The Indie Unplugged Podcast · A Deep Dive Into The Indie Music Journey

From Doubt To Dreams How Martin Crosby Started His Music Journey!

·1 hr 32 min·5 clips

Martin’s mother told him, “you ain’t gonna make it,” as he left Cincinnati for Atlanta.

B-Vaughn opens the interview by introducing Martin Crosby as the founder of Clockwise Entertainment. Martin brings a long resume with him, spanning hip-hop, soul, and cinematic scoring, along with more than 30 years in the game. The conversation quickly gets to the hardest part of chasing music full time. His move from Cincinnati to Atlanta was not a small decision, and his mother did not immediately see it as a professional path. He explains that she had been the one who pushed him into piano lessons and tenor saxophone. That history matters. It makes the disagreement feel personal instead of abstract. Martin recalls telling her that if she put him into music in the first place, then music had to mean something bigger than a hobby. The exchange becomes a useful frame for the whole interview. It is about conviction, but it is also about what family thinks a stable future is supposed to look like. From there, the talk shifts into the sync world. Martin gets into the strange gap between what clients say they want and what they actually use. He describes briefs that ask for a quirky hip-hop track with cinematic energy, a light bounce, and even a little reggaeton flavor, while still somehow avoiding anything corny. That tension is the whole job. The search is not just for a beat. It is for a usable emotion that can survive notes, revisions, and shifting tastes. He makes it clear that people in the business do not always know their own target until they hear it. That point comes up more than once. It gives the conversation a blunt, working-room quality. Martin talks like someone who has heard enough rewrites to know that the language of the brief is often less precise than the final decision. The hosts stay with that idea and keep pulling on it. The episode also touches his past collaborations. Martin talks about a song he co-produced with Clint and uses that to explain how relationships open doors. He remembers a five-part Sync Masters segment that brought together different voices in the space and treated sync like a craft conversation instead of a mystery. That matters because the show is not only interested in placements. It is interested in how creators learn each other’s language. He also talks about how some opportunities move slowly. Not every turnaround is quick. Not every submission gets picked. That reality gives the discussion some gravity without turning it gloomy. Martin is not selling a fantasy. He is describing a field where taste, timing, and persistence all matter at once. The hosts keep the tone warm and conversational. They bounce between anecdote and lesson. They return to the idea that people often need to hear something before they understand it. That loop gives the interview rhythm. It sounds like people who have lived inside the industry long enough to stop pretending it is clean or linear. The final stretch circles back to a past conversation about a Grammy win. Martin remembers being told it would not happen for a few years. He remembers the timing. He remembers being right. That payoff gives the episode a satisfying finish because it confirms the larger point of the conversation: the work can look unlikely right up until it does not.

As heard by us

A grounded music-business conversation about moving for the work, chasing the right sound, and earning trust.

Martin Crosby’s story is framed around a move from Cincinnati to Atlanta to make music, and the discussion keeps circling back to the practical side of sync licensing and multi-genre production.

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If you want the mechanics behind sync licensing, start here.

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