Music Evolves Podcast

ITSPmagazine Inc., Sean Martin
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Music Interviews
  • Updated Biweekly

Welcome to the Music Evolves Podcast, where we explore the transformative power of music through the lens of technology, creativity, and innovation — by looking both forward and back. We dive deep into how cutting edge research and development are shaping the future of music, transforming how it’s created, shared, and experienced, while celebrating its timeless ability to inspire and connect us all. Whether you’re a musician, music enthusiast, or simply curious about the synergy between tradition and innovation at the intersection of art and technology, the Music Evolves Podcast invites you on a journey through the past, present, and future of music. Discover how music continues to inspire, connect, and evolve — redefining what’s possible and shaping the world one note at a time.

  1. 4d ago

    The Flood Made Everything Free. So Now We Pay for Proof. | Lens Four by Sean Martin | Read by TAPE9

    ⬥EPISODE NOTES⬥ Tidal is about to stop paying royalties on any track it judges to be fully machine-made. Frame that as a music story and you miss the shift underneath it. By Deezer's own detection, roughly 75,000 AI-generated tracks now arrive every day, about 44% of everything uploaded, yet that same AI music is only 1 to 3 percent of what people actually play, and around 85% of those streams are flagged as fraudulent. The flood is not an audience. It is an attack on a shared payout. This edition follows one pattern across six industries: when the cost of generating something collapses toward zero, platforms stop paying for output and start paying for proof of human origin. Tidal cuts AI royalties. The Authors Guild sells a "Human Authored" badge for ten dollars a title. YouTube demonetizes "inauthentic" content. curl killed its bug bounty after a flood of AI slop, then reopened when the slop got good. And where no gatekeeper owns the payout, hiring, the open web, the scientific record, the flood just degrades the mechanism until no one trusts it. In this edition of Lens Four: 🔹 Tidal's July 15 policy ends royalty attribution and direct-to-fan sales for fully AI-generated tracks, a payout decision, not a content ban. 🔹 Deezer takes in about 75,000 AI tracks a day (44% of uploads), up from roughly 10,000 a day at the start of 2025, while human uploads barely moved. 🔹 The paradox that reframes the debate: AI music is 44% of uploads but 1 to 3 percent of listening, and about 85% of those streams are fraudulent. 🔹 The first US criminal AI streaming-fraud case: Michael Smith pleaded guilty after collecting more than 8 million dollars in royalties from hundreds of thousands of AI songs and roughly 1,000 bot accounts. 🔹 curl shut down its bug bounty under a flood of AI vulnerability reports, then reopened a month later because the AI reports got good enough to read. Cutting the money did not cut the volume. 🔹 The counter-case: recruiters see about 11,000 job applications submitted to LinkedIn every minute, up 45% in a year, with no single payout to switch off. 🔹 Provenance becomes a product: Suno (2 million subscribers, about 7 million songs a day) adds identity-verified voice cloning while the Authors Guild sells human certification. 🔹 The danger tier: roughly 20% of AI-recommended software packages do not exist (slopsquatting), and close to 10% of cancer papers show paper-mill signatures. 🔹 The language turned first: Merriam-Webster made "slop" its 2025 word of the year, and YouTube quietly renamed "repetitious" content to "inauthentic." 🔹 Human filters see it clearest: DJ Sam Young asks why we need fifty versions of the same thing, and producer Gregoire Gensollen says he will remember the human moments, not the tool. Fourth Lens: The three lenses meet at one move. Platforms re-price payouts around human origin, the market builds products that certify it, and the language teaches us to want it. That is not a defense of artists, it is a paywall around authenticity, sold as virtue, and it is arriving before audiences even asked for it. Reality has come at a premium, exactly as predicted in 2017. So the real question is not whether the real is worth more. It is this: when proof of human becomes a product, who is making the money, and who handed them the right to decide what counts as real? ▶ Read the full article and references ▶ Subscribe to Lens Four ▶ Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast ▶ Music Evolves Podcast ▶ ITSPmagazine ▶ Studio C60 Sean Martin, CISSP, is a cybersecurity market analyst, content strategist, and go-to-market advisor with more than 30 years of experience across engineering, product development, marketing, and media. He is co-founder of ITSPmagazine and Studio C60, host of the Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast and Music Evolves Podcast, and writes Lens Four at seanmartin.com. Keywords: AI-generated music, Tidal, Deezer, streaming fraud, provenance, content authentication, Human Authored, Authors Guild, Suno, slopsquatting, curl bug bounty, AI slop, paper mills, AI job applications, Merriam-Webster slop, DJ Sam Young, Gregoire Gensollen, Sean Martin, Lens Four More From Sean MartinMore from Music Evolves: https://www.seanmartin.com/music-evolves-podcast Music Evolves on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTRJ5du7hFDXjiugu-uNPtW Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Line of Sight Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7400591548452667392/ ITSPmagazine YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@itspmagazine Be sure to share and subscribe! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    The Flood Made Everything Free. So Now We Pay for Proof. | Lens Four by Sean Martin | Read by TAPE9

  2. Jun 15

    The Art of Standing Out When Everything Sounds the Same | A Music Evolves Conversation with Sam Young, DJ and Producer

    Show Notes What happens to creativity when every song, sound, and style is a thumb-tap away? Sam Young has spent more than two decades behind the decks in London, and his answer is blunt: originality is at an all-time low. As a DJ, producer, remixer, and founder of the record label WyldCard, he sits at the exact point where taste, technology, and commerce collide, and he sees a culture increasingly content to recycle what already works. Sean Martin and Sam Young dig into how algorithms quietly shape what listeners believe they like, and how that pressure reaches the dance floor. Sam Young draws a clear line between a club night, where a crowd shows up hungry for records it has never heard, and a private event, where the real skill is reading a host's taste from the handful of songs they send and still making the room move. The throughline is judgment, the human ear that no recommendation engine has learned to replace. The conversation turns to sampling, AI, and the difference between craft and shortcut. Sam Young runs A&R for WyldCard himself, listening to demos every week, and he can hear within seconds when a producer is chasing a trend instead of setting one. His distinction is sharp: taking something obscure and making it feel new is an art, while feeding a recognizable hook into a tool and printing one more cover version is not. He is candid about AI as a cheat code, and just as candid about a near future where producers simply talk to their software and ask for ten options. This is not a lament, though. Sam Young points to the rare artists who still cut through precisely because they refuse to sound like everyone else, and to a younger generation quietly rediscovering originality. The optimistic version of the story is the one Sean Martin keeps circling back to: technology at its best clears away the busywork so the mind stays in control of what gets made. The question this episode leaves open is whether the tools that make music easier to produce will widen the gap between the familiar and the genuinely new, or finally close it. Host Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine, Studio C60, and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com/ Guest Sam Young, DJ, Producer, and Remixer | Founder of WyldCard Records (production aliases Vanilla Ace and Sammy Deuce) | Website: https://djsamyoung.com/ Resources DJ Sam Young | https://djsamyoung.com/ WyldCard Records on SoundCloud | https://soundcloud.com/vanillaace Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Keywords sam young, vanilla ace, sammy deuce, wyldcard, sean martin, dj culture, music and ai, sampling, algorithms and music taste, originality in music, house music, record label a&r, nu-disco, music production, creativity, art, artist, musician, music evolves, music podcast, music and technology podcast More From Sean MartinMore from Music Evolves: https://www.seanmartin.com/music-evolves-podcast Music Evolves on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTRJ5du7hFDXjiugu-uNPtW Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Line of Sight Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7400591548452667392/ ITSPmagazine YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@itspmagazine Be sure to share and subscribe! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    The Art of Standing Out When Everything Sounds the Same | A Music Evolves Conversation with Sam Young, DJ and Producer

  3. Apr 18

    Uniquely Familiar: A Lifetime Pouring Passion Into Guitars That Sing | A Brand Spotlight at The NAMM Show 2026 with John Page and Bryan Ray of John Page Guitars

    At The NAMM Show 2026, John Page walks Sean Martin of ITSPmagazine through a hand-painted electric guitar called the Retablo. The motifs are lifted from the artwork that traditionally sits behind a cathedral altar, reimagined so the saints and icons are not from scripture but from the roots of American music. Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Muddy Waters. Howlin' Wolf. Mahalia Jackson. The canvases themselves are cut from the floorboards of an old church. It is one of the most personal guitars John Page has ever built. The conversation traces the arc of John Page Guitars, the small-batch shop John Page runs after more than 20 years at Fender, where he co-founded the legendary Custom Shop and led guitar research and development. He has now been designing and building guitars for 53 years. What gets made today at John Page Guitars is built by a small team, with John Page handling his own custom work and prototypes while a master builder works alongside him on production models. What makes the instruments different is not one big thing but a series of quiet decisions. John Page mounts the neck to the body with threaded machine inserts and machine bolts instead of standard wood screws, a coupling he believes transfers tone better between neck and body and adds overtone complexity that a conventional bolt-on simply does not produce. A flatter 12-inch radius, a reverse-angled bridge pickup that removes the ice-pick high, a vintage-feeling neck profile. Every decision serves a single goal: an instrument that sings as a complete unit. John Page describes his design philosophy in two short phrases. The first is "uniquely familiar," the idea that a guitar should feel comfortable in a player's hands and recognizable in their eyes while still being clearly its own thing. The second is "balanced asymmetry," an imbalance in which he finds a kind of perfect balance. Both show up in the offset fret markers, the body contours, and even in the restraint of the aesthetic choices that surround the Retablo's portraits. The Retablo itself is where that philosophy leaves the factory floor and becomes something closer to a reliquary. John Page had never painted portraits before. He taught himself, hand-painting each founder of American roots music onto wood reclaimed from a dismantled church, designing and building a custom bridge that routes volume and tone controls into the tailpiece so the body can carry its imagery unbroken. A full documentary exists on the making of the guitar for anyone who wants the layer-on-layer detail. When the talking is done, Bryan Ray of John Page Guitars steps in with one of the new baritone builds to let the instrument speak for itself. Every design decision John Page described is suddenly in the room, audible, as one of his guitars does exactly what he designed it to do. This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight GUESTS John Page, Founder, John Page Guitars (Co-Founder, Fender Custom Shop) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-page-742b4213/ Bryan Ray, Marketing Director, John Page Classic LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-ray-a63b5419/ RESOURCES John Page Guitars: https://www.johnpageguitars.com/ Meet John Page: https://www.johnpageguitars.com/pages/john-page The Retablo and other Art Guitars: https://www.johnpageguitars.com/pages/john-page John Page Signature Collection: https://www.johnpageguitars.com/collections/guitars The NAMM Show: https://www.namm.org/ Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight KEYWORDS John Page, Bryan Ray, John Page Guitars, John Page Classic, Fender Custom Shop, Sean Martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, guitar design, luthier, electric guitar, The NAMM Show 2026, NAMM 2026, Retablo art guitar, Ashburn, Bloodline pickups, American roots music, custom guitars, handmade guitars, boutique guitar builder More From Sean MartinMore from Music Evolves: https://www.seanmartin.com/music-evolves-podcast Music Evolves on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTRJ5du7hFDXjiugu-uNPtW Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Line of Sight Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7400591548452667392/ ITSPmagazine YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@itspmagazine Be sure to share and subscribe! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Uniquely Familiar: A Lifetime Pouring Passion Into Guitars That Sing | A Brand Spotlight at The NAMM Show 2026 with John Page and Bryan Ray of John Page Guitars

  4. Apr 16

    Inside DW Drums: Custom Craft, Heritage Revival, and Drummer-First Innovation | A Brand Spotlight at The NAMM Show 2026 with Scott Donnell, Director of Brand Management of Drum Workshop, Inc.

    At The NAMM Show 2026, Drum Workshop turned its booth into a walk-through of what a modern drum company looks like when craft, heritage, and engineering share the same floor. Scott Donnell, Director of Brand Management at Drum Workshop, Inc., guided us through a lineup that spans the DW Custom Shop, the revived Slingerland Radio King line, Latin Percussion, Pacific Drums and Percussion, and the brand's new DW Manufacturing series. The DW Custom Shop stand is a visible argument for customization as a sonic decision, not just a cosmetic one. Chrome, gold, satin chrome, and black hardware. Polyester sprays, three durable lacquers, exotic plies, and ply wraps. When a drummer specifies wood species, ply count, and grain orientation, they are designing the drum's voice from the inside out. The Slingerland revival gets the faithful-reproduction treatment. Radio King studio kits on display are solid, steam-bent maple shells with the original three-point throw-off and stick saver hoops, built in California. Scott Donnell speaks about the line the way a curator talks about a restoration: get the details right, honor what drummers remember, and let the sound do the rest. Donnell frames DW's innovation as a stack of deliberate decisions rather than a single breakthrough. DW stamps a note into each shell through a process called timbre matching, which ensures the kit is manufactured as a family. Pair that with grain orientation technology, True Pitch tuning, and resonance-focused tom mounting systems, and drummers never end up with an orphan drum in their kit. Marking the tenth anniversary of True Cast, the new DW Manufacturing four by 14 piccolo features a five millimeter sand-cast shell, cast bronze hoops, and fully machined brass and bronze hardware. Only one hundred are being made globally, each arriving in an Anvil flight case. A recent DW video features Dave Elitch and Abe Laboriel Jr. playing the drum with Paul McCartney. The conversation closes on a Red Hot Chili Peppers tour kit gifted to the DW museum by Chad Smith, which will join Neil Peart's and Terry Bozzio's tour kits on display while DW builds Chad new Sonic flight drums for the band's next tour. Pacific Drums and Percussion, LP's top-tuning congas, Tony Escapa's signature hand percussion series, and DWE round out the booth. Drum Workshop is not hiding how the drums get made. Take the tour, take the pictures, watch the videos, and the innovation speaks for itself. This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight GUEST Scott Donnell, Director of Brand Management, Drum Workshop, Inc. (DW Drums) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-donnell-2964a129/ RESOURCES DW Drums: https://www.dwdrums.com Pacific Drums and Percussion: https://www.pacificdrums.com DW Music Foundation: https://www.dwmf.org The NAMM Show: https://www.namm.org Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight KEYWORDS Scott Donnell, Drum Workshop, DW Drums, Sean Martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, NAMM Show 2026, NAMM 2026, Slingerland, Radio King, Latin Percussion, LP, Pacific Drums and Percussion, PDP, DW Manufacturing, True Cast, custom drums, drum innovation, timbre matching, grain orientation, Chad Smith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Josh Freese, Tony Escapa, Abe Laboriel Jr, Dave Elitch More From Sean MartinMore from Music Evolves: https://www.seanmartin.com/music-evolves-podcast Music Evolves on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTRJ5du7hFDXjiugu-uNPtW Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Line of Sight Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7400591548452667392/ ITSPmagazine YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@itspmagazine Be sure to share and subscribe! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Inside DW Drums: Custom Craft, Heritage Revival, and Drummer-First Innovation | A Brand Spotlight at The NAMM Show 2026 with Scott Donnell, Director of Brand Management of Drum Workshop, Inc.

  5. Mar 15

    Sound Is a Force: Frequency, Healing, and the Physics of Music | A Music Evolves Conversation with Scott "Shagghie" Scheferman, Cybersecurity Strategist, Musician, and Researcher

    Show Notes Scott Scheferman -- known throughout the cybersecurity and music communities as Shagghie -- brings a rare combination of backgrounds to this conversation: classically trained on trumpet, a live techno producer since the late nineties, a student of synthesis at its lowest circuit level, and now a full-time researcher working on what he calls the Joy Protocol -- a frequency-based framework designed to produce measurable physiological and neurological benefits through sound and light. The conversation opens with Scott recounting his musical journey -- from blues trumpet in the Caribbean to losing his cherished instruments during a move to the United States, to a 25-year silence before his daughter convinced him to pick up the horn again. Then came the synthesizers. He describes performing live techno with six drum machines and synthesizer sequencers at a San Diego club, his parents in the crowd, sweating and dancing by 2:00 AM. For Scott, that was the moment of arrival -- not just as a performer, but as someone understood. From there, the conversation moves into the physics. Scott and Sean explore how frequency operates across the entire spectrum -- from the 7.83 hertz resonant frequency of the Earth itself to the quantum oscillations that defy measurement. Scott makes the case that sound is not merely an aesthetic experience but a literal force, one that operates on the body, mind, and cellular structure in ways now being confirmed by a new wave of scientific research. The Solfeggio scale, long dismissed by mainstream music as esoteric, turns out to have been built around frequencies that have specific, studied, physiological effects on the human body. The conversation doesn't shy from harder territory. Scott discusses directional sound weapons he witnessed firsthand at Booz Allen Hamilton, the documented Havana syndrome incidents, and how blue light frequencies are engineered into consumer electronics to trigger dopamine responses. These aren't conspiracy theories, he argues -- they are the same science, used from the opposite direction. The Joy Protocol is the inverse: taking those same mechanisms and applying them to produce healing, not harm. Even the 40-hertz frequency -- which Scott now seeks out on his wife's Power Plate machine at the gym -- produces a physical response he describes as immediately and unmistakably real. The episode closes on the question every musician, listener, and creator should be sitting with: if certain frequencies heal and others harm, if the A-440 tuning standard may have been a deliberate departure from something more resonant, and if the spaces between notes matter as much as the notes themselves -- then what does it mean to produce music intentionally? Scott points toward the guitar as a last frontier that AI cannot replicate: the harmonic overtones that physically manifest in wood when an instrument is tuned to a resonant frequency cannot be induced after the fact. That reality, he suggests, is both a challenge and an invitation. Host Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine, Studio C60, and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com/ Guest(s) Scott "Shagghie" Scheferman, Cybersecurity Strategist, Musician, and Researcher | Website: https://www.scottscheferman.com/ | On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottscheferman/ Resources Scott Scheferman's Personal Website | https://www.scottscheferman.com/ Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Keywords scott scheferman, shagghie, frequency healing, quantum consciousness, cymatics, solfeggio frequencies, sound as medicine, live techno, music production, joy protocol, sean martin, music, creativity, art, artist, musician, music evolves, music podcast, music and technology podcast More From Sean MartinMore from Music Evolves: https://www.seanmartin.com/music-evolves-podcast Music Evolves on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTRJ5du7hFDXjiugu-uNPtW Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Line of Sight Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7400591548452667392/ ITSPmagazine YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@itspmagazine Be sure to share and subscribe! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Sound Is a Force: Frequency, Healing, and the Physics of Music | A Music Evolves Conversation with Scott "Shagghie" Scheferman, Cybersecurity Strategist, Musician, and Researcher

  6. Feb 19

    The Operations Layer for Live Events | A Brand Highlight Conversation with Ben Ikwuagwu, CEO & Co-Founder of Soundcheck Live

    Ben Ikwuagwu is a vocalist, performer, and entrepreneur who has spent over 15 years navigating the live events world. That firsthand experience, combined with a degree in operations and years working in corporate America, gives him a unique vantage point on what makes the industry run and where it breaks down. Now, as CEO & Co-Founder of Soundcheck Live, he is channeling both worlds into a single platform designed to simplify how live event professionals manage their work. What does an all-in-one operations platform for live events actually do? Soundcheck Live focuses on four core pillars: booking, scheduling, payments, and coordination. Ikwuagwu explains that every event, regardless of size, comes down to these four elements. The platform provides a centralized dashboard where teams can manage gig details, client communication, and payment information without juggling spreadsheets, text threads, and scattered documents. How is Soundcheck Live building differently? From day one, the team has built the product around its users. Pilots with bands, production companies, and venues shaped the tool from the ground up. With advances in AI, the feedback loop has accelerated dramatically. Focus group insights that once took weeks to implement now translate into working features in hours, giving users the feeling that the platform is being custom-built for their specific workflows. This is a Brand Highlight. A Brand Highlight is a ~5 minute introductory conversation designed to put a spotlight on the guest and their company. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#highlight Host Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine, Studio C60, and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com/ Guest Ben Ikwuagwu, CEO & Co-Founder of Soundcheck Live | On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminikwuagwu/ Resources Soundcheck Live (Website): https://soundchecklive.io/ Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight Keywords Ben Ikwuagwu, Soundcheck Live, Sean Martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand highlight, live events, gig management, event operations, live music, booking platform, freelancer tools, event technology, live entertainment, artist management, talent agencies More From Sean MartinMore from Music Evolves: https://www.seanmartin.com/music-evolves-podcast Music Evolves on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTRJ5du7hFDXjiugu-uNPtW Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Line of Sight Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7400591548452667392/ ITSPmagazine YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@itspmagazine Be sure to share and subscribe! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    The Operations Layer for Live Events | A Brand Highlight Conversation with Ben Ikwuagwu, CEO & Co-Founder of Soundcheck Live

  7. Feb 12

    Taylor Guitars at NAMM 2026: Next Gen Guitars, Action Control Neck & Gold Label Collection | A Brand Highlight Conversation With Jim Kirlin from Taylor Guitars

    Jim Kirlin, Editorial Director at Taylor Guitars and Editor of Wood&Steel, joins Sean Martin at NAMM 2026 to walk through the company's latest innovations, from a reimagined Grand Auditorium to a brand-new collection rooted in tradition. The conversation takes place on the Taylor Guitars show floor, surrounded by the very instruments being discussed. At the heart of this year's introductions is what Taylor is calling its Next Generation guitars, a suite of three interconnected innovations built around the flagship Grand Auditorium body. Kirlin explains how the new Action Control Neck, a patented design with a long-tenon neck joint, enhances both resonance and playability, giving players the ability to adjust string height in seconds through the sound hole. It is a tool designed for real-world musicians who move between venues and climates and need their instrument to adapt with them. The second innovation is a scalloped V-Class bracing system, the latest evolution of the bracing architecture that Chief Guitar Designer Andy Powers introduced in 2018. This new variation adds warmth and low-end depth while preserving the clarity and balance that define the Taylor sound. The third piece is the Claria pickup, a simplified onboard system with sound-hole-mounted preamp controls for volume, mid contour, and tone. Kirlin describes it as a more plug-and-play approach for players who want a natural amplified sound without the complexity of dialing in previous systems. The conversation then moves across the booth to the Gold Label Collection, a line of non-cutaway, traditionally voiced guitars designed by Andy Powers. Inspired by instruments from the 1930s and 1940s, these guitars feature torrefied tops, a vintage-influenced headstock design, and body styles including a new square-shoulder dreadnought, a round-shoulder dreadnought, and a Super Auditorium. Kirlin positions the collection as a way for Taylor to broaden its tonal palette and reach players who gravitate toward warmer, more vintage sounds. What emerges is a picture of a company that treats innovation not as disruption but as service to the musician, removing obstacles and expanding possibilities one design at a time. HostSean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine, Studio C60, and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com/ GuestJim Kirlin, Editorial Director at Taylor Guitars and Editor of Wood&Steel | On the Web: https://woodandsteel.taylorguitars.com/authors/jim-kirlin/ ResourcesTaylor Guitars | https://www.taylorguitars.com/ Wood&Steel Magazine | https://woodandsteel.taylorguitars.com/ The NAMM Show 2026 is taking place from January 20-24, 2026 | Anaheim Convention Center - Southern California -- Follow our coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/the-namm-show-2026-namm-music-conference-music-technology-event-coverage-anaheim-california Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Keywordsjim kirlin, taylor guitars, andy powers, action control neck, v-class bracing, claria pickup, grand auditorium, gold label collection, dreadnought, acoustic guitar innovation, guitar playability, guitar pickups, torrefied tops, namm 2026, music, creativity, art, artist, musician, music evolves, music podcast, music and technology podcast More From Sean MartinMore from Music Evolves: https://www.seanmartin.com/music-evolves-podcast Music Evolves on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTRJ5du7hFDXjiugu-uNPtW Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Line of Sight Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7400591548452667392/ ITSPmagazine YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@itspmagazine Be sure to share and subscribe! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Taylor Guitars at NAMM 2026: Next Gen Guitars, Action Control Neck & Gold Label Collection | A Brand Highlight Conversation With Jim Kirlin from Taylor Guitars

  8. Feb 11

    Chris Buck and His Signature Yamaha Revstar RS02CB at NAMM 2026 | A Brand Highlight Conversation with Chris Buck, Yamaha Signature Artist

    What does it take to design a signature guitar from the ground up? Chris Buck sits down with Sean Martin at NAMM 2026 to talk about the journey of creating the Yamaha Revstar RS02CB, his first production signature model. Buck describes the experience as surreal, noting that the weight of joining Yamaha's legacy of signature artists continues to hit him in waves. The lengthy design process, he says, was about making sure every detail lived up to what the guitar could be. How did Chris Buck and Yamaha land on the right pickups for the RS02CB? Buck explains that the pickups were the centerpiece of the collaboration, with the team working through countless iterations of magnet types, wire specifications, and voicing options. The result is a set of custom P90-style pickups that deliver the dynamic, responsive tone he has built his sound around. The wraparound tailpiece, a feature less common on modern instruments, adds sustain and directness to the signal path, contributing to the guitar's massive volume and resonance. What makes the RS02CB stand apart from other Revstar models? Buck highlights a three-way pickup selector switch instead of the five-way found on the current generation of Revstars, along with custom inlays and his own signature squiggle on the back of the headstock. He caps the conversation by playing a lick that shows exactly what the guitar can do, leaving no doubt about the instrument's character and capability. This is a Brand Highlight. A Brand Highlight is a ~5 minute introductory conversation designed to put a spotlight on the guest and their company. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#highlight GUEST Chris Buck, Yamaha Signature Artist | On Instagram: @chrisbuckguitar | Website: https://www.chrisbuckguitar.shop/ RESOURCES Yamaha: https://usa.yamaha.com/ Yamaha RS02CB Chris Buck Signature Revstar: https://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses/el_guitars/rs02cb/index.html Part of ITSPmagazine's On Location Coverage at NAMM 2026. 🌐 https://www.itspmagazine.com/the-namm-show-2026-namm-music-conference-music-technology-event-coverage-anaheim-california Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight More From Sean MartinMore from Music Evolves: https://www.seanmartin.com/music-evolves-podcast Music Evolves on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTRJ5du7hFDXjiugu-uNPtW Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Line of Sight Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7400591548452667392/ ITSPmagazine YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@itspmagazine Be sure to share and subscribe! KEYWORDS Chris Buck, Yamaha, Sean Martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand highlight, Yamaha Revstar, RS02CB, signature guitar, P90 pickups, NAMM 2026, Cardinal Black, wraparound tailpiece, electric guitar, guitar design, custom pickups, signature artist More From Sean MartinMore from Music Evolves: https://www.seanmartin.com/music-evolves-podcast Music Evolves on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTRJ5du7hFDXjiugu-uNPtW Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/ Line of Sight Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7400591548452667392/ ITSPmagazine YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@itspmagazine Be sure to share and subscribe! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Chris Buck and His Signature Yamaha Revstar RS02CB at NAMM 2026 | A Brand Highlight Conversation with Chris Buck, Yamaha Signature Artist
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About

Welcome to the Music Evolves Podcast, where we explore the transformative power of music through the lens of technology, creativity, and innovation — by looking both forward and back. We dive deep into how cutting edge research and development are shaping the future of music, transforming how it’s created, shared, and experienced, while celebrating its timeless ability to inspire and connect us all. Whether you’re a musician, music enthusiast, or simply curious about the synergy between tradition and innovation at the intersection of art and technology, the Music Evolves Podcast invites you on a journey through the past, present, and future of music. Discover how music continues to inspire, connect, and evolve — redefining what’s possible and shaping the world one note at a time.

Information

  • Creator
    ITSPmagazine Inc., Sean Martin
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2015-2025 ITSPmagazine, Inc. All Rights Reserved
  • Show Website
    Music Evolves Podcast