Lodge Cove Collective Interview (the villin podcast‪)‬ the villin podcast

This is the villin podcast, and this episode features a conversation with Mark from Lodge Cove Collective.On his website, Mark explains his goal for the project was to release original music written, produced, and recorded by himself and some of his friends. Quoting him, Mark writes, "I wanted to be able to put some of my own music out there in the world, and I wanted it to be collaborative because…. it’s fun." Related to a spirit of collaboration is one of connectivity, which was how Mark and I first began talking. This episode grew out of a conversation on Threads, which is where he and I have both taken to in the past couple months as a means of trying to recalibrate our social media experience. And we do talk a bit about that — social media — and where we both sit with it presently, but we also talk about a variety of topics focused around the idea of creative success, or identifying personal measures of success relating to creative work outside of financial compensation.

I like how Mark uses the phrase "level setting," when talking about this, and you'll hear more about that a few minutes in, but we also go into depth surrounding his experience with sync licensing and the pros and cons of the current music streaming model before wrapping up by veering off into the world of generative A.I. and what opportunities and challenges that could produce for artists as that world continues to mature. For more, please visit his website, where Mark has written articles expanding on a few of these topics, or Spotify where he's got several playlists of his own you might enjoy. Elsewhere, you can check out more of Lodge Cove Collective's work on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, or hear music from the project on Apple Music, Bandcamp, Spotify, or YouTube.

(00:00) - Introduction(01:34) - Current Projects / Getting Back Into Music(05:00) - Music Publishing / Sync Licensing(07:14) - Fulfillment and Measuring Creative Success(08:30) - Social Media, Threads & Finding an Audience(10:51) - "Level Setting" / What is a "Successful" Song?(14:27) - Using Social Media to Promote Your Work(19:03) - Social Media & Sync Licensing(20:35) - Generating Income vs. Creative Satisfaction(22:48) - Rap, Hip-Hop & Sync Licensing Market Saturation(24:47) - Sampling & Licensing(27:49) - Finding a Personal Measure of Success(35:50) - The Tip Jar / Validation(37:27) - The Optics of Support(41:06) - Music Blogging, Spotify & "Consuming" Music Online(44:27) - Gatekeeping, the Music Industry, and What is Music "Worth"?(49:27) - The Music Industry's "Tipping Point"(51:41) - Sheet Music, Music Publishing & Fear of Innovation(53:35) - A.I Composed Music & Large Language Models