Music Business Facts- With Rodney Holder

My guest today is Mr. John Lee Dumas. John is an American entrepreneur who produces a daily podcast- That’s right- 7 days a week 365 days per year! His show is called Entrepreneur on Fire or EOFire and John interviews successful entrepreneurs from all walks of life!  This interview really had me pumped because John is such a successful entrepreneur. He has an amazing work ethic, he produces awesome quality content, and he is continually and enthusiastically chasing his passions- all of the attributes anyone would require when trying to succeed in the brutally competitive world that is the music industry.  John is also making a six figure income every month! So I strongly suggest you go and check out one of his shows at eofire.com-  they’re always interesting and informative and full of value.  So this episode of Music Business Facts is definitely about the Business! I thought it would be interesting to hear how such a successful business mind would approach a career in the music industry. Hope you enjoy the i

Today’s episode is the third and final part of my talk with Gregg Donovan- Music manager to artists like Airbourne, Grinspoon, Boy and Bear and Josh Pyke. If you haven’t listened to parts one and two I strongly suggest you go back and listen to them because Gregg's knowledge of the music industry and artist management is just awesome and inspiring!. Enjoy

Gregg Donovan started his career as a drummer, then became a manager and promoter in Canberra Australia.  Gregg was always that guy who was incredibly motivated. He was always putting up posters and promoting shows and bands.. Eventually he moved to Sydney and got a job as the office boy for successful promoter Steve Pavlovic of Pav Presents. He soon worked his way up to become a tour manager and was soon touring with artists like  Fugazi, The Beastie Boys, NOFX, Ben Harper, Pearl Jam, Ricky Martin, Shania Twain, At The Drive In, The Mars Volta, Deftones, Lily Allen, The Happy Mondays and Muse to name a few.  In 2007 Gregg started a management company called Wonderlick Entertainment and currently oversees the careers of artists like Boy & Bear, Airbourne, Grinspoon, Josh Pyke to name just a few. This is part 2 of a fantastic lecture where Gregg gives a masterclass in artist management. Enjoy

Gregg Donovan started his career as a drummer, then became a manager and promoter in Canberra Australia.  Gregg was always that guy who was incredibly motivated. He was always putting up posters and promoting shows and bands. Eventually he moved to Sydney and got a job as the office boy for successful promoter Steve Pavlovic of Pav Presents.  He soon worked his way up to become a tour manager and was soon touring with artists like  Fugazi, The Beastie Boys, NOFX, Ben Harper, Pearl Jam, Ricky Martin, Shania Twain, At The Drive In, The Mars Volta, Deftones, Lily Allen, The Happy Mondays and Muse to name a few.  In 2007 Gregg started a management company called Wonderlick Entertainment and currently oversees the careers of artists like Boy & Bear, Airbourne, Grinspoon, and Josh Pyke to name just a few. This is a fantastic lecture where Gregg gives a masterclass in music business studies. Enjoy

My guest today is Dave Lombardo \m/ For those of you who’ve never heard of Dave- He is an absolute smashing machine behind the drum kit. He’s performed on numerous great records with other high caliber musicians such as Mike Patton and John Zorn to name a few. Dave is however best known for his work as the original drummer of pioneering American thrash metal band “Slayer”. Dave’s drumming is astonishingly innovative, and over the past twenty-five years, his style has influenced generations of hard, fast and heavy hitting metal drummers. Dave Lombardo is one of the few musicians I know who can claim to have significantly changed the face of a music genre. His music has advanced the boundaries of heavy metal music. In this interview Dave gives a very personal account of some of his business experiences with Slayer, as well as offers some inspiring advice to anyone attempting to make it in the music industry. A must listen podcast! Enjoy!

Tyrone Noonan is an Australian musician, best known for his vocals, guitars, keyboards and songwriting in the multi platinum selling Aussie band George. This podcast is a great insight into commercial success & the major label experience. Enjoy!

Dan Graetz is a documentary filmmaker who has just released a great mini documentary called “The Truth about Money in Music”.   His film is a really cool and honest look at musicians and the money they make, (or don't make) as told through the eyes of some popular up and coming Australian Artists.  For example one artist on the day his band was nominated for an ARIA award (Australian Record Industry Association), applied for a job at McDonalds just to pay the bills! Anyhow I thought it would be really interesting to speak with Dan about the film and the brutal "real" issues this film raises. Some great points raised in the film are discussed in this episode of Music Business Facts.  Enjoy! Rodney

My guest today is Tim Charles from Melbourne metal act Neobliviscaris. Tim is a music business entrepreneur who not only plays in his band, but also has his own entertainment company, and is a manager, booking agent and promoter. In my opinion the most interesting thing currently about Tim and his band is the fact that they have just smashed the Australian record for a crowd funding campaign- asking their fans to help them raise $40K to help them fund their world tour, and hitting just shy of $65K as of the production of this podcast. The really cool thing is that the campaign still has around 40 days to go so it’s going to be very interesting to see what their final figure ends at, and again, if you’d like to check them out and suss their campaign, all the details are in the show notes for this episode at www.musicbusinessfacts.com Anyhow I learnt a ton of stuff in this interview with Tim. He talks about the campaign from it’s inception through to the planning of rewards, marketing and launching. Tim’s a re

Matty Young- lead screamer, manager and driving force behind Australian indie metal band King Parrot.  King Parrot are probably one of the, if not the hardest working band in the country right now.  Apart from their insane touring work ethic they have also made some fantastic music videos that have attracted a lot of attention.

Dave Nicholas is an Australian multiple award winning recording engineer, mixer and producer who has a plethora of number 1 selling records to his name. He has worked with such prestigious acts as Bryan Adams, Sting, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Pulp, Soul Asylum, The Sex Pistols, INXS, Midnight Oil, Delta Goodrem, Jimmy Barnes, Richard Clapton, Diesel, George, and Vince Jones to name but a few. In this interview Dave gives the music business facts and harsh realities about producing records for a living in the current music industry climate. We also discuss a range of other music business topics such as music publishing, mechanical royalties, artist royalties, 360 degree deals, and the need for diversification. Enjoy!

Greg Andrew is an accomplished writer, performer and composer in his own right.  A graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Greg Andrew has now built a professional career in the entertainment industry as an Elton John Impersonator.  In this episode of Music Business Facts Greg talks to Rodney about his successful career performing and touring with The Elton John Experience and so much more! www.musicbusinessfacts.net

Raymond Herrera is the super creative double kick drum master who was the driving force behind influential industrial metal band Fear Factory. Raymond is also an award winning composer and producer for video games, TV and feature films. He has contributed to the soundtracks of such cool games like Mortal Combat, Resident Evil, Battlefield 2, Need For Speed, Iron Man 2 to name but a few. Currently Raymond is coordinating an exciting new crowd funding project called “Project Rogue", where he is aiming to raise around $70K so he can release a new record with his buddies who include members of System of a Down, Napalm Death, Cynic, Obituary, Lamb of God, Cannibal Corpse, and Devil Driver to name just a few. This is a great interview where Raymond talks about the business of Fear Factory, music publishing, record contracts, remixing, writing music for games and films, and the concept of crowd funding to fund a recording. Enjoy!

Andrew McMillen is a freelance journalist based in Brisbane Australia.  He has had articles and reviews published in publications such as Rolling Stone, Buzzfeed, Wired, The Sydney Morning Herald, Triple J Mag and Australian Penthouse (to name a few). Today he speaks with Rodney Holder from Music Business Facts about how to best engage with the media in order to gain their attention for your music projects. 

Vickii Cotter is a musician, lawyer and lecturer who loves music festivals so much she bought one! The Noosa Jazz Festival. Previously Vickii worked for The Sydney Vivid Festival, The Gympie Muster and the Byron Bay Blues Fest. Vickii is also a music business lecturer at the University of Queensland and she also owns her own events company Visable. An amazing interview where Vickii delves deep into her extensive knowledge on music event management, law, marketing, negotiations and much more! Wow Vickii Cotter is a super achiever!!

Chris Maric is the man behind Maric Media- A company that works in promotion, publicity and artist relations. With over 15 years experience behind him, Chris has worked the promotion for companies like Channel Ten, Riot Entertainment, Sony, Universal and EMI.  In this episode of Music Business Facts Chris talks about the role of the publicist and how he became a publicist. Chris also discusses some great strategies on how to formulate a media plan and on how to best communicate an artist product or service to obtain the attention of industry players like the media, labels and promoters. Enjoy!

Brian J Simon is an audio engineer who has worked in the music industry for over twenty-five years.  Brian has mainly worked as a front of house audio engineer, but has also worked as a production manager, tour manager, monitor engineer and has also done backline. Brian has worked with bands like The Monkeys, Night Ranger and The Little River Band. But for the past two and a bit years Brian has been FOH mixing one of the most successful and legendary rock bands of all time. Foreigner! (80 million album sales world-wide).

Juan Punchy Gonzalez is an audio and video producer, tour manager, FOH mixer and recording engineer who has worked with a number of artists including successful death metal acts like Nile, and Morbid Angel.  I caught up with Punchy on the latest Morbid Angel tour of Australia where he is both the Tour Manager and Front Of House engineer. This is an interesting perspective from a guy who earns his living by tour management and front of house engineering.

Jim Runge is a tour manager and tour consultant who is currently the full time tour manager for The Black Keys. Previously Jim has also worked for artists such as Machine Head, Alice in Chains, Susanne Vega, Ryan Adams and Rickie Lee Jones to name a few. In this episode of Music Business Facts Jim talks about the truths on being a professional tour manager. He goes into detail about the roles and responsibilities of working as a TM with a professional artist around the world. A really inspiring and educational episode- Enjoy.

Ariel Hyatt is an American publicist, author, digital marketing strategist, PR expert and international speaker. Ariel Hyatt started her own firm back in 1996-Cyber PR, and also has a second publicity company Ariel PR”. She is a multiple music business author, writing successful titles such as Music success in nine weeks, The musicians guide to Facebook & Twitter, Social media guide for musicians and The Teachers guide to social media”. In this episode of Music Business Facts Ariel talks all things musical PR such as artist marketing techniques, social media formulas, optimising media press kits, 1000 true fan theory, Crowdfunding, and so much more.  A really educational insight into one of the world's music publicity experts!

Heavy metal and rock DJ Andrew Haug from www.andrewhaug.com interviews Music Business Facts producer Rodney Holder. Rodney has been a drummer, performer, writer, promoter, and manager for over twenty five years. He has a bachelor degree in communication and media production and has been teaching music business studies at technical college since 1999.
Rodney's career in the music industry began back in 1987.
Initially as a drummer and the co manager of his psychedelic metal band Alchemist. www.alchemist.com.au 
Between 1990 and 2010 Rodney and his group released numerous internationally acclaimed albums, toured Australia countless times, and performed at some of the world's biggest metal festivals in Europe- sharing the bills with the likes of Iron Maiden, Slayer, Motorhead, Judas Priest, Kiss and Venom to name a few. Rodney was also the co-promoter and organiser of Australia's largest and longest running all- Australian metal festival- Metal For The Brain.
From 1991 to 2005 Metal For The Brain was the premium