Hardware Podcasts

The Chipmunks: Ross Bagdasarian Jr. & Janice Karman (2017)

How I Built This · 24 Dec 2018 · 58m

What this episode covers

Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman, the husband-and-wife team behind the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise, explain how they revived their father's 1950s creation into a billion-dollar media empire. They detail their early struggles with rejection from major studios, the pivotal success of the 'Chipmunk Punk' album, and the technical process of recording voices by speeding up tape. The episode also covers their business battles, including a costly syndication mistake with Viacom, a failed partnership with Universal, and a lawsuit against Fox over the movie franchise's economics.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Viacom, Universal, Fox, NBC, CBS, Motown, Liberty Records, Home Depot, Up LLC, Bright Light
Products
Alvin and the Chipmunks, Chipmunk Punk, Urban Chipmunk, MixMat

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