360° Digital Artist

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A few months back I came into contact with up-and-coming electro-pop artist Santa Leja. I’ve been monitoring her incredible marketing campaign, promoting her recent single across multiple social networking platforms. Her music has generated a buzz across both the Internet and radio.

Such an organized and well-focused promotion can only mean that a top-notch manager and team back her career. This week I inquired to find out a little more about her management and to see if I could obtain an interview for my readers.

I was pleased to discover that her manager is Sam “FISH” Fisher, an artist manager, producer, songwriter, and arguably a developing legend in the music industry. Mr. Fisher was born in Puerto Rico and studied at both the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and UCLA. As a producer, he has received two Grammy awards and additionally was involved in the production for a Grammy winning album. I’m honored that Mr. Fisher allowed me the following interview concerning Artist Management.



Tell us a little about your background. How did you get started in artist management?

I started as a musician first, working with many bands like Duran Duran, The Spooky Kids, and some others. Then I evolved into production which showed me both sides of the music industry, from the struggling musician looking to get signed, to the producer/A&R working for a record label, and learning all the intricacies and workings of labels and music industry as a whole. This led me into artist and label management when I opened my own production label, FISHMUSIK Global Media, LLC, and music publishing. FISHMUSIK Global Media, LLC is a boutique independent label created by myself, Record Producer Sam FISH Fisher (credits include Fey, Daddy Yankee, Vico-C, Celia Cruz, Duran Duran, many others), with the objective of evolving and nurturing the new sounds of Latin Urban, Alternative, Urban Pop, and Rock to the mainstream worldwide and using all new technologies to make this genres and their artists available to audiences everywhere. One of my latest projects is Electro-Pop songstress Santa Leja. Her catchy debut Single, “Let The Beat Don’t Stop,”  from upcoming album “Delicious,” has already charted #1 on Dance Charts in Latin America and is on Top40 radio across USA and abroad, which I am very proud of.

Usually how involved are you in the artist career from the business and/or creative standpoint?

I work and handle every detail with the artist in developing the creative side, nurturing all creative aspects along with organizing, planning, and strategizing all business parts.

Do you ever look at artist management as being like a marriage?

It is more than a marriage to me in the sense that even before the marriage, every detail of an artist management needs to be known the way you know your family, whether it’s ups, downs, virtues, or defects, and work them together unconditionally.

A manager definitely has a lot of responsibilities in the life of an artist. What are some things that a manager should not be expected to do?

In this day and age, a manager should not be expected to be “a babysitter,” because with all the advantages and advances in the music industry, any artist, whether newcomer or established, should know what they really want, their true objectives, and how to handle themselves on the road to achieve them.

In your opinion, what does it take for an artist to be successful?

For an artist to be successful, he or she should be totally involved in every detail of their career from songwriting, production, marketing, promotion, and even show an interest or appreciation towards music publishing, distribution, and business affairs using their true objective as a logical answer based upon common sense of what they want.

What are some of the first steps you take in mapping out a career path for an artist?

First, knowing everything that the artist has done from the beginning, from recording to online marketing, from live performances to selling music. Based on those pointers, I can see the strengths and weaknesses of an artist career and that way I know what to work harder on, what to upgrade or update, and what to leave intact until we get to the next level.

A new artist will often ask, “Do I need management?” How would you answer that question?

No artist should look for management as an “answer to all prayers” in which the artist would think that the manager would do anything for them. Before an artist looks for management, they should do some serious groundwork in developing as many parts of their career as possible. That way when management is needed, that management can see, as I have mentioned before, all the strengths and weaknesses of an artist career. Without this done, the reality is that the artist does not really have a career, as he/she has not done the work needed to ignite their career. This is not just about recording a song and doing a live show, this is about developing all your artist skills, having a keen sense of how you want to promote, market, and sell yourself, and use common sense for your business decisions.

Finally, the music industry is filled with both great managers and con artists. What tips would you give to an artist who is looking for a manager?

Any manager who asks for money upfront is a con artist. Why do I say that? Because a true manager knows that with the work done under the agreed percentage, based on his contacts and know-how of the industry, the manager will be able to further all levels of the artist career and therefore the profits and earnings, including management percentages, will be as big as how big the artist will become. There should be just the normal mutual agreement between artist and manager about basic expenses, even though in this day and age with the advantage of the Internet, those expenses can be cut to a minimum.

Thank you Mr. Fisher for taking the time to give us some insight into Artist Management.

Thank you so much for such a great interview! I wish this is helpful for all up and coming artists out there. Good luck in your careers and keep this thought in mind: “Don’t let your ambitions overcome your talents.”

I recently had the privilege of coming into contact with Verna Miles, a veteran of the music industry as an A&R professional. After attending New York’s Hofstra University (where she received her degree in Vocal Performance, Jazz, and Commercial Music), she joined the team of Epic Records as A&R Manager. With several years of success behind her, she left Epic to start Wisdom Entertainment in partnership with Laura Williams.

I requested an interview with her and she graciously accepted my invitation. I posed a few questions concerning negotiation deals in the music industry. Here is the result of our discussion:

Please tell us a little bit about your current company, Wisdom Entertainment, and your previous work as A&R Manager for Epic Records.

As A&R manager at Epic Records, I oversaw all A&R administration for the label, which included album budgets, backend payments, sample and side artist clearances for soundtracks, and compilation albums for such artists as B2K, 3LW, Jill Scott, Mandy Moore, Ghostface Killa, and Glen Lewis. I was co-executive producer for “A Season of Soul and Sounds of Christmas” album and A&R Director for the Ghostface Killah “Bulletproof Wallets” album. I organized and executed special projects for Epic Records that included the negotiation of production contracts and the processing of development and demo deals. Being the direct contact for all departments at Epic Group for business affairs and A&R administration gave me the ability to understand the clients’ business needs, while staying true to their aesthetic sense to being creative.

I am now doing artist development, artist management, music production, and A&R administration.

In past negotiations, what were some ways that you were able to separate the people involved from the problem or issue being negotiated?

It is important to remain calm and stay focused on the key points of the negotiation.  Compromise enough to make sure that you get what you want, without giving in to all the demands that are being made.  The client needs to trust you and know that you have their best interest at heart, which is very important!

When negotiating, it is good to have a BATNA or Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. Do you have an example of when you brought a BATNA or “Plan B” to a negotiation and how did it effect the outcome of your agreement?

When we offer an artist a production agreement (depending on the artist), we have a Plan B that offers a Management Agreement Plus! It’s more than a Management Agreement, but less than a Production Company Agreement. It is best to have your BANTA or Plan B & C before the process begins. We went in with the intention of doing a production deal, so we then offered a Management Contract that offered some of what we offered in that production contract.  The artist signed with us using our Plan B the one time that we used it. My business partner and I have to discuss, agree, and/or come to a compromise so that we will know how far we are willing to go and determine this by how badly we want to work with the artist prior to the meeting.

How important is building affiliation or relationship with the other party involved in negotiations? What are some ways a sense of affiliation can be created?

Just how important the building an affiliation or relationship with the other party involved in negotiations can be depends on your track record.  The affiliation or relationship is as important as the negotiation.  If you have a proven track record, it would be easy to convince someone of what you are able to do for them. A person or company just starting out would need to be more creative!

I would say that it is important to build some sort of relationship before the negotiation process, if possible. We offer a “Give Me” at our company, which is a gesture or a small opportunity to give something or show something we can do before the process of negotiation.  For instance, we may do a small recording session or take the artist to meet with popular producers before signing that artist.

Creative people such as music artist can bring a lot of emotions to a negotiation. What are some ways to effectively deal with potential negative emotions?

Creative people such as recording artist will almost always bring a lot of emotions to the negotiation.  The important thing we have found is to let the artist know that we understand their vision and that we have a common goal of doing what is best for their career. We present the outlook of possible outcomes of the situation, if they can look at it calmly and clearly, the management/production viewpoint, so that he or she can have a clearer understanding of both sides.  Often by repeating back what they have said and then offering positive solutions and alternate ways to look at it, we then make sure that they know that we are on the same side and for a common goal, which is the success of the artist.

Finally, how can unsigned artists get more leverage or power when negotiating a deal with a record label?

One of the best ways to negotiate a deal as well as get more leverage with a label is to create a buzz with media/marketing numbers! You can use what I call Media Numbers from places like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, websites & webisodes!

One thing about the entertainment industry is that people want to be associated with people who are wanted, watched, and listened to by others! Unfortunately, the music industry does not always have executives who will get what the artist is about or the music, so they look to their staff to compare the artist with other successful artists and how they can break this artist. In the days of the 360 deals, the more an artist has in their arsenal, the more they have to negotiate with. Artists who already have a fan base and have people listening to their music while bringing something to the table, like acting or promotional ideas, are more interesting than an artist who can sing, rap, or play.

I truly believe that unsigned artist can have more leverage by making sure that they have undeniable project (which means that they need to know the strengths, weaknesses, their market and audience, their competition, and show how they are different, yet similar to what is currently hot).


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For more information concerning successfully negotiation deals, see the excellent books "Getting to Yes" and "Beyond Reason."

Major artists and labels have found success selling digital music on iTunes, but is it a feasible distribution model for independent artists? Can independent artists actually make money at it? That, of course, all depends on the number of songs an artist is able to sell. How many songs will an artist need to sell then in order to make a profit? For this post, I’ll discuss some of the costs involved, how to know when a project breaks even, and how to figure profit. I’ll also include a few tips along the way on how to actually sell your music on iTunes.

First of all we look at the costs involved.  There are fixed costs, which are the costs for the project that will stay the same no matter how many songs are sold. There are also the variable costs, which are the costs associated with each song sold.

Fixed Costs
Our first fixed costs are the recording fees. For the purpose of this post, we will say that it takes 6 hours to record one song at a cost of $50 per hour. Of course your mileage as far as studio times and costs will more than likely vary. This gives us a fixed cost of $300 for recording.

The next fixed cost will be mastering. Although the studio doing the initial recording can take care of the mastering as well, I prefer to take the project to a mastering house that specializes in mastering tracks. It also gives you a “second opinion” on the mix of your track. I would recommend taking a look at The SoundLab at Disc Makers. You can have the song mastered for $100 ($99 technically).

Although not entirely necessary, it is good to have an album cover that will accompany the song on iTunes. It helps to give a visual appeal and attract potential fans for the song. If you think your stunning looks can sell records, setup a photo shoot with a local photographer who will allow you to use the photos within the artwork for your album cover. Look at spending at least $200 for the photos. The prices you find will more than likely be different, but make sure the photographer produces quality work.

To create the actual album cover, acquire a graphic designer to do the work for you. I would suggest looking at a service such as 99Designs where various designers compete to design your project. You can post the photos from your photo shoot for the designers to work with and let them listen to a streaming copy of your song to give them ideas for the cover.  (use SoundCloud to stream the song) For the purpose of this post, we will say that $200 is spent in a design contest for the creation of your album cover.

Our final fixed costs is that of actually getting your song onto iTunes. We will let TuneCore take care of the distribution at only $10 ($9.99) per single. That gives us a combined fixed cost of $810.

Variable Costs
Our first variable cost per song sold will be the fees that iTunes takes when selling your single. iTunes pays out 70 cents for each 99 cent song sold. So the fee per single is 29 cents.

If the song was written by someone else besides you, for instance you performed a cover, you will need to pay mechanical licensing fees. These licenses can be obtained through the Harry Fox Agency. For the purpose of this post, we will say that the fees are 9 cents per song sold. This gives us a combined variable cost of 38 cents per song.

Breaking Even
The money left over after selling a 99 cent song and subtracting the variable cost is known as the Contribution Margin. This amount would be 61 cents. This is the money that is available to pay off the fixed costs. Once the fixed costs are paid for, this then becomes the amount of profit as songs continue to sell.

Once 1,328 songs are sold, the fixed costs have been paid for. ($810 Fixed Costs divided by the 61 cent Contribution Margin per song) This is the point where the artist breaks even on iTunes.

Profits
After selling 1,328 songs, the artist then begins to realize a profit. To figure the profit, multiply the number of songs sold past 1,328, by the 61 cents Contribution Margin. If you sell a total of 2,000 songs, which is 672 songs past the break-even point, you realize a profit of $409.92. That is not too bad if you can sell that many songs.

To decrease the number of songs required to break even and increase your profit potential, look for ways to decrease your fixed costs. Writing your own songs as opposed to licensing music from others will reduce your variable costs.

The Cashflow Quadrant is a concept made popular by Robert Kiyosaki in his book Cashflow Quadrant. The Quadrant is made up of four segments: E, S, B, and I.

E stands for employee, S stands for self-employed, B stands for business owner, and I stands for investor. By understanding the Cashflow Quadrant and applying it to a career or business venture, independent artists and independent record label owners can find success and longevity in the music industry.

Those who find themselves on the left side of the Quadrant as an employee or as being self-employed are, in a way, slaves of money, as they must constantly work for money to survive. Those on the right side of the Quadrant as business owners and investors are in the position of having money work for them.

Employee
One of the major goals of many aspiring musicians is to land a contract with a record label. By becoming a roster artist for the label, the musician is in effect becoming an employee of the business. The problem is that the artist is working for money. For most musicians, a career as a music artist is very short-lived. Thus, when the music stops the flow of money stops as well.

Self-Employed
There are music artists who refuse to be associated with a record label. These independent artists can be considered self-employed. Although they hold allegiance to no one and feel as though they are in complete control of their careers, they are in fact controlled by the same master as the contract artist. They too have to work for money, and once their career comes to an end, so will their cash flow.

To be able to continue past a personal career and be involved with the music they love, both employee and self-employed artists must seek out ways to become a part of the right side of the Cashflow Quadrant as both business owners and investors.

Business Owner
To become a business owner, people are encouraged to purchase an existing business or use their ideas to create a business. For most, the easiest way to accomplish the business owner task is by joining a direct marketing company. For the musician however, I would suggest using the talents and love for music as a means to build a business within the music industry.

The most obvious example of the above is the music artist signed to a label that forms his or her own record label, which is actually an imprint label of the record label they are signed with.  This gives them the opportunity to discover and develop other talent. These signed artists, or employees, will then generate a source of revenue for the artist-owner of the new label.

Finding an area or music that you excel in and exploiting it to build a business is a great way to become a business owner. If your strength is in recording, perhaps look to building a recording studio. If your strength is in management or booking, seek to build a business in these areas. Perhaps you are great at organizing a live performance. Build a business that helps other artists put together stage plots and plan out the concert. Find a niche and capitalize on it to build a business that can support you once your own music career comes to a close.

Those who currently own an independent record label may think that they are naturally in the business owner category. The question to ask is, “If I don’t work, will my business continue to function?” If the answer is “No,” then the label owner is actually self-employed by their business. They need to work on hiring the employees and building the business in such a way that they participate in the business because they enjoy it and want to, not because they have to.

Investor
Being an investor is the exciting part. As an investor, extra funds generated from the business can be invested in various investment vehicles to then allow money to work for the artist. The traditional ways of investing are to put money into stocks, bonds, precious metals, or my personal favorite, real estate.

For the music artist, I would suggest thinking outside the box. Be creative and find ways to invest in music. A prime example is when Michal Jackson purchased the entire music catalog of the Beatles. I’m sure the return on investment has exceeded the amount paid for the catalog. Today, investment companies are purchasing licensing rights to music catalogs in order to make a profit from their use in various media such as television advertising and motion pictures.

By understanding where they are on the Cashflow Quadrant, a music artist can strive to become a business owner and investor, allowing money to work for them. By doing so, they can truly find longevity in the music industry that spans past their personal music career.

Being an independent record label doesn’t mean that the company has to “go it alone” in the music industry. There are over 86,000 professional and trade associations, some of which are great allies to independents. One organization in particular is the American Association of Independent Music, also known as A2IM.

A2IM is a member of the Worldwide Independent Music Industry Network (WIN), which connects labels and associations from around the world. As the A2IM website states: “A2IM is an organization of independent music labels that promotes business opportunity, provides advocacy and representation, as well as networking opportunities for the independent label community.”

Representing independent record labels is a very important cause that A2IM is pursuing seeing that independent labels account for 30% of the music industry sales, 38% of the digital sales, and 80% of all releases.  A2IM advocates on behalf of their members for fair trade, making sure that independents are equal in the market with the major labels. They seek to open doors for technology, mainstream media, and the legislative arena of the government.

Membership in A2IM is made up of both labels and associates. The definition of a Label Member is a company “that controls music masters.” Associate Members are “companies that work with, rely upon, or otherwise support independent labels.” Membership dues for labels are based on the most recent SoundScan data for that company, the minimum being $1,000 for a one-year membership.

Along with advocacy, A2IM provides its Label Members with commerce opportunities and networking opportunities. Coming together as a group also affords opportunities for discount offers to members for industry conferences and business services such as digital distribution.

A2IM recently fought for proper compensation of independent labels and artists. In particular, they helped identify $1.5 million in missing royalty payments that belonged to about 100 independent labels.

A2IM's fame in recent years was from joining forces with Merlin to take on the MySpace Music giant. They felt that MySpace was giving preferential treatment to major labels and overlooking independents when it came to equity partnerships. MySpace denied the claims of both organizations, but I lean toward something having been amiss if two advocacy groups where up in arms about it.

There is enough value in a membership in A2IM that setting a budgeting goal for joining the association is good aspiration for an independent record label. There are a number of independent labels that start and fail each year because they simply do not know the industry. Only by surrounding oneself with others experienced in the industry can one have a chance at success. I would suggest not only joining the association, but become actively involved in one of their committees as well.

Information Source: http://a2im.org/

Malcolm Gladwell, writer for the New Yorker and author of several books, gave a talk at a TED conference on the subject of spaghetti sauce. You are probably asking yourself, "What does spaghetti sauce have to do with anything, especially music branding?" Since Mr. Gladwell is a rather entertaining storyteller, I'm embedding the video of the talk below. I will then explain what the narrative means to me personally by discussing application of his subject to music branding.

Pepsi and Prego
The inspiration of the before mentioned talk is Dr. Howard Moskowitz, who as Mr. Gladwell put it, "is most famous for reinventing spaghetti sauce." As stated, the story begins with Pepsi commissioning Dr. Moskowitz to find the perfect Diet Pepsi using the new sweetener, aspartame. Through his experiments and taste tests with focus groups, he gathered data that he felt did not make any sense. There was no clear determination as to what was the perfect sweetness for Diet Pepsi.

He later had a realization of what was the problem with the research he did for Pepsi. As Mr. Gladwell put it, "They were asking the wrong question. They were looking for the perfect Pepsi, and they should have been looking for the perfect Pepsis."

The Campbell's Soup Company contacted Dr. Moskowitz about revising their Prego spaghetti sauce to help it be more competitive with Ragú. He took his new conclusions from the Pepsi experiment and devised a study for Prego, creating 45 varieties of spaghetti sauce for testing. As he grouped the data into different clusters, he discovered Americans can be divided into three groups. He discovered that a third of Americans desire chunky spaghetti sauce, and up to that point, no one had ever marketed chunky. So a revolution was born, and now several types of spaghetti sauce (including chunky) exist at the supermarket to fulfill the various tastes and desires of consumers.

Although an interesting story on spaghetti sauce, you are probably still wondering what it has to do with the world of music. Malcolm Gladwell made three points that apply to branding music to fans.

Horizontal Segmentation
Before the spaghetti sauce revolution, those in the food industry thought that if a product were created that was more expensive and conceived as being better than another product, it would make people happy. This was the case with Grey Poupon supposedly being a better mustard than French's.

Dr. Moskowitz disagreed with the industry, feeling that food is actually part of "horizontal segmentation." As Mr. Gladwell put it:

Mustard does not exist on a hierarchy. Mustard exists, just like tomato sauce, on a horizontal plane. There is no good mustard, or bad mustard. There is no perfect mustard, or imperfect mustard. There are only different kinds of mustards that suit different kinds of people.

The record industry seems to follow the same ideology of the food industry in trying to find the next big thing. If they can find a superstar, they can put their major promotion behind them and be a huge success.

People purchase music from major labels not necessarily because it most meets their need for happiness and enjoyment, but because it is all that is made available. Various styles of music are not better than the other styles, they are just different. Instead of looking for the next big thing, we should search for genres of music that meet various horizontal segments of society.

Human Variability
Mr. Gladwell explained that the food industry had the notion that there should be only one way, a perfect way, to prepare a dish or produce a food item. He said they were looking for "cooking universals." They believed there must be one way to make everyone happy. This didn't take into account "human variability." As Dr. Moskowitz discovered, we are all different and can not all be satisfied by one product.

Have you ever noticed that a lot of the music played on main stream radio sounds the same? It is because there is the same notion that there is a universal sound that appeals to everyone. When a new sound is discovered that becomes popular, everyone copies it.

There is room for exploration and variety in today's popular music. There is also a limit as to how far creativity can be stretched to remain popular. To put it in food terms, while creating an array of spaghetti sauces, don't throw in a chocolate sauce. Although someone out there might actually like it, the variety won't be enjoyed by a large enough group to be accepted by the whole. It has to be high on the happiness scale for a large enough segment of the audience to be either liked or tolerated by the average music listener.

Food for Thought
Another practice in the music industry is that of throwing music out there and seeing what gets accepted. For a label, or an artists for that matter, to discover what elements of music will click with the various segments of their fan base, market research needs to be done. This market research is normally used by a business to create a brand or to discover proper extensions for a brand. Various demographic and psychographic information concerning the target audience is gathered, such as age, gender, occupation, financial status, cultural preferences, and societal participation.

The problem with the normal market research is that although it will give a picture of the customer, it may not unlock the mystery of their true musical tastes. Dr. Moskowitz uncovered with his research the fact that a third of Americans want chunky spaghetti sauce. There had been plenty of market research performed in the past, but no one had ever discovered the hidden desire of the American.

Mr. Gladwell said, "A critically important step in understanding our own desires and tastes is to realize that we cannot always explain what we want deep down." Some creative methods will need to be devised to discover what musical patterns the target market prefers, perhaps music they didn't even realize they liked. Once these gems of information can be gathered concerning specific segments of a target audience, labels can seek out artists and artists can create music that satisfies the unfulfilled desires of fans.

I conclude with this one final quote from Malcolm Gladwell: "Embracing the diversity of human beings, we will find a surer way to true happiness."