Podcasts by The Zak Kuhn Show
Zak Kuhn is an entertainment entrepreneur and media personality always at the intersection of music and culture through his various ventures. Most notably, he is the Founder
Further podcasts by Zak Kuhn
Podcast on the topic Musikinterviews
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Pilgrimage founders Kevin Griffin and Brandt Wood from 2022-02-22T04:30:03.277734
On episode 72, Kevin Griffin and Brandt Wood talk with Zak about how they created the iconic Tennessee music festival Pilgrimage. We also get into what fans can expect from the upcoming 2021 event,...
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Bryan Benson from 2022-02-22T04:30:03.273723
Brian Benson is the Vice President of Booking at AC Entertainment. He has been with the company for over 20 years and is perhaps best known for booking Bonnaroo. We talk about how he builds the lin...
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Dustin Boyer talks about how to grow your Spotify following from 2022-02-22T04:30:03.265316
Dustin Boyer is a partner at Venture Music, one of the top digital marketing firms in Nashville. We talk about how to grow a fanbase, TikTok strategy, what most artists get wrong when it comes to m...
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Marshall Sandman talks bringing back the woolly mammoth from 2022-02-22T04:30:03.261925
Marshall Sandman is the Managing Partner of Animal Capital, a venture firm that was co-founded with manager Michael Gruen and some of the biggest influencers on the planet. With the help of fellow ...
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Billy F. Gibbons talks early days of ZZ Top, playing with Jimi Hendrix and favorite Mexican food in Nashville from 2022-02-22T04:30:03.260833
Legendary ZZ Top guitarist Billy F. Gibbons is on the podcast this week and he has a new solo album, "Hardware." We discuss the early days of ZZ Top, what is was like opening for Jimi Hendrix, what...
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Mike Errico talks about his new book, country guitar playing and why more songwriters should study wheel makers from 2022-01-25T07:54:42
Mike Errico is a New York-based recording artist, writer and teaches songwriting at universities including Yale, Wesleyan, The New School, and NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. He has ...
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Panos Panay talks Recording Academy, building Sonicbids and why artists make the best entrepreneurs from 2021-11-16T06:08:26
Panos Panay is the Co-President of The Recording Academy. Prior to his current role he served as the Senior Vice President for Global Strategy & Innovation at Berklee College of Music. A serial ent...
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Kristian Bush from 2021-10-26T05:00:43
Kristian Bush is a singer, songwriter, record producer and one half of the country music duo Sugarland. In this episode we talk about how Kristian prepared for his TED Talk, how he wrote the openin...
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Bruce Pomahac talks Rodgers & Hammerstein and Annie Get Your Gun from 2021-10-19T05:15:52
For over twenty years Bruce Pomahac was the Director of Music for The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization in New York City, where he helmed the restorations and supervised new editions of OKLAHOMA...
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Carter Faith from 2021-09-28T05:16:07
Carter Faith is a Nashville songwriter and artist on the rise. We discuss her path as an artist, why she moved to Nashville and her songwriting process. For Carter, it's all about the song but she ...
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Pete Ganbarg from 2021-09-21T05:02:51
Pete Ganbarg is a true record man. He is a 2-time Grammy winning executive who is the President of A&R at Atlantic Records. He learned the business from Clive Davis and over the past 30+ years has ...
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Charlie Davis from 2021-09-14T05:21:43
Charlie Davis is the founder of Preffy, a brand new marketing platform that was recently acquired by Nashville based company Songfluencer. Preffy is changing the way artists engage with fans by all...
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Ted Chapin from 2021-08-31T05:13:21
Ted Chapin is the former president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. He has lead Broadway productions and revivals, including “South Pacific” Broadway revival, “The King and I,” “Oklahoma!...
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Lori McKenna from 2021-08-17T05:30:54
All the way from Boston, Lori McKenna is one of Nashville’s most in demand songwriters. From Girl Crush to Humble and Kind to Always Remember Us This Way, Lori has written some of country’s biggest...
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Mary Rahmani from 2021-08-10T06:39:51
Mary Rahmani is Triller’s global head of partnerships and TikTok’s first U.S. music executive. Most recently she launched Moon Projects, a new agency specializing in creator curation; content strat...
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Emily Oberman from 2021-07-20T05:55:47
Emily Oberman is a New York-based multidisciplinary designer and a partner at design studio Pentagram. She is responsible for the recent rebrand of Warner Chappell and Warner Records. Emily is also...
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Tenille Townes from 2021-07-13T06:49:22
Tenille Townes is doing country music her way. The rising star is getting ready to release new music and hit the road with Brothers Osborne. We talk about her new single "Girl Who Didn't Care", the...
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Jennifer Turner from 2021-06-29T05:57:57
Jennifer Turner is the CEO of the Tennessee Performing Art Center (TPAC). We talk about how she got the gig, what goes into organizing the season, the future of theater in Nashville and so much mor...
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Robyn Ottolini from 2021-06-22T07:05:35
Robyn Ottolini describes herself as the Eminem of country music. No joke. In 2020, Ottolini's career took off with the viral TikTok hit “F-150”. Since then, she signed with Warner Music Nashville, ...
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John Marks from 2021-06-15T05:00:40
John Marks has been the Global Head of Country at Spotify since 2015. He moved to Nashville in 2010 to work at SiriusXM, where he became Head of Country Music Programming. During his tenure at Siri...
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John Marks from 2021-06-15T05:00:40
John Marks has been the Global Head of Country at Spotify since 2015. He moved to Nashville in 2010 to work at SiriusXM, where he became Head of Country Music Programming. During his tenure at S...
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John Marks from 2021-06-15T05:00:40
John Marks has been the Global Head of Country at Spotify since 2015. He moved to Nashville in 2010 to work at SiriusXM, where he became Head of Country Music Programming. During his tenure at S...
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David Ross from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.712409
David Ross is the founder of Music Row, one of the most prolific trade magazines in Country Music. Hear Ross' story about creating the publication, running it for over 30 years, meeting a young Ta...
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Del Bryant from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.706286
Del Bryant is the President and CEO emeritus of BMI. He is also the son of legendary songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who are considered the first professional songwriters in Nashville. Tog...
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Will Farrell-Green (Live Episode) from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.705516
Will Farrell-Green is the head of Music Content at Twitch. This episode was recorded live as an industry webinar. We talk about best streaming strategies, if your artists should be on Twitch, how t...
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Graeme Winder from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.702427
Graeme Winder is an entrepreneur, music educator and founder of Keys & Kingdoms, a video game platform that is changing the way kids learn music. Having struggled himself learning music, Graeme is...
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Sherod Robertson from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.700606
Sherod Robertson is the President and Owner of Music Row Magazine. Prior to running Music Row, Robertson served as Director of Finance at Arista Records after beginning his career as Vice President...
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John Esposito from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.698061
John Esposito is Chairman and CEO of Warner Music Nashville. He has been running the label for over a decade and has signed acts like Dan + Shay, Kenny Chesney, Brett Eldredge, Ingrid Andress, Gab...
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Stephanie Wright from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.697520
Stephanie Wright is the Senior Vice President of A&R at Universal Music Nashville. She has been with the company for over 20 years and worked closely with some of the most iconic acts in modern Cou...
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Will Tenney from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.695086
Will Tenney is the head of streaming strategy & promotion at Crush Music, where he oversees data & record consumption for Lorde, Sia, Alec Benjamin, and Green Day, among others. Listen to hear how...
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Ingrid Andress from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.694236
Ingrid Andress is one of Nashville's fastest rising country stars. The deluxe version of her debut album Lady Like is out now.
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David Dufresne from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.689631
David Dufresne is a partner at Panache Ventures, one of the most active and best performing Canadian venture capital funds. Prior to that, he was the Head of Strategy & Growth at Bandcamp. Prior to...
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Troy Cartwright from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.689007
Troy Cartwright is getting ready for his first major-label single “Hung Up On You”, to impact country radio on 11/16. He is signed to Warner Nashville and came up playing shows across Texas. This i...
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Pete Griffin from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.684831
Pete Griffin is the CEO of Musicians On Call. For more than 20 years, the national organization has brought live and recorded music to patients, doctors and nurses in hospitals nationwide. To date ...
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Spencer Crandall & Jeff Cherry from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.684126
Spencer Crandall is one of Nashville's most talked about rising artists. With over 1 million followers on TikTok and over 1.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, he has built a massive fanbase, c...
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R.J. Romeo & Brian Bauer from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.683455
R.J. Romeo is the president of Romeo Entertainment Group, one of the leading independent talent buyers in the US. Brian Bauer is the founder and president of Bauer Entertainment Marketing, one of t...
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Andrew Stone from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.681349
Andrew Stone is the Head of Chugg Music, the Management, Publishing, and Record Label arm of Chugg Entertainment. He manages Australian superstars like Sheppard, Lime Cordiale and Mia Rodriguez. An...
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Mike Deestro from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.678477
Mike Deestro is the head writer for The Bobby Bones Show. He has been with Bobby since the very beginning and has been part of his incredible rise in Country Radio. In addition, Mike is a movie/Hol...
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Chris Swanson from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.677744
Chris Swanson is the co-founder of Secretly Group, which includes independent record labels Dead Oceans, Jagjaguwar, The Numero Group and Secretly Canadian, as well as music publisher Secretly Publ...
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Michael Barra & Stephen Snedden from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.674389
Michael Barra & Stephen Snedden are the lead producers behind the Florida Georgia Line inspired musical "May We All". The show plans on making its debut in June of 2022 and will be part of the upco...
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Sarah Trahern from 2021-06-01T07:37:42.671315
Sarah Trahern is the CEO of the Country Music Association (CMA). We dive deep into her journey to Music City, how the CMA is innovating around the world today, the recovery of the music industry an...
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Tracy Gershon from 2021-05-25T05:27:32
Tracy Gershon is a leader in the entertainment industry and music business. She has worked with and signed artists like Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, The Mavericks, Brandi Carlile and many othe...
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Adam Lowenberg from 2021-05-18T05:43:18
Adam Lowenberg is the Chief Marketing Officer at Primary Wave. He is responsible for some of the most compelling and unique marketing concepts within the modern music industry. Prior to being at Pr...
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Adam Sansiveri from 2021-05-11T05:09
Adam C. Sansiveri is Head of the Nashville Private Client Group at AllianceBernstein. He is also a Broadway producer, film financier, tech entrepreneur, philanthropist, restaurateur and a renewable...
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Seth Godin from 2021-04-27T06:23:02
Seth Godin is an institution. He is a teacher, author, entrepreneur and you will have a hard time finding a modern business book that does not reference his work at least once. We go on a wild ride...
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Ian Munsick from 2021-04-20T05:08:15
Ian Munsick is that guy. He is one of Nashville most buzzed about artists and signed with Warner Nashville in 2020. Munsick is co-managed by his wife and legendary manager of George Strait, Erv Woo...
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Kurt Deutsch from 2021-04-13T06:08:21
Kurt Deutsch is the Senior Vice President for Theatrical & Catalog Development at Warner/Chappell. He is also the President and founder of Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight Records. Kurt has worked on some ...
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Joseph Hudak from 2021-03-30T06:11:07
Joseph Hudak is the senior editor at Rolling Stone's Nashville office, which covers the country and Americana genres. Prior to joining the iconic title in 2014, he was the managing editor of Countr...
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Ken Davenport from 2021-03-23T06:40:17
Ken Davenport is a Tony Award-winning Broadway producer whose credits include Once On This Island (Tony Award), The Play that Goes Wrong, Groundhog Day, Godspell, Kinky Boots (Tony Award), 13 The M...
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Jordan Burger from 2021-03-16T18:12:08
Jordan Burger is the head of Madison House Nashville. He has worked with artists such as Oasis, Squeeze, Kid Rock, Kevin Costner, Southern Avenue, Sugar Ray, Los Lonely Boys, Rob Zombie, Marc Cohn,...
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Jody Williams from 2021-02-23T06:26:37
Jody Williams might as well be a Nashville institution. Born and raised in Nashville, he started his career in the mail room at BMI. He then climbed the ranks to work at publishing companies like C...
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Martha Earls from 2021-02-16T07:37:33
Martha Earls is the longtime manager of country superstar Kane Brown. Prior to that, she had careers at companies like Warner Chappell, BMG and co-founded the Company that would eventually become B...
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Mat Devine from 2021-01-26T07:37:22
Mat Devine is the head of Music Partnerships for Cameo. Prior to that he created and fronted the alternative rock band Kill Hannah, which was signed to Atlantic Records. He also starred in the Spid...
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Ben Vaughn from 2021-01-19T06:18:46
Ben Vaughn is the President/CEO of Warner/Chappell Nashville. Prior to that, he was the youngest executive to head a major publisher in Nashville, as EVP & GM at EMI. Vaughn started out running an ...
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Clarence Spalding from 2020-12-15T07:35:13
Clarence Spalding is a partner in Maverick and the founder of Spalding Entertainment. He manages country megastars like Jason Aldean, Rascal Flatts, Brooks & Dunn, Reba & Darius Rucker. When it com...
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Lee Greenwood from 2020-12-10T22:26:18
Lee Greenwood, the myth, the legend, the patriot. This was a fun one! We talk about his biggest hits, how his song ends up in presidential campaigns and so much more.
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Leslie Fram & Matt Pinfield from 2020-11-24T07:03:06
On our 40th episode special, we are pulling out all the stops! Leslie Fram is the senior VP of music strategy for CMT. Matt Pinfield is the legendary host of MTV's 120 Minutes. What do Leslie and M...
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Stephen Day from 2020-11-19T07:12:21
Stephen Day's music makes me feel good. He is one of Nashville most talked about rising stars and has over 32 million streams to his name. Before Covid, he was getting ready to headline his very fi...
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Teddy Robb from 2020-11-12T06:00
Teddy Robb's brand new single "Heaven On Dirt" is out on Country radio right now. He is signed to Shane McAnally's Monument Records and is one of the nicest rising stars in Nashville.
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Ashley Cooke & Chris Ruediger of "The 615 House" from 2020-10-29T05:00
Ashley Cooke & Chris Ruediger are the co-creators of The 615 House. The group of rising country artists have recently been going viral on TikTok, collectively reaching over one million viewers each...
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Dan Rogers from 2020-10-27T06:39:12
Dan Rogers is the Executive Producer of The Grand Ole Opry. He started with the show as an intern over 20 years ago. Today, he is leading one of America's great treasures into the modern age. Tune ...
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Tom Chapin from 2020-10-22T06:16:27
Tom Chapin is a three time Grammy winning singer-songwriter. He is the brother of legendary artist Harry Chapin. Above all, he is the first artist I ever fell in love with, at 5 years old. Tune in...
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Matt Graham from 2020-10-20T06:35:52
Matt Graham is the manager of country superstars Midland. He is a co-founder of Range Media and grew up in the business promoting college shows with Scooter Braun. He was one of the first managers ...
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Matt Stell from 2020-10-15T05:38:47
Fresh off his #1 single Prayed For You, Matt Stell is releasing a brand new EP titled "Better Than That". He is one of the nicest guys in country music, and his amazing career is just getting star...
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Beth Laird from 2020-10-13T06:47:18
Beth Laird is the founder of Creative Nation, a Nashville-based music company home to some of the industry’s top songwriters, producers and artists. If you want insight into what it takes to run a ...
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Charlie Starr from 2020-09-22T06:13
Charlie Starr is the lead vocalist and guitarist of Blackberry Smoke. Hear about the bands drive-in shows, Charlie's musical influences, the group’s new album produced by Dave Cobb, and so much mor...
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Becky Gardenhire from 2020-09-15T05:00
Becky Gardenhire is the co-head of WME’s Nashville office. She has been with the company for over 20 years, and works directly with many of the top acts in country music like Rascal Flatts, Reba Mc...
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Ryan Griffin from 2020-08-25T15:11:24
This week on the podcast, we sat down with Warner Music Nashville Recording artist Ryan Griffin. We talk about life growing up in Florida, moving to Nashville, working with Busbee and so much more....
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Steven Galanis from 2020-08-18T05:38:42
Steven Galanis is the CEO and co-founder of the popular video-sharing website Cameo. We talk about how Steven bootstrapped the company while still working at LinkedIn, how the platform is changing ...
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Chris Kappy from 2020-08-11T05:27:10
Chris Kappy is the manager of country superstar Luke Combs. He is also the founder of Make Wake Artists, which oversees the careers of Hailey Whitters, Niko Moon and Ashland Craft, among others. If...
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Alex White, Britnee Foreman, Jason Joven (Live Episode) from 2020-07-28T05:00
In this live webinar about data in the music industry, Zak is joined by Alex White (founder of Next Big Sound and current VP, Content & Programming at Pandora), Britnee Foreman (Data analyst at T...
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Erik Nelson & Gian Perugini from 2020-07-21T05:00
Erik Nelson & Gian Pergini are the founders of FanFlex, a mobile app that helps venues and artists books shows in a brand new way. As venues start to open back up, FanFlex is going to be critical f...
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Ralph Jaccodine from 2020-06-30T05:00
Ralph Jaccodine is a professor of Music Business at Berklee College Of Music. Ralph began his career as a concert promoter working with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Kiss, Rush, Hall and Oates, a...
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Alex Goodman from 2020-06-23T05:00
Alex Goodman is the head of digital at Riser House Records. He also manages the career of major label recording artist Dylan Brady. Alex is one of the fastest rising executives on Music Row. If you...
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Morgan Hayduk & Andrew Batey from 2020-06-16T05:00
Morgan Hayduk & Andrew Batey are the co-founders and CEOs of Beatdapp, a startup solving a 4 billion dollar problem in the Music industry. Every year 15% of streams on DSPs go unaccounted for; Beat...
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Robert Deaton from 2020-05-26T05:01:23
Robert Deaton is the Executive Producer behind the CMA Awards, as well as the Billboard Music Awards. He also producers the CMA Country Christmas Special, and the CMA Fest Special, which he created...
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Steve Schnur from 2020-05-12T05:00
Steve Schnur is the Worldwide Executive of Music for Electronic Arts, the largest video game producer in the world. Not a piece of music makes it into an EA game without his approval. We talk about...
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Craig Balsam from 2020-04-28T05:32:11
Craig Balsam is the co-founder of Razor & Tie. Originally a lawyer with a love for music, Craig went from creating compilation CDs in an apartment, to building one of the most successful indie labe...
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Joe Galante from 2020-04-21T05:00
Joe Galante ran RCA Records and Sony Music Nashville. In his legendary career, he worked with and signed acts like Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Alabama, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, and so many m...
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Thomas O'Keefe from 2020-04-14T05:00
Thomas O'Keefe is the current tour manager for Weezer. Before that, he was out with Train, Ryan Adams, Third Eye Blind, and Sia. Thomas talks about life on the road, how he got his start with Ryan ...
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