Community Member Q&A: Dave Godowsky, Head of Artist and Industry Relations at iZotope
For this week’s Community Member Q&A, we’re delighted to feature Dave Godowsky .
Like many Water & Music members, Dave’s career has spanned both creative and industry-facing pursuits. He’s worked as an artist, songwriter and touring musician, with three solo albums under his belt as well as stints in a Guns & Roses cover band and gigs with the likes of Bon Iver and Counting Crows. He’s also worked as an artist manager for the likes of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Against Me! and Speedy Ortiz, and currently heads up Artist and Industry Relations at audio production technology iZotope , which partnered with Native Instruments earlier this year to form a new parent entity called Music Creation Group, backed by Francisco Partners and EMH Partners.
We caught up with Dave to find out more about his fascinating journey through the music industry; how his creative work has informed how he approaches his work in industry; how the world of audio production is changing, and the key challenges and opportunities he sees in today’s music industry.
When did you first fall in love with music?
When I was 6 or 7 years old, I figured out how to play records on my parents’ turntable. I was fascinated by putting the vinyl under the needle, watching the whole mechanism operate, putting a penny on the needle to keep it from skipping, magically hearing all the music materialize out of nowhere…
From there, I got curious about where the stuff actually “came from.” At that age, there’s not much logic… I couldn’t really conceptualize the idea of people playing instruments that add up to a song. The music just existed. Kind of like eating a piece of cake… unless you’re a baker you probably don’t think about the ingredients, you just taste something you like.
So I started playing piano, just messing around, hitting notes over and over until something sounded good, which for me was like the gates of Oz opening. But why didn’t it sound as good as what was coming out of the stereo? Was there any way I could figure out how to do THAT? I guess it’s the same today as it was then– the love for music comes from a desire to create it.
You’ve had a truly astonishing career path — you’ve worked as a solo musician, a touring musician, an artist, an A&R manager, and you’re now heading up artist relations at iZotope. In other words, you’re the definition of a multi-hyphenate. What has your approach to managing your career been? Do you have any advice for anyone who would like to follow a similarly varied path?
One common thread, which makes it all feel cohesive to me, has simply been an obsessive love for music & songs. That may sound obvious or even clichéd, but I honestly think a lot of people lose that plot. There are times when the goalposts can get concealed, so you have to proceed based on trust and intuition. It’s really important to maintain that passion for music, including new music, and constantly remind yourself to let that steer everything you do. It’s the only way to keep yourself positioned toward that greater goal — i.e. helping bring music into the world and elevating the development of it as an art form.
Another common thread is prioritizing relationships . And not just in a business context. I’m curious about people and (usually) have a genuine interest in friendships that aren’t just tied to jobs. Making authentic connections with people, with no ulterior motives, is really important.
How has being a musician informed your work on the industry/partnership side?
It definitely helps in terms of having meaningful relationships with other artists, by nature of having common interests and experiences to talk about. That’s been true across my career. As an A&R person, I could weigh in on creative direction in the studio without feeling like an outsider. As a manager, I could talk about tour plans and actually empathize with the realities of life on the road. In artist relations, I can speak to the process as someone who uses the same tools as them.
Being a musician has also informed career decisions I’ve made. Four years ago I made a pretty major career change, leaving artist management to work at iZotope. One of the deciding factors was that, as a musician, I already had a lot of love for the stuff they made, and knew it was the kind of place I wanted to be part of.
What’s a typical day at iZotope like for you?
Artists are central to everything we make. Our company mission is to empower creativity, so in that sense, every customer is essentially an artist.
There are three main ways we tackle artist relations:
- We depend on them to drive the most critical word-of-mouth. This really can’t be stressed enough. These days, people are desensitized by so much marketing coming at them from every direction. So, especially in any creative field, people use products that are vouched for by a trusted artist. This word-of-mouth can be encouraged by simply making sure the right people have our products, are aware of what they do, and generally feel positive about who we are and what we’re doing.
- Artists provide us with marketing materials . Everything from testimonial quotes and videos, to exclusive product presets, to public speaking engagements.
- We speak with artists to help inform our strategy and ensure our products reflect modern workflows.
All these things ultimately lead back to having close, meaningful relationships with the right artists. Pre-Covid, about 25% of my time was spent traveling, meeting one-on-one with key artists and industry in studios, offices, etc. (Currently it’s all Zoom calls of course.) We also have several Artist Relations consultants whom I oversee, who help in various genres and different parts of the world. A lot of artist-led inquiries get delegated to other parts of the company, like technical support, brand partnerships and sales.
From Dua Lipa partnering with GarageBand to Kanye West’s Donda Stem Player , it seems like celebrity artists are increasingly willing to diversify their brand into creative tools that empower others to make music. What role do you think creative tools will play in the artist partnership landscape in the future?
The barrier to entry for music creation keeps getting lower and lower. And every successful artist wants their fans to be as engaged as possible. So the “producer fan” has become a significant enough slice of the fanbase to financially warrant these kinds of partnerships.
Similarly, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see what a large, engaged audience of producers there is on TikTok. Five to ten years ago, this segment would have probably been limited to a tiny closed Facebook group. Now we’re seeing hundreds of thousands of people actively looking to learn and develop their skills in this space.
Smart companies are taking an “open source” approach to integrating themselves with these communities. It’s even true within the artist community itself, a great example of which is Kenny Beats . In addition to being a sought-after producer, he leads one of the world’s largest and most active communities of young producers via his Discord & YouTube channels .
Are there any general trends within music production that you find particularly interesting or exciting right now?
Yes but I’m NDA’ed on all the most exciting stuff (that I know of)! There is so much exciting stuff happening. The world of music production and creation is developing exponentially, and we’re going to see some fascinating technology in the next few years that really alters the creative process. Or at least empowers it in new ways.
In terms of recent stuff that’s already happened, Dolby Atmos has made a huge impact this year, mostly thanks to its Apple integration . I love seeing that sort of disruption based in something solely focused on elevated sound quality. I love the collaborative tech in Sessionwire , which takes remote sessions to the next level. I was recently introduced to Soundflow , which provides super useful new ways of automating DAW processes. I could go on and on about interesting new companies like these.
[Pictured: screenshot from Sessionwire ]
In terms of “actual music things,” I’m fascinated by how people approach bass on records these days. For so long it was just “someone playing a bass guitar” and now the whole world of the low end is occupied by hundreds of different creative options. Both in terms of their singular sound and the way they affect the mix and re-contextualise the whole song sonically.
The last year-and-a-half has been a particularly turbulent one for the music industry. What do you think has been the most significant industry change over this time period (for better or worse), and why?
The realm of live streaming performance feels permanent, in the same way so many companies have had revelations about remote work. Not just from the artist point of view but the listeners’ too. Most fans used to scoff at the idea of streaming live concert video, and now people are embracing it. And artists are stepping up and getting more and more creative with those platforms.
In terms of positive/silver-lining stuff, more people than ever have taken the opportunity to build out their home studios, learn instruments, etc. Most companies in that space have reported record numbers, whether they’re selling guitars or microphones or plug-ins. I don’t think it’s too controversial of a prediction to say that 2022 will shatter the record of how much music is created and put out into the world.