Most DJs and music producers focus so much on creating, that they don’t have time to worry about scaling their processes to make them more efficient. The creative process is where the magic happens, and recently I have been feeling more and more like I am in a truly unique position to help out. 

I created the cflo inc. software brand to assist artists in solving their creative process problems at scale. Helping people solve their technical issues really just makes me feel good, and that’s where we have landed today.

But that’s not where it started.

While everyone else was outside playing sports, I was inside messing around with computers — tearing them apart and putting them back together, and poking around in the software to figure out how everything worked. Somewhere along the way, I found myself playing with a multitrack audio editor (shoutout SoundEdit 16) and layering audio files on top of one another. This was around the same time that Napster first came out, and I discovered there was a treasure trove of instrumentals and acapellas to songs on there. I instantly started building a collection of the individual pieces that make up a complete song.

Little did I know, being armed with this music collection prepared me for something that would eventually change my life.

When I was a freshman in high school, the older kid who ran the PA system was getting ready to graduate, and there was a huge problem: nobody else knew how to use the dual deck CD player and mixing board. Fortunately, all that time I had spent playing with technology had equipped me with the skills to learn quickly, especially when it came to new systems.

I learned how to use the school’s system in literally five minutes, and by the end of the school year I was DJing the prom.

Eventually, I built a career out of DJing. I moved to NYC, started my own agency, DJ’d in cities all around the world, and climbed to the top of the food chain. When the pandemic brought nightlife to a screeching halt, every DJ I knew suddenly had lots of time to work on the tech problems on their laptops that they didn’t have time for before. I spent the first few months of lockdown doing remote tech support for my DJ friends over Zoom, and was showing them how to install command line software to make stems from full songs, something that had until recently been impossible. One of my buddies said, “you should turn this into an app.”

I was initially dismissive. The thought of doing so was daunting!

I would have to learn to code, learn how to design and build my own websites, learn how to run an e-commerce business, do my own marketing, provide even more tech support, figure out UX/UI design, and so much more…

But while I was going through the command line stem process for the 37th time, I decided to do it. If I could help 37 people in two months, how many more people could I help by releasing an app?

So I learned to code. I learned how to make a website. I learned everything I could about e-commerce and the best ways to sell a macOS desktop app. And I learned how to package all of this up for anyone who wanted it. I worked on it (and will continue to work on it) every single day.

cflo inc. was officially born.

I feel uniquely equipped for the job of helping DJs and other creatives solve their problems with technology. Because I have been in your shoes. I am faced with these exact same problems at the intersection of music and technology. And I have a deep understanding of how to fix these tech issues.

Now, I can help anyone who wants to use these tools to solve their problems. And if I can help people solve their own problems, which in turn makes them happy… then that makes me happy.