Video by un:hurd music via YouTube
Rob Sealy came from 30 years in insurance with no music or tech background, then co-founded Openstage, the platform now behind fan campaigns for Oasis, Radiohead, Lana Del Rey and Paul McCartney. He joins Alex to explain why social reach has collapsed, why owning your fan relationship matters more than chasing streams, and why the fundamentals are identical whether you have five million fans or five. Practical, direct, and built for artists starting from zero.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open
02:50 From 30 years in finance to music tech
03:36 The Paul Weller ticket problem that started it all
05:08 The Citigroup paper: artists earn 7-10% of what they gross
06:09 Artists don’t know who their fans are
07:44 Stop selling, nourish the relationship
08:54 Owning the audience vs renting it on social
10:13 How Openstage works: Fan HQ
13:00 Why social reach has collapsed below 2%
14:17 Music vs gaming: the six-times revenue gap
15:57 When did you last listen to an album and nothing else?
17:00 Rob’s founder journey and knowing what you’re not good at
20:14 Step-change moments: Only The Poets, Sam Ryder, Lana
21:48 Oasis, Radiohead, Bad Bunny and the McCartney campaign
27:00 Shifting the conversation from streams to a real business
32:00 How independent artists should actually start
34:00 Learning from your first fans (Y Combinator parallel)
35:00 What he’d do differently, and the looseness of commitment
37:00 The closing question
38:00 What’s next for Openstage
ABOUT find your frequency
The podcast about building an audience from zero. Artists. Founders. Investors. One shared obsession. Hosted by Alex Brees, founder of un:hurd music.
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