Emerging producers, engineers, songwriters, and artists have until June 26 to apply for the 2026 Larrabee Studios Creator Series, a fully funded five-day mentorship program led by Manny Marroquin inside one of Los Angeles’ most recognizable recording studios.
The program will bring 15 creators to Larrabee Studios from August 10 through August 14 for hands-on studio experience, mentorship, collaboration, and career development. Travel, lodging, meals, and programming are included, and there is no fee to apply or attend.
That makes this one of the more practical artist-development opportunities circulating right now. Plenty of music programs offer online classes or a few broad industry panels. The Creator Series puts participants inside a working studio for five days, gives them access to people who have built real careers, and covers the costs that usually prevent emerging artists from saying yes in the first place.
Access Is The Real Value Here
Manny Marroquin has spoken openly about access being one of the hardest parts of building a music career, and the structure of the Creator Series reflects that.
Participants will spend time with engineers, producers, and music-industry professionals while working inside Larrabee Studios. The program also includes sessions on branding, business, revenue streams, and long-term professional growth, which gives the week a wider purpose than improving a mix or watching someone else work.
That matters because a lot of talented creators already know how to make music. The harder questions tend to come afterward. How do you build relationships without forcing them? How do you turn one good opportunity into repeat work? How should an artist think about revenue when streaming alone is rarely enough?
The Creator Series gives participants room to ask those questions while meeting other creators at a similar point in their careers.
Five Days Inside A Working Los Angeles Studio
Larrabee Studios has been part of the Los Angeles recording scene for over 50 years, with artists including Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Madonna, Rihanna, Lauryn Hill, Usher, and Maroon 5 recording or mixing within its rooms.
That history is obviously impressive, though the current-day studio experience is the part that should matter most to applicants. Working in a professional room changes the way producers hear decisions. Monitoring becomes clearer, small arrangement problems become easier to spot, and the pace of a serious session can reveal which parts of a personal workflow are helping or slowing everything down.
Marroquin’s own path adds useful context. He began as a studio runner before becoming one of the most in-demand mixers in the industry, with credits spanning Bruno Mars, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, John Mayer, Imagine Dragons, and The Rolling Stones. He has earned 18 GRAMMY Awards from 48 nominations.
Sony Audio Brings A Technical Side To The Program
Participants will also spend a day at the Sony Lot in Culver City, gaining access to Sony Audio facilities and staff.
The program includes time with MDR-M1 and MDR-MV1 headphones, C-80 and C-100 microphones, and Sony’s 360 Virtual Mixing Environment. The 360VME system is designed to recreate the acoustic experience of a professional studio through headphones, giving creators another way to understand translation, monitoring, and spatial decisions outside a traditional control room.
That part of the program should be especially relevant for producers working from bedrooms or smaller home studios. Professional rooms are valuable, but most creators still need their work to translate once they return home. Learning how monitoring systems behave across different environments can have a lasting effect on mixing decisions long after the week ends.
Who Can Apply To The Creator Series?
The program is open to U.S. residents aged 21 and older, with all genres welcome. Selection will be based on creative potential, commitment, and readiness to grow inside a professional music environment.
Applications close June 26 at 11:59 PM PST, and the selected participants will be announced July 10. The program takes place August 10 through August 14 in North Hollywood.
For creators who have been doing the work but have not had access to major studios, experienced mentors, or professional networks, this is the kind of application worth finishing before the deadline. The cost is covered, the group is kept small, and the week is built around real studio experience rather than distant advice.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
