Instrumental Intel - Ep 95 Aligning Voices, Vibes & Vision with GoldN Pieces (2-21-26)

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Achickwitbeatz presents ⁠the Instrumental Intel podcast⁠, bringing you information instrumental to your artistic career including music industry news & tips, insights & interviews, and beats for your inspiration. Listen on Saturdays at 7 pm EST on ⁠⁠⁠Grander Radio⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Achickwitbeatz.com⁠⁠⁠.
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Instrumental Intel Podcast

Achickwitbeatz brings you information instrumental to your artistic career including music industry news, insights, interviews, and beats for your inspiration. Listen on Saturdays at 7 pm ET on ⁠⁠⁠Grander Radio,⁠⁠⁠ Achickwitbeatz.com⁠⁠⁠, and your favorite podcast platform.

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Transcript Generated by Riverside

00:01

Hey, thank you so much for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I am your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz, and I'm excited to be bringing today's episode to you. It's got music industry news, beats by me for your inspiration, and later, I'll be joined by my special guest, GoldN Pieces. We're gonna talk a little bit about aligning voices, vibes, and vision, and so much more.  So before I go ahead and get into it, I wanna make sure that I give a special shout out to my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. And with that,  let's go.

[BEAT BREAK]

14:22

Hey, I'm Achickwitbeatz, multi-genre music producer and strategist to indie artists and labels. Visit achickwitbeatz.com for resources for artists and instrumentals in various genres available for songs, vlogs, blogs, podcasts, themes, TV, film, commercials, and more. Once again, that's achickwitbeatz.com. That's A-C-H-I-C-K-W-I-T-B-E-A-T-Z.com. Let's make something happen.

14:52

Alright, I am music producer Achickwitbeatz back with the music biz brief as promised. First up, the European Commission has approved Universal Music Group's $775 million acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings on the condition that Universal divest Downtown's Curve royalty accounting business due to data access concerns, allowing the rest of the deal, including FUGA, CD Baby, and Songtrust, to move forward under Virgin Music Group. If you've been following that one sk-

15:20

been kind of hanging in the balance for a while, but there you go. So we'll have to see how this plays out. Spotify says it's ready to launch AI tools that let fans create remixes and covers of existing songs inside the platform, framing derivatives as new revenue streams for artists' catalogs. The company confirmed that they're working with industry partners on disclosure standards and maintains that it won't move forward with AI deals that aren't beneficial to artists.

15:48

Once again, that's something we're gonna have to see how it plays out. Music rights company Iconoclast is in talks for a potential $500 million sale. The catalog generates roughly 25 to 35 million annually,  giving the deal 14x to 20x earnings multiple. The company was founded in 2021 and holds rights to artists including Nickelback, Tony Bennett, Eve, Giorgio Moroder, and publishing catalogs tied to Beyonce and Diplo. The company focuses on brand and legacy management, NIL rights,

16:17

and emerging tech, including monitoring generative AI use of artist likeness. In 2025, the combined global Spotify stream share of the three major labels and Merlin rose to 72% from 71% in 2024, making it the first year-over-year gain since 2017. The increase was driven by top-performing releases like Bad Bunny's album via The Orchard and strategic acquisitions, including Universal's 2024 purchase of [PIAS]. Non-major and independent companies held 28% of streams.

16:47

The majors in Merlin are slightly regaining ground after years of losing market share to independence.  Universal Music Group signed a multi-year deal with superfan platform, Even, to power direct-to-consumer sales and fan engagement for artists worldwide. The agreement gives Universal's labels access to tools for early releases, exclusive content, community features, and physical merch sales through Even's infrastructure. The partnership expands Universal's overall push into superfan monetization.

17:16

And I've seen some of the chatter online around this. It seems like a lot of people are excited and, you know, I guess it's a great opportunity for Even and of course for Universal as well. But,  you know, I personally would be kind of concerned about taking away that kind of access from true independent artists.  But again, we'll see what happens.

17:37

All right, and TikTok and Apple Music are testing a feature that lets users stream full songs inside TikTok through an active Apple Music subscription without leaving the app. The beta integration powered by Apple's Music Kit would route royalties through Apple, and the companies are also testing a listening party tool for shared in-app streaming. The collaboration builds on TikTok's growing influence in music discovery as Apple Music looks to strengthen its position against Spotify.

18:02

And finally, Alliance Entertainment sold 16.3 million vinyl records and over 13 million CDs in 2025, with fourth quarter vinyl revenue up 3% year over year and CD revenue up 5%, boosted by its exclusive distribution deal with Virgin Music Group. Full year vinyl revenue was flat at $344 million despite higher unit sales, while CD revenue fell 6% to $124 million.

18:27

The company is also expanding into authenticated collectibles offering vinyl releases with embedded technology to track ownership,  as physical formats remain a strong collector-driven category. Alright, that's it for this week's music biz brief. I'm gonna take a quick pause for the cause and then I'll be back with my special guest right after this. GoldN Pieces. Keep it locked.

[BEAT BREAK]

33:42

Hey, I'm Achickwitbeatz, multi-genre music producer and strategist to indie artists and labels. Visit achickwitbeatz.com for resources for artists and instrumentals in various genres available for songs, vlogs, blogs, podcasts, themes, TV, film, commercials, and more. Once again, that's achickwitbeatz.com. That's A-C-H-I-C-K-W-I-T-B-E-A-T-Z.com. Let's make something happen.

34:12

Hey, thank you so much for tuning in to instrumental intel. I'm your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz, and I'm excited to say that I have some very talented ladies in the building with me today.  GoldN Pieces. If you could let everybody know a little bit about who you are and uh how you got started on this journey that you're on right now.

34:34

Well, hello, we're GoldN Pieces. I'm Mia. I'm Day. I'm Brie. And I would like to say our journey really just started with friendship and freedom. If we could put it into two words, we really love music and we love music that make you feel good, but also just music you can feel in general, which we feel is missing from now. So that's mainly our thing is just to bring the good vibes and good frequencies to people. Yeah, I totally agree with that as well, too.

35:04

I feel like uh music is an outlet. It's healing, creating it and listening to it. And that's something that always steered me into music and singing as well,  Yeah, I feel like music has just always been a feel-good thing for people, no matter  to what capacity. But we like to really try to incorporate our good vibes and good feelings into the songs and music that we make.  And so we're able to pass it on to others.

35:34

I love that. Yeah. You said that you feel that it's missing and I also feel the same way.  My family knows I complain about it all the time, know, turn on the radio. I'm like, goodness, where the good songs? It’s just so sad. Why is it? Yeah.  So with that being said, the fact that you can recognize that kind of shows that maybe you grew up listening to specific people who were some of your influences that kind of help you know, to keep that positive vibe and energy up.

36:04

Golden, we have a lot of like inspirations like Earth, Wind, and Fire, Jimi Hendrix, neosoul, Frank Ocean, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, uh Jill Scott as well. Sadé. Sadé, yes. We have a lot of collective inspirations. Thank you, Beyonce. Tyler the Creator, like we love a lot of

36:32

different artists and we take a lot from each and every one of them because they're all so different, but they all bring hefty vibes when it comes to music. And I just feel like when you got the vibes, we got the vibes. try to give the vibes. You definitely give off the vibes too, just for the record.  Thank you.  Yeah. mean, you know, just kind of pulled me in immediately when listening and you

37:02

that your voices blend together so well. And another thing I kind of wanted to ask about is your vocal arrangements. That's another thing that I noticed has kind of been missing in most modern music. So like, how do you kind of get into the vibe to know how to arrange music instead of just kind of sticking with the same free notes like most people do on the radio now? Yeah, I would definitely say our music-making process might be a little different.

37:30

We usually just listen to the beat and then we feel what fits best for us. And it usually, it comes together every time. So it's really just alignment honestly, oh with the track arrangements and how we sing in the new arrangements and we just kind of fill in each other. It's all about filling in. Yeah.  We just, each one of us  write all of our uh parts and we arrange each one of our parts and we overlap over each other just off of filling. oh

37:59

I think that's probably the reason why it's so intentional or at least feels that way because it truly really is that.  We are very,  we love layers.  think that's- Layer it down. Yeah.  I think we just fill it, we fill it up and then we also fill it so that it's something adding things. It's not just hooting and hollering. uh

38:25

over the track. Every adlib, every layer has a purpose. Yeah, we try to really just keep adding until  it feels correct.  If that makes sense, because sometimes you're going and you're like, it sounds good, but it's not there yet. That's when we just add three more layers to it.  Yeah, I think we like to feel like submerged. Yes. I think that's what the layer is.

38:54

It kind of gives off our own ambiance and feeling. It's almost like we're in GoldN Pieces world. Yes. And we all have range as well. So I think that's probably why it's not just the same three notes. We're all different registers. And not only that, we all have good range. So we feel like if you have it, you should use it. Love that. OK, so you mentioned the friendship. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came together and...

39:23

the origin story, if you will. Of course, me and Mia, we have been friends for...  Nice. ...nice  years.  A very,  very long time. And we met Nayana through a mutual friend um in 2020, and then we all sort of just clicked.  And then in like January or like early February of 2024, ah were... Tamiya called us and she was like,

39:53

we should start a girl group. And I was like, I've been saying this for years. been saying this for years because Nayana is like a vocal guru and she just loves everything vocals and the girl can sing. So we heard her like singing just all throughout and me and Mia, have a lot of like vocal ability as well, just naturally, but Nay,

40:23

works on her vocals and has been in choir and things and stuff like that. So it was like, okay, we gonna do the same piece. yeah, yeah. We were like, I'm finding it. I found it.  I found it. Yeah. So  it just sort of took off after she brought that up to us. She was like,  yeah, I think we should start a girl group. And so  we did.  And I was definitely down, of course.

40:51

All right. So do all of you have choir backgrounds? So I was in choir, I want to say through middle school, through high school a little bit. But we can tell you our school when it came to performing arts in general, most of the budget went to sports. Yes, football specifically. But I did do church choir for a millisecond.

41:17

I do have church choir background, you know, because my mom and my grandma, they both directed the choir. My grandma played the organ.  And even at my other grandma's house, I was required to do everything because it was a family church. So  I had to sing wherever I went.  It was a requirement until I was 13. Yeah.  So was really in you, like, yeah, just your whole life. Wow. I've been in choir since...

41:45

elementary school, but I've been singing since I was four. So I've really been in choir like throughout all of my school years and I'm in school for music. So it's kind of just been built in. Yeah, I've been in regular choir, show choir, competition show choir. So yeah, very choir, choir kids. Yeah, recently seen a

42:12

theory floating around online. can't remember if it was Facebook or Instagram, but it was one where they were saying like, yeah, you know, more of these people need to have choir training and like you can kind of the difference. Like when I heard the three of you, I thought that like, okay, yeah, they sound like they've been in a choir before because you're not  fighting,  you know, like, you know how to find the balance and all that and just kind of blend together so well. oh

42:38

I would say anything my mom is my choir director. My mom is mine too. We used to do like karaoke at home. That's the most I got.  I would say that was better than Creeped.  Horrible, horrible choir. m Oh, but we did do jazz choir recently. We forgot about that.  Yeah, we did jazz choir. Yeah, because we go to college together. that was definitely something. Oh, wow.  It  was definitely something.

43:06

There's a backstory there. We love jazz, all three of us, yes. Oh, great. Well, who are some of the jazz influences? I know most of the people that you already mentioned, you know, pretty much have that basis, but are there any particular jazz musicians that you kind of reflect on when you think about that? I would say I love Ella Fitzgerald. Yes, I'd that, yes. Sade is just my favorite. I love the way she does jazz. And I would even say Frank Sinatra.

43:36

Those are my top three. ah I'm a really huge fan of Billie Holiday as well.  I think that

43:46

She just has a wonderful voice. you can, I feel like she also really brings that feeling to her music. Whatever she's saying, you feel like you're there. You're feeling it. And she's definitely a favorite of mine. Yeah, I would definitely say, I've definitely submerged more so into the R &B side.

44:11

But as far as like jazz artists, I would definitely say I can take a few things from Ella Fitzgerald. Like her techniques, her vocal ability is out of this world. So definitely, definitely OG to look up for jazz. I would say Ella Fitzgerald for me. Absolutely. Okay. So now we know you've got like the neo soul, the soul, the R &B train, the jazz, all that good stuff.

44:37

Is there any particular song or genre that you kind of listened to that you might get influenced from, but somebody would be surprised to hear? I would say for me, love Nirvana and death tones. I love rock music, but not the heavy metal. Can't really get into that too much, but I do like rock sound and I feel like it's not enough spotlight on black women who like more genres than just neo soul and dark B.

45:07

Yeah, I agree. I would definitely say, I would take from Nirvana a little bit. I think it was Kurt Cobain. Yeah, he did that vocal fry. I was like, that's cool. I would take that, switch it up to natural a little bit. And I would also say Willow Smith. do like a little bit of like alternative pop rock type of eyes. Really, she do like alternative jazz. She does do jazz bit.

45:36

most recent album. Which was amazing. Yeah, and her technique was like really great being able to fuse those two things and she was a lot of projection as well too and then on top of it like jazz techniques, that's that's techniques just clashing together so respect.  I would say for me I like I have a very wide range of things that I take

46:05

inspiration from because I literally listen to all kinds of music. So I definitely take inspiration from rock. I definitely take inspiration from like some heavy metal like Korn. But I also take a lot of inspiration from K-pop because the way that they like use their voice to bring like a sense of joy in the songs is

46:33

very specific in particular and I love  it. And I try to incorporate that when I can. You do bring the good energy to the track. oh Making this her part, you want to get high. Yeah, I really  try. All right. So we talked about like your actual technique and your voices, but how do you get into the songwriting?

47:01

Is there anything in particular that you  kind of do to, or is it just, you know, it just kind of comes to you? How do you guys kind of balance that out? So I actually have a great answer. I think you do.  So I don't think many people know this about us, but Nayana originally  lived in the same area as us. And then she moved  miles away to Tennessee. Yes. While we created a group.

47:30

So she was actually not even living in the same state as us. uh So our songwriting process, I think that built the structure of it was we were used to basically doing it remotely.  And then we would come up with courses or uh any bridges or things like that together.  But I will say basically what we do is we arrange our parts and then we come together,  we piece things together. And then that's our process.  Because we come up with a concept.

47:59

to feel like when we listen to the beat, we're like, okay, what does this make us think about? What does this remind me of? Yeah. And then we'll kind of like... We like to get wacky with it. Yeah.  So a lot of times we hear a beat, we say the first thing that comes to mind, like  we've this before where we said whack-a-mole and chocolate, and we'll  interpret it in a creative way and turn it into something where people wouldn't even know that's what we're writing about. Yeah. It's very...

48:27

It's very like on the nose kind of when we like think of something, we just think of like whatever and then the rest of it just sort of flows out and comes together  somehow.  We're honestly not really sure.  It just works for, it just works every time. It just works for us.  Yeah, I feel like we leave room for interpretation too. Yeah, we like to feel everything that goes down to the arrangements, to the songwriting. We just feel it.

48:55

And we work off of that.  Honestly, I would just say we use God and alignment a lot to just help guide us on what we feel like is needed.  I love that. That's really uh refreshing to hear.  a lot of the people that listen to the podcast are also artists.  And so, you know, for anybody that's  checking this out, if they want to collaborate with you, what are some of the things that you look for?

49:22

you know, if that's something that you're even open to at this point. I say we would look for like-minded individuals that not they don't have to make music like us, but it does have to be very intentional and it has to have at least some type of intellect. Yes. We because of the way that we go about our music and how we feel about it and the process of it as well.

49:52

We just need somebody that is going to feel and do that sort of same thing. And that can match our lyrics and vibe and feeling without being... What's the... You don't have to be careful, it's okay. Yeah, I would say it's just mainly, um, we like to, a lot of times when we write, people wouldn't even know it's about...

50:21

A lot of times we like to talk about world issues without making it too deep and deaf on the surface, where if you wish to analyze our lyrics and break it down, ah that we take from Erykah Badu. We like having to decipher the true meaning, but also having multifaceted lyrics because we like the fact that people, it's so many different,  our personalities are completely different.

50:49

Yes, but we make it work because at the end of the day, like we have something in common, which is love. And we really want to make sure like our music is broadcasting that same feeling. So if anyone was to work with us, they will just have to have that same love, light and intellect. Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, you know, for anybody out there listening, you heard what they said. Keep that in mind before you start hitting those DMs and all that stuff. so, okay.

51:18

I think it's really interesting that you didn't start working together musically until recently. It sounds like you've been doing this together for a very long time. What advice would you have to offer anybody listening that, you know, wants to work with other people but don't know how to make it flow the same way that you're able to? I would definitely say, I feel like you kind of have to figure out individually  what pace they're on, what their strengths are, their weaknesses. oh

51:48

And I feel like being able to bring in the similarities will make it easier to bring in. And also getting on the same track of what you're trying to talk about, what you want the audience to feel, what  do you feel when you're doing  the music, the songwriting process, everything like that. uh I would say just make sure like everything is aligning, even when it's not even the music part first, like y'all individual, like spirituality or what you got going on personally. I feel like once you align,

52:18

then everything else will come with the music aligning to and everything in that process. Yes. I would also say that you have to find a level of trust in each other in order to get things done. And you also have to have a level of love and respect for each other in order for the ball to keep rolling. Because you're going to have disagreements. You're going to maybe even have a fight or an argument. I mean.

52:45

We ain't really had that, you  know, others,  you may come across that and you have to be able to  move forward with that and know that you guys are just looking for what's best for one another and for your arrangement. Because if you don't have love, trust and respect, it's...  Yeah, and patience. Yes, a lot of patience, because you're going to see a lot of these people  all the time.

53:13

So you already know how it is when it's a whole bunch of women together. Things can get a little catty. Yeah. know, it's a fact of life. It really is. that's what happens when a lot of power get in one room. Yeah. So that is, you all have been down this. I love that.

53:40

Women power. Yes. Now that you've been doing this for a bit, what are some of the things that you've learned that you feel might've been kind of helpful if you knew first getting into it, but you know, know the lesson now? I feel like definitely for all of us that we want is that business is a very big part of being in the music. It's 90 % business, 10 % music.

54:10

I feel like what I've learned as well too is having three completely different people, we all got different music tastes, we see music differently, hear music differently, aligning that just knowing that this is gonna take time. This is gonna take time, but enjoy the process as you're going through it and just being patient and giving yourself grace individually as well. I would also say something we know now.

54:37

that we probably didn't really think about before is that knowing a producer  is amazing  because  you know finding beats on YouTube is rough.  It's hard, you don't get good stuff, they don't respond when you try to buy a beat. Just knowing somebody that makes a beat or that you can work with to make a good beat, that goes a long way. I know y'all got a friend out there or something that can make that.

55:04

put something together.  One thing I would say as well, definitely no labels. um Labels  is a no-go. I think we knew that off the rib. But once we really did research, we was like, OK,  no labels. I would definitely say contracts.  And  yes, definitely contracts for everything.  And I would say definitely if I recommend anything to a new artist is to document any finance that they're doing for tax reasons. um

55:34

It can get really expensive. would definitely say  budgeting  is important, especially if you want to go the independent route.

55:44

Document everything is a good one. Yes. Absolutely. A great thing. try it. Yes, they will.  And also I would say you don't have to have a manager as well. I think that's a big misconception that a lot of new artists  think or even they think like, oh, you need a label, you need a manager, you need a this, that. Like a lot of times you really don't. A solid team and good people in your corner. That  will take you pretty far. That will get the job done. Excellent advice. oh

56:13

As far as the management goes, a lot of things that people don't realize that you have to have a lot of stuff going in order to manage. You can't have them just, you know, go out there and get it for you. yeah, that's an excellent point. Same thing with the contracts. One of my favorite quotes is actually from Ghostface Killer, where he said, if you do homeboy business, you get stuck with the homeboy outcome. So no matter how close you are, definitely got to have that paperwork because we've seen friendships and groups destroyed over that.

56:42

So,  mean, yeah, even  looking at what's happening with salt and pepper right now, they can't even get their rights back because they never actually had them  for the new Burt back to them. it's. So many stories like that. So yeah, super important.  All right. And so I can't believe how quickly this time has gone by.  I want to make sure that everyone knows  what you've got in the pipeline and. uh

57:09

where they can find your upcoming music and also stay connected with you as well. Yeah, I would definitely say right now we've been working on growing our vault. We have our platforms, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube for our upcoming music coming up. And I feel like we just kind of want to spread awareness in all aspects, but in GoldN Pieces way, of course. And definitely expect the EP.

57:39

Um, so yes,  that we will be working on.  we have been already working on. Yeah. It's just a matter of the, um,  finding good beats and producers and things like that. It's a process, but, um,  one thing I'll say people can expect with our next project that is going to be the best we put out thus far. story.  Amazing. All right. And so do you want to drop any handles anywhere collectively, individually, any shout outs?

58:06

You can just follow us on all platforms. It's GoldN Pieces spelled G-O-L-D-N. yeah, that's all flats. That will give you any information. And shout out to DDS for getting us the Careview and getting us the connect and just setting up this amazing conversation. All right. Well, I'd like to thank you for taking time to come in and share.

58:31

Um, all your story and all the knowledge that you shared as well.  this is an educational podcast as well. You guys dropped a whole bunch of gems. So definitely appreciate that. And I also want to make sure that, you know, that the door is open for you to come back in the future. So I'm hoping that this is just a part one  and, uh yeah, everybody keep up with what they're doing and make sure that you follow them everywhere that they said and check out what they've got going on. You will not be disappointed. I promise you. And you.

59:00

Probably have only heard me say that maybe five times like this entire run. is what episode 95. So yeah, but definitely. I hope that you can come back and share more with what you're doing when it's close to time for that new EP to drop. Maybe we can have it back then. We also. All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. We appreciate it. It's a pleasure.

59:30

Alright, and that's a wrap for this episode of Instrumental Intel. I've been your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz,  and I want to thank you for joining me.  I'd like to thank my special guests, GoldN Pieces, for coming through and sharing their story.  And I'd like to thank my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Make sure you come back next week. I got more goodness lined up for you. until next time, you know where to find me. Tune in, tell a friend, and I'll see you then.  Peace.