Bobby Owsinski's Inner Circle Podcast

Why is tinnitus still a taboo in the music industry?

In this episode of Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, Bobby dives deep into one of music’s most ignored health crises with Sven Köllmann and Jack Rubinacci of Tinnitus Quest. Tinnitus affects up to 1 billion people worldwide, yet it remains misunderstood and overlooked, even as it wrecks lives and careers. Sven and Jack explain why hearing loss is just the beginning, why res...

What if the biggest roadblock in music licensing wasn’t legal complexity, but outdated systems? In this episode of Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, we dive deep into the wild world of music rights with Grayson Sanders, CEO of Chordal. A former film composer turned tech founder, Grayson reveals how his sync clearing platform is transforming the way music gets licensed, making it faster, easier, and smarter. We explore the landmark Tik...

How do you build merch that actually connects with fans? In this episode of Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, I sit down with Seamus Menihane, CEO of Armada, a top-tier merch company helping artists, from indies to heavy hitters, turn merch into a true brand extension. 

If you've ever wondered what merch sells best, how to price it, or how to avoid costly mistakes, Seamus breaks it all down. With his roots as a touring drummer and...

How Mark Wood Reinvented the Violin and Inspired a Generation

On this episode of Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, I’m joined by recording artist, performer, inventor, Emmy-winning composer, and music education advocate Mark Wood. Known as the original string master of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Mark shares how he revolutionized the world of string instruments with his electric violin designs and helped ignite a movement in music ed...

Barry Coffing has lived every corner of the music business, from opera scholarships to songwriting for Hollywood films, and now, innovating the licensing space. As founder of MusicSupervisor.com and WeGetArtists.com, Barry has reshaped how independent musicians connect with opportunities in film, TV, and beyond.

In this episode, Barry shares his journey from club gigs to scoring major placements, the evolution of his licensing...

In this episode of Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle podcast, I sit down with Francois Barrillon, Neural DSP’s plugins product manager and product lead for their new vocal plugin Mantra.

Francois shares how he went from building guitar pedals in his spare time to leading development on one of the most innovative vocal tools available today.

We talk about Neural DSP’s expansion beyond guitars, how Mantra was designed to be an all-in-one s...

In this episode of the Inner Circle Podcast, I sit down with Ritesh Patel, the CEO and founder of Ticket Fairy, a next-generation ticketing platform helping promoters market and manage events.

What makes Ticket Fairy unique is its built-in word-of-mouth referral system, where fans can earn rebates—or even free tickets—by getting friends to buy.

Ritesh brings a wealth of experience to the platform. Having promoted over 400 shows worl...

In this episode of the Inner Circle Podcast, I talk with Mitch Beer, a Philadelphia-based session bass player and multi-talented music professional.

Mitch has toured with Grammy-winning Digable Planets and The Bacon Brothers, and works as the go-to session bassist for Grammy-winning producer Joe “The Butcher” Nicolo.

He also contributed as bassist and producer on Lil Uzi Vert’s #1 platinum album Pink Tape.

Beyond session work, Mitch...

In this episode of the Inner Circle Podcast, I sit down with Barry Rudolph, an audio engineer and prolific technical writer whose career bridges classic studio work and in-depth gear expertise.

Barry has worked on records with Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pat Benatar, and Hall & Oates, earning credits on more than 30 gold and platinum albums.

Beyond his engineering work, Barry is recognized as the leading reviewer of pro audio ge...

In this episode of the Inner Circle Podcast, I’m joined by John von Seggern, the visionary behind Futureproof Music School—a next-generation program that blends personalized mentorship with AI-driven music production tools. Unlike traditional schools, Futureproof is designed to meet the needs of today’s independent artists.

John brings over 30 years of experience as a studio musician, producer, and sound designer, including collabor...

In this episode of the Inner Circle Podcast, I talk with Tony Braunagel, one of the most respected drummers and producers in modern music.

Tony has played on more than 200 albums, including Grammy-winning records by Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Buddy Guy. On stage, he’s performed with icons like B.B. King, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, and dozens more.

As a producer, Tony has worked on over 40 albums, many of whic...

In this episode of the Inner Circle Podcast, I’m joined by Jenna LoMonaco, a digital marketing powerhouse who currently leads marketing at ONErpm—a global music company offering artists distribution, publishing, marketing, and content production across 43 offices in 28 countries.

Jenna’s career spans roles at Glassnote, Kobalt, and Island Records, where she spearheaded the digital strategy that skyrocketed Shawn Mendes to global fam...

Lucie Burns, also known as artist and producer Lazy Hammock, joins me to talk about building stage confidence, connecting with audiences, and overcoming performance anxiety.

We also dive into:

• Her journey as a #1-charting artist with 25M+ streams
• How perfectionism and comparison affect live performance
• Her Stage Ready Artists coaching program and creative support community
• Insights from her book The Art of Live Performance Unlocked
• T...

In this episode, I sit down with music industry veteran Jay Gilbert, co-host of the widely read Your Morning Coffee newsletter and podcast.

Jay has held senior executive roles at Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group, where he pioneered digital music marketing and online strategies for iconic artists like Nirvana, The Police, KISS, Bob Marley, Elton John, Guns N’ Roses, and many more.

👉 Topics we cover in this episode...

My guest this week is my old friend 17 time Grammy winner Benny Faccone.

Benny has a rich credit history with artists like Mana, Santana, Ricky Martin, Luis Miguel, Sting, and so many more.

He’s a veteran of the old A&M Studios when it was one of the hottest recording facilities in Los Angeles.

That’s where he honed his recording and mixing skills under old school legends like Bruce Swedien, Shelly Yakus, and Don Hahn.

He’s also ...

In this episode I cover some recent overlooked audio and music industry news. We cover:

• The eras of popular music and why they’re not what you think
• The emergence of AI-generated band Velvet Sundown
• Major labels in the middle of licensing discussions with AI music generators Udio and Suno.
• Major label and private equity want to buy more catalog, and what that means to their artists
• The TikTok closure is pushed back again
• How tariffs ...

My guest today is bass player, author and music business marketing consultant, Carter Fox. 

Known as the Soulful Traveling Spaceman Bassman, Carter has toured with R&B legend Freddie Jackson and Grammy-winner Regina Belle, while also collaborating with artists and producers such as Skrillex, Leon Huff, David Ivory, Adventure Club, and more.

Carter is also the author of Music Business Bassics series of books, with How to Effective...

My guest this week is modular synthesizer maven Chris Meyer, who has done important engineering work at Sequential Circuits, Digidesign, Marion Systems with the legendary Tom Oberheim, and Roland R&D U.S., where he was chief engineer.

Along the way he created Vector Synthesis and worked on the Sequential Prophet 2000, Prophet VS, and Studio 440; Digidesign's Q-Sheet; and the Roland DM-80.

Du...

Online music collaboration is for many the holy grail for efficiently working in a home studio. 

The problem is that most tools that are available suffer from latency that makes true collaboration impossible. 

SyncDNA is the first online platform that allows frame-accurate synchronization of collaborators anywhere in the world.

Co-founders Dominic Castro and Gary Lux joined me to discuss SyncDNA and how it’s been helping mixers, music...