#HowWeListen Live: In Conversation Podcast

Transforming Audio Culture: Elevating the Art of Music Discovery

Episode Summary

Saidah Blount is a New York City-based brand and marketing executive known for focusing on music culture. A Senior Manager and the Executive Producer at SONOS radio. She has helped to establish and develop new sonic and cultural platforms for the company, positioning the company as an emerging leader in the music and content space. Saidah was also recently promoted to be SONOS’ Primary Impact Storyteller. A title she is still figuring out but is super excited to dig into. In the past, Saidah has worked with several innovative and influential media outlets and brands. Notalbly NPR Music, The Fader, Adidas, Punchdrunk, Spotify, and Topshop. How does a radio and music fan go from mid-west America to curating SONOS Radio in New York City? Marc and Saidah follow the path to the big apple.

Episode Notes

"Radio will never die…"

"You have to define yourself and create your own brand. I normally don’t like that ethos that you have to create a brand, but you can definitely do it in a way that stays true to yourself."

Our guest on today’s episode is Saidah Blount, Executive Producer at SONOS Radio, she is also their Primary Impact Storyteller. What does that job title mean exactly? She lets us know. Storytelling is at the heart of what Byta believes is one of the most important elements of promoting one’s self: always control your narrative. So Marc and Saidah get into it. Saidah followed a very unique path from the midwest to New York, one that included music journalism, stopping off at NPR for a few years and eventually landing at SONOS. Her north star was always music and trying to figure out how she could somehow incorporate that into her work life. She realized early on that working in the music industry proper was not for her, so she had to figure out another way, to do it on her own terms. She is a big fan of radio, having grown up in Kansas City one of the first big radio markets in the USA, plus both her parents were big music fans. Marc has a long history in Radio as well, so they discuss the differences between curated playlists (by real people VS AI), and old-school radio, and the future of “radio”. How can musicians make contact with the people at SONOS to have their music heard and played? Spoiler alert- persistence seems to be the answer. It is a great conversation that goes down some surprising and very insightful paths and Shazam.

Saidah spoke to us from Brooklyn, New York

#HowWeListen Live: In Conversation

00:10 - Byta.com

01:58 - Sonos Radio

05:14 - Kansas City Radio

08:22 - NYC 2000s

11:15 - Interview Magazine

14:05 - National Public Radio

16:06 - radio.SONOS.com

22:40 - Shazam, auto Shazam

25:25 - Byta.com

26:00 - Imaginary Sound Track