Inside MySpace Record’s Artist Development Program; Q&A with Jason Reynolds

MySpace Records has been busy behind the scenes establishing a new unsigned artist development program called the Friends & Family Network.  The initiative provides marketing for all participating artists across the MySpace Music platform to promote releases, tours and videos.

The label has also begun a new series of live shows in Los Angeles called Online [Offline], which features artists from the Friends and Family Network.

We recently sat down with MySpace Records’ Jason Reynolds to get the details.

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RM64:  To start off can you tell us a little about your background?

JR:  I’m originally from Australia where I used to run a record label putting out a bunch of indie rock records. Later I was worked for Shock Records in Australia, which also distributed Sub Pop, so I got to know a bunch of people there.  When I lost my job at Shock, I got a call the day after from Jonathan at Sub Pop and he said, ‘What are you going to do now?’  And I said I don’t know, and he said ‘Come work for me in America.’ So I moved to Seattle in the 90’s, started the publishing company for Sub Pop, and then sort of migrated into working in A&R and doing product management.  I signed a bunch of artists like Damien Jurado, Saint Etienne and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

In the late 90’s after leaving Sub Pop I did a stack of stuff like writing for the NME, music supervision as well as some musicology jobs, and then ended up in management.

I never really intended to become an artist manager, but I was always helping out the artists I knew; anytime there was a problem they kept calling me in to fix it.  The first real client that I had was this kid Patrick Park.  He was just a singer songwriter that I found at Genghis Cohen but he totally blew me away.  He was like a modern day soul singer.  So I ended up managing him and developing it from the ground up and subsequently sort of became the artist development-management guy.

Some of the other artists I worked with were The Belles from Lawrence, KS, Forward Russia! from the UK (on Mute), Every Move A Picture from San Francisco who got signed to V2, and then one of the biggest artists I managed was Isobel Campbell – who was previously in Belle and Sebastian.  The first project that we did together was the record that she made with Mark Lanegan, Ballad of the Broken Seas.  Crazily enough it took her from selling 10,000 records, which is what her previous record had done, to having a UK Top 40 album, getting nominated for a Mercury Music Prize and selling 150,000 copies of that record.

A little after that I dropped out of the music business for a couple years to become Mr. Mom.

RM64: So how did you end up at MySpace Records?

JR: I had been helping out the GM of MySpace Records J. Scavo.  Every time he had a question, often times it related to international issues, I answered it.  So he called me out of the blue one day and asked, ‘What are you plans?’ and I said ‘I don’t know’ and he said, ‘I’ve got a job for you.’  A large part of my position was to do international stuff for MySpace Records, but the main reason I got brought in was to run the artist development program that we have which is called the Friends and Family Network.

And that’s what I do on a daily basis.  We have 130 artists signed-up, and what I do is I build marketing campaigns for unsigned artists on MySpace.  The logic behind it being that we could have the next Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys or whatever in the program and we help build them from their 300 friends to 30,000 friends or their 250 plays a day to 70,000 plays a day.  And it’s great.  Now I do artist development and somebody pays me a salary for it.

RM64: So could you give us a little overview how of the MySpace Friends and Family program works?

JR:  So the way that it works is that we dig around on MySpace Music to find unsigned bands that appeal to us, from the charts as well as traditional A&R and various ways you find out about bands through a friend, musician or whatever it is, and we sign them up to the program. The concept is we give them a set of marketing tools, so when they’re releasing an EP or have a tour or a video, I help them market their band on Myspace.  So say an artist has a record coming out in the next couple months, I’ll build a marketing campaign with them.  From there we have various tools to help them really hyper-target their marketing and get in front of users who we, collectively, think might like their music.

We also aid in getting editorial coverage. So if they have a video we will give them a music video feature. If they have an EP or album coming out, we’ll approach the editorial team at MySpace Music to try and find the right “look” for them, or if they have a video we will help with coverage on the music video page, which are amazing opportunities for unsigned artists.  And then we have this one particular music ad that runs on the main music page where we promote tours and things like that as well.  So really what we do is give them a tool kit to say ‘here you go, this is what you get allocated in a year –go crazy’.  And it’s good. We have this particular artist from Long Beach that when I started my job they had 3,000 to maybe 5,000 plays a day.  I would run marketing and see it go to maybe 10,000 plays a day.  And now nine months later I run marketing, and they get 70,000 plays a day.  That’s what the concept of it is, you’re building an artist from a small level to a big level.

RM64:  What are some of the things that artists can do as part of the FnF program to maximize what they get out of it?

JR: They have to be very organized and do a lot of offline stuff themselves as well as being active on MySpace (messaging fans, updating their page with new content, etc).  They’re giving people a reason to come back.  It’s a visual medium that people have to be very aware of.  Take for example Taryn Manning’s band Boomkat. When we would see their plays go way up, it was from these spotlight ads they created that were really engaging and people couldn’t help but click on them. That same band (above) from Long Beach recently ran a great creative that was a spoof on one of those ‘which celebrity is this?’ banner ads, but they used themselves. With all the stuff flashing at you when you’re online, artists have to be creative and do something interesting to catch people’s eye.

I also use the old radio story that it takes someone hearing a song 45 times before they recognize what the song is.  It’s the same thing.  When I run a marketing campaign it’s not all about running 500,000 banners and all of a sudden everyone will discover you.  Its doing a little bit of different things, getting an editorial piece, banner spotlight, etc and hopefully by the 5th or 6th time they’ve seen it, someone will be interested enough to check it out. Meanwhile the band should be doing their own work, online and offline.

RM64:  What have the results been like so far?  Has the program been working?

JR:  It’s good.  There are definitely some artists who use it a lot.  And there are artists that have gotten some real gain from the program.  Iglu and Hartly is one of the main ones that was signed to the program and who got a huge deal out of the UK.  Bad Veins was also in the program, who is now signed to Dangerbird Records.  There is another band in the process of getting signed to Roadrunner Records.  So from that perspective it’s definitely been very helpful.  Then I started having these other ideas, like look at the stuff that you can do beyond just MySpace. MySpace is the certainly the best online music platform, but there are other things that you can do that will help develop an artist.

RM64: Can you give us some examples?

JR: The most notable thing that I’ve done recently was getting an FnF artist, Jonneine Zapata, on the Soulsavers national tour that is happening in September.  A lot of that was presenting a marketing plan to the Soulsavers camp to say, ‘Look, if take this artist out with you, here is how we can support your tour on MySpace.’ As a record label we’re in a unique position that we have the largest music site in the world as a marketing arm to synergize with.

We also have the SXSW showcase and party where we have a whole bunch of the FnF artists play, and now it looks like maybe in late September/October we’ll have a package of FnF artists going out on a tour. On top of that we have this Tank Farm compilation coming out right about now where they will be doing 10,000 hang tags on their summer line of clothing –which is going to Pac Sun and Urban Outfitters.  For that I put together a compilation of 16 artists from the program to give one track away each. People can download the album for free at http://www.tankfarmclothing.com/promo

RM64:  What would you say the main goals of the program are?

JR:  It’s definitely a great branding exercise for us.  MySpace has always been known as a place for unsigned artists who in particular have been the ones helping to build the site to where it is. And from a record label perspective you’re helping artists out, which can sometimes be a rare thing, and you also get to prove to an artist before they’re signed to the record label what a company like MySpace Records can do.  ‘This is the sort of marketing power that an artist can have if they end up signing to a record label like ours.’  There are those people who say ‘shouldn’t you get something more out of it if an artist gets signed to another label?’  But in the end, really the good will is probably worth more than anything else.  It’s a great feeling from my perspective to turn around and help the artist out in this way. Ultimately my attitude is that if one new person discovers an artist as a result of the program, it’s been successful.

RM64: Speaking of other labels, how much are they aware of it?  What kind of reactions have you gotten, if any?

JR:  I don’t know how many people are really aware of it to tell you the truth. Which is funny because we have a FnF page where any person from a record company can actually look at and see ‘oh look here are a bunch of bands that MySpace is marketing right now –we should keep an eye on them.’  I don’t really know how much awareness there is in the music business community as to what we do; which is fine.  I guess now they’ll probably all find out won’t they?

RM64:  So what happens if an artist in the program gets an offer from say, Warner Brothers Records?

JR:  Well like an old school demo deal where somebody gets a bunch of money, we just have a matching right.  There’s a period of time where if we wish to, we can turn around and match a deal.  But we’re an indie label, so it’s hard to compete with a bucket load of cash. However the other aspect is that if we’ve worked with someone long enough and have a great relationship, maybe they don’t even want to take an offer from someone else.  Or you have the edge to where the artist is really happy to sign with us, simply if we’re willing to match that offer.  So that’s the way it works.

RM64:  Who has been the architect behind this program?

JR: I think it really was everyone’s first friend, Tom Anderson, and J Scavo who is the GM of MySpace Records.  I think that they recognized that we have access to a number of tools. They recognized that it was a great thing to be able to do and they had the resources to do it, which no other company does.

RM64:  Are there any plans to expand the program, possibly into providing digital distribution for artists?

JR: Yeah we started doing what we call our ‘Friends Plus’ deals, because we’ve definitely had some people who have turned around and said ‘this is really great, but can you help us with distribution?’  Previously I would just send people to different aggregators, but after a little while we realized we could just do this ourselves.  So we started doing that and have 2 or 3 artists signed in that environment as well. If they enter the Friends Plus deal we throw them even a little bit more in terms of the marketing as well.

RM64: Lastly, tell us about this new series of monthly shows MySpace Records is presenting?

JR: They’re called ‘Online [Offline]’ which is fitting because that’s exactly what we’re doing; taking an online asset and now taking it offline.  We just started doing the series, and it kind of came about as an adjunct to us doing a showcase at SXSW. So now we’ve started doing shows here in L.A. because we have a lot of artists here and it’s a broad spectrum. We partnered up with the Spaceland folks and have the shows at The Echo.  The first one was a hip-hop show and it was sold-out. It was crazy because I’m not a hip-hop guy [laughs].  Next we’re doing an alternative rock show. People seem excited about it, and it’s a great opportunity for building the community of unsigned artists. We’ll also be doing a singer-songwriter night in September and the October show will be a charity event.  It actually also looks like we’ll be expanding nationally, with an Online [Offline] show in Chicago in October too.  So again its part of the additional package when an artists signs an FnF deal with us. We say ‘here’s what you’re guaranteed under this FnF deal’, and then what I’ve done is add all this additional value that will hopefully provide a number of other potential opportunities as well.

RM64: Well we’re looking forward to the next show.  Thanks for sitting down with us today!

JR: Of course, thank you.

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Tonight (8/13) is the next show in the Online [Offline] series, featuring Burning Brides, Jonneine Zapata and Sabrosa Purr

The Echo – 8:00PM – FREE
1822 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

MySpace Records Friends & Family: www.myspace.com/msrfriends

MySpace Records: www.myspace.com/myspacerecords