The New Music Business with Ari Herstand

Today my guest is John Funge. He's the CEO and co-founder of The Music Fund, a startup company that issues advances to artists for their streaming revenue. They're not a record label even though labels are typically the ones offering advances to artists. They are innovating and disrupting in the music industry, and John goes over their business model. 

As I dug deeper and interviewed artists who're using them, it seemed like a very cool company. Now they're partnered with Ari's Take. 

Quick links: 

3:25 - About The Music Fund and what they do

10:00 - Does The Music Fund's business model work?

20:00 - How the algorithms account for massive playlist adds and spikes/drops in royalty revenue

23:17 - Success stories from artists who've used The Music Fund

25:20 - Should I apply for The Music Fund? What data should you be looking at before you apply?

31:10 - How investors are involved

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Connect with Ari’s Take:

Website: http://aristake.com

Academy: http://aristakeacademy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aristake/

Connect with Ari Herstand:

Website: http://ariherstand.com

Instagram: http://instagram.com/ariherstand

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ariherstand

YouTube: http://youtube.com/ariherstand

Facebook: http://facebook.com/ariherstand

Connect with The Music Fund:

Website: https://themusic.fund/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/themusicfund/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/themusicfund/

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Today's episode was recorded live in Los Angeles in my guest's, Jonathan Azu, backyard. This was the first in-person interview I've done since the coronavirus shutdown and we've all been locked in quarantine. But Jonathan has a beautiful backyard where we could safely social distance, so we set up there. It was nice to be in the physical presence of somebody for once. I've missed that so dearly.

Jonathan Azu is an artist manager for artists like Cory Henry, Luke James, Emily King, and Michelle Williams among others. He used to be the executive vice president and general manager of Red Light Management. He is also a two-time Billboard magazine 40 Under 40 power player. Over a year ago, he launched his own management company called Culture Collective.

We talk about how he shifted his business model now that live touring is shut down. We also talk about how the music industry can be more racially diverse and equitable, specifically how music companies can address the racial inequalities that exist at an executive level but really all levels.

A Forbes 2017 article outlined that hip-hop and R&B genres are responsible for 25% of all music consumption and over 29% of all on-demand streams across the United States. However, executives of color are still relatively scarce atop major music companies. The top 10 out of 10 on the Billboard Power 100 list are all white, and there's only two people of color in the top 50. Azu breaks this down on why he thinks this is and how to fix it because it's a problem.

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Quick links:

4:20 - How Jonathan Azu and his artists have been doing since touring has been shut down

12:50 - What Azu's artists are doing in quarantine - how they are staying busy

16:05 - Artists doing live streaming events

18:53 - About Culture Collective and Azu's journey to get to where he's at today

29:07 - Advice to white colleagues asking for advice on curbing systemic racism in the music industry

35:33 - About The Black Music Coalition

39:15 - Lack of racial diversification in the Billboard Power 100 list

41:35 - Shifting internships to paid internships and going outside typical recruiting tactics - should there be mentorship programs?

43:18 - Would reparations be the correct route to approach racial injustices in the music industry?

54:08 - Are people losing interest in the black lives matter movement?

59:10 - Was having an all black roster for Culture Collective intentional?

1:05:05 - Azu's artist Emily King two Grammy nominations

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Connect with Ari’s Take:

Website: https://aristake.com

Academy: https://aristakeacademy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aristake/

Connect with Ari Herstand:

Website: https://ariherstand.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ariherstand

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ariherstand

YouTube:

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Today on the show is Laura Escudé. She is a fantastic violinist, producer, and Ableton's first ever official certified trainer. She was hired by Ableton to teach people how to use Ableton Live. She then went on to tour with artists like Kanye West, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, Mariah Carey, Logic, Herbie Hancock, and Jay-Z to name a few. 

Now she teaches people how to do what she did for those shows: program huge arena shows.

We also chat about how she's making it work with the entire touring industry shut down and what you can do as well. We've known each other for a few years, so I loved catching up with her.

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Laura's 'Hustle Healthier' article: https://medium.com/@lauraescude/hustle-healthier-a-manifesto-on-how-touring-artists-and-professionals-can-put-their-health-first-62505f588f66

Check out Laura's course: https://bit.ly/laura-escude

Use code ARISTAKE for 10% off

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Quick links: 

2:55 - Where Laura's quarantining from, what she's been up to, and her studio gear

5:05 - Being the first ever Ableton certified trainer and what it means

6:23 - Landing bigger gigs because of the Ableton certification

9:14 - What was expected of Laura when she became an Ableton programmer

13:40 - Where Laura is set up during a live set for an artist she's working with

14:45 - Laura's extensive touring schedule and her health crisis

18:12 - About Laura's company, Electronic Creatives

22:25 - California's gig worker law AB5

30:10 - Laura's advice to artists who want to tour with big artists

35:00 - About Transmute

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Connect with Ari’s Take:

Website: http://aristake.com

Academy: http://aristakeacademy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aristake/

Connect with Ari Herstand:

Website: http://ariherstand.com

Instagram: http://instagram.com/ariherstand

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ariherstand

YouTube: http://youtube.com/ariherstand

Facebook: http://facebook.com/ariherstand

Connect with Laura Escudé:

Website: https://lauraescude.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelauraescude

Instagram:

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I recorded this week's podcast guest Nick Bearden live from his studio, Retro Lab Studios, in Nashville, Tennessee. He's a sideman, bassist, guitar player, producer, and sound engineer.

Nick Bearden has played thousands of shows with Jamestown Revival, but we go heavy on the business side of managers, where he shares a story on one of the shadiest managers I've ever heard of. We also discuss how freelancers operate.

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Quick links:

3:15 - Nick Bearden, Jamestown Revival, and his instruments

8:05 - How not to do business in the music industry + sync licensing boom of 2009

18:45 - Tour managing

22:05 - Shady managers and getting ripped off

31:48 - How to know when someone is ripping you off

34:07 - How Nick finds gigs as a freelancer and who he's performing with

39:41 - The story of meeting and working with Jamestown Revival

1:12:58 - The music industry is always paying attention, whether you realize it or not

1:18:38 - Jamestown Revival's experience being signed to a major label

1:28:05 - Nick's advice for freelance musicians who want to be a "session cat" and touring musician

1:33:50 - How Nick defines making it in the new music business

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Connect with Ari Herstand:

Website: https://www.aristake.com

Instagram (personal): https://www.instagram.com/ariherstand/

Instagram (Ari's Take): https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aristake/

Twitter (personal): https://twitter.com/ariherstand

Twitter (Ari's Take): https://twitter.com/ArisTake

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1

Connect with Nick Bearden:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nickbearden

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickbearden/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nick-Bearden-84750813293/

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This week's guest is Bina Fronda. She's the marketing director for Ultra Records. Ultra Records has released artists like Steve Aoki, Alexandra Stan, Alan Walker, Lost Frequencies, and more. This was recorded live from Bina's apartment in Brooklyn, NY. She had just gotten back from a concert and festival.

We talk about a bunch of stuff, but specifically we dig into influencer marketing. The thing that I was interested to learn about was how they get in touch with TikTok "influencers" (people with huge followings on the platform, or social media in general). If you ever wondered how those influencers choose which song(s) to dance to, well, oftentimes it's labels paying them to do those dances, skits, or anything like that. 

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Quick links:

3:54 - Who distributes Ultra Records, and how long Bina has been at the label

9:50 - Amazon Music's official playlists and getting support from Amazon

11:57 - About Ultra Records and a background of the label

15:05 - Bina's role as a marketing director at Ultra Records

17:20 - Bina walking us through the the single release process

31:07 - The rollout strategies for each release and when the planning and rollout begins

37:15 - Who are dance influencers and how do you get in contact with them?

41:15 - What is a Latin influencer?

48:23 - How TikTok influencer marketing works and how to connect with them

54:45 - How to gauge effectiveness of a TikTok campaign

1:00:00 - Gamer artists on Twitch and how to connect with them

1:06:45 - Ultra Records' advertising campaigns with Facebook, Google, YouTube, etc

1:17:20 - Where Ultra Records puts most of its ad spend

1:19:15 - Does Ultra Records run the ads for the releases or do the artists and their managers do them?

1:20:40 - What does it mean to Bina to make it in the new music business?

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Connect with Ari’s Take:

Website: https://aristake.com

Academy: https://aristakeacademy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aristake/

Connect with Ari Herstand:

Website: http://ariherstand.com

Instagram: http://instagram.com/ariherstand

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ariherstand

YouTube: http://youtube.com/ariherstand

Facebook: http://facebook.com/ariherstand

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This is a live episode, virtually, on Zoom, and we invited Ari's Take Academy students to be part of it. They were able to ask questions at the end of the episode.

The episode is with Seth Kallen. He's an artist manager for JP Saxe, X Ambassadors, Jukebox The Ghost, and many others. He talks about how to get opening slots on tours and how he was relentless early on. We discussed creating during quarantine, sync licensing, and touring. Stick around to the end of the episode. We had some great questions from the students. We even had someone from Moscow, Russia ask a question. Seth gave very knowledge answers to them and was super generous with his knowledge and wisdom. 

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Seth's article on Medium: https://medium.com/@SethKallenThisFiction/what-do-i-miss-i-miss-live-music-the-fight-to-save-the-concert-business-during-a-global-pandemic-b91d64d1b26b

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Quick links: 

3:28 - Where Seth is quarantining from and how his life as a manager has shifted since quarantine started

5:56 - How it's been for Seth now that he's established himself as a manager - does he go to all of his artist's events? 

8:20 - Finding a balance between work and passions

10:40 - Livestreamed shows are not a replacement for live shows

13:40 - What is an artist manager and what do they do?

17:30 - What parts of his artists' career is he involved in?

20:50 - How Seth got started managing Jukebox The Ghost

24:13 - Did Seth finish college? 

26:18 - What is a day-to-day manager?

28:20 - How Seth discovered X Ambassadors

34:10 - How X Ambassadors went from drawing 5 people to a venue in New York to billions of streams, playing numerous venues, and being one of the biggest bands in the world at one point

40:20 - The pitch to get opening slots on bigger tours for artists

43:35 - Being relentless, persistent, and showing your worth; Ari's story about opening for Ben Folds

55:20 - JP Saxe's rise to fame and how Seth connected with him

1:09:20 - How JP Saxe pays it forward and why he remembers those who've helped him in his career

1:12:09 - ATA student questions

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Connect with Ari’s Take:

Website: https://aristake.com

Academy: https://aristakeacademy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aris.take

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aristake/

Connect with Ari Herstand:

Website: https://ariherstand.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ariherstand

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ariherstand

YouTube:

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We are in very interesting times. Last week's episode was all about musicians for black lives and what this movement is all about and what we can do as allies. It has been a challenge for me personally to understand where I fit in with this movement. I've been using my platform to encourage other musicians and people with influence, namely white people, to stand up and support our black brothers and sisters through this movement.

I've been getting a lot of questions about releasing music right now. I've thought a lot about that because it's not just about releasing music but what we should be posting on social media. Should we be promoting anything other than the movement? There's really not a right or wrong answer. I think everyone needs to do what makes sense for them.

If you have more money than time, then donate to organizations that are supporting the movement. If you have more time than money, then spend time educating yourself.

We recorded this episode about a week before George Floyd's death. So we're not going to be mentioning this uprising. We talk about what it's like running our careers and writing music during COVID-10 and quarantine. We hear from all of the Ari's Take Academy instructors, including Lucidious (Streaming & Instagram Growth), Vo Williams (Advanced Sync Strategies for Film, TV and Video Games), Kristen Mathe (Cracking Colleges), Andrew Spalter (Breaking China), and Allyson Toy (Breaking China).

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Connect with Ari’s Take:

Website: https://aristake.com

Academy: https://aristakeacademy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aris.take

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aristake/

Connect with Ari Herstand:

Website: https://ariherstand.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ariherstand

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ariherstand

YouTube: https://youtube.com/ariherstand

Facebook: https://facebook.com/ariherstand

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My thoughts on what this moment and movement surrounding Black Lives Matter, #DefundThePolice and the death of George Floyd requires of white people. Namely musicians.

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Quick links:

1:20 - About the Black Lives Matter movement and the system that has been setup to strongly favor white people

3:30 - Attending the Black Lives Matter protest in Hollywood, California and the work the black America needs us to do

10:45 - What does defunding the police actually mean?

14:00 - Alicia Garza's interview on Meet The Press about defunding the police

15:24 - Patrisse Cullors on defunding the police

17:09 - "But all lives matter!" 

20:18 - Trevor Noah on the right way to handle things

24:06 - This not a time to tune out and why the show had to be paused on June 2nd

30:00 - Two actionable things you can do to educate yourself

31:18 - Ta-Nehisi Coates testifying in Congress about reparations for HR-40

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Resources mentioned:

Who in Music is Supporting the Black Community (spreadsheet): https://aristake.com/post/music-supporting-black-community

The Case for Reparations: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

13th: https://www.netflix.com/title/80091741

Rolling Stone: The Music Industry Was Built on Racism: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/music-industry-racism-1010001/

Sonya Renee Taylor: https://www.instagram.com/sonyareneetaylor/

The Show Must Be Paused: https://www.theshowmustbepaused.com/

Trevor Noah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4amCfVbA_c

Ta-Nehisi Coates testimony on reparations at House hearing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcCnQ3iRkys

Meet the Press interview with BLM’s Alicia Garza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxwFJIQUWfg&t=1424s

BLM’s Patrisse Cullors on Defunding the Police: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYa1WjHtzKc&t=119s

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Connect with Ari’s Take:

Website: https://aristake.com

Academy: https://aristakeacademy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aris.take

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1

Facebook:

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My guest today is singer-songwriter Kevin Garrett. He is an extremely talented R&B, Neo-soul, and soul songwriter. It was such a treat to speak with him. Famously, he's Grammy-nominated for writing Beyonce's track "Pray You Catch Me" from her 'Lemonade' album. 

In this episode we discuss his music publishing deal with Roc Nation and his distribution strategies, his music creation process, and remaining independent.

Note: We recorded this call over Zoom, and the technical gods were not in our favor during this interview. If you're hearing glitches and sentences being cut off, that's what's going on. We edited it as best we could so you can understand him, and it's still an incredible conversation. 

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Quick links: 

3:14 - Staying busy during the quarantine

6:14 - Kevin playing UnCancelled Music Festival + keeping the local music community venues alive

8:21 - Growing up in Pittsburgh and going to New York University

10:54 - Kevin's first release, 'Mellow Drama,' and how it was made

12:09 - Is the home studio just for demos or do those recordings make the album? 

13:22 - About the music creation process and using samples

16:14 - Kevin Garrett's unique sound

20:34 - Remaining independent and the behind the scenes to a growing career

27:54 - Kevin's publishing deal and how everything gets set into motion

33:44 - When Kevin found out he made the cut on Beyonce's 'Lemonade' album

37:06 - Kevin's writing process when he's collaborating with others in the studio

41:14 - Protecting yourself with agreements and contracts

44:34 - The conversation nobody wants to have: splits, ownership, money

48:49 - Kevin's deal when he's the producer

54:06 - What it means to Kevin to 'make it' in the new music business

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Connect with Ari’s Take:

Website: https://aristake.com

Academy: https://aristakeacademy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aris.take

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aristake/

Connect with Ari Herstand:

Website: https://ariherstand.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ariherstand

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ariherstand

YouTube: https://youtube.com/ariherstand

Facebook: https://facebook.com/ariherstand

Connect with Kevin Garrett:

Website: https://kevingarrettmusic.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinogarrett/

Facebook:

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Today's guest is my good friend, Andrew Leib. He's an artist manager at Red Light Management. He's worked on the teams of Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Counting Crows, Three Doors Down, Emily King, Lecrae, Luke James, Cory Henry, Victoria Canal, Nu Deco Ensemble. He's worked with a lot of artists. 

Andrew and I get into his story and what he looks for in artists that he wants to work with and how artists can reach out to managers. We dig into artist branding and his process on how to put a package together. 

This was a fun episode for me to be able to catch up with one of my best friends.

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Quick links: 

2:04 - Andrew going to China for a nine city tour

7:20 - Being a hands-on manager and 'being in the band without being on stage with them.' 

9:30 - Things Andrew's learned about being a manager from his years of experience in the music business

17:05 - Creating an authentic artist brand so fans can connect to them

25:51 - The Nu Deco Ensemble project, an orchestra for the 21st century

37:12 - Do you need a manager? What Andrew looks for in clients before bringing them onboard.

44:30 - Getting a manger doesn't happen from the first meeting. It takes time. 

55:00 - How do you reach out to a manager after you've built up your business?

1:00:31 - How Andrew defines making it in the new music business

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Connect with Ari’s Take:

Website: https://aristake.com

Academy: https://aristakeacademy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aris.take

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aristake/

Connect with Ari Herstand:

Website: https://ariherstand.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ariherstand

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ariherstand

YouTube: https://youtube.com/ariherstand

Facebook: https://facebook.com/ariherstand

Connect with Andrew Leib: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leib/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/grandwazoo4u

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.