{"id":181295,"date":"2023-12-18T20:33:34","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T20:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=181295"},"modified":"2023-12-19T13:42:53","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T13:42:53","slug":"russ-on-independence-e5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/russ-on-independence-e5\/","title":{"rendered":"Russ on independence, entrepreneurialism, and what he’d change about the music business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trailblazers is an MBW interview series that turns the spotlight on music entrepreneurs with the potential to become the global business power players of tomorrow. This time, we speak to artist and producer, Russ. Trailblazers is supported by\u00a0TuneCore<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

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As the name of this series suggests, and explains in the opener above, MBW’s Trailblazers turns the spotlight on some of the contemporary music industry\u2019s most interesting entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

For the final installment of 2023, we caught up with Russ, an independent artist who has been challenging the power dynamic of the music business for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

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Russ (Russell Vitale) is a rapper, singer, songwriter, producer, record label owner<\/a> and best-selling author<\/a> who achieved significant success independently before signing a deal with Columbia Records in late 2016, releasing his major label debut, There’s Really a Wolf, <\/em>in May 2017.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

His career has been one defined by DIY ethics \u2013 writing, producing and engineering There\u2019s Really a Wolf<\/em> himself \u2013 and releasing a vast volume of self-produced work prior to achieving wider mainstream attention following the release of that album.<\/p>\n

Russ points to his ‘do it yourself’ approach and high creative output on the track, I\u2019m Here,<\/em> from There’s Really a Wolf, <\/em>in which he proclaims:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cSingin’, rappin’, mixin’ masterin’, engineerin’ producin’\/That’s every song with no exception, plus the catalog longer than a lot of veterans.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He released 11 mixtapes independently between 2011 and 2014 and a song a week on SoundCloud<\/a> for \u201ctwo and a half years straight\u201d prior to signing with Columbia.<\/p>\n

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