Josh Simons is the CEO and co-founder of Vampr, the world’s largest and most active social-professional network for musicians (often dubbed the “LinkedIn for creatives”). Recognised by Fast Company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in 2022, Vampr is home to over one million users, and active in every country on the planet. The music startup has helped fledgling musicians broker over 7 million connections worldwide. Vampr offers a free solution for young musicians, built by a sympathetic founding team of established musicians with Josh’s co-founder, Baz Palmer, best known as the lead guitarist for seminal hall-of-fame rock band, Hunters & Collectors.
Simons has grown Vampr into a multi-award winning platform, including most prestigious nods from both Apple and Google in their respective Best Apps lists. Over five funding rounds the company has raised $3.5M from VC, the crowd and music industry angels.
Prior to running Vampr, Josh Simons spent the better part of a decade as a successful artist, songwriter & producer. His artist project Buchanan enjoyed multi-million streams & chart impressions worldwide. They retired from the live circuit following a sold-out arena tour opening for Keith Urban & Carrie Underwood. As a producer and songwriter, Simons has shared credits with Travis Scott, Troye Sivan and Kanye West to name a few.
In April 2020 Simons was named in The Music Network’s 30 Under 30 List in addition to being voted Reader’s Choice. Simons holds a Bachelor of Business from Swinburne University.
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1.18 Josh’s background journey
5.33 Juggling different projects and ambitions
7.02 You can’t do all the things all of the time but you can do things consequentially
8.20 Project managing: leveraging some projects off of others
11.00 The start of Vampr
19.21 Converting all reviews into positivity as a tech company
22.00 Winning awards as a tech company CEO
23.00 The necessity of connection and collaboration in the music industry
23.16 Nothing much is achieved alone
27.06 Different routes into music - and how Vampr can help open up opportunities for musicians around the world
29.20 The love of songwriting
30.15 Songwriting camps
32.56 Sparking up great relationships
36.24 Blockchain and the world of music
39.07 Taking care of mental health
42.19 What advice could you give to musicians out there today? Is entrepreneurship more important than ever for musicians to educate themselves on?
45.30 Fear paralysis with releasing music
46.35 Future vision
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Vampr - https://www.vampr.me
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Josh's 3 song choices:
Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfWJqKIxyGc&t=1110s
Droned - Phil Collins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvbFuxJ61IQ
The Ghost of Tom Joad - Bruce Springsteen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi0kWe2ixzU
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Intro / Out
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