Fox Tales - a music industry podcast by Stereofox

Danny Hajjar is a music journalist, curator, DJ, and creator of the newsletter Sa’alouni El Nas. The newsletter focuses on the music, culture, social, and political stories of the Middle East, North Africa, and the diaspora community. Danny has a wealth of experience, having worked at Spotify's Data Curation team and contributed to esteemed publications such as The Washington Post, Esquire, and The New Arab. 

His unwavering dedication and commitment to popularizing the rich culture of the region is commendable and inspiring to us. His rich overview of the music industry and dedication to be present and keep doing what he loves are among the reasons why we are more than honoured to welcome him to the Fox Tales.

The episode is published in the midst of the horrific earthquake that happened in Turkey and Syria. Our heart goes out to everyone affected. Below we are sharing a list of resources for people to donate and help.

List of resources for people to help and donate:

In our new episode we had the pleasure of talking to US producer xander. on the release day of his new album Bliss. We cover the creative process behind and and how it all came to be, his journey from picking up Fruity Loops to working with Meek Mill and building up his followership in recent years.

Shoutout to all the amazing people mentioned in the podcast!

Links

Stephan Kunze is a German music journalist and author, radio host, editor and curator with over 20 years of experience. 

He currently curates Zen Sounds - a newsletter dedicated on ambient, jazz and experimental music. Stephan’s colourful experience - from print to radio and now digital streaming makes him really interesting and multi-layered guest.

Previously Stephan was Global Editorial Lead at Spotify, had his own imprint (Heart Working Class), consultant for Red Bull, editor-in-chief for the German hip hop magazine Juice, and writer for Berlin-based Spex (to name a few). 

Links

Our next Artist Stories episode is with someone we’ve been fans of for many years - ever since his 2016 “Give Back What You Stole From Me”.

Oscar Jerome is a UK singer, guitarist, and composer who’s been involved with music since a very young age. He’s got a pretty signature blend of jazz & soul that you have most probably already heard in his acclaimed songs “Do You Really” & “Gravitate”.

He just released his sophomore album called The Spoon which took a more cinematic & melancholic approach and he stopped by for a chat to give us some details about it and to also share stories about his creative process, touring with Kamasi Washington and the Blue Note: Reimagined project.

Links

Today’s Artist Story episode of Fox Tales is a really special one.

We found Carmody back in 2014 with her delightful first EP with Tom Misch called Out to Sea and completely fell in love with her voice and storytelling. You might also know her from her other wonderful releases like Skin, My Jupiter & Catching Blue, or from her collaborations with Connor Albert, edbl, or Alfa Mist.

She dropped by for a chat to talk about her debut album Imperfect Constellations that just got its Deluxe Version released, and to share about her experience with alternative therapy and about her love for poetry.

Links

In our new Fox Tales episode we welcome Inner Ocean's founder Cory Giordano. We go over label's 10 years history and the transition to digital straming, some remarkable moments and we deep-dive into the value of doing physical products (vinyls, cassette tapes and merch).

Links

We’re beyond happy to welcome Philipp Senkpiel AKA DJ Kitsune on our podcast. The German DJ, music producer, label owner and editor at TIDAL shares his journey through various fields of the music industry and goes back to his early days as a DJ in Frankfurt. We also touch upon the difference between DJ-ing and curating playlists and how fluid genres have become nowadays.

In this hour-long conversation, we also discuss the foundations, growth and strength of the German Hip Hop and Instrumental Beat scene, the rise of new sounds from South America (Latino Music), Africa (afrobeats) and Asia (k-pop)his way of making it and surviving in the music industry all these years, and last, but not least -  a few of his guidelines when comes to managing artists, running your own label and publishing company.

Links

As you saw in the title, we have Laxcity in as a guest this time around for our Artist Stories segment. The UK-based electronic producer has this introverted and somewhat reserved nature to him that tends to arise even during interviews.

On this episode of the Fox Tales Podcast however, we experience something different from the producer. Throughout the conversation, we get to hear a Laxcity that seems like he has loosened the shackles of anxiety that he’s struggled with, and his story as Josh rises to the conversation in a manner that’s deep, and at times fun and lighthearted.

The mixture of Future Bass, Vapor Twitch, and Future Beats that is found throughout his discography has not only led to him brushing shoulders with his idols and playing intercontinental shows, but also a deal with Alt Vision – undeniably one of the hottest labels around for Electronic music. This is probably the most personal Laxcity interview you’ll hear so far as we also discuss race, relationships, anxiety, and more. I truly hope you enjoy and walk away with a thing or two you can use in your life.

Links

Today, we’re doing another Artist Story and we don’t even know where to begin with introducing our guest.

Nick Lubbersen, or Moods, is a Rotterdam-based producer whom you most probably know either from his instrumental hip hop piece “Love Is Real” which skyrocketed to more than 30 million streams on Spotify, or from his numerous amazing remixes for the likes of Ta-ku, Poldoore & Two Another.

Earlier this year, he released his sophomore album with the peculiar name Music Ruined My Life via Boogie Angst and we got together to find out exactly how music ruined his life.

Links

In this new episode of our Artist Stories segment, we have the pleasure to welcome the multi-talented beatmaker, finger drummer and instrumentalist Gnarly.

Besides making music, DJ-ing and giving workshops, the British-Sri Lankan artist has performed live at various festivals, and worked with brands such as Native Instruments, Akai Professional, Redbull Music, Pioneer DJ and many more.

Gnarly has been making music for over a decade and is currently a self-employed full-time artist, who has a lot to share on both her professional and personal journey. In this episode, she reflects on how she overcame the mental blocks that weren’t allowing her to pursue music as a full-time career and managed to change her mindset in order to start making things happen.

She talks about discipline, motivation, dedication, overcoming anxiety, exploring and finding what is it that you want to do and giving your best in order to make things work out. She also shares what’s her experience as a female producer. Needless to say, this episode is full of inspiring drops of wisdom and one not to miss out on - whether you’re an aspiring artist, a fan of Gnarly or both.

Links

Drummer, producer, DJ, engineer, and product manager… Those are among the many roles Robin Brink occupies in the music industry. His rise to stardom occurred in 2014 when his band called Beatenberg hit mainstream consciousness and eventually became among the most iconic South African bands of this generation. Even though he had success as a drummer, he still forged his own path as a producer under the name Okayshades, and recently he joined Marx Audio as a product manager who specializes in Dolby Atmos.

Throughout this conversation, Robin Brink shares with us why Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos are the future industry standard, the success of Beatenberg, and we dive into the state of the South African Music scene.

Links:

In the new episode of our Artist Stories segment we have the absolute honor & pleasure to welcome the legendary beatmaker Florian Meiers, or FloFilz.

He’s been making music since 2013 and we’ve been following his journey since the early Stereofox years. Flo has collaborated with outstanding artists like Alfa Mist, Blu, K, Le Maestro, Barney Artist, Blue Lab Beats, Ivan Ave, and just released his new album Close Distance via our friends at Melting Pot Music

He dropped by for a chat to share some details about it and also share some stories about his musical background & his view on the contemporary beat scene.

Links

If you’ve been following the music world closely, there’s certainly one name that stood out in the UK scene last year.

Emerging half-Japanese, half-English artist Miso Extra blends so many genres and both her native languages in her super captivating music.

Her debut EP called Great Taste is out via Beatnik Creative who work with the outstanding Arlo Parks and it’s quite the ride.

She was so nice to drop by for a chat to share more about herself and the Misoverse.

Links

Learn the latest when it comes to major streaming platforms from Mike Warner - Director of Artist, Label and DSP Relations at Chartmetric and author of Work Hard Playlist Harder. Mike is one of the people we follow in order to stay up to date to all music industry news. Besides going over Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and TIDAL, we share news on new streaming platforms and some pro tips for artists when it come to platforms like TikTok and Linkedin.

The episode was recording while doing a Live on our Discord server.

Links

In this podcast episode we meet Hayden Mcguigan - editor-in-chief at US publication Electric Hawk. We catch up on his journey prior that, talk about the good and bad sides of music blogging and how to start in the music industry if you don't have experience prior to that.

It's just a genuine chat about all-things-music really, hope you enjoy this! 

Links

It’s time for another episode from our Artist Stories segment and today we’re stoked to welcome the legendary LA soul & jazz trio Moonchild, whom we’ve been following for years.

Amber Navran, Andris Mattson & Max Bryk have been together for 10 years and this special anniversary is marked by their 5th studio album called Starfruit, released last month via our friends at Tru Thoughts.

They dropped by for a chat to share more about their journey so far and especially about the process behind creating Starfruit alongside amazing collaborators like Lalah Hathaway, Rapsody, Alex Isley, Tank and The Bangas & more.

Links

Today we have Elijah Nang over to talk about his journey as an artist, the Gaijin series and the work behind Gaijin 3000 - a label release we’re working together on.

We’re also covering the importance of story-telling for artists and the influence of Japanese culture in his art and music.

"there's no I in team" / Elijah Nang

Links

Every label manager, A&R, music marketer, etc. uses numbers, statistics, and graphs to justify the decisions they make, to choose the right place to invest, or to find new trends.

If you’re an artist, numbers are probably the last thing you’d like to look at. But in this constantly changing and very much data-driven music industry we're in, you either need to find someone to help you out or you’ve got to suck it up and start understanding what all those lines & charts mean.

To shed some light on this, we’ve got Alex Brees here, the CEO & founder of  a London-based AI marketing company, called un:hurd. Alex is also a former senior analyst in Universal and has a rich background in marketing and operations.

Links

We’ve covered the topic of the different benefits of self-releasing or doing it via a label but whether you’re going solo or you have a team, there are a number of things you need to have handy and take into consideration before, during, and after your release.

There are also various strategies you can use when releasing your music - multiple singles, EPs, or an album, and different ways to tell the story of your project.

We’re very excited to welcome Martha Cleary, a campaign manager at the renowned UK label Tru Thoughts for the 9th episode of Fox Tales

If you’ve been following the Stereofox blog, you’ll know we’ve featured a great deal of releases from Tru Thoughts and we’ve seen awesome album rollouts, mesmerizing stories and, needless to say - gorgeous music. They’re working with artists like Alice Russel, Moonchild, Hot 8 Brass Band, Quantic, Anushka, fika, Hemai, even with Bonobo 20 years ago for his Animal Magic album. And many many other names.

She was so nice to drop by for a chat to share some tips & tricks that will help every artist higher their chances of success when releasing music.

Show notes

[5:42] On what you need to prepare when you’ve got your music & artwork ready

[7:45] Going over an example campaign timeline

[11:14] On premieres

[13:59] On music videos

[17:56] On when to release singles, EPs, or an album

[21:45] On storytelling

[23:40] On waterfalling singles

[28:58] On remixing

[32:30] On success goals - creating a fanbase, radio, press, TikTok, sync, etc. and the mania for playlisting

[37:09] On blowing up overnight, early supporters & maintaining relationships with curators, editors, radio hosts, etc.

[41:07] On case studies like Self Esteem, Arlo Parks, Anderson .Paak, Jorja Smith, Nubya Garcia, Little Simz

[48:43] On quality vs. quantity when doing outreach & contacting the right people

[56:20] On the success stories of Bryony Jarman-Pinto, Sly5thAve & Hot 8 Brass Band

Links

The gender wage gap, in general, refers to the difference in earnings between women and men, and for some reason, on average women in virtually every country are paid less than men. This is quite a complex issue linked to politics, economics, and even sociology… and there is a range of variables in play that make it tough to answer - why are women paid less than men?

Following our articles on Challenges Female Producers Face and How These 5 Factors Contribute to the Gender Pay Gap In The Music Industry, we’re excited to expand the research with an audio discussion and a guest who can help us better understand the issue.

For this episode we invited Vick Bain who is a campaigner for women in music through researching, training, presenting & consulting on all aspects of diversity in creative industries. She has exten­sive experience in the music industry as she was the CEO for the BASCA (British Academy for Songwriters, Composers, and Authors), she sat on the UK music board, the UK rights committee, and the UK Music Diversity Taskforce - and the ones I mentioned are only a few of the boards she’s been on. Now she works as a freelance music industry consultant, a curator of the F-List, a director of an organization called Pipa, and she’s a director of an exciting music-tech start up called Delic. I can’t neglect to mention that she was enrolled into BBC Radio 4’s Women's Hour Powerlist in 2018.

Show notes

[11:12] On her experience as CEO at BASCA (British Academy for Songwriters, Composers, and Authors)

[14:30] On her report “Counting the Music Industry” and the hardest part about the report

[26:44] Why companies don’t promote women in the upper echelons of the organization

[29:50] On how women leaders are treated compared to men

[40:35] On the motherhood penalty

Links

When it comes to releasing music in 2021, the 1-million-dollar question is always: “Should I release it myself or via a label?”

Of course, self-releasing gives you complete freedom & control but also requires more time and know-how on distribution, marketing, PR, etc.

In our new episode, we had a chat about the pros & cons of both sides with Chris Hill from Average Negative Records - a Berlin-based cross-platform label, run by himself and Jian Liew, also known as Kyson.

He’s also a professional drummer and has his own recording & tracking studio called The Tracking Farm. He’s worked with artists like Alice Phoebe Lou, running his solo experimental project holymachines and many, many other things.

Links

Time for our first Artist Stories segment and we're starting with someone very loved and respected by our team - US electronic artist Com Truise. We dive into an array of topics like Galactic Melt's 10 years anniversary all the way through working with a label and manager and slightly touch upon the future of web 3, design and NFTs.

Show notes

How can artists submit and end up on Deezer editorial and how do their team curate their playlists. 

I must note - Deezer is the only platform that puts the face and the name of the curator on each playlist, which gives transparency and opens up possibilities for discussions with them.

Playlist curator as a job didn’t exist around the time Adam had studies Economics and Finance, but from the world of banking, he managed to get an internship position at a student radio as Head of Music. There he learned to curate for an audience, and after that after a quick stint at a local label, he started at MTV UK where he worked as an Editor. Eventually, Adam landed his dream position in Deezer as a UK & Ireland Music Editor, and later on as Global Indie & Alternative Editor. He is one of the people responsible for Deezer’s InVersion playlists and curates playlists like ANTI, Bedroom Pop, Silk, and Chill Alternative.

In his first Fox Tales podcast as a host, our Stereofox teammate Lu is exploring music blogs' importance in 2021 with Dylan Heneck from Indie Shuffle and SubmitHub.

The 2 discuss what happened to music blogs, hypemachine, the highs and lows of writing about music in the past decade, the role of social media, SoundCloud, and Spotify on their diminishment and why should artists still care about them in 2021. Not only because of the fact that music blogs can still help them find die-hard fans and share their story, but their role in landing an editorial playlist on major streaming platforms like Spotify (Fresh Finds)teammate, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer, and TIDAL.

In a nutshell, Bandcamp is a digital community that facilitates the process of fans directly supporting artists in the first place, and also  (nowadays) serves as a gathering spot of like-minded people who want to discover new music and build relationships with the artist.

In our new episode, we have the honor to speak with Aly Gillani (Label Representative & Manager at Bandcamp) about the different features like Live Streams, Bandcamp Fridays, Messaging, and Building an Audience. We also cover some best practices when it comes to getting the best out of the platform and achieving success as an artist or label on the platform.

Welcome to The Fox Tales - a brand new music industry podcast created by the team behind Stereofox. 

Want to end up on a Spotify Editorial? Tough, but not impossible and we hope this talk helps you! In 40 minutes we talk about making sure you get noticed by editors and bringing your best game into the world of releasing music digitally.

In this episode, we share our knowledge gathered as a label for the past 2 years when it comes to writing a Spotify Pitch. We also discuss best practices and important steps an artist or label should do before pitching. Lastly, we also explain why pitching to Spotify is important and why you should be doing it for every release.

Welcome to The Fox Tales - a brand new music industry podcast created by the team behind Stereofox. In our first episode, we discuss the history and evolution of the Spotify playlist ecosystem - both editorial and algorithmic.

Discover what editorial playlists are and what they bring to the table. How they changed since their inception on the platform in 2013, and what's their role in the streaming economy of Spotify beyond keeping users engaged. We discuss the types of editorial and algorithmic and why it's important for artists to understand the field before pitching their music and hopefully landing on an Editorial playlist.