Audio Products Podcast

Our guest is Will Hoult, Head of Product: Focusrite and Novation at Focusrite Group.

In this episode we talk about:

✅ Product leadership across Focusrite and Novation

Will's work sits across recording interfaces, pro audio systems and electronic music workflows. We dig into what changes when product discovery moves between different users, brands and product categories.

✅ From PM to Head of Product

Will's path from RedNet Product Manager to Head of Product for Focusrite and Novation gives a clear view into product career progression. We talk about what changes when you move from owning one roadmap to leading a broader portfolio across multiple user groups and product lines.

✅ Focusrite culture and long-term careers

Will joined Focusrite in 2010 and has grown through multiple roles there. We talk about why people stay at Focusrite for a long time, what keeps product people motivated and how long-term company culture shapes better audio-product work.

If you are a product manager, audio-product builder, DSP engineer, hardware/software team member, R&D leader, indie founder, or anyone building professional or creator audio products - this episode will provide a lot of inspiration.

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Our guest is Maciej Dulski, Co-Owner and Managing Partner at MusicTech Lab and Co-Founder of MusicTech Poland.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ Trends in music tech
Maciek shares which music-tech trends matter most right now, and why AI provenance is the big one.

✅ What software can and cannot fix in music
Royalty dashboards, streaming analytics, superfan apps, music marketing tools, and DSP integrations can make real work clearer.

✅ How music-tech startups move beyond demos
We talk about traction, fundraising, MusicTech VCs and the product choices behind independent and major-label workflows.

If you are a music-tech founder, product manager, investor, accelerator team, or part of a music business team - this episode will provide a lot of inspiration.

➡️ MusicTech Poland

https://www.linkedin.com/company/musictech-poland/

#MusicTech #AudioTech #MusicBusiness #AIProvenance #MusicStartups

Our guest is Tobias Lønnerød Madsen, Founder of Moonbase - a storefront system built for audio plugin companies.

Moonbase is a sponsor of Audio Product Jam Stockholm #1 that will be hosted at XLN Audio on September 10th.

👉 Learn more about Moonbase:
https://moonbase.sh/a/product-jam

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ Why audio plugins need their own commercial stack
Generic checkout tools break down fast when a plugin company needs partial bundle upgrades, offline activations, subscriptions, cross-grades, and long product lifecycles. Tobias explains why licensing, storefront, marketing data, and customer ownership need to work as one product system.

✅ Licensing and installation as customer experience
For plugin companies, activation is not a detail hidden in the backend. It shapes first impressions, support load, and trust.

✅ Data as a key asset of the product launch
When a company knows what a customer owns, it can build smarter upgrades, loyalty discounts, trials, bundles, and launch campaigns. That changes how indie audio companies sell products without copying generic SaaS logic.

✅ Challenges that audio founders have
Tobias talks about the challenges of plugin developers he works with as well as his dilemmas as a founder.

If you are an indie founder, product manager, DSP engineer, UX designer, or part of an audio software team - this episode will provide a lot of inspiration.

🎙️ After the premiere, the episode will be available on all streaming platforms.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe to Audio Products Podcast:
https://audioproductacademy.com/

Cheers!

Our guest is Zach Kornhauser — Editor-in-Chief of our 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. He is also a Billboard-charting, RIAA-certified mastering engineer with more than fifteen years of experience shaping the sound of contemporary music. Formerly the head mastering engineer at Atlantic Records NYC.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ Navigating the Audio Tech Career Path
How Zach navigated the professional audio space to his current role, and the key lessons learned along the way.

✅ The State of the Audio Job Market
A deep dive into the current hiring landscape for professional audio product teams, and how the roles companies are hiring for are shifting.

✅ AI and Macroeconomic Factors
The real impact of AI, tariffs, and supply chain shifts on product management and engineering roles in audio.

✅ Why did we start the Audio Products Newsletter?
We discuss the vision behind the newsletter, what readers can expect from it, and why now is the perfect time to launch.

You can sign up here
👉 https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

Our guests are Hannes Andersson and Atte Karm from oeksound. Hannes is CEO and Atte is Marketing Director at the company behind Soothe, Spiff, Bloom.

They have just released soothe 3, the newest version of their flagship plugin, loved by mixing and mastering engineers all around the world. We visited oeksound HQ in Helsinki before the official launch and had a great conversation about their products and business philosophy.

We talked about:

✅ oeksound's product strategy
We chatted about oeksound's history and how they came up with ideas for products and the process of launching them to the market.

✅ How a small audio team stays trusted
oeksound has remained focused: a small specialist team, a tight product line, and tools that engineers actually use in real sessions. We discuss how that discipline shapes product decisions, positioning, and growth.

✅ What is new in Soothe3 and what comes next
We also talk about what is new in Soothe3, what this release says about oeksound's current direction, and how the team thinks about the company's next chapter

More about soothe3
👉 https://lnkd.in/gggpGXnM

If you are an audio founder, product manager, UX designer, product marketer, or indie audio company building professional tools — this episode will provide a loooot of inspiration.

Follow us:

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➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events

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➡️ All streaming links

https://audioproductacademy.com/podcast/

Our guest is Varda Caspi — VP Marketing at Aiode. Aiode is an Abbey Road -backed company building ethical AI tools for music creation

👉Learn about Aiode here:
https://aiode.com/

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ What ethical AI actually means in music tech
Varda breaks down what "ethical AI" should mean in practice: transparent training methods, clear consent from musicians, and business models where artists are not just data sources but participants in the value chain. We also discuss how royalties can work when models are trained on real performances and generate stems based on that material — and why compensation frameworks will be critical if AI music tools want long-term trust from creators.

✅ Marketing AI when the product is the controversy
Aiode sits at the intersection of creative tools and generative AI — a space that artists, labels, and publishers are still actively debating. Varda explains how to build credible positioning and trust in a market that hasn't settled on the rules yet.

✅ The Product × Marketing handshake
When founders build first and hand off to marketing at launch, they're already late. Varda shares how she structures early-stage collaboration between product and marketing at Aiode and what drives growth in an AI company.

If you are a founder, product marketer, growth lead or PM building music tech or AI audio products, this episode will offer plenty of inspiration.

➡️ Join our Discord

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➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events

https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

Our guest is Amanda Whiting Gerstle — a strategic marketing leader in music tech and pro audio, who worked with iconic brands like Universal Audio, Splice, and Roland Corporation.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ How startups should build marketing from scratch
We go deep into what early-stage audio companies should focus on first, how to avoid common mistakes, and when it makes sense to bring in external expertise

✅ Marketing funnels, channels and what actually drives sales
We explore how funnels really work in audio, what channels matter in 2026, and why most companies struggle to convert attention into revenue

✅ How to build and scale marketing in audio companies
From product marketing to branding — Amanda shares how marketing should work with Product and Sales, and where it should sit in the organisation

We also discuss AI, market saturation, and what it really takes to stand out today.

If you’re building an audio startup, Amanda can also help you through her work as a Fractional CMO at Synthesize Marketing
→ https://www.synthesize.marketing/

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events

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➡️ Join our Discord

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Our guest is Ross Totino — Product Developer, Sound Designer, and expert in audio hardware and DSP systems who worked on many iconic products we love.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ How to build a career in hardware product development
Ross shares how he moved from technician roles into sound design and product development in Electro-Harmonix and Line 6 and how those helped me to further work with iconic brands Eventide Audio.

✅ How analog gear is modelled in the digital world
We explore DSP modeling, perception vs. accuracy, and how developers recreate character — not just circuits.

✅ Why Silicon Valley VC capitalist mentality severely impacted the economy and the music industry
Can we get away from the totally software-focused, short-term profit-seeking, fake it ’til you make it” approach?

✅ The state of the industry today
“𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦… 𝘏𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺’𝘴 𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳.”

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Ross's band

➡️ Fans of Collision Bandcamp:

https://fansofcollision.bandcamp.com/

➡️ Fans of Collision Sounds on Gumroad:

https://rtotino.gumroad.com/

Products Ross worked on:

➡️ EHX Holy Grail:

https://youtu.be/tCXxuyu_N8g?si=6hLGibQaBsvERIsK

➡️ Line 6 ToneCore:

https://youtu.be/SKWbT6gbFeM?si=QpB8A7UFd40zMYHm

➡️ Umlaut Audio:

https://youtu.be/Vc8nwi5Attk?si=3atLHm7XFCzhBJ28

The other mentioned gear

➡️ Media Overkill:

https://mok.com/

➡️ Twisted-Electrons:

https://www.twistedelectrons.com/megafm

➡️ Kawai K5000s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawai_K5000

➡️ Korg DSS-1:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korg_DSS-1

This time Wojciech in the solo episode.

We want to pause to:

✅ Reflect on what is actually missing in the audio business education space
✅ Discuss why generic content does not translate into real-world audio product skills
✅ Explain what Audio Product Academy is and why it exists (besides the podcast)

➡️ Check our course platform

https://audioproductacademy.com/

➡️ Our audio PM meetups - Audio Product Jams

https://audioproductacademy.com/

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

➡️ Join our Discord

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➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events

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🎮 How do you actually start a career in game audio?

We talked about it with Krzysiek Kowal — Audio & Motion Department Manager at Anshar Studios and former Sound Designer at CD PROJEKT RED.

Game audio is one of the most fascinating intersections of sound design, technology and interactive storytelling — but entering the industry can feel hard, especially today.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ How Krzysiek started his career in game audio
From early sound design work to working on professional game productions and eventually managing audio teams.

✅ Process of implementing SFX and music in games
What are the steps, people and teams involved, what are the roles in the game audio team

✅ Tools and technology behind game audio
Game engines, middleware like Audiokinetic's Wwise or FMOD, custom scripting tools, recording setups and the production pipelines used by professional studios.

✅ The current state of the game industry
Major players, current challenges and what innovations are shaping the future of interactive audio.

If you're a sound designer, audio student or an audio developer or someone curious about game audio careers, this episode gives a practical introduction to how the field actually works.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe to Audio Products Podcast

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

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Our guest is Rithik Kundu — Founder of NYU GenAudio & AI, and former Senior Generative AI Researcher at Deep Noise who is also involved in building Joker Deck Ventures.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ State of AI education and AI adoption
✅ The difference between AI demos and AI-native workflows
✅ What Pipeline, guardrails, etc. are in the context of an AI-powered product

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

➡️ Join our Discord

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Our guest is Maciej Bąk — a Senior IT Project & Program Manager with 16+ years of experience, currently at Neural DSP and previously on the Avid Pro Tools team.

Maciek has delivered hundreds of audio projects. He is also a very active musician and mix engineer, which gives him a rare perspective on both industry and user sides of audio.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ Why audio delivery is different from SaaS
✅ Projects vs Programs — and why audio companies need both
✅ How poor delivery can kill a great audio product
✅ Managing DSP, hardware, firmware and UX dependencies
✅ Agile vs Waterfall in audio development
✅ What competencies are missing in audio PMs
✅ How AI will change program management in audio
✅ What project management do startups need

If you are a Founder scaling your company, Head of Product or Product Manager and Program Manager or Scrum Master - this episode is a practical deep dive into what it really means to deliver audio products, not just think about them

➡️ Maciek’s music channel

https://www.youtube.com/@bak_songs

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

➡️ Join our Discord

https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events

https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

We met Jordan Rudess - legendary keyboardist of Dream Theater, voted the greatest keyboard player of all time, and a deeply involved music technologist.

In this episode, we talk about:

✅ how he started building products,
✅ the tools and innovations he’s excited about,
✅ the future of music education
✅ his perspective on AI in music making

➡️ Wizdom Music (apps built by Jordan)

https://www.wizdommusic.com/

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

➡️ Join our Discord

https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events

https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

➡️ Expressive E

https://www.expressivee.com/

➡️ Lava Music

https://www.lavamusic.com/

➡️ Moises.ai

https://moises.ai/

➡️ Rick Beato's interview with Jordan

https://youtu.be/2JA4DqWmHBY?si=rCLomLgAOcI-k40z

Our guest is Diana Monroy-García, founder of MC Media who is an expert in digital asset management and media production. Her expertise encompasses audiovisual collections research and management, copyright clearance, sync licensing, and comprehensive library and metadata management. Her focus is on improving rights information management within the digital ecosystem, particularly through the development of innovative technology.

In this episode, we talk with Diana about:

✅ why metadata is the foundation of music distribution and licensing
✅ the most common (and costly) metadata mistakes artists and producers make
✅ how poor data management leads to lost royalties
✅ how standards like ISRC, ISWC, ISNI, UPC and DDEX shape the music ecosystem
✅ what product teams need to understand before building tools for the music industry

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

➡️ Join our Discord

https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events

https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

➡️ NoiseWork DynAssist

https://noiseworksaudio.com/?ref=wojciech

Recommended by Diana:

➡️ MCs newsletter access where we'll drop the early access to our Embedding Up tool:

https://mcmediadk.gumroad.com/

➡️ A compilation of useful general resources about music: the market, rights, and others:

https://www.ifpi.org/resources/

➡️ If you're an artist who wants to get an ISRC code for your music without going through a distributor or your country's rights organisation:

https://isrc.ifpi.org/get-isrc/assign-isrc-online

➡️ The best practices compilation from DDEX standards:

https://kb.ddex.net/implementing-each-standard/best-practices-for-all-ddex-standards/

➡️ A good citizen took the DDEX standards and turned them into a fully readable/workable library for development (strongly recommend going to the examples section):

https://ddex-suite.org/docs/intro

#audioproductspodcast #musictech #metadata #musicindustry #datastandards #ISRC #DDEX #productmanagement #audioPM

Most people know Andrew as a three-time Grammy-winning mix engineer who has worked with artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Adele, Jay-Z and many others. But fewer know he’s also spent years designing audio products - both in collaboration with companies like Waves Audio and independently using the SoundFlow platform. In this episode, we talk with Andrew about: the real challenges and pain points of working as a top-tier mix engineer,
how to build meaningful products in a saturated audio tools market,
how workflow, automation and UX shape creativity in the mix room,
which products and tools Andrew actually uses and recommends today,
how he builds his products Bonus: Bounce Factory Lite is now included in Avid Pro Tools 2025.12 at no extra cost
https://www.avid.com/resour.../whats-new-in-pro-tools-202512 ➡️ Bounce Factory Tutorial
https://youtu.be/sCJnqaMVyK0?si=1cqng03yehYNZFDI&t=1

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

➡️ Join our Discord

https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events

https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

➡️ NoiseWork DynAssist

https://noiseworksaudio.com/?ref=wojciech

🎉 Bounce Factory Lite is now included in Pro Tools 2025.12 at no extra cost

👉 https://www.bouncefactory.net/

Bounce Factory Tutorial
https://youtu.be/sCJnqaMVyK0?si=1cqng03yehYNZFDI&t=1

Recommended by Andrew

➡️ Genki instruments ring

https://genkiinstruments.com/wave

➡️ How to listen by Fab Dupont

https://www.puremix.com/mentors/fab-dupont

➡️ One-on-one, live, interactive mixing lessons/mentoring sessions with John Paterno

https://www.mix-therapy.com/

➡️ Scheps Omni Channel 2 (with Waves Audio)

https://www.waves.com/plugins/scheps-omni-channel

This time we look back at 2025 — through the voices of the people who shaped it.

From indie plugin developers and AI startups, to UX leads, hardware PMs and R&D heads at companies like Roland, Universal Audio, Safari Audio and d&b audiotechnik — 2025 gave us 15 deep conversations about what it really takes to build audio tools that matter.

In this solo episode, Wojciech reflects on:
• What builders, designers and founders taught us about careers, workflows and innovation
• Recurring themes across companies of all sizes – from Beatport to Pro Sound Effects
• The hidden skills and rituals that make audio products succeed (or fail)
• Trends in AI, sound design, UX and product culture that emerged from the year
• What we’re launching next and how you can be part of it

If you're working in or around audio — or building tools for those who do — this wrap-up is for you.

Thanks for being with us this year! 🙏

➡️ Join our course AI-Augmented PM

https://aipm.rokanan.com/

Other links

➡️ Join our Discord

https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming events

https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

➡️ Check out our Meetups in Berlin for audio product leaders

https://audioproductjam2.eventbrite.com

About Wavelab Incubator

➡️ https://www.wavelab.io/en/startups-2/

Teresa Torres: Continuous Discovery Habits

➡️ https://www.amazon.com/Continuous-Discovery-Habits-Discover-Products/dp/1736633309

We met again with Dr Tomasz Żernicki. This time we talked about how AI is reshaping product management workflows and what it really means for PM jobs. Is AI going to take over, or will it finally let PMs focus on strategy instead of chasing tickets and status updates?

➡️ Join our course AI-Augmented PM

https://aipm.rokanan.com/

➡️ Join our Discord

https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming event dates

https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

We met Andrew Cresswell, Head of Product Sales at ICEpower A/S.

➡️ Join our Discord:

https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming event dates:

https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content:

https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

➡️ How to get from start-up to scale-up

https://organizationalphysics.com/2015/10/15/rethinking-product-management-how-to-get-from-start-up-to-scale-up/

➡️ Audio Product Portfolio Management course

https://rokanan.com/2025/12/17/audio-product-portfolio-management-2/

#audioPM #musictech #proaudio #scaleup #productportfolio

We met with Wolfgang Schulz, Head of Product Management Electronics & Software, d&b audiotechnik.

➡️ Join our Discord

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➡️ Sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming event dates

https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

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#audioPM #musictech #proaudio #speakers

We have met in Berlin with Gösta Wellmer to discuss product design culture, hardware product management and more! Gösta is a design and product leader with 15+ years of executive experience driving innovation in the music technology industry. He is a former Director of Design at Native Instruments and a former CEO Elektron

➡️ Join our Discord

https://discord.com/invite/jd6Fgv5XTR

➡️ sign up to our newsletter for audio job openings, articles and upcoming event dates -https://tinyurl.com/ywjxwszr

➡️ Support our podcast and get premium content

https://buymeacoffee.com/audiopodcast

➡️ Connect with Gösta

https://www.linkedin.com/in/goesta-wellmer/

➡️ Check out our Meetups in Berlin for audio product leaders

https://audioproductjam2.eventbrite.com