The Unstarving Musician

Michael Sloan is the CEO of Streaming Promotions, a strategic streaming platform promotion company. Founded in 2015, Streaming Promotions works to increase their clients footprint on streaming services with music adoption and traction on streaming platforms, specifically Spotify. Michael was recently quoted in Rolling Stone discussing competition for ear-time on Spotify. In our conversation, Micha...

This "rewind" episode features Mike Dawson from his first appearance on the the Unstarving Musician, which was episode 1 of the podcast. Mike has also been featured in episodes 25, 50 and the "best of" episode 100.  He is Managing Editor of Modern Drummer Magazine, a pro drummer, co-host of The Modern Drummer Podcast, and a music educator. This remains one of my favorite Unstarving Musician and is...

Peter Rand is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who I met on the collaboration platform Kompoz. You may have noticed my recent obsession with collaboration apps as of late, in which case you'll know about this article that I contributed to Forbes.com. These Three Collaboration Apps Are Changing The Way Music Is Created Peter and I have collaborated on some of the over 800 projects he has post...

Markus K is a blues fusion player and master looper who performs street concerts around the world. He's also a user of the collaboration app Trackd, which he says allows him to record anywhere with great results. This is another in a series of episodes covering the online music collaboration space. Read my article about music collaboration apps on Forbes.com These Three Collaboration Apps Are Chan...

This week Rachel Hearnden joins me for a conversation to talk about the collaboration app Trackd, of which she is a user and avid fan. A drummer at heart, Rachel is also a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. It may sound corny, Rachel says, but Trackd has changed her life. We talk about the many reasons she loves Trackd, how she uses the app, why she thinks other musicians should try it and much...

This is the third in a multi-part series related to the world of online music collaboration, which has turned out to be much more than I expected. There are a number of truly innovative and interesting approaches happening. In this episode, I speak with Grant Tilbury of Trackd, the mobile app that allows musicians to capture and share ideas. Trackd is a collaboration platform and 8-track studio on...

This is the second in a multi-part series that covers the online music collaboration space. My guests this week, Alic ia Rius and Arnau Bosch of SoundStorming, believe that online collaboration apps will feed the next iteration of the music industry and allow a new breed of fans to become part of the creative process. With fan engagement opportunities growing, online collaboration apps have the po...

Scottish-Canadian si nge r- songwriter Evangeline Gentle is set to release a debut album three years in the making. In this episode, they talk about writing the new album during a period of deep self-doubt as well as the struggle to preserve the softness and tenderness within. We also discuss homophobia and misogyny in the music business, what it's like being a queer person in the business, how th...

My guest for this episode is Raf Fiol of Kompoz, the online collaboration platform for musicians. This is one of a five episode series that is related to an  article I published for Forbes.com , which covers the online music collaboration space. I'm trying to better understand the different approaches and models within the space. Online collaboration and the trends therein are extremely fascinatin...

Meet musician-turned-entrepreneur Michael Walker, Founder of Modern Musician. His team's mission is to help other musicians supercharge their fan base and career. And Michael doesn't just talk the talk. He's tested the same grassroots techniques and three core principles that Modern Musician teaches. These techniques allow musicians to achieve sustainable success, and also helped Michael's band Pa...

This episode's featured guests are Shannon Curtis and Jamie Hill. They're both alumni of this podcast, and were recently mentioned in my article Six Skills All Indie Musicians Need Today . Shannon is the queen bee of house concerts in my world. She led me to learn more about the house concert scene and is the reason I played my very first house show earlier this year, with Johnny Burgin. Jamie is...

Caleb Lovely is a multi-instrumentalist, incredibly talented and good looking to boot. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Caleb is growing his music career while occasionally working on an Alpaca farm - how cool is that? We discuss how writing about happy times can be even more challenging than writing about traumatic events. Relationships are a key aspect to his music. We also geek out on all things...

In our final installment of the Today's Indie Musician series, my guest is Lara Price who I know from way back when in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a new podcast called In The Trenches with Lara Price where she shares about her own mental health, interviews friends about the Black Lives Matter movement and more. Her latest album, I Mean Business, is so incredibly good and I hope you check i...

This is the second installment of Today's Indie Musician series in which 'm talking with former guests of the podcast to do deep dives on the industry, what's happening during these wild times and where we see it going. These episodes were done as research I did for a Forbes.com article on the Six Skills All Indie Musicians Need Today. Our guest today is Mawk Phoenix from episode 131. We discuss m...

Today we launch a special series. I'm talking with former guests of the podcast to do deep dives on the industry, what's happening during these wild times and where we see it going. We talk about our need to be increasingly savvy about branding and community building, how we can elevate live streaming, that platforms for online learning will be critical, recording at home and I also share my thoug...

This episode is another installment of the Unstarving Musician's Guide to Getting Paid Gigs: How to Get Booked and Paid What You're Worth Over and Over Again. As I work on the second edition of The Unstarving Musician's Guide to Getting Paid Gigs: How to Get Booked and Paid What You're Worth Over and Over Again, I'm continuing to release the audio of the first edition. If you want to get a copy of...

Neil Schnell is one of my best pals in music. He shares some of my best memories of performing music in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. He has been making a living with his trio Velvet Love Box, though things have slowed down due to the Covid Crisis. We talk about live streaming during the pandemic, accepting online tips, and how to make streaming work for you. He also talks about getting bac...

This episode is another installment of the Unstarving Musician's Guide to Getting Paid Gigs: How to Get Booked and Paid What You're Worth Over and Over Again. This is chapter 8, which focuses on building your personal brand and reputation. I published the Unstarving Musician's Guide just a little over three years ago, and it was a stand alone podcast. Now it is being dripped into episodes here on...

Matt James is the lead singer of a band called Blacktop Mojo. The band lives together in the same house - advantageous in a pandemic. They've been able to write music in self-isolation, live stream and they have a brand new EP called Static. Blacktop Mojo is a regularly touring band and they frequent many festivals. We talk about the many considerations they'll need to take when public gathering r...

Singer-songwriter Kate Schutt's latest album is about her five-year journey caring for her mother while she was dying of cancer. We share the loss of a parent to cancer and talked about the grief that is happening during these isolated times. Kate wrote a book about songwriting called The Ultimate Guide to Songwriting in which she shares how we all have a meaningful song within us and how to draw...

Rebecca Loebe has been actively touring since 2010, which of course came to a pause during the pandemic. She had wisely been building a loyal fan base community on her own platforms and eventually on Patreon. We talk about the benefits of her community focus, as well as her audio-engineering pursuits, her home studio, fun merchandising strategies, pandemic gardening and her appearance on The Voice...

Dave De Carion is a longtime friend from the San Francisco Bay area. He became a student musician of one of my bandmates and was soon leading his own cover band Severe Pleasure. Recently Dave got stuck in Hawaii given travel restrictions from the pandemic and has been looking at gig prospects on the island. Dave markets to a great personal network, consistently books gigs for his band, and is alwa...

Dean Johanesen first appeared on the podcast almost 100 episodes ago. Dean is a regular performer, so this pandemic has hit him quite hard. Adjusting to the new normal, he pivoted into live stream performances, and I even caught a recent one on StageIt. As his hometown of Sarasota FL begins to reopen, we talk about the hard decision to return to gigging. We have a conversation about how songwritin...

Juno is an insanely talented guitarist and songwriter with her debut album called Help is Not on the Way. Having worked with some big names including Bruno Mars, Camila Cabello, Fifth Harmony, Erykah Badu, India Arie and more, this new album hits a very personal note. We talk about how Juno had some preconceived notions of how an album should be in terms of songwriting and production, but our curr...

Kendal Conrad has an impressive singing and songwriting resume for someone so young. Based in Nashville, Kendal has actively pursued gigs including singing the national anthem for MLB, NBA, MMA, NASCAR events and more. She's had the opportunity to perform at the White House, opened for artists like Blake Shelton and Walker Hayes, and she may have sang a little duet with some guy named Keith Urban....