Today we’d like to introduce you to Ari Meyerowitz.
Hi Ari, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The term music itself is a broad umbrella, though the endless opportunities that unveil themselves when you truly explore it have gotten me to where I am at today. Unlike ever before, music has provided a gateway for me to transform out of my everyday self and observe the world from a perspective that would otherwise be unattainable. Beginning as a hobby, music has developed into a multi-purpose forum for personal growth and educating myself on global subjects. To many passive listeners, music can come off as mere background noise. While that perception is understandable to active listeners like myself, music is a collection of captivating sounds, and my enjoyment sources from analyzing albums, making true connections with artists and creatively expressing my passion for the music industry.
This pass time has now evolved into a forum for countless virtual business communications between artists, managers, labels, and myself, as well as the simultaneous development of music-related content and originally curated playlists. Over the last three years, I have steadily cultivated a virtual profile where I can showcase this hobby for an audience that is as interested as myself. It was quite taxing to expand my platform, as I began sacrificing north of 30 hours a week into steady content production. But as I continued to create, the numbers followed. Fast forward two years, and this presence has evolved onto multiple music-related platforms, amounting over 100,000 followers across all sites.
Beyond what is seen on my public profile, I have the honor of being 1 of the 800 professional curators on Playlist Push’s database (a renowned playlist curation service) that serves as a forum for playlist creators and artists to communicate for mutual benefit. A byproduct of this is how it exposes me to high-quality songs from various genres that I may have never discovered otherwise. Resultingly, it is an outlet that I can seek when I want to discover and actively pursue new music. I am expanding my musical knowledge while the artists have the opportunity to “spot” in a playlist of mine with high levels of commercial interaction.
With the business and communication skills that I have established through these services, I have even created opportunities for myself whereby clients contact me directly to utilize my services. My offers include but are not limited to making personalized content for prosperous artists, working together with companies on advertisements and promotional campaigns, custom curating personal and corporate playlists, and offering placements in my naturally grown Spotify collections to harness interaction towards small artists. I can now comfortably allocate this time to zone out every day to devote effort into my content, as a solid return for my time has been established in both musical knowledge and payments.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The path to where I am at right now was not smooth, but it is a journey I wouldn’t trade for the world. I began this platform during the quarantine stage of the pandemic, and I was simultaneously a student in high school. As someone who has always prioritized their grades over their hobbies, I had a hard time justifying my creations in the beginning stages. For a very long period of time, I was steadily creating 2-3 videos a day, spending almost 6 hours filming and editing, but had an audience that I could count on my fingers. With no financial or opportunity return on these creations, it was very difficult to justify.
Time and time again, I contemplated quitting. I did not see a sustainable outcome with my platform. All but a handful of the creators that had influenced me to make my account had quit theirs and focused on other things in their personal life. I frequently wondered if I should do the same.
Music being a very subjective industry, disagreement is very common. While I always promoted an accepting community with people of all tastes, I have had my fair share of interactions with negative people. I have always done my best to not let other people’s comments or beliefs get to me, but when you are already contemplating your future alone, the words can tamper with your mindset. I received this negative discourse from some “peers” of mine as well, who cared more about hating on the opportunity I was trying to build for myself than seeing me try to build something successful for myself.
Like many creators, in addition to every struggle, you also are in a constant uphill battle against an unforgiving algorithm. Sacrificing personal creativity to follow a trend for views, spending hours of time analyzing sounds and hashtags for optimum performance, and fighting off faulty guidelines are just scratching the surface of the pebbles in this long road. I deal with this most severely to this date and will likely have this challenge for the rest of my creating career.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Content Creator: Through steady analytical music content creation, I have founded and developed a community of over 100,000 devoted followers. I specialize in providing rap news updates, promoting playlists, reviewing music, uplifting the rising music/creative scene, and creating relatable music-related content.
Playlist Curator: Employed to consider and review song submissions from rising artists around the world into my monetized Spotify playlists. They submit to me as a curator for the opportunity to place their song a playlist of mine, where they will then receive active streams.
I am most proud of my ability to grow this platform as a one-man show and being able to monetize a platform that very few were able to. Further, my constant progression as a creative is something I like to reflect on, as I have developed creative, editing, and graphic design skills that I did not have prior. I also take pride in helping others pursue this journey should they be interested.
Compared to other accounts, I try to be active and engaging in my community. By responding to almost all of my comments, answering DM’s, taking requests, and going live, I am able to maintain a close relationship with my followers.
Further, I provide a higher quality of video delivery than a lot of people within my niche. I take pride in ensuring every video is visually engaging and appeals to any viewer who stumbles across it.
What’s next?
As a means of testing the waters, this work has been a perfect introduction to the music industry. Being able to maintain communications with aspiring artists and work with them to kickstart their careers has made this persistent effort beyond justifiable. I plan to continue creating content and offering my services to these companies for the near future, but in the long term, I plan to use them as a stepping stone into a more paramount industry job.
In the coming months, I will be graduating high school. I will be pursuing what I have begun at the University of Florida by studying both business and music-related studies at the collegiate level. As I further enhance the skillset that I have already developed, I can enhance my knowledge and contribute to the music industry in an impactful and personalized way.
While attending college, I plan to explore and surround myself with the rising creative scene in Gainesville, so I can use my platform to promote artists and create content. I have begun networking with creatives and plan to take my brand to the next level once I live there permanently.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://beacons.ai/arimeyer
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ari.meyerrr/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBd2swXjZ2ct0nFD72Rmoew
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/superkool23?si=5d776ed85ae34e75
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@arimeyerrr
