The Zak Kuhn Show
Zak Kuhn is an artist manager and founder of The Nashville Briefing, the must-read email newsletter that covers country music and Nashville news. In his new podcast, Zak talks with leaders in music and entertainment to gain their insights on the shifts in the music industry, what executives need to know to keep up on the latest trends and how to stay ahead of the curve in the biz.
Clarence Spalding is a partner in Maverick and the founder of Spalding Entertainment. He manages country megastars like Jason Aldean, Rascal Flatts, Brooks & Dunn, Reba & Darius Rucker. When it comes to Country managers, few compete with Clarence.
Lee Greenwood, the myth, the legend, the patriot. This was a fun one! We talk about his biggest hits, how his song ends up in presidential campaigns and so much more.
R.J. Romeo is the president of Romeo Entertainment Group, one of the leading independent talent buyers in the US. Brian Bauer is the founder and president of Bauer Entertainment Marketing, one of the leading event marketing firms in Nashville. These guys share a ton of insight on the future and recovery of the live music industry and so much more.
Pete Griffin is the CEO of Musicians On Call. For more than 20 years, the national organization has brought live and recorded music to patients, doctors and nurses in hospitals nationwide. To date MOC has performed for more than 850,000 people in hospitals. During a global pandemic, MOC has had their biggest year yet.
On our 40th episode special, we are pulling out all the stops! Leslie Fram is the senior VP of music strategy for CMT. Matt Pinfield is the legendary host of MTV's 120 Minutes. What do Leslie and Matt have in common? They once hosted a radio show together! We dive deep into stories of them being on the air and talk about how with minimal resources, they were able to pull off iconic stunts. Hearing the excitement that Matt & Leslie still have for music is exhilarating and I guarantee their stories will blow you away.
Stephen Day's music makes me feel good. He is one of Nashville most talked about rising stars and has over 32 million streams to his name. Before Covid, he was getting ready to headline his very first sold out tour across the country. His brand new project is titled "Original Songs And Sound". Learn about Stephen now.
A Thousand Horses are one of the few bands rocking in Country music today. These guys have been through it all and have come out on top. "A Song To Remember" is their brand new single, produced by Dave Cobb, that's out on Country radio right now.
Adam Paul is the Emmy Winning CEO of production company 7 Cinematics. Together with his team, Paul is the go to guy for many of the most iconic acts in music like Machine Gun Kelly, Greta Van Fleet, Jimmy Buffett, Zac Brown Band, The Avett Brothers and many more. He also shot the Red Hot Chili Peppers during the first concert ever in front of the great pyramids in Egypt. We talk about production techniques, what makes a great live stream, how his company has adapted during the pandemic and so much more.
Troy Cartwright is getting ready for his first major-label single “Hung Up On You”, to impact country radio on 11/16. He is signed to Warner Nashville and came up playing shows across Texas. This is his moment.
Ashley Cooke & Chris Ruediger are the co-creators of The 615 House. The group of rising country artists have recently been going viral on TikTok, collectively reaching over one million viewers each week. These acts are building their careers completely independently and it's working! Tune in to hear how the group came together, the secrets of great content, the strangest DMs they have ever received and so much more.
Dan Rogers is the Executive Producer of The Grand Ole Opry. He started with the show as an intern over 20 years ago. Today, he is leading one of America's great treasures into the modern age. Tune in to hear Opry secrets, history, how the show gets put together and so much more.
Tom Chapin is a three time Grammy winning singer-songwriter. He is the brother of legendary artist Harry Chapin. Above all, he is the first artist I ever fell in love with, at 5 years old. Tune in to hear how Harry wrote his legendary hit Taxi, how Tom made a career out of singing family music, the secrets of winning over an audience and so much more.
Matt Graham is the manager of country superstars Midland. He is a co-founder of Range Media and grew up in the business promoting college shows with Scooter Braun. He was one of the first managers to break artists using social media and remains on the cutting edge of technology and talent today.
Fresh off his #1 single Pray For You, Matt Stell is releasing a brand new EP titled "Better Than That". He is one of the nicest guys in country music, and his amazing career is just getting started.
Beth Laird is the founder of Creative Nation, a Nashville-based music company home to some of the industry’s top songwriters, producers and artists. If you want insight into what it takes to run a first class publishing company in Nashville, then this episode is for you.
Ingrid Andress is one of Nashville's fastest rising country stars. The deluxe version of her debut album Lady Like is out now.
Will Tenney is the head of streaming strategy & promotion at Crush Music, where he oversees data & record consumption for Lorde, Sia, Alec Benjamin, and Green Day, among others. Listen to hear how a kid who grew up playing guitar in bands, hustled his way into the music business.
Filmore is one on Nashville's buzziest rising superstars. He is signed to Curb Records and has earned over 147 million total on-demand streams. His debut album "State I'm In" is out now. Hear how a kid from Missouri hustled to make it in the music business.
Becky Gardenhire is the co-head of WME’s Nashville office. She has been with the company for over 20 years, and works directly with many of the top acts in country music like Rascal Flatts, Reba McEntire, Tenille Townes, Ingrid Andress, Jordan Davis, Sara Evans, and Trisha Yearwood. This episode takes you to the front lines of the music industry during COVID, and so much more.
Stephanie Wright is the Senior Vice President of A&R at Universal Music Nashville. She has been with the company for over 20 years and worked closely with some of the most iconic acts in modern Country Music like Kacey Musgraves, Sam Hunt and Maddie & Tae.
This week on the podcast, we sat down with Warner Music Nashville Recording artist Ryan Griffin. We talk about life growing up in Florida, moving to Nashville, working with Busbee and so much more. Ryan is a new artist, who is rising fast. Learn his story now!
Chris Kappy is the manager of country superstar Luke Combs. He is also the founder of Make Wake Artists, which oversees the careers of Hailey Whitters, Niko Moon and Ashland Craft, among others. If you work in artist management, or if your dream is to work in artist management, then this episode is for you. Hear how Kappy went from working with artists on cruise ships, to managing some of the most important acts in country music.
Sherod Robertson is the President and Owner of Music Row Magazine. Prior to running Music Row, Robertson served as Director of Finance at Arista Records after beginning his career as Vice President of Finance and CFO at Reunion Records. If you want to know what it takes to run a major music publication, then this episode is for you!
In this live webinar about data in the music industry, Zak is joined by Alex White (founder of Next Big Sound and current VP, Content & Programming at Pandora), Britnee Foreman (Data analyst at Tempo Music) and Jason Joven (Content and Insights manager at Chartmetric).
Erik Nelson & Gian Pergini are the founders of FanFlex, a mobile app that helps venues and artists books shows in a brand new way. As venues start to open back up, FanFlex is going to be critical for this process. Tune in to see how two old friends, teamed up to change the live music space.
Graeme Winder is an entrepreneur, music educator and founder of Keys & Kingdoms, a video game platform that is changing the way kids learn music. Having struggled himself learning music, Graeme is on a mission to teach kids in a way that is best for them. Oh, and the founder of Guitar Hero is coming along for the journey!
Alex Goodman is the head of digital at Riser House Records. He also manages the career of major label recording artist Dylan Brady. Alex is one of the fastest rising executives on Music Row. If you want to know how to make it in the modern music business, then this episode is for you.
This podcast is presented by The Nashville Briefing
Morgan Hayduk & Andrew Batey are the co-founders and CEOs of Beatdapp, a startup solving a 4 billion dollar problem in the Music industry. Every year 15% of streams on DSPs go unaccounted for; Beatdapp is helping labels find these missing royalties. The company has been written about extensively in publications like Billboard, Music Business Worldwide and Music Row. It also has an A-list advisory board with industry legends like Joe Galante, Bryan Turner, Benji Rogers and the former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Beatdapp is a company of the future. Learn about it now.
This podcast is from The Nashville Briefing
Will Farrell-Green is the head of Music Content at Twitch. This episode was recorded live as an industry webinar. We talk about best streaming strategies, if your artists should be on Twitch, how to get them on, and so much more! If you have even considered putting your art on Twitch, this episode is for you!
This podcast is from The Nashville Briefing
Del Bryant is the President and CEO emeritus of BMI. He is also the son of legendary songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who are considered the first professional songwriters in Nashville. Together, his parents sold over half a billion records and wrote hits for artists like The Everly Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Little Jimmy Dickens, and Buddy Holly. Today, Del is one of the most respected and influential leaders in the music industry, and spends a lot of his time focusing on preserving his parents legacy. There are few people as closely tied to the foundation of Music City as Del.
Robert Deaton is the Executive Producer behind the CMA Awards, as well as the Billboard Music Awards. He also producers the CMA Country Christmas Special, and the CMA Fest Special, which he created. He started his career producing music videos for some of the most iconic artist of all time like Dolly Parton, Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride, and so many more. Today, Robert also manages one of the fastest rising acts in Nashville, King Calaway. Listen to how a kid from North Carolina grew up to become one of top content creators in the Music Industry.
RJ Curtis is the Executive Director of Country Radio Seminar (CRS). RJ spent the first half of his career working in radio stations on the West Coast. He then moved to Nashville to work in journalism, and would become the Nashville Editor for the All Access Music Group. As the current head of CRS, RJ oversees every aspect of the conference. We talk about what it takes to pull it off, RJ's rise in the industry, the history and future of radio and so much more.
Steve Schnur is the Worldwide Executive of Music for Electronic Arts, the largest video game producer in the world. Not a piece of music makes it into an EA game without his approval. We talk about how he builds some of the most influential playlists in games like Madden, how the music and gaming industry will continue to collide, why Nashville is important to him and so much more. The Gaming industry today is bigger than the film and music industry combined. Tune in to find out why.
Jon Cohen is the co-founder of Vagrant Records. Throughout his legendary career as a label head, Cohen signed bands like The 1975, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Dashboard Confessional, Alkaline Trio and so many more. Now Cohen has created a brand new company called Big Noise Music and recently signed Nashville star Travis Tritt. If you want to know how to build a label from the ground up, from someone who has done it twice, then this episode is for you!
Joe Galante ran RCA Records and Sony Music Nashville. In his legendary career, he worked with and signed acts like Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Alabama, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, and so many more. Listen to how a guy from Astoria New York became a power player in Nashville Tennessee.
Thomas O'Keefe is the current tour manager for Weezer. Before that, he was out with Train, Ryan Adams, Third Eye Blind, and Sia. Thomas talks about life on the road, how he got his start with Ryan Adams, and how a punk rocker from Connecticut ended up touring with some of the biggest acts in the world.
David Ross is the founder of Music Row, one of the most prolific trade magazines in Country Music. Hear Ross' story about creating the publication, running it for over 30 years, meeting a young Taylor Swift, and ultimately selling the company to get back to his original passion, writing songs.
Spencer Crandall is one of Nashville's most talked about rising artists. With over 1 million followers on TikTok and over 1.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, he has built a massive fanbase, completely independently. On this episode, Spencer is joined by his manager Jeff Cherry and we talk all about what it takes to make it in the music business.
Teddy Robb's brand new single "Heaven On Dirt" is out on Country radio right now. He is signed to Shane McAnally's Monument Records and is one of the nicest rising stars in Nashville.
David Dufresne is a partner at Panache Ventures, one of the most active and best performing Canadian venture capital funds. Prior to that, he was the Head of Strategy & Growth at Bandcamp. Prior to that, he was the CEO of popular website building service Bandzoogle.
