By Jasmine Swain
By Jasmine Swain
In the passenger seat, you’re the unofficial car DJ, with the power of music at your fingertips. You can tell how the beat is impacting everyone in the vehicle – and that’s exactly what happened after producers and artists had the chance to hear their music in Dolby Atmos1 available inside select Cadillac models.
I recently had the opportunity to play music producer in LA ahead of Cadillac's appearance at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) conference. From my favorite seat, I not only got to vibe to my favorite beats, but I also saw how music producers complete their songs.
I expected excitement. What I saw instead was intention and creative workflow.
At the center of the experience was producer Moritz Braun, who led a creative challenge designed to remove overthinking from the production process.
Braun brought a band into a recording studio and gave them just 45 minutes to record a song. He and his team mixed the track immediately, and from there, we listened to thee song inside the Cadillac Escalade IQ and the Cadillac OPTIQ, experiencing it through the available Dolby Atmos.
There was no time for second guessing. No endless revisions. Just an honest translation of the work as it moved through space.
One of the most revealing moments came when singer Malavika and musician Biako sat with me inside the OPTIQ to hear the song they had just recorded. As the track played, both leaned in, calling out layers and textures they hadn’t caught in the studio.
From my passenger seat, it was clear that what the industry calls the “Car Test” helps artists refine decisions in real time: What to adjust, what to revisit, and what already works. The car becomes a creative filter, not just a listening environment.
One of my favorite things was watching John Cockburn, chief engineer for the Cadillac OPTIQ, witness these reactions in real time. There’s something so powerful about seeing years of engineering meet lived experience.
Following the “Car Test,” I sat down with Moritz along with Grammy-nominated producer Ryan Ulyate and musician Marlon Funaki. Each of them spoke about how these Cadillacs changed the way they think about finishing a track.
“What Cadillac and Dolby Atmos did really makes you want to go driving and discover new roads while listening to music,” Ulate said.
In those conversations, they shared how important the “Car Test” has become to the creative process— not as a final listen, but as a key step in shaping their work.
From the passenger seat, I could see the creative process live. Artists noticed details that static studio environments do not always surface: Spatial balance. Emotional weight. How silence fills the cabin.
This experience reminded me that sometimes the most important seat in the car is not the one with the wheel: It's the one where you can watch creativity take its final shape.
And while the passenger seat will always be my favorite one thing became clear throughout this experience: in a Cadillac, there’s no ‘best’ seat. Whether you’re behind the wheel, riding shotgun, or settling into the back row, the sound is engineered so that every seat becomes the right seat to experience music exactly the way it was created.
That is what it means to experience the fullness of music in a Cadillac.
1 Requires active OnStar service and compatible active streaming service.
In the passenger seat, you’re the unofficial car DJ, with the power of music at your fingertips. You can tell how the beat is impacting everyone in the vehicle – and that’s exactly what happened after producers and artists had the chance to hear their music in Dolby Atmos1 available inside select Cadillac models.
I recently had the opportunity to play music producer in LA ahead of Cadillac's appearance at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) conference. From my favorite seat, I not only got to vibe to my favorite beats, but I also saw how music producers complete their songs.
I expected excitement. What I saw instead was intention and creative workflow.
At the center of the experience was producer Moritz Braun, who led a creative challenge designed to remove overthinking from the production process.
Braun brought a band into a recording studio and gave them just 45 minutes to record a song. He and his team mixed the track immediately, and from there, we listened to thee song inside the Cadillac ESCALADE IQ and the Cadillac OPTIQ, experiencing it through the available Dolby Atmos.
There was no time for second guessing. No endless revisions. Just an honest translation of the work as it moved through space.
One of the most revealing moments came when singer Malavika and musician Biako sat with me inside the OPTIQ to hear the song they had just recorded. As the track played, both leaned in, calling out layers and textures they hadn’t caught in the studio.
From my passenger seat, it was clear that what the industry calls the “Car Test” helps artists refine decisions in real time: What to adjust, what to revisit, and what already works. The car becomes a creative filter, not just a listening environment.
One of my favorite things was watching John Cockburn, chief engineer for the Cadillac OPTIQ, witness these reactions in real time. There’s something so powerful about seeing years of engineering meet lived experience.
Following the “Car Test,” I sat down with Moritz along with Grammy-nominated producer Ryan Ulyate and musician Marlon Funaki. Each of them spoke about how these Cadillacs changed the way they think about finishing a track.
“What Cadillac and Dolby Atmos did really makes you want to go driving and discover new roads while listening to music,” Ulate said.
In those conversations, they shared how important the “Car Test” has become to the creative process— not as a final listen, but as a key step in shaping their work.
From the passenger seat, I could see the creative process live. Artists noticed details that static studio environments do not always surface: Spatial balance. Emotional weight. How silence fills the cabin.
This experience reminded me that sometimes the most important seat in the car is not the one with the wheel: It's the one where you can watch creativity take its final shape.
And while the passenger seat will always be my favorite, one thing became clear throughout this experience: in a Cadillac, there’s no ‘best’ seat. Whether you’re behind the wheel, riding shotgun, or settling into the back row, the sound is engineered so that every seat becomes the right seat to experience music exactly the way it was created.
That is what it means to experience the fullness of music in a Cadillac.
1Requires active OnStar service and compatible active streaming service.