Ari Herstand

I’m still about 300 emails behind from what I missed at SXSW. I completely forgot to turn on the vacation responder when I left. Only a couple people freaked out at my delay. When I'm at a music conference it's impossible to keep up with any work not pertaining directly to the...

In honor of Women’s History Month, I’ve started a (living) list of badass female producers. This was inspired by Ebonie Smith’s op-ed in Billboard which was inspired by the previous Billboard article “Where Are All The Female Producers.” Well! Some of them are right her...

At this point I'm sure you've heard by now that “songwriters just got a raise!” Woohoo! But what does this really mean? And how do you get your money? Ok, lemme break this down for you in plain English. Currently streaming services (otherwise known as DSPs - Digital Service P...

There’s a moment that every musician experiences when you get what you think could be the final masters back from the mastering engineer. You sit in your car with extremely close friends. And you confide in them that this is your new song off of your new album. You spent the be...

I love podcasts. More specifically, educational podcasts. Even more specifically, educational podcasts about music, business and thinking differently. Oftentimes, though, I'm at a loss when I'm caught up on a podcast I love or just in the mood for something different. I don't lis...

I’ve played about 30-40 house concerts over the past 7 years or so. They are some of my favorite shows I’ve ever done. Now, I’ve played everywhere from bars, theaters, festivals, colleges, clubs and arenas. You name it, I’ve probably played some kind of venue similar to i...

Photo by Abbyshoot PhotographyVery often, people like to try to bring me down and diminish my standing based on their metrics of success. Today I popped over to Amazon because a friend told me my book was still the #1 Best Seller in the Performing Arts Industry category (!!) - 6...

Last night I performed at what's now become ground zero for the LA singer/songwriter scene: Monday Monday.The Monday Monday series at The Hotel Cafe was originally started by singer/songwriter/FOH mixing extraordinaire Joel Eckels at Room 5 in January of 2013 (after filling the p...

I just left the studio last week where we finished the final tracking for my new funk project's debut record. For the past 8 months or so I have been working on this record on and off. My producer, co-front person and I tracked (mixed and mastered) one song to figure out if we we...

A friend of mine with a good following in LA just told me how she showed up to her show last night only to find out that the venue had cancelled it without her knowledge. Another touring artist I know discovered just two days before her LA stop that the promoter had a miscommunic...