We recently connected with Dan Montano and have shared our conversation below.

Dan, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?

This is a great question, but a hard one because our team has helped so many creatives receive proper credit and payment for their intellectually property. There are so many scenarios I could go into detail on. The few specifically that mean the most are when our company gets a new client (Producer/Loop-maker) on the team, and they tell us about a song that used their melody or loop and they never got paid or credited. These clients most always feel like they would never be able to get through to a major artist or Label and feel helpless. Seeing the client find a sort of motivation and little spark in their tone knowing that we are offering to help them get their proper credit is something I cannot duplicate in any other business that I am apart of. We have Dozens of loop makers in the US and oversees in the UK/Germany/South Korea/etc that we have been able to collect Millions of dollars in Advances and Fees for in the past few years. There is no better feeling than telling a client that we just secured a producer agreement with a 5 figure advance that will be coming their way. We have seen so much life change, clients quit their day jobs to pursue music full time, get their families out of bad situations etc etc. It is truly a blessing to be apart of this model in an industry that is normally so hard to penetrate for people like our clients.

Dan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Most people do not know that I am a registered Financial & Investment Advisor and have been serving clients in the financial services industry since 2013. To switch gears though and talk about how I came to partner with A1 Music Group, I started my Company No Days Off Music Group LLC in 2016 and slowly began spending my free time building relationships and putting in my 10k Hours. Between 2017-2020 I realized quickly that the Music producer community was underserved and a lot easier to maintain than Artist relationships. I pivoted in 2022 after taking 18 months away from the music scene during covid, Came back and started a Producer conglomerate at a local studio here in Tampa called Grand Bay Recording Studios. From there after many ups and downs I was looking to take the next step in gaining the knowledge I was going to need in the industry so I went looking on Instagram for people to set consultations with and learn as much as I could. I came across a few local producers who had major placements with loop makers from other countries and started to do some digging into how, who, what etc. I found in a few of these loop makers BIO on IG there was a guy named @officialdjice and @a1mus.ic so I investigated and sent him a DM in December of 2022. Come to find out he was the owner/founder of one of the fastest growing producer management companies around and had just quit his full time job at Amazon to pursue this opportunity full time and was willing to hold a paid consultation with me. Neither of us knew at the time that it would help propel our relationship to where it is today as CFO/COO of the Company. Long Long story short after Will (DJ ICE) taught me what I needed to know about his business model I promised him that by January I would have 3 clients for us to help. I insisted that he keep the money for the remaining hours that he had not consulted as I knew the information he had provided was life changing. From there I brain stormed with my team and locked in to find as many loop makers and producers that I could who did not have representation. The first person I found online was loop-maker who had barely ever stepped foot into a real studio but also happened to live in Tampa. I invited him to Grand Bay and he taught me everything I needed to know about the loop game. He is know a close friend and business partner of mine, his name ironically is also Will (p/k/a Landshark). From there I doubled down my efforts and came across a few producers online with very large placements with Artists like Kodak Black, Money Man, Young Dolph (RIP), Key Glock and many many more. Will (DJ ICE) knew how serious I was at this point and from there signed me onto the team as an A&R and each month my responsibilities for the company grew and grew. All glory to God for orchestrating the relationship since the beginning and giving both Will (DJ ICE) and I the discernment to know which direction to move for our partnership as well as for our clients each day. In 2023 alone we collected over 1.3 million in advances/fees for 50+ creators all across the world. It has been nothing short of a blessing and the best is yet to come!

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The book that has helped me become the person I am today is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Highly underrated. Along with many other self help and motivational material you will find that a lot of the information within these books comes straight from the source the King James Bible. So many of the success principals out in the market place today find their foundation in the Scriptures. One of my favorite quotes from Think and Grow Rich is from W Clement Stone it says “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve, WITH A positive mental attitude!” One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” There is so much correlation between scripture and self help books its amazing to see, but there is also just as much that is contradictory. I take the good with the bad and try my best to focus on truth! Also check out Les Brown on youtube, look for “It’s not over until you Win” Live from the Georgia Dome. Its one of the best sermons, speeches i’ve heard. Great speaker.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Understanding that I have no rhythm, no musical background and no basic understanding of Protools, FL studio or anything else on that side of the fence, It was vital for me having a passion for Music to find my lane and stick in it. I knew I would need to understand the Music Business better or as well as my peers who had been doing this for 10-20+ years, all while having a full-time career in Finance was going to be no easy task. I did my best connect and spend time with those who knew more, had more experience and had put in more hours than me. This gave me a motivation and a platform in which I could learn things at a quick speed. When Covid hit I really took a step away from Music and focused like most of us on health, Family etc. I was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer that year and my Dad past away so it was God’s way of giving me time to focus on me during that season. in 2022 when the door opened at the new Grand Bay Studios location I knew it was time to get back in the saddle and double down on the relationships I had been maintaining all those years. Reaching out to people that had more knowledge and experience and offering to pay for their time proved to be the smartest and best investment I have ever made in myself and my family, Staying super humble and ego-less was the only way I was able to make that jump.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dmontano215/?ref=o2fxnmjg&hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmontano1