Bobby Owsinski's Inner Circle Podcast

Artists and music industry newcomers: how Tamar Kaprelian got dropped by Clive Davis, burned out at 24, and built the support she never had.
She refused a Lindsay Lohan recut Davis pitched her and lost the deal. She later launched Nvak, a company with a label, artist services, and a nonprofit that educated over 5,000 women in emerging markets.
Tamar and Bobby cover direct-to-fan strategy and why radio still pays in Germany but not in Armenia. The throughline is simple: grit is what keeps artists in the game.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamar-kaprelian-75138215/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tamarkaprelian
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tamarkaprelian/
Website: https://www.tamarkaprelian.com
Company: https://nvakcollective.xyz
Resource: https://nvak.org
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamar_Kaprelian
#MusicIndustry #IndieMusic #GettingDropped #NvakMusicCompany #TamarKaprelian
Chapters:
00:00:00 - Coming up...
00:01:07 - What it was like competing at Eurovision
00:02:05 - How Tamar became Armenia's Eurovision contestant
00:04:14 - What it was really like being signed by Clive Davis
00:06:54 - Working with Jimmy Iovine and leaving the music business
00:09:00 - Why Tamar built Nvak Music Company
00:12:13 - Focusing on emerging markets and what the label actually does
00:14:39 - Are major labels still necessary, or can independents compete?
00:15:46 - How radio performs in emerging markets today
00:18:53 - How to run a discovery campaign when social media targeting is broken
00:23:41 - The best piece of advice for surviving the music business
Thank you for tuning in to Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, the podcast that takes you deep inside the music industry. Each week, Bobby shares insights, news, analysis, and conversations with the movers and shakers shaping today’s music world.
📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books:
https://sholink.to/bobbyowsinskibooks
📘 The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for nailing that polished, pro mix sound: https://sholink.to/themixingengineershandbook
🎙️Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready.
Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course: https://sholink.to/vocalmixingcourse
🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses: https://sholink.to/bobbyowsinski
📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobbyOwsinskiBiz/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbyo/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bobbyowsinski/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bobbyowsinski.bsky.social
🎙️ New episodes release every Tuesday at 9AM Pacific on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.
Music. Business. Creativity. Straight from the Inner Circle.
Produced by APodcastGeek
https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek
Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.
Thank you for tuning in to Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, the podcast that takes you deep inside the music industry. Each week, Bobby shares insights, news, analysis, and conversations with the movers and shakers shaping today’s music world.
📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books
🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course
🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses
📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Bluesky
🎙️ New episodes release every Tuesday at 9AM Pacific on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.

Music. Business. Creativity. Straight from the Inner Circle.

Produced by APodcastGeek: https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek

Sync composers: Robina Ritchie-Barker explains why finishing catalog admin early is what keeps your music ready when a brief arrives.
Robina co-founded TrackStage after missing a sync opportunity because a piano track she finished four years earlier was never cut down to the required length. TrackStage moves a final mixdown to fully tagged and cataloged in under two minutes, replacing up to 15 separate tools.
Bobby and Robina also cover AI keyword analysis, split sheet automation, and how strategic pitching through one platform can replace a stack costing anywhere from $30 to $500 a month.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinaritchie/
Website: https://robinaritchiebarker.com/
Company: https://trackstagepro.com
Resource: https://mytrackstage.com/promo/onboarding-sales2401.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robinaritchiebarker/
Songtradr Profile: https://www.songtradr.com/robina.ritchie-barker
Bobby Owsinski Inner Circle Podcast Episode: https://bobbyoinnercircle.com/episode-463-trackstage-founders-tidal-new-royalties-canned-and-the-importance-of-studio-furniture/
#SyncLicensing #MusicCatalog #SyncComposer #TrackStage #RobinaRitchieBarker
Chapters:
00:00:00 - Coming up...
00:00:59 - What Track Stage actually does for musicians
00:02:12 - How frustration with spreadsheets led to building Track Stage
00:09:52 - What changed with Track Stage 3.0
00:12:19 - How Track Stage solves the metadata problem
00:15:11 - How AI keyword analysis expands sync opportunities
00:18:58 - How Track Stage supports strategic pitching
00:21:05 - What brings most musicians to Track Stage for the first time
00:22:47 - Why sync is a numbers game and versioning one song 27 ways
00:26:04 - What the sync industry still gets wrong about standards
00:29:51 - Every tool you would need without Track Stage
00:33:15 - Her unexpected claim to fame as Princess Jasmine
Thank you for tuning in to Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, the podcast that takes you deep inside the music industry. Each week, Bobby shares insights, news, analysis, and conversations with the movers and shakers shaping today’s music world.
📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books:
https://sholink.to/bobbyowsinskibooks
📘 The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for nailing that polished, pro mix sound: https://sholink.to/themixingengineershandbook
🎙️Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready.
Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course: https://sholink.to/vocalmixingcourse
🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses: https://sholink.to/bobbyowsinski
📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobbyOwsinskiBiz/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbyo/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bobbyowsinski/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bobbyowsinski.bsky.social
🎙️ New episodes release every Tuesday at 9AM Pacific on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.
Music. Business. Creativity. Straight from the Inner Circle.
Produced by APodcastGeek
https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek
Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.
Thank you for tuning in to Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, the podcast that takes you deep inside the music industry. Each week, Bobby shares insights, news, analysis, and conversations with the movers and shakers shaping today’s music world.
📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books
🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course
🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses
📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Bluesky
🎙️ New episodes release every Tuesday at 9AM Pacific on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.

Music. Business. Creativity. Straight from the Inner Circle.

Produced by APodcastGeek: https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek

Musicians curious about AI robots: Georgia Tech's Gil Weinberg shows how technology expands what players can do without replacing the act of playing.

Weinberg built Shimon, a marimba robot with eight arms hitting 20 notes per second, and a prosthetic drum arm for amputee Jason Barnes using ultrasound sensing for finger-by-finger piano control.

His app HearMe blocks audio downloads and delivers notation and tabs instead, so players learn from the AI. 
The episode also covers the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition where musical instrument inventors show their latest ideas, and why Weinberg now calls himself a decelerationist.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weinberggil
HearMe App: https://hearme.music
HearMe Album: https://www.gilweinberg.com/hearmealbumnew
Georgia Tech: https://music.gatech.edu/gil-weinberg
Website: https://www.gilweinberg.com
Shimon (Singer and Songwriter): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOck0kPtlfk
Robot Music - featuring Shimon, the robotic marimba player: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9OUbqWHOSk

#MusicTechnology #AIMusic #MusicRobotics #ProstheticMusician #GilWeinberg
Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.
Thank you for tuning in to Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, the podcast that takes you deep inside the music industry. Each week, Bobby shares insights, news, analysis, and conversations with the movers and shakers shaping today’s music world.
📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books
🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course
🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses
📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Bluesky
🎙️ New episodes release every Tuesday at 9AM Pacific on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.

Music. Business. Creativity. Straight from the Inner Circle.

Produced by APodcastGeek: https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek

The latest music business and production news.
For independent musicians: AI copyright lawsuits, royalty disputes, and changing listener habits are reshaping the music industry right now.

Bobby covers US recorded music revenue hitting $6 billion in the first half of the year, with CDs up 59%. 
He also explains what a San Jose Sharks arena crowd rejecting an AI goal song tells independent artists. . .
Universal Music Group is suing DistroKid for up to $150 million over undisclosed AI-generated tracks. . .
And a proposed mechanical royalty settlement would drop songwriter pay below the current 13.1 cents per song rate.

#MusicIndustry #IndieArtist #AIMusciCopyright #SongwriterRoyalties #BobbyOwsinski
Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.
Thank you for tuning in to Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, the podcast that takes you deep inside the music industry. Each week, Bobby shares insights, news, analysis, and conversations with the movers and shakers shaping today’s music world.
📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books
🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course
🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses
📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Bluesky
🎙️ New episodes release every Tuesday at 9AM Pacific on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.

Music. Business. Creativity. Straight from the Inner Circle.

Produced by APodcastGeek: https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek

How does an indie band from Chicago afford to record at the legendary Abbey Road Studios? You record live, of course.

In this episode, producer Dan McCormick explains exactly what it takes to record a live album at Abbey Road with no overdubs.

McCormick flew to London three weeks after his second son was born to produce The Empty Pockets in Abbey Road Studio 2. The indie band had spent nearly a year playing the songs live, then captured the full album in two days with no instrument overdubs.

He covers drum and piano placement to control bleed, his subtractive EQ approach, and what a room full of guests on day one taught him about pulling honest takes.

The Empty Pockets: https://theemptypockets.com
Bandcamp: https://theemptypockets.bandcamp.com/
The Empty Pockets – Abbey Road Mini Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp7RWLd3xfc

#LiveRecording #AbbeyRoad #NoOverdubs #LiveToTapeRecording #DanMcCormick
Ad link: Explore The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (6th Edition), the go-to guide for modern mixing.
Thank you for tuning in to Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, the podcast that takes you deep inside the music industry. Each week, Bobby shares insights, news, analysis, and conversations with the movers and shakers shaping today’s music world.
📌 Explore Bobby’s best-selling books
🎙️ Nail that pro vocal sound: clear, upfront, and mix-ready. Learn how in Bobby’s Vocal Mixing Mini-Course
🎧 Discover more mixing and production courses
📲 Follow Bobby for more tips, insights, and updates:
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Bluesky
🎙️ New episodes release every Tuesday at 9AM Pacific on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.

Music. Business. Creativity. Straight from the Inner Circle.

Produced by APodcastGeek: https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek