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Just Products #2: Product Idea—Harmanova music videos on demand mentioned that I started my entrepreneurial journey with a man named Rony Vartio, a.k.a. DJ Rony Rex. We’ve been friends since before he decided to become a DJ, but even then, there were indications that he’d go down the musical path, as the first time we hung out was when we skipped class to buy him a 128MB MP3 player that could fit about 100 digital tracks. Since those times, we’ve taken different paths in life, but both have become fathers.
This recording is a heartfelt discussion between dads and discussing old times. Including wisdom and a lot of advice, we won’t be giving to our sons 🤣
Below is the summary of the English recording generated by AI. We’re switching between Swedish and Finnish in our discussion, as our mother tongue is Swedish, but for reasons we can’t remember, we always speak Finnish with each other.
We also have an AI-generated podcast summary of our discussion, with the help of NotebookLM, for a broader audience and a more pleasant listening experience. AI makes listening to your recording so much more fun 😂 It makes interpretations and hallucinates to make it a more entertaining story. If you want the #facts, reach out to Rony on Instagram, and you can now book him as a LiveNation-represented artist.
Summary
Just Culture Podcast: Episode 1 - Rony Rex
Main Themes:
Roni Rex's artistic journey: The podcast traces Rony Rex's journey from a young DJ to an internationally recognized artist and producer, highlighting his growth and evolution.
Brand development: The discussion touches upon the importance of branding in the music industry, comparing Rony Rex's early, darker branding with his current vibrant and colorful style.
The changing music landscape: The podcast analyzes the impact of technology on the music industry, including the challenges of building a fanbase in an era of overwhelming content and the rise of AI in music production.
Building community: The episode emphasizes the significance of community in an artist's success, emphasizing the need to connect with audiences authentically and build a loyal fanbase.
Key Ideas and Facts:
Rony Rex is a Swedish-speaking Finn who has worked as a DJ, producer, radio personality, and event promoter.
Niki and Rony have known each other since they were teenagers.
Rony's journey as a DJ began with small club gigs before adopting the alias "DJ No Voltage" and later "Rony Rex."
Rony's branding evolved from a dark and edgy aesthetic to a more colorful and vibrant style, reflecting his personal growth.
Rony has released music actively since 2017 and has gained international recognition. Tracks have been played in North America and the EU, and a song has exceeded 100 million streams in China.
The podcast highlights the changing music landscape, noting the overwhelming amount of music released daily and artists' challenges in building a sustainable fanbase.
The importance of building community is emphasized, with Rony expressing a desire to connect with his audience on a deeper level and create a shared experience.
The conversation touches on AI's role in music production, with Rony viewing it as a helpful tool supporting human creativity.
The podcast concludes with a call to action, encouraging listeners to join Rony Rex's community and experience his energetic music and performances.
Notable Quotes:
"The chances [of someone stealing the Roni Rex alias] were very, very small, but still possible." - Niki
"Roni Rex has always had a lot of energy, but so do I as a person, and courage, and sweat, and a bubbly personality and color and attitude." - Rony.
"If I can just be myself, that's enough." - Rony.
"One releases more music in a single day in 2024 than in the whole year of 1989." - Niki
"The only threat [of AI] is that, as we said, in light of the numbers, the sensible and high-quality and truly resonant art gets lost in the mass." - Rony
"The goal could be described as building a community where people understand what I do, and I understand who they are." - Rony.
Overall Impression:
This episode of the Just Culture podcast provides an engaging and insightful look into Roni Rex's artistic journey and the music industry's changing landscape. The conversation highlights the importance of authenticity, community building, and adapting to technological advancements. The episode leaves the listener feeling inspired and hopeful about the future of music and the power of connection.
Reflections
Publishing process reflections: The NotebookLM file is too long. It should be cut at 12:30, but there is no easy and fast way. NotebookLM allows you to generate audio files only once for each note, and you can’t do any basic edits with the tool.
It also seems that if you give customization too long, it doesn’t mix it into a summary. It produces additional content and adds it at the end (after 12:30 Mark), making the content repetitive rather than insightful. The discussion style should also be configured; now, the AI voices jump from one host to another, completing each others’ sentences. In NotebooksLM’s credit, it could identify the fact two different languages were spoken and still make the correct translation for anything that wasn’t slang.
I’m not good with video edits, and trying to scrape things here and there to make the whole more seamless seems like a wasted effort. There should be a video editor that could take a seemingly crappy file like this, take away background noises, cut away sections where the internet connection makes things choppy, and other apparent interruptions in the discussion. Alternatively, make a shorter highlight reel.
Discussion Reflections: Having pictures to look at and a discussion with whom you have shared history makes for something more unique while adding value to the fact that you’re doing a video recording.
I still need to practice question-asking and be better at the first three questions to produce insight, engagement, and value straight off the bat. The interview should also handle the intro part after the first question. Now, I’m doing too much labeling and not giving the guests enough room to be self-expressive so they can be more relaxed in the discussion.
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