Musicians as a new breed of entrepreneur

Stone Foxes at Golden Gate Park, Courtesy of Joe Barham

It is possibly the most interesting (and certainly one of the more challenging) times to be a professional musician. No longer can you rely on a label deal and album sales to make it. The old formulas have all been blown up and artists have to figure out how to make money when music is free. Just google “how to make money as a musician” and you’ll find pages of articles with very long lists of all the work you need to do. It’s not enough to be an artist, now you have to understand business development, social media, and how to negotiate with big brands (for starters).

In the past, artists relied upon record labels for marketing resources and to cover band expenses. In many ways, labels acted like banks providing an up-front advance to cover living expenses in exchange for a larger share of future revenues derived from album sales. But we know times have changed.

So how do you make it happen today?

Two key pieces of advice: play live and consider licensing to brands you support.

Joe Barham, a former DJ on the Bay Area’s biggest rock station 107.7 The Bone, manages a fantastic band called the Stone Foxes in San Francisco. They live at the intersection of technology start-ups and musicians who want to build a lifelong career sharing their art. In fact, some of the members of the band have been in start-ups before and Joe is working on a few businesses himself.

The Stone Foxes play an eclectic mix of southern rock, bluegrass, and folk, which falls jaggedly within the Americana genre. Whatever the description, the band has seen a level of financial success by working to get their songs into Levi’s, BMW and Jack Daniels commercials as well as numerous television and film spots. You can read more about it in this recent Forbes post.Interestingly, the band decided to forego getting a label in order to focus on its commercial success working with brands and television shows.

I asked Barham how this decision to work with brands came about.

“Initially, I wish we could say it was a planned strategy, but in reality, we were on the way to SXSW and we got a call from an ad agency who asked us to spec a song for them to cover a Slim Harpo tune.” He explained, “We knew about brands and placements, but the turning point for me was seeing the Vampire Weekend and Black Keys interview on the Colbert Report when the bands had a competition of who was in more placements that year.”

In 2011, Stephen Colbert invited Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend and Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of the Black Keys to help him cast his ballot for Best Alternative Music Album. Both bands had a significant amount of exposure in commercials and television that year. It was described as a “Sell-Out Off” and the winner of Colbert’s vote would be the band that had the most commercials. “You have both equally whored out your music,” Colbert screamed.

The winner?

Barham remarked, “It was really amazing to see how many commercials both bands had been a part of. Both bands were totally OK poking fun at themselves, but a primary goal for a manager is to sure that the band’s music gets out to as many people as possible in any format.”

Close to half of the band’s revenues come from placements – the other half is from touring. When asked about revenues from music, Barham explained, “We break even on music sales after production and distribution costs so it’s critical for us to find other sources of revenue.”

These new revenue sources do raise a lot of questions, though: Where do you draw the line and are there brands that are show stoppers?

“Yes, of course you need to be aware of certain brands. For every brand that approaches us, there is a discussion about whether it works for the band. But the band fully supports being in commercials and doesn’t view it as a sell out.

”There is no doubt brand alignment is a growing trend as artists work to find revenue streams in an increasingly crowded market. When asked about what’s next for the band he went on to explain: “It’s not just about making money all of the time. We have causes that we support and feel strongly about promoting them. As the Stone Foxes' profile increases you can expect our music to be used in commercials supporting not-for-profits and causes that are important to us and to the world.”

Connecting brands and music is especially important as Millennials over take Baby Boomers as the largest age group in the US. Millennials are over index on music consumption. In fact, according to the Entertainment Retail Association (ERA) and the British Phonographic Industries (BPI), Millennials listen to 75.1% more music on a weekly basis than Baby Boomers who have often prided themselves as the generation that included Woodstock and many of the greatest bands of all time. Moreover, according to Edison Research, over 64% of young adults actually like the brand / artist connection.It adds up to smart entrepreneurial thinking in a rapidly changing environment.

When combined with the ability to support passion projects and make a living, brand and band alignment add up to a solid business model.