Our entire company, Theironics, LLC, just went through a restructuring process. We assessed the talents of our employees and shuffled them around as needed over the course of an extremely productive weekend in Cedar Key. Well, I shouldn’t say that “we” did that, because “we” implies that the management did the shuffling. In our company, part of the employees’ mission is to find their bliss, and so, “we” (the management) basically left them (the employees) alone for hours at a time to construct the new way our company was going to run. How better to restructure than to as the people actually performing the day to day tasks if there were changes they’d like to make?
I think it worked out very well. However, it did make for some very interesting new changes in Cardboard Box Records’ structure. For instance, we have a brand new process for signing artists. Here’s how we do it now:
- A Talent Scout goes out on the town looking for some cool music. If he finds a band that catches his ear, he will approach them and ask for more information about them. Hopefully, they’ll be pleasant people and he’ll strike up a dialogue, during which he can determine their level of commitment to their music and their needs as a band.The Talent Scout will enter the new band’s contact information and other demographic-type data into the CBR Artist Database, and he will follow up the initial meeting with a courtesy email or call. It’s now up to the band and their manager. If the band expresses an interest in signing with us to the Talent Scout or anyone else, it is that CBR employee’s responsibility to hand over the request to the Music Mentor, who
- Emails the band manager an Artist Assessment Form for the band to look over individually and start filling in,
- Sets up a meeting with the band and their manager just to talk,
- And begins researching the band by attending live shows, listening to any recorded music, and perusing any online presence the band may have.
- Is the band ready to move forward to the next step with CBR? That’s the Music Mentor’s call, although it can be overridden by the CBR Manager if deemed necessary. If it is decided that the band is not ready, then the Music Mentor will keep tabs on the band and keep in touch with the band manager. The Music Mentor may also offer to assist the band in moving toward working with CBR in the future.
- If the band is ready to move forward, then the Music Mentor, Band Manager, and the Band meet to talk over the Artist Assessment Form, which each member of the band has completed separately. This is where the Music Mentor will get a better idea of the band’s overall goals and needs.
- The Music Mentor then schedules a meeting with the Head of Marketing, and they outline a tentative Marketing Plan together to present to the band manager. They apply the band’s responses to the Artist Assessment Form to the Marketing Plan to help fill in some holes.
- The Music Mentor schedules a meeting with the Head of Marketing and the band manager to talk about the plan. They flesh it out together, then the Music Mentor schedules a final meeting with the band manager, the band, and the Head of Marketing, wherein the Marketing Plan is discussed and finalized.
- Is the Marketing Plan a good one? If not, then it’s back to the drawing board as the Music Mentor, the Head of Marketing, band manager, and the band meet again to discuss changes that need to be made in order to move forward.
- If the Marketing Plan is good, then is the Plan a good investment for CBR? If not, then the Head of Marketing, CBR Manager, and Vice President of Theironics, LLC (who writes the contracts) may meet with the Music Mentor to discuss options for viability. They will then meet again with the band manager to propose the necessary changes.
- If the changes go through and the Plan is a good fit for both parties, then the Artist Packet (including the Release Form, Band Agreement, Manager Agreement, Conflict of Interest and Non-Disclosure Agreement, and Statement of Intent) is handed to the band manager, who will discuss it with his band.
- Are there changes that need to be made? Of course there are! The Vice President will meet with the band manager, the CBR Manager, and the Music Mentor to discuss the changes.
- Once everyone can agree, then the band is brought into a meeting with the Vice President, the Music Mentor, the CBR Manager, and the band manager to sign the Artist Packet.
- From the time the ink on the Statement of Intent is dry, the band and CBR have two months to audition for each other. During those two months, there is a lot of back and forth, and the Marketing Plan is implemented then updated with any changes that need to be made along the way.
- The hope is that at the end of two months, the band and CBR will be ready to sign a Formal Contract for a greater length of time, formalizing their agreements and forming a strong relationship which will build up both the band and CBR.
I think it is important to keep our procedures public, which is why I just put you through all that. It’s part of our company’s strategy to move toward open-source management. If our strategy works – and I will keep you informed on that front – then it is free and available to you so that you don’t have to go through the same crap we had to endure to get it right. And if our procedures still need some work, then you’ll have seen the iterations as they present themselves.
I think that, should you decide to use our strategy, you’ll probably start out with it, hate it, trash it, completely revise it, and use your new system instead. Which is absolutely great, and I hope you put your system online so that others may learn from it. Seeing the triumphs and mistakes of those who came before you is an extremely powerful thing.
Just as an aside – full disclosure, you know? – I watched a TED Talk about this open-source idea by Johanna Blakley, the Deputy Director of the Norman Lear Center. If you watch the video, be sure to really examine the graph called Gross Sales of Goods near the end of the talk. Look at the industries that are very open-source (low copyrighting, low secrecy), such as food, automobile, and fashion versus the industries that are not very open-source (high copyrighting, lots of secrecy), like films, books, and music. It makes you think.
Anyway, immediately following this post is one about how to start a marketing plan for your band or music business, though it’s written for bands. I hope that you find it useful. I figured since I wrote a lot about marketing and signing contracts and such in this post I should give you some tools that we have developed or found helpful.
If you find any sites that are doing something similar to this, i.e. posting their procedures and documents online, please comment here so that others may take advantage of those strategies as well.
My name is Casey Robbins, and I am the Vice President of Theironics LLC and Manager of a label called Cardboard Box Records. As we've only been around for about two months (as of January 2010) and are still learning vast amounts about the music industry as a whole, I thought it might be useful and interesting to have a blog documenting our adventures into the business of music. I hope that you can learn something from these posts, and that you or someone you know with lots of talent, patience, and drive starts up a label in your area. Honestly, its the most amazing thing I've ever done, and I know you'll feel the same. 