I recently joked that I no longer listen to music but exclusively to music podcasts. That is at least while driving. Warning! Don’t let this happen to you. Proceed with caution. The following list is my favorite music industry podcasts with a short description all divided into categories.
I use Apple Podcasts app, Stitcher, and sometimes Spotify for listening.
Music Business:
- DIY Musician: Guys from CdBaby discuss all sorts of informative current music business trends.
- The Future of What: Current music business topics.
- Made It In Music: In-depth interviews with music business professionals. Also has a Christian industry bend from Nashville.
- Middle Class Musician: Regular down-to-earth musician guy explores and interviews other music people. A nice shot of reality.
- Music Business Facts with Rodney Holder: Interviews with music business people around the world coming out of Australia.
- Musician Technician Entrepreneur: Interviews with successful music industry professionals and how they “made it.”
Audio Engineering / Producing:
- Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle: Current topics followed by interviews with famous producer/engineers.
- Pensado’s Place: Grammy-winning mixer/engineer interviews other famous engineers/producers.
- Recording Studio Rockstars: A working producer/engineer interviews others producers/engineers.
- WCA Working Class Audio: A working producer/engineer interviews others producers/engineers.
- EDM Podcast: Interviews with EDM artists and tech talk.
- Pro Tools Expert: A few established engineers/producers discuss Pro Tools and various aspects of production. Their English accents are fun to listen to, as well.
- Music Production Podcast: AfroDjMac talks Ableton, production, songwriting.
Songwriting/Composing:
- Song Exploder: In-depth look into the creative process of popular artist songs.
- Broken Records: Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin interview famous musicians.
- And The Writer Is: In-depth interviews on how to write and create tracks with popular artists/songwriters.
- Taxi Tv: Owner of Taxi, Michael Lasko, interviews songwriters, composers, producers and also shares his own knowledge on navigating the music industry.
Film Music/Sound Design/Acoustics:
- Twenty Thousand Hertz: Amazing in-depth and informative look into the most famous sound design of our time.
- Tonebenders: Interviews about film/tv sound design, field recording, and post-production.
- Music, Money And Life: Interviews mostly on topics about film/tv synch placements.
- Talking Acoustics: Interviews with acoustic sound experts.
Music Education:
- Music Tech Teacher: Interviews with educators in music tech. Excellent podcast for music tech educators.
Music discovery:
- All Songs Considered: Live in studio music performance.
- Sound Opinions: Fun in-depth discussion about music.
- Tiny Desks Concerts: Live in-studio performances from current artists.
Podcasts I’m Planning to Check Out:
- Dissect: In-depth look into popular hip hop songs and albums.
- Disgraceland: Stories of rock’s greatest infamous heroes.
- Questlove Supreme: Interviews famous people.
- Heat Rocks: Discussion about classic albums and why they resonate.
- Couch Wisdom: In-depth conversation with producers, composers, and engineers.
- Rap Radar Podcast: Interviews with hip hop artists.
Alby Odum is an instructor at the Digital Audio Recording Arts at the University of St. Francis. He is also co-owner of Gps Songs, a music publisher specializing in film/tv placements. A producer, audio engineer, songwriter, guitarist and former recording artist.