Archives for 2023

A conversation with Emma Swift, a Nashville-by-way-of-Australia singer-songwriter who garnered some serious attention last year with her release of Blonde On The Tracks.

We were excited to talk to Emma as a follow-up to our recent newsletter piece highlighting an atypical release strategy — one that does NOT involve releasing songs to streaming platforms on the official release date. Emma breaks down her impetus for doing a “physical or download-only” release, how the plan was formed, and touches on all of the moving parts of her release cycle. She’ll also provide some advice to developing artists on how to approach your next release.

As promised in the outro of the podcast, here’s info on Emma’s team that worked this release:

• UK publicist: Rachel Silver – https://silverpr.co.uk/about
• US publicist: Ken Weinstein – https://www.bighassle.com
• US radio promo: Brad Paul – http://www.bradpaulmedia.com
• Distribution: ThinkIndie in the US; MGM Planet in Australia. 
• Emilee Warner helped manage my campaign for four months. She was particularly good at Nashville related hookups: advertising on Lightning100, a mural at Grimey’s, booking Blackbird for a live stream.

A conversation with Joseph Lynch who’s an editor at Billboard Magazine gives us the inside scoop about Billboard’s pivot during the pandemic to covering more industry news, music technology, and the types of stories he’s looking for when covering smaller artists. 

We also talk about misconceptions about the industry, the myth of the overnight success, and why musicians should just suck it up and get on TikTok.

TRANSCRIPT

A conversation with Joe Swank, a freelance radio promoter who previously worked in the radio space at Yep Roc Records and Bloodshot Records.

Joe was also a touring musician in the ’90s, hosts his own radio show, and co-founded the Alt-country Specialty Radio Chart — so he’s got a LOT of wisdom to share not only on the radio side, but on building a music industry career in general.

As we’re heard on other episodes; be ready to stay in it for the long haul, don’t bank on overnight success, and constantly (C O N S T A N T L Y) work on developing your network.

Also, be nice to people.

If you’re interested in more radio talk, check out our conversation with Shil Patel of Tiger Bomb Promo.

TRANSCRIPT

A conversation with Justin Black, a Richmond, VA-based independent musician who runs his own label, Crystal Pistol Records, and also works regularly with another Virginia-based label, WarHen Records. 

Justin’s primary vessel for musical output is under the moniker Saw Black, which I recommend you check out wherever you consume music. 

Our conversation is based around the premise of independent labels — and answering common questions like…should you start your own label? Should you cut a deal with a small indie? What might that deal look like versus a traditional deal or a “bigger” label deal? We’ll also demystify a lot of the day-to-day of being an independent musician and the music industry at-large.

TRANSCRIPT

This week we’re talking with David Macias, President and Founder of Nashville-based Thirty Tigers. We’ll discuss the origins of the label, how their business model has changed over the years, how they approach A&R as well as artist development, and discuss independent release plans (label or not) … and David will spill the tea on the current uproar over the streaming economy.

Skip to ~22 minutes if you’re only here for the Spotify/streaming talk.

To read more of David’s thoughts on Spotify and the streaming economy in general, check out this piece in Rolling Stone, as well as David’s full written notes here.