VINYL TAP - Inside the Music Industry

Mardi Caught is a 'stayer' and a master at propelling artist careers. These are not mutually exclusive concepts! She cut her teeth in various major label roles both in Australia and in the UK & also at MTV in London. At the very heart and core of what she does is pure Artist Development. She thrives on it and this is beautifully demonstrated by he work with ground breaking acts like Royel Otis, Lime Cordiale and Genesis Owusu a...

Who said Busking doesn't pay or, in fact, lead to global success? Starting his music career as a busker himself has held Regan Lethbridge in solid stead.

Regan is best known as the co-manager of Tones and I and the manager of Tash Sultana, both of whom have forged strong international careers. And both of whom, like Regan, honed their craft as street performers.

Today Regan is the proud and successful Co-Founder of Lemon Tree Music...

Recently, Vinyl Tap ventured out to the St Kilda Town Hall in Melbourne for a special live panel taping. Joining me on the night to discuss the LIVE Music scene were;

PATRICK DONOVAN; Live Music Strategy and Development lead for the Port Phillip City Council, esteemed and widely acclaimed artist and proud local identity CASH SAVAGE, SUNSHINE TROTT; one of Melbourne's most celebrated local DJ's and Producers and ISABEL BEARLIN; Natio...

David Vodicka has paid his dues in every way. First as an independent label owner and now as, arguably, one of the most successful and influential music lawyers in Australia.

His 'Rubber Records' imprint, always cutting edge with its output, certainly delivered some of the best new artists in years gone by. Cordrazine, Even and 1200 Techniques are amongst some of my favourite Aussie acts of all time! David, however always had a Pla...

Running a music industry organisation and representative body like ARIA is by no means a walk in the park in the current music climate, but this weeks guest is more than ready for the task.

Annabelle Herd has the right temperament and 'can-do' mentality for navigating the domestic music industry through these challenging, but exciting times.

A career in politics as an advisor in the Communications and Arts sector and then in TV as t...

Karl Richter is somewhat of a chameleon in the Music Industry. Not only has he been able to successfully pivot from A&R to Music Supervision, but he now is also a major player in the Music Tech space.

In this enlightening new episode of Vinyl Tap, we go back to Karl's early community radio days and his entry into the music industry per se. Starting as an A&R manager at MDS, Mushroom's Indie distribution arm in the early 90'...

Mitch Clark is a true survivor in the music business! She started her professional career learning from the likes of pioneer promoters Michael Coppel and Zev Eizek before taking the plunge and moving to the UK in the late 80's in search of her own journey and path. Whilst there she worked her way up the ranks at the legendary Chrysalis Records label and at EMI UK where she ended up as a VP of International. Her roster was the stuff...

Simon Moor has been in the business of Artist Discovery for all of his professional career, first as an A&R manager via his stints at Sony Music & EMI and then as a creative inside SonyATV Publishing. We sure as hell had some great A&R stouch's in the 90's fighting for the same bands but Simon always had a great ear for finding new music.

In 2010, his professional trajectory took a major upturn when he helped launch and...

Richard 'Rash' Hussein has spent the better part of the last 20 years in Dubai helping to establish a real music industry over in the Wild East! Through his A&R stints at both EMI and Warner Middle East, not only did he amass a staggering 50 #1 records but he also helped define a blueprint for merging Arab Pop with the Western music industry.

In this week's episode, we learn a lot more about the gradual rise of the Middle Easte...

MSqaured Productions are a very successful Melbourne based music production duo who have been able to seamlessly transition to and traverse between many music genres throughout their 12 year journey together.

Michael De Lorenzis and Michael Paynter started out as the 'go-to' guys for mainstream pop production and artist development and over the course of the last few years have managed to cleverly pivot and buck pigeon holes. They ...

I call Alice Ivy 'The Heiress' for good reason! She is at the forefront of modern music production, not just in Australia but she is also starting to make some serious noise on the international stage. I'd even go as far as saying that she's destined to be our next big superstar producer!

Her production work has evolved so beautifully since she announced her arrival with her brilliant debut album 'I'm Dreaming' in 2018. The way Ali...

Jan Skubiszewski is somewhat of a journeyman producer. I first met Jan when he was cutting his production teeth at Marlon Studios in Prahran, Melbourne some 20 odd years ago. At the time, he was working with a slew of up and coming soul and urban acts and making ground breaking music with the likes of Daniel Merriweather (who went on to sign to Mark Ronson) and pioneering local MC, Phrase.

Fast forward to more recent times and you ...

Put simply, Anna Laverty is one of Australia's leading music producers. She is a straight shooter but humble, a great talker but measured and, above all, she talks and walks it. In this new episode of The Producers, I talk to Anna about everything from cutting her teeth in London (having worked under uber producers Paul Epworth and Ben Hillier) to mental health and to her appreciation of classic songwriting.

Her timing was spot on ...

Season 4 kicks off today with a new series; THE PRODUCERS. And the first supernova cab to leave the rank is a revered and celebrated giant of the Australian music production landscape. Francois Tetaz is arguably one of the most successful producers in our history. His work with Gotye alone- which has amassed millions upon millions of streams/sales & every award imaginable (including 3 Grammy Awards)- has put Franc in a stratosp...

Welcome to the second instalment of Vinyl Tap's live panel sessions as part of the BIG THINKERS series. In this fresh episode , we didn't ask a question as such but my special guests and I discussed the state of the live music industry in Australia. Joining me on the panel on the night were; Travis Banko from Laneway Festival (and co-manager of Baker Boy) , Bec Young from Collective Artists, Nic Greco from Untitled Group (home to B...