Female artists who hire producers risk losing creative control before a single song is released.
On this week’s podcast episode, Xylo Aria, founder of Music Production for Women (MPW), tells us how she learned this the hard way, by paying for sessions where male producers overrode her vision, leaving her with music she never put out and studios where personal safety competed with creative freedom.
Seven years building MPW taught her that the real barrier isn’t technical knowledge, but confidence and the self-imposed belief that production simply isn’t for women.
She shares how she dismantled those barriers and why owning your production is the only way to fully own your art.
Xylo started writing songs at 12, spent four years as a corporate accountant, then quit after a close friend died suddenly, moved to the UK, and launched MPW about two weeks after leaving a contract role.
The platform runs a year-long Master Your Music program, alongside free online and in-person events throughout the year.
Students range from complete DAW beginners to demo-makers with knowledge gaps, spanning electronic, folk, singer-songwriter, and sound-healing genres.
Xylo’s sharpest takeaway from her years of teaching is that 70 percent finished is great. Stop tweaking, release, and move on because productivity compounds when you let go.
For women who have paid for sessions and walked away with music they never released, she advises to open the DAW now, build muscle memory across your own genre, and take the first step before you feel ready.
Waiting until you’re further along is the trap, because every finished project you own outright is one where no one else controlled the outcome or the room.
You can hear it at bobbyoinnercircle.com, or via Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Mixcloud, Spotify, Deezer, TuneIn Radio, or RadioPublic.
Also, a video version of this podcast is now available on YouTube as well.
