Larry Mickie Feels the Music – and Built a Company So You Can, Too
Written by Meg Seitz · Photography by Julia Fay
Larry Mickie’s music career started when he and a couple of friends formed a boy band. Mickie was nine years old.
“We picked songs from some of the boy bands at the time; I’m talking popular groups like NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees,” he remembers, laughing. “And we’d perform for people at our [after-school] care. We loved it.”
His musical tastes have evolved – he’s currently listening to a fusion between funk and pop – yet one thing remains the same: Larry Mickie loves music.
He loves it because he can feel it.
“For poets, when they’re writing the words, they can see them; or a person who is building something, can see it,” he says. “But any time I hear music, I can see it and feel it versus just hearing it.”
{Continued below}
His ability to see it and feel it comes from growing up with variety of music genres in his life. His grandmother touts a strong background in gospel music; his mother gravitated towards hip-hop and R&B, including artists like TLC.
That fusion of styles refined a natural ability in music which he then built a business around. That business is Music Linx which Mickie founded in 2013. After close to ten years of producing music himself, four years of mobile app development for iOS and five years of creative direction (all of which happened concurrently), Mickie saw an opportunity. He wanted to optimize the music experience and the fan experience with unique tools and programs built for those making the music.
“I knew that I needed to surround myself with people who are living it every, single day; people who are building their companies,”
“We build unique tools for creators who want to do it better,” he shares.
Today, Music Linx is a fully-functioning mobile music studio platform where music creators can not only make music, but also connect to and network with each other to share creations.
The team itself is made up of Mickie, four developers, a research analyst who focuses on customer discovery, and two Marketing interns. They’re currently focused on goals, new product development, and refining where they fit into the market – which is ironically – one of the aspects of entrepreneurship that Mickie learned early.
“I read Tim Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Work Week, and he has some good gems in there about networking,” he recalls. “I had all these ideas about the potential of something like this, but I needed to get out there and see where it fit; I knew that to do that, I needed to network with the right people who could show me the ropes – and I did.”
Mickie has found success and camaraderie in surrounding himself with the right people for where he is in the start-up journey. As much as he enjoyed working from coffee shops, he knew he wanted to spend more time and energy with entrepreneurs.
“I knew that I needed to surround myself with people who are living it every, single day; people who are building their companies,” he noted.
“Hygge is a fun, energetic space to come to, and everyone seems to be enjoying what they’re doing,” he shares. “Get Down on It by Kool & The Gang comes to mind.”
So, let’s ask the music producer – what’s the quintessential #hyggefam song?
“Hygge is a fun, energetic space to come to, and everyone seems to be enjoying what they’re doing,” he shares. “Get Down on It by Kool & The Gang comes to mind.”
If this blog had sounds bites…
Larry Mickie on Garrett Tichy: “Every time I go to a Hygge location, Garrett is there. Is he one person? Or are there multiple Garretts? There has to be more than one Garrett.”
Meet the Author: Meg Seitz is the Founder and Managing Creative Partner of toth shop, an agency with one goal: Elevate your brand’s content through powerful writing, creativity, and strategy. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor with Queens University and Founding Partner of the children’s book series, “Bea is for Business”.
She’s an English major with an MBA, so she can talk Homer’s “The Odyssey” just as well as she can talk sunk costs – though she’d much prefer the former.
Meet the photographer: Julia Murray, owner of Julia Fay Photography, feels most at home behind a camera with a story to tell on the other side. Her business began during her sophomore year of college, while majoring in radio and tv broadcasting. Now residing in Charlotte NC, she primarily shoots weddings and other local small businesses like her own. Her favorite part about her job is the connection it brings between art and people.