Artist Coaching Podcast

Jaime spent twelve years as one half of Tom & Jame. Tomorrowland, Spinnin’, Revealed. Two years ago, he stopped and lost more than a project. He lost his identity as an artist. Jay Hardway and I talk with him about the ego hit of a normal job, grasping onto his lo-fi label as a new identity, doing the work in therapy, and why stepping away isn’t giving up. Plus a practical Spotify playlist tip...

Henry Himself has been making music for fifteen years. Hardwell played his track. He remade Infinity with Guru Josh Project. And still, for years, it often felt like nothing was moving. Last year he figured out why. He had spent years chasing trends across every genre. So he went back to the house music he loved in high school, and for the first time his music sounded like him. I talk with Henry a...

Ustrell released on Spinnin', Stereo Productions and Nervous with his first project, Wow and Flute. Then the fun disappeared. A few years ago he started over with a new name, making music only for himself. Now he has a job he loves, a family, and music is fun again. You'll hear why music not paying your bills isn't failure, how he produces with only an hour in the studio, why he finish...

Tickets for our ADE event -> https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/1998946014339?aff=oddtdtcreator If someone took your name off your tracks, would anyone notice? Jeffrey, aka Da Goose, is a full-time mastering engineer who started as a DJ and producer in the vinyl days. Today he hears a lot of music that sounds the same. We talk about sample packs, the missing gatekeeper, and why a track he made in six...

Old school catch up episode with Ralph from Bassjackers. We get into whether deadlines actually help you finish a track, how Bassjackers test unfinished music before release, what's coming on their new album, and whether ADE is still worth the cost in 2026. Honest, unscripted conversation for DJs and producers who care about building a sustainable career instead of chasing hype. Timestamps: (0...

Sonan made music in his bedroom for ten years without releasing anything. Then he posted one piano clip to 50 TikTok followers, went to bed, and woke up to a million views and every major label in his inbox. This episode is about what came after. Why he signed with a niche label instead of a major, why he finished three tracks before releasing a follow-up, and why he put a two-month trial period o...

Most artists post content and get views, but almost none of it turns into real fans. That is not a content problem, it is a structure problem. In this solo episode, I walk through the Fan Funnel, the model I use in coaching with DJs and producers to explain how a stranger becomes a superfan. Four layers: visibility, relatability, connection, and community. Most artists never leave the first one. T...

Mike Boyd runs the music department at VaynerX, the agency he helped start with Gary Vaynerchuk when it had eight people. He decides which artists get brand money, and he once signed a country artist with 300 monthly listeners on Spotify. In this episode, he explains what he actually looks for, why content often matters more than streams, and why most independent artists rule themselves out too ea...

Being online is probably good for your DJ career. It also takes something, and nobody talks about that part. We are back from the summer break with Ralph from Bassjackers and Jay Hardway. Jay banned himself from doomscrolling four days before recording. Ralph came off a Tomorrowland run and explains why the smaller stage beat the main stage. Underneath both stories is the same question. How much a...

Alex Vasi has mixed and mastered more than 30 number-one records in the Netherlands. Last year he started his own artist project, and within twelve months he was playing AFAS Live and the Ziggo Dome. From the outside it looks like it happened overnight. It did not. We talk about what a fast breakthrough is actually built on, why knowing more music theory can make it harder to finish a track, and w...

Josh Le Tissier calls in from Bangkok mid-tour to talk about the honest side of building a DJ career. We get into what happens when things slow down after a big year, why he spent maybe too long in the local club, and how he still holds a full time day job while touring internationally. The heart of it: 20 people showing up for you is actually a lot, even when social media makes it feel like nothi...

Fake copyright claims are the newest scam in the music industry, and most producers don't know it exists until their music and royalties are frozen. Music lawyer Sander Petit joins me to explain how it works, and why it's so hard to fight when anyone can file a claim. We also get into AI and why AI-generated music isn't protected by copyright, what those new AI clauses in your contract...

Dannic has been DJing since he was 17 and he's still here while most of his peers from the EDM era have moved on. In this episode we get honest about why. We talk about the four-year cycle every artist hits, the moment his team pushed him to flip his sound completely, and why that's the decision he regrets most. It's a grounded conversation about longevity, creative identity, and what...

An AI-generated track hit number one on Beatport, and Joey and Ralph do not agree on whether that should be allowed. What starts as a debate about AI turns into a harder question: is using AI actually any different from ghost production? Nobody wins this one cleanly. Second half, Ralph breaks down how he builds a 58 minute Tomorrowland main stage set for a crowd that is not there for him. What get...

Ralph from Bassjackers is back, and we get into something the DJ world doesn't talk about enough: brand deals. Not just for the huge names either. If your audience is small but genuinely engaged, that can already be worth something to a brand. From there, we break down the Tomorrowland lineup and the honest answer to how you actually get booked, plus a bit on Calvin Harris and why the music yo...

DJs are actually paying to play shows now, and we talk about why that's a problem for the whole industry. We also get into festivals canceling due to extreme heat, one major festival asking fans for donations to survive, and how artists are building extra income through merch and sample packs. It all comes back to one question: what are you actually worth, and who should be paying for it. Hone...

Every number online can be bought now, streams, views, followers, even comments. So what can you still trust? We get into the one signal that doesn't lie: a real room reacting to a real DJ. It starts with a Sonar weekend where a friend didn't even notice three DJs change, until one of them shifted the whole room. From there we get into the James Blake post about a faked industry, AI traini...

SoundCloud just cut its connection to Hypeddit, and the follow-for-download trick a lot of producers leaned on is gone. We get into what happened, why nobody's sure of the real reason, and the bigger lesson underneath it: if one platform can break your growth overnight, you never really owned your audience. Then we get into the genre problem in electronic music, why there are now so many genre...

This week, it's a full community Q&A with Ralph from Bassjackers. We get into why going viral didn't convert to streams or listeners, how to think about social media when you don't have shows, and what to post when you're building from scratch. Ralph also talks about the mental weight of following up Mush Mush, whether he could rebuild his career from zero with only his skills,...

Joey and Jay Hardway talk about the gap between online success and real career traction. Why does so much music and content feel the same right now? They break down the Purple Cow theory and what it actually means to stand out as a DJ or producer in 2025. Plus: content fatigue, why studio videos don't bring bookings, Jay's process for releasing music, and why the biggest skill might be kno...

Tiesto is going back to trance, and it might be the realest creative decision he's made in years. Joey and Jobke break down what that move says about authenticity and creative longevity, then get into Dom Dolla's content strategy, the Spotify and Universal AI deal and what it actually means for your music rights, and your questions from the Discord. Including how to find vocalists, whether...

Are labels still relevant in 2026? Joey, Ralph (Bassjackers), and Jobke (Jay Hardway) dig into the real power shift happening in the music industry and what it means for working DJs and producers. They break down why traditional A&R is basically a spreadsheet job now, when a label still makes strategic sense, and why cool-by-association is still a real thing. Plus: does releasing music every s...

Fresh off the Artist Coaching Retreat, Joey, Jobke, and Ralph break down what actually stuck. The conversation covers why having a career vision matters more than most artists realize, what an A&R session revealed about the gap between good production and a real career, and how far ahead of the curve is too far. Plus: how to warm up for a headliner without burning the crowd out, what to do whe...

Every artist knows they need to release music. So why does the track keep sitting in the folder? This week, Joey and Ralph get into the real reasons behind procrastination and perfectionism and why the insecurity around releasing never actually goes away, even after 20 years in the industry. Plus a Diplo clip on the future of nightclub culture, and community questions on getting your first gig, ap...

Does it matter who actually made the music? In this episode, Joey, Ralph, and Jay get into the ghost production debate, the gap between what DJ sets look like online versus in the room, and how social media has replaced Spotify as the place where music actually gets discovered. Plus: tips on promoting a release for brand awareness, making the most of DJ support, and a retreat announcement with two...