Hello, hello — Nathan from 12South Marketing here. We moved into a new office space about a year ago, and we're fortunate enough to work in a building that is home to a variety of businesses — one of which is Project Daybreak.
Project Daybreak is a boutique management company that represents talented artists such as The Apache Relay and Guthrie Brown. Brad Talley and Ed O'Day are the leaders behind this wonderful company, and I had the privilege of sitting down with Brad to talk about Project Daybreak, the music business, and tools he uses to run his company.
You can read the paraphrased transcript below, or you can listen to Brad spit the knowledge via the video below. The choice is yours.
For those of you watching the video, the questions are listed in order next to the time of the video (minutes:seconds) when Brad answers that question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wCWRrXUSVs&feature=youtu.be
Also, Brad mentions two products he loves to use — MasterTour and atVenu. Links to the appropriate sites are below!
http://www.eventric.com/products/master-tour/
Interview Transcript:
Tell us about Project Daybreak. [00:27]
Project Daybreak is a co-venture between me and Edward O'Day. We started during the recession in 2007. Neither of us originally wanted to become business owners, but we had been on the performance end of the music business for a while. We decided we didn't want to tour into our thirties. The experience we had performing didn't translate into a resume, and we had a hard time finding jobs — at least I know I did. We talked to friends, managers, and other music business professionals, and they all suggested we should start our own company, so we did.
What services does Project Daybreak provide? [01:29]
We are a full service artist management company. Imagine that Ed and I are head football coaches of a team. We manage all aspects of an artist's careers. From planning events, to business strategies, to day to day operations, it ends up being a pretty robust job. We make sure everyone is moving forward with the same vision.
How important is it for an artist to know the music business? [02:07]
I think it's important to understand how things work. It's definitely a process with many moving parts. Nothing in this is business is merely a phone call away, and it's important to understand what each person of the team does — what their responsibility is —the overall basic blocking and tackling of how it all works. But, at the same time, there is a fine line. Sometimes artists try to get too involved with the business.
I encourage artists to understand, and I consider a big part of my job educating about them this business. I think it's good to know, but it's also beneficial to be able to step back. It's a tumultuous business with lots of variables you can't control. It's good to be able to step back and have a team you can trust to take care of the business side.
Tell us about your artists. [03:22]
The Apache Relay is an indie rock band. We signed them when they were a band of just three months. We've had them for six years. It's been great.
We have a kid. His name is Guthrie brown. I say kid, but he just turned twenty. He's hard to describe. He's like Dave Matthews meets John Mayer meets Ryan Adams with just a peppering of Zac Brown. Yeah, I'd say that's pretty accurate.
How do you find your artists? Is it a natural process? [04:24]
Generally it happens pretty organically. Apache was buzzing all around town. Guthrie too. I couldn't go to a meeting with anyone in town, whether it was an attorney, an agent, an A&R person, manager — whatever, without hearing about Guthrie. His name would always come up.
How does your company compete against other management firms? [04:50]
Well, we're a boutique management company. It's that way by design. One of the selling points is we are able to give the artists a lot of attention. More attention than more of the bigger firms may be able to, you know.
Once you find an artist that interests you, how do you make sure they will be a good fit? [05:12]
That's generally a lengthy process. Meeting with someone, talking to them, getting to know them, making sure our visions line up — all of these are pieces that help determine our decision. We follow our gut too. You're talking about dedicating so much time and energy, and it just has to be the right fit across the board. It's kind of like a marriage. My philosophy is you always have to have investment clients. When I signed Apache, I knew there would be a 2-3 gap before I saw income. It's kind of like risk management, so you know when you are meeting potential artists, it's really risk investment for yourself on a basic level.
What's your take on the current state of the music industry? [06:17]
Well, it used to be you discovered bands through radio and television. It was basically passive discovery. Most people were not out searching for new bands. Only a few select bands were coming through a few select channels, and that is how the vast majority of people heard music.
Think about Netflix, how many times have you gotten on and searched for an hour before picking something, and you end up not watching anything. It's the same with music now, people can listen to what ever they want to. I think it's created a huge pool of mediocrity - an over-saturation in the market.
I think you're going to see a trend where it starts to back down. Like the mediocrity, I mean. I don't think radio is dead. Radio will always be there because people like to be passive. There are numbers to back that up. Like Mumford and Sons — radio — Lumineers — radio — you still have bands like The National, Vampire Weekend, Dawes — people in that range where they have really viable careers without radio, though. My Morning Jacket is another example, and they do most of their business on the road. They aren't selling gold and platinum records — that's a product of radio. Don't sleep on radio, it's not going anywhere.
I think there will be a trend in the public to narrow down and really figure out what they like to listen to.
What advice do you have for artists? [08:54]
One variable you have the most control over as an artist is touring. Go out do it responsibly. Build it properly, do it smart, and every fan you make is yours. Not the label, not your management. They are yours and yours to keep. The Avett Brothers are a great example of this model. They relied on toruing, went out, had a great live show, which you have to have, and built that business over a ten year period. If you touch somebody on that level, like the Avetts did by putting on a great show, people will tell their friends about it. Next time you come back, there could be double the tickets sold next time you come around. I think word of mouth is still huge. Being able to put on a good live show and capture that fan is so important.
We do do a variety fan engagement practices (emails, contests, other forms of promotion), but the true die hard fan will keep up with you no matter what.
What tools have you found that really help your business? [10:22]
Lots of people are creating all these apps and software programs to help streamline the process for artist management. For example, I love Master Tour. It's an amazing program. It keeps track of tour dates, advance info, does scheduling, provides addresses, has the ability to schedule interviews, tv performances, and radio — all housed in one program. It's constantly syncing up with everyone's phones too, so If I update something, they get the update immediately. It can hold so much information. It's great.
Another one is Advenue. Advenue is a merchandise tracking app. Instead of an artist having to physically fill out sales sheets manually for every night of a tour, each night it calculates the sales, takes out taxes, the cost of the merch, the percentage the venue takes, and then sends it to Soundscan automatically. It takes out a bunch of steps.
Is it worth it to play a free or cheap show in hopes of exposure? [12:11]
You definitely have to eat it sometimes. No doubt. Ideally, whenever you play a tour, you always have a few anchor dates. Ones that pull the weight. So if you think, O.K., I'll make enough on this one gig to float these two or three breaking in a market gigs, a.k.a. ones that don't generate a lot of money, it can be worth taking it out of pocket sometimes if you think the exposure is a beneficial business move. You have to make those sacrifices sometimes.
Is there is a secret mix of revenue streams for artists? [13:02]
Not really. On some level, everyone's model is going to be a little unique. I know artists that get a lot of licensing right off the bat, and others that have a great live show and make their money off of that.
Jason Isbell is a good example. He was in Drive By Truckers and then had a solo career that took off when his narrative and music lined up. He's at the top of his game now. You just have to build it piece by piece.
Any parting words of advice? [13:32]
One thing that I see that kills a lot of careers is when an artist has a lot of buzz, and a lot of people are talking at them and talking to them, but they get caught up in this whirlwind of people telling them to do this or that to where they find themselves in a holding pattern. Like maybe they don't take one offer because they are waiting on another one that could be "a better opportunity." I've seen an artist have a great record, been told that it wasn't there sonically, and then they get a bigger producer, cut the same records, and it wasn't nearly as good. If you have a product you believe in, test it on your fans. They'll tell you with their response if it is a good product or not.
You can't get stuck overthinking everything and develop anxiety that creeps over your art. Everyone will be able to tell when that happens.
Thanks for sitting down with us!
Anytime.
Til' next time.
