Daniels College of Business (DCB) educates many young business students every year, including second-year Erik Schutzler, recently graduated alumnus Clayton Shaver and fourth year Josh Todtfeld. After the trio met through the Sigma Chi fraternity and bonded over music, Soul Explosion Entertainment was born.
Soul Explosion Entertainment is a music promotion company that finds talent from all over the world, organizes shows, and then helps talent with social media and blogs relating to music news. For now, the company is working with mostly EDM artists.
“We are focusing on breaking into the EDM market first, specifically with 16 to 30-year-olds,” Schutzler said in an interview with the Clarion. “Denver has one of the biggest EDM markets and it’s really starting to grow. It’s really easy to go international with EDM as well.”
While Soul Explosion Entertainment is focusing on EDM, they hope to branch out into alternative or possibly hip-hop. The company has around 25 brand ambassadors located across the country who are working on spreading influence and news, so as its reach grows, its ability to expand into other genres will surely increase.
A music promotion company will normally contact agencies about talent that its employees have scouted—Soul Explosion usually finds talented DJs on SoundCloud, a music distribution outlet. Soul Explosion will then work with these agencies to promote the talent through social media, blogging, booked shows and other events.
“We usually become close with certain agencies,” said Schutzler. “We are particularly close with Creative Artists Agency in LA, Spin Artists LA and William Morris in Denver.”
It can be extremely difficult to break into the music promo industry due to overpopulation, but these DU students are making it work despite other huge commitments like school and fraternity life. Right now, Soul Explosion is focusing on one of their upcoming shows at the Gothic Theatre on June 3 where Speaker of the House and Two Friends will be performing.
“You just have to align yourselves with correct people with good mindsets,” said Schutzler. “It’s a lot of planning and a lot of groundwork, but if you like that and you think it’s for you, you can either start your own music promotion agency or join one.”
