September 8, 2023 • 32 mins
Join us for the grand finale of our conversation with music legend Dallas Austin. In this episode, Dallas reflects on the ever-evolving music industry, exploring how distribution channels and social media have revolutionized fame while posing new challenges for artists aiming to leave a lasting legacy.
But that's just the beginning. Dallas also unveils his pioneering work in technology, harnessing blockchain through the SHARE protocol to revolutionize artist compensation.
And there's more! Dallas shares his journey into the world of film, helping Georgia rise as a prime filming destination with iconic productions like 'Drumline' and 'ATL.' Don't miss this episode, where Dallas Austin offers insights, innovation, and a wealth of experiences from the heart of the entertainment industry.
Host IG:@itstanyatime
Guest IG: @dallasaustins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think it's just like that, I never feel like
I ever made it to where I'm going. I'm always
if if I get to one plateau, I'm always gonna
create another one to get to. And so it kind
of your way of like starting over in something and
keeping the same excitement about something. So you know, when
and I've been to so many phases of the music
business to whereas you know, you know you're gonna be,
(00:20):
like I said, Rich Broke, Rich Broke, Rich Broke, You're
gonna have hits. You're not gonna have hits. You gonna
have hits, You're not gonna have hits. So start you
start career and everything. You know, well, this is what
I'm gonna do for rest of my life, some form
of this. And when I started to think, you know,
when I started over the time of COVID diving into Dad,
that just rebirthed a whole nother element of excitement and
(00:43):
me because I knew I was on something that didn't
exist for one, and something that was gonna be a
game changer for two.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
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(01:11):
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Speaker 3 (01:27):
Before we start the episode, I'd like.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
To remind you to check us out at gogreenwood dot
com and follow us on social media at Greenwood and
me on all things social at It's Tanya. Time to
stay locked in to new episode. When you look at
the music industry, now you're you know, you're an.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Og you're a veteran.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
You've seen it dramatically change, implode, grow, et cetera. And
now we're sort of in this music social media era
right now. What do you what advice would you give
to like aspiring musicians is trying to get noticed in
today's competitive landscape?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Is it harder or is it easier.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
It's a lot harder to get noticed today because it's
one hundred over one hundred thousand records that come out
of day and so if you forget and our day
it was maybe six records will come out this week.
And so because of the DIY access, you know, the
(02:27):
distribution company access and gives you access to load up
your music and it gets the Spotify. But to find
the ones that's special, they still got to work extra
hard now because it is that much more coming, like
you're saying a minute ago. So if you're not on
your phone in your in the face, so the next
person is yeah, and you're doing it as hard as
you are, because you know, if you come up in
(02:49):
this era right now, then you don't know any better
than any different. If you want to be a star,
your thing is okay, let me go to my phone.
Yeah yeah, So you don't have to make it out
of Hollywood and where else. You can just become an influencer.
You can if you're determined enough, you're going to turn
into a star on that on the Instagram. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
But I think it's also the longevity of it, right,
So this is this is part of the question I
think for you know, these young and aspiring artists, because
I just discovered this guy the other day who was
like seven eight million followers. He had this one hit
song that went viral on TikTok, and how do they.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Come out with these with his next hit?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's like is it just are they one hit wonders,
like how do you create legacy in a time when
everything is just swipe right, swipe right with the next story.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
That's a good question because.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It's way harder to make legacy now than when about it,
you know, or if you look at the artists that's
really big right now, like the Beyonce's and the they've
been you know, in the game for so long, you
know that they came in.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Like the last era legacy.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Also, so if you start to look at the more
recent startups now, then it's not many people that you
see the same thing that you saw in those are
And it's not many people that you see the same
as you saw Michael or like you know, so it
becomes some of them do it about putting out so
(04:17):
much music, Like if you look at like a Chris Brown,
he put out soul members that you know which record
is which record?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
No more.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Right, that's the way staying in the forefront of you know,
keeping himself out there. The ones that's really gonna have
legacy now is the ones that's the most impressive. Like
you can look at Bruno Mars and say, okay, he's
gonna be a legacy art He's already a legacy artist.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
But still, look how many years has been.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, that overnight sensation thing is not true.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
He's been hustling for years.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Everybody that you see that's really you know, that that
star status to that level, they've been hustling for years
and years and years and years daily daily basis the
one now that that will have a hit record from TikTok.
The cool part about it is they got an audience.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Now, yeah, now what do you do with it?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And I was saying this to uh the other day
that you know, even when people have a fan base,
so even if you let's say you have ten thousand followers, right,
so just think about that is actual ten thousand people,
you know, and if the first thing person that does
has ten thousand followers as an artist is they go,
oh man, I want to get to fifteen he what
(05:28):
about the ten No.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Like service. Those ten make them love you so much.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
That's it, you know, and those ten will get you
to your own fifteen or twenty because they're gonna go
tell somebody or they're gonna go like you know. But
doing the work as an artist now you can it's
more more ways to make income streams, you know, if
you do the work. Because most of the artists, you see,
even if they got money by their ears, they're getting.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
The money from shows. Yeah, you know, it's back into
that to the show era. They're not getting it.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Thank god, COVID's over. We're back to shows getting me
all the shows and live music you got. I want
to be outside.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Let me ask you this question, how do you think
because right now the concerts, the shows, you know they're
gonna there. You go see Beyonce and you take somebody
with you. That's eight hundred dollars for the regular seats,
right to take four hundred dollars a piece. So then
say you go see Drake after that. That's another How
going going to the concerts?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I don't know even at I just bought tickets to
see Bear's Hammon. That man is a legend in his
own genre. And there's still like three hundred bucks.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Jesus Christ, but we're paying it. People want experience, yep.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
And it's fixing it.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It's one of the things I think that's helping the
economy balance back out in some sense. Tell the swift
show up for three nights, then the hotel room's gonna
jack their prices up. The tickets are through the roof,
and the restaurants around everybody's gonna eat on them. You know,
they were doing this report on it the other day.
I saw the news on the Message and they were
just saying how festivals and tours and everything is just
(07:02):
helping the US economy.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Like leafs and bounds. Wah. Everybody's spending money. Yeah yeah,
so you in inflation and sessions and all that.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Everybody's kind of not spending. They're trying to figure out
ways to get you to spend. And now just those
concerts alone, I don't even know how you can go
take take your family to concerts.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Oh you can't.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And I mean, like Taylor spipt it's like your little girls.
There are eight nine, ten, eleven, twelve asking for one
thousand dollars tickets. It's unreal. But people will make it happen,
and I mean, parentsho just do that. I mean, look,
your mom like was like, let me sell my restaurant
for your dreams if your dream is to go to Taylor.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Strips, and parents are going to make it absolutely all right.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So it's back to touring, back to merge, back to
connecting with your audiences and just more of that.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
That's that's the basis of it. You know.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It's because that the distribution companies, which you have like
a wall and not a master's and then I have
my own distribution company, dad, and I started looking at
the number is going yeah, well, the distribution.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Company is about volume. How much how.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Many can you have?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
You got a million users? Do you have five hundred
thousand users? But they're not a record company. So it's
a digital you know, it's like a digital transfer company
to get you on Spotify and Apple Music and everywhere else.
But it takes you about for every two hundred and
fifty streams, you get one dollar.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
My gosh, yes, you can't buy anything for a dollar now.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
No, And if you got a million streams, let's get
you about three grand. So that's something that you know,
you know, that's something we addressed. I started a new
technology called a share technology where artists can basically choose
their raid and.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Then when they put.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It out there, you need to centem, Apple pay, a
Google pay and it pays them instantly.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Oh wow, so you started this technology.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
That's what we started with that because I was looking
at my numbers on the back side of what people
have millions of streams, like, but then they're only getting
this much money. And so we started thinking about it
about two years ago and started right when covid hit
I had when everybody was blockchain crazy, I had the
first dish company on the blockchain.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, I mean that makes so much sense for music.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I was that been really into blockchain for a very
long time, and it feels like one of the most
natural use case applications. Like music on the blockchain, you
can authenticate it, you can tell who created it. You
can now like kind of revenue screens instantly, like this
is real.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
That's basically what we did. Yeah, made it so that
every artist can pick their rate. So if you want
to stream or you want to sell, but if you
want it for five dollars, ten dollars, one dollars up
to you and then obviously you get a ledger of
everybody that buys your that has yourself because of the blockchain,
and then you can have up to fifty contracts. You know,
(09:58):
So if me and you wrote went together being as
soon as they hit that Apple pay, a Google pay,
or they can make their wallet or whatever they want,
then it goes straight to us. And that's you know,
that's a that's that's a form of being disruptive to
get to the next steps. But at least if you
had you know, two hundred fans that you can make
(10:19):
money off of them, Yeah, you know, two bucks will
take you forever to make that money, even Spotify something.
But if you can choose your rate and then modify that,
like when you look at the streaming companies. Now let's
let's say Taylor Swift or Beyonce, she's streaming at the
same rate that a new artist is streaming that that
has no no followers, So they get in the same amount.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
As far as the stream That makes some sense, but.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Makes when she sold the million and a half records
the first week, which is back to the old days, uh,
she did that straight from her website.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
She was like, I'm going to take all this money,
all this money.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yeah, you know, but we work.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
That's what you know, my company, that's what we've been.
I've been happy to see just the results of people
being able to say, oh man, I'm making some money.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
I'm making some money.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And as it gated to the bigger artists and you
have a bigger fan base. You know, it's kind of
like what Tanye said when he made the Little stim player.
The problem was that, you know, we just didn't want
to carry another device. Yeah, he didn't want to gay
by hisself. Yeah, he was right and saying, you know,
we need, we need a way to be paid, you know,
more than what the streaming companies are paying out.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
So go back to this blockchain company that you started.
It's still operational. So how for an artist? Because I
love this because I think one of the narratives that's
always plagued the music industry is the creatives don't get
paid everybody.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I mean, this is true.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I mean there's a side strike going on right now.
It's the same thing. Everybody at the top is eating
and nobody at the bottom is eating. And this is
why I think the blockchain piece of this sort of
disrupts that dramatically so that creatives can actually have control
of their music.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
So how do people find this?
Speaker 1 (11:59):
To ww what you do dad distro a dollar sauce
and distribution if you want to look it up that way.
And then when you go it's interesting because you'll see
a web three button and you'll see a button for
the DSPs. Because the way I'm getting people into Web
three that's not is okay. I know you want to
go to Apple Music and all that, and you can
still go here.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
So if you hit this.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Button, it's going to take you into that land and
you can load up your music and you can go
to Apple and TikTok and Spotify. We have over two
hundred service providers we go to right. So but then
if you click this button to the Web three, you're
going here and then load up your stuff the same
way to pitt your up music up, pick your date.
But now you can pick what you want to sell
for and you can pick your rate and you can
(12:41):
say if you want it, you know crypto, if you
want to regular money, and if you hit the regular
money then then you know it access the Apple pay
and Google pay and all this, and from that point,
you know, you load up and you get your link
and then you send it out and when they see it,
instantly it comes up with your record and the Apple
pay Google pay button for whatever you'll.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Your amount is.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Oh, I love who I took.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I found out the person Brandon Tory, he was working
at He's an artist and I liked his music so
much when I heard it on D A D. But
he was like, man, I know, we're not going to
make any money off of it. I looked at his
video and he had like a hovering Tesla in the video.
So I'm like, who did this? He's like, oh, yeah,
you know, I'm an I.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Work at Google. I used to work at Apple doing AI,
but now I'm a top tier at Google. I said,
oh for real.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, And so we started talking about the blockchain and
music and how do we make this difference, and he
was like So as we kept hashing it out, he said,
you know what I can. I can make this happen.
I can build this. He came back to me probably
like a year later with that that long and said, Dallas, look,
we got it. And when he when he showed it
to me, I was.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Like, that's eureka, we figured it out. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So now we're active now. We you know, we have
clients already, we have people using it. We're going into
our you know, our marketing and promo around coming up
now this year because now we make sure the bugs,
it king's worked out, and it's exciting.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
It's you know, it so exciting.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Yeah, it's going to be this.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
I can't wait for people to make some money because
it's not the consumer, the consumers who you want to
get that's who's stuck with the bill. But yeah, it's
not them, but that don't want to pay the meals
a dollar for his song.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, And this is what I also love.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Like you talked about web three, you talked about blockchain,
like this is how people evolve and iterate through industries.
And I think now you're seeing this intersection of like
technology coming in and it's like game changing. And I
also want people to like, you know again, That's why
I was like, where do they find this? This is
where I really believe like if creatives are paying attention
to what's happening in the music industry, like this is
(14:48):
going to change things. And the more and more people
that adopt to it, the more like we you know,
get paid for.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
The value of our of your work.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And and part of it is to I also tell
people like because I think there was a whole scare
of like the crypto world and blockchain, but really blockchain
is and I just want to say this to everybody
out there listening, Like I say this all the time.
Blockchain is the technology that is going to help make
the creatives get paid.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Don't get caught up in the crypto thing.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
And like the NFT is a crypto.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yes, I'm still but the blockchain is the technology, just
like how the Internet changed our lives, Like, blockchain is
the technology that is really going to afford us to
be able to make these products that are going to
help change the music industry. So pay attention to that, y'all.
It's really something special for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yes, if you look at Snoop just bought a sounds
x y Z a thing for like twenty million dollars
or something. But it's a platform where you sell your
music as an NFT. And what I didn't want to
happen with us was, you know, I wanted to put
the blockchain technology there and then back up a little bit, Yeah,
so that you can understand it, because you know, if
(15:57):
it's still a ton of people that don't understand what
have met them ask a coin base wall.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
And I don't want to force them just I don't
want to give them an option either not coming here
or not because they don't understand that.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So that's why we Apple pay and Google pay. Yeah, okay,
listen out of NFT land and put it in the
music land. It's still on the blockchain, but the access
to it is more understandable for people who don't want
to dave into have and you know, wallets and seed
phrases and all that, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
And that's why I tell people like it's so early,
and so it was really funny because you know, I
think in the past three years people were like, oh, NFTs,
crypto Web, try this, I'm either too late or this,
and they just couldn't figure out how to wrap their
heads around it. But that's sort of the speed of
evolution in the tech world. But now, like to your point,
I think we've figured out ways to integrate like direct
(16:45):
Apple payments, like from PayPal to Apple pay, where you
don't actually have to use crypto and it can just
take us dollar to like an add it on and
add it to your products in the blockchain.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
So it's coming and it's just getting easier and easier.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
And that's why I like, you guys are the innovators
that are paving the way.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
So I'm like, pay attention y'all.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Like stock X and Golden and how people more people
are buying like this than ever. But you know, the
last wants to get it is the music business. Yeah,
just the digital content business. It's the same. It's the
same strike, like the writer strike. Because what happened is,
you know, even with us, my contracts back in let's
(17:27):
say two thousand didn't have streaming, and they didn't have streaming.
They didn't have any streaming language in it because at
the point when I did my contracts in the nineties,
whatever even didn't exist, right, Yeah, So you'd think that
the companies changed that for you, but they didn't.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Well why would they.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
They're like, why would I give you more money?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
You know, my contracts don't exist no more because I
can't print the CDs or I can't do it right.
So that what was smart about the movie industry is
they saw the music industry take that hit from Spotify
and Apple because the you know, the music industry wasn't
tech savvy enough at the time, and nobody cared. So
it ended up being it, what's the solution, Well, we
(18:08):
have one, here's Spotify.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
You know.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Let us give you money and license all the records
from you and you don't have to worry about it,
you know, and we're a big storage unit for people
that want to share music.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
So the film industry said, okay, we're not going to
do that because we should have had Warner Brother's Digital
Music of Sony Digital.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Music, right.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Well, all the labels that have got together together and
made one streaming service like they did in Korea. But
when that didn't happen, you know, when you look at
what happened with HBO, Max and Peacock and all them,
movie companies said, we ain't falling for letting Netflix and
them just have our stuff. We're going to make our
own streaming companies with all of our content. And so
that's why everybody's gonna strike there. That's why the music
(18:49):
music and the music and film contents both it's the
same industry. It's all content creation.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
It's all content creation.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well that's a really great segue because you've also made
the leap from music to film producing. Talk about that
little evolution and you know you produced some classic films,
Like what sparked your interest in film?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Was it just a natural progression?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
It was?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
It was to tell stories from Georgia that was not
the same old story during that time. And the first
thing that you know, when I did drum Line, I
have a meeting.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
With epic, epic, epic.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, I just, I just I have to take this
moment to tell you as someone who grew up in Canada,
So when drum Line came out right, and you know Canada.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
This is like pre like social because what year was Drumline? Anyways,
let's move past that.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
But yeahth anniversaries this year.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
So that was such a portrayal of US culture that.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
We hadn't seen in Canada, Like it was epic, epic, epic,
epic epic. I had never seen like a marching band.
I'd never seen black colleges like.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
And this is just Canada. In Toronto, we sold it
when I saw the movie to him.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
It was based off of I was sitting there one
day and I said, you know, we need need more musicals.
They said, yeah, said, well, nobody's going to break out singing,
singing in the ring. You need something like a marching band,
they said, a marching man. What's interesting about a marching band?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Everything?
Speaker 1 (20:14):
At that time, if you wasn't from the South, you
didn't understand whatout what the marching bands was about. And
so I went and filmed The Battle of the Bands
and took it back to Hollywood and showed it to him.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
And they were like, what is this Exactly?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It was culture that was just like so deeply ingrained here,
but to see it from it was incredible.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Man, it took me ten years to make it.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
It was incredible.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Trying to get the movie made.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Trying to get it, you know, anything else it was,
you had to stay determined. It wouldn't have gotten made.
They put it in a turnaround twice, which that means
that the movie company keeps it and doesn't make it.
And I just kept pulling at it and going no, no,
you gotta understand what it is. And finally.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Called Couincy Jones and I said, man, I.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Got my marching band movie. It's a black marching band film,
and I'm trying to get it made and it's getting
stuck in Hollywood, I said.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
He said, you have a black Marching Band film. Say yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
He said, well you got a you know who's who's
helping you out this Jewish I said, oh nobody said oh,
well that's the first step. He said, look at look
at who shot the color purple? So why do you
think Steven Spielberg shot the color? You get it done properly,
is and get him take it serious, you know. So
I go to my friend Jody Gerson and she's the
head of He and Mine, and I say that to
(21:35):
her and she says, well, I have a friend who
is a big producer. If you want me to let
me produce it with you, I'll bring in Windy Feinnehman.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
And I said what was that?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
He said, well, she just finished Forest Gump and cast Away.
I said, oh yeah, let's bring her. And she ended
up telling me, look, I don't know. I think it's
a great idea. I know nothing about the Marching Band
that always, however, I know nothing about Atlantic culture. So
what I'm going to do is fence it off so
you can get your movie made, you know, but you're
going to be basically the point person on dealing with
(22:06):
all of this. And so when I first started to
see it come to life for real, like start seeing
producers show up and scouts scout in the land and
me trying to pick the actors and all that started
to come to play. And for me, I just wanted
to keep it authentic to the Marching Band because if
you're in the Marching band' it's the same way.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Now. Yeah. Yeah, So we did that one.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Then Atl I had to I actually had to pass
the Georgia Film Bill, which I did back then to
get atl done.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
That's how it all started.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Oh wait, so tell everyone what the Georgia Film Bill is.
This was a bill that passed that gave tax credits
to people that were creating in here, which drove.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
A lot of industry. So you were part of that
as well.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Yeah, I started it.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I did the first lobbying for it because they wanted
me to shoot Warner Brothers wanted me to shoot atl
in New Orleans because they had a tax credit and
it was it was way cheaper. So I was like,
come on, this doesn't make any sense. This is in
Atlanta movie.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I got to shoot this movie and it's rightful home.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
And so I ended up going to Sonny Purdue and
going to uh, get lobbyists and then end up going
to the G eight summit to speak on the.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Behalf of state of Georgia to get this bill passed.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
And so when we got to pass, I could cut
the ribbon with Sonny Purdue. Wow, I was pushing that
because I was because of atl I didn't know it
was going to turn into a film business like that.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, I mean, I want people to understand how pivotal
that was. Like you were like, hey, I want to
film a movie where the movie that I want to
make in my hometown because it's called atl And Now
like Atlanta has one of the biggest film industries like
across the country, Like people come here to film because
of that.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Filling the tax credits.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Yeah, I wish I had known it was going to
be that better. It was at that time.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
It was only me and Tyler kind of doing trying
to do up from here. You know, maybe Will was
find to do stuff too, but you know, to see
what it's turned into and the and to have these
two films where you know, I got a chance to
make some classics and tell some classic Georgia stories with
and and and you know they were they were culturally
(24:18):
significant you know, so we still go to the skating rink,
you know, me and Jermaine are still go skating. Yeah,
And it was just it was at that time you
were seeing so much LA and New York culture and
you didn't get a chance to see anything from the
South that wasn't wasn't like either media.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Or yeah it was it was. It was still a classic.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Man, it still is a classic. It'll be a classic
forever and ever.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Okay, I'm cognizant of time, and I want to take
us out with a couple of last questions.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
What keeps you up at night?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
You've had all these successes, you've had falls. This is
it the music industry? Like, what is it that keeps
you up at night?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Thinks just like that, I never feel like I ever
made it to where I'm going. I'm always if if
I get to one plateau, I'm always going to create
another one to get to. And so it kind of
the way of like starting over in something and keeping
the same excitement about something. So you know, when and
I've been through so many phases of the music business
to where you know, you know you're gonna be like
(25:19):
I said.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Rich Broke, Rich Broke, Rich broke. Yeah, you're gonna have hits.
You're not gonna have hits. You have hits, You're not
gonna have hits. So you start, you start.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Career and everything. You know what, this is what I'm
gonna do for rest of my life, some form of this.
And when I started to think, you know, when I
started over the time of COVID diving into Dad, that
just rebirthed the whole nother element of excitement in me
because I knew I was on something that didn't exist
for one and something that.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Was gonna be a game changing for trure. So you know,
it became my new project.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
And then what I liked about it also is that
I get all of these accounts of music from people,
whether they loading up on the DSP side or on
the other side. I get, I get children's books, I
get you know, hip hop, every every type of music
we distribute.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Wow, I've been looking at and I'm the type that
goes and says, Okay, let me look in the backside
of the accounts and see what came up this week.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Well, this is interesting because now like you have sort
of sneak peak previews into what's coming, like you're seeing
ahead of the game, like what's hot what people are
working on? So my next question is what's hot, Like,
what's really exciting you about content production? Because it could
be music, it could be children's books, like what's what's hot?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
And popping?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Now it's really just now the digital content era, you know,
everything is getting shorter and like, you know, the songs
are now two minutes instead of five.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
The videos the whitey.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Wants to watch a three minute forty minute video, no more,
like if I can't watch it on my phone then,
you know. So content is really exciting, and the content
been in the hands of the creators. I've been waiting
on that moment full long time, like watching watching this.
The the culture is the cultural change and content creation
and the access to it.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
So even if you look at something like.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Subie now right, yeah, they got all of the Like
it's almost like black exploitation movies was a long time ago, right,
You're like, is this real? But that's people creating content
and having an outlet for it on their own, you know.
And so I feel like even with what's going on
with this strike and with AI, it's both in music
(27:29):
and in film. You know, it's both in content and
people will start freaking out over AI, going, oh no,
it's making my songs for me.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
It's right now, so yeah, sure is like I love
it for me.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
You can either it or embrace it.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, and you can't do anything about it, so your
fear of it is just going to stagger your the
ability to use it, you.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Know, for your benefit.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
The thing they're doing with the industry now trying to
make sure that the a that the AI songs and
AI music doesn't take over. But without the glances, it's
just makes them. It's like when sampling came in, you
have to figure out how situated because nobody had ever
done it before.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
So once every thing gets situated a little bit more
and people they'll stop freaking out as much because it's
more situated. But it's it's just you know, it's allowing
you to make content and do things a lot better,
faster and easier, and it's making it now where really
it's putting way more control into the hands of the
creator or the eye or the person. I love that
(28:29):
you got too many tools now to.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
Make it happen with these things. Okay, that's on you.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Then it's on you and which is like a lot
of pressure for people. But listen, pressure makes diamonds and
you have certainly made a lot of diamonds. You're pumping
nets and platinum and it was such a pleasure to
talk to you today.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Thank you, thank you. I appreciate it. This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
This was really great money movers. I hope you were
inspired by this story. I hope you were motivated to
keep going no matter the ups the downs. But before
we leave, Dallas, can you tell our audience where they
can find you on social, where they can upload their
new products to your website?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Tell us everything, Yes, Dallas Austin's at Instagram is my
Instagram page. Check out dad Distro www dot d distro
dot com, and also check out my Mind Off of Music,
my podcast it's on It's on YouTube now, also coming
up on share. Uh it's an interesting podcast. We got
to have you on at some pointanous.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Yes, absolutely, Mind over Music. Who I like this? So
what do you guys talk about? I want to know everything?
Speaker 4 (29:29):
So yeah, I have different Like I've already done a
Lando Jones.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Where we sit and talk about actually talked about drumline
and talk about music. I've done like Jerald Portman and
talk about buildings and oh yeah, Justice Malay already to
talk about music and acting, and so I kind of
like it just to be like, here's here's some, here's
some from a music perception, but what other business is
(29:53):
going on with that? What other what does it take
to do that in your mind?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
You know?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
So it's kind of I keep it collectic enough. We
don't have like thirteenth episode.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
That's great now, but yeah it's fun. So yeah, check
check them out with that. We got the first two
up already.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Mind over music, I love it, I love it. That's great.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
All right, Money Movers, that's all the time we have
for today. But Dallas, thank you so much for imparting
your gems and wisdoms and telling us a little bit
more about your story. I feel like you've had such
an a lustrious career and I love that you're incorporating
tech and figuring out how the creatives can make their
money move.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
So Moneymvers, make sure you.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Follow Dallas on all his social media check out Dad Distro,
and thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
For being here.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
You thanks for listening to today's episode. If we helped
you make your money move. Please share it with your community.
Subscribe and leave us a review on iHeartRadio and Apple podcasts.
Follow us on social media at Greenwood and visit us
at gogreenwood dot com for more financial tips and remember
money movers. If this were easy, everyone would do it.
So take the lessons you've learned from this episode and
(31:00):
apply it to your life.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Here's a sneak peak of next week's episode.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
What we were doing to give ourselves an edge as
we were working with the retailers to do these mall
tours where we would go store to store, retailer to retailer.
We're like, hey, you put our sneakers in your store,
We'll come do a meet and greet. We'll see who
shows up. You know, this type of marketing technique blew
up for us. We had thousands of girls in line
wanting to, you know, connect with us, and that really
(31:27):
gave us a chance to connect with our customer to
know exactly what they wanted so we can integrate that
into the business. And then once that became successful, we
were able to hire musical artists and we started expanding
the mall tours and making it more of like a
performance and an experience for the customers to come out
and remember, they had to shut it down five thousand people.
They were blown away by the traffic we were bringing
(31:51):
into the mall.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Money Moves is an iHeartRadio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive
produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcasts on iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts from.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Make sure to.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Tune in Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and subscribe to the
Money Moose podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you too
can have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Until next time,
I think it's just like that, I never feel like
I ever made it to where I'm going. I'm always
if if I get to one plateau, I'm always gonna
create another one to get to. And so it kind
of your way of like starting over in something and
keeping the same excitement about something. So you know, when
and I've been to so many phases of the music
business to whereas you know, you know you're gonna be,
(00:20):
like I said, Rich Broke, Rich Broke, Rich Broke, You're
gonna have hits. You're not gonna have hits. You gonna
have hits, You're not gonna have hits. So start you
start career and everything. You know, well, this is what
I'm gonna do for rest of my life, some form
of this. And when I started to think, you know,
when I started over the time of COVID diving into Dad,
that just rebirthed a whole nother element of excitement and
(00:43):
me because I knew I was on something that didn't
exist for one, and something that was gonna be a
game changer for two.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
You're listening to Money News powered by Greenwood, a finance
podcast dedicated to dropping all the knowledge and gems from
the world's leading celebrities, entrepreneurs and experts, and tech business
and more. I'm your host, angel, investor, technology enthusiast, and
media personality Tanya Sam. Each week we talk with guests
who are making significant strides in their fields and learn
(01:11):
how they are making their money move. If you're someone
who's looking to make your money move, you're in the
right place. So open up your notes app and lock
us in because this podcast will give you the keys
to the kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance you
so rightly deserve.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Before we start the episode, I'd like.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
To remind you to check us out at gogreenwood dot
com and follow us on social media at Greenwood and
me on all things social at It's Tanya. Time to
stay locked in to new episode. When you look at
the music industry, now you're you know, you're an.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Og you're a veteran.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
You've seen it dramatically change, implode, grow, et cetera. And
now we're sort of in this music social media era
right now. What do you what advice would you give
to like aspiring musicians is trying to get noticed in
today's competitive landscape?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Is it harder or is it easier.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
It's a lot harder to get noticed today because it's
one hundred over one hundred thousand records that come out
of day and so if you forget and our day
it was maybe six records will come out this week.
And so because of the DIY access, you know, the
(02:27):
distribution company access and gives you access to load up
your music and it gets the Spotify. But to find
the ones that's special, they still got to work extra
hard now because it is that much more coming, like
you're saying a minute ago. So if you're not on
your phone in your in the face, so the next
person is yeah, and you're doing it as hard as
you are, because you know, if you come up in
(02:49):
this era right now, then you don't know any better
than any different. If you want to be a star,
your thing is okay, let me go to my phone.
Yeah yeah, So you don't have to make it out
of Hollywood and where else. You can just become an influencer.
You can if you're determined enough, you're going to turn
into a star on that on the Instagram. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
But I think it's also the longevity of it, right,
So this is this is part of the question I
think for you know, these young and aspiring artists, because
I just discovered this guy the other day who was
like seven eight million followers. He had this one hit
song that went viral on TikTok, and how do they.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Come out with these with his next hit?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's like is it just are they one hit wonders,
like how do you create legacy in a time when
everything is just swipe right, swipe right with the next story.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
That's a good question because.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It's way harder to make legacy now than when about it,
you know, or if you look at the artists that's
really big right now, like the Beyonce's and the they've
been you know, in the game for so long, you
know that they came in.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Like the last era legacy.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Also, so if you start to look at the more
recent startups now, then it's not many people that you
see the same thing that you saw in those are
And it's not many people that you see the same
as you saw Michael or like you know, so it
becomes some of them do it about putting out so
(04:17):
much music, Like if you look at like a Chris Brown,
he put out soul members that you know which record
is which record?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
No more.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Right, that's the way staying in the forefront of you know,
keeping himself out there. The ones that's really gonna have
legacy now is the ones that's the most impressive. Like
you can look at Bruno Mars and say, okay, he's
gonna be a legacy art He's already a legacy artist.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
But still, look how many years has been.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, that overnight sensation thing is not true.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
He's been hustling for years.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Everybody that you see that's really you know, that that
star status to that level, they've been hustling for years
and years and years and years daily daily basis the
one now that that will have a hit record from TikTok.
The cool part about it is they got an audience.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Now, yeah, now what do you do with it?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And I was saying this to uh the other day
that you know, even when people have a fan base,
so even if you let's say you have ten thousand followers, right,
so just think about that is actual ten thousand people,
you know, and if the first thing person that does
has ten thousand followers as an artist is they go,
oh man, I want to get to fifteen he what
(05:28):
about the ten No.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Like service. Those ten make them love you so much.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
That's it, you know, and those ten will get you
to your own fifteen or twenty because they're gonna go
tell somebody or they're gonna go like you know. But
doing the work as an artist now you can it's
more more ways to make income streams, you know, if
you do the work. Because most of the artists, you see,
even if they got money by their ears, they're getting.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
The money from shows. Yeah, you know, it's back into
that to the show era. They're not getting it.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Thank god, COVID's over. We're back to shows getting me
all the shows and live music you got. I want
to be outside.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Let me ask you this question, how do you think
because right now the concerts, the shows, you know they're
gonna there. You go see Beyonce and you take somebody
with you. That's eight hundred dollars for the regular seats,
right to take four hundred dollars a piece. So then
say you go see Drake after that. That's another How
going going to the concerts?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I don't know even at I just bought tickets to
see Bear's Hammon. That man is a legend in his
own genre. And there's still like three hundred bucks.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Jesus Christ, but we're paying it. People want experience, yep.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
And it's fixing it.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It's one of the things I think that's helping the
economy balance back out in some sense. Tell the swift
show up for three nights, then the hotel room's gonna
jack their prices up. The tickets are through the roof,
and the restaurants around everybody's gonna eat on them. You know,
they were doing this report on it the other day.
I saw the news on the Message and they were
just saying how festivals and tours and everything is just
(07:02):
helping the US economy.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Like leafs and bounds. Wah. Everybody's spending money. Yeah yeah,
so you in inflation and sessions and all that.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Everybody's kind of not spending. They're trying to figure out
ways to get you to spend. And now just those
concerts alone, I don't even know how you can go
take take your family to concerts.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Oh you can't.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And I mean, like Taylor spipt it's like your little girls.
There are eight nine, ten, eleven, twelve asking for one
thousand dollars tickets. It's unreal. But people will make it happen,
and I mean, parentsho just do that. I mean, look,
your mom like was like, let me sell my restaurant
for your dreams if your dream is to go to Taylor.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Strips, and parents are going to make it absolutely all right.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So it's back to touring, back to merge, back to
connecting with your audiences and just more of that.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
That's that's the basis of it. You know.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It's because that the distribution companies, which you have like
a wall and not a master's and then I have
my own distribution company, dad, and I started looking at
the number is going yeah, well, the distribution.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Company is about volume. How much how.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Many can you have?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
You got a million users? Do you have five hundred
thousand users? But they're not a record company. So it's
a digital you know, it's like a digital transfer company
to get you on Spotify and Apple Music and everywhere else.
But it takes you about for every two hundred and
fifty streams, you get one dollar.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
My gosh, yes, you can't buy anything for a dollar now.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
No, And if you got a million streams, let's get
you about three grand. So that's something that you know,
you know, that's something we addressed. I started a new
technology called a share technology where artists can basically choose
their raid and.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Then when they put.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It out there, you need to centem, Apple pay, a
Google pay and it pays them instantly.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Oh wow, so you started this technology.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
That's what we started with that because I was looking
at my numbers on the back side of what people
have millions of streams, like, but then they're only getting
this much money. And so we started thinking about it
about two years ago and started right when covid hit
I had when everybody was blockchain crazy, I had the
first dish company on the blockchain.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, I mean that makes so much sense for music.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I was that been really into blockchain for a very
long time, and it feels like one of the most
natural use case applications. Like music on the blockchain, you
can authenticate it, you can tell who created it. You
can now like kind of revenue screens instantly, like this
is real.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
That's basically what we did. Yeah, made it so that
every artist can pick their rate. So if you want
to stream or you want to sell, but if you
want it for five dollars, ten dollars, one dollars up
to you and then obviously you get a ledger of
everybody that buys your that has yourself because of the blockchain,
and then you can have up to fifty contracts. You know,
(09:58):
So if me and you wrote went together being as
soon as they hit that Apple pay, a Google pay,
or they can make their wallet or whatever they want,
then it goes straight to us. And that's you know,
that's a that's that's a form of being disruptive to
get to the next steps. But at least if you
had you know, two hundred fans that you can make
(10:19):
money off of them, Yeah, you know, two bucks will
take you forever to make that money, even Spotify something.
But if you can choose your rate and then modify that,
like when you look at the streaming companies. Now let's
let's say Taylor Swift or Beyonce, she's streaming at the
same rate that a new artist is streaming that that
has no no followers, So they get in the same amount.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
As far as the stream That makes some sense, but.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Makes when she sold the million and a half records
the first week, which is back to the old days, uh,
she did that straight from her website.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
She was like, I'm going to take all this money,
all this money.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yeah, you know, but we work.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
That's what you know, my company, that's what we've been.
I've been happy to see just the results of people
being able to say, oh man, I'm making some money.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
I'm making some money.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And as it gated to the bigger artists and you
have a bigger fan base. You know, it's kind of
like what Tanye said when he made the Little stim player.
The problem was that, you know, we just didn't want
to carry another device. Yeah, he didn't want to gay
by hisself. Yeah, he was right and saying, you know,
we need, we need a way to be paid, you know,
more than what the streaming companies are paying out.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
So go back to this blockchain company that you started.
It's still operational. So how for an artist? Because I
love this because I think one of the narratives that's
always plagued the music industry is the creatives don't get
paid everybody.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I mean, this is true.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I mean there's a side strike going on right now.
It's the same thing. Everybody at the top is eating
and nobody at the bottom is eating. And this is
why I think the blockchain piece of this sort of
disrupts that dramatically so that creatives can actually have control
of their music.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
So how do people find this?
Speaker 1 (11:59):
To ww what you do dad distro a dollar sauce
and distribution if you want to look it up that way.
And then when you go it's interesting because you'll see
a web three button and you'll see a button for
the DSPs. Because the way I'm getting people into Web
three that's not is okay. I know you want to
go to Apple Music and all that, and you can
still go here.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
So if you hit this.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Button, it's going to take you into that land and
you can load up your music and you can go
to Apple and TikTok and Spotify. We have over two
hundred service providers we go to right. So but then
if you click this button to the Web three, you're
going here and then load up your stuff the same
way to pitt your up music up, pick your date.
But now you can pick what you want to sell
for and you can pick your rate and you can
(12:41):
say if you want it, you know crypto, if you
want to regular money, and if you hit the regular
money then then you know it access the Apple pay
and Google pay and all this, and from that point,
you know, you load up and you get your link
and then you send it out and when they see it,
instantly it comes up with your record and the Apple
pay Google pay button for whatever you'll.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Your amount is.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Oh, I love who I took.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I found out the person Brandon Tory, he was working
at He's an artist and I liked his music so
much when I heard it on D A D. But
he was like, man, I know, we're not going to
make any money off of it. I looked at his
video and he had like a hovering Tesla in the video.
So I'm like, who did this? He's like, oh, yeah,
you know, I'm an I.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Work at Google. I used to work at Apple doing AI,
but now I'm a top tier at Google. I said,
oh for real.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, And so we started talking about the blockchain and
music and how do we make this difference, and he
was like So as we kept hashing it out, he said,
you know what I can. I can make this happen.
I can build this. He came back to me probably
like a year later with that that long and said, Dallas, look,
we got it. And when he when he showed it
to me, I was.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Like, that's eureka, we figured it out. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So now we're active now. We you know, we have
clients already, we have people using it. We're going into
our you know, our marketing and promo around coming up
now this year because now we make sure the bugs,
it king's worked out, and it's exciting.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
It's you know, it so exciting.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Yeah, it's going to be this.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
I can't wait for people to make some money because
it's not the consumer, the consumers who you want to
get that's who's stuck with the bill. But yeah, it's
not them, but that don't want to pay the meals
a dollar for his song.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, And this is what I also love.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Like you talked about web three, you talked about blockchain,
like this is how people evolve and iterate through industries.
And I think now you're seeing this intersection of like
technology coming in and it's like game changing. And I
also want people to like, you know again, That's why
I was like, where do they find this? This is
where I really believe like if creatives are paying attention
to what's happening in the music industry, like this is
(14:48):
going to change things. And the more and more people
that adopt to it, the more like we you know,
get paid for.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
The value of our of your work.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And and part of it is to I also tell
people like because I think there was a whole scare
of like the crypto world and blockchain, but really blockchain
is and I just want to say this to everybody
out there listening, Like I say this all the time.
Blockchain is the technology that is going to help make
the creatives get paid.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Don't get caught up in the crypto thing.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
And like the NFT is a crypto.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yes, I'm still but the blockchain is the technology, just
like how the Internet changed our lives, Like, blockchain is
the technology that is really going to afford us to
be able to make these products that are going to
help change the music industry. So pay attention to that, y'all.
It's really something special for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yes, if you look at Snoop just bought a sounds
x y Z a thing for like twenty million dollars
or something. But it's a platform where you sell your
music as an NFT. And what I didn't want to
happen with us was, you know, I wanted to put
the blockchain technology there and then back up a little bit, Yeah,
so that you can understand it, because you know, if
(15:57):
it's still a ton of people that don't understand what
have met them ask a coin base wall.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
And I don't want to force them just I don't
want to give them an option either not coming here
or not because they don't understand that.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So that's why we Apple pay and Google pay. Yeah, okay,
listen out of NFT land and put it in the
music land. It's still on the blockchain, but the access
to it is more understandable for people who don't want
to dave into have and you know, wallets and seed
phrases and all that, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
And that's why I tell people like it's so early,
and so it was really funny because you know, I
think in the past three years people were like, oh, NFTs,
crypto Web, try this, I'm either too late or this,
and they just couldn't figure out how to wrap their
heads around it. But that's sort of the speed of
evolution in the tech world. But now, like to your point,
I think we've figured out ways to integrate like direct
(16:45):
Apple payments, like from PayPal to Apple pay, where you
don't actually have to use crypto and it can just
take us dollar to like an add it on and
add it to your products in the blockchain.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
So it's coming and it's just getting easier and easier.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
And that's why I like, you guys are the innovators
that are paving the way.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
So I'm like, pay attention y'all.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Like stock X and Golden and how people more people
are buying like this than ever. But you know, the
last wants to get it is the music business. Yeah,
just the digital content business. It's the same. It's the
same strike, like the writer strike. Because what happened is,
you know, even with us, my contracts back in let's
(17:27):
say two thousand didn't have streaming, and they didn't have streaming.
They didn't have any streaming language in it because at
the point when I did my contracts in the nineties,
whatever even didn't exist, right, Yeah, So you'd think that
the companies changed that for you, but they didn't.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Well why would they.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
They're like, why would I give you more money?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
You know, my contracts don't exist no more because I
can't print the CDs or I can't do it right.
So that what was smart about the movie industry is
they saw the music industry take that hit from Spotify
and Apple because the you know, the music industry wasn't
tech savvy enough at the time, and nobody cared. So
it ended up being it, what's the solution, Well, we
(18:08):
have one, here's Spotify.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
You know.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Let us give you money and license all the records
from you and you don't have to worry about it,
you know, and we're a big storage unit for people
that want to share music.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
So the film industry said, okay, we're not going to
do that because we should have had Warner Brother's Digital
Music of Sony Digital.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Music, right.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Well, all the labels that have got together together and
made one streaming service like they did in Korea. But
when that didn't happen, you know, when you look at
what happened with HBO, Max and Peacock and all them,
movie companies said, we ain't falling for letting Netflix and
them just have our stuff. We're going to make our
own streaming companies with all of our content. And so
that's why everybody's gonna strike there. That's why the music
(18:49):
music and the music and film contents both it's the
same industry. It's all content creation.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
It's all content creation.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well that's a really great segue because you've also made
the leap from music to film producing. Talk about that
little evolution and you know you produced some classic films,
Like what sparked your interest in film?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Was it just a natural progression?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
It was?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
It was to tell stories from Georgia that was not
the same old story during that time. And the first
thing that you know, when I did drum Line, I
have a meeting.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
With epic, epic, epic.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, I just, I just I have to take this
moment to tell you as someone who grew up in Canada,
So when drum Line came out right, and you know Canada.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
This is like pre like social because what year was Drumline? Anyways,
let's move past that.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
But yeahth anniversaries this year.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
So that was such a portrayal of US culture that.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
We hadn't seen in Canada, Like it was epic, epic, epic,
epic epic. I had never seen like a marching band.
I'd never seen black colleges like.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
And this is just Canada. In Toronto, we sold it
when I saw the movie to him.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
It was based off of I was sitting there one
day and I said, you know, we need need more musicals.
They said, yeah, said, well, nobody's going to break out singing,
singing in the ring. You need something like a marching band,
they said, a marching man. What's interesting about a marching band?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Everything?
Speaker 1 (20:14):
At that time, if you wasn't from the South, you
didn't understand whatout what the marching bands was about. And
so I went and filmed The Battle of the Bands
and took it back to Hollywood and showed it to him.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
And they were like, what is this Exactly?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It was culture that was just like so deeply ingrained here,
but to see it from it was incredible.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Man, it took me ten years to make it.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
It was incredible.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Trying to get the movie made.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Trying to get it, you know, anything else it was,
you had to stay determined. It wouldn't have gotten made.
They put it in a turnaround twice, which that means
that the movie company keeps it and doesn't make it.
And I just kept pulling at it and going no, no,
you gotta understand what it is. And finally.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Called Couincy Jones and I said, man, I.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Got my marching band movie. It's a black marching band film,
and I'm trying to get it made and it's getting
stuck in Hollywood, I said.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
He said, you have a black Marching Band film. Say yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
He said, well you got a you know who's who's
helping you out this Jewish I said, oh nobody said oh,
well that's the first step. He said, look at look
at who shot the color purple? So why do you
think Steven Spielberg shot the color? You get it done properly,
is and get him take it serious, you know. So
I go to my friend Jody Gerson and she's the
head of He and Mine, and I say that to
(21:35):
her and she says, well, I have a friend who
is a big producer. If you want me to let
me produce it with you, I'll bring in Windy Feinnehman.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
And I said what was that?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
He said, well, she just finished Forest Gump and cast Away.
I said, oh yeah, let's bring her. And she ended
up telling me, look, I don't know. I think it's
a great idea. I know nothing about the Marching Band
that always, however, I know nothing about Atlantic culture. So
what I'm going to do is fence it off so
you can get your movie made, you know, but you're
going to be basically the point person on dealing with
(22:06):
all of this. And so when I first started to
see it come to life for real, like start seeing
producers show up and scouts scout in the land and
me trying to pick the actors and all that started
to come to play. And for me, I just wanted
to keep it authentic to the Marching Band because if
you're in the Marching band' it's the same way.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Now. Yeah. Yeah, So we did that one.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Then Atl I had to I actually had to pass
the Georgia Film Bill, which I did back then to
get atl done.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
That's how it all started.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Oh wait, so tell everyone what the Georgia Film Bill is.
This was a bill that passed that gave tax credits
to people that were creating in here, which drove.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
A lot of industry. So you were part of that
as well.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Yeah, I started it.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I did the first lobbying for it because they wanted
me to shoot Warner Brothers wanted me to shoot atl
in New Orleans because they had a tax credit and
it was it was way cheaper. So I was like,
come on, this doesn't make any sense. This is in
Atlanta movie.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I got to shoot this movie and it's rightful home.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
And so I ended up going to Sonny Purdue and
going to uh, get lobbyists and then end up going
to the G eight summit to speak on the.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Behalf of state of Georgia to get this bill passed.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
And so when we got to pass, I could cut
the ribbon with Sonny Purdue. Wow, I was pushing that
because I was because of atl I didn't know it
was going to turn into a film business like that.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, I mean, I want people to understand how pivotal
that was. Like you were like, hey, I want to
film a movie where the movie that I want to
make in my hometown because it's called atl And Now
like Atlanta has one of the biggest film industries like
across the country, Like people come here to film because
of that.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Filling the tax credits.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Yeah, I wish I had known it was going to
be that better. It was at that time.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
It was only me and Tyler kind of doing trying
to do up from here. You know, maybe Will was
find to do stuff too, but you know, to see
what it's turned into and the and to have these
two films where you know, I got a chance to
make some classics and tell some classic Georgia stories with
and and and you know they were they were culturally
(24:18):
significant you know, so we still go to the skating rink,
you know, me and Jermaine are still go skating. Yeah,
And it was just it was at that time you
were seeing so much LA and New York culture and
you didn't get a chance to see anything from the
South that wasn't wasn't like either media.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Or yeah it was it was. It was still a classic.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Man, it still is a classic. It'll be a classic
forever and ever.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Okay, I'm cognizant of time, and I want to take
us out with a couple of last questions.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
What keeps you up at night?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
You've had all these successes, you've had falls. This is
it the music industry? Like, what is it that keeps
you up at night?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Thinks just like that, I never feel like I ever
made it to where I'm going. I'm always if if
I get to one plateau, I'm always going to create
another one to get to. And so it kind of
the way of like starting over in something and keeping
the same excitement about something. So you know, when and
I've been through so many phases of the music business
to where you know, you know you're gonna be like
(25:19):
I said.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Rich Broke, Rich Broke, Rich broke. Yeah, you're gonna have hits.
You're not gonna have hits. You have hits, You're not
gonna have hits. So you start, you start.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Career and everything. You know what, this is what I'm
gonna do for rest of my life, some form of this.
And when I started to think, you know, when I
started over the time of COVID diving into Dad, that
just rebirthed the whole nother element of excitement in me
because I knew I was on something that didn't exist
for one and something that.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Was gonna be a game changing for trure. So you know,
it became my new project.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
And then what I liked about it also is that
I get all of these accounts of music from people,
whether they loading up on the DSP side or on
the other side. I get, I get children's books, I
get you know, hip hop, every every type of music
we distribute.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Wow, I've been looking at and I'm the type that
goes and says, Okay, let me look in the backside
of the accounts and see what came up this week.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Well, this is interesting because now like you have sort
of sneak peak previews into what's coming, like you're seeing
ahead of the game, like what's hot what people are
working on? So my next question is what's hot, Like,
what's really exciting you about content production? Because it could
be music, it could be children's books, like what's what's hot?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
And popping?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Now it's really just now the digital content era, you know,
everything is getting shorter and like, you know, the songs
are now two minutes instead of five.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
The videos the whitey.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Wants to watch a three minute forty minute video, no more,
like if I can't watch it on my phone then,
you know. So content is really exciting, and the content
been in the hands of the creators. I've been waiting
on that moment full long time, like watching watching this.
The the culture is the cultural change and content creation
and the access to it.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
So even if you look at something like.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Subie now right, yeah, they got all of the Like
it's almost like black exploitation movies was a long time ago, right,
You're like, is this real? But that's people creating content
and having an outlet for it on their own, you know.
And so I feel like even with what's going on
with this strike and with AI, it's both in music
(27:29):
and in film. You know, it's both in content and
people will start freaking out over AI, going, oh no,
it's making my songs for me.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
It's right now, so yeah, sure is like I love
it for me.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
You can either it or embrace it.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, and you can't do anything about it, so your
fear of it is just going to stagger your the
ability to use it, you.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Know, for your benefit.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
The thing they're doing with the industry now trying to
make sure that the a that the AI songs and
AI music doesn't take over. But without the glances, it's
just makes them. It's like when sampling came in, you
have to figure out how situated because nobody had ever
done it before.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
So once every thing gets situated a little bit more
and people they'll stop freaking out as much because it's
more situated. But it's it's just you know, it's allowing
you to make content and do things a lot better,
faster and easier, and it's making it now where really
it's putting way more control into the hands of the
creator or the eye or the person. I love that
(28:29):
you got too many tools now to.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
Make it happen with these things. Okay, that's on you.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Then it's on you and which is like a lot
of pressure for people. But listen, pressure makes diamonds and
you have certainly made a lot of diamonds. You're pumping
nets and platinum and it was such a pleasure to
talk to you today.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Thank you, thank you. I appreciate it. This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
This was really great money movers. I hope you were
inspired by this story. I hope you were motivated to
keep going no matter the ups the downs. But before
we leave, Dallas, can you tell our audience where they
can find you on social, where they can upload their
new products to your website?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Tell us everything, Yes, Dallas Austin's at Instagram is my
Instagram page. Check out dad Distro www dot d distro
dot com, and also check out my Mind Off of Music,
my podcast it's on It's on YouTube now, also coming
up on share. Uh it's an interesting podcast. We got
to have you on at some pointanous.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Yes, absolutely, Mind over Music. Who I like this? So
what do you guys talk about? I want to know everything?
Speaker 4 (29:29):
So yeah, I have different Like I've already done a
Lando Jones.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Where we sit and talk about actually talked about drumline
and talk about music. I've done like Jerald Portman and
talk about buildings and oh yeah, Justice Malay already to
talk about music and acting, and so I kind of
like it just to be like, here's here's some, here's
some from a music perception, but what other business is
(29:53):
going on with that? What other what does it take
to do that in your mind?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
You know?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
So it's kind of I keep it collectic enough. We
don't have like thirteenth episode.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
That's great now, but yeah it's fun. So yeah, check
check them out with that. We got the first two
up already.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Mind over music, I love it, I love it. That's great.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
All right, Money Movers, that's all the time we have
for today. But Dallas, thank you so much for imparting
your gems and wisdoms and telling us a little bit
more about your story. I feel like you've had such
an a lustrious career and I love that you're incorporating
tech and figuring out how the creatives can make their
money move.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
So Moneymvers, make sure you.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Follow Dallas on all his social media check out Dad Distro,
and thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
For being here.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
You thanks for listening to today's episode. If we helped
you make your money move. Please share it with your community.
Subscribe and leave us a review on iHeartRadio and Apple podcasts.
Follow us on social media at Greenwood and visit us
at gogreenwood dot com for more financial tips and remember
money movers. If this were easy, everyone would do it.
So take the lessons you've learned from this episode and
(31:00):
apply it to your life.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Here's a sneak peak of next week's episode.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
What we were doing to give ourselves an edge as
we were working with the retailers to do these mall
tours where we would go store to store, retailer to retailer.
We're like, hey, you put our sneakers in your store,
We'll come do a meet and greet. We'll see who
shows up. You know, this type of marketing technique blew
up for us. We had thousands of girls in line
wanting to, you know, connect with us, and that really
(31:27):
gave us a chance to connect with our customer to
know exactly what they wanted so we can integrate that
into the business. And then once that became successful, we
were able to hire musical artists and we started expanding
the mall tours and making it more of like a
performance and an experience for the customers to come out
and remember, they had to shut it down five thousand people.
They were blown away by the traffic we were bringing
(31:51):
into the mall.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Money Moves is an iHeartRadio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive
produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcasts on iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts from.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Make sure to.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Tune in Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and subscribe to the
Money Moose podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you too
can have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Until next time,
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