Video by un:hurd music via YouTube
David Ronan is the founder of RoEx, with a PhD in music tech and a past life as head of research at AI Music, the company Apple acquired. RoEx has now processed over 6 million tracks. In this episode he breaks down the loudness mistake almost every artist makes, how to use AI on your music without losing the art, why an AI artist will never have real fans, and the budget trap leaving great music stuck at 100 listeners.
Track mentioned: James Holden, "Lump" – https://open.spotify.com/track/7udc4e7om5HGUT8Cguto31?si=bad55a017deb4c2c
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open
00:50 Welcome, hi-fi listening and why audio quality matters
03:07 Can you measure if a song is "good"?
03:54 The study: good mixes vs bad mixes on real people
05:16 From a music-tech PhD to AI Music and Apple
08:07 The generative AI product Apple came for
09:56 Why he turned Apple down to start RoEx
10:52 The daunting leap, and the first paying customer
14:41 What RoEx actually does
15:25 The loudness mistake almost every artist makes
18:44 Using AI to assist, not replace, your creativity
20:29 The budget trap: spending everything on an engineer
21:35 Do mix engineers see RoEx as a threat?
23:16 The track that sounds incredible: James Holden, "Lump"
24:06 6 million tracks, and the metric that matters more
28:54 AI artists, Suno, and the authenticity question
31:10 "Who cares about an AI artist" (and the one that fooled him)
34:07 Never been easier to create, never been harder to be heard
38:34 What he’d do differently, and why patience beats rushing in
41:03 The closing question: break-even and freedom
42:43 How he handles brutal reviews
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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. New episodes every Monday.
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