If you’re a hip-hop fan it’s almost impossible not to know the name Mike Dean, as his sound is woven so deeply into the last quarter century of music. A low-key legend who prefers to let his music do the talking, Dean’s back catalog boasts Dirty South pioneers Scarface of the Geto Boys, UGK (Underground Kingz), Tha Dogg Pound, and Tech N9ne, along with Tupac Shakur, Jay-Z, and Travis Scott. Since 2004 he’s been the right-hand man in the studio, as well as on tour, with Kanye

Image via Shutterstock Booking shows regularly can elude many artists. They submit emails and cold call venues, spin their wheels and waste hours without much to show from their efforts. Most of the time it’s because they are not working strategically. Remember to take into account the following parameters when determining if a particular venue is a good fit: #1. What type of shows get booked at that venue? Are they more for private parties, acoustic acts, 9-piece jam bands,

Over the past few years, I’ve put together a month-by-month guide with the best time to release your album. It’s patently simple: which months would maximize your release and which would destroy it? This year, I’m taking it a up a notch and giving you additional ideas of how you can maximize your release in a specific month or how to schedule based on your album’s specific subject matter or genre. There is one rule that stays the same: start planning your album release and re

Dance music wouldn't exist without it Following ground-breaking experiments in France, it was the great American inventor Thomas Edison who first showed off the Phonograph, the turntable’s earliest precursor, to Scientific American magazine 140 years ago. At his laboratory in Menlo Park, California, Edison had assigned one of his trusted creatives, John Kruesi, to the project (making him the device’s true creator). A stylus recorded sounds onto thick tinfoil wrapped around a