This Goldman Sachs Exec DJs to Land Business Deals—Now He’s Covering Fleetwood Mac
Goldman Sachs already ruined the economy, and now some listeners think it’s ruining Fleetwood Mac.
As The New York Times revealed last year, the investment bank’s president and COO David Solomon moonlights as DJ D-Sol. He’s performed in New York, Miami and the Bahamas.
And Solomon has continued exercising his hobby over the last five years while ascending the C-suite at Goldman. In fact, his latest creation is being marketed as a “song of the summer.”
Earlier this month, D-Sol’s three-minute electronic dance remix of Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” was posted on YouTube. It’s produced by New York EDM label Crowd Records, and also available on Spotify and Apple Music.
There’s even a music video which dubs D-Sol’s beats over hedge fund manager Ray Dalio’s cartoon videos explaining the principles of success to college students.
The song features a generic EDM beat layered over D-Sol’s cover of the Fleetwood Mac classic. Some heavy reverb is used so the lyrics endlessly repeat (“Don’t don’t, stop stop, thinking about thinking about”).
Reactions to the song haven’t been very positive. One of the top YouTube comments reads “I can imagine this song being played at a bouncy castle kids party or on a Carnival cruise ship.”
But while music critics may scoff, Solomon has made his music career pay off for Goldman.
Solomon advised Spotify when Goldman handled its IPO. The music streaming service reportedly paid almost $50 million for Goldman’s services, albeit before Solomon’s DJ hobby became public.
But since then, the streamer has heavily marketed D-Sol’s songs. The DJ has 425,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and “Don’t Stop” has been featured on several “Song of the Summer” playlists.
Solomon has also become friends with music industry heavyweights through his work. His Instagram account features a photo of the executive interviewing Justin Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun.
But given that he only performs about once a month, Solomon largely likes to keep his DJ and executive lives separate.
“I don’t know whether seeing the president of Goldman Sachs spinning tunes at a club is gonna change the perception of the industry,” he said on a Goldman Sachs podcast. “We’ve got a lot of work to do on that front.”
Solomon also downplayed the success of “Don’t Stop,” pointing out that Tiesto’s “Jackie Chan” has about 60 million streams, compared to 600,000 for D-Sol’s song.
“Let’s not overdo it,” Goldman Sachs spokesperson Jake Siewert told Observer in an email.
No doubt this is a fun side hustle for Solomon. But he’s also learned an important lesson: Don’t stop thinking about your day job.
http://observer.com/2018/06/fleetwoo...david-solomon/