Xpansv // art + science + execution

Paramore’s Jeremy ‘Jerm’ Davis - From Myspace to Monarrch | Hacking Music w/John Pisciotta EP #209

Mark Adkison — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 15:51:54 +0000

In this episode we delve into the past, the present and the NEXT music industry with founding member of Paramore Jeremy Davis

Listen in to Jeremy ‘Jerm’ Davis, John Pisciotta, Ken Gay, and Mark Adkison. We discuss his journey in the Nashville's Rock Scene & 360 Deals, the formation and rise of Paramore, and his experience with the early 360 deals. Jeremy shares insights into the history and evolution of music contracts, highlighting the importance of understanding legal language and the challenges artists face. He also talks about his current endeavors, including creating a new type of artist-friendly contract and striving to redefine Nashville's hip-hop scene through his label, Push Records. The discussion delves into the impact of AI on creators like authors, musicians, and filmmakers. They explore the concept of a style transfer engine and its revolutionary potential for the music and media industries. The Monarrch GRM platform that helps artists monetize their talent effectively while adapting to Ai advancements of generative rights management.

Big Takeaways from Paramore Founder Jeremy Davis:

Meet Jeremy Davis of Paramore 01:46

The Early Days of Paramore 02:40

Breaking Out Through MySpace 04:16

The 360 Deal Explained 06:17

Jeremy's Journey to Legal Savvy 09:08

Creating a New Record Label 12:02

Empowering Artists with Fair Deals 22:48

Leaders and Feeders - The Importance of Artist Leadership 27:01

The Artist's Unique Touch in the Age of AI 27:22

Navigating the AI Landscape in the Music Industry 29:29

Embracing AI: A New Perspective 30:58

Monarch's AI Engine: A Game Changer 33:45

Monarch's Approach to AI and Copyright 36:44

Monarch's Mission: Protecting and Monetizing IP 46:37

Jeremy's Vision for Nashville's Hip Hop Scene 51:35

Monarrch is a (GRM) Generative Rights Management engine revolutionizing the way AI models are trained. Monarrch’s innovative Style Transfer Engine is authorized for mission critical systems for both governments, private Ai companies and IP holders. Join the intake waitlist here https://monarrch.com/

How Monarrch is Different than Methods?

What is Generative Rights Management?

Here to learn more >> https://monarrch.com/events

What you Missed

WHO AM I? If we haven’t yet before - Hey 👋 I’m John, a guitar player turned entrepreneur and I’ve somehow built a holding co. that builds media businesses. Publish advisory materials for training artists. Through my videos here on this channel, my podcast Hacking Music and writing, I share evidence-based strategies and tools to help you build a career you actually want.

Tune in to Hacking Music for more. Hacking Music is an execution platform for action takers, moment makers and record breakers. Our mission is to serve the world by strengthening the next generation of artists and help you connect with the people that care the most [ your fans ] https://www.hacking-music.com

Special thanks to our sponsors, ArtistWerx and The Sync Center, for their support. Their contributions provide valuable opportunities for artists to thrive.

ArtistWerx is an execution company. We partner with managers to provide infrastructure, marketing, execution and monetization in the rapidly changing media industry. We create products and experiences to engage your customers, drive revenue, build careers and surpass your competitors. https://www.artistwerx.com

The Sync Center - Trusted by Fortune 50 companies, Filmmakers, Ad Executives, Networks, and Major Film Studios. The Sync Center is a full-service music supervision and licensing company that has managed projects for hundreds of clients including national and global brands, agencies and cultural events. https://thesynccenter.com

Understanding the Digital Replication Right - First Ever Federal Property Right for YOUR Own Voice and Likeness

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 15:39:54 +0000

Hello Crew,

Our community of action takers, moment makers and record breakers, we are super excited about what we have for you today.

Your future is waiting, LETS GO!

John

Hacking Music Presents: Ai for Mere Mortals: How to save Intellectual Property Owners and the industries they serve.

Join Finbar OHanlon, Ken Gay, John Pisciotta, Dheeren Vélu and Mark Adkison as we dive into Understanding the Digital Replication Right - First Ever Federal Property Right in Their Own Voice and Likeness

The ‘No Fakes Act’ is a bill introduces the First Ever Federal Property Right in Their Own Voice and Likeness. Sponsored by Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) to protect property rights in the voice and visual likeness of individuals. Let’s chop it up, with Ken, Mark, Finbar and John.

And find out how Monarrch creates a “serial number” of artists IP and tracks a new revenue stream for all Ai uses.

3 Big Takeaways from The ‘No Fakes Act’:
What is Generative Rights Management?
How Monarrch is Different than Old Methods?

3 Big Takeaways from The ‘No Fakes Act’:

The No Fakes Act - Gives Every American a First Ever Federal Property Right in Their Own Voice and Likeness
DIGITAL REPLICATION RIGHT - Each individual shall have the right to authorize the use of the voice or visual likeness of the individual in a digital replica.
Establishes Strong Federal Remedies - empowersindividuals with the ability to seek damages from individuals who knowingly create unconsented uses.

How Monarrch is Different than Methods?

What is Generative Rights Management?

Here to learn more >> https://monarrch.com/events

What you Missed

Special thanks to our sponsors, ArtistWerx and The Sync Center, for their support. Their contributions towards the music industry provide valuable opportunities for artists to thrive.

Building Artists for the Next 50 years, Not the Last 50 Years.

John Pisciotta — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 14:17:09 +0000

Welcome action takers, moment makers and record breakers.

Wow, thanks to the new members who have recently joined. If you are new to the community allow me to back up and give a bit of context as to how our model works.

Lets go!

Our ascension model includes 12 Stages. Each one gets installed INTO the artists career. Each one builds and reinforces with the others.

Inside Issue #207

The “4 legs” of an Artists Career
Our Ascension Model - [ The 12 Blocks that Make it Work ]
The 4 Stages of Hacking Music

1. The “4 legs” of an Artists Career

Reverse engineered from artists like Tim, Garth, Dolly and Taylor. Used in our businesses and our artists businesses.Think of it like a table. Healthy, profitable, career-based artist, understand the “4 legs” of an artists career being: Talent, Training, Technology and Team.

Each is important, but any one of these alone is NOT sufficient for building a 10-20 year career.

2. How the Ascension Model works?

Our ascension model includes 12 Blocks or stages. Each one builds and reinforces the others. Our model installs these career components into an artists career. These 12 strengthen, supports & monetize your talent and ability.

Careers aren't given out, they are built out.

3. The 4 Stages of Hacking Music

Any artist that is worth anything will go through these 4 stages - avoiding the inevitable pitfall of standard record label horror story

Here’s the deal:

The old system focuses on luck...We focus on MODELS.
The old system focuses on quantity...We focus on QUALITY.
The old system focuses on "stardom"...We focus on MARGIN.

Our model incentivizes getting better, not getting bigger.

Because when you get better, your fans will beg you, and PAY you.

This is the future of artists - it’s already occurring in the real world.

This won’t be right for everybody, but it may be exactly right for some of us.

Join the waitlist here to join the next uptake.

John

Other questions we will go through in the future.

What is a super school?
Who is this for?
How long does it take?
Who is this not for?
What are the costs?
What are the results?

What you Missed

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Special thanks to our sponsors, ArtistWerx and The Sync Center, for their support. Their contributions towards the music industry provide valuable opportunities for artists to thrive.

THE AGILE ARTIST// has the elegance of a poet, the precision of a mathematician, the vision of a mystic, and the drive of a soldier.

John Pisciotta — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 17:42:00 +0000

How will the successful artists of the future think, act and adjust?

The graph below helps to illustrate how an artist works and whether this helps or holds back their success.

The purpose of everything that we discuss and DO in Hacking Music community is to help music artists find their way to and live within this fourth quadrant and better understand the successful mindset and thought process of the artist of the future.

AGILITY represents flexibility and how quickly an artist integrates change and develops new thinking and action.

CONSISTENCY represents the artist’s ability to focus and do the work when it needs to be done and describes their reliability.

These artists are finishers. Artists dealing with low consistency often find it hard to get started; if they do get rolling, they are easily distracted and find themselves pulled off task and chasing another rabbit ... having never finished anything. In contrast, artists track- ing high in consistency are extremely productive in planning, decision-making, and execution; they catch the rabbit ... and then move on to the next one.

QUADRANT 1 - UNRELIABLE (LOW AGILITY, LOW CONSISTENCY)

We call this the Quadrant of Death. Do everything you can to avoid being in it. Artists in this quadrant are resistant to change and want everything done the way they remember it being done in the past, their minds aren’t easily changed and when it is changed they will slowly move to the next project.

QUADRANT 2 - UNFOCUSED (HIGH AGILITY, LOW CONSISTENCY)

Artists showing up in this quadrant have a tendency to be one-dimensional artists focusing on only their art. They get involved in a lot of projects but have a difficult time completing what they started, which can create chaos for those working with them. These artists usually have natural talent that has carried their careers to a certain point but many of them struggle at building a functioning team structure to support their art.

QUADRANT 3 - RIGID (LOW AGILITY, HIGH CONSISTENCY)

Artists appearing here do complete projects and other things that they set out to do but they are mostly very resistant to change, a trait that can be deadly in the constantly evolving music business environ- ment. You can spot these artists when you hear them say they “just want to do their thing” or when they complain about how the current music business isn’t like it was in some past decade. Many of the artists in this quadrant have a short shelf life because they are so insistent on doing music or business in an archaic manner that they have failed to expand or grow along with a transforming industry.

QUADRANT 4 - STRATEGIC (HIGH AGILITY, HIGH CONSISTENCY)

This is where you want to be! Artists in this quadrant bring to the table a rare combination of steadiness and adaptability that allows them to respond to changes in business while still completing projects and getting the work done. These individuals typically have higher standards and are willing to aban- don old ways of thinking that no longer work for them while exploring newer and more useful meth- ods. They combine fast learning with tactical decision-making and execution.

The purpose of all the things that we discuss in Hacking Music is to help music artists find their way to and live within this fourth quadrant and better understand the successful mindset and thought process of the artist of the future.

Recently a discussion took place on the online Q-and-A resource site Quora, during which participants attempted to describe an entrepreneur. One of the descriptions the community came up with was:

An entrepreneur has the elegance of a poet, the precision of a mathematician, the vision of a mystic, and the drive of a soldier.

When your ready, you can join the conversation with about 12000+ other artist entrepreneurs taking action everyday here>>

We get to spend every day working in partnership with investors, artists and technologists. History and experience have taught us that artists are entrepreneurs.

It takes a special level of dedication to become an artist who understands the models, the metrics, and monetization within the changing landscape of the music business. This is what ultimately allows the artist’s career to be pointed in a growth direction so that they may thrive.

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WHO AM I? If we haven’t yet before - Hey 👋 I’m John, a guitar player turned entrepreneur and I’ve somehow built a holding co that builds media businesses. Publish advisory materials for training artists. Through my videos here on this channel, my podcast Hacking Music and writing, I share evidence-based strategies and tools to help you build a career you actually want.

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Special thanks to our sponsors, ArtistWerx and The Sync Center, for their support. Their contributions towards the music industry provide valuable opportunities for artists to thrive.

Becoming AI ready. What is the Style Transfer Engine?

John Pisciotta — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:46:41 +0000

This issue presented by:
The Sync Center

Becoming AI ready. What is the Style Transfer Engine?

Looking forward to learning from Ken Gay and Finbar OHanlon & Dheeren Vélu.

Join us for an update with Finbar OHanlon on what he is building next. Becoming AI ready, whether you’re an artist, author, musician filmmaker or corporate entity, learn why a style transfer engine matters to you and your content.

Thursday @4:00CT

ZOOM ROOM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7771231984

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WHO AM I? If we haven’t yet before - Hey 👋 I’m John, a guitar player turned entrepreneur and I’ve somehow built a holding co. that builds media businesses. Publish advisory materials for training artists. Through my videos here on this channel, my podcast Hacking Music and writing, I share evidence-based strategies and tools to help you build a career you actually want.

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Tune in to Hacking Music for more. Hacking Music is an execution platform for action takers, moment makers and record breakers. Our mission is to serve the world by strengthening the next generation of artists and help you connect with the people that care the most [ your fans ] https://www.hacking-music.com

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Special thanks to our sponsors, ArtistWerx and The Sync Center, for their support. Their contributions towards the music industry provide valuable opportunities for artists to thrive.

COMMUNITY ROUND UP

What caught my attention

I loved the new Steve Martin documentary (especially episode one)
Jay Acunzo's new podcast about (Song Exploder for storytelling) aired its first episode

Have your own win/announcement to share? Hit reply for consideration.

John Pisciotta

Say hi on YouTube, Instagram, or LinkedIn

Book a 1:1 Results Call

Partner with Hacking Music

When you're ready, here's how I can help:

Earn more with Hacking Music: Complete Operating System For Artists ➟ 🔥(our most popular product).
Take our Domino Beliefs - Crash Course: 7-day email course teaching you how to become a professional (free).
Apply to Join the Free Community. This is a safe space for artists and entrepreneurs of all levels to connect, learn and get support. (free).
Get my complete Sync 101 - Field Guide to Music Licensing Stress tested over 1000s of Sync licenses and 15 years of music supervision (free).

Hit reply any time! I love hearing from you.

The Case against LIVE NATION and TICKETMASTER

John Pisciotta — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 16:01:27 +0000

This issue presented by:
The Sync Center

21 Plaintiff States v. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. and Ticketmaster L.L.C.

Introduction

1. One monopolist serves as the gatekeeper for the delivery of nearly all live music in America today: Live Nation, including its wholly owned subsidiary Ticketmaster. In Live Nation’s words, it is the “largest live entertainment company in the world,” the “largest producer of live music concerts in the world,” and “the world’s leading live entertainment ticketing sales and marketing company.” Indeed, Live Nation is all these things, to the detriment of fans, artists, venues, and competition.

2. Today, musical artists must rely on promoters, venues, and ticketers to organize the business of playing live music. These service providers should work to serve the interests of artists and fans. Genuine competition for and among these service providers would generate the best, most cost-effective, and fan-friendly experience. But the world live music fans live in today is far from that.

3. Live Nation directly manages more than 400 musical artists and, in total, controls around 60% of concert promotions at major concert venues across the country. Live Nation also owns or controls more than 265 concert venues in North America, including more than 60 of the top 100 amphitheaters in the United States. For comparison, its closest rival owns no more than a handful of top amphitheaters. And, of course, through Ticketmaster, Live Nation controls roughly 80% or more of major concert venues’ primary ticketing for concerts and a growing share of ticket resales in the secondary market.

4. The live music industry, like other heavily concentrated industries, is largely controlled by a well-known group of insiders who lead multiple interconnected companies with numerous conflicts of interest. These insiders have spent decades amassing, fortifying, and exercising power, particularly against anyone who seeks to disrupt the now-standard industry business practices and conduct. These business practices can, and often do, work against the interests of those with relatively little power and influence, especially working musicians and fans. These insiders often speak to each other, and work together, as allies and partners rather than as vigorous competitors.

Download and Read the Full Document Here

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WHO AM I? If we haven’t yet before - Hey 👋 I’m John, a guitar player turned entrepreneur and I’ve somehow built a holding co that builds media businesses. Publish advisory materials for training artists. Through my videos here on this channel, my podcast Hacking Music and writing, I share evidence-based strategies and tools to help you build a career you actually want.

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Special thanks to our sponsors, ArtistWerx and The Sync Center, for their support. Their contributions towards the music industry provide valuable opportunities for artists to thrive.

COMMUNITY ROUND UP

What caught my attention

I loved the new Steve Martin documentary (especially episode one)
Jay Acunzo's new podcast about (Song Exploder for storytelling) aired its first episode

Have your own win/announcement to share? Hit reply for consideration.

John Pisciotta

Say hi on YouTube, Instagram, or LinkedIn

Book a 1:1 Results Call

Partner with Hacking Music

When you're ready, here's how I can help:

Earn more with Hacking Music: Complete Operating System For Artists ➟ 🔥(our most popular product).
Take our Domino Beliefs - Crash Course: 7-day email course teaching you how to become a professional (free).
Apply to Join the Free Community. This is a safe space for artists and entrepreneurs of all levels to connect, learn and get support. (free).
Get my complete Sync 101 - Field Guide to Music Licensing Stress tested over 1000s of Sync licenses and 15 years of music supervision (free).

Hit reply any time! I love hearing from you.

Know Your Filmmaker - 7 Questions Music Supervisors ask every filmmaker

John Pisciotta — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 15:49:57 +0000

Hello beautiful people!

John from Hacking Music here.

Tomorrow, in the Supervisors Sync Community [ a community for beginner music supervisors interested in managing music in media]

We will be working through Understanding Your Filmmaker - How well do you REALLY know your filmmaker or ad executive? In this session we step through the 7 Questions music supervisors ask with every filmmaker they work with.

Help your filmmakers and ad executives “love you forever” by focusing on their pain points, vision and “tickle” spots.

If you’re not already member, you can head here to rsvp

If you’re interested in managing music in media, this will be a great use of your time.

About The Supervisor's Sync Community [ Sync, Supervision and Clearance ]

After supervising thousands of projects, The Supervisor's Sync Community began as continuation of the The Sync School.

Where professionals or soon to be pros do 3 Things: Train, Workshop and Collaborate or projects real time.

Each month we share best practices and tools we ACTUALLY use. These are the repeatable takeaways we learned at the Sync Center the hard way at The Sync Center - a music supervision agency //

Scott Joyce - How Musicians Make the Jump From Local to National Artists

John Pisciotta — Mon, 20 May 2024 17:28:24 +0000

Member Mixer is Part Meet and Greet and Part Listening Session.

Keyboardist Scott Joyce with be with us and training on How Musicians Make the Jump From Local to National Artists

Partial Credits: Kenny Chesney, Jo Dee Messina, Blake Shelton, Steve Holy, The Conway Twitty Musical, Casey James, Tracy Lawrence (Currently)

RSVP HERE:

https://hacking-music.circle.so/c/event-schedule/listening-session-community-member-meet-and-greet-6982a2

From Dolly to Jay-Z: Staging World-Class Experiences with Ken Gay | Hacking Music w/John Pisciotta #204

John Pisciotta — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 17:22:38 +0000

From Dolly to Jay-Z: Staging World-Class Experiences with Ken Gay Training Session | Hacking Music w/John Pisciotta #204

In this episode of Hacking Music we delve into the intricacies of live music performance and stage production, offering listeners a unique blend of training, interviews, and actionable insights from the music industry's best. The episode features an in-depth conversation with Ken Gay, an expert in staging experiences for top artists like Dolly Parton, Madonna, Jay Z, The Gaithers, Pantera, Super Bowl Halftime shows, CeeLo Green, Lauryn Hill, Creed and many others, spanning over 20 years. Ken shares his journey from Texas to becoming a pivotal figure in live performances, his philosophy of 'seeing music,' and the importance of balancing emotional, physical, and logical elements to craft engaging shows. Through stories and examples, including innovative stage designs like Jay Z's butter sculpture and unique tactics to break audience belief for unforgettable performances, this episode unveils the 'action plus belief equals consequence' formula, emphasizing the significance of understanding the 'why' to make the 'how' easier in creating memorable music experiences.

Watch Full Training

00:00 Welcome to Hacking Music: Unlocking Artist Potential

00:50 Monthly Call-In: Thriving Beyond the Dinosaur Music Industry

02:09 Special Guest Ken Gay: Master of Staging Experiences

03:38 Ken's Journey: From MTV Generation to Music Visionary

04:21 The Art of Seeing Music: Ken's Unique Approach

09:37 Crafting the Live Show: A Producer's Perspective

17:24 Understanding the Audience: The Key to a Memorable Show

19:01 Tools for Artists: Navigating the Chasm to Success

28:09 The Encore Philosophy: Starting with the End in Mind

33:30 Bono's Defy Gravity: A Lesson in Understanding the 'Why'

35:31 The Unpredictable Nature of Artistic Experiences

36:04 Embracing Change: The Key to Thriving in Art

36:38 Breaking Beliefs: The Essence of Memorable Performances

41:41 Real-World Examples of Breaking Beliefs in Performances

48:42 The Evolution of the Music Industry and the Modern Entertainer

51:57 Practical Advice for Aspiring Artists and Creative Entrepreneurs

01:02:39 The Importance of Why: Scaling Big Ideas in Music Production

01:04:19 Fast Five: Quick Insights from Ken

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Special thanks to our sponsors, ArtistWerx and The Sync Center, for their support. Their contributions towards the music industry provide valuable opportunities for artists to thrive.

THE FOUR ROLES IN THE ENTERTAINMENT ECOSYSTEM - HOW JAY-Z MOVED THROUGH ALL OF THEM

John Pisciotta — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 21:54:53 +0000

THE ENTERTAINMENT ECOSYSTEM

Who’s who in the zoo?— Finbar O’Hanlon

Among the fundamentals of finding success in the music industry is understanding the roles people play, their motivations and desires, how they get compensated, and what you bring to the table that can help them reach their ultimate goal.

One of the best ways to understand all of this information is by taking a look at the Entertainment Ecosystem, a graph that breaks down into four categories the various types of people you will encounter within the music industry. The graph defines their roles in the industry, their daily responsibilities, and motivations on both a short and long-term basis.

What follows is a deeper look at each with several common examples.

THE ENTHUSIAST (QUADRANT 1)

The Enthusiast is typically a non-professional in the music industry, such as a fan, blogger, student, or supporter of musicians. They are vocal and quick to express their opinions, whether it is to other music fans or, in the case of enthusiasts who are also social media stars in their own right, to their own fans. The Enthusiast is deeply affected by the trends and the daily whims of pop culture.

Expression of The Enthusiast- Perez Hilton (Celebrity Blogger)

Blogger, television personality, and columnist Perez Hilton is known for his coverage of all things related to the Hollywood celebrity scene. He has been criticized about comments and captions for tabloid photographs he posts on social media. If there is a gathering of celebrities for any occasion, you will likely see Perez Hilton close to the action.

THE TECHNICIAN (QUADRANT 2)

These are the service providers to the music industry. They are paid on a per-project basis or for work spanning a limited period of time. This group can include studio musicians, voice and performance instructors, entertainment attorneys, website designers, public relations experts, etc. This tentative work environment leads The Technician to juggle a constant search for new business, fresh clients, and the next gig with the present obligation to serve current commitments.

When Wade first entered the music industry, he did so as The Technician. He worked with artists by authoring biographies and press releases, designing press kits and websites, etc. His background in journalism and professional writing gave him a set of skills that he was able to leverage in the music industry. He saw a void that he could fill because he could provide artists with a product they were willing to pay for and needed.

Expression of The Technician - Tim Pierce (Studio Musician)

While you might not recognize his name, there is a good chance you have heard Tim Pierce playing guitar. A well-known studio musician from Los Angeles, Tim makes a living doing studio work on a daily basis. He has played on albums for artists including Bon Jovi, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Celine Dion.

THE ASSET COLLECTOR (QUADRANT 3)

The Asset Collector is looking to discover, develop, and monetize content and intellectual properties with the intention of someday selling those properties for peak profit. The Asset Collector is successful in their business ventures because they are not emotionally attached to the property. (Remember how we have talked about the importance of removing emotion from your business decisions?)

Expression of The Asset Collector - Scott Borchetta (Big Machine Label Group)

After spending two years working in promotions and artist development for Universal Music Nashville and MCA Nashville Records, Scott Borchetta decided to walk away and create his own label, Big Machine Label Group (BMLG). The first artist he signed was a then fourteen-year-old Taylor Swift. Borchetta has since gone on to work with major artists such as Tim McGraw, Reba McEntire, and Rascal Flatts in addition to serving as a mentor on American Idol.

THE SCALABLE INNOVATOR (QUADRANT 4)

The Scalable Innovator identifies a massive void within an industry and creates a technological solution to fill it. The Scalable Innovator finds their greatest success when they can predict future shifts in the marketplace, build and develop a product to address a need, and have the technology firing on all cylinders before the rest of the industry has an opportunity to catch up with them.

Capitalizing on this technology requires having in place a full team of sales representatives, developers, and marketing experts. Much like The Asset Collector, The Scalable Innovator’s goal is to eventually sell their intellectual property for peak profit.

If thousands of people can use your technology at any single time, you fall into The Scalable Innovator quadrant. Scalable innovators include people like Pandora founder Tim Westergren and Ditto Music founder Lee Parsons.

Expression of The Scalable Innovator - Daniel Elk (Spotify)

Spotify cofounder and CEO Daniel Elk launched the company in late 2008. Spotify, one of the leading music streaming services, has experienced massive growth since its launch. In August 2012, TIME reported Spotify had four million paid subscribers. As of January 2018, Spotify reported a paid subscriber base of more than 70 million.

The important thing is not where you are today but how you can expand in the future. The most successful artists will be adept at moving between the quadrants, avoiding confinement of their presence in any one particular category. Let’s use the following case study to examine how one artist, JAY-Z, did just that.

A small portion of music artists find a way to climb to the level of The Scalable Innovator; one of those artists is music icon JAY-Z. He has used his considerable influence, name, and marketing power to build or buy into multiple companies.

Let’s examine what JAY-Z’s journey through the four quadrants looks like:

Quadrant 1: JAY-Z as The Enthusiast

It is well known that JAY-Z had a budding interest in music as a young boy in the mid 80s, long before he began to actually produce any. This was his “figuring it out” phase, something everybody goes through (and hopefully everybody comes out of). It was during these early years, growing up in New York City’s Marcy Projects, that his life and experiences first fueled his passion for music.

Quadrant 2: JAY-Z as The Technician

In the early 90s, JAY-Z began to both perform live and record his music as a profession. If he worked, he was paid for the job he had done.

Quadrant 3: JAY-Z as The Asset Collector

With no major label to give him a record deal, Jay-Z sold CDs out of his car and, in 1996, JAY-Z teamed up with Kareem “Biggs” Burke and Damon Dash to found Roc-A-Fella Records. Previously, JAY-Z was a performing artist only and had very little control over his catalog. Now, as a label owner, he has total creative and business control over not only his assets but the assets of those artists he chooses to invest in. Artists like Just Blaze, Kanye West, and Jadakiss were discovered, developed and distributed in-house. JAY-Z evolved from The Technician to The Asset Collector.

Quadrant 4: JAY-Z as The Scalable Innovator

In March of 2015, JAY-Z and a group of investors purchased a Norwegian music company called Aspiro. The company had launched a music streaming service called Tidal just one year earlier; JAY-Z and his group of investors immediately kicked off a massive campaign to rebrand and relaunch Tidal. Separate of this musical venture, JAY-Z has also reached outside the realm of music to team with Bill Gates on the “Decoded” project, a two-day event in London at which some of the world’s brightest tech minds gathered to discuss the future of technology.

Like other artists making their way through all four quadrants of the Entertainment Ecosystem Matrix, JAY-Z has followed an N-shaped pattern from quadrant to quadrant. Other artists experiencing similar careers paths include Todd Rundgren, Les Paul, Kiss, Harold Bradley, Chet Atkins, Garth Brooks, Eddie Van Halen, and Taylor Swift. Future artists working to see similar success will learn to be comfortable with frequent business collaborations spanning all four quadrants. These artists will be equally adept at making an album and making an app.

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Special thanks to our sponsors, ArtistWerx and The Sync Center, for their support. Their contributions towards the music industry provide valuable opportunities for artists to thrive.

SUPER TEAMS - Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.

John Pisciotta — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 15:27:12 +0000

In this episode, we discuss the 4 Roles that all SuperTeams are made up of.

One of the quickest ways to prove you are not ready to grow or scale is to believe that a person can do everything on their own. This falls in line with a recurring theme of this book: artists incorrectly think that their level of success has every- thing to do with themselves and their musical talent. It is an amateur’s approach to the business.

Those seeking higher levels of success, however, typically grasp the importance of proper team building when it comes to sustaining and growing their business and understand that success requires more than just great music.

So where do a lot of artists go wrong when the time comes to begin building their team?

A common trap that many artists fall into is becoming the “big fish in the small pond.” For a young artist, it can be easy to become well-known in their local community and music scene. It takes some commitment and work, but it is generally attainable for an artist managing themselves alone and without the support of a team. It is a lot more difficult in a major music city like Nashville, Los Angeles, New York or Austin, but for an artist living in a small or medium-sized media market, it is certainly doable.

And that is where misplaced ego becomes an issue.

For many artists, being the “big fish in the small pond” is sufficient; they are happy, and that’s good. But to the artist that wants more, it feels less like success, and the limitations of doing everything alone become more evident as they are pushing up against a glass ceiling.

What they have done on their own up to this point has worked, so they continue to do the same things . . . without understanding the need to step back and reevaluate the environment.

Once they do that, they’ll see that they can’t do everything themselves. Not if they want to continue to progress. Now it’s time to add to the team.

This brings us to one of the most important statements the artist should remember: talent will get you started, but you will never win with talent alone. Your team should grow as your platform grows. A local artist’s team will have fewer mem- bers than that of a regional artist. A regional artist’s team will have fewer members than that of a global artist.

THE EXPONENTIAL POWER OF A TEAM

We defined Force Multipliers in Chapter 2 as tools, resources, or strategies that exponentially amplify the effort you put into any task. Force Multipliers don’t apply to only the work itself; they also apply to the team’s capacity for learning new information regarding the business.

As individuals, we can learn only so much throughout the course of a day. We are limited by time and, in some cases, we are limited by our current capacity to understand the fundamentals of fields unfamiliar to us. However, a team of professionals working on our behalf can not only learn more but dig deeper and more effectively within their specialties than one well-meaning multitasker.

An entertainment attorney will absorb new music law precedents far more quickly and thoroughly than a sound engineer.

An expert in social media marketing will have a greater understanding of the constant changes implemented by social media companies like Facebook and Twitter than a booking agent.

A proper team allows for an exponential increase in knowledge, both learned and applied.

Another benefit of a proper team is through the potential opportunities created for the artist and those around him or her. The music industry is a business of relationships, and the people joining your team bring with them the collective connections they have spent years establishing, leading to exciting new professional collaborations.

Nowhere in this section have we talked about the artistic side of the music business; you certainly need a team to help out when it comes to the art, but for now we will focus on the team that helps elevate your business.

PICKING THE RIGHT TEAM MEMBERS - P.A.E.I. METHOD

Developing artists beginning to build their teams often find themselves confronted with more questions than answers. Many have no idea how to identify what jobs need to be done or what positions should be filled in order to move their careers forward. Ask five inexperienced artists to describe the role of a manager and you will likely receive five different (and perhaps conflicting) answers.

Here are the two most important questions artists should be answering:

What roles should I be trying to fill?

What qualities should I be looking for in the potential members of my team?

Several years ago, a Russian consultant by the name of Dr. Ichak Kalderon Adizes introduced what he refers to as the P.A.E.I. Method, a detailed look at the four fundamental roles of management needed in running a business. In applying this structure, he shows how the application of differing management styles within a business can benefit or hinder its chance of long-term success.

Adizes, in his book titled From Stuckness to Growth, breaks down manage- ment types into four roles.

THE FOUR ROLES

Role #1 : The (P)roducer

Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.

— Michael Jordan

The role of the (P)roducer is to get a result. This individual focuses on the production and delivery of the product that is being offered (e.g., merchandise, show tickets). The (P)roducer also places an emphasis on the relationship with and needs of the customer or fan. They make sure the customers are satisfied.

Role #2 : The (A)dministrator

While the (P)roducer is concentrating on the details of what has to be done, the (A)dministrator examines how to go about doing those things efficiently and properly. The (A)dministrator’s role is to keep everything within the business organized while creating systems that allow the business to operate smoothly.

Role #3 : The (E)ntrepreneur

The (E)ntrepreneur is the creative force behind the business. These individuals think outside the box and come up with new ways to help their business adapt to changes in the business environment. They bring unorthodox ideas to the table and are opportunistic in nature.

Role #4 : The (I)ntegrator

The (I)ntegrator focuses on finding the right people for the other roles while working to ensure the business can survive long-term. Their goal is to see that the business can continue to operate even without the presence of its founder(s). The (I)ntegrator also works to develop mutual trust and respect within the team.

If we were to assign one word to describe each of the four P.A.E.I. roles, the results would be as follows:

Most people have witnessed each of these four roles in the workforce at one point or another; each has certain characteristics that result in us perceiving them in a particular light.

The (P)roducer : Oftentimes they come across as a field general of sorts. They are focused on accom- plishing immediate goals and driving results. Not only does the (P)roducer assign tasks and “call the plays” on a day-to-day basis, they also set the agenda that will be used by the team. Examples in the workforce include general managers and business developers who are responsible for strategic partner- ships or acquisitions.

The (A)dministrator : Many look at these people as bureaucrats because of the red tape they tend to manage. They pay attention to detail and follow processes in a very deliberate manner, at times

slowing down the completion of projects. In the workforce, these kinds of people can include detailed administrative assistants or those in the company’s legal affairs department.

The (E)ntrepreneur : They are perceived by others as visionaries. These are contributors who create, see opportunities, and lead through inspiration. Examples in the business world include company found- ers, employees working on promotions, and creators of apps.

The (I)ntegrator : Some see them as connectors. They look at the strategies and goals of the team and then work to find the best possible people to help achieve the (P)roducer’s goals. A real-life example would be a human resource director, an assistant, or project manager.

HOW TEAMS GET LIFT - THE THREE THEMES

Because of the complementary nature of the four roles, each role adds their own special sauce to the team. Think of the ingredients of the sauce consisting of the sales of the P, the details of the A, the vision of the E, and the culture of the I. Together, these roles create a cyclone of focus, energy, and action; without any of these, the team will likely sputter or spin out of control.

This image shows the three keywords for each role:

DUPLICATING OR COMPLIMENTING?

A key component of putting together a successful team is finding people for those positions who think, act and respond differently than the artist.

Many artists make career-threatening moves when they intentionally seek team members who will agree with everything the respective artist says. We see many examples of this common business mistake. People who focus on artistry have a tendency to want to surround themselves with people who do not challenge their art. People who move and think quickly tend to want others around them that do the same.

Why does this happen?

The tendency of a young artist is to gravitate toward people that are more like themselves. That’s how they found the members of their first bands, their first songwriting partners, their first road managers, bus drivers and fans ... even the folks and buddies they hung out with in their social circles. Most successful businesses thrive, however, when they create teams of people with varying personalities and experiences and put those people in positions where their individual strengths are assets.

Talent wins high school; teams win careers.

— bathroom wall at Nashville rest stop

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🔗 LINKS MENTIONED:

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Love and Execution with Lauren Bateman: https://youtu.be/dZUkeOcD_9c

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Mechanics of Career Building with Ken Stokes - https://youtu.be/3aGww0K9zj0

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WHO AM I?

If we haven’t yet before - Hey 👋 I’m John, a guitar player turned entrepreneur and I’ve somehow built a holding co that builds media businesses. Publish advisory materials for training artists. Through my videos here on this channel, my podcast Hacking Music and writing, I share evidence-based strategies and tools to help you build a career you actually want.

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Hacking Music is an execution platform for action takers, moment makers and record breakers. Our mission is to serve the world by strengthening the next generation of artists and help you connect with the people that care the most [ your fans ] https://www.hacking-music.com

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30 Takeaways from SuprFan - Artist Fan Communities

John Pisciotta — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:42:22 +0000

Whether you're online with us live or watching your dashboard, super glad you're here. This is Monetizr. Monetizr happens the fourth Tuesday of each month, where we talk about e commerce productizations process systems, kind of the back office stuff that makes the front office possible.

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So today, we're going to be talking about superfanartists communities. We're talking about 30 takeaways that we've assembled over the last four or five years. As you have questions or thoughts, you can put them in the comments and our team will compile those and we'll answer those at the end of the training here.

So let's talk a little bit about SuprFan and artists communities. Over the years we have done a bunch of work for one of the largest publishing companies in the world here in Nashville. They brought us into work with them with some of their legacy artists, Burt Bacharach, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan type artists.

For example an artist like Ashford and Simpson have had a great career and maybe now, they didn't quite know the world we're living in today, The world has shifted. It used to be, record labels and big advances. That was kind of the world they came up in, in the sixties, seventies, and eighties. So that world is, is largely gone. The dinosaur record label model, they brought us in to help them think through a way to kind of reinvigorate their universe.

If you're into Burt Bacharach, that's what you care about.
If you're into Bob Dylan, that's what you care about.

This is the origin story for Suprfan really started there where we worked with them and thier legacy artists.

We're going to open up the artist dashboard, take a look at some of their pricing and some of their models of a current artist who's using super fan. We're also going to take a look at a super fan event where everybody comes together and connects in a really rich way. So that's going to happen at the end of the training.

Super fan artists, communities, 30 takeaways. I wanted to do is just kind of assemble kind of a. Stream of consciousness punch list of things that we've learned, maybe the hard way, or maybe the right way that really gets artists communities.

30 Takeaways from SuprFan - Artist Fan Communities

It's not just for KISS.
Music isn't the main product
Artists leave tons of money on the table
This isn't Patreon, this isn't Indiegogo, this isn't ClickFunnels
Show the work
The hamster wheel is real
Understanding product types
Cadence
Product Stack
Both And Options
Supersize me
Fulfillment and delivery
MRR matters
People stay customers forever
Saves SASS costs
Artists get back to being an artist
Artists fail at productization
Artists love shiny objects
Artist buy in
Messaging matters. A Lot
Energy travels
VA's? yay!!
Remove friction
Fans are cheerleaders
Community > Content
A confused mind never buys
Pigs get fat, Hogs get slaughtered
Communication is everything
Onboarding is huge
Communities are the center of gravity for career growth

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The first takeaway is that it's not just for KISS. It's not just for those huge bands who, you know have been there, done that, had a great career. This is for artists who are regional artists, local artists. You know, they could be starting out, they could be touring regionally. So it's not just for the headliners that everybody knows about. That's a common thing. It says, well, it's easy. It's easy if you're a kiss or Taylor Swift or Van Halen or even Coheed and Cambria. It's not that at all. This is what we've found is that it's for. Developing artists, deploying artists, and dominating artists. And if you've been in the hacking music community for a while, you'll know that those are our three gears of an artist's career. That's one of the beautiful things about Superfan is that it it works all three gears.
The second takeaway, music isn't the main product. We've found what's called people by the mirror. People are spending money on the mirror. So what's the mirror? The mirror is people like them. Music is important as, as Sheryl Crow said, music does something to the molecules in the room and she's exactly right. That doesn't change. Music still matters. But what we've found is music's kind of the gateway drug, right? But the thing that. Keeps them in the community is connecting with people like themselves. They're into the same things. They could be at the same stage in their life. They're into the same general things. Think of it like, you know, Grateful Dead fans. They're kind of into the same thing. Harley Davidson fans. They're kind of into the same thing. That's the second takeaway that music isn't the main product.
SuprFan - Artist Fan Communities, Monetizr: Revenue Building for Artists
SuprFan - Artist Fan Communities, Monetizr: Revenue Building for Artists
adilo.bigcommand.com/watch/9VOqU9y1?autoplay=true
Third takeaway is artists leave tons of money on the table. Communities are popping up. All over the place. It's just a question of whether the artist will participate in that community and own their own community. So it's kind of like name and likeness. If you follow college football at all, when you have a community, you own the zeitgeist, the glue, The universe around what you do, takeaway number three is that artists leave money on the table.
The next takeaway that this isn't Patreon, this isn't Indiegogo, this isn't ClickFunnels or Infusionsoft. This is something completely different from those. So as we're kind of pinning. Popping the old beliefs here for the first few takeaways. This isn't just Patreon. This is Indiegogo. It's not those kind of first generation things. That's the fourth takeaway is that it's not ClickFunnels and Indiegogo and Patreon.
The fifth takeaway is that you want to show the work. What does that mean? So most artists get their end zones flipped. They work hard on the music part. And when they're done with the music, they think they're done. We call this getting their end zones flipped. They think they're at the touchdown line when they're really at the 20 yard line, they're just starting when the music's done. So you want to be very careful and not getting your end zones flipped. You want to really embrace the idea of showing the work. Whereas some of the legacy artists of the dinosaur era just wanted to make the record and. Handed off and they were done at that point, whereas now with the idea of show the work fans will pay to be in that conversation of writing the record, producing the record designing the music around that. On tour with the artist. So the idea of showing the work is really important. So that's the fifth takeaway. Artists want to get comfortable with showing the work and not just you know, looking down and your fans say, okay, here's my musical genius. Go buy it. And I don't want to see you anymore. It's not that at all. Show the work is takeaway. Number five.
Takeaway number six is: The hamster wheel is real. When we first started developing this with the company here in town, some legacy artists who are now on tour and, and having their 50th year anniversary and they're doing fantastic. Right. But the hamster wheel is that they have to stay on tour. Okay. And for some legacy artists, that may be what they're used to and that's their thing and they're going to stay on the hamster wheel. So artists really have. The decision to make is where they're going to work hard or where they're going to work smart. We see artists, new artists, regional artists taking advantage of artist communities, whereas some legacy artists maybe just out of rote pattern and what they're familiar with choose to stay on the hamster wheel, right? They have to be out on tour X number of days a year. And that's important. You can't beat analog face to face. I mean, something happens that there's a kinetic bond there on stage, but with artists communities, you have the choice of stepping off that hamster wheel in some really interesting ways, which we'll look at here in just a bit. So those are a few, there's like the first six takeaways The balloon of old beliefs of the legacy record label model.
Takeaway number seven is this understanding product types. As you start to build your artist community you'll see if there are new ways, new products to build their digital project products, their physical products. There are experiential products that people can step into and be part of, and there are access products. And we go deep into this. With each artist we work with, but for right now, I just want you to really think about the product types that you currently serve your fans. So that is take away number seven product types take away.
Number eight is cadence. Cadence is how often you're going to be meeting. We have found and really learned the hard way that you want to under promise and overdeliver. You don't want to commit an artist to every two weeks being available when really every 60 days is plenty want to kind of protect the artists and their time. That's takeaway. Number eight is. Your cadence, how often will you be connecting the artist with fans and followers?
Takeaway number nine is the product stack. So we talked about earlier, there's digital, physical, experiential and access products, but you also want to be super aware of bundles. And we go deep into this. And the productization training in monetizer but you want to think about your bundles as kind of that super product. People will buy 30 percent more if it's in a bundle. You can have product one, product two, product three, but when you put them in a bundle. You get about 30, 30 percent more sales. That's takeaway. Number nine is understanding your product stack.
Takeaway number 10 is the both and option. What do I mean by both?Inside our artists communities, we give them the option of joining the community. The monthly community, or they can just buy this single one off product. So instead of getting rid of the single product option, we keep them, we give them options, right? They can buy the widget, the t shirt, the music, the CD, whatever that single product is, or they Can step up and be part of that high touch, high experience product of the super fan community. So that's takeaway number 10 is both and.
Takeaway number 11 is the idea of supersize me. And this is something we learned. It took us, geez, probably about a year to figure this out, but there are a certain percentage of fans and followers who will always buy those limited VIP exclusives and fruit. Like the first nine months, we just kind of gave them small, medium. Enlarge. And that was fine. It worked great. But what we found is when we started offering those exclusive VIP products, say 200 products at, you know, and when they're gone, they're gone and price them accordingly we found more and more people wanted those supersize options.So that's takeaway. Number 11 is the supersize.
Takeaway number 12 is fulfillment and delivery. Will you fulfill in house or will you print on demand? And there's a bunch of third party print on demand companies that many artists use and having great success with that's takeaway. Number 12 is fulfillment and delivery. You want to kind of. Get clear on what you're committing to and not bury yourself in, you know, packing every two weeks when you can really every quarter. That's takeaway. Number 12 is fulfillment and delivery. So those are a few takeaways on the product side of things. Let's talk about a few takeaways on the financial and revenue side of things.
Takeaway number 13 is the idea that MRR matters, monthly reoccurring revenue matters. What does that mean? If you're not familiar with this term, this is You get paid every month as people subscribe say there's a 39 monthly product. You get paid 39 every month from that customer, that buyer. So for an artist, what that means is that they can step off the hamster wheel when they know, okay, Hey, we've got 400 people in our community. Okay. Maybe we don't have to take that show in Wisconsin or that show in the upper. Northwest, right? Maybe they can spend their time building out their community, and that will serve them better in the long run. So some things we've seen is that it means that the artist can focus on actually the music. They can make better music. And we found and we see that it makes for better artists when they're not desperate, when they're not, when they don't have to take that a show in the upper Pacific Northwest with 18 hours each way. MRR matters. Okay. And we talk a lot about that. We'll look at that inside the dashboard here in a minute.
Takeaway number 14 is people stay customers forever. When you're watching Netflix, you just watch Netflix each month. And that means you're paying for it each month. The same thing holds true inside a super fan. People stay customers. Forever. They don't want to leave, especially when you handle this well, and you kind of take follow some of our takeaways here. People want to be part of that forever. Sure. Some people will roll off and that's just normal. But what we've seen is that people take away number 14 is huge People stay customers forever.
Takeaway number 15 is that it saves SASS costs. We've seen one artist save about 799 time. Dollars monthly and just not using ClickFunnels, Infusionsoft, Patreon, you know, whatever the SaaS tool is. They save a ton of money inside using SuperFan. Takeaway number 15 is save on SaaS costs. So let's look at a few takeaways as it relates to the artist and their mind and their. Spirit in their tone and their energy, right? The artist's mind.
Takeaway number 16 is that artists get back to being an artist. We say it all the time that the back office makes the front office possible. So when you have certain automations happening, it allows the artist to be the artist out front. Be in the studio, be recording, be writing the back office makes the front office possible and super fan has been fantastic for really letting the artist get back to being an artist. So that's takeaway. Number 16, the artists can get back to being an artist.
Takeaway number 17 is the idea that artists fail at productization. It's not a ding on artists. It's just part of their makeup. They get distracted. And So we just need to own that artists work hard on the initial music part of it. And they kind of check out after that. And that's one of the beautiful things about super fan is that it builds in that productization time that really. Builds out the suite of products around the artist. This is the single product problem that most artists face. They have one product and we say it all the time is that inputs drive outputs. When you have one product, you get maybe one output, but when you have six products, People can buy six different things and they can choose and they can kind of expand up the offer ladder. Takeaway number 17 artists fail at productization. No, nothing against artists. That's just a common trait around artists.
Takeaway number 18 is that artists love shiny objects. And these kind of go together. The idea of productization and shiny objects. They are. Distracted. And that's really, that's okay. We expect that from artists. That's part of their makeup. That's part of what makes them powerful and special at the same time. But what that means is that somebody other than the artist, 90 percent of the time has to manage that community. That could be a manager. That could be one of our community managers at super fan depends on your team makeup, right? So that's takeaway. Number 18 is that artists love shiny objects. Takeaway number.
Number 19 is the idea of artist buy in. It's important for artists to be in the community, but they don't, we don't want them to be in the community all the time. We want to still protect them and build a little mystique around them. They need buy in, but they don't need to be desperate if that makes sense or too available. Part of this is also the idea of you don't want to be above your fans and look down on them and say, Hey, let them eat cake poo poo on them. You want to look at your fans and be able to talk to them in a real way. And that's a challenge that some of the legacy artists of the past 30 years, they kind of maybe look down on their fans more than they were able to. Look at their fans and talk to their fans. Takeaway number 19 is the idea of artist buy in.
Takeaway number 20 is messaging. How and where will you message? And this is the idea of owning your pipes. We say it all the time inside the Hacking Music community that you want to own your pipes. What that means is that you want to Own your mailing list. You want to own access to the people that pay and care most about you. That's your fans and your followers and your friends. You don't want to trust MySpace to own your fans. You don't want to trust LinkedIn to own your fans. You, you want to be able to collect all that information yourself because that is your lifeline and your lifetime. That's your next 20 years told the story before of an artist who has had a 40 year career, won multiple large awards in his genre. And a number of years ago he was doing a project and he didn't have. Any data on his fans sold millions of records over the past 30 years and didn't have a way to speak to them. So we definitely want to own pipes, the access to talk to your fans and that's huge. So how and where will you message it out? Sure. Social media is important, but you don't own your data on social media. You don't own your data on Spotify. You don't own your data on Instagram. So you want to use them kind of at the top of the funnel, but you want to feed them into your pipes. That's takeaway number 20. How and where will you message on your pipe? So those are a few things on kind of the artist's mind and the, the DNA and the spirit of an artist and why. Superfans really strengthens the artist mind. Next, I want to look at a handful of takeaways as it applies to your messaging and your community and the tone and the spirit of your community.
The 21st takeaway, gosh, we've got what 30 takeaways here. So takeaway number 21 is the idea that energy travels. When you enter into your community, you are responsible now for the. Tone, the spirit, the vibe of your community. Some people choose to be really high energy and go, go, go protein, protein, protein. Other people choose to be really laid back and transparent. So it really has to be on brand. You want to get this right. In, in the planning stage of your community, but energy travels. So you want to really make sure that's consistent with you and your brand. So that's takeaway. Number 21, energy travels.
Takeaway number 22 is VA's? yay!!. So what does that mean? We use virtual assistants all the time, and this is great for some of the tasky things that we want to delegate, whether it's a thumbnail, a design component, or somebody's account, they need their password, or they need to change out a credit card, all that kind of transactional stuff is really great delegated to VAs. And we, we may have a training just on VA's alone because I think that's a really powerful smart part of this. Takeaway number 22 is VA's yay.
Takeaway number 23 is the idea of remove friction. We say it all the time that a confused mind never buys. So you want a system. Your technology, you know, in the old days, you may have had a Patreon or Indiegogo or whatever you use, Kajabi, and those are great systems. They still are. A lot of our friends and people still use them. That's great. But you want your fans to experience a frictionless experience. Thing, right? You don't want them. I can't log in here. I have to log in two different places or this is telling me this and this is telling me this and then they're just exhausted. You want to make it easy for them. Takeaway number 23, remove friction. Spaghetti sucks. You don't want to be playing the spaghetti game. That's takeaway number 23, remove friction. Now I want to spend a few minutes talking about a few takeaways on the customers, the fans and the followers and the friends who Buy and subscribe to your community.
Takeaway number 24 is the idea that fans are cheerleaders. Some of your fans, sure. They like your music more often than not. They like you and they want to support you. They become cheerleaders and they just want to give, give, buy, buy, buy. We have. Many fans and followers for artists inside super fan who buy every product and then they rebuy every product and what they're doing is they're becoming cheerleaders for you. They're your super fans, right? So that's takeaway number 24 fans or cheerleaders.
Takeaway number 25 is an important one. This is the idea of community beats transactions. This is the idea that people love to buy, but hate to be sold to. As you're considering a community or potentially joining the wait list for the super fan. It's not just about sales. It's not just about sales, sales, sales, sales, sales, hit people up. You don't want to use your fans as an ATM. You want the tone and the spirit of your community to be relational, high touch. You don't want to be transactional in. Your community. Sure. They're paying each month and that's fantastic for the artist, but you don't want to be transactional with people in your community. You don't want to use them as an ATM, if that makes sense. So that is takeaway number 25 community is greater than just the transactions. The next takeaway is takeaway.
Number 26, a confused mind never buys. So as you think about your, your writing, your copy and how you're messaging out to your followers, you want it to be clean, crisp, coherent, and concise. You don't want to blather on for paragraphs and paragraphs. You want to be able to get to the point. And help them take the next step that you want them to take. Takeaway number 26, a confused mind never buys.
And kind of a sister takeaway is takeaway number 27 and that's pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. What does that mean? So that's a common saying inside the business world that says, when you get greedy, you get slaughtered. The hogs get slaughtered, but the pigs, they grow. All right, they get bigger and bigger and bigger. So you don't want to think of your community as an ATM. You don't want to be spamming them every week. Every day with email, some people just get over the top in the sanely twitteria, I think is the word that comes to mind where you're just always spamming people. So less is more. You don't want to think of your community as an ATM. Next, I want to spend a few minutes talking about comms and communications.
So takeaway number 28, communication is everything. As artists are often distracted, they will likely not be the point person to communicate with everybody inside their community. We have some that do, but more often than not, it's, it's a manager. It's a band leader. It's one of our community managers who kind of drive the bus inside the community. So that's important. That's takeaway number. 28 communication is everything you want to be clear. You want to be crisp. You want to be concise.
Takeaway 29. Just as we're finishing up here, onboarding is huge. What is onboarding? When a new member comes into a community, those next. Three days are super important to that new member to feel clarity, to feel included, to feel special and excited about the community. So you have about 72 hours to make that happen. This is the onboarding process, and we get very specific with each, each new. Artist community that we launched that how we handle this onboarding, that welcome process is massive. An example is for one artist community, we did a welcome graphic for each new member and they felt just super powerful. They felt. They felt heard, they felt special and everybody in the community said, Hey, let's welcome Jimbo Bryson over here. And Jimbo Bryson felt like the coolest guy in the world because he got a graphic made up of him. He felt really special and he felt onboarded and welcomed in a really powerful way. Takeaway number 29 onboarding and welcoming is huge.
And the last takeaway 30 is this, the net net of everything we've talked about today is that we have seen inside our business and our artists businesses is that their communities are really the center of gravity for their career going forward.Sure. They're going to be. We're doing shows, writing and recording, but the center of gravity is really that hub, their community hub, where all their fans, followers, and friends can connect with other fans, followers, and friends of that artist in a real powerful experiential way. And I know that language kind of gets squishy. It's important to kind of. Treat this as a, it's not a transaction. This is something greater. Yes, it leads to transactions, but the community aspect of it is super powerful and we see it as the center of gravity for all careers going forward and growing and scaling.

Get Full Training - USE CODE: MYGIFT

These are the 30 takeaways that we've learned over the past four or five years in growing artists, communities, launching communities for, Some legacy artists and some new regional and local level artists. I hope that helps you.

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The Business and the ART of Tribute Bands, James Volpe Rotondi | Hacking Music with John Pisciotta #203

John Pisciotta — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 17:22:21 +0000

In this episode, we discuss the Business and the ART of tribute bands. Our guest is James Volpe Rotondi, known for his role as “Jimmy Page” in the tribute band Zoso.

Some of the highlights here…

James's Approach to Embodying Jimmy Page
The instrumental "architecture" of Jimmy Page
The Importance of Authenticity in Tribute Performances
The Sidecar Approach: Balancing Creativity and Income
The Importance of Decision Making in Music Career
Advice for Young Musicians: Stardom and the Importance of Self-Inquiry
The Importance of Being a Good Person in the Music Industry
The Philosophy of David Lee Roth
The Future of Music Marketplace: Nashville as a Beacon
The Role of Guitar Magazines in Shaping Music Culture
Interviewing Music Legends: Eddie Van Halen and James Hetfield

We learn about the back story of Zoso, from its humble beginnings to becoming respected figureheads in the tribute band scene, and discuss the challenges and rewards of portraying iconic musicians. We delve into the art of choosing which parts of a song to play live, the balance between precise imitation and creative expression, and the importance of connecting with the audience while remaining authentic to the original act.

Additionally, we discuss the broader landscape of the music industry, from the role of tribute bands in preserving the legacy of rock music to navigating the challenges of the modern music scene.

James also offers advice to upcoming musicians, emphasizing the importance of dedication, versatility, and continuously refining one's craft. Join us as we pay tribute to the art of tribute bands, with insights from a musician who's lived it firsthand.

James shares his rich history and experiences as the former Senior editor of prominent Guitar Player and Guitar World magazines, detailing the process of creating impactful issues, the surprise of interviewing Edward Van Halen, and the camaraderie and rivalry within the industry.

Watch Full Video

🔗 LINKS MENTIONED:

Zoso Band http://www.zosoontour.com

Guitar Player Magazine https://www.guitarplayer.com

Guitar World Magazine https://www.guitarworld.com

📖 Check out my Bestselling book https://a.co/d/2HxDLxJ

🍿 WATCH NEXT:

Love and Execution with Lauren Bateman: https://youtu.be/dZUkeOcD_9c

Michael Drexler - BMI For Sale!?! - https://youtu.be/dBBnko9mU2s

Mechanics of Career Building with Ken Stokes - https://youtu.be/3aGww0K9zj0

MY OTHER SOCIALS:

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Map Your Month "The MYM" - March

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 17:54:01 +0000

Good Morning Happy People! 😁

Here is our Map Your Month "The MYM" - March 4th

📣 Introducing our March theme… BUILD YOUR MOAT!

This month let’s become super familiar with our moats. What moats do, how they strengthen us, how they protect and propel what we do. Let’s get clear on where we’re strong and let’s get even more clear on where our gaps are and begin to fill them. Let’s build it career that you actually want. BUILD YOUR MOAT - PROPEL, PROTECT & PROVIDE

Talent is what you DO with the gift.
- Pat Metheny

This Month in Hacking Music

1. Tuesday, March 5 at 1PM CT, Livestream:

The Supervisors Sync Community - How Music Works [ in Sync Supervision and Clearance ]

GUEST RSVP HERE >>

2. Tuesday, March 12 at 1PM CT, Livestream:

Monthly Call In - Ken Gay - Experience Design from Clubs to Super Bowls

GUEST RSVP HERE >>

3. Tuesday, March 19 at 1PM CT Livestream:

Rebooting the ARTIST OS - [ a Beginners Manual for Artists, Their Teams & Their Parents ]

GUEST SEAT RSVP HERE >>

4. Tuesday, March 26 at 1PM CT, Livestream:

Monetizr - Revenue Building for Artists

GUEST RSVP HERE >>

See you there!

— John

Hacking Music - Evidence Based Tools and Training

1. My Gift to You - [ Free ] - Domino Beliefs - Mental Model for Musicians

2. Our Model - An Emerging Model For Sustainable Growth in ALL Areas Here’s the model we use today.

3. Our Culture - Fly In Formation - LaunchPad Podcast [ Free ]

Upgrade Yourself - You're getting the free version. You're missing out. Members get exclusive content, access to an online community focused on Action, Achievement and Accountability, ad-free everything, and access to HM Activator. Annual members get first access to our HMX in person event in May 2024. See What You're Missing

This episode is brought to you by The Sync Center

The Sync Center is a full-service music supervision and licensing company. Trusted by Fortune 50 companies, Filmmakers, Ad Executives, Networks, and Major Film Studios.

This episode is brought to you by ArtistWerx

ArtistWerx - an execution company for action takers, moment makers and record breakers.

SuprFan - Artist Fan Communities

John Pisciotta — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 15:53:19 +0000

SuprFan - Artist Fan Communities

Are Artist Fan Communities the Future of Career Growth?

It is happening Tomorrow in the Monetizr group. We are stepping though 7 decisions that tell you if an artist community is right for you.

Head here for the takeaways we’ve learned over the last few years building SuprFan.

Here to join the SuprFan waitlist

What is YOUR Propellant? Fuel your Future

John Pisciotta — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 15:50:00 +0000

📍 📍 Morning, everybody. This is our flying formation for today. I want to talk about something called Propellant.

What is Propellant?

If I were to define it, I would say it's the thing that makes you keep going when you are OUT of juice. It's the thing that says, you know what? We are going. It's a thing that supersedes effort and emotion. It's something that supersedes feelings. It's something that goes far beyond your mission and vision.

What is My Personal Propellant?

An example of my propellant, and I've shared this story before, goes back to a story of some friends of ours Chris and Leah and their two kids.

I produced a record for Chris and Michael Sweet from Stryper. They were friends of ours, co workers, fantastic people and about 16 or 17 years ago they had moved to Las Vegas and something horrible happened. They were in their Honda Element and somebody hit them from behind and really a worst case scenario happened. Their gas tank exploded.

Their family was burned alive, Chris, Leah, and their two kids, and I'm not saying this to shock anybody or to manipulate anybody, but this to me is my personal propellant. It very simply PROPELS me. Whenever I think about complaining, whenever I think about having a pity party, I think about Chris and Leah, and I think about how they would LOVE to be here to have my problems.

Why it Works?

It frames the context in a very different way. It frames it in gratitude really. Chris and Leah would not be complaining about this. They would love to trade places with us right now and because of that, we're gonna live and DO THIS on behalf of Chris and Leah.

We're going to not complain. We're gonna not have a pity party. We're gonna keep going. We're gonna keep achieving and completing the things, the great things we're called to.

So it's a personal connection to loss, gratitude, and doing things on behalf of somebody else. So that's what propellant is, that's my personal propellant. I do things, not just to selfishly do something. I do them because Chris and Leah. They would love to be in a position to do these things and they're not able to because of what happened to them many years ago. That's an example of my propellant and I want to put that in your pipe to smoke.

You can work on EFFORT.
You can work on PASSION.
You can work on FEELINGS.
You can work on TALENT.
You can work on BEING A NICE PERSON.
All these will get you out of the gate they will work for a season.

Finding Your Personal Propellant

But to really go the distance, as they say, and to really run the race with perseverance, you need your OWN personal propellant. You need something. That is yours. A story, a connection something similar to Chris and Leah. To Own it, digest it and fall in love with that story.

That's our flying in formation today. Your propellant, what is it, how to use it, and why it works. Love you guys and I will see you inside the community today.

The Future beats Nostalgia.

John Pisciotta — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 14:58:00 +0000

The Future beats Nostalgia.

Don’t get it twisted, the past decades were great, but nothing compared to what's in front of you.

Create What’s Next. Your future depends on it.

Control What YOU Can Control

John Pisciotta — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 21:40:00 +0000

Control What YOU Can Control

Good morning crew.

Hey, it's Monday, early February, Nashville's, looking beautiful, the sun is out, super pumped about what's going on the community this week. So wanted to come in for our fly in formation for today. And what that is, if you're new here, this is like you see geese flying south for the winter, right? They're flying in formation, there's an alignment there, they're going in the same direction. So what we do is we gather briefly each morning and share a quick thought that aligns how we're flying in our individual groups.

So today, I want you to think about one thing, and that is the idea of control what you can control. And this is something that a lot of people get tripped up with. A tell to know if somebody is able to do this, is watching their words, you hear a lot of people complain, wish, blame, say, if only this or one day, I'll do this. And those are the people that are stuck in the “uncontrollables.” They're kind of inverted. So what we want to do is focus on the other side of the ledger, these are the things that we can control. Right? These are things that we can complete, maybe just you and maybe you and your team, and maybe you and your mom-ager, whatever it is, but you can control these things.

So if you're new, a good way to start to use this lens, is just to divvy up a piece of piece of paper. And simply, spend 10 minutes getting quiet, getting focused and saying, Look, here are the things I CANT control on the right, and mark them out, spend 10 to 20 minutes, just listing out the things you can’t control today. And then the other side of the paper, do the things that you CAN control, I can control X, Y, and Z.

Most people think much too big. They're thinking about the boulders instead of the pebbles.

Most people think much too big. They're thinking about the boulders instead of the pebbles. So we want to be thinking about, okay, these are the pebbles that we can control today.

Its a private community of action takers, moment makers and record breakers.

If you want to have first dibs, sign up for the waitlist 👇

Love and Execution with guest Lauren Bateman.

John Pisciotta — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:10:00 +0000

Hey Crew,

We had our Monthly Call In on Tuesday of this past week. CATCH THE REPLAY.

I wanted to make sure you got a recording.

9 Income Streams section was killer. Def don't miss Love and Execution with guest Lauren Bateman.

Also, you can register for the next Monthly Member Call In here:

to your action, accountability and achievement.

-John

7s over 3s - Affects EVERYTHING we do.

John Pisciotta — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 20:11:00 +0000

Good morning fam,

It is Tuesday morning and I am really pumped about our Flying In Formation this morning. Today I want to talk about the idea of sevens over threes. So for those of us, those of us in he football world, you may have heard this phrase before.

It's the idea of going for 7s, which are touchdowns. Over 3s, which are field goals.

Right, but what does that mean for us in the Hacking Music community? You know, maybe that works for the football world, but how, how does it apply to us in an actionable way? We talk about this with our artists and our team members, it's the idea of preparing and having the right expectations. So as you prepare, you prepare VERY differently for sevens than you will for threes. With Threes, you can just say, well, we didn't get it. Let's just kick the field goal. YAY 3 POINTS! #grouphug

But when you go for sevens, you prepare differently, you communicate differently, you practice differently and you work differently. You put teams together differently.

If I'm Tom Brady and I'm going for sevens. FULL STOP. I sure as heck know who my wide receivers are running backs are. So as artists and entrepreneurs, if we're going for sevens over threes, we're sure as heck going to know who's doing our e commerce, who's our manager, who's bandleader.

We're going for sevens.

So we're going to think about our teams differently.
We're going to think about how we're communicating differently.
We're going to think about our goals and our expectations with very different headspace.

The Hacking Music community is built for the top 2 percent of artists and entrepreneurs, there's a TON of people that are just fine with threes. Maybe they get lucky. Maybe they win a contest. Oh, we got a field goal. But for the Hacking Music community and our artists who are expecting more out of themselves and expecting more out of their music and expecting more out of their career.

They behave differently. I want to give you a lens to see your day through, to see your week through, to see your month and to see your years through. I want you to prepare with a different set of expectations.

You're going to act differently, you're going to have accountability, your going to handle your processes VERY differently, and your relationship with achievement is going to be different because you're going for sevens over threes.

Alright y'all, I'm out. We'll see you inside the community. Today we've got the Supervisor Sync Community. We're going to be talking about how on a recent project we saved a filmmaker over $200, 000 and why they love us because of that. Okay. We'll see you guys soon.

Xpansv // art + science + execution

Paramore’s Jeremy ‘Jerm’ Davis - From Myspace to Monarrch | Hacking Music w/John Pisciotta EP #209

In this episode we delve into the past, the present and the NEXT music industry with founding member of Paramore Jeremy Davis

Big Takeaways from Paramore Founder Jeremy Davis:

How Monarrch is Different than Methods?

What is Generative Rights Management?

Here to learn more >> https://monarrch.com/events

What you Missed

Understanding the Digital Replication Right - First Ever Federal Property Right for YOUR Own Voice and Likeness

Table of Contents

3 Big Takeaways from The ‘No Fakes Act’:

How Monarrch is Different than Methods?

What is Generative Rights Management?

Here to learn more >> https://monarrch.com/events

What you Missed

Building Artists for the Next 50 years, Not the Last 50 Years.

1. The “4 legs” of an Artists Career

2. How the Ascension Model works?

Careers aren't given out, they are built out.

3. The 4 Stages of Hacking Music

What you Missed

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THE AGILE ARTIST// has the elegance of a poet, the precision of a mathematician, the vision of a mystic, and the drive of a soldier.

How will the successful artists of the future think, act and adjust?

AGILITY represents flexibility and how quickly an artist integrates change and develops new thinking and action.

CONSISTENCY represents the artist’s ability to focus and do the work when it needs to be done and describes their reliability.

QUADRANT 1 - UNRELIABLE (LOW AGILITY, LOW CONSISTENCY)

QUADRANT 2 - UNFOCUSED (HIGH AGILITY, LOW CONSISTENCY)

QUADRANT 3 - RIGID (LOW AGILITY, HIGH CONSISTENCY)

QUADRANT 4 - STRATEGIC (HIGH AGILITY, HIGH CONSISTENCY)

An entrepreneur has the elegance of a poet, the precision of a mathematician, the vision of a mystic, and the drive of a soldier.

Becoming AI ready. What is the Style Transfer Engine?

Becoming AI ready. What is the Style Transfer Engine?

The Case against LIVE NATION and TICKETMASTER

Know Your Filmmaker - 7 Questions Music Supervisors ask every filmmaker

Scott Joyce - How Musicians Make the Jump From Local to National Artists

From Dolly to Jay-Z: Staging World-Class Experiences with Ken Gay | Hacking Music w/John Pisciotta #204

THE FOUR ROLES IN THE ENTERTAINMENT ECOSYSTEM - HOW JAY-Z MOVED THROUGH ALL OF THEM

SUPER TEAMS - Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.

30 Takeaways from SuprFan - Artist Fan Communities

30 Takeaways from SuprFan - Artist Fan Communities

The Business and the ART of Tribute Bands, James Volpe Rotondi | Hacking Music with John Pisciotta #203

Map Your Month "The MYM" - March

This Month in Hacking Music

SuprFan - Artist Fan Communities

SuprFan - Artist Fan Communities

Are Artist Fan Communities the Future of Career Growth?

It is happening Tomorrow in the Monetizr group. We are stepping though 7 decisions that tell you if an artist community is right for you.

Head here for the takeaways we’ve learned over the last few years building SuprFan.

Here to join the SuprFan waitlist

What is YOUR Propellant? Fuel your Future

The Future beats Nostalgia.

Control What YOU Can Control

Control What YOU Can Control

Love and Execution with guest Lauren Bateman.

7s over 3s - Affects EVERYTHING we do.