating person, who’s done great things!

Born in France, he build an internet service provider called Club Internet in the 90s. If you’re french you’ll know this company. It’s basically like AOL in the US.

He started that company small and made it very very big; into a Unicorn in fact! We talk about that in the interview.

He’s a board member for the Mobile Giving Foundation, who enable charities to raise money through SMS - he explains why that’s relevant today.

But of course we mainly spoke about BandsInTown. 

Fabrice explains how they aim to be a media brand and not a service company.

And how they are able to hit the sweet spot: Creating a tool that’s very successful, free for both - artist and fans, and turning over millions of dollars.

Enjoy!

In this episode I’m talking to Rafe Offer. He’s the founder of Sofar Sounds.

You probably know Sofar Sounds. They organise intimate concerts in alternative venues. So from a living room, to an office, to a church - anything that isn’t intended to host a concert.

They are now in more than 400 cities around the world! And I see this as a fascinating lesson of how to follow your passion, help artists, manage to scale a project worldwide, and so much more.

Enjoy!

In this episode I’m speaking to Michael Fritz from Viva Con Agua.

Viva Con Agua is a charity that raises money to drill wells in Africa to give people access to fresh drinking water. And the reason I wanted to have him on the show is because they almost exclusively use artist or athlete endorsement as a vehicle to raise millions of dollars every year.

To name just a few: Ed Sheeran, Wu-Tang Clan, Cypress Hill, Dirk Nowitzki (the basketball player) - They all helped out Viva Con Agua.

What I like about this company is that they make a real difference while working with artists every day with very little to no budget!

They are biggest in Germany but are present around the world, and when we spoke Michael had just moved to LA to take on the US

Please excuse the audio quality at times. Michael is a multitasking father of a beautiful young daughter. That meant that sometimes the microphone was moving around a bit.

Enjoy the interview.

In this episode we’re talking to someone very special, who’s done many things.

Always looking ahead and always thinking outside the box.

His name is Benji Rogers and he is the founder of Pledge Music, a board member of SAE - the renowned school for all thing music & video -, a serial investor and advisor in many music and tech companies, and the founder of the Dot Blockchain Music project!

Benji was so kind to take the time to speak to us at Ludlow House in New York.

The Dot Blockchain Music project is the attempt to create a global decentralized database for music rights, in the blockchain.

I know that sounds very technical! But firstly, we all know how important trackable music rights are to make sure that artists get paid fairly; And Benji has good analogies to explain what the blockchain does. But on top of that, we also speak about the industry more generally and he tells about his approach to using platforms like Facebook to interact with fans - what he recommends you do and what you shouldn’t.

Please note that this interview was recorded a few month’ back, so you might have heard that Benji has now left this company. But nothing we talk about has lost its relevancy.

The DotBlockchainMusic project is something that feels like it should already have been created ages ago, because it’s just fair to artist. Well it hasn’t and Benji took on the task.

I think he’s a very inspiring person for all of us, challenging the status quo, and utilising the newest technologies to do so.

Enjoy!