Today we’d like to introduce you to Gerald Johnson III.
Hi Gerald, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started my company Audio Grinderz in Nashville, TN over 10 years ago. It all began with me wanting to provide a cd/dvd duplication business for artist & labels that couldn’t afford the Nashville “Music Row” prices. I was already quite known in my city for having a production company & putting together a local DVD series called “Rep Yo City”. Rep Yo City was a DVD series to where my team & myself traveled across Nashville to film artist in the studio/their neighborhood & allow them to rap for the camera. We then since we owned DVD duplicators pressed up thousands of DVDs and flooded the market with them. Each DVD had our business number on it & people would call in & tell us who they liked the most. This ended up getting us featured in the prime spots of Nashville, Chattanooga & Kentucky. As the series grew so did the name “Audio Grinderz”. Around this time I joined Twitter, as it was a new app not too many new about it, imagine that lol. I wanted to use my profile as more of a who’s who directory for the industry. So what I did was I started putting out tweets everyday about certain artist & entrepreneurs. The tweets would be something along the lines of: MAG TO KNOW: @voyageatl is your one stop shop for discovering new faces & brands in Atlanta! Follow them & tell them Audio sent you!….These type of tweets began to gain traction as I was putting them out manually everyday for certain brands. My DMs started to grow with new artist & labels asking could I promo their clients/rosters. This then lead to me being paid to tweet w/ affiliate programs & partnerships. I was able to land gigs w/ Pepsi, Beats by Dre, Essence, even down to Breathe Right nasal strips lol. At that time social media promo didn’t really exist in the way I was doing it. I ended up being followed by famous artist/producers such as Timbaland, Jeramine Dupri, Anthony Hamilton, Marsha Ambrosia, Mya, Syleena Johnson, Musiq Soulchild, Tori Kelly, Codi Simpson, Jade Novah etc….All from my daily tweets & support of their music & brands. I then was approached by Tamika Foster who was a huge fashion stylist for music videos in Atlanta, about coming down & networking. From that she introduce me to my first Atlanta connect Sakeya Donaldson who was also a top tier stylist. I actually came to Atlanta & interviewed Sakeya at one of her sneaker boutiques at the time. From there she planted the seed of me moving to Atlanta and getting my feet wet in the industry. She told me you’re already linking so many people via Twitter you’d be able to do it in the physical world too. Fast forward about 5 months later I officially moved to Atlanta! Once I got to the city I stayed w/ one my mentors for about 4 months & just soaked up game & and went to countless meetings. From these meetings I was meeting seasoned industry elites, as my mentor had been doing artist management for years. I took all of the information and insight & just began carving out my space in the city. The beauty in creating something from scratch is you have the ability to mold it into whatever you want it to become! I watched my cd/dvd duplication business blossom into an online marketing firm!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely wasn’t a smooth road at first lol. I had to figure out what to call myself like am I publicist or digital marketer, or brand developer…the titles went on & on lol. Then from there I had to establish a payment tier. So I had to decide how much is a tweet worth? & outside of that how much are my ideas worth?! I’ll never forget my first real paying client that wasn’t a company was Doll Phace look her up she’s a powerhouse in the film & media world. I was introduced to her via Twitter by the great actress Elise Neal. Elise had been telling Doll about my services & how consistent and professional I was. Doll Phace immediately wanted to have lunch and asked me to meet her @ a venue in downtown LA! I was like wait I live in Atlanta lol & she was like what? You don’t live in LA you know everyone out here?…That’s when I realized my reach & the power of social media. Long story short, she wired me a payment for 3 months of services off the bat!!! That’s when I realized my title was my name I’m Audio The Plug!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a music/entertainment digital marketer that specializes in digital streaming. So that means I’m in the Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube & Amazon Music world daily. I’m known for playlisting artists & growing & monetizing YouTube channels for artist & labels. I’m most proud of being able to be a part of all genres of music. I’ve had success in the pop world as well as success in the R&B/Hip Hop space. What sets me apart from others is my ability to adapt to all environments & strategize a win no matter the obstacle. I’m able to speak to all walks of life & connect. That’s my strong suit, that’s what make me Audio The Plug!
I also own an upcoming production company called Next Up Online where we conduct interviews and curate events for artist & creatives alike. You can search Next Up Online on YouTube & Instagram & see what we’ve been up to & who have all stopped by to chat w/ us.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
German Woodson (Mentor) – German was the first person to teach me the game. He taught me about publishing & registering records correctly. He also taught me radio and knowing your artist markets.
Stephan Curtis (Mentor) – Stephan was the first person to invest in my ideas for media. He helped me link with some of my first celebs in Atlanta & help me land some awesome interviews coming up. He also allowed me to stay with him when I moved down from Nashville.
Country C (First Atlanta Client) – Country C was my first real client in Atlanta. He was an independent artist from South Carolina that I met from German & Stephan. Country & myself traveled the US and made connections all over lol. Whatever he didn’t know, I did or we learned it together. He was my first artist placement in a magazine, which was Hip Hop Weekly at the time. My first college radio tour/s, DJ conventions (Core DJs), mainstream Radio Play, Television Placements etc.! You can now catch him on Noisey TV with his hit car show Donkmaster!
Mishon Ratliff (Artist, Actor) – Mishon was one of my longest direct clients. Through the Mishon deal, I got to work directly through Columbia Records. During this time I worked directly with everyone from Jermaine Dupri, Sean Garrett, Bryan Michael Cox, Troy Taylor, Ne-Yo, Johnta Austin. The list goes on, these years are what molded me into who I am today. I learned the business from all aspects with this client.
Davron Alford – Davron came onto my team about 3 years ago from working at one of my studios in Buckhead at the time. Davron came onto Audio Grinderz and immediately got to work by merging his client list with the services we provide. He’s since then became an industry go to himself, but always stands on Audio Grinderz business first.
Inez Johnson – My mother has to be my biggest motivator & inspiration to keep going. She’s never told me what I couldn’t do & to this day she encourages me to dig deeper and go after my dreams.
Contact Info:
- Email: audiotheplug@gmail.com
- Instagram: http://www.Instagram.com/audiotheplug
- Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/audiogrinderz
- Youtube: http://www.YouTube.com/nextuponline
Image Credits:
Gerald Johnson III – Gee Shot Me photography
