sweetheartpub

A conversation with David Barbe, Director of the Music Business program at the University of Georgia. 

David’s career in the music business spans over 40 years, ranging from time as a touring bassist in Bob Mould’s band Sugar, running a studio in Athens, GA (where he’s worked with Drive-by Truckers, Deerhunter, and more), and ultimately landing in his current role as a professor. He knows the ins and outs of the music business as well as anyone, and, well, it’s literally his job to educate people on it. While our conversation touches a lot on studio work / audio production, he gives us advice that is applicable in almost any facet of the music business.

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A conversation with Justin Osborne, who is the lead singer and principal songwriter of Charleston, SC band SUSTO. Justin is going to discuss what worked — and what DIDN’T work — as the band progressed from “total DIY” regional success all the way to present day touring Europe regularly and a legitimate record deal with Rounder Records. 

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A conversation with Lauren Kasper who is the director of label management at The Orchard in Nashville. If you aren’t familiar with The Orchard, it is the leading music distribution company for independent labels operating in over 40 markets worldwide.

On today’s show we’ll talk how to authentically connect with your fans, how important metadata is, and why having a plan for how you are going to release your music can help you get those coveted playlists and other marketing opportunities.

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A conversation with Alyssa DeHayes, who is a publicist and media relations specialist for record labels, festivals and independent artists at Riot Act Media. She loves demystifying PR and marketing strategies in one-on-one consulting sessions for artists and labels who aren’t quite ready for a full publicity campaign. She spends her lunch hour twice a week teaching music publicity and promotion at The University of Georgia’s Music Business Program, and volunteers for Girls Rock Athens.

We’ll discuss the value of PR for artists in 2021, managing growth over the course of your career, managing expectations and setting realistic goals. We’ll also talk about records release plans in general from the perspective of Alyssa’s independent label, Arrowhawk Records.

Pertinent links to Alyssa’s happenings: 

• ALBUM RELIEF
  • Album Relief is a four week course to teach artists how to approach handling their own publicity for albums, singles, and tours. A full-on campaign isn’t always the right move for every artist, at every stage, and this DIY course provides an alternative.
• Publicist at Riot Act Media
• Founder of Arrowhawk Records
• Project Manager at Asthmatic Kitty (Sufjan Stevens)

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A conversation with the music editor for LA Weekly. Brett Callwood has worked for a slew of alt-weeklies, including Denver’s Westword, Detroit’s The Metro Times, SF Weekly and you’ll soon see his byline in the relaunch of the Village Voice.

Brett walks us through his process for determining coverage each week at LA Weekly,  plus he gives us his insights on the Los Angeles music scene, if genres even matter anymore, and his thoughts on the future of music journalism in general.

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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.