Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Waczek.
Ryan, a music producer, composer, and songwriter native to San Diego established Lion Bold in 2016. Founding a music startup in the 21st century is no small undertaking. With the emergence of the internet, file-sharing, and digital media—all of it utterly destroying the practices of the old music industry—Lion Bold is striving to carve a new model for success in music. It is Lion Bold’s position that artists fail to make a living because they excel at the artistry but struggle at the entrepreneurship and Ryan, through his company, aims to be the cure for this conflict.
Studying music at Cal Poly, he became an expert in several aspects of the industry including music production, audio engineering, songwriting, and orchestration. In addition to the formal university training and professional internships with record producers and recording studios, he attributes a significant amount of his knowledge and rapid proficiency to educational resources on the internet through YouTube and industry-specific internet training websites. The combination of these influences contributes to what Lion Bold is today:
– A recording studio and music production house
– Artist Development for musicians (in person and through their YouTube channel)
– Music for Film and Television
– Video Production
In just a little over a year, Lion Bold has signed two artists, released over 20 songs, and is starting production on its second feature film soundtrack all while being accessible to fans and fellow musicians around the world who are hungry to learn about the music industry.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road has been difficult. All of the typical struggles of a new business such as funding, personnel, and vision were apparent in the early months of Lion Bold. Fortunately, we have an excellent trio of team members: myself, and my two business partners Alessandra Shanus and Travis Carver.
As a company, Lion Bold is still working towards their first national success in the music industry, meaning, getting a song on mainstream radio. But unfortunately, the more the team works on trying to achieve this, the more apparent it is becoming that money is a significant obstacle to our far from “major” record company.
But through these setbacks, there have also been learning experiences, and it helped determined that Lion Bold’s focus needed to be on its fans and the community it was establishing. Mainstream success can wait, for now.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Lion Bold Records story. Tell us more about the business.
We are most known for:
Music Production
Lion Bold first began as a record label and signed artists to record music under the Lion Bold brand. For the artists, the recordings were absolutely free. We believe in investing in music and musicians that inspire us in their songwriting and performance talent.
Artist Development
Becoming a performing artist takes more than just raw musical skill. It also necessitates a business plan and an entrepreneurial mindset. That’s why we focus heavily on Artist Development, but what sets us apart is that we equip our artists with the business skills they need in addition to musical talents.
I am pleased that we can do everything “in-house” in our studio space. From video production to recording and mixing an album, we have a team that is capable of producing all our high-quality content without the need for outside contractors. We planned to be a one-stop-shop for all entertainment needs, and I am proud of the fact that we excel in all areas of media production.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t believe in luck. In my mind, it’s more of a question of: are you willing to create a situation or environment where good things can happen to you? I believe that much of our success so far is attributed to the effort of showing up. It wasn’t because of luck that I decided to build a company, and I hope that any success I achieve isn’t attributed to chance either. Instead, I hope people recognize the consistent attempt never to quit and my hunger to accomplish things bigger than myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lionbold.com
- Phone: (858) 522-0475
- Email: info@lionbold.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lionboldrecords/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lionboldrecords/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LionBoldRecords
Daniel Jay Woods, Lion Bold Records artist
Image Credit:
Will Akana
Erik Ehinger
Terry Akiyama
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