David Franz

President @ Underground Sun | Music Production Visionary, Conscious Connector, Education Innovator

Ojai, California, United States

About

As the President of Underground Sun, an independent record label and music studio in Ojai, CA, I have over 20 years of experience in creating, producing, and managing music for various artists and clients, ranging from pop, EDM, rock, hip-hop, and jazz genres. I also co-own Underground Sol, an EDM-focused record label. My mission is to help talented musicians achieve their artistic and commercial potential, while delivering high-quality music that resonates with diverse audiences and markets. In addition to my music production and composition skills, I have a strong background in innovative online education, content management and recruiting, having worked as a content manager for LinkedIn Learning and lynda.com for over eleven years. I was responsible for setting the vision, strategy, and direction for the educational content in the topic areas of audio, music, video, motion graphics, photography, graphic design, and animation. I also hired and managed the best instructors and authors in the industry, and developed online courses that reached millions of learners worldwide. I am a published author of two books on music production, and a former instructor for Berklee Online, the online school of Berklee College of Music.

Experience

  • President at Underground Sun
    May 2001 - Present · 25 yrs 3 mos

    Underground Sun is an independent record label and music studio currently based in Ojai, CA. We offer artist development, recording, mixing, mastering, marketing, licensing, publishing, and video production services for artists and corporate clients, as well as music composition for TV, film, and advertising agencies.

  • Content Manager @ LinkedIn Learning, Audio+Music, Video, Photo, Art, Design, 3D, & Animation at LinkedIn
    Apr 2015 - Aug 2022 · 7 yrs 5 mos

    Content managers utilize industry knowledge to set the vision for educational efforts in specific topic areas, utilize their networks and recruiting abilities to hire and manage content creators, and their expertise in education to help develop content for online courses. When Lynda.com was purchased by LinkedIn, I continued on in Audio+Music and then transitioned, as the company evolved our Creative Library content, to take on other topics areas including video, photography, art, design, 3D, animation, and CAD. In this position, I was responsible for the overall content direction and strategy as well as recruiting the world's best teachers to deliver life-changing content. I also developed many new innovative teaching mechanisms that were used in many courses in many content areas.

  • Content Manager, Audio+Music at lynda.com
    Feb 2011 - Apr 2015 · 4 yrs 3 mos

    In my four years with Lynda.com before the company was purchased by LinkedIn, I directed the growth of the Audio+Music course library from just a few courses to a formidable curriculum with hundreds of courses by many top-in-their-field instructors. This included creating evergreen production and engineering courses, day/date courses that coincided with the releases of latest DAWs, and licensing collaborations with several other third-party libraries for topics such as instrument lessons and business topics. When Lynda.com was purchased by LinkedIn, I stayed in this position after the transition.

  • Author at Freelance
    May 2000 - Apr 2015 · 15 yrs

    I have authored numerous courses on Pro Tools, music production, music theory, and video production for Berklee Online, Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning.

  • Professor at Berklee Online
    2002 - Jul 2011 · 9 yrs 7 mos

    I wrote one of the first two online courses for Berklee Online, starting in 2001, and then taught this course (Producing Music with Pro Tools) for the duration of my tenure. I also developed two other courses and taught those as well during this time period, namely Recording and Producing in the Home Studio, and Pro Tools Virtual Instruments. At Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning, I authored courses on using Pro Tools, Music Theory for Songwriters: Rhythm, Web Video for Business, and several others.