Clayton Durant

As a consultant for independent artists and a teacher at LIU's Roc Nation School of Music Business, I'm often surprised by how many artists and their teams fail to register properly with key societies like ASCAP and MLC to collect all their earnings from PA/SR copyrights. Even when registrations are in place, I frequently encounter metadata issues, such as inaccuracies in artist or songwriter names, or incorrect account details. These errors prevent royalty-collecting organizations from distributing earnings accurately to the rightful owners. Therefore, it is imperative you not only register with the appropriate societies but thoroughly verify that your metadata is correctly entered, ensuring you don't lose your earnings to the 'black box'.

Unless you're a major superstar or have a hit song rapidly ascending the charts, the reality for many artists is that investing heavily in lavishly produced music videos often doesn't deliver the ROI they expect. More often than not, without a well-established fan base, it requires a significant amount of money to draw attention to a full-length video. Instead, I usually recommend that artists turn to their smartphones and focus on creating short, catchy, and easily consumable 'TikTok-style' content. This type of content at its best can also inspire fans to share their social currency by participating in the campaign helping to spread song awareness and driving that coveted viral moment many music marketers are looking for.

One piece of advice I consistently impart to my students at LIU's Roc Nation School of Music and Sports Management is the importance of cultivating well-informed views and insights on key issues in the music industry. I encourage them to confidently voice these perspectives on platforms like LinkedIn. Take, for instance, the topic of AI's influence on music – a subject that elicits diverse reactions from artists to record label executives. Understanding these issues and articulating your own stance can open numerous opportunities for both emerging and experienced professionals. My suggestion? Don't hesitate to share your thoughts on LinkedIn, whether through a short form post or even a newsletter. You never know who is reading or listening.

As a student in the music business, some of the most successful entrepreneurs have been ones who are not afraid to be on the ground level and experiment with new technologies. For myself, I have been on the ground level of experimenting with generative AI like ChatGPT as a way to not only help advance our artist roster but use it as a tool to help push my team to become more efficient with their time. We are always experimenting with new prompts and frameworks to input into the AI to get the best output. I can confidently say, we are ahead of the curve simply because we are willing to experiment and embrace failure. I think that mindset will be important in this age of AI.

As managers, we know the importance of touring for artists, with superstars earning nearly 75% of their revenue from it. With today's economic challenges and increasing production costs, achieving a profitable tour is a top priority. Profitability however is becoming more difficult to achieve, not only as consumers are becoming more selective with their spending due to current economic conditions but artists also face stiff competition in an oversaturated touring market which features big acts in 2023 like Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen.

In today's environment it isn't just imperative to choose a proper venue that enhances the in person experience but it is also critical to build out a really strong virtual and live streaming strategy to engage an online audience. For example, if you book a space that is 200 cap, you can only hold what the physical space allows. However, a properly built hybrid event creates a situation where cap space can be nearly unlimited with a global reach that no venue alone can achieve. So simply put, invest the time, money, and energy needed to live stream your event properly. That is just as important these days as choosing the right in person space.