We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Arnau Bosch. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Arnau below.
Hi Arnau, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
My parents and my grandparents, from both sides, have always been hardworking people. I grew up in a household where love, kindness, and respect were our way of living. A really tight family that always understood that nothing would be given to you and that hard work was the only way of living. Instead of understanding “hard work” as a painful fight that you have to deal with throughout your life, it was a positive attitude that always has to come with kindness and respect. So, I think growing up in this environment makes you asses tough times as another step of your journey, and another opportunity to analyze and learn.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
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.
Since Music would not be the source of income for me, I really loved the challenges that advertising was presenting to me.
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.
After 5 years of working 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.
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.
One day, I got a call from an old friend from back in Amsterdam who was working for Apple and needed a creative partner. 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.
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.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
There was a football coach (soccer) who always said, “You can have a good day or a bad day, but you can always run.” And I think that’s the attitude everyone who has a goal has to have. No matter the adversities, the roadblocks, the failures, in the end, you are the one who decides to give up or keep going. That’s the quality that will take you further.
Secondly, I strongly believe that nothing can be achieved alone. There’s always a team behind every successful story or successful person. So, be kind to others, support one another, and always listen to others because there’s always something to learn. Listening is way harder than speaking.
And another area that is probably the hardest thing to learn is what your passion really is. Finding the thing that really represents you as a person. Or the thing that moves you and inspires you. That is way bigger than any quality or skill. Learning your own purpose,
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
I’ve been fortunate to work with incredibly talented people in my career. From creatives, to managers, to business leaders, to clients… Those are the real responsibles of where I am right now. I think I gained the essential qualities I needed from my family and the environment I grew up in, and made me really stay curious, rely on others, and surround myself with great people.
By doing so, those people helped me learn new skills and knowledge, and really overcome new challenges, and learn every step of the way.
As I always say, I’m only as good as my team.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.arnaubosch.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
- Other: https://soundstorming.com/
Image Credits
SoundStorming event photos by Heather Koepp / Instagram: @heather.rival
