About

I am Steve Thomas: entrepreneur, music tech marketing and audio production (composer, producer, audio/mastering engineer, and audio alchemist) consultant. I have worked with a myriad of industry leading consumer and music technology companies and software creators. I produce music for artists, institutions, and creatives working in TV, Film, and all forms of media. I create genre-mashing music under the internationally acclaimed guise Audnoyz.

As a member of Generation Flux, I embrace the blurred lines of a modern career at the intersection of art, music, technology and business.

I have spent the better part of 30 years marketing technology products, with most of the last 20 years marketing music software & hardware products. I got my start in the fast-paced world of technology marketing back in the mid-80s, with Leading Edge Corporation and the launch of the very successful Leading Edge Model D personal computer.  Then getting in on “multimedia” from its inception, marked by the Microsoft launch of the MPC industry standard in 1991, with Dr. T’s Music Software and Composer Quest. That started a successful multi-year run marketing a vast array of consumer edutainment, education, and music software titles.

I ended the Millennium packaging two companies for IPO during the run up to the .com bubble burst.  One of those companies was absorbed by a private equity firm and enjoyed a successful public offering. The other company was a lesson/experience in the ways things worked at the time. The goal: manage chaos towards an outcome regardless of a void in sound company fundamentals. I had a hand at setting the table, via strategic media/communications practices that proved effective in acquiring millions in VC funding.  Little did I know until it was too late, that the company principals had engineered an equity buy-out program netting them Millions. While the VCs and the folks that had invested in those associated funds lost 100s of millions. It was at the conclusion of that bumpy ride I moved back  to the software/hardware side of the Music Industry.  Where I maintain: people don’t get hurt, a la Enron or Essential.com

I then spent a couple years as an outside consultant to Twelve Tone Systems which became Cakewalk Music software, before my almost 11 years run as employee. There I experienced the arc of a small software company become part of a large multinational: Tokyo exchange listed, Roland Corporation. During my tenure at Cakewalk/Roland I had a hand at building brand and making history. Thinking back on the many product launches and innovation campaigns, one topic that lasted through half a decade of product release cycles and probably the most potent for the company was claiming first mover positioning on native 64-bit capability. More about bringing the first 64-bit DAW to market can be found on my A 64-bit Story post.

Today I continue to provide a wide range of strategic marketing  and business development consulting services to companies and institutions large & small.  Whether providing strategic marketing council, employing tactical support, or an informed ear, I take a strategic/integrated approach to marketing and public relations; embracing the interconnectedness of doing business in the Social Era.  Client engagements include educational institutions, entrepreneurial ventures including: cloud-based marketing services and music platform endeavors, the IoT-age  network distributed software framework for all-things-audio, hi-end consumer audio hardware, acoustic treatment solutions, and a cohort of music technology operatives.

On the music-creative side, I have always been active composing /producing music and performing live while maintaining /developing my

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Steve @ Modern World Studios, UK

business acumen. I believe my in-depth understanding of professional music production and performance experience has served me well in various roles marketing music technology products. Before my formal undertaking of music and audio engineering study, I was playing and teaching music at a young age. I was the kid guitar player working with musicians’ decades older in groups like Daybreak, The Fabulous Spidells and remnants of Sha Na Na. The chronology of my music experience including, the genesis of Audnoyz music can be found in the latter part of my “Some History” post.

Beyond artist development, film and soundtrack work, in recent years I organically have fallen into Audio Alchemy. That is the practice of audio repair, polish and preservation to put it simply.  Notable has been my work on remote recording audio clean-up and audio samples for placement in the audiobook production for Dr. Janes Goodall’s My Life With Chimpanzees.  I feel privileged having a hand in preserving a much-loved classic in a new form to reach the Worlds children, in contribution to an ever-enduring legacy

My favorite quote on life sums it up:  “The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.” I add to this quote: “and hopefully make the world a better place.” - George Bernard Shaw

 

In her Musings of A Musical Educator Blog, Dr. Maggie Rizzi puts forward an evocative treatise “The End of the Romantic Era, the time of the Neo-Renaissance Human” where the interconnectedness of my music/technology/entrepreneurial vocation is cited as example.  

 

 
Please reach out to info@atwoodmedia.com with any inquiries.
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