NHT Blog

Maybe it’s because I have been in this line of work for so long but maybe it’s also the combination of nothing surprises me anymore and just a casual attitude by so many.  The fact is that I see far too many people sending out pitches that are completely irrelevant.

While the above will be met with no response whatsoever or just a “No, we’re going to pass,” the fact is that the damage runs deeper than not getting what you were going after.

Last week in Chicago I (pictured above) attended Podcast Movement Evolutions.  Even though I have hosted more than 950 episodes in my eleven-plus years of podcasting, there’s always more to learn.  It’s about getting better at what I do and some intensive days of finding out what’s new.

There’s the old saying that “I can’t get experience without you giving me experience,” or words to that affect.  You need to learn the ropes and get your feet wet in whatever it is that you do.  But along the way to getting those reps is finding out how much you can expect to get paid in the process.

Yes, it’s true.  Two weeks after writing a blog advocating for fair wages for music artists, I’m here today with the prequel.  In other words, what exactly are those fair wages?

Tomorrow morning, I will fly to Nashville.  I won’t be on the ground long before heading to meet recording artist client Kaitlyn Croker for an interview I’ve booked her into on one of the local network TV affiliates.  And that’s just the start.

She has a new single coming out this Friday, so this week her schedule will be absolutely packed.

There is no doubt in my mind that she is all in on her country music career.  But for the artists out there who aren’t sure if they want to continue or not, this is how you find out.

Last week I was out driving and turned on a national sports talk radio show that I enjoy listening to when the opportunity presents itself.  It’s a host whom I admire and respect, plus I can always count on it to be both entertaining as well as informative in terms of being on top of the current sports news that I need to know about.

Yesterday I was at a celebration of life for a member of the local podcast community who passed away unexpectedly two weeks ago today.  There was a story told that many years ago he was offered the opportunity to go out on the road to do video for a boy band throughout their tour.  He passed on it although I’m not clear if he didn’t believe in them or thought the opportunity would come around again.  Well, there was no second chance and that group was NSYNC.

I pulled a sweater over my head this morning, waking up and seeing that it was “only” 50 degrees.  Fortunately, the high temperature today in Tampa is forecast to be 78 degrees.  Meanwhile, not only are there cities around the U.S. today where the temperature might be seven or eight degrees, but the fact is that I have a clean sweater to pull over my head and I woke up in a warm bed with a good roof over my head.  Never mind the mere fact that I woke up, period.

If you’re a recording artist and you’ve wondered what moves someone to write a positive review of your song or if you’re a music lover who enjoys reading that type of content, I’m here in this edition of the weekly blog to pull back the curtain and give you a front row seat to this side of the equation.

Today is exactly eleven years since the first episode of my “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast was released.  I’m proud to have never missed a week once.  To-date, 574 episodes have been delivered on-time, every Wednesday since February 17, 2014.

It’s interesting as you get older to not only see how your musical taste evolves, not to mention music itself, but how you start to relate to the way you’d hear your parents reacting to the songs they used to like when one or more of those would start playing somewhere.