At Coachella ‘18 I initiated discussions with my friends and aspiring music-industry entrepreneurs Christian Dimitriades and Trent Peltz. We brainstormed alternative strategies for partnering with prospective partners for the live performance series we all had long envisioned.
Category: Entrepreneurial
What Happens in Vegas Never Stays in Vegas
I’ve been managing Sean Kennedy @allthesauce and Noah Arin @soundsbynarin since January 2018. They are both producers based out of Las Vegas, NV and had previously been collaborators on several other artist’s projects. In addition, they were also roommates as well as sitting on six completed songs of their own — so they asked me to help develop the strategy and cultivate branding for their release cycle. Read more
Aaaannnd, Down The Stretch They Come!

Over my summer break I was in Music City, Vegas, NYC, Europe and Montreal. It was a productive and diverse four months – I had time to invest in some personal career development by attending conferences and seminars in the weeks before and after my full-time nine-week summer internship with Round Hill Music. As well, I was able to continue to advance my collegiate marketing initiative with Stem, balancing it all with some amazing summer travel with friends and family. It was such a memorable summer and I’m happy to finally be able to post this recap now that I’m back on campus to complete my senior year.
My First Internship
Immediately following my sophomore year at SC, I started my work as an intern for Stem Disintermedia, a venture-backed, music-tech startup in Los Angeles.
Ruling the RÜST
I met Jack Koplin (pictured above on the left) my freshman year of college through my fraternity and USC’s Music Industry program. Jack began working on his first remix in the spring of 2016. Noah Arin, a talented audio engineer (pictured above on the right), is a student at UNLV – we met through a mutual friend named Oscar Chaltiel, who also happens to be member of our AEPi chapter.
This summer, while I was in LA taking extra courses, Noah travelled to campus from Vegas to spend a couple of days hanging out before heading to a music festival with Oscar for the weekend. Like most college kids, we found ourselves sharing music and stories over meals and video games… despite constantly having to clean up after them, I appreciated every minute.
I invited Noah back to LA a week later so he could meet Jack – I knew each of them possessed a unique, complementary skill set. In short order, Jack and Noah formed RÜST, an EDM duo I began working closely with on branding, business development and marketing.
RÜST’s first studio session was held in Jack’s family’s living room above their garage in the Palisades. What’s so unique about this space is that it used to be Stewart Copeland‘s personal studio, the drummer from The Police.
Victor(y)!!!
Amongst the music industry community of students at SC, we often talk about the importance of good visuals. In fact, many believe that the most undervalued element to an amazing musical performance are creative graphics. Graphics have the power to convey an immersive experience, incomparable to any other form of media.
So when an older fraternity brother of mine was showing me the digital resume (personal website) he’d designed for himself, I couldn’t help but let my mind drift off to what I had long envisioned for myself. I’ve know for some time that I’ve wanted to have my own online presence in order to present and express myself, but it took my friend’s stimulus to move me to action.
When I started the process of developing what has now become my website, my goal was threefold: to create an online platform through which I could write about my music-focused involvement on campus; share my related experiences in the cities I spend most of my time– LA, Montreal, and NYC; and to use the site as a means of logging my most meaningful activities, sharing stories and personal insights, while also facilitating connections with others within the field of music.
Studio A(EPi)
Having taken courses in audio recording and critical listening during my first semester at SC, I was eager to apply the knowledge I was learning in class. Although I had no formal music training and didin’t play any instruments, I wanted to get more involved with the music making process.
The Day I Met Troy Carter
Back when I was a rising high-school senior (summer of 2014) I attended the “Leadership in the Business World” program in San Francisco run by the Wharton School of Business. The program included guest speakers who were inspiring leaders from companies across various industries, including technology, finance, e-commerce, and entertainment.
And while we heard from successful leaders at companies like Google, eBay, and Ampush Media, the speaker who blew me away was Troy Carter, the renowned music manager and venture capitalist. I was awestruck as Troy shared his experience of combining his passion for music and love of business.
At the time, I had been DJing in Montreal for almost three years while also working to help develop and promote other young DJs. It was clear that I had an affinity for the music biz, but up until that point, I’d never really considered it as a possible career path – music was always just a hobby. However, after hearing Troy’s story about promoting Jay-Z’s first-ever rap show in Philadelphia, I returned to Montreal at the end of the program with inspiration and direction, which couldn’t have been more timely with college applications on the horizon.