I woke up yesterday morning at 7:15 am.

Only problem was my flight was scheduled for 8 am.  Somehow I slept through my two alarms set for 5:23 and 5:29 (even numbers freak me out).  I had gone to sleep only a few hours prior – drunk on Bud Light.  You didn’t think that was possible did you?  Me neither.  It only took about 9 scans of my chip-powered magical wristband at the Bud Light sponsored Roots jam at Brazos in downtown Austin to get there.  But as the attractive bartenders in Bud Light tanks popped open each frosty 12 oz can and handed it over (for free), I got a bit closer to a happy little buzz.

I drank more Bud Light last night than I had in my entire life.  And I enjoyed it.  Not so much the beer, but the experience.

The Roots host private, special-guest laden jams occasionally throughout the year – like the annual Grammy week Hotel Cafe jam in LA.  This past Saturday night at SXSW featured incredible talents like Emily King, X Ambassadors, Phantogram, Ashanti, Talib Kweli and Big Boi (yes they bumped “Ms. Jackson” and I lost my shit), who performed a combination of originals and covers backed by The Tonight Show band for the capacity crowd.

A video posted by Ari Herstand (@ariherstand) on Mar 20, 2016 at 3:38pm PDT

At one point Hannibal Buress got on stage and riffed with the emcee.  He said what we were all thinking, “I appreciate Bud Light supporting my musician friends like ?uestlove, but how about some vodka and whiskey?” Yeah.

A couple days prior I caught the panel, The ‘Brand’ New Patrons, with Alex White of the preeminent data tracking site Next Big Sound (recently acquired by Pandora), Craig Snyder of the VL Group, Jeff Tammes of Cornerstone, and Jesse Kirshbaum of the Nue Agency.  Kirshbaum and Tammes’s companies facilitate creative artist/brand partnerships with both emerging and superstar artists.  And it doesn’t just involve issuing a fat check for a gigantic artist to tweet about the product. Kirshbaum mentioned that it can also be about “isolating a pain point” for emerging artists and addressing that in a mutually beneficial way.

For instance, Sour Patch Kids set up The Patch houses around the country for touring bands to stay at while on the road.  It’s not just a crashing pad or a hotel.  It’s a hub for inspiration, complete with flat-screen TVs, locally roasted coffee, a washer-dryer, a graffiti-covered makeshift basement recording studio (“The Patch Lab”), a giant all-glass shower, a bin of organic lip balms and of course an endless supply of Sour Patch Kids candy.  Kirshbaum said, “More than just give them money, let’s help them in a way that can inspire them.  When you’re staying at The Patch you can be in this creative haven.”

Currently there are 3 Patches in the US open year round and over 200 artists have stayed there to date.  Kirshbaum revealed that Sour Patch Kids are now “so much more relevant in music than they ever were and sales are up.”

“We’ve seen a real shift from ‘give me the biggest name artist that you possible can’ to a world where the brands are realizing that they can get more from the relationship if they actually partner and build their career.  Instead of a superstar, they’re working with a handful of smaller artists that may have the same reach when added up in totality. And I think that trend will probably continue.”

Alex White, Next Big Sound

Taco Bell feeds bands who are on tour and Fender provides touring essentials like van, gas and gear for emerging, touring artists.

+When Labels Don’t Pay Artists, Fender Steps In 

“Originally brand partnerships with artists was a sellout play.  I think we saw the shift happening when the digital revolution set in.  Emerging artists now had a very strong voice and a very engaged fanbase.”

Jesse Kirshbaum, Nue Agency

Tammes, with his company Cornerstone, has worked on quite a few top level campaigns with superstar artists like Pharrell, Kelly Clarkson, Kanye and U2.  He worked with Converse on creating the Rubber Tracks partnerships where the shoe company gives artists the opportunity to record at any of the 12 world-class studios they teamed up (including Abbey Road Studios in London and Sunset Sound in LA) working with world-renowned producers and sound engineers, at no-cost to the artists.

“For most artists, the most important piece is them feeling comfortable with what they’re doing.  That they’re not going to be hurting their integrity in any way.”

Jeff Tammes, Cornerstone

The panel agreed that the brands that see the best ROI are those that understand that it’s about building relationships with artists and creating long term campaigns.  Instead of a short, big money, one-off project with a superstar, it is proving more effective to partner with a promising emerging act early on in their career and build up that goodwill amongst their fans (and the artist) and see it through.  Emerging artists tend to be more in need of the support overall than superstars anyway.  And oftentimes, emerging artists have a tighter bond with their fans than the superstars.  And engagement is typically higher.

Kirshbaum said that even though “Pink may have 10x the followers as Halsey, the engagement is so much stronger (with Halsey).”  Actually, Pink has 26x the following of Halsey, but yes, Halsey’s engagement level crushes Pink’s with most of her tweets getting favorited/retweeted about 20x more than Pink’s.

The idea of ‘selling out’ has evolved.  It still exists, but in a drastically different form. Previously, if an artist showed any bit of brand influence, they were called sellouts.  Now, fans expect (and even applaud) when brands sponsor their favorite artists. “The sellout happens when an artist changes their content to accommodate their brand.  If you’re changing your message, your art, in a way that compromises your integrity, then that’s a sellout play,” Kirshbaum said.

“If you’re changing your message, your art, in a way that compromises your integrity, then that’s a sellout play.”

A study released last August, conducted by live promoter AEG with Momentum Worldwide, revealed some startling results about Millennials (18-34 year olds) and brand sponsorships for live music events:

• 93% of respondents say they like brands that sponsor live events;
• 81% say that the coolest brand experiences they’ve ever seen somehow involved music in a live setting;
• around 80% admitted that the best and most effective way for brands to connect with them is through a branded live music event;
• those millennials who engaged in a branded music experience come away with a 37% better perception of the brand.

And, going to a music event that was sponsored made millennials like that brand more, while those that stayed at home didn’t have the same feelings:

• 89% like brands that sponsor a live music experience, compared to 63% among non-attendees;
• 89% perceive those brands as being more authentic, compared to 56% among non-attendees;
• 83% leave with a greater trust for brands that support a live music experience, compared to 53% among non-attendees;
• 80% purchase a product from a sponsoring brand after the experience, compared to 55% among non-attendees
• 80% recommend brands that sponsor a live music experience to their networks, compared to 49% among non-attendees.

Snyder cited another study and said: “76% of festival goers say they feel more favorably towards a brand that sponsors a band or a tour.”

And this has not gone unnoticed at SXSW where it seems every year more and more brands line up to sponsor whatever they can at the festival.  Every venue was sponsored by at least one brand.  Many stages and showcases had multiple sponsors. Official and unofficial venues alike.  There was the McDonalds Loft, the Spotify House, The YouTube House, The StubHub stage and The Pandora Discovery Den, to name a few of the bigger ones.  Not to mention all of the exclusive, VIP, list-only parties with free booze and BBQ that were of course paid for by their sponsors.

And I have to admit, singing along to Emily King’s cover of The Jackson’s “Shake Your Body” with The Roots horns destroying the original riff note for note, ?uestlove’s unmistakable pocket, Captain Kirk Douglas’s dirty SG guitar tones and bassist Mark Kelley’s deep groove, I feel much warmer towards Bud Light.  I’m still not going to drink it if I have the choice, but I support the company a lot more than I had just a couple nights prior.

Moral of the story, brand-artist partnerships work.  And I ain’t mad at that.

Ari Herstand is a Los Angeles based singer/songwriter and the creator of the music biz advice blog Ari’s Take. Follow him on Twitter: @aristake

The post SXSW Reveals That Selling Out Ain’t What It Used To Be appeared first on Digital Music News.

What happens if you don’t like the press you’re getting?

One option is to look at your business model and address the issues, or address the coverage head-on.  The other option is to try to intimidate and bully publications that disagree and criticize, even if that coverage is accurate and protected by the First Amendment.

That latter option is apparently the strategy being pursued by Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes, a service that targets aspiring, unsigned rappers while offering the possibility of label deals and success.  But instead of addressing real concerns about this questionable approach raised by Digital Music News, Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes (and its parent company, Lil Fats, Inc.) has now threatened legal action against DMN for calling it a ‘scheme’ and ‘scummy’ in a late-January guest post.

The sloppy and threatening ‘nastygram,’ sent by New York-based music attorney Cassandra Spangler, accuses Digital Music News of defamation and libel, claims ‘significant injury’ against Coast 2 Coast, while demanding the total removal of all ‘libelous references’ and screenshots of Coast 2 Coast offers from our article.  The cease-and-desist also dangles the ‘possible filing of a lawsuit against Digital Music News seeking monetary damages and an injunction’.

In response, Digital Music News has not only kept the original post intact, we’ve pursued additional investigation into Coast 2 Coast.  Because if there’s one golden rule about defamation, it’s this: it isn’t defamation if it’s true.

Here’s another rule about lawyers: they often abuse their power by making grandiose, threatening statements in an attempt to scare people without legal knowledge.  Indeed, the c&d ‘nastygram’ is often a weapon used by overly aggressive, bullying companies with extremely flimsy claims that would never stand up in court, oftentimes filled with sloppy, ill-supported, angry language.  And it all typically carries one goal: intimidation.

One problem with this reprehensible practice is that the recipient of one of these nastygrams can fire right back, and effectively call bullshit.  Which is exactly what we’re going to do.  In this case, we see a number of critical and problematic issues with the letter sent to us by Coast 2 Coast’s counsel, including several outright incorrect assertions, many of which were confirmed by the attorneys we consulted.

In fact, after reading this ridiculous letter, one attorney suggested Coast 2 Coast fire their counsel.  For starters:

(a) Calling a business a ‘scheme’ doesn’t constitute defamation.

Far from it, a ‘scheme’ could apply to any business, including Digital Music News.  Perhaps business people prefer to call this a ‘model,’ but Google the term ‘scheme’ and you will find it technically defined as:

‘a large-scale systematic plan or arrangement for attaining some particular object or putting a particular idea into effect.’  

In that light, Verizon Wireless is a ‘scheme’ for producing revenues from mobile subscribers; Universal Music Group is a ‘scheme’ for attaining revenues derived from music, and Digital Music News is a ‘scheme’ for producing revenues from music industry coverage.

Now, to the extent that ‘scheme’ carries a negative connotation, we are certainly allowed to express the opinion that Coast 2 Coast can be characterized as misleading to the young, impressionable artists that it targets.  In the opinion of the author of the piece, Gaetano DiNardi, as well as that of Digital Music News, charging artists substantial fees for a chance at exposure in front of questionably anointed ‘celebrity’ judges and gatekeepers, while playing off of their hopes and dreams isn’t the most wholesome or honest business approach.  As far as we know, this isn’t illegal, though it raises ethical issues that all artists should be aware of.

(b) Calling a business ‘scummy’ does not constitute defamation.

Those concerns outlined above are why the author of the guest piece called Coast 2 Coast ‘scummy’.  It figuratively means dirty, not wholesome, and certainly not straightforward.  Coast 2 Coast, please don’t make a judge laugh at you.

(c) A lawyer shouldn’t be citing laws from the State of New York when nobody involved resides in the State of New York.

Digital Music News is based in California, while Coast 2 Coast has a listed address in Portland, Oregon (with Miami another listed location).  That means the only person in New York is the lawyer, which might explain why her letter constantly and specifically cites laws from the State of New York.  Spangler also repeatedly cites specific case law from the State of New York, even though any threatened legal action would have to be filed outside of her home state.

(d) Courts are typically extremely unfriendly to flimsy, bullying challenges based on loosely-defined ‘defamation’ and ‘libel,’ especially when they involve freedom of the press.

In fact, Coast 2 Coast’s attorney might want to look up Supreme Court rulings on the matter (I’d tell you the cases, but do your own research).  Turns out the right to express an opinion about a public figure, company, or government has been heavily protected in this country since about the 1700s.

(e) Further investigations into the business model of Coast 2 Coast validate our earlier concerns.

In our initial piece, DiNardi offered strong opinions on the way Coast 2 Coast used promises to lure money from aspiring, inexperienced young artists.  That involved follow-up interviews with a number of rappers who either were participating, previously participated, or canceled their participation with Coast 2 Coast based on concerns over their claims and general business approach.

Perhaps unsurprising given this company’s attempt to stifle Digital Music News’ critical coverage, most of those artists declined to go on record with their experiences.  One that did was 16 year-old $lim Tuc, who was accepted into the program, paid an initial $150 deposit, but withdrew based on unresolved questions about this company and its practices.

(Actually, you might want to check out $lim Tuc here, you can tell it’s early but it’s not bad!)

Additionally, Gaetano submitted an unedited Gucci Mane track as a submission into the Coast 2 Coast ‘tour,’ which resulted in an immediate approval (and immediate requirement to pay $150 upfront).  This proves zero selectivity on the part of Coast 2 Coast, and suggests that this company will approve anyone willing to pay for access (even if they have little-to-no chance of ever being signed or are ripping off someone else’s work).

Beyond this, we’ve also found numerous other indications of wrongdoing, including a high-profile complaint from Meek Mill over misuse of his likeness and misleading association.

Perhaps the most damning aspect of our ongoing investigation into this company is how many other people are actively questioning its ethics.  And that is most glaringly displayed by one little thing: Google Auto-Complete, which catalogs and presents the top search activity around key search terms from millions of users.

As later documented by DiNardi, Google’s top Auto-Complete around ‘Coast 2 Coast’ is ‘scam’.

Here’s a copy of the letter we received from Coast 2 Coast’s attorney, Cassandra Spangler.

The post Coast 2 Coast Threatens Litigation Against DMN for Calling It a ‘Scheme’ appeared first on Digital Music News.