Hi! I'm Sam, Co-Founder and CEO of Pickup Music, an independent education technology company based in Los Angeles.
I started Pickup Music while studying jazz guitar in New York City. From 2015-2018, I grew Pickup Music to become the leading online community of musicians with over a million Instagram followers. It has since evolved into the top provider of music education with over 30,000 members.
I lead the content, curriculum, and engineering teams at Pickup Music.
An excerpt from my conversation with Dr. Quentin Angus on why Pickup Music acquired Til — and how on-demand courses and live lessons fit together.
2 min read
A short excerpt from my conversation with Dr. Quentin Angus on why I think AI is a net positive for Pickup Music — and for analog hobbies more broadly.
1 min read
A full conversation with Dr. Quentin Angus on the Good Company podcast about building Pickup Music, the Til acquisition, AI, and lessons from a winding career in music.
18 min read
A conversation with the alumni program at the University of Canterbury about building Pickup Music.
4 min read
My thoughts on curriculum design and why gamification isn't the answer.
1 min read
Excited to announce the Pickup Music iOS app released today and has debuted at #77 in the Education charts.
1 min read
Grant Green's role in the development of jazz guitar has often been overlooked.
3 min read
The genius of John Leslie 'Wes' Montgomery is undisputed by critics and guitarists alike. Just as Charlie Christian blazed a trail in the late 1930s, Wes was the leading force in jazz guitar from the 1960s onwards. Wes built on Christian's innovations to form a playing style that quickly became the defining sound of jazz guitar.
4 min read
I grew my Instagram from 300 to 1300 in two months by posting good content and using smart hashtags. In this story I'll share a few thoughts I have on how to use tags to grow your following, hopefully you can put them into use.
7 min read
You’re 13-20 years old and you’re considering studying music at college. Is it worth the tuition fees and time?
5 min read