337 Ezra Vancil – Business Systems: From Marketing Day Job to Sustainable Music Career

Noam Bargil is an established and skilled trumpet player based in Amsterdam. But when he booked his first corporate gig, his perspective changed dramatically. There's a ceiling on what a skilled player like Noam can earn. But he realized the path to building something bigger was to become a bandleader and then build a brand. Noam took it a step further with technology, creating a platform that his agency, musicians, and bands can use to sell, manage, and track their clients. Noam explains how he handles client pushback on price by adding value before reducing his fee, and how positioning can reduce friction caused by price objections. He also shares how he manages lead response time and gathers insights that tell him which leads need a response. He details his method for tracking proposals versus sending a PDF and hoping it generates interest. Noam also explains how he builds a subs roster so the band never depends on one player, and how he decides what to pay his musicians. Today Noam runs Benga Band, a party band for weddings and corporate events, plus other acts through his agency, Lupa Entertainment. He tracks runs with a self-developed app called Run The Band. But you don't need his agency or app to get value from our conversation. Noam's advice to call every lead costs you nothing but time. The rest is based on best practices and solid principles. Noam wrote a book called Wedding Band Mastery for anyone who wants to move from player to bandleader, for any type of band they run. Noam is also releasing new original music. Find Noam and learn more about his work at NoamBargil.com. Support the Unstarving Musician The Unstarving Musician exists solely through the generosity of its listeners, readers, and viewers. Learn how you can offer your support at UnstarvingMusician.com/CrowdSponsor This episode was brought to you by Podcast Startup. Ready to launch your podcast or take it to the next level? Podcast Startup gives you the frameworks, systems, and insider knowledge to build a show that actually grows your audience and serves your goals. Whether you're just getting started or looking to improve your existing podcast, you'll get actionable strategies on equipment selection, content planning, audience building, and sustainable production workflows—without the overwhelm. Learn more at UnstarvingMusician.com/PodcastStartup. Join podcasters who are building shows that last. Resources The Unstarving Musician's Guide to Getting Paid Gigs, by Robonzo Dreamhost – See the latest deals from Dreamhost, save money and support the UM in the process. More Resources for musicians Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means I make a small commission, at no extra charge to you, if you purchase using those links. Thanks for your support! For show notes and episode a list of past episodes, please visit UnstarvingMusician.com. Stay in touch! @RobonzoDrummer on Instagram @UnstarvingMusician on Facebook and YouTube

This rewind episode features my conversation with Indian classical and crossover vocalist Roopa Mahadevan. We recorded it in February 2021, and it first dropped the following July. It's the most-downloaded episode of the Unstarving Musician podcast. Roopa's fan base probably helped, but it was also a great conversation. When we spoke, Roopa had temporarily moved from New York City to San Jose, where she grew up. Her first album, Roopa In Six Yards: A Carnatic Playlist, had been out a little over a year. We talked about where she wanted to take her crossover group Roopa In Flux and the challenges her Carnatic vocal training presented. She also turned the tables and asked me what I get out of music when I can't understand the words. We also chatted about our mutual acquaintance, Bollywood blues artist Aki Kumar, who introduced me to Roopa. If you've listened to recent episodes, you'll notice they're more focused on actionable frameworks than this one. I'd love to hear what you think about the difference. You'll find all my contact info at unstarvingmusician.com. Find out what Roopa is up to next at RoopaMahadevan.com. Support the Unstarving Musician The Unstarving Musician exists solely through the generosity of its listeners, readers, and viewers. Learn how you can offer your support at UnstarvingMusician.com/CrowdSponsor This episode was brought to you by Podcast Startup. Ready to launch your podcast or take it to the next level? Podcast Startup gives you the frameworks, systems, and insider knowledge to build a show that actually grows your audience and serves your goals. Whether you're just getting started or looking to improve your existing podcast, you'll get actionable strategies on equipment selection, content planning, audience building, and sustainable production workflows—without the overwhelm. Learn more at UnstarvingMusician.com/PodcastStartup. Join podcasters who are building shows that last. Resources The Unstarving Musician's Guide to Getting Paid Gigs, by Robonzo Dreamhost – See the latest deals from Dreamhost, save money and support the UM in the process. More Resources for musicians Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means I make a small commission, at no extra charge to you, if you purchase using those links. Thanks for your support! For show notes and episode a list of past episodes, please visit UnstarvingMusician.com. Stay in touch! @RobonzoDrummer on Instagram @UnstarvingMusician on Facebook and YouTube

In 2017, I published a blog post asking, "Is indie radio still relevant?" It was a terrible post. I was preparing to interview D. Grant Smith, who ran the indie radio show Appetizer Radio and wrote "The DIY Musician's Radio Handbook." Not much was being written about the indie radio's relevance, or lack thereof, at that time. I basically just asked the question and moved on. That was almost ten years ago. The music industry has been turned upside down several times since then. Streaming became the dominant listening format. Social media discovery rose, fell, and rose again. AI entered the conversation. The question of radio, specifically indie radio, has arguably become more relevant. So today I'm revisiting the question, but this time I've done some actual research. What I found is that radio is not dead. Not even close. More importantly for independent musicians, the indie radio ecosystem has real, concrete value, and you may be leaving some of that value on the table right now. This episode covers who's actually listening to radio in 2025 and 2026. It also breaks down the royalty angle, which is where I think the most actionable framework lives. Also covered — the different types of radio and what each one offers an indie artist, where the royalty money is, the playlist-to-radio pipeline, college and community radio (the accessible gateway), and how to think about radio as an indie artist. This episode is for independent artists trying to figure out whether radio still matters to their career, regardless of whether or not streaming is part of their plan. Support the Unstarving Musician The Unstarving Musician exists solely through the generosity of its listeners, readers, and viewers. Learn how you can offer your support at UnstarvingMusician.com/CrowdSponsor This episode was brought to you by Podcast Startup. Ready to launch your podcast or take it to the next level? Podcast Startup gives you the frameworks, systems, and insider knowledge to build a show that actually grows your audience and serves your goals. Whether you're just getting started or looking to improve your existing podcast, you'll get actionable strategies on equipment selection, content planning, audience building, and sustainable production workflows—without the overwhelm. Learn more at UnstarvingMusician.com/PodcastStartup. Join podcasters who are building shows that last. Resources The Unstarving Musician's Guide to Getting Paid Gigs, by Robonzo Dreamhost – See the latest deals from Dreamhost, save money and support the UM in the process. More Resources for musicians Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means I make a small commission, at no extra charge to you, if you purchase using those links. Thanks for your support! For show notes and episode a list of past episodes, please visit UnstarvingMusician.com. Stay in touch! @RobonzoDrummer on Instagram @UnstarvingMusician on Facebook and YouTube

Every distribution company's international playbook assumes resources an independent artist doesn't have. In this conversation, Janette Berrios, SVP of Corporate Marketing at Symphonic, scales things down to a solo artist with no team and no budget. She breaks down a repeatable way to enter a scene where you know nobody, research who matters, reach out so you actually get a reply, and how to follow up without being a pest. She also describes a cold outreach she made years ago to someone at a peer company bigger than Symphonic at the time, and where that relationship stands today.

George Macias is co-founder of Lumoza, a free music rights-registration platform for independent artists, where you upload your song, and it's registered where it needs to be so you actually get paid. Lumoza creates a Digital Birth Certificate for every song, which is a permanent record of who created it and when, and that helps take care of registering your work with the organizations that pay out royalties. George and his cofounders spent years inside the major-label and publishing world, watching artists lose money to paperwork and processes nobody explained to them. Or that they found overwhelming. George and I talk about patterns he repeatedly saw on the publisher side that made him think independent artists needed some help, how Lumoza wants to marry metadata and the song at the beginning of the process, the misunderstanding among indie artists that they register with a distributor and think they're done, his one recommendation for the thing artists should build into their recording session process, regardless of what tool they use, where AI music sits all of this, and more. Learn more about Lumoza at Lumoza.io. Support the Unstarving Musician The Unstarving Musician exists solely through the generosity of its listeners, readers, and viewers. Learn how you can offer your support at UnstarvingMusician.com/CrowdSponsor This episode was brought to you by Podcast Startup. Ready to launch your podcast or take it to the next level? Podcast Startup gives you the frameworks, systems, and insider knowledge to build a show that actually grows your audience and serves your goals. Whether you're just getting started or looking to improve your existing podcast, you'll get actionable strategies on equipment selection, content planning, audience building, and sustainable production workflows—without the overwhelm. Learn more at UnstarvingMusician.com/PodcastStartup. Join podcasters who are building shows that last. Resources The Unstarving Musician's Guide to Getting Paid Gigs, by Robonzo Dreamhost – See the latest deals from Dreamhost, save money and support the UM in the process. More Resources for musicians Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means I make a small commission, at no extra charge to you, if you purchase using those links. Thanks for your support! For show notes and episode a list of past episodes, please visit UnstarvingMusician.com. Stay in touch! @RobonzoDrummer on Instagram @UnstarvingMusician on Facebook and YouTube