Making It with Chris G.

Ryan Murphy is the President of Huntsville Venue Group and Head of Amphitheaters and Venues for Venue Group. His company is currently working with the city of Huntsville, AL to design, construct, and operate the Huntsville Amphitheater, an 8,000 seat venue. Prior to working with Venue Group, Ryan was the General Manager of St. Augustine Amphitheater and Director of Cultural Events Division for St....

Rick Barker is one of the leaders in the DIY Musician space. He is a phenomenal speaker, music business coach, mentor, digital marketer, and content creator. Rick has over 30 years of experience in the music industry having worked at the highest level in radio, with record labels, and artist management. He's the former manager for Taylor Swift and a consultant for Sony Music. People call him the G...

Derek was a professional touring musician, who was looking for a way to release his music online. At the time, the only way artists could sell their music online was being on a major label or a label that had distribution through a major. This inspired him to the creation of CD Baby in 1997, which for the first time gave all musicians an opportunity to release their music online, and has become th...

Ari Herstand returns to the show with another exciting episode filled with strategies and wisdom for DIY Musicians. In December 2019, he released the 2nd Edition of his book, "How to Make It in the New Music Business," the book that's required for my Music Business 1010 students, and I recommend to all aspiring artists, managers, producers, concert promoters, record labels, or anyone that is inter...

Kattie Zaccardi is a wellness and career coach that's also an musician, songwriter, music industry professional, and certified yoga instructor. In her journey, she has been very open about her own experience with generalized anxiety disorder, which lead her to the discovery of the urgent need of having conversations around mental health and self-care within the music industry. Katie offers coachin...

Jesse Stoll is a Sr. Talent Buyer at AEG Presents Southeast based in West Palm Beach, FL. Jesse and his office book shows in the Southeast United States with their main focus being in Florida. His father, Jon Stoll, is the founder of Fantasma Presents, for which the majority of the senior management staff at AEG Presents SE used to work for. Jon Stoll and his team booked hundreds of shows in the S...

Heather Mae is an award-winning singer-songwriter who is unfazed by what typical pop artist today is "supposed" to look like and how the typical pop artist is "supposed" to sound. She writes and performs beautiful pop music with lyrics about real topics that affect the average person. Heather is inspired by her own experiences and identifies – a queer, plus-size woman living with Bipolar Disorder....

Reid Martin is the Founder and CEO of New Orleans based Artist Management company, MidCitizen. His experience from managing his own band, being on the road, managing a venue, managing artists, and his natural entrepreneurial spirit, has lead him to start one of New Orleans' most respected artist management companies in MidCitezn. His company works with the legendary Big Freedia, Sweet Crude, Tank...

Adam Ross is the Operations Manager and Production Manager for AEG Presents Gulf Coast and Winter Circle Productions. His career in the music business started working at the legendary Tipitina's in New Orleans, LA. Eventually Adam became the Tour Manager for Louisiana blues guitarist, Tab Benoit, with whom he was on the road for seven years touring at a pace of 200+ shows per year. After his run w...

Emily Kopp returns for a Round 2 on the podcast. Kopp is a singer-songwriter, musician, producer, world traveler, and badass human based in Nashville, TN. To hear about her back story and lessons from booking her first shows, playing cover gigs, writing for synch placements on commercials, and backpacking the world, listen here . Since the last episode, she has continued producing and writing musi...

Kelly Kapp is the VP of Touring and Executive VP of House of Blues Entertainment Talent at Live Nation. She is the first executive working in a dual role with both the Clubs & Theaters division and U.S. Concerts division, reporting to both Bob Rou x and Ron Bension . Kapp has been with Live Nation for 17 years, where she started as a Project Manager for North American Concerts. One of her first ma...

Kristen Agee is a business owner, musician, composer, producer, and an all-around awesome person with great philosophies on the music business, relationships, kindness, and mentorship. She is the owner of 411 Music Group which focuses on music publishing, licensing, administration, and sound design.  A gee secures global partnerships for 411 and oversees the creative and strategic business, and on...

Jade Driver is on of the founders of Crowd Surf, along with her business partner Cassie Petrey. Crowd Surf is a marketing company which also handles PR and artist management for artists. The company literally started while they were in college. They went from having Backstreet Boys posters on their walls, to now working with them as a client. Crowd Surf has offices in New York, LA, and Nashville w...

Most companies overcomplicate branding. Tim Ferriss has one of my favorite definitions on branding, and that's "consistently over-delivering the same one or two values to your 1,000 true fans." Branding is what people think of you or your company, and that's influenced by the value you provide to your audience and your behavior around providing that service. It's the value and behavior that you ar...

The questions I receive the most are related to touring and building a fanbase. Regardless of where you are in your career, whether you're just starting out or have been grinding for a long time but you're just not where you want to be in your career, this episode is ideal for you. In this episode, I expand on and string together some clips from past guests to help you build your most ideal strate...

June Millington is one of the founder of Fanny, the first ever all girls rock band to release an album on a major label. In 1970, Fanny released their self titled debut album on Reprise Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records. All together Fanny released four albums on Reprise Records. In 2018, Fanny reunited as Fanny Walked the Earth, and released a brand new album. Over the years, June has...

Cheryl B. Engelhardt is a true pioneer in the world of DIY Musicians, and one the only or very few people that extensively talks about building and managing your email lists. In this episodes, she shares some amazing insight on creating a welcome series or welcome sequence for your email subscribers. Also, she shares some of the strategies she used for her crowdfunding campaign to raise over 5 fig...

The beauty of today's music business, is that there are so many ways musicians can make a living. It's important to remember that every artist is a business, and with being a business there are certain fundamental and advanced techniques that everyone can build a successful career with. Bree Noble is a singer-songwriter, podcaster, coach and co-founder of the Profitable Musicians Summit. Bree is f...

The Podcast is BACK with Season 2!! The first guest of the new season is the return of Dawn Beyer! Dawn is a true pioneer and living proof of how you can build a career as an independent artist in today's music industry. In the last episode, we learned about her journey as a struggling musician in Nashville making the rounds on Broadway, where she was playing for tips. After getting sick and worri...

One can't do a lot of things great at one time, but one can do a lot of great things over a lifetime. Jim Mallonee is the Senior Vice President of Southeast Booking for Live Nation and House of Blues Entertainment. With over 35+ years of promoting concerts in the Southeast United States, he has worked with some of the greatest artists in our generation. Any reputable booking agent that has booked...

S'von is currently the keyboard player for the legendary Smokey Robinson. Prior to that his journey began playing in clubs and small tours, until his journey one lead him to the inaugural American Idol Tour, where he met Kelly Clarkson. Since that tour, S'von has toured with many legends of the business such as Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna, and Smokey Robinson. He has performed on some of the biggest T...

This episode features a new format. It is our first ever news/headlines that musicians and students of the music business should pay attention to, along with a listener Q&A. In the listener Q&A we go in-depth with specific questions that our listeners ask. If you're interested in having your question heard and answered on the show, please visit www.makingitwithchrisg.com/ask . Keep in touch: chris...

When the average concert goer goes to a show, they don't know the difference between Live Nation, AEG Presents, or whomever else is promoting the show. They are there to see their favorite artists, or go see a great show at one of their favorite venues. Jovan Polanco, is a independent promoter, talent buyer, and content creator that's looking to change that. As the founder of Swerve Presents, he's...

The music industry is not a career, it's a lifestyle. Kevin Calabro is a veteran of the business, whose passion for music connects everything he touches from the way he treats and works with his artists, to how fans experience listening to records. Along with Marco Benevento, he's the co-founder for Independent Record Label, Royal Potato Family, and also runs the Artist Management and PR company,...

Rodney Hazard is an Art Director, Producer, and DJ based in Brooklyn, NY. On February 23, 2018, he released his second album, Sain or Savage, which premiered on Noisey.com. Rodney was first introduced on the podcast by Mark Schaefer on Episode #073, where Mark spoke of Rodney as an example of creating very creative and exciting content with his videos and music on Instagram. Rodney has created man...