It is beyond both empirical and anecdotal evidence to state that one of the trending business models in the music industry is that of a move towards the entrepreneurial. A loosely connected structure where pieces of the value chain, once provided to an artist through the traditional record label, are now either handled completely by the artist or their management, or through the hiring of independent contract service providers. While much of the technological changes to the industry over the last decade have been disruptive to the traditional model, these same changes are opening new ways of cost management in the new model.
Some of the challenges with this new model that artists and their management face are in having the time, knowledge, relationships, and capital to thrive and build all the aspects of an artist’s career. Given that this has traditionally been handled by many people and is now relegated to 2 or 3. Quite simply, if an artist spends all their time doing administrative work, or just business in general, then there is little time left for the artist to do what they presumably do best (write and perform). Well, there might be help on the way.
On January 17, a company with a music business app is launching. The company is Artist Growth and it has some heavy hitters behind it. The app works like any other app on the iPhone, Android and Blackberry. One of the primary investors in the company is former Sony chair, Joe Galante, who describes the app as the music business “in a box.” The promotional video touts that Artist Growth will allow musicians to keep track of tour schedules, recording, finances, accounting, equipment inventory and industry contacts; all literally at the touch of a button and in one spot. It even has a reminder feature on when to contact local press for PR, production schedules for recording, etc. Artist Growth marks the user’s calendar with to do lists for almost all aspects needed.
While this app can significantly reduce man hour time as well as cost management with
real time analytics on inventory and sales, it does not address two major issues that artists going the new model route face – capital and networking. Artist Growth asserts that it takes pieces of the value chain that artist’s typically do not know how to do and puts them in an easy to use format, including instructional videos on the industry with industry vets as the experts. However, this still leaves some gaps and is not in and of itself the new business model for dummies. Just because there is access to a network, this does not empower the artist to harness that network and make it work for them (just because you have someone’s contact info does not mean you have a relationship with that person). Secondly, it does not address (and really cannot) the need for raising investment capital. Business of any kind will always need capital, without capital all of the resources and functional usability that Artist Growth offers is moot. These two aspects are always the major hurdles for artists “going it” without a label (whether by choice or lack of choice).
The Artist Growth app does not address all issues artist’s face in this brave new music world, or perhaps it is better said that it does not jump all the hurdles for the artist, the Artist Growth app could very well be the most powerful tool in the new business model of the music industry. It has the potential power to save the artist and their management time and money, which alone makes it well worth checking out.
To learn more follow this link: http://artistgrowth.com/
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