In the late 90s, hardly any bands were more ubiquitous than Semisonic. Thanks to their breakout hit "Closing Time", they shot to the top of the charts and cemented themselves as rock stars of that era. As the band's drummer, Jacob Slichter enjoyed the upsides of that period, from limousine rides to arena shows and TV appearances. However, what he didn't know was the vast amounts of payola needed to make their music successful. Their record label spent millions of dollars paying radio stations to play their music, and even if the results were ultimately positive, it left the band in debt up to their ears.Jacob and I chatted about his early days as a musician, how Semisonic came to find success, what it's like being signed to a major label, and how payola worked in the 90s.
The second episode of the MIAR podcast explores the world of digital service providers who specialize in advertising, botting, and paid marketing in the music space. One of the most notable names in that world is Chad Focus, who gained nationwide notoriety for manufacturing his rap career by way of social media ads, paid billboards, ticket scalping and botting his streams. All this came to a halt in 2018 when he was jailed for his actions, but he's since been released and is sharing his knowledge of what actually goes on in the music business when it comes to how the bigger players monopolize their share of the industry.
The MIAR podcast kicks off its first episode with the producer behind much of Eminem's early work. Jeff and his brother Mark discovered and produced most of the music on Eminem's first albums, but as the years went by they found themselves increasingly at odds with his label, Interscope/Universal, and were gradually written out of the story. Other than being mentioned on Wikipedia, the current Eminem narrative barely mentions them at all.Jeff and I spoke about his early days in the music industry, how he came to work with Eminem, and how the relationship developed over the years.