John Haring has worn many hats in music and other businesses. 

After graduating with a degree from Middle Tennessee State University’s prestigious Recording Industry Management Program, John spent time at RCA Records/Nashville in the publicity and artist development departments where he worked on tour press and promotional events with such artists as Alabama, Dolly Parton, Eddy Arnold, Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride, Ronnie Milsap, Sylvia, Razzy Bailey Dean Dillon, Gary Stewart and others. Moving back home to the New York area, John spent time in RCA Records’ New Jersey offices where he managed IT operations for the RCA Records financial division. 

Upon leaving RCA, John spent a number of years managing and producing some high-profile, regional, independent artists in the northeast. During that time, in addition to producing recordings for the northeastern artists, he also was commuting to Nashville to advise and produce demo recordings for a number of independent artists and songwriters there. 

At the same time, in addition to his work in the music industry, John was also involved in the IT world and is considered an educational software pioneer who designed and wrote some of the first software to be included with textbooks by the major schoolbook publishers.  He created the popular KeyStrokes, the first computer-based typing tutorial to replace typewriters in high schools throughout the country, published by Houghton-Mifflin. Keystrokes was unique for its ability to quickly time and score word-by-word, as a typing teacher would, rather than stroke-by-stroke, as earlier retail products had, earning John accolades from the industry for his revolutionary scoring algorithm. 

From that success, he founded Random Micro, Inc. (later changed to American Softech, Inc.), a New Jersey-based IT and Management consulting firm, and guided the company to locations in three cities and clients from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses and in all sectors from private to government to education to non-profit. He later returned to the academic world where he taught at the college level and was CIO/CTO of a northeastern college where he won national awards for his infrastructure design and execution and lectured nationally on campus-based IT issues. He still occasionally takes on management and business procedure consulting projects with small businesses. 

However, his fingers were always in the music business in some way. Since returning to Nashville in 2003, John has written and produced an independent CD of his own (with a second one in the works) and headed the design and opening of Nashville Independent Music, a website devoted to helping independent, unsigned artists and songwriters promote their careers through online exposure, live events and radio. 

John is also Executive Director of ProMusicU, a company that provides packaged workshop events to organizations across the country for aspiring artists and music business professionals in the areas of music business, performance and songwriting. ProMusicU will also, starting in mid-2020, provide live packaged clinics and master classes by some of the best musicians in the country.

In addition, John is also an occasional visiting lecturer at Middle Tennessee State University on Internet Music Marketing and other topics.  He has participated in student studio project evaluations and has presented seminars on various music business topics at such high-profile music conferences as the Americana Music Association Conference, the South East Regional Folk Alliance Conference, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Frank Brown International Songwriter Festival and others. 

On the literary front, John is Technical Editor and quoted authority for a popular textbook by Middle Tennessee State University professor, the late Dr. Tom Hutchison, entitled Web Marketing for the Music Business and has, in the past, written a monthly music column for local Nashville publication, City at Night magazine as well as articles for various other publications and groups. 

In radio, John most recently was co-host of the popular Guitarmania with Johnny Hiland where he and guitar great Johnny Hiland played their favorite guitar music and told stories about working with many of the greats.  In the past, John also hosted and produced two shows devoted to independent music, The Nashville Songwriter Show (formerly The Nashville Independent Music Hour), a live acoustic music show featuring hit songwriters, co-hosted with the late songwriter CJ Watson, and The Nashville Independent Music Top 10, a studio-based show with an Internet-based, audience voting component. After that, John served as Executive Producer and Announcer for The Guitar Show with Andy Ellis, a guitar-centered interview and music show hosted by legendary guitar journalist Andy Ellis (Premier Guitar magazine, Guitar Player magazine and others). The Guitar Show with Andy Ellis is currently offered direct-to-web after a long run on terrestrial radio stations across the country. A companion website (www.theguitarshow.com), featuring it's vast library of interviews with world-renowned guitarists, is regularly visited by fans in all 50 states and over 145 countries.  The Guitar Show also spawned a live component, The Guitar Show Live!, and John produces live events with world-renowned musicians, on behalf of the show and for event producer Crush Worldwide, in popular Nashville venues and, more recently, in other parts of the country. 

John is also Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Inspire America Foundation, a non-profit, 501(c)3 charitable organization dedicated to identifying and providing help in many areas of need. Ongoing and past projects include Inspire Kids Nashville, working with at-risk kids and youth in inner-city Nashville; The Inspire Freedom Project, "Taking a Stand Against Human Trafficking" in both Nashville and New York City as well as other initiatives supporting children, military families, homeless and inner-city projects. Their Board of Trustees and Advisory Board includes prominent business executives, performers, music business executives, prominent attorneys and members of business communities across the country. More information is available at www.theinspireamericafoundation.org. 

As lead partner at Crush Worldwide, John has helped many artists, bands, songwriters and musicians with one-on-one sessions called "Career Audits" and "Career StartUps."  John also led the career resurrections and manages iconic guitarists Johnny Hiland and Thom Bresh as well as assisting in the careers of others.  Crush Worldwide also produces numerous shows at many venues in the Nashville area and recently co-produced a concert series in Muhlenburg County, Kentucky at the Merle Travis Music Center.  John is also frequently asked to MC events and has recently become a voice over artist.

So, lots of hats worn. When asked what he does in the music business, John likes to say, "I've done just about every job in the music business except publishing and I've taught publishing." That kind of says it all. And with all of that experience, John joined forces with music industry veteran partners to start Crush Worldwide to use the wealth of knowledge and experience gained in all of those capacities and others to mentor, consult and develop career and corporate strategy with artists, songwriters and companies throughout the country. 

Check out the Services page to see what John along with Crush Worldwide can do for you.

Contact John at jharing@crushworldwide.com or 615-974-4886.