What’s up Steemit! aka My Introduction: Local Farm Town to Los Angeles Music Business Exec.

in introduceyourself •  7 years ago  (edited)

What’s Up Steemit! I feel this is a long time coming as I’ve been hearing about Steemit for over a year and finally decided to take the plunge!

My name is Benjamin Groff, and I’m a music business executive living in Los Angeles, CA. I’m super passionate about music and music discovery, supporting and developing new artists, and making an impact helping people achieve their goals. Some of the artists and writers I’ve been fortunate to sign over the years include The Lumineers, Grimes, Ryan Tedder, One Republic, Kid Cudi, Tiesto, Kelly Clarkson, Peaches, Ariel Pink, SOPHIE, TOKiMONSTA, Cut Copy, Greg Kurstin, Savan Kotecha, Ariel Rechtshaid, Cirkut, Big Freedia, City and Colour, and more.

From working senior positions at BMG Music to EMI Music Publishing to Kobalt Music Publishing, and most recently my own companies, Brill Building and We Are: The Guard, this is my journey and how I got to where I am today. Grab some popcorn (or a stiff drink)…this is my story.

Originally from rural Mount Gretna, PA, with a population of less than 300, it all started when I got my first guitar. I was in the fifth grade when I attended a school assembly that basically changed my life. I was sitting there watching some older dudes on stage playing electric guitars thinking “this is the coolest thing ever” and “rock guitar music is epic, dude!” However, in my young mind, I thought those guitars must cost tens of thousands of dollars. How would I ever make that kind of money?! Of course, I was wrong. They were only a couple hundred, and so I saved every penny I could by raking leaves, babysitting, chopping wood, running a mini golf course and anything else that came my way. Finally, there in front of me was my first guitar— a beautiful second hand Fender Bullet. Actually…kind of a lame guitar by professional standards to be honest, but hello, this was an ELECTRIC GUITAR! WOAH, DUDE (spoken like Bill and/or Tedd from their “excellent” adventure). I felt like a rockstar, and little did I know that this one guitar would inspire a lifetime’s worth of changes. And yes, this is me and my little sister Caitlin, a few days before heading to Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. The custom made jeans, I have to admit, were an art piece…look it was the late 80s LOL.

In my hopeful rockstar days

Fortunately for me, I grew up with extremely supportive parents. Both were high school teachers—they met in high school actually— but not how you think. My father was my mom’s teacher. As you can see, I already have a scandalous history.

My mother was kind of a piano prodigy, and my father was a music maniac, consuming every great record he could. On the weekends especially, it was not uncommon for my dad to subject me to everything from Shostakovich Symphonies to ABBA (l did grow up in the 70s after all), while my mom introduced me to the cooler more progressive rock and pop music of the day. When I told them I wanted to study music in college, they stood by me through every step.

My high school guidance counselor wasn’t quite as supportive, though. I remember having one of those “career” meetings right after crawling into school immediately after playing a 4 hour night in some remote coal country city in Pennsylvania. I was 16 playing in a popular cover band; we’d have gigs in bars, motorcycle clubs, and fire halls ‘till 2AM, then I’d get home at 3AM and have to be up for school at 7AM. Those were the days. Anyway, after hearing what the guidance counselor thought my career options should be—which included joining the Navy, following in my father’s footsteps (which I highly respect)— I realized none of them made me feel as passionate as music did. But let’s be honest, those high school guidance counselors don’t get paid to tell young people to follow their crazy dreams. None of these options gave me the spark that, that Fender Bullet ignited. So I went my own way. I applied and was accepted into Berklee College of Music for a dual major in Songwriting and Guitar Performance, all the while playing in bands up and down the East Coast.

After college, I left Boston to move to the Big Apple, where I held my first (paid…yes, that’s a key distinction!) job in the industry at Almo Irving Music Publishing (also known as Rondor, which was later bought by Universal Publishing), working for Molly Kaye, who gave me my first break in the music biz, and then later I got hired by another great great publisher, Holly Greene at PolyGram Publishing (no, not Polymer Records). I was responsible for maintaining the “tape” library, as the internet didn’t exist yet. Yeah, I was the guy that made cassette and DAT copies (digital tape) of all the orders that came in from the song pluggers at the company. (A Song Plugger is someone who would take newly written songs by the writers at the company and “place” them on other artists records…HINT: I hate to break it to you, Britney Spears and Rihanna (love them) don’t write their own songs).

As a musician and writer, I thought I’d learn a lot about the industry, and I definitely did. When you’re sitting in earshot of these powerhouse professionals, you learn how to handle things, how business gets done, and how to be a creative executive. After two years, I got a lucky break and got offered a Creative Manager position, from my past boss Molly Kaye who had moved out to the West Coast (and God bless the band, Extreme, who connected the dots between Molly and I. I met Molly waiting for a taxi in Boston after an Extreme rehearsal where my band rehearsed, as Molly was their publisher). My life after that became completely dedicated to the business side of music publishing, though I was still writing at nights and on the weekends, and holy crap…even getting major placements for my songs.

So yeah, that’s me in my office at BMG Music Publishing circa 1997. (Notice the DAT and Cassette racks and the stack of audio equipment to play them on to the right of me, AND the FAT ASS computer terminal and typewriter behind me).

Me working at BMG as a Creative Manager

During this time at BMG Music, where I worked for Danny Strick (currently co-President of Sony Music) and Clyde Lieberman (music executive for Mark Burnett), I luckily had my first signing ever with Savan Kotecha. I can’t believe it’s been so long ago but looking back it was amazing to see someone like Savan, working with him so closely in the beginning and seeing the tremendous amazing career he continues to have, writing hits for Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Maroon 5, Britney Spears, and more. I mean really…look at this discography. Insane.

After 5 years at BMG Music and having a successful run pitching and securing songs with key artists, I moved on to EMI Music Publishing, working for Jody Gerson (current Chairwoman of Universal Music Publishing), where my second signing I’m immensely proud to say was multiple Grammy Award Winning Producer, Greg Kurstin. Another crazy ass discography. It was great to be across Jody’s desk for so many years just seeing how she operates both creatively and professionally.

All along this time I was working during the day doing my “day job” working as a music publishing executive, and by night and weekends I was working on my own songs, looking to also pursue and have my songs recorded and released by others, and it finally worked! I got my first cut as a writer with LFO (remember them and their “Summertime Girls” song?). Well, I didn’t write “Summertime Girls” but I did write their third single, “I Don’t Want To Kiss You Goodnight” (that one you probably don’t remember LOL). Along with that, I had some other minor songwriting successes along the way writing for Paulina Rubio with “Baila Casanova” and super star Italian tenor, Alesandro Safina with “Incanto,” as well as some other Top 10 dance hits.

Then, it all started crashing down. During the 2000s, the music industry started deteriorating. It was definitely not like it was before (thank you Napster). Imagine a business that was based often on a consumer wanting just “one” song and having to buy a $14.99 CD at a record store. Now to get that same song or album (or any music for that matter), yeah…you guessed it…it’s free. And trust me, I’ve been on the side of music fans, which is what made Napster so powerful— people were tired of getting ripped off. So for sure, the music business was the first industry to have a physical commodity that could be digitized, uploaded to the web and easily pirated (and now with 3D printing on the way…this scenario will come to a widget maker near you!). Anyway, over 70% of people were being laid off and so many artists were being released from their labels. It was a rough time, but I kept at it.

It was fortuitous that around that time, I got a knock at my door. Kobalt’s CEO and Founder, Willard Ahdritz and Sas Metcalfe, Head of Kobalt’s A&R team, asked me to open Kobalt’s first US office. It was a moment where I knew I had to really choose my path. Writing music was always a love of mine, but with Willard’s offer came a realization. I knew he was a genius and on to something very special with Kobalt Music, and I believed in his vision (Kobalt has since emerged into one of the biggest heavyweight music companies in the world, delivering creators with the value of ownership with maximum control and transparency). I came to the realization though, which was tough, that I shined brightest as an executive with musical abilities and knowledge, not necessarily a songwriter. I was a badass publisher, and as a songwriter, I was competing against the Max Martins of the world. In other words, when you get to work with someone like Sia and see her capabilities, it’s pretty obvious how far above those people are on another level. So, 2005 was this weird transitional period for me that ultimately led to me becoming a senior executive at Kobalt. Willard taught me so much, but mostly, the more you give and the more you do the right thing, the more you will get back.

That lesson that Willard taught me has followed me throughout career, mostly in how I can give back to my writers and artists. After 20 odd years of working for various music publishers, here we are today. I’ve opened up two of my own companies, Brill Building, my music publishing company and We Are: The Guard, which is my crowd-sourced label / music blog, both of which are powered by Kobalt and their unique technology. I’ve completely poured myself into both companies— investing my money into every artist I sign. Every cent I make is going right back into the artists, the publishing, developing the website, and anything else that will make We Are: The Guard or Brill Building better.

I’ve been fortunate to sign some amazing artists to both rosters from Ariel Pink, SOPHIE, DENM, Big Freedia, Overcoats, TOKiMONSTA, TOBACCO, Big Freedia, The FatRat, Dog Orchestra and writer/producers making songs for hit artist like: Bram Inscore, Nicole Morier, OMEGA and Jake Torrey. Whatever I can do to support my artists, I do.

DENM and I

It’s been an incredible journey, and I’m still learning so much along the way— learning how to be my best self, to jump through limiting beliefs, and to be more empathetic. I’ve come a long way, but I also feel like I’m just getting started. But in regards to giving back, I’ve also started my own blog on songwriting here at www.BenjaminGroff.com where there’s a lot of (I think) juicy tidbits from the music business, to what makes songs tick, etc.

Well, that’s a lot of info on I guess my career path, but when it comes to downtime and personal stuff some things, if you’ve read this far and are still interested (LOL!), I’m excited and passionate about: cinema (I’m a connoisseur of “low brow” and “high brow” films), 60’s to mid 80’s sports cars (the 1969 Detomaso Mangusta, the 1972 Ferrari Daytona and the 1967 Shelby GT 500 always takes my breath away, and also the 1982 DeLorean… I drove that one for 12 years and have many adventures to tell…including that summer where the car wouldn’t go in reverse), and just overall, people who make great art, if it’s Charles Bukowski, Andrew Wyeth, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ayn Rand, or Akira Kurosawa, etc.

My beloved 1982 DeLorean I had for 12 years, which is probably RIP somewhere.

Another thing I’m passionate about is self improvement, advanced learning, and presenting to the world my best self, which has let me to a (somewhat) secret society I’m involved with called The Society 100. I’ve been in it since 2013 and it’s Neil Strauss’ top league mastermind group, limited to 100 people in the world. Every 3 months we go off on our own 3 day intensive in a different part of the world. It’s kinda like Ted Talks but better… and our own curriculum. It’s an amazing group of people. Imagine you’re at a table, and to the right of you is a chief engineer from Google, while to the left of you is a famous movie director, and then across from you is a guy who works for NASA, and someone else who diffuses bombs for a living for the marines. With the intensives, it’s like higher level learning and uncommon knowledge that’s really cutting edge and hard to seek out. Our “classroom” ranges from something like: a spirituality intensive, to a counter terrorism training course with evasive driving, to biohacking to wealth building intensives, to the yearly “Deep Inner Game” intensives, which has probably been the most challenging, difficult, and valuable thing I’ve done in my life…it’s really looking at what your belief systems are and changing the ones that aren’t working for you.

Actually, talking about Neil’s group kinda brings me back to Steemit, because it’s there where Ned Scott presented to our Society group with what Steemit is about and the brilliant revolution that’s happening at Steemit.

OK well, I think I officially wrote a lot more than I intended for an intro! But I’m really looking forward to contributing to the Steemit community and perhaps fulfilling a niche on the music side of things, which is my expertise… from new artists and songs I’m excited about, to crazy music business stories (watch out for the next article coming up on Prince), to just sharing things and uncommon or cool stuff I’ve learned along the way and bringing value to the community.

See you on Steemit!

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Hello, welcome to Steemit ✌️

You will be welcome to steemit yourself to be steemit. And post a new one. Teach us something. And stay with us.

Hello @benjamingroff , Welcome to Steemit' and good luck!

Welcome to Steemit, @benjamingroff! So glad you've joined and I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

@ericvancewalton you doing a good job and @benjamingroff was the little boy you?

Welcome to steemit from all of us !

Welcome to Steemit, Benjamin! We hope you'll enjoy the platform and look forward to your ideas on how Steem might benefit people in the music industry.

Hey DonkeyPong...yes you nailed it. I really think there is a potentially great / disruptive opportunity on the music biz side and Steemit!

Now I'm excited on the artists you're going to discover during open mic! :)

I'm glad to see more music minds using this platform, and I'm trying musicoin's site as well if anyone would like to try it

Good day, I liked your story from life, blockchain today gives great opportunities for musicians and performers, here is one of the projects https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@black-square/vezt-begins-revolution-in-the-music-sphere

yes i agreed with you @donkeypong

Right on.. Welcome brotha!
Check out dsound.audio

Welcome to Steemit @benjamingroff, very excited to have you here! I made it to steemit through @neilstauss's guidance as well when he started the Steemit Book Club with @the-alien. I've loved my time here ever since. Really cool to get a bit of insight into The Society 100. Very much looking forward to reading more from you on here.

Thanks @dougkarr Yes...being able to be in The Society with Neil has been amazing. Going on 4 years now and my life wouldn't be where it was w/o it.

follow me

Neil used to be on Steemit? :(

follow me

Great to have you onboard @benjamingroff and it was fun reading through your experience. Society 100 seems awesome as well! Anyway, plenty of problems worth solving in the music industry. I've got a thing for trying to capitalise on the very long-tail bedroom dj / producer stuff. Also promoting enable and encourage open source content for music. But my music biz IRL is currently catered for semi-mainstream dance (like trance, hardstyle, house at the moment). Looking out for synergies and building out some kind of ecosystem. Building a music group by the name of illuminati inc on this platform soon lol, just to experiment with some stuff along with curation.

Looking forward to see more of your content and getting to know you!

I'll leave a post I've write sometime ago about a Steem + Bandcamp idea (that's probably being worked on now in a project called @steemsongs) https://steemit.com/idea/@kevinwong/steem-bandcamp-philosophy-maybe-an-approach-to-tap-into-the-market-of-7-billion-users-by-2025

follow me

welcome :)

follow me

wowwwwwwwwww

Fantastic Benjamin!
Glad you're on board the Steemit platform now!
Congrats on your killer intro post, I'm going to resteem this on Monday morning!
Your Society brother, @scan0017
aka Craiggles 😉

follow me

stop spamming!

Such an amazing intro! We'd love to see more of the music community around here :)

Welcome to steemit!!

I for one am looking forward to the first witness who is more of a musician...than a programmer. :D

Welcome to Steemit! You will meet so many people like you. I have friends who compose music so I'll resteem your article for them to see. Thanks for the inspiration.

Another thing I’m passionate about is self improvement, advanced learning...

It’s been an incredible journey...

  • Indeed!

Welcome to the platform! I'm the Community Liaison for Steemit, so if you ever have any questions or ideas you want to run by the team, I'm your man!

follow me

Cool man! Awesome to have you here! Enjoy steemit :)

It's cool to see a person like you with a very extraordinary life course! Share with us a video on D.Tube!

That ... is one badass intro post wow! 👏👏👏 What an incredible and fascinating life story (also the ultra-ripped jeans are hilarious 😁)

Welcome to Steemit. You have clearly been a success in the other areas of your life; looks like that will definitely carry over to your Steemit career.

Noticed you didn't mention family after you became an adult. Obviously, that could simply be none of our business.

So what do you think of Steem the currency itself/cryptocurrencies in general? It occurs to me that something similar could be applied to the music industry, rewarding muscians and producers and perhaps even customers for their participation just as Steem rewards people for

follow me

I feel this post is perfect...
I hope be like you brother..

Welcome to steemit @benjamingroff, I can't wait to read of your post..

Welcome to Steemit!!! There are so many opportunities here. Might want to check out @fivestargroup, a record label currently exclusive for the Steem platform. Maybe we can make something happen ;)

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Resteemed as well. Someday, I will be reading posts and listening/voting for what will be the best top 10 of played songs on steemit...

Would be great to have that kind of feature.

I've resteemed you to my 6600+ followers. Hopefully that helps you get up and running here. Welcome to Steemit and glad to have you here. Any musician you want to get signed up I'm happy to share this curtosy to.

I also help run mspwaves.com. It's a steemit based streaming internet radio station. If you'd like to run a show or any of your guys would I'd like to get you in touch with the right people.

We hang out on Discord. You can find me here: https://discord.gg/HYj4yvw

Thanks @aggroed. The feedback on the 1st post has been amazing and unexpected! More to come and thank you.

What you may not appreciate is just how many musicians and artists have gathered here. you and your crowd will fit right in, and we're excited to have you. I'm happy to do a 1v1 session with you if you'd like to learn anything about the platform.

follow me

I do believe you are the best ....your first post prove this ...keep up and fallow your instinct writing more and more about your experience of life ..

Welcome. You're already a rock start here.

Hey Benjamin! Welcome to Steemit community! We hope you're going to like it. It seems that you'll be posting plenty of interesting content, so good luck and STEEM ON!

Welcome to @Steemit, Benjamin!
That’s a comprehensive introductory post. @BenjaminGroff

Thanks for a very powerful introduction! More people will join Steemit in the future.

Welcome to Steemit ex-small-town boy! He he, love your old ripped jeans - epic!

Oh my god!!! that delorean....

It was a "love" / "hate" relationship but mostly "love" LOL

Does it have 'paint protection'? :D

Welcome to Steemit, @benjamingroff! Looking forward to see there will be interesting posts :)

@benjamingroff >>>>> creative writing

Welcome to Steemit! Very well written introduction and most importantly, very interesting blog. On a personal level I'm a fan of some of the artists mentioned.

followed you& voted & commented your post You follow me & vote & comment to my post please Thanks

Please do not ask for this kind of things... it makes no sense for the community.

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Hey @benjamingroff , I'm still stuck in a small town, had my brush with the music business back in the 90's https://steemit.com/music/@bitstudio/when-i-was-grunge Look forward to reading your posts!

Welcome @banjamin

Welcome, you got a welcome resteem.

and our own curriculum. It’s an amazing group of people. Imagine you’re at a table, and to the right of you is a chief engineer from Google, while to the left of you is a famous movie director, and then across from you is a guy who works for NASA, and someone else who diffuses bombs for a living for the marines.

When I read this I was like I bet @ned was there...

Actually, talking about Neil’s group kinda brings me back to Steemit, because it’s there where Ned Scott presented to our Society group with what Steemit is about and the brilliant revolution that’s happening at Steemit.

And then I read on. Glad you are here. Looks like some of the masters of the steemit universe have already found you. Welcome to the revolution.

I do trust you are the best ....your first post demonstrate this ...keep up and decrepit your nature composing increasingly about your experience of life

i like it....... We'd love to see more of the music community around here :)

Nice

Niceee,follow mw i follow

I am more than happy to welcome you to the amazing platform called steemit! I wish you best of luck, you got my upvote. I am looking forward to seeing more of your posts!

😍A very informative post. Great job. Keep it up! 😍
OpenMusic Steemit Kiss.gif

Nice post, welcome to steemit....

Welcome Benjamin , this is a really nice post, keep going the same way . Best wishes .

yes i am agree with you....

Welcome to Steemit! Already a natural. Great Post!!

Wow, amazing story Ben. And welcome to steemit! I recently see more and more cool, well-rounded people joining steemit and I can't be more happy about it.
Steemit and we all need people like you - people that can write - people that have a lot of interesting stuff to say :)
I'm kind of excited about music generally as well, so I will definitely follow you to learn from the the true master in this field

Welcome to steemit. That is one hell of an introduction filled with a lot of fun info. Hope you pick up a few more musicians right here on this platform as there are a lot of them here worth listening to. Enjoy!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Welcome to the "brilliant revolution" @benjamingroff.

Quite an impressive path you took. You will find many musicians here, me included (half of my work time is as an indie music producer). You know, the kind of musicians that live for and by music not those that get lured into these false dreams that pollute the Internet lol!
At least, up to now, after a month here, this is what I perceive.

Your paragraph about your first guitar made me laugh! Same story here, scraped every little franc to get my first e-guitar in the end 80s... It was a cheap crapy starshape one, but it was my first, and it placed my first foot in the live music world. Like you, a few months later, I was gigging regularly.

Wishing you a lot of fun in the Steemit world,

Musical Greetings from @muphy.

Wow, awesome introduction post man! I am new here too, but i never got the motivation to write up an introduction post as i see the blog posts i wrote went unnoticed and i felt like it was a waste of my time. but, this intro post of yours is a motivation, so when i get some time i will write up an intro post of myself too.

Hey Benjamin! Good on you for setting up shop on Steemit. There are many talented men and women here that will follow you with baited breath! A chance to build a personal legacy. Interesting post!

Welcome, my first day here as well, you just inspired me to write a bit about myself and learn more about what you have done and to follow you hear. Great stuff!

The hair. The London Hard Rock T. The jeans. Talk about a cliche' with legs! You were walking toward your destiny weren't you! Love the story!

Hello Benjamin, welcome to Steemit. Your introduction post is dope and I doubt if it can be remixed...lol

Woah! What a story - I was wondering how on earth did an introduction post get so many views,upvotes and comments! The post is self explanatory! ... Going to follow you now, I'm sure you have many great stories to share!

Dude! That hair when you were younger. Would kill to have had that. Welcome to the community. If you have not already done so, check out the weekly Steemit @openmic competition. Maybe there's some hidden talent waiting to be found.

Again, welcome aboard!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Good to see you here on SteemIt! if you have any questions I've started a User Help Support system here. Designed to help the n00bs out!:)

Nice to meet you!

Great introduction post! Welcome to Steemit :D

Thank you @benjamingroff for sharing

welcome to steemit.....@mulyadi.alwi in Indonesia..Salam kenal...

welcom to steemit

Glad to have stumbled upon your blog, @benjamingroff. I'm new here myself, but this is definitely the best introduction post I've ever read. You sound like a great person and therefore deserve all that successes you've worked hard for all your life. Definitely following you and look forward to reading more inspirational posts from you! Thank you! :)

Thank you @benjamingroff for share this and good luck for you.

Hi Ben! Welcome!! I upped and followed. Thanks for putting so much effort into your introduction post! Your life has been super interesting so far! Looking forward to your upcoming posts. @dakin5d

welcome to steemit .thanks for share your expression

  ·  7 years ago Reveal Comment

excellent narrative @benjamingroff..i must confess your photo displaying your custom made jeans is still a real art work and in all fairness this should be in art hall of fame! cute lil sis...also i grew up in late 70's and 80;s as such love ABBA and Bonny M along with others...wow 1982 DeLorean, please i am following to get all the adventures you have about this beauty with open hoods...
am so excited to reading more from you and i trully know your posts will add value to steemit and we steemians from your wealth of experiences...
thanks for sharing this and i am following you for more...
keep it coming sir!

Hi Benjamin, I was so inspired after reading your post and the remarkable achievements you've accomplished in your career. Hats off and a huge salute to you from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada!

Music has always been a passion of mine since childhood as well. It was great to read about someone with such ambition, drive, and motivation. Look forward to following and keeping up with more of your posts!

If you wish, I'd love it if you can check out my blog as well and follow it if you like. I'm new on here like you and will be using this platform to post and promote a lot of my music. Thanks so much!

Ali A

nice author dear
benjamingroff.gif

Good job men

Welcome @benjamingrogff..a nice article to introduce. A nice hello from Inda...you gonna enjoy thod place. Hv fun!!

up vote

Welcome to steemit. I know I have seen someone else mention on here the The Society 100, I can not remember their name though. You may have just brought your work home with you because there are a ton of Artist on here, Music, Paint, Authors/Storytellers, and more. So your artistic cravings will be well fed. If you enjoy Frank Frazetta style eye candy look for @neonartist. I am sure you will find so much to do and read, and view on here.

Your Intro was one of the best I have ever read here in the short time I have been on steemit. You write extremely well, and have quite an engaging writing style. I have not seen any yet(doesn't mean there are none), autobiographies on steemit, your intro is a heck of a start of one. I enjoyed reading it, and learning a little bit of your history.

Hello Benjermin Groff, nice write up, i love listening to music, it gives happiness to the soul, love to here you sing . am new here,already following you and want to learn more

Nice and long articles, nice be friend with you, i hope you want follow and vote mee too. Thank@benjamingroff

wow superb post. long and well expressed post.

Dam son....That has to be the longest intro in steemit history!!!

selamat datang kawan di steemit

You are more stylish and so handsome also Boss..

Welcome to steemit @benjamingroff :) you are going to love this place. It is truly the most amazing online community comprised of such phenomenal people!

I wish you all the success in the world here. Looking forward to seeing more from you.

Much love from Cape Town, South Africa x

Yup steemit community keep on growing and more.. nice to see ya here...

Nice intro! I'm also a music lover and writer! Just not professionally. 😉 You're very lucky to have such a supportive family! My family is very musical and I had tremendous support as well. In fact I'm carrying on the tradition and supporting my children (15 and 6) in their musical beginning! My oldest plays trombone, drums and is also learning the guitar and bass. My youngest is doing piano lessons! Anyway, nice to have you here! Make sure to check out Open Mic for some amazing music. There's also a musical community on Discord if you'd like to join! I can send you the invite link! 🤘

You are already a "whale" with this great introductory post. Wow! Welcome aboard.

Welcome to Steemit .... Wow - What a great Intro.

Just looking at the picture as it develops is really entertaining.

Welcome to Steemit. Thanks for sharing.

Welcome to steemit =>

Such an amazing intro! We'd love to see more of the music community around here.......

Congratulations @benjamingroff, this post is the most rewarded post (based on pending payouts) in the last 12 hours written by a Dust account holder (accounts that hold between 0 and 0.01 Mega Vests). The total number of posts by Dust account holders during this period was 3402 and the total pending payments to posts in this category was $574.88. To see the full list of highest paid posts across all accounts categories, click here.

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Congratulations, your post received one of the top 10 most powerful upvotes in the last 12 hours. You received an upvote from @thejohalfiles valued at 89.15 SBD, based on the pending payout at the time the data was extracted.

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Welcome to steemit from @lopezdacruz. All the best in your steemit journey.

WELCOME TO STEEMIT and thanks for sharing so much about your life and yourself - truly refreshing and a great #introduceyourself post..

Stay Real - sure you will love it hear

@benjamingroff wow! nice introduction. This is a great community to be part of, you will soon realize it. Here you'll many backgrounds with great knowledge, and we can all learn from each other. I personally have a passionate for great music. No talent here tho. Welcome to Steemit and best wishes to you!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

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Hey...what up Ryan!!!

benjamingroof i am going to post your article on my wall,,, hope you will like, i like your articles thanks

Welcome to this crazy community!!))) Loved ur post and looking forward for more!!))

Excited to be following you! I noticed city and colour on that list, I got to open for their singer when I was in high school and he played with alexisonfire. Always been a fan. Welcome to steemit can't wait to see you post some content!

I love your post and your photos. Welcome to our community and hope that you like it here :)

"the more you give and the more you do the right thing, the more you will get back." ---- Yes! Love that. An all-around great share too. :)

Welcome to Steemit @benjamingroff !...interesting introduction post...You are already a star here.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

@benjamingroff also welcome here on steemit from me! Hope you will enjoy it and thanks for your introduction.

Great article.🍀

Hope to read more of you!

Steem on🤙🏽

wow amazing post...like it..

Amazing

very interesting work. rare job. i wish all the best with your new business. lucky to have supporting parents. video is melodious and excellent quality. nice post. all the best.