I caught up with Brenden Mulligan (@bmull), founder of ArtistData, this week. Brenden, a seasoned business manager and do-whatever-needs-to-be-done kind of entrepreneur, started in the music industry through a work study program at Creative Artists Agency in Nashville. He moved from there to work for Aware Records and Asquared Management, where he was on the label and management teams for indie and signed artists. A lot of his time was spent in the initial signing and development of an artist named Mat Kearney. He left Aware to found ArtistData, a data synch-and-syndicate system for musicians. In the early days of ArtistData, he did some consulting, serving as a strategy consultant for an online CD store, the tour manager for Mat during his arena tour with John Mayer, and the manager for a small Chicago folk rock band called The August. When ArtistData took off, he stopped the various consulting projects to focus on growing the company which has been financed by angel investors as of last year.
1. Brenden, how did you arrive at the problem which ArtistData is gaming to address?
I started in the industry at an agency and then worked at a label in Chicago. During my time at the label, MySpace exploded and then the birth of music network/profile sites started. Part of my job, and a large part of each day, was spent trying to make sense of an increasingly crowded mess of social networks, concert databases, etc.. It seemed really inefficient and tedious. The ArtistData concept was born out of making that complicated mess a little simpler.
2. How do you plan to make ArtistData a more ‘complete’ resource for artists and agents in the future?
We constantly struggle between focus and “completeness”. Some artists want us to do everything: manage fan mailing lists, create stage plots, help them book shows, help them find new drummers. I’m a firm believer in focusing on a real problem and trying to create a really good solution for it, as opposed to taking an approach to trying to create a site that does everything, but only marginally well. So, realize that ArtistData is a content management system which syndicates information out to multiple destinations. We’ll stay on that track.
Some immediate improvements we want to make to our system is finding better ways to get input INTO ArtistData (multiple user access, importing RSS Feeds to be distributed, mobile interfaces/applications for data entry). We also want the data we distribute to be more widespread, so we’ll continue expanding our network to more relevant sites, including adding status updates to MySpace and Facebook Pages. We’re also going to make the data more accessible to fans, so when they click on a twitter link from their mobile phones, it presents the information in a VERY clean and straight forward interface.
So we’re going to keep making it complete, while staying true to our focus of getting information as many places as possible without getting in the way of the band and fan relationship.
3. How are you spreading the word about your service and what kind of user acquisition and activity trends are you seeing?
Our service is word of mouth in the truest sense of the word. Since our tools don’t necessarily have our branding on them, a lot of times you will be on an artist’s MySpace page without having any idea they are ArtistData users. This is a huge positive for artists because their fans aren’t distracted by logos from all these different artist services sites. Unfortunately, it really slows down our market penetration. However, it’s a trade-off we are happy and excited to make.
So to answer your question, we spread the word by doing one thing: continuing to help our users be more efficient. When we do that, they naturally tell their friends about the site. We’re growing really fast (we’ve grown by 100% over the past 2 months), and it’s all because we have amazing users spreading the word because they find our site useful. We love that.
4. What were/are the technological barriers to creating the ArtistData service?
The hardest thing is convincing other sites that it’s okay that the artists don’t update their sites directly. So many sites are afraid that if they lose that relationship, they put themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Every one of our current partners has taken the approach we believe in: that it’s better to have a lot more relevant content for fans than to have a more constant connection with the artists.
We find that the sites that are truly useful don’t see a drop in artist activity on their sites but, instead, see more meaningful activity. What I mean is that the artists who are signing-in aren’t there to do monotonous data entry, but there to interact with the community, or use other resources of the site. It actually leads to a better overall relationship with artists.
5. Who are your competitors and how is ArtistData different?
I’d say out competitors are those who offer artist promotional services. This includes all the obvious names. The iLikes, ReverbNations, etc… The difference, in my opinion, is that ArtistData has a more specific focus and is not interested in capturing the attention of the music fans. We leverage the power of the sites that are already good at that. So our approach is to put the information where it’s supposed to go onto MySpace instead of building a widget to be installed. However, the widget has its benefits, and we will hopefully give bands that option at some point.
6. How do you hope to monetize ArtistData?
We’ve been talking to our users about this all year, and the conversation has led to our users saying it would be perfectly acceptable for ArtistData to be a paid service. Because we have no intention of launching a social network where we could sell ads based on fan eyeballs, building a revenue model based on advertising is not an option for us. We also have some interesting ideas that would allow us to keep it free, but unfortunately I can’t disclose them at this time. Ultimately, we plan to keep ArtistData free for as long as we can and learn as much as we can from the artists that are using it.
Just discovered a quirky new site for music and music video discovery called YouMusic. Under the strapline, Make Music? Find Fans! Love Music?Find Talent!, the site crowd sources its content from artists and allows music consumers to rate what they hear and see. There’s a music chart, gig schedule, contest and other community and artist opportunity bells and whistles. I wonder how much the YouMusic.com domain is worth?
This is an update follow-up on one of the most promising enterprises in music tech at the moment. ArtistData is attempting to solve a ubiquitous problem: today, an artist’s online presence consists of several social network pages among other web assets which, unfortunately, are not connected with one another. As such, gig schedule updates and other content must be ‘updated’ manually on each network. This is time consuming. ArtistData addresses this problem by translating and syndicating a single update to all of the artist’s network pages. More about this topic here.
In addition to ArtistData’s core offering, the company developed some nifty side-features based on geo-specific attributes such as where to get a cup of coffee or new set of guitar strings near the venue. Not a huge selling point but certainly a nice-to-have. The “Local Listings” feature is more compelling, serving as a local press distribution platform for live show promotion. Anyone who has had to manage a PR campaign, hire a publicist, or distribute through PR Newswire will appreciate the value of such an application.
Local Listings Tour:
While every leading and emerging artist service is selling “self-promotion” as its mantra, ArtistData has beautifully positioned itself by focusing on the necessity of syndication: making data quick and easy to manage. Simple and brilliant.
ArtistData caught my attention a few months ago as an excellent solution for updating your gig schedule across numerous platforms, saving much time and ensuring consistency across the board. The service currently supports the major music-oriented networks, including ReverbNation, Virb, PureVolume, Sonicbids, Indie911, and, soon, facebook, by importing your gig schedule from your MySpace page and publishing the data simultaneously on all of your registered network profile pages. The service also syndicates the data across a number of concert databases, including Jambase and Last.fm, which serves as a swift and effective live music marketing solution. ArtistData is limited to gig schedule syndication but reports to be working on other data publication solutions for artists. Ping.fm, which I learned about on Hypebot today, also provides a data syndication solution but focuses on message posting across multiple sites as opposed to gig schedules. However, the two services combined may serve as a very powerful set of tools to notify all your fans, regardless of how they are connected to you, in one single blast.
As an artist, getting your ass on stage and performing to as many people as often as possible is key. In the US, SXSW is arguably the largest draw of both music fans and artists, certainly independent artists. Should you get on a SXSW stage? Of course you should. However, assuming that you are not yet well known, playing live at an over-crowded and super competitive event has its limitations. Sometimes, you have to get off the stage in order to truly make an impact and, year after year, I’m seeing more independent artists attending music conferences, on their own behalf, and with their business hat on. Although the largest of the lot, Midem in Cannes and Popkomm in Berlin, also offer a variety of live performance opportunities to acts big and small, the true event value is in the aimless wondering between the booths and random handshakes with industry professionals. I’m not joking. You’ll meet a lot more people on the floor than on stage. If you meet someone who wants to hear you play, both Midem and Popkomm have listening rooms big enough for you to perform acoustically. If nothing else, attending these events will teach you a lot about the current music market and provide you with the confidence to approach prospective partners who may [or may not] invest in your next recording, touring, licensing, or writing initiative. You never know.
Anyone who has randomly surfed through YouTube has eventually landed on a video of a teen guitar virtuoso with millions of accrued views. Search a little further and a vast world of amateur instructional guitar ‘how-to’ clips will reveal themselves with tantamount popularity. Guitar is a massive interest category on YouTube and, with it, a traditionally unrepresented musical niche has emerged to the fore: Guitar Virtuosos. Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Nuno Bettencourt, and alike, were popular long before YouTube unveiled itself as the premier video portal, however, a new breed of guitarists have caught the attention of the dotcom generation with unique styles that, until now, experienced only nook-and-cranny exposure.
Enter CandyRat Records, the most visible alternative acoustic guitar label on YouTube – or anywhere, for that matter. The boutique-sized label, founded by Rob Poland, has capitulated extraordinary guitarists through a series of low-budget video clips of their music, the most successful of which include some form of tapping, odd tuning, or any other unconventional manner of playing their instrument. Although CandyRat represents a whole slew of talented guitarists and singer/songwriters, the company’s most notorious roster of YouTube maestros includes the likes of Erik Mongrain, Antoine Dufour, and, of course, Andy McKee, who has garnered just under 20 million views for his video performance of “Drifting“, an original composition, and over 8 million views for an innovative version of “Africa” by Toto. And then there’s Don Ross.
Don Ross was Rob Poland’s first signing, even though Don remained contractually independent. In 2005, Don released an album through CandyRat which marked the label’s investiture as an acoustic aficionado. In a recent communication with Jill Katona of Paperwork Media, Don’s booking agent and Andy McKee’s former rep, I learned that it was Don who brought Andy to Poland’s attention, who later signed him and released two of his CDs under CandyRat. Old friends, Don Ross and Andy McKee collaborated for the label and enjoyed mutual exposure online. However, it was McKee’s video performance of “Drifting” that truly put CandyRat on the map and significant offshoot traffic in Don’s direction, as well as the other artists on the label’s growing roster.
Don Ross and Andy McKee’s styles are comparable. The two masters of their trade govern the art of percussive, finger-picking, neck-hammering guitar techniques which make their solo guitar compositions sound as if there are multiple instruments omnipresent. Considering Don Ross’ lengthy tenure as an acoustic guitar performer, I can only assume that he is one of the pioneers of this style – he has certainly become renowned for it.
Don is currently on tour with Brooke Miller, a 2007 finalist in We Are Listening’s Breaking the Band, and their aggregate talent should make for an excellent series of live show.
South by South West in Austin, Texas, is one of the largest music events in the world – and a truly fun weekend for fans and musicians alike. For artists, access to Austin’s best venues is a career development must and Tinderbox Music, in association with RedGorilla, provides the means to get new acts on stage at a set-up cost that’s lower than the spectator entry fee into SXSW. RedGorilla caters to the Austin venues that are not included in the SXSW line-up, mainly due to festival logistics issues. Each year, these venues open their doors for artists to enjoy the SXSW reception and provide attending music fans with a free alternative. Last year, RedGorilla hosted 300 acts at eight different venues. In 2009, showcases will take place from Wednesday, March 18th, to Saturday, March 21st, on Austin’s 6th Street, right in the heart of the action. Tinderbox Music has a number of slots open for interested parties. RedGorilla is an unsanctioned event and not a part of SXSW.
For booking details, contact:
Jon Delange
jon[at]tinderboxmusic.com
(612) 375 1113
Gighit is another entry into the already crowded gig listing and search space. With all the promise of its competitors, including Gigulate, which I covered last week, LiveKick, Songkick, and ItsLiveMusic, and others, I fail to see the differentiation. That’s not to say that Gighit is any better or worse than the others but rather aiming at the very same target with no unique positioning in sight. That goes for the others, of course. Is the gig listing and search niche just a battle of who launches and unrolls more search functionality?
Gighit, developed by Caffeinehit Ltd., a London-based design company, claims to have been around since 2000 under various guises with the ambition to provide gig listings and artist promotion services on the web, prior to the onset of web2.0 and social networking. Looking at Caffeinehit’s website, the team behind it is clearly talented (in terms of design, at least) but I question how they’re going to leverage this concept in a currently very noisy and cluttered live music environment.
Gigulate is a new dotcom out of England that provides performing artist gig schedules and tour details by analyzing music industry news, blog posts and published gig listings across the web. Much like SongKick, LiveKick and ItsLiveMusic, to name just a few competing gig listing search engines, Gigulate’s business model is fashioned on live music ticketing, a music industry sector on the up&up. The idea is to provide music fans with a free and swift method of searching for and subscribing to specific live music events, and up-selling ticket purchases via third-party online ticket sellers such as WeGotTickets or See, two UK leaders. Although the site, currently in private beta, does not yet provide a direct means for ticket purchases, the company will probably pursue a merger or acquisition by a leading player in the field to deploy the ticketing end; Ticketmaster would be an ideal candidate.
ItsLiveMusic is a new search engine, currently in beta, for live music event listings throughout the US. The search engine sorts through and aggregates thousands of online sources to find all the live music events listed online at any given time. It also finds and displays basic information about the artists and the venues, and automatically creates a profile page for each.
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