Success can mean many different things to a DJ or musician. It could be playing at your first live show, releasing your first song or collaborating with another DJ. At Mixcloud, we champion creativity, enabling creators to elevate themselves and their career. Hailing from Tacoma, Washington, USA, Nick Francis is testament to finding success on the platform.

Host of the ‘Quietmusic’ radio show, which has been going for 30 years, Francis worked in radio across the USA for several years before bringing the Jazz and Ambient-flavored show to Mixcloud. In the process, he has built an incredible following and recently eclipsed four million total plays on his profile. Not only that, but he has made use of Mixcloud’s tipping feature to earn money from his show. Thus, building a community with which he has an intimate relationship. His creativity runs so deep that he once made a MIDI controller from scratch!

We caught up with Francis to talk about his journey with Mixcloud and the secret behind reaching four million plays.

Congratulations on reaching four million Mixcloud plays! What has inspired the growth of your profile?

Nick Francis: I think one of the important things to know is I had a head start. When I arrived at Mixcloud, I’d been doing ‘Quietmusic’ on the radio for a number of years. But radio was changing and I didn’t have a place for the show anymore. I joined Mixcloud in September 2009, which is pretty early on. I liked the way that the interface was set up, the ability to share my programs and the licensing element was really important. 

That’s always been an issue with DJs and music curators and there’s really not a place other than Mixcloud that will cover you so you can do what you want to do. Once I got to Mixcloud, I think the most important thing was to be consistent. I basically do ‘Quietmusic’ every week. I produce the show and it comes out in the early morning in London and late in the evening and on Saturday night here in the States. Its always been built as sort of a Sunday morning program for people to be able to wake up and chill out to, or maybe read the newspaper or do whatever. That kind of vibe. Through the years I’ve been gaining followers and it has been very gradual.

How did you get started in music?

I grew up in Los Angeles and I was a music junkie from eight years old. I remember on my eighth birthday I got a small little record player and a bunch of 45s which included ‘Jailhouse Rock’ by Elvis Presley. Its like the first record I really got into and it just led me along. I’ve been a music fan all my life and when I was in college, I studied filmmaking and film production. I was at UCLA and I spent a few years after college trying to make my way into the business and not much was going on.

So I ended up moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico. By coincidence, I had a friend that told me about a contest a radio station was having and the winner of the contest would get a shift on the weekends. I went and did an air check and kind of faked my way through and I won the contest.

From there, I started in radio and I worked a few years in Santa Fe. Then I got a job as a music director for a new station in San Francisco called KKSF, which was mainly mellow contemporary Jazz. We played a lot of George Benson, Anita Baker, and Al Jarreau then The Crusaders, Pat Metheny plus some New Age. That kind of led me to a journey where I went from San Francisco to Seattle. I worked in Seattle for a few years then was in Phoenix for seven years and Atlanta for four years and then I came back to Washington for a job as a Jazz music director. So that was my path on radio.

You also created a MIDI controller in 2011! Why did you want to branch out in that way?

What got me interested more in making my own MIDI controller was seeing YouTube videos from guys who would rig up their own controllers and mash up different samples and segments of music in really creative ways. I’ve always been fascinated by sampling and how people were creating sample-based music. So I ended up finding out about this company that made many controllers, but also had a home kit that you could make your own. So I basically designed my own MIDI controller and that took a number of months to do.

I finally got it done and I made some videos of mixing up old Jazz records. It got a lot of traction in the DJ community and some of the electronic world. I’m not using that particular MIDI controller as much anymore, but when I look back at that time it was still a great thing I did.

How long have you been doing ‘Quietmusic?’ What did you want to achieve with it?

It’ll be 30 years in November. I started it when I was the program director of the station KYOT in Phoenix. I was looking for something that could work on Sunday mornings, and I had some experience putting together a show like that at my previous stations. But this time I decided to host it myself. I originally called it ‘Quiet Moods’ and I put it on the air. Interestingly enough, the owner of the radio station sent me an email where he said, ‘now, that is really cool.’ I was really taken aback that he was really enthusiastic about it. And so the show went on in Phoenix and we began to notice that after a few years, it was the most listened to thing on Sunday mornings in the market. 

It was just a creative way for me to take mellow music and showcase the subtleties and textures. Just so you can have a nice vibe to have around you. I try to expand genre wise as much as I can, so I could play a traditional Jazz ballad or an electronic track with an Ambient flavor. But its an intimate exploration.

What has your Mixcloud experience been like over the years?

I’ve been wanting to get the show online for quite a number of years. I had it on my own server for a while but it was too complicated with the issue of music copyright, and numerous technical issues. Mixcloud made it very easy for me to produce my show, upload to the site and then have it available with no trouble. After ‘Quietmusic’ got syndicated on radio years back, Mixcloud is another form of syndication and that was a very cool thing about it. As a radio person, you eventually learn that the best thing you can hope for when you play a bunch of music and sequence it together is that most people will like most of the songs. Luckily, a lot of my audience on Mixcloud have enjoyed what they’ve heard, which is always really great to know.

You’ve utilized Mixcloud’s tipping feature in such a great way, what’s your secret to your success there?

That’s actually something new. I wasn’t really paying attention to the tips that I was getting, which weren’t very many. The reason for that was I didn’t ask people to tip me. Until I said, ‘what the hell, I’m just going to put a post up and just say hey, help an old DJ out and please tip if you really value what you listen to.’ I was going for people who weren’t subscribers because I have a lot more people listening than subscribing. 

The response was pretty amazing and I’m going to continue to talk to people and encourage them to tip me. I think that’s really important. I’m kind of a shy person and its really hard to ask for help and for people’s support in that way. I’d rather focus on what I do and hopefully everybody will like it. But sometimes you just have to come out and ask for it and also let people know that there’s value in the time they spend with you. All the tips just go to show that people are valuing what I’m putting out.

What other Mixcloud features do you use?

I’ve always liked Stats. I can’t express just how valuable it is to know when people are listening, how many people are listening, who’s listening. There’s a section of the Stats where it can tell you what countries listen to you and how many plays you get per country. There’s also one for cities so I was really surprised that as far as cities were concerned, my home base, where the show started in Phoenix, is still right up there. The second city is Tokyo, which is pretty wild!

Its just a wonderful feeling to know that people around the world are listening to you. Quite remarkable particularly for my background of working in radio where everything is very local. You work at a radio station, you have a limited signal. and so you focus all your energies on your town, in your city. Its so cool to be able to know that each week there are listeners coming from everywhere. Still very remarkable to me.

What are some of your tips for creators on Mixcloud who want to grow their community?

Find a way to make it unique. When you start out, you might be similar to other creators, but I think its really important to have some kind of uniqueness that you can hook into. It could be sort of a musical sensibility, the type of person you want to reach for, the type of scene you want to get into. Uniqueness helps you stand out in some way so that people can recognize that. Enough for people to say, ‘I like that, I want to hear more of that.’

Just work at your craft, do it every week and don’t give up. If you get new listeners every week, that’s a win. You just keep doing it and listeners will also tell you what they like. These days, especially in the social media era, engaging with your audience is completely different. I don’t have the skills to do it, but I’ve seen younger people really be able to kind of supercharge what they’re doing with a combination of personality and being a little different.

Any big plans for your Mixcloud profile?

I’ll be 75 in December so the long-term isn’t really what I’m thinking about. But I’m just going to continue to refine what I do. I always find new things to put into the mix. I’m still inspired by music, it still gives me juice and vibrancy. At this time in my life, that’s all I need. So I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing as long as I’m physically and mentally able.