Music Evolves Podcast

⬥EPISODE NOTES⬥ Tidal is about to stop paying royalties on any track it judges to be fully machine-made. Frame that as a music story and you miss the shift underneath it. By Deezer's own detection, roughly 75,000 AI-generated tracks now arrive every day, about 44% of everything uploaded, yet that same AI music is only 1 to 3 percent of what people actually play, and around 85% of those streams are...

Show Notes What happens to creativity when every song, sound, and style is a thumb-tap away? Sam Young has spent more than two decades behind the decks in London, and his answer is blunt: originality is at an all-time low. As a DJ, producer, remixer, and founder of the record label WyldCard , he sits at the exact point where taste, technology, and commerce collide, and he sees a culture increasing...

At The NAMM Show 2026, John Page walks Sean Martin of ITSPmagazine through a hand-painted electric guitar called the Retablo. The motifs are lifted from the artwork that traditionally sits behind a cathedral altar, reimagined so the saints and icons are not from scripture but from the roots of American music. Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Muddy Waters. Howlin' Wolf. Mahalia Jackson. The canvases themselv...

At The NAMM Show 2026, Drum Workshop turned its booth into a walk-through of what a modern drum company looks like when craft, heritage, and engineering share the same floor. Scott Donnell , Director of Brand Management at Drum Workshop , Inc., guided us through a lineup that spans the DW Custom Shop, the revived Slingerland Radio King line, Latin Percussion, Pacific Drums and Percussion, and the...

Show Notes Scott Scheferman -- known throughout the cybersecurity and music communities as Shagghie -- brings a rare combination of backgrounds to this conversation: classically trained on trumpet, a live techno producer since the late nineties, a student of synthesis at its lowest circuit level, and now a full-time researcher working on what he calls the Joy Protocol -- a frequency-based framewor...

Ben Ikwuagwu is a vocalist, performer, and entrepreneur who has spent over 15 years navigating the live events world. That firsthand experience, combined with a degree in operations and years working in corporate America, gives him a unique vantage point on what makes the industry run and where it breaks down. Now, as CEO & Co-Founder of Soundcheck Live , he is channeling both worlds into a single...

Jim Kirlin , Editorial Director at Taylor Guitars and Editor of Wood&Steel, joins Sean Martin at NAMM 2026 to walk through the company's latest innovations, from a reimagined Grand Auditorium to a brand-new collection rooted in tradition. The conversation takes place on the Taylor Guitars show floor, surrounded by the very instruments being discussed. At the heart of this year's introductions is w...

What does it take to design a signature guitar from the ground up? Chris Buck sits down with Sean Martin at NAMM 2026 to talk about the journey of creating the Yamaha Revstar RS02CB, his first production signature model. Buck describes the experience as surreal, noting that the weight of joining Yamaha 's legacy of signature artists continues to hit him in waves. The lengthy design process, he say...

For Sean Martin, walking the Gibson booth at NAMM 2026 is personal. As the host of Music Evolves, Sean brings a player's eye and a storyteller's ear to every conversation about instruments and the people who make them. Picking up a Gibson and feeling the weight, the finish, and the resonance is something he describes as holding a piece of art. Jeff Stempka , Brand Manager for Gibson USA and Gibson...

Show Notes At NAMM 2026, Sean Martin sits down with Chuck Tennin , the President and CEO of Big Fish Music and Big Fish Music Publishing Group , for a candid conversation about the role of AI in the music industry and why the human element remains irreplaceable. Known as "The Big Fish" and "The Alligator," Chuck has spent more than five decades working as an engineer, record producer, music publis...

Snowboards and Guitars: Circle Strings x Burton at NAMM 2026 Some collaborations make you stop and ask how nobody thought of this before. At NAMM Media Day 2026, Sean Martin caught up with Adam Buchwald and William Hylton from Circle Strings, a Vermont-based guitar company, to talk about their partnership with Burton. The concept is deceptively simple: matching snowboards and custom guitars built...

Show Notes Day two at NAMM 2026 reinforces why this show continues to matter. Not just for product launches or celebrity sightings, but for the culture that forms when creators, builders, and technologists share the same physical space. From the Creator Lounge to the show floor, the conversation stays grounded in making, playing, and experimenting. This episode captures that energy in real time. S...

Show Notes The first day at NAMM 2026 opens in the only way it can: loud, imperfect, and unmistakably human. Forklifts roll by, sound systems compete for attention, and instruments are already being pushed to their limits. This episode captures that moment before the show floor officially opens, when ideas are raw and expectations are still forming. Sean Martin, host of Music Evolves, and Marco Ci...

Show Notes Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Margaret Glaspy joins Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli for a Music Evolves conversation recorded in the context of the NAMM Show and the She Rocks Awards, where Glaspy is recognized as a 2026 honoree. The discussion centers on how artists develop a voice, how creative practice sustains a career, and why music functions as a form of public service rather...

Show Notes Bass rarely leads the conversation about music innovation, yet it quietly shapes how songs move, how bands connect, and how audiences feel rhythm in their bodies. In this episode of Music Evolves , hosts Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli explore that idea with Jon D’Auria , Editor in Chief of Bass Magazine , through the lens of community, technology, and cultural relevance. D’Auria descri...

Show Notes Music placement has quietly become one of the most powerful engines shaping how audiences discover new artists. In this episode of Music Evolves , host Sean Martin speaks with Chris SD, music producer and founder focused on connecting independent songwriters with film, television, and media opportunities, about how music moves from personal creation into shared cultural moments. The con...

Show Notes Music careers are often discussed through the lens of performance, technology, or commercial success. Less visible is the connective tissue that sustains those careers: community, advocacy, and long-term support systems. In this episode of Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers, the conversation centers on how structured networks and intentional recognition shape opportunity across the music in...

Guests and Host Guest: John Mlynczak , President and CEO of NAMM | View Website | Visit NAMM Host: Host: Sean Martin , Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine Podcasts and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | On ITSPmagazine: https://www.itspmagazine.com/sean-martin Host: Marco Ciappelli , Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine Podcasts and Host of Redefining Society and Technology Podcast |...

Show Notes As artificial intelligence begins generating music from vast datasets of human art, a fundamental question emerges: who truly owns the sound of AI? This episode of Music Evolves brings together a law student and former musician Chandler Lawn, music industry executive and professor Drew Thurlow, Michael Sheldrick, Co-Founder of Global Citizen, and intellectual property attorney Puya Part...

Guest and Host Guest: Marco Ciappelli , Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine and Studio C60 | Website: https://www.marcociappelli.com Host: Sean Martin , Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine, Studio C60, and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com/ Show Notes In this candid episode of Music Evolves , Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli unpack the creative, ethi...

Show Notes In this episode, we unpack the core ideas behind the Sonic Frontiers article “From Sampling to Scraping: AI Music, Rights, and the Return of Creative Control.” As AI-generated music floods streaming platforms, rights holders are deploying new tools like neural fingerprinting to detect derivative works — even when no direct sampling occurs. But what does it mean to “detect influence,” an...

Guest and Host Guest: Cindy Hulej, Luthier/Artist | Website: https://www.cindyguitars.com/ Host: Sean Martin , Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com/ Show Notes What happens when the story of a city becomes part of the music we make? In this episode of Music Evolves , host Sean Martin sits down with lut...

Guest and Host Guest: Regan Sommer McCoy, Chief Curator of Mixtape Museum | Website: https://sommer.nyc/ Host: Sean Martin , Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com/ Show Notes In this episode of Music Evolves , host Sean Martin connects with Sommer McCoy, founder of the Mixtape Museum, to explore how a s...

Guest and Host Guest: George Platsis (AKA DJ Zeus) | Website: https://www.djzeus.com/home.html Host: Sean Martin , Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com/ Show Notes In this episode of Music Evolves , host Sean Martin is joined by George Platsis—known on stage and online as DJ Zeus—for a conversation abo...

Guest and Host Guest: Aaron Friedman , Executive Director, Make Music Alliance | On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-friedman-7068014/ Host: Sean Martin , Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com/ Show Notes What if June 21st wasn’t just another day on the calendar—but the one day a year where t...