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A VIP Tour of 52 Cues | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 42
In this week’s episode of The 52 Cues Podcast, Dave offers a VIP tour of the thriving 52 Cues community — a creative hub built by and for production music composers.
Why Conferences Matter (PMC 2025 Recap) | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 41
After returning from the 2025 Production Music Conference in Los Angeles, Dave and Shannon reflected on an unforgettable experience that celebrated connection, collaboration, and community.
Level Up Your Pitches with ReelCrafter 2.5 | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 40
In this week’s episode of The 52 Cues Podcast, host Dave welcomes ReelCrafter co-founders Sam Hulick and Sarah Pocius to talk about the brand-new ReelCrafter 2.5 update—a major step forward for composers who want to pitch smarter and present their music more professionally.
The Secrets of Tasking Cues | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 39
In this week’s episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave unpacks the world of tasking cues—a subtle but powerful category of production music widely used in reality TV, competition shows, and renovation programs.
Is this Cue "Editor-Friendly"? | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 38
In this week’s episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave unpacks what it truly means to write editor-friendly production music.
Writing Melodies That Work | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 37
In this week’s episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave explores the art of writing effective melodies for production music. Drawing from his jazz improv background, Dave unpacks how motivic writing, modal theory, and static melody techniques can create editor-friendly cues that both stand out and seamlessly support dialogue.
Unlocking the Secrets of Reference Cues | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 36
On this week’s episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave introduces his Prism Analysis — a framework designed to help production music composers transform reference tracks into fresh, original cues.
Must-Know Tips for Music Conferences | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 35
Attending a music conference can feel overwhelming, but on this week’s episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave reminds composers that success isn’t about collecting the most business cards—it’s about building genuine connections
How to Write Investigative Tension Cues | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 34
In this week’s episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, composer and educator Dave Kropf unpacks the art of writing investigative tension cues—those cerebral, clue-gathering tracks that show up everywhere from crime documentaries to dating show reveals.
Vacation Fails & Life Lessons | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 33
In this week’s episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave and Shannon share stories from their long-awaited vacation to Chattanooga, where wrong turns, noisy cabins, and even an upside-down pizza tested their patience—and taught them invaluable lessons.
Prep Like a Chef: The Composer’s Mise en Place | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 32
In this episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, host Dave draws a surprising connection between his love of grilling and the art of writing production music. Inspired by the French culinary principle of mise en place (“everything in its place”), Dave outlines five practical steps composers can use to prepare, organize, and streamline their workflow before ever hitting “record.”
The 4 Stages of Learning Any DAW | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 31
In this episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave reflects on the unexpected parallels between learning a new DAW and learning a foreign language.
Chomp and Circumstance | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 30
This week on the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave sits down with community member and band director Brandon Seneca—winner of the latest Composer Quest challenge—for a behind-the-scenes look at his delightfully creepy cue, Chomp and Circumstance.
5 Failures That Kill Your Creative Output | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 27
In this episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave unpacks the silent saboteurs lurking in every composer’s studio—from fried hard drives and surprise power surges to emotional burnout and missed deadlines. With equal parts humor, honesty, and hard-won wisdom, Dave walks through the five most common “points of failure” that can grind a cue to a halt.
How I Think About Light Tension | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 26
In this week’s episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave steps into the role of professor to unpack the wide and often misunderstood world of light tension music. From tasking montages and corporate explainers to moody true crime underscores, Dave explores the emotional spectrum that defines this essential production music category.
Sync Terms You Should Know (But May Be Afraid to Ask) | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 24
In this episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave steps into “Professor Dave” mode, guiding listeners through the often-confusing world of production and sync music terminology. With clarity and humor, he unpacks key terms like “cue,” “metadata,” “sync license,” and “back end royalties,” making the language of the industry more accessible to newcomers and seasoned composers alike.
Give Your Cues an Edge That Beats AI | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 23
In this week’s episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave tackles the growing presence of AI in the creative industries and offers a surprisingly simple — yet powerful — strategy for staying relevant: performance.
Composers, It’s Time to Leave SoundCloud | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 22
After 14 years and over a thousand tracks uploaded, Dave Kropf is rethinking his relationship with SoundCloud. In this week’s episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, he opens up about the emotional weight of potentially leaving a platform that has served as a time capsule of his production music journey.
Ask Dave Anything (LIVE)! | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 21
This week on the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave hosted a vibrant live Q&A session packed with practical wisdom for production music composers at every stage of their journey. From dissecting piano track layering strategies to addressing pitch etiquette and how many libraries to approach at once, Dave tackled real-time questions with clarity and humor.
Why Your Metadata (Probably) Sucks (with Mrs. 52 Cues) | 52 Cues Podcast, 2025 Week 20
In this episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, Dave and Shannon tackle what many composers consider the least glamorous—but arguably most crucial—part of the production music process: metadata.