As the originator of Club Quarantine (CQ), which practically got us through lockdown and COVID-19 restrictions, D-Nice knows exactly how to make music and tech go hand-in-hand and has been doing so for years.
Still in 2021, ain’t nothing changed as he’s continuing to work his magic at the intersection of music and technology.
“Music introduced me to being creative, but technology saved my life,” said D-Nice in an exclusive interview with AfroTech.
He originally entered the music business as an artist and when he decided to leave the industry at the age of 23, it was then that he realized that the love he had for music was very much the same when it came to technology.
“I got involved in tech early-on so I became a partner at a small company where we built websites for online marketing which at the time was still kind of in its infancy stages,” he told AfroTech.
It was then that he worked with Boom Digital to build websites for artists like the late Aaliyah and R&B superstar, Tank.
Eventually D-Nice left and founded his own company by the name of United Camps and soon became responsible for building out The Diary of Alicia Keys, a custom website to market the singer’s debut album.
“That was my thing,” exclaimed D- Nice. “I love music and tech. It was always the same for me.”
“Building The Diary of Alicia Keys was an important one for me because at the time she was managed by her mom and it was almost like we were creating Twitter before Twitter was around,” he said. “We just didn’t think of doing it for the masses because the site was based on her diary.”
D-Nice told us from there, he began to bridge the gap between music and technology which has come full circle with CQ.
“I started to become more in love with music and understanding how to bridge the gap between music and tech because of experiences like that and this is what made the whole thing happen with CQ,” D-Nice revealed. “If you fast forward to 2020, I was already embracing the technology anyway and trying to figure out how to do things in a virtual way and the moment that I started playing music on social media it was almost like I had already envisioned this before quarantine which is why I jumped on it so early.”
Now, after just having celebrated the one-year anniversary of Club Quarantine this past March, D-Nice is teaming up with the ultimate fan engagement platform, GeoJam to further connect with fans.
GeoJam uses music as a connector similar to how other platforms use photos or videos. It’s a social media music platform that allows fans to like, share, comment, and engage the way they do on other platforms. The only difference is that they get rewarded for it.
Rewards that now could ultimately lead to the chance to go live with D-Nice.
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“We thought it would be a really cool idea for us to partner with Hitco surrounding D-Nice’s single ‘No Plans For Love’ featuring Ne-Yo and Kent Jones to give a fan an opportunity to go live with D-Nice,” shared Nicole Chestnut Whitmore, GeoJam’s Chief Marketing Officer, in an interview with AfroTech.
As an artist who’s community-driven, this was a no-brainer for D-Nice who also reveals that he’s looking forward to a CQ festival in 2022.
“What’s important about it for me is combining all of these things,” he shared. “My love for technology, my love for art, my love for music, my love for community, my love for faith, and doing this entire weekend based around that.”
For more on how to enter for your chance to go live with D-Nice and more amazing prizes, click here.
