Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Arnau Bosch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Arnau, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I’ve been passionate about Music since I was seven years old when I got my first guitar. I come from a family where Music and art, in general, are part of our culture and our lives. So, I dreamed about being a musician and making my life around that. But that dream was evident pretty early on that it would not happen for me.
Technology and multimedia were something me and my brother have always been attracted to, and thanks to my parents, we saw that as a potential career path.
I didn’t think about multimedia and technology as a creative and artistic path until I started working in the advertising industry. Since Music for me was never approached as a way of earning money, art, and creativity were always looked as a self-expression method and a way of transmitting an emotion.
I started in a small digital company in Barcelona, and little by little, I started realizing the importance of creativity and the difference between art and what we do as creatives in the advertising world.
Once we started getting briefs from clients (a problem they have or a goal they want to achieve), our team started asking for creative solutions and strategies to solve those problems and goals. And then is when I started to think creatively and really started understanding the importance of having interests, and sick wider knowledge and inputs, to be able to understand user behaviors, and consumer needs and interests…
Then is when my perception of creativity changed completely from a self-expression act to an exercise to solve problems for other entities, brands, and people.
And since Music would not be the source of income for me, that started to gain more interest to me, and I started to really love the challenges that advertising was presenting to me.

Arnau, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m originally from a town near the city of Barcelona, born into a family that breathes love, passion, and culture. As I mentioned, Music was the first love of my life, and for years I tried to find ways to be able to live off that passion.
Then, I discovered other forms of art and creativity until I discovered the advertising industry and how to communicate brand messages and products. Initially in the digital world and internet, and later through other media.
After 5 years of working for a digital company in Barcelona, I got the opportunity to move to Amsterdam and work for global brands in an international company named Wieden + Kennedy.
During those years, my vision expanded, and I was fortunate to work with the most creative minds I’ve ever worked with. There is where I learned the importance of craft, teamwork, what really thinking outside the box means, and how much knowledge is needed for this industry, and how little I was.
After 5 years in Amsterdam, working for brands like Nike, Lego, Coca-Cola, Activision, and Adidas, and after having some recognition at the Cannes International Awards, the opportunity to move to the US opened to me.
First, I moved to San Francisco to work for a smaller company that was doing less traditional advertising work, presenting new ways of communication, and creating content for brands.
I lived, loved, and worked in that city for a couple of years until I got a call from 72 and Sunny to offer me a position in their L.A. office. A city that I wasn’t really a fan of, but the opportunity was great.
Always following my but and always open for opportunities to learn and expand my experiences, I decided to move there.
I ended up working with 72 for almost 2 years, and I learned to navigate the waters of a fast-growing company and what it really means to win business.
One day I got a call from an old friend from back in Amsterdam who was working for Apple and needed a creative partner. He is an incredible writer and thinker, and that opportunity, and also Apple being one of the biggest brands in the world, was to me a unique opportunity that I couldn’t refuse.
There is where I’ve done my best work and where I’ve become the creative that I am right now. I had the privilege to work with renowned film directors, award-winning DOP, superstars, and incredible business leaders.
I worked as a global creative director for Apple, leading all the products in the music ecosystem, from Apple Music to HomePod, and AirPods. It was the perfect combination of my passion and my expertise. During that time, Apple was named Cannes Lions’ 2019 Creative Marketer of the Year, and I had the opportunity to work with heroes of mine like Spike Jonze, Hoyte Van Hoytema, Juan Cabral, FKA, and others.
I grind and fought, and I was part of one of the best teams in the industry, surrounded by true collaborators and incredible creatives, all working towards a common goal. I felt really valued, and respected, and loved by the people that I was working with, and I will always be thankful for that.
After 4 years working for Apple at TBWA/Media Arts Lab, I decided to step away from the advertising work and challenge myself to tackle some of the biggest problems in the music industry, pouring all my energy into building a Startup. A new music platform named SoundStorming, that reimagines the relationship between artists and fans
by enabling the super-fan communities to participate in the creation phase of an artist’s song, generating true value from artist-fan engagement.

Working with the team at Apple, one of our priorities was to analyze the music ecosystem to look for creative opportunities to maximize the artist-fan engagement.
We clearly saw the shift that the industry has been taking for the last 5-10 years. Artists’ biggest asset is their community of superfans. Those who are waiting for the artist’s next release. But Artists have no direct relationship with them and no way to maximize their community.
On the other hand, true fans don’t just want to consume anymore. They want to participate in their favorite artists’ journey. They want to feel they matter. There’s been a clear transition from passive fans to active, engaged fans who see the entertainment industry as one where they can participate and contribute.

With SoundStorming, we want to be the first platform that opens the artists’ creation phase to foster artist-fan community, providing community-building tools and engagement features. We are making the superfan communities be active participants in the creation of the next big hit from their favorite artists.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Over the last 5 to 10 years, there’s been a massive change in the creative industries. From the creator side to the audiences and consumer side, the behaviors and the opportunities have been evolving.

With creator tools available on social platforms and as standalone apps, and with AI enabling ever more precise control and creativity, audiences are now comfortable thinking about entertainment as something for them to play with and contribute to.

Audiences are no longer just pure consumers, they look for ways to participate and contribute to the content itself.
The future of entertainment lies in collaborating with audiences, not just serving content to them. The only way to achieve it is through building a community around common interests, values, and goals. Transforming the passive consumer into an active participant, enabling co-creation, feedback, and a sense of ownership.

So the creative ecosystem, which can provide opportunities to creators and artists, looks more like a variety of communities gathered through common objectives and values that together own the content that the community generates. Rather than media channels, controlled by massive companies with massive followers, posting likes and comments.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

NFTs are an example of a technology that shows the potential of new economies that support the participants equally. As with any other new technology, the initial iterations are full of misinterpretations, misused cases, and full of opportunists.
But in essence, the concept of a unique digital piece that can be collected, traced, and unlock new opportunities beyond the digital world, to me, shows the path to a brighter future for creators and businesses in general.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://soundstorming.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arnaubosch/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arnau.bosch
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnaubosch/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/arnaubosch
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@soundstorming

Image Credits
SoundStorming event photos by Heather Koepp / Instagram: @heather.rival