October 20, 2024 • 37 mins
In the exciting Season 3 premiere of Creative Space, we chat with Dan Melnick, indie music promoter-turned-CEO of Sonicbids, for an insightful two-part conversation about his incredible journey in the music industry.
In Part 1, Dan shares his early beginnings—how a football injury led him to discover a passion for music and launch his own company, Turnstyle Music Group. You'll get a behind-the-scenes look at how Dan navigated the transition from entrepreneurship to getting his first role at Sonicbids and working his way up to GM in a few short years.
Whether you're an aspiring music professional, an indie artist, or simply curious about the inner workings of the music business, this episode is packed with valuable insights and lessons from Dan’s unique career trajectory.
Stay tuned for Part 2, where we catch up on how Dan went from working for Sonicbids to becoming its CEO and co-owner in the span of a few months.
SHOW NOTES:
0:00—Introduction
1:08—Dan's journey to music
5:50—Launching Turnstyle Music Group
9:51—The realities of life as an indie promoter
14:58—Defining creativity
22:26—Dan’s transition from Turnstyle to Sonicbids
33:25—Embracing an entrepreneurial mindset as an employee
For more on Dan Melnick and Sonicbids, visit: sonicbids.com.
To sign up for the weekly Creative Space newsletter, visit: http://eepurl.com/h8SJ9b.
To become a patron of the Creative Space podcast, visit: https://bit.ly/3ECD2Kr.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennifer Logue (00:00):
Just a quick note before we begin the first
interview episode of seasonthree.
This is actually a two-partinterview, so I originally
recorded this interview with Danback in December of 2023, but
just as I was about to releaseit, I got word that Dan's role
(00:21):
had changed quite a bit atSonicBids.
So I thought how about we do anupdate interview and turn this
into a two-part episode?
In this first part, we'll diveinto Dan's journey in the music
industry how a sports injury ledhim to learn guitar, how he
started his own company aftercollege, termed Style Music
(00:44):
Group, and what led him to leaveentrepreneurship behind to join
SonicBids.
Enjoy the conversation and staytuned to part two, where we
catch up on everything that'schanged since then.
(01:08):
Hello everyone, and welcome toanother episode of Creative
Space, a podcast where weexplore, learn and grow in
creativity together.
I'm your host, jennifer Logue,and today we have the pleasure
of chatting with Dan Melnick,general manager at Sonic Bids as
well as professor at NYU andRock Nation.
(01:30):
Dan and I go way back, as I wasone of the many artists he
booked at shows in New York Cityand beyond through his company,
turnstile Music Group.
Dan's story is so interesting,first of all because he's made a
career out of what he'spassionate about music and he
also went from working forhimself to working his way up at
(01:53):
a larger company, which I feellike most entrepreneurs do the
opposite.
So it'll be cool to get hisunique perspective on how, you
know, this has shaped hisoutlook and everything, and how
he applies what he's learned asan entrepreneur within a
corporate structure.
Anyways, welcome to CreativeSpace, dan.
It's been a minute.
Dan Melnick (02:12):
Hey.
Jennifer Logue (02:12):
Jen, how's it going?
Going pretty well, going prettywell here in Philly.
How's NYC Flash Connecticut?
Dan Melnick (02:22):
Well, yeah, how's Connecticut professional, but um
I'm.
Jennifer Logue (02:27):
I'm up in the woods right now in.
Dan Melnick (02:29):
CT with the fam and uh, and I'm in the city once a
week so I got to be.
I got to see he actually thisweek at the Academy of New York
City Halloween.
Compared to ConnecticutHalloween because I went out to
some bars in both Connecticutand New York over the weekend.
They're very different, verydifferent.
Yeah, they're different scenes.
(02:50):
I do have to say I prefer theNew York.
It's a little more lively.
Jennifer Logue (02:55):
A little more fun.
I mean, what's the scene likein Connecticut for Halloween?
Dan Melnick (02:58):
Well, let's say, I walked into the bar to meet a
friend of mine on Saturday night.
Walked into the bar to meet afriend of mine on Saturday night
and there was an elderly womanstumbling out, drunk, with a
mid-30s woman following hersaying Mother, no, come back.
And I'm like, where am I?
This is wow.
(03:19):
That's Connecticut.
Jennifer Logue (03:22):
That sounds pretty interesting to me.
I don't know, that's like thebeginning of like a TV show.
Yeah.
Dan Melnick (03:31):
I mean it's like the beginning of a sad TV show
on HBO.
It's not going to be on asitcom.
I'm going to need somebody tosort.
Jennifer Logue (03:39):
Hey, depending on your perspective, True.
And how's Sonic bids?
How's everything?
Dan Melnick (03:47):
It's good.
You know we're staying reallybusy.
We've got a lot of irons and alot of fires.
We've gone through some massivechanges over the last six
months.
I think I'm starting year eightthis January, which is insane
to think, which is actuallygetting very close to how many
years I was at Turnstile.
(04:08):
So I've it's a lot of it's.
It's very exciting.
It's nothing earth shattering,but it is for me in a lot of
ways.
So I'm excited about the shortand long-term future of
everything.
Jennifer Logue (04:23):
Wonderful.
I can't believe it's been eightyears.
That's incredible.
So we have never talked aboutyour background, your early life
, your career beginnings.
So I'm going to go way back formyself and also for everybody
else listening.
But where are you fromoriginally?
Dan Melnick (04:46):
Long Island.
I almost said Strong IslandIsland.
It didn't really sound terrible.
Jennifer Logue (04:49):
It's a Long Island okay, cool, uh, and were
you always into music?
Dan Melnick (04:56):
no, actually, um, I was a football player and
lacrosse player and I shatteredmy leg in like six places.
Jennifer Logue (05:06):
Whoa.
Dan Melnick (05:07):
I think it was my senior, yeah, my senior year of
high school and I was in like awheelchair for a couple of weeks
and my and my dad was like, hey, I'm going to get your guitar,
do you want my old guitar?
And I was like, yeah.
So then I taught myself how toplay guitar, um, um, while I was
in recovery for those fewmonths and, um, yeah, I like
(05:28):
really got into it, like reallyinto it, really really quickly.
Um, even to a point where I, uh, I actually ended up winning
the battle of the bands for myhigh school.
That that, uh, june wow myself.
But in that fall which is crazyI'd never noticed that until
just now.
And then from there I wasaddicted all throughout college.
Jennifer Logue (05:50):
Yeah, who were your big music inspirations
around that time?
Dan Melnick (05:58):
Around that time.
David G Matthews, I'm notashamed to say it.
Jennifer Logue (06:01):
Nothing to be ashamed about, oh my gosh.
Dan Melnick (06:05):
Oh, there's an amazing like underground music
industry subculture of peoplewho actually like Dave Matthews,
but don't say that they likeDave Matthews, and we all get
together at the bar once a year.
Oh my gosh, that's awesome.
Jennifer Logue (06:24):
I don't get how some people in the music
industry can be snobbish aboutcertain artists.
Dan Melnick (06:30):
I think that a lot of people's I mean there's,
let's just say there's apercentage of people in the
music industry whose entirepersonalities are being snobbish
about their musical tastes.
Jennifer Logue (06:40):
So oh, that's true, that's it, that's the
entire that's, that's it.
Dan Melnick (06:44):
That's the entire.
That's that's their datingprofile.
Jennifer Logue (06:47):
Oh, that's rough , okay, well, I guess they won't
go to a concert with you andyou're reading I don't know.
Dan Melnick (06:54):
I, I I've never put much weight into like what kind
of music somebody's in, like Idon't care, like just be a
quality human being and that'sreally what I care about.
I'm not gonna like I don't know.
I feel like that's.
Jennifer Logue (07:08):
That's a lot of wasted, emotional real estate I
agree, although I do like whenpeople like music.
That's always a good.
I did meet somebody in my lifewho did not like music.
Oh, I don't like music.
Yeah that was weird.
Dan Melnick (07:20):
Oh, okay, so what?
And I'm like, ooh, okay, sowhat do you listen to while
you're driving?
Jennifer Logue (07:26):
They like silence.
Dan Melnick (07:28):
Silence.
That's sociopathic behavior.
Yeah, so let's say I judge that, I'll judge that with you.
I'll go on.
Not the particular taste, butjust the general ability to
appreciate the art form.
Jennifer Logue (07:40):
Music of all kinds.
It's all wonderful, yeah, butwhen did you know you wanted to
work in the music business?
Dan Melnick (07:48):
Not until senior year of college.
Actually, I started gigging myjunior year of college and I
think I went to Quinnipiac and Iwas convinced at the time that
I was going to end up where allthe other media production
majors at quinnipiac ended up,which was espn in connecticut,
(08:08):
that's where they're based.
Um, and towards the, towards theend of my senior year I was
like I just I want to dosomething in music industry and,
hilariously, I was a musicminor, um, but those classes
were like composition and theorybased, so there was no music
(08:29):
business teaching at all orcourses at all.
So when I graduated I was kindof f***ed up.
No one.
The other thing is, no one evertold me because I'm old, so no
one told me when I was incollege that it was a good idea
to intern.
That was never said.
I feel like that would be a goodthing for colleges to tell
their kids, um, but uh, so Ididn't.
(08:51):
So not only did I not know whothe players were, but like the
different facets of the industry, because there's so many
different buckets.
It's a huge industry butthere's so many different
avenues to go to.
I remember like walking up toliterally going to the red light
(09:11):
management offices in WallStreet when I was like 22, with
printed out resumes, trying toget upstairs to like give
someone my resume at the frontdesk and being turned away by
the door guy being like youcan't do that, man, you gotta
set an appointment someone.
I'm like cool and here I am,wall street just by myself and,
(09:33):
um, funny is like, a few yearslater is at their christmas
parties.
So it worked out in a weird way.
Those are some awesomechristmas parties that used to
just throw so yeah.
Jennifer Logue (09:43):
So how did you eventually get in?
Was it you starting your owncompany?
Did you make your own way in?
Dan Melnick (09:51):
It's that period of time that I think a lot of
people kind of hit thepost-college like what am I
going to do with my life, thingRight, which is always scary for
everyone.
It was a tough time for me, forsure.
I remember it and I it suckstoo, because I remember it.
I was stressed out all the timebut really it was a great time.
(10:11):
It was a great time of my life,but I wasn't able to appreciate
it at the time.
But you know all my all mystudents and my interns I'm like
you got to just be patient withlife and just keep going and
try not to get too much in yourhead in that in that time period
, just because it's such a time.
It's a tough time for everybody.
But so I did what a lot ofpeople do and I literally
(10:34):
reached out to like every singlehuman being I ever met and like
everyone, everyone I ever met,looking for jobs.
Um, and uh, two people got backto me and one was um, the
guitar shop in whistler mountain, british columbia.
(10:56):
Um, to work at their guitarshop for Ruben Board.
So I would move from New Yorkto above Vancouver.
Jennifer Logue (11:06):
Wow.
Dan Melnick (11:08):
The other one was a guy named Markel and he used to
do booking at a small club inLower East Side called 169 Bar.
Jennifer Logue (11:18):
I remember that place.
Dan Melnick (11:20):
It's actually still there and Charles still runs it
and it's wow.
It really is like a historicalvenue.
Jennifer Logue (11:28):
at this point they don't do live music there
anymore.
Dan Melnick (11:31):
They put a table there, but it's the same
aesthetic and, yeah, I've beenthere for a few cocktails here
and there over the years, hereand there, and it's great that
it's still there.
He used to book shows there.
He used to do the classic $10ticket first, 10 door deal thing
.
We started working togetherunder the guise of Markel
(11:56):
Entertainment.
I was doing all the booking ofMarkel Entertainment.
I was doing all the booking.
Yeah, we, we, I did so.
I set up three months of ofbooking Thursday, friday,
saturday for this club calledJulep on 9th Avenue A.
But my spider sense startedtingling within the first,
within a month of our first show, because we really hadn't heard
(12:17):
from our contact there in awhile and I just I was texting
him and calling him and just notgetting anything back and
eventually I text back and belike saying club sold, sorry.
Jennifer Logue (12:29):
Oh wow.
Dan Melnick (12:32):
So I worked for $0 at this point for about two
months setting up this calendarof three, three months of shows,
sleeping on a friend's couchThanks Chris and literally
surviving off his leftoverChinese food, and it was rough.
(12:53):
It was a rough time but I wasexcited and I was like, all
right, well, this sucks, but I'mlike.
You know, those things happenand they happen a lot in my life
.
I guess at that point where youhave two options you either
like fold or you just go forward.
So I decided, by myself, totake the train into the city
from Brooklyn and I started inthe lorry side and I went up and
(13:16):
down every single streetphysically and I started at
probably about 11 am and I wentto every bar I could to try to
talk to the bar manager to seeif there was any space that we
could rent all of these bandsthat were already booked with us
.
I started there, I went fromEast Village, lower East Side,
(13:38):
to West Village, you know theBitter End area, the LPR area,
and then I ended up in Tribeca,just hoofing it like an absolute
psychopath, and I walked intothis bar called Uncle Mike's and
when I walked in I was like, oh, this is it.
And when I walked in I was like, oh, this is it.
(13:58):
There was a railroad long barthat opened up at the end with a
stage with literal means andstage lighting already set up,
but there was a pool table onthe stage and I talked to the
manager who was there.
And there was a constructionbar right around the block from
(14:21):
the World Trade Center that atthe time was still getting
constructed and he was like yeah, go ahead.
But they didn't have a PA system, they just had those means.
So I had to, I, I got my, gotgot my PA which I had actually
at my house in Connecticut andcause we're up there and got
bought a backline and Thursday,friday, saturday for the two and
(14:43):
a half years I think we werethere, we were bringing up the
whole back line from downstairs,setting it up, having all these
people there and breakingeverything down, putting it back
in the basement for it tochange into a part of the next
day and, yeah, we grew fromthere.
Jennifer Logue (14:58):
So this is creative space and I love asking
this question of everyone.
Uh, but how do you definecreativity?
Dan Melnick (15:07):
Ooh, that's a good.
You know, I was actually goingto ask you that question when
you brought that up, right, Good?
Jennifer Logue (15:11):
to flip it yeah.
Dan Melnick (15:13):
All right, I'll go first, but I definitely want to
hear your answer.
I'll say creativity is thereorganization of a thing to
solve a problem that theindividual sees that others may
(15:34):
not.
Yeah, Okay.
Jennifer Logue (15:39):
Sound or paint or stone or a business, the
reorganization of those thingsthat a little bit, but to say,
(16:02):
for me it's a force, it's anenergy, and it just takes
different shapes, it takesdifferent forms.
You know, it's this force thatmoves us to create something, to
change something, to makesomething happen.
It's like, if you were to breakit down to its very fundamental
element, it's like it's thisforce and we can either, and we
all have it.
It's like it's this force andwe can either, and we all have
(16:23):
it, and we can either choose totap into it or not.
And I think when you don't,that's when, like you know, we
start to have problems in life.
That's just at least myexperience.
But fundamentally, I think it'sa force by totally.
There's no right or wronganswer to this.
Fundamentally, I think it's aforce by totally.
There's no right or wronganswer to this.
But I love how you described itas well, like the
(16:48):
reorganization of something andthat thing can be anything,
because you're taking one thingand you're transmuting it into
something else.
Dan Melnick (16:55):
Yeah, Like even my boy with like Legos.
That's creative.
Jennifer Logue (16:58):
Yes, yeah, and kids, like have the best grasp
of it because they haven't letthe world get to them yet.
Dan Melnick (17:08):
Which also that also I think, makes the best art
when the world actually doesget to you.
Jennifer Logue (17:13):
You think?
Dan Melnick (17:14):
I do, I really do.
I think that's probably whenyou most need to create you know
, but yeah, yeah, both, both aregreat, both are great.
Jennifer Logue (17:27):
Cool.
So for listeners who may not befamiliar with music promotion,
you know how would you describeand you talked about quite a bit
on the podcast already butwhat's like a day in the life,
like of a music promoter.
I mean you're booking bands,you're setting up the venues,
you're setting up the back line,like you were talking about.
Dan Melnick (17:51):
Yeah, I mean, I think what's funny is the
different varieties of music.
Promoters also exist.
Promoters also, um, exist.
Uh, I, I say to to when I teachkids, um, you know, there's a,
there's a threshold, um, in thesize of venues and the size of
the artists that you're workingat, working with that.
(18:13):
When you cross that threshold,it becomes it might as well
become like culinary arts,because everything is different
from like the independent way,the way that your independent
concert booking and promotionand production organization,
boom, you hit, you pay someone aguarantee that's an original
(18:33):
artist everything is differentfrom that point forward and that
that echelon and you can youknow?
it doesn't necessarily, it'snever necessarily up.
The only thing that's up is thecapacity of the venue.
But, um, it's different, it'svery different.
So, uh, when I was anindependent promoter, um, and
there's a lot of us left, I, I'mnot doing it anymore, but
(18:56):
there's a there's a lot of themleft in the world.
I mean a day in my life backthen was I worked full time
Monday through Friday.
I gave myself a break onThursdays and Fridays on time,
(19:16):
but I didn't have the ability tolike take off.
I mean I didn't have, we didn'thave PTO.
Jennifer Logue (19:19):
We didn't have.
We didn't have off days.
Dan Melnick (19:21):
Our life was our vacation.
You know people were like, oh,do you travel?
I'm like no, but I produceconcerts in you know, new York
city for a living.
So that's you know.
Being out at those concert wasmy, was my, was my off days.
But we and we, we worked everyThursday night, friday night and
Saturday night.
Sometimes I did the doors,sometimes I was doing sound.
(19:42):
I taught myself how to runsound early on, which was I
think I did a damn good jobactually, but that was what we
did.
So we had nightlife us and wehad daytime us.
So we had two, we had nightlifeus and we had daytime us.
And yeah, that's I mean all thebooking, follow-throughs,
(20:03):
confirmations, partnershipmeetings, and I was doing
accounting and HR.
It was a pretty crazy time forthose first like nine years.
Jennifer Logue (20:13):
Wow, it's quite the life and it's a sacrifice
when you're doing somethingyou're passionate about.
It's like you know there aren'tdays off.
A lot of times you know it's.
It's like it's a give and take.
Dan Melnick (20:26):
Yeah, I think that's there, isn't, I think, in
all echelons of the musicindustry.
I think there that's a common,an unfortunate commonality
People that's why burnout rateis so high.
It's uh, you miss a lot ofthings in your life.
I mean, I miss.
I miss like family reunions andbirthdays, and um, there's a
(20:48):
picture of me at a wedding earlyon with my laptop in the corner
like plugging away on my laptopoh my gosh uh, because it had
to be.
you know, there's things thathave to be done and I think a
lot of people in a lot of musicindustry I'm not sure of others
that well but they can relate tohaving to make those kinds of
(21:09):
sacrifices.
But we're not out there curingcancer, so we're making these
sacrifices so we can continue tolive the life that we chose to
live.
Um, you know, so it's uh, youknow, no empathy really, but uh,
it's a, it is a sacrifice thatyou make and it's a sacrifice,
(21:31):
but sacrifice driven, uh,industry, because the ones, the
people who are going to say yesto the things, are the people
who are going to end up, youknow, getting the opportunities
that saying yes to the things,of the people who are going to
end up getting the opportunitiesthat saying yes to those things
open up to.
Jennifer Logue (21:42):
Yes, everyone's on a unique journey and all the
musicians who worked with youduring those years, and myself
being one of them, we reallyappreciated the opportunity to
play and to have a culture ofindie music where there was that
opportunity.
Dan Melnick (22:00):
I liked it.
There's so much, there's somuch off of that.
Like it's crazy.
Like just last week, this guyused to play turnstile shows.
Back in 2015 he played aturnstile show because he hit me
up, he's on linkedin.
He's like hey, like I used toplay turnstile shows.
Um, you know, just wanted tocatch up and say hi, and now
(22:20):
we're already working on anevent together with one of the
brands that he works with thisDecember.
Jennifer Logue (22:26):
Love it.
Dan Melnick (22:27):
But, like I run into people at these random
things and they've been like, ohyeah, I used to love turnstile
and there is nothing in New Yorkthat has replaced it since we
left in I think it was 2000.
I think it wrapped in 2016.
I believe was like it'sdecember 2016 and I said I
started sonica's in 2017.
(22:48):
There was another, there was afew companies that came up and
fizzled while we were doing it.
Uh, there was one company thatand this is the other side- of
it is they spent too much timewith the artists that they
booked, so they made individualflyers for every single act.
That's a lot of work, differentart they promoted.
I think they bought Facebookads for their shows, but it
(23:11):
didn't work, because you can'tspend that much time on any
individual act when you'retrying to do anything at scale,
because you also, as a person,need to be able to make enough
money to eat.
Jennifer Logue (23:31):
It's important to have that business savvy
because it's easy to get caughtup.
It's easy to not run a businessthe right way.
You know you don't have thatperspective, but now you've made
the move from working foryourself to now you are the
general manager at SonicBids,but you first were the director
(23:52):
of partnerships.
So you, you know, moved up.
For people who don't knowSonicBids what's like, what's it
all about?
Dan Melnick (24:02):
people who don't know.
Sonic vids what's like?
What's it all about?
Oh, yeah, so like the, thequick elevator pitch for sonic
vids is we like to think of itas linkedin premium for
musicians.
Um, it's a place to to haveyour, your profile as an artist
on the career side, um,available for people to share.
Um, looking for new gigopportunities that are paid
opportunities in some manner,and then, on the other side of
(24:24):
things, we post jobs essentially.
So when I first started, I wasactually the promoter
development lead there.
So it was my job to just getnew venues and festivals and
opportunities for the platform.
And, yeah, over the years myrole there developed into
(24:45):
partnerships director because Ifigured out some stuff to make
things easier and better on thedevelopment side.
So I also took on some moreresponsibilities to sponsor and
produce things to get brandsponsors.
So we worked with like ValleyPresents on some events.
We did like some Ex-Ambassadorstuff.
(25:05):
We had Fantastic Negrito atBrooklyn Bowl.
We were sponsoring events for alittle while and then also
producing events that gainedbrand sponsors and the whole
thing was we tried to do as manyevents as possible.
That's when I was PartnershipsDirector and it worked out
really well too.
But yeah, that's SonicBids isat its very basis.
(25:28):
It's an opportunity directoryand also posting state for like
your LinkedIn profile as amusician Cool.
Jennifer Logue (25:36):
So what brought about that change?
When you decided, like you know, I want to make the move into
working for a company I believein, rather than being the person
in charge of the whole company?
Dan Melnick (25:50):
So it was burnout, yeah, so.
So I got burned out.
It was like my early thirties.
We actually we, we, we took abig L on a big deal that we put
all of our eggs in.
I won't name the brand, but wehad a brand.
We worked with Miller Coors forthree years on Rolsh and Coors
(26:12):
Bank with funded concert series,which was a large part of what
we were at the time as Turnstile.
It allowed us to do so muchmore and give our artists better
opportunities, like opening upfor larger artists, that large
group, um, and we talked, wewere, we met a brand at south by
and we're talking to them aboutthe things that we did with, uh
(26:35):
, of course, banquet, and theyloved it, they loved the idea,
and so we pivoted and I went outand I got all the venues that
we were working with to to havethis product on uh on site and
get ready for this.
You know, I think it was 2017or maybe 26, it was maybe 2016
concert series, um, and thingskind of drag along, but they do
(26:59):
when you do brands, like ittakes months to get anything
actually done.
Um, so like, if anyone outthere is ever working with a
brand like, give yourself threeto four months.
Jennifer Logue (27:09):
That's great advice.
Dan Melnick (27:10):
Yeah, but so that was normal.
But what happened was we jumpedon the final phone call.
We had a, we had the proposalapproved and everything and and
I was like, look, we're good togo Like.
And I was like, look, we'regood to go, like I got all the
product and all the venues thatwe're at.
And the guy's like, oh, hold upwhat he's like.
So you got all the product atthe venues that you work at.
(27:33):
And he's like I'm like, yeah,we're good to go.
And he goes, oh, then why do weneed you?
Jennifer Logue (27:38):
Oh, my gosh.
Dan Melnick (27:42):
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
So I would say Miller Coors,really, really great company
when it came to just being likemoral and ethical, and this
other company basically justused me as a free brand, fmm,
for them to be placed in allthese other, these other venues.
So we lost that deal, which was, which was our driver for the
(28:05):
year and, um, that caused a lotof stress for myself, um, it was
brutal and uh, I I, at thatpoint I'm like, look, I'm tired,
of tired of wearing 17different hats and, and you know
, driving this forward and youknow, depending on the
accountability of things that Idon't have control over, which I
(28:28):
think is the definition ofbeing an independent music
promoter and I want to see howthe other half lives.
And I didn't put my resume outthere for over eight years at
that point.
So I let my business partnersknow, like, here, I'm going to
go, look to go see what's outthere.
And then, within you know, Ilet my business partners know
I'm like here, I'm going to go,look to go see what's out there.
Um, and then within six weeks Ilanded at Sonic.
Jennifer Logue (28:49):
Bids, like which is great Um and uh.
Dan Melnick (28:53):
funny.
Funny thing is that the mainreason that I left was to like
not have to wear 10 hats.
And now I'm GM of Sonic Bidsand now I'm doing the same exact
thing that I had the turnstileeight years later.
But it worked out because I didlike.
Over those first couple ofyears when I was at SonicBids I
was itching, I felt the itch toget back and do more things and
(29:15):
control things, and stuff likethat.
Jennifer Logue (29:19):
So how does it feel to work for a large?
Do you think it's?
Do you have a better work-lifebalance compared to when you ran
the thing yourself like yourown company?
Dan Melnick (29:28):
If I didn't have a family with two kids then I
would probably say yes, butthere is no work-life balance.
You're right, it just doesn'texist.
When you exist, there's no,there's no break, there's no
break.
I would, I think I would.
No.
Yes, there was a couple ofyears there when I first started
(29:48):
, before children, and it wasnon-burnout.
I loved going to the office andcommuting and I loved getting a
morning coffee out there andsitting at my desk in the office
.
Like getting a morning coffeeout there and going and sitting
at my desk in the office andjust, you know, putting on my
headphones and plugging away andgoing home and and you know,
(30:08):
rinse, repeat.
I really did like those days alot.
Plus, it was a music company.
So, like in music companies,you're able to do things and
you're, you know you're, I meanwe're, I think we started
cracking beers at the office atlike five o'clock on on
Thursdays and Fridays and youknow, or Fridays I couldn't do
two in a row, but uh, and thengoing out to events of sorts and
stuff, and it was, it wasbetter, yeah, Um, but COVID
(30:33):
sucked.
Jennifer Logue (30:34):
COVID, yes, sucked for everyone, but
especially for music live music,especially.
Um.
How do you bring yourentrepreneurship experience into
your role now?
Dan Melnick (30:47):
so I'm basically doing very similar things that I
did at turnstile for on many,many different levels.
Like um, brand partnerships isa huge thing that we're working
on we're actually working with.
One of the offshoots that we'redoing at sonofits right now is
working with independent venuesto help develop their brand
partnership departments, wheremost independent venues don't
(31:08):
have those things.
So we're working with them ondeveloping that programming and
the same software developmentsthat we had already set our own
custom software for Turnstile,which is a big thing, big thing
with, actually, a friend of minewho I met, who worked for Red
Light, and Dave Matthews helpedme develop this amazing software
(31:30):
that linked our Boston, philly,sf and New York bases together,
so we were able to easily bookin all four of those markets
with Turnstile.
So we're using some of thethings that we had at Turnstile
to develop now into our SonicBids platform and our software
that we have there because weneed a software upgrade for sure
.
Jennifer Logue (31:48):
That's so cool because you have to think on
your feet.
When you're an entrepreneur,you know and sometimes it can be
years ahead of where thecorporations are.
Dan Melnick (31:56):
I can tell you one thing I learned from this
difference.
The difference is, I feel, likegoing the way that you said
entrepreneur into corporate hasbenefited me because, like
people who work for themselves,that freelancers, entrepreneurs
that that know that they're onlygoing to eat if they do x right
(32:19):
, have a different kind of fireand drive that you just can't
kill.
So, since I've been workingcorporately, you know I didn't
there was never a day that Itook for granted.
You know there was never.
I you can't shut it off if you,if you already are built to
like, you know I won't make rentunless I'm going 100 miles an
(32:41):
hour every day where, like Iremember, there's people who
worked in my own corporateoffice that, like, would
complain about the mostridiculous things, like the most
like, like the snacks the freesnacks was like a thing was a
point of contention, and I'm,like I cannot believe that
you're arguing about this, likeit is insane that you're arguing
(33:02):
about this I feel you, I feelyou never been on fishbowl.
Jennifer Logue (33:07):
It could be.
I won't get into that, but I'mnot sure if there's a fishbowl
for music industry, but it's anapp yeah, I know people.
Oh, you know what fishbowl is.
Dan Melnick (33:16):
Yeah, so I mean, like the snacks is a contentious
issue for some people and Ijust I know I just like to look
at things as like I just want todo the best I possibly can and
then I want to go back to doingthe other things that I love to
do.
Like I don't, like I don't likewasting time on like
charcuterie board lessons withmy remote work.
Like I just want to, I just wantto produce money for those who
(33:41):
work with me or for me and thosearound me, and I just want to
keep going.
I don't like wasting time onthings like that.
That was the flop that Irealized going between those two
different kinds of cultures.
Jennifer Logue (33:53):
Cool.
So you're also teaching at NYUnow and Rock Nation Advice for
your students.
Slash anyone listening rightnow who's kind of like your
student in a sense for sure.
Dan Melnick (34:07):
Uh, I mean, well, I do.
I do give my students advice ona weekly basis.
Whether they don't like it, Idon't know.
Um, it's, it's been fun.
Uh, I like being, I liketeaching my one class a week.
Um, what?
Let me, let me think of some ofthe advice that I get to my
students.
Oh, here's one of the things Iget to my students is, and my
interns and and anyone I evermeet who's in industry, music
(34:29):
industry, um, you know, beginner, if you would, uh is that you
can't dip your toe into this.
So if I'm interviewing someoneand they're like, um, I just
want to see how the musicindustry is, you can't do that.
You have to live it and breatheit and surround yourself with
it, or it just won't work.
(34:51):
And it's difficult, it'srewarding in different ways and
it's a lifestyle.
I'm glad I never regret any ofthe decisions, even the bad
things that I think happened tome in the past.
Like you mentioned, that deal,you're going to make mistakes
(35:13):
and learn from them.
It's a trip, man, it's a trip.
Jennifer Logue (35:17):
Jump all the way in.
I'll just go ahead first.
Dan Melnick (35:20):
That's it.
You can't take the challenge ofthis kind of stuff.
Jennifer Logue (35:24):
What's next for you?
Dan Melnick (35:26):
Oh, so yeah, I mean we're working on right now, I
think, as I mentioned, thesoftware updates for the company
.
We're working with these brandpartnership deals.
We have a great event onDecember 14th the Sonic Biz
Holiday Mixer with an awesomeband.
It's just another band giving100% of the profits to the
(35:47):
artists who are performing.
Awesome, it's going to be agreat holiday hang.
It's going to be good peoplethere.
It's open to the public.
So if anyone wants to comechill and hang out and say
what's up, feel free to come dothat.
If not, that's cool too, Iguess.
Awesome.
Hang out and say what's up like.
Jennifer Logue (36:05):
Feel free to come do that.
If not, that's cool too, Iguess awesome.
Well, dan, I know you have togo and pick up my children do
daycare.
Yes, don't leave them hangingthe last time I've used each
other in person.
Dan Melnick (36:16):
We were at like a bar eating sliders and drinking
those big beers at nationalunderground.
This is a really big differencesuch a difference.
Jennifer Logue (36:24):
Time flies, but in good ways, in a lot of good
ways too, you know, um.
But, dan, thank you so much fortaking the time to appear on
the podcast.
It was awesome catching up and,like man, congrats on all your
success.
It's it's wonderful to see howyour career has grown.
Anyway, I'll do your outro now.
(36:44):
For more on Dan Melnick, youcan follow him on LinkedIn and
for more on SonicBids, visitsonicbidscom.
And thank you so much fortuning in and growing in
creativity with us.
I'd love to know what youthought of today's episode.
Yeah, what you found mostinteresting, what you found most
helpful.
You can reach out to me onsocial media at Jennifer Logue,
(37:06):
or leave a review for CreativeSpace on Apple Podcasts so more
people can discover it.
I appreciate you so much forbeing here.
My name is Jennifer Logue andthanks for listening to this
episode of Creative Space.
Until next time you.
Just a quick note before we begin the first
interview episode of seasonthree.
This is actually a two-partinterview, so I originally
recorded this interview with Danback in December of 2023, but
just as I was about to releaseit, I got word that Dan's role
(00:21):
had changed quite a bit atSonicBids.
So I thought how about we do anupdate interview and turn this
into a two-part episode?
In this first part, we'll diveinto Dan's journey in the music
industry how a sports injury ledhim to learn guitar, how he
started his own company aftercollege, termed Style Music
(00:44):
Group, and what led him to leaveentrepreneurship behind to join
SonicBids.
Enjoy the conversation and staytuned to part two, where we
catch up on everything that'schanged since then.
(01:08):
Hello everyone, and welcome toanother episode of Creative
Space, a podcast where weexplore, learn and grow in
creativity together.
I'm your host, jennifer Logue,and today we have the pleasure
of chatting with Dan Melnick,general manager at Sonic Bids as
well as professor at NYU andRock Nation.
(01:30):
Dan and I go way back, as I wasone of the many artists he
booked at shows in New York Cityand beyond through his company,
turnstile Music Group.
Dan's story is so interesting,first of all because he's made a
career out of what he'spassionate about music and he
also went from working forhimself to working his way up at
(01:53):
a larger company, which I feellike most entrepreneurs do the
opposite.
So it'll be cool to get hisunique perspective on how, you
know, this has shaped hisoutlook and everything, and how
he applies what he's learned asan entrepreneur within a
corporate structure.
Anyways, welcome to CreativeSpace, dan.
It's been a minute.
Dan Melnick (02:12):
Hey.
Jennifer Logue (02:12):
Jen, how's it going?
Going pretty well, going prettywell here in Philly.
How's NYC Flash Connecticut?
Dan Melnick (02:22):
Well, yeah, how's Connecticut professional, but um
I'm.
Jennifer Logue (02:27):
I'm up in the woods right now in.
Dan Melnick (02:29):
CT with the fam and uh, and I'm in the city once a
week so I got to be.
I got to see he actually thisweek at the Academy of New York
City Halloween.
Compared to ConnecticutHalloween because I went out to
some bars in both Connecticutand New York over the weekend.
They're very different, verydifferent.
Yeah, they're different scenes.
(02:50):
I do have to say I prefer theNew York.
It's a little more lively.
Jennifer Logue (02:55):
A little more fun.
I mean, what's the scene likein Connecticut for Halloween?
Dan Melnick (02:58):
Well, let's say, I walked into the bar to meet a
friend of mine on Saturday night.
Walked into the bar to meet afriend of mine on Saturday night
and there was an elderly womanstumbling out, drunk, with a
mid-30s woman following hersaying Mother, no, come back.
And I'm like, where am I?
This is wow.
(03:19):
That's Connecticut.
Jennifer Logue (03:22):
That sounds pretty interesting to me.
I don't know, that's like thebeginning of like a TV show.
Yeah.
Dan Melnick (03:31):
I mean it's like the beginning of a sad TV show
on HBO.
It's not going to be on asitcom.
I'm going to need somebody tosort.
Jennifer Logue (03:39):
Hey, depending on your perspective, True.
And how's Sonic bids?
How's everything?
Dan Melnick (03:47):
It's good.
You know we're staying reallybusy.
We've got a lot of irons and alot of fires.
We've gone through some massivechanges over the last six
months.
I think I'm starting year eightthis January, which is insane
to think, which is actuallygetting very close to how many
years I was at Turnstile.
(04:08):
So I've it's a lot of it's.
It's very exciting.
It's nothing earth shattering,but it is for me in a lot of
ways.
So I'm excited about the shortand long-term future of
everything.
Jennifer Logue (04:23):
Wonderful.
I can't believe it's been eightyears.
That's incredible.
So we have never talked aboutyour background, your early life
, your career beginnings.
So I'm going to go way back formyself and also for everybody
else listening.
But where are you fromoriginally?
Dan Melnick (04:46):
Long Island.
I almost said Strong IslandIsland.
It didn't really sound terrible.
Jennifer Logue (04:49):
It's a Long Island okay, cool, uh, and were
you always into music?
Dan Melnick (04:56):
no, actually, um, I was a football player and
lacrosse player and I shatteredmy leg in like six places.
Jennifer Logue (05:06):
Whoa.
Dan Melnick (05:07):
I think it was my senior, yeah, my senior year of
high school and I was in like awheelchair for a couple of weeks
and my and my dad was like, hey, I'm going to get your guitar,
do you want my old guitar?
And I was like, yeah.
So then I taught myself how toplay guitar, um, um, while I was
in recovery for those fewmonths and, um, yeah, I like
(05:28):
really got into it, like reallyinto it, really really quickly.
Um, even to a point where I, uh, I actually ended up winning
the battle of the bands for myhigh school.
That that, uh, june wow myself.
But in that fall which is crazyI'd never noticed that until
just now.
And then from there I wasaddicted all throughout college.
Jennifer Logue (05:50):
Yeah, who were your big music inspirations
around that time?
Dan Melnick (05:58):
Around that time.
David G Matthews, I'm notashamed to say it.
Jennifer Logue (06:01):
Nothing to be ashamed about, oh my gosh.
Dan Melnick (06:05):
Oh, there's an amazing like underground music
industry subculture of peoplewho actually like Dave Matthews,
but don't say that they likeDave Matthews, and we all get
together at the bar once a year.
Oh my gosh, that's awesome.
Jennifer Logue (06:24):
I don't get how some people in the music
industry can be snobbish aboutcertain artists.
Dan Melnick (06:30):
I think that a lot of people's I mean there's,
let's just say there's apercentage of people in the
music industry whose entirepersonalities are being snobbish
about their musical tastes.
Jennifer Logue (06:40):
So oh, that's true, that's it, that's the
entire that's, that's it.
Dan Melnick (06:44):
That's the entire.
That's that's their datingprofile.
Jennifer Logue (06:47):
Oh, that's rough , okay, well, I guess they won't
go to a concert with you andyou're reading I don't know.
Dan Melnick (06:54):
I, I I've never put much weight into like what kind
of music somebody's in, like Idon't care, like just be a
quality human being and that'sreally what I care about.
I'm not gonna like I don't know.
I feel like that's.
Jennifer Logue (07:08):
That's a lot of wasted, emotional real estate I
agree, although I do like whenpeople like music.
That's always a good.
I did meet somebody in my lifewho did not like music.
Oh, I don't like music.
Yeah that was weird.
Dan Melnick (07:20):
Oh, okay, so what?
And I'm like, ooh, okay, sowhat do you listen to while
you're driving?
Jennifer Logue (07:26):
They like silence.
Dan Melnick (07:28):
Silence.
That's sociopathic behavior.
Yeah, so let's say I judge that, I'll judge that with you.
I'll go on.
Not the particular taste, butjust the general ability to
appreciate the art form.
Jennifer Logue (07:40):
Music of all kinds.
It's all wonderful, yeah, butwhen did you know you wanted to
work in the music business?
Dan Melnick (07:48):
Not until senior year of college.
Actually, I started gigging myjunior year of college and I
think I went to Quinnipiac and Iwas convinced at the time that
I was going to end up where allthe other media production
majors at quinnipiac ended up,which was espn in connecticut,
(08:08):
that's where they're based.
Um, and towards the, towards theend of my senior year I was
like I just I want to dosomething in music industry and,
hilariously, I was a musicminor, um, but those classes
were like composition and theorybased, so there was no music
(08:29):
business teaching at all orcourses at all.
So when I graduated I was kindof f***ed up.
No one.
The other thing is, no one evertold me because I'm old, so no
one told me when I was incollege that it was a good idea
to intern.
That was never said.
I feel like that would be a goodthing for colleges to tell
their kids, um, but uh, so Ididn't.
(08:51):
So not only did I not know whothe players were, but like the
different facets of the industry, because there's so many
different buckets.
It's a huge industry butthere's so many different
avenues to go to.
I remember like walking up toliterally going to the red light
(09:11):
management offices in WallStreet when I was like 22, with
printed out resumes, trying toget upstairs to like give
someone my resume at the frontdesk and being turned away by
the door guy being like youcan't do that, man, you gotta
set an appointment someone.
I'm like cool and here I am,wall street just by myself and,
(09:33):
um, funny is like, a few yearslater is at their christmas
parties.
So it worked out in a weird way.
Those are some awesomechristmas parties that used to
just throw so yeah.
Jennifer Logue (09:43):
So how did you eventually get in?
Was it you starting your owncompany?
Did you make your own way in?
Dan Melnick (09:51):
It's that period of time that I think a lot of
people kind of hit thepost-college like what am I
going to do with my life, thingRight, which is always scary for
everyone.
It was a tough time for me, forsure.
I remember it and I it suckstoo, because I remember it.
I was stressed out all the timebut really it was a great time.
(10:11):
It was a great time of my life,but I wasn't able to appreciate
it at the time.
But you know all my all mystudents and my interns I'm like
you got to just be patient withlife and just keep going and
try not to get too much in yourhead in that in that time period
, just because it's such a time.
It's a tough time for everybody.
But so I did what a lot ofpeople do and I literally
(10:34):
reached out to like every singlehuman being I ever met and like
everyone, everyone I ever met,looking for jobs.
Um, and uh, two people got backto me and one was um, the
guitar shop in whistler mountain, british columbia.
(10:56):
Um, to work at their guitarshop for Ruben Board.
So I would move from New Yorkto above Vancouver.
Jennifer Logue (11:06):
Wow.
Dan Melnick (11:08):
The other one was a guy named Markel and he used to
do booking at a small club inLower East Side called 169 Bar.
Jennifer Logue (11:18):
I remember that place.
Dan Melnick (11:20):
It's actually still there and Charles still runs it
and it's wow.
It really is like a historicalvenue.
Jennifer Logue (11:28):
at this point they don't do live music there
anymore.
Dan Melnick (11:31):
They put a table there, but it's the same
aesthetic and, yeah, I've beenthere for a few cocktails here
and there over the years, hereand there, and it's great that
it's still there.
He used to book shows there.
He used to do the classic $10ticket first, 10 door deal thing
.
We started working togetherunder the guise of Markel
(11:56):
Entertainment.
I was doing all the booking ofMarkel Entertainment.
I was doing all the booking.
Yeah, we, we, I did so.
I set up three months of ofbooking Thursday, friday,
saturday for this club calledJulep on 9th Avenue A.
But my spider sense startedtingling within the first,
within a month of our first show, because we really hadn't heard
(12:17):
from our contact there in awhile and I just I was texting
him and calling him and just notgetting anything back and
eventually I text back and belike saying club sold, sorry.
Jennifer Logue (12:29):
Oh wow.
Dan Melnick (12:32):
So I worked for $0 at this point for about two
months setting up this calendarof three, three months of shows,
sleeping on a friend's couchThanks Chris and literally
surviving off his leftoverChinese food, and it was rough.
(12:53):
It was a rough time but I wasexcited and I was like, all
right, well, this sucks, but I'mlike.
You know, those things happenand they happen a lot in my life
.
I guess at that point where youhave two options you either
like fold or you just go forward.
So I decided, by myself, totake the train into the city
from Brooklyn and I started inthe lorry side and I went up and
(13:16):
down every single streetphysically and I started at
probably about 11 am and I wentto every bar I could to try to
talk to the bar manager to seeif there was any space that we
could rent all of these bandsthat were already booked with us
.
I started there, I went fromEast Village, lower East Side,
(13:38):
to West Village, you know theBitter End area, the LPR area,
and then I ended up in Tribeca,just hoofing it like an absolute
psychopath, and I walked intothis bar called Uncle Mike's and
when I walked in I was like, oh, this is it.
And when I walked in I was like, oh, this is it.
(13:58):
There was a railroad long barthat opened up at the end with a
stage with literal means andstage lighting already set up,
but there was a pool table onthe stage and I talked to the
manager who was there.
And there was a constructionbar right around the block from
(14:21):
the World Trade Center that atthe time was still getting
constructed and he was like yeah, go ahead.
But they didn't have a PA system, they just had those means.
So I had to, I, I got my, gotgot my PA which I had actually
at my house in Connecticut andcause we're up there and got
bought a backline and Thursday,friday, saturday for the two and
(14:43):
a half years I think we werethere, we were bringing up the
whole back line from downstairs,setting it up, having all these
people there and breakingeverything down, putting it back
in the basement for it tochange into a part of the next
day and, yeah, we grew fromthere.
Jennifer Logue (14:58):
So this is creative space and I love asking
this question of everyone.
Uh, but how do you definecreativity?
Dan Melnick (15:07):
Ooh, that's a good.
You know, I was actually goingto ask you that question when
you brought that up, right, Good?
Jennifer Logue (15:11):
to flip it yeah.
Dan Melnick (15:13):
All right, I'll go first, but I definitely want to
hear your answer.
I'll say creativity is thereorganization of a thing to
solve a problem that theindividual sees that others may
(15:34):
not.
Yeah, Okay.
Jennifer Logue (15:39):
Sound or paint or stone or a business, the
reorganization of those thingsthat a little bit, but to say,
(16:02):
for me it's a force, it's anenergy, and it just takes
different shapes, it takesdifferent forms.
You know, it's this force thatmoves us to create something, to
change something, to makesomething happen.
It's like, if you were to breakit down to its very fundamental
element, it's like it's thisforce and we can either, and we
all have it.
It's like it's this force andwe can either, and we all have
(16:23):
it, and we can either choose totap into it or not.
And I think when you don't,that's when, like you know, we
start to have problems in life.
That's just at least myexperience.
But fundamentally, I think it'sa force by totally.
There's no right or wronganswer to this.
Fundamentally, I think it's aforce by totally.
There's no right or wronganswer to this.
But I love how you described itas well, like the
(16:48):
reorganization of something andthat thing can be anything,
because you're taking one thingand you're transmuting it into
something else.
Dan Melnick (16:55):
Yeah, Like even my boy with like Legos.
That's creative.
Jennifer Logue (16:58):
Yes, yeah, and kids, like have the best grasp
of it because they haven't letthe world get to them yet.
Dan Melnick (17:08):
Which also that also I think, makes the best art
when the world actually doesget to you.
Jennifer Logue (17:13):
You think?
Dan Melnick (17:14):
I do, I really do.
I think that's probably whenyou most need to create you know
, but yeah, yeah, both, both aregreat, both are great.
Jennifer Logue (17:27):
Cool.
So for listeners who may not befamiliar with music promotion,
you know how would you describeand you talked about quite a bit
on the podcast already butwhat's like a day in the life,
like of a music promoter.
I mean you're booking bands,you're setting up the venues,
you're setting up the back line,like you were talking about.
Dan Melnick (17:51):
Yeah, I mean, I think what's funny is the
different varieties of music.
Promoters also exist.
Promoters also, um, exist.
Uh, I, I say to to when I teachkids, um, you know, there's a,
there's a threshold, um, in thesize of venues and the size of
the artists that you're workingat, working with that.
(18:13):
When you cross that threshold,it becomes it might as well
become like culinary arts,because everything is different
from like the independent way,the way that your independent
concert booking and promotionand production organization,
boom, you hit, you pay someone aguarantee that's an original
(18:33):
artist everything is differentfrom that point forward and that
that echelon and you can youknow?
it doesn't necessarily, it'snever necessarily up.
The only thing that's up is thecapacity of the venue.
But, um, it's different, it'svery different.
So, uh, when I was anindependent promoter, um, and
there's a lot of us left, I, I'mnot doing it anymore, but
(18:56):
there's a there's a lot of themleft in the world.
I mean a day in my life backthen was I worked full time
Monday through Friday.
I gave myself a break onThursdays and Fridays on time,
(19:16):
but I didn't have the ability tolike take off.
I mean I didn't have, we didn'thave PTO.
Jennifer Logue (19:19):
We didn't have.
We didn't have off days.
Dan Melnick (19:21):
Our life was our vacation.
You know people were like, oh,do you travel?
I'm like no, but I produceconcerts in you know, new York
city for a living.
So that's you know.
Being out at those concert wasmy, was my, was my off days.
But we and we, we worked everyThursday night, friday night and
Saturday night.
Sometimes I did the doors,sometimes I was doing sound.
(19:42):
I taught myself how to runsound early on, which was I
think I did a damn good jobactually, but that was what we
did.
So we had nightlife us and wehad daytime us.
So we had two, we had nightlifeus and we had daytime us.
And yeah, that's I mean all thebooking, follow-throughs,
(20:03):
confirmations, partnershipmeetings, and I was doing
accounting and HR.
It was a pretty crazy time forthose first like nine years.
Jennifer Logue (20:13):
Wow, it's quite the life and it's a sacrifice
when you're doing somethingyou're passionate about.
It's like you know there aren'tdays off.
A lot of times you know it's.
It's like it's a give and take.
Dan Melnick (20:26):
Yeah, I think that's there, isn't, I think, in
all echelons of the musicindustry.
I think there that's a common,an unfortunate commonality
People that's why burnout rateis so high.
It's uh, you miss a lot ofthings in your life.
I mean, I miss.
I miss like family reunions andbirthdays, and um, there's a
(20:48):
picture of me at a wedding earlyon with my laptop in the corner
like plugging away on my laptopoh my gosh uh, because it had
to be.
you know, there's things thathave to be done and I think a
lot of people in a lot of musicindustry I'm not sure of others
that well but they can relate tohaving to make those kinds of
(21:09):
sacrifices.
But we're not out there curingcancer, so we're making these
sacrifices so we can continue tolive the life that we chose to
live.
Um, you know, so it's uh, youknow, no empathy really, but uh,
it's a, it is a sacrifice thatyou make and it's a sacrifice,
(21:31):
but sacrifice driven, uh,industry, because the ones, the
people who are going to say yesto the things, are the people
who are going to end up, youknow, getting the opportunities
that saying yes to the things,of the people who are going to
end up getting the opportunitiesthat saying yes to those things
open up to.
Jennifer Logue (21:42):
Yes, everyone's on a unique journey and all the
musicians who worked with youduring those years, and myself
being one of them, we reallyappreciated the opportunity to
play and to have a culture ofindie music where there was that
opportunity.
Dan Melnick (22:00):
I liked it.
There's so much, there's somuch off of that.
Like it's crazy.
Like just last week, this guyused to play turnstile shows.
Back in 2015 he played aturnstile show because he hit me
up, he's on linkedin.
He's like hey, like I used toplay turnstile shows.
Um, you know, just wanted tocatch up and say hi, and now
(22:20):
we're already working on anevent together with one of the
brands that he works with thisDecember.
Jennifer Logue (22:26):
Love it.
Dan Melnick (22:27):
But, like I run into people at these random
things and they've been like, ohyeah, I used to love turnstile
and there is nothing in New Yorkthat has replaced it since we
left in I think it was 2000.
I think it wrapped in 2016.
I believe was like it'sdecember 2016 and I said I
started sonica's in 2017.
(22:48):
There was another, there was afew companies that came up and
fizzled while we were doing it.
Uh, there was one company thatand this is the other side- of
it is they spent too much timewith the artists that they
booked, so they made individualflyers for every single act.
That's a lot of work, differentart they promoted.
I think they bought Facebookads for their shows, but it
(23:11):
didn't work, because you can'tspend that much time on any
individual act when you'retrying to do anything at scale,
because you also, as a person,need to be able to make enough
money to eat.
Jennifer Logue (23:31):
It's important to have that business savvy
because it's easy to get caughtup.
It's easy to not run a businessthe right way.
You know you don't have thatperspective, but now you've made
the move from working foryourself to now you are the
general manager at SonicBids,but you first were the director
(23:52):
of partnerships.
So you, you know, moved up.
For people who don't knowSonicBids what's like, what's it
all about?
Dan Melnick (24:02):
people who don't know.
Sonic vids what's like?
What's it all about?
Oh, yeah, so like the, thequick elevator pitch for sonic
vids is we like to think of itas linkedin premium for
musicians.
Um, it's a place to to haveyour, your profile as an artist
on the career side, um,available for people to share.
Um, looking for new gigopportunities that are paid
opportunities in some manner,and then, on the other side of
(24:24):
things, we post jobs essentially.
So when I first started, I wasactually the promoter
development lead there.
So it was my job to just getnew venues and festivals and
opportunities for the platform.
And, yeah, over the years myrole there developed into
(24:45):
partnerships director because Ifigured out some stuff to make
things easier and better on thedevelopment side.
So I also took on some moreresponsibilities to sponsor and
produce things to get brandsponsors.
So we worked with like ValleyPresents on some events.
We did like some Ex-Ambassadorstuff.
(25:05):
We had Fantastic Negrito atBrooklyn Bowl.
We were sponsoring events for alittle while and then also
producing events that gainedbrand sponsors and the whole
thing was we tried to do as manyevents as possible.
That's when I was PartnershipsDirector and it worked out
really well too.
But yeah, that's SonicBids isat its very basis.
(25:28):
It's an opportunity directoryand also posting state for like
your LinkedIn profile as amusician Cool.
Jennifer Logue (25:36):
So what brought about that change?
When you decided, like you know, I want to make the move into
working for a company I believein, rather than being the person
in charge of the whole company?
Dan Melnick (25:50):
So it was burnout, yeah, so.
So I got burned out.
It was like my early thirties.
We actually we, we, we took abig L on a big deal that we put
all of our eggs in.
I won't name the brand, but wehad a brand.
We worked with Miller Coors forthree years on Rolsh and Coors
(26:12):
Bank with funded concert series,which was a large part of what
we were at the time as Turnstile.
It allowed us to do so muchmore and give our artists better
opportunities, like opening upfor larger artists, that large
group, um, and we talked, wewere, we met a brand at south by
and we're talking to them aboutthe things that we did with, uh
(26:35):
, of course, banquet, and theyloved it, they loved the idea,
and so we pivoted and I went outand I got all the venues that
we were working with to to havethis product on uh on site and
get ready for this.
You know, I think it was 2017or maybe 26, it was maybe 2016
concert series, um, and thingskind of drag along, but they do
(26:59):
when you do brands, like ittakes months to get anything
actually done.
Um, so like, if anyone outthere is ever working with a
brand like, give yourself threeto four months.
Jennifer Logue (27:09):
That's great advice.
Dan Melnick (27:10):
Yeah, but so that was normal.
But what happened was we jumpedon the final phone call.
We had a, we had the proposalapproved and everything and and
I was like, look, we're good togo Like.
And I was like, look, we'regood to go, like I got all the
product and all the venues thatwe're at.
And the guy's like, oh, hold upwhat he's like.
So you got all the product atthe venues that you work at.
(27:33):
And he's like I'm like, yeah,we're good to go.
And he goes, oh, then why do weneed you?
Jennifer Logue (27:38):
Oh, my gosh.
Dan Melnick (27:42):
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
So I would say Miller Coors,really, really great company
when it came to just being likemoral and ethical, and this
other company basically justused me as a free brand, fmm,
for them to be placed in allthese other, these other venues.
So we lost that deal, which was, which was our driver for the
(28:05):
year and, um, that caused a lotof stress for myself, um, it was
brutal and uh, I I, at thatpoint I'm like, look, I'm tired,
of tired of wearing 17different hats and, and you know
, driving this forward and youknow, depending on the
accountability of things that Idon't have control over, which I
(28:28):
think is the definition ofbeing an independent music
promoter and I want to see howthe other half lives.
And I didn't put my resume outthere for over eight years at
that point.
So I let my business partnersknow, like, here, I'm going to
go, look to go see what's outthere.
And then, within you know, Ilet my business partners know
I'm like here, I'm going to go,look to go see what's out there.
Um, and then within six weeks Ilanded at Sonic.
Jennifer Logue (28:49):
Bids, like which is great Um and uh.
Dan Melnick (28:53):
funny.
Funny thing is that the mainreason that I left was to like
not have to wear 10 hats.
And now I'm GM of Sonic Bidsand now I'm doing the same exact
thing that I had the turnstileeight years later.
But it worked out because I didlike.
Over those first couple ofyears when I was at SonicBids I
was itching, I felt the itch toget back and do more things and
(29:15):
control things, and stuff likethat.
Jennifer Logue (29:19):
So how does it feel to work for a large?
Do you think it's?
Do you have a better work-lifebalance compared to when you ran
the thing yourself like yourown company?
Dan Melnick (29:28):
If I didn't have a family with two kids then I
would probably say yes, butthere is no work-life balance.
You're right, it just doesn'texist.
When you exist, there's no,there's no break, there's no
break.
I would, I think I would.
No.
Yes, there was a couple ofyears there when I first started
(29:48):
, before children, and it wasnon-burnout.
I loved going to the office andcommuting and I loved getting a
morning coffee out there andsitting at my desk in the office
.
Like getting a morning coffeeout there and going and sitting
at my desk in the office andjust, you know, putting on my
headphones and plugging away andgoing home and and you know,
(30:08):
rinse, repeat.
I really did like those days alot.
Plus, it was a music company.
So, like in music companies,you're able to do things and
you're, you know you're, I meanwe're, I think we started
cracking beers at the office atlike five o'clock on on
Thursdays and Fridays and youknow, or Fridays I couldn't do
two in a row, but uh, and thengoing out to events of sorts and
stuff, and it was, it wasbetter, yeah, Um, but COVID
(30:33):
sucked.
Jennifer Logue (30:34):
COVID, yes, sucked for everyone, but
especially for music live music,especially.
Um.
How do you bring yourentrepreneurship experience into
your role now?
Dan Melnick (30:47):
so I'm basically doing very similar things that I
did at turnstile for on many,many different levels.
Like um, brand partnerships isa huge thing that we're working
on we're actually working with.
One of the offshoots that we'redoing at sonofits right now is
working with independent venuesto help develop their brand
partnership departments, wheremost independent venues don't
(31:08):
have those things.
So we're working with them ondeveloping that programming and
the same software developmentsthat we had already set our own
custom software for Turnstile,which is a big thing, big thing
with, actually, a friend of minewho I met, who worked for Red
Light, and Dave Matthews helpedme develop this amazing software
(31:30):
that linked our Boston, philly,sf and New York bases together,
so we were able to easily bookin all four of those markets
with Turnstile.
So we're using some of thethings that we had at Turnstile
to develop now into our SonicBids platform and our software
that we have there because weneed a software upgrade for sure
.
Jennifer Logue (31:48):
That's so cool because you have to think on
your feet.
When you're an entrepreneur,you know and sometimes it can be
years ahead of where thecorporations are.
Dan Melnick (31:56):
I can tell you one thing I learned from this
difference.
The difference is, I feel, likegoing the way that you said
entrepreneur into corporate hasbenefited me because, like
people who work for themselves,that freelancers, entrepreneurs
that that know that they're onlygoing to eat if they do x right
(32:19):
, have a different kind of fireand drive that you just can't
kill.
So, since I've been workingcorporately, you know I didn't
there was never a day that Itook for granted.
You know there was never.
I you can't shut it off if you,if you already are built to
like, you know I won't make rentunless I'm going 100 miles an
(32:41):
hour every day where, like Iremember, there's people who
worked in my own corporateoffice that, like, would
complain about the mostridiculous things, like the most
like, like the snacks the freesnacks was like a thing was a
point of contention, and I'm,like I cannot believe that
you're arguing about this, likeit is insane that you're arguing
(33:02):
about this I feel you, I feelyou never been on fishbowl.
Jennifer Logue (33:07):
It could be.
I won't get into that, but I'mnot sure if there's a fishbowl
for music industry, but it's anapp yeah, I know people.
Oh, you know what fishbowl is.
Dan Melnick (33:16):
Yeah, so I mean, like the snacks is a contentious
issue for some people and Ijust I know I just like to look
at things as like I just want todo the best I possibly can and
then I want to go back to doingthe other things that I love to
do.
Like I don't, like I don't likewasting time on like
charcuterie board lessons withmy remote work.
Like I just want to, I just wantto produce money for those who
(33:41):
work with me or for me and thosearound me, and I just want to
keep going.
I don't like wasting time onthings like that.
That was the flop that Irealized going between those two
different kinds of cultures.
Jennifer Logue (33:53):
Cool.
So you're also teaching at NYUnow and Rock Nation Advice for
your students.
Slash anyone listening rightnow who's kind of like your
student in a sense for sure.
Dan Melnick (34:07):
Uh, I mean, well, I do.
I do give my students advice ona weekly basis.
Whether they don't like it, Idon't know.
Um, it's, it's been fun.
Uh, I like being, I liketeaching my one class a week.
Um, what?
Let me, let me think of some ofthe advice that I get to my
students.
Oh, here's one of the things Iget to my students is, and my
interns and and anyone I evermeet who's in industry, music
(34:29):
industry, um, you know, beginner, if you would, uh is that you
can't dip your toe into this.
So if I'm interviewing someoneand they're like, um, I just
want to see how the musicindustry is, you can't do that.
You have to live it and breatheit and surround yourself with
it, or it just won't work.
(34:51):
And it's difficult, it'srewarding in different ways and
it's a lifestyle.
I'm glad I never regret any ofthe decisions, even the bad
things that I think happened tome in the past.
Like you mentioned, that deal,you're going to make mistakes
(35:13):
and learn from them.
It's a trip, man, it's a trip.
Jennifer Logue (35:17):
Jump all the way in.
I'll just go ahead first.
Dan Melnick (35:20):
That's it.
You can't take the challenge ofthis kind of stuff.
Jennifer Logue (35:24):
What's next for you?
Dan Melnick (35:26):
Oh, so yeah, I mean we're working on right now, I
think, as I mentioned, thesoftware updates for the company
.
We're working with these brandpartnership deals.
We have a great event onDecember 14th the Sonic Biz
Holiday Mixer with an awesomeband.
It's just another band giving100% of the profits to the
(35:47):
artists who are performing.
Awesome, it's going to be agreat holiday hang.
It's going to be good peoplethere.
It's open to the public.
So if anyone wants to comechill and hang out and say
what's up, feel free to come dothat.
If not, that's cool too, Iguess.
Awesome.
Hang out and say what's up like.
Jennifer Logue (36:05):
Feel free to come do that.
If not, that's cool too, Iguess awesome.
Well, dan, I know you have togo and pick up my children do
daycare.
Yes, don't leave them hangingthe last time I've used each
other in person.
Dan Melnick (36:16):
We were at like a bar eating sliders and drinking
those big beers at nationalunderground.
This is a really big differencesuch a difference.
Jennifer Logue (36:24):
Time flies, but in good ways, in a lot of good
ways too, you know, um.
But, dan, thank you so much fortaking the time to appear on
the podcast.
It was awesome catching up and,like man, congrats on all your
success.
It's it's wonderful to see howyour career has grown.
Anyway, I'll do your outro now.
(36:44):
For more on Dan Melnick, youcan follow him on LinkedIn and
for more on SonicBids, visitsonicbidscom.
And thank you so much fortuning in and growing in
creativity with us.
I'd love to know what youthought of today's episode.
Yeah, what you found mostinteresting, what you found most
helpful.
You can reach out to me onsocial media at Jennifer Logue,
(37:06):
or leave a review for CreativeSpace on Apple Podcasts so more
people can discover it.
I appreciate you so much forbeing here.
My name is Jennifer Logue andthanks for listening to this
episode of Creative Space.
Until next time you.
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