Sell Sell Sell! - Panel Discussion
Panel discussion on how to sell your music.
4:00pm - 5:30pm
How can you market your music on a limited budget? What is the DIY model? What is marketing and why is it important? What makes a story? How to identify your market? If you are determined to get your work out in to the world this session is for you.
The Panel:
Alan McBlane: former marketing consultant with Sony BMG
Ian Brown: PR and Marketing Consultant for Universal and EMI
Ben Sutcliffe: Director of Sponge Marketing
Melvyn Phillips: Former buyer for T.H.E
The talk is free but places are limited. You can pick up a ticket from Music Mania for a deposit of £1.00 which is returnable of the day, or go to www.upstartstoke.co.uk
All those attending on the day can win a copy of the Unsigned Guide (worth £35) and £100 of free rehearsal time at Tremolo Rehearsal Studios.
No demos will be accepted on the day, but if you would like to submit a track for the official UpStart A&R demo either drop in your track to Music Mania or go to www.Upstartstoke.com and upload your track there.
Ian Brown
1965 - 1975
Developed an interest in action men, soda stream, football and going to folk clubs (an aunt was a booking agent on folk scene)
1976 - 1981
Developing interest in girls, alcohol, drugs, guitar playing, performing protest songs at folk songs over the south of England, going to music festivals and working on family farm to finance the above.
1982 - 1986
Bought first electric guitar and joined showband and became the second '+' in the late lamented band '1 + 2 +', played British Legions , working men's clubs for £30 a night and gave up folk clubs because they didn't pay.
Went to Royal Agricultural College to do a diploma in agricultural management and forget any thoughts of a career in music business...... formed an 11 piece funk / pop band and played college circuit. Wore yellow 'Miami vice' type suit and played red Chuck Berry guitar... surprisingly remained celibate and single throughout this period
1987 - 1989
Started to manage bands and work on family farm. Began going to record companies in London and became fascinated with process of putting out records. Press, radio, TV etc. Got married
1990 - 1998
Sold family farm and began running largest organic pig farm in Europe, manufactured and sold line dance albums on the side, bred children, had a couple of forays in Eurovison song contest, wrote songs for Simon Cowells Fanfare record label before it went bust and he signed Robson and Jerone
1999 - 2008
Took Tony Blair's advice and 'diversified in agriculture' and formed music PR company. Absolutely no knowledge but became quite successful. Worked on Eva Cassidy, Ronan Keating, Reg Cooper etc. Then formed record company / managemant from Garden shed in 2000 with ambition to turn over £1,000,000 in first year. Managed almost double that and thought it was easy. Spent next 7 years finding out how bloody hard it is.
Currently managing around 18 acts icluding Jason Donavan Sandi Thom and The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, consultant for Universal Records and Sony BMG
Nominated for Ivor Novello for songwrting on 2007
Still trying to find and break new talent, still operating from Garden shed and remembering that as mad as the record business is... it has the edge on milking cows at 4.30 in morning.
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Alan Mcblane -
Alan McBlane is the director of MCB3 MARKETING MANAGEMENT which is both a Marketing Consultancy and Artist Management company. MCB3 MARKETING has worked on a number of successful projects over the past 6 years. Notable successes in the independent sector have been with Hot Records (EVA CASSIDY – two Number 1 albums), Flying Sparks (SANDI THOM, GORDON HASKELL ), Hungry Dog Records (THEA GILMORE), Chocolate & Vanilla (SINEAD O’CONNOR), Persevere Records (THE PROCLAIMERS)and Dualtone Music (DARDEN SMITH, HAYSEED DIXIE). The current main client is SonyBMG, on behalf of whom we manage all of their Nashville repertoire and a number of other select projects. These have included releases by THE DIXIE CHICKS, THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH, ANJANI, ROGER WATERS, AMICI FOREVER, DEACON BLUE, DAVID MEAD, RODNEY CROWELL, RAUL MALO, GRAND DRIVE, WILL KIMBROUGH, JEFF FINLIN, LONESTAR, ALAN JACKSON, BRAD PAISLEY, MARTINA McBRIDE, SARA EVANS, GRETCHEN WILSON, MIRANDA LAMBERT, KENNY CHESNEY, PATTY LOVELESS, JON RANDALL, JESSI ALEXANDER and CAROLYN DAWN JOHNSON.
MCB3 MANAGEMENT currently represents LEONA DALY. They also consult for GIBSON GUITARS (Europe) and teach part time basis on the Music & Entertainment course at BUCKS NEW UNI in High Wycombe. Alan Mcblane was born and educated in Edinburgh; what started as a Summer job in a record store somehow became a career. He managed two independent stores in Edinburgh before moving into record company sales, and relocating to London where he worked successfully in senior marketing roles for POLYDOR and ISLAND Records. Following this he had a seven year period in artist management with Clive Banks Management, working with a number of internationally established artists including PAUL YOUNG, SIMPLE MINDS, BABYLON ZOO and MIKE OLDFIELD. He eventually chose to return to Label Marketing with the Ritz Music Group, and in 2001 he set up my own marketing and management consultancy, mcb3, creating and managing co-ordinated marketing solutions for a number of clients in the music industry.
Alan is married, with one daughter, one large black dog and two goldfish.
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Ben Sutcliffe took it upon himself as an independent seven-year-old to send a note to his Cello teacher to tell him he was no longer going to be coming to lessons, it was clear that his future would not see him filling arenas with his musical ability. But his family’s love of music and his two elder siblings’ influence would steer him on a path that would eventually see him filling arenas for his clients.
As his co-panellists today were managing and promoting the early Manchester music scene, Ben was coveting his James t-shirt and hiding the inlay of Happy Monday’s ‘Bummed’ from his parents (which featured a naked woman and was released when Ben was just 10).
Ben’s first job in the music industry was as an eager 16-year-old, during the hey day of mid-nineties commercial club scene and dance music. Handing out flyers for an hour at 2am outside the Swoon club night in his hometown of Stafford was a small price to pay to experience the atmosphere of a club dancing to the latest house music being played by the world’s top DJs.
Following the obligatory 3 years as a university student in Lancashire, Ben soon found himself back working in the industry as he joined a Wolverhampton-based PR agency as a Junior Account Executive and learnt his trade while mounting the thousands of press cuttings his colleagues were generating for their client base of DJ’s, record labels and club brands.
During this time Ben’s promotion to Account Executive was rapid and he soon found himself working with the national press to generate his own cuttings pile, as well as travelling the country to manage the press at launches, club nights and festivals.
In his own words, the most significant ‘pinch me’ moment was at the 2002 Gatecrasher Summer Sound System festival following a day of chasing journalists and apologising to DJs when he found himself chatting to Radio 1 DJ, Danny Rampling as they stood behind Paul Oakenfold as he played to a packed arena of 30,000 dancing fans.
But writing press releases stifled Ben’s desire to write insightful and engaging copy and he made the decision to de-camp to London and train as a journalist. During his time studying, his press connections meant he found regular freelance work writing club and music reviews for DJ Magazine and even stood in as the agony uncle on lifestyle magazine New Woman.
As the need for regular, better paid, employment became more evident Ben returned to the Midlands and took a job working as a PR & Marketing Executive for a hospitality group and set about improving the company’s brand image. His love of music came with him and within 12 months he had established a summer season of outdoor live music events, which began to attract music lovers from Birmingham and Manchester to the quiet town of Stafford.
In 2005, Ben founded Sponge Marketing Ltd with his then employer Chris Lewis to answer the demand for marketing services by the company’s suppliers and customers.
Although Sponge’s client base now consists of many corporate and hospitality-based businesses, his passion for entertainment marketing has never faltered and the season of live music events he organises and promotes are entering their 5th and largest year.
It was, therefore, with great enthusiasm that he joined the Axis team to help with the promotion and on-going development of the brand and popularity of the festival.
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Phil Jones began promoting concerts in the late 70s punk era of Manchester and established a reputation as someone who delivers.
He organised New Orders first advertised UK gig in early 1980 and has never looked back.
Learning his trade in the night clubs of Thatchers Manchester, bands such as Depeche Mode, Bauhaus and the Psychedelic Furs were all early clients.
After being passed over as deputy manager of the new superclub the Hacienda, he decamped to London where, from a tiny office in Tin Pan Alley ,as an agent he revitaliesd the live careers of American artists as diverse as Curtis Mayfireld, Dean Freidman and Gil Scott Heron.
Headhunted by The Greenwich Festival in 1984 he had a portfolio to revitalise music in South East London.Soon programming funky nights at The cutting edge Albany Empire, he found himself at the forefront of the new jazz and soul movements featuring Courtney Pine, Gilles Peterson and many other, now household, names.
He was offered the part time job as arts Festival Director back home in Manchester and simultaneously worked as director of Londons and the UKs leading promoters, JLP whose portfolio of artists included the Pogues, Chris Rea and Siousxe and The Banshees, as well as managing the Fall, John Martyn and many others. In 1989 he organised the legenderary Alexandra Palace gig for the Stone Roses and then a year later the 32,000 capacity, Spike Island gig for them, in Widnes.
His career as festival director led to a unique partnership betweeen Manchester City Council and GranadaTV, creating The Boddingtons Manchester Festival of Arts and TV , a massive annual event. Many gigs took place in this time including all the UKs leading comedians( Jack Dee, Lee Evans, Jo Brand etc etc) as well as legends such as Crosby Stills and Nash and kd Lang. In 1995 he led a consortium that founded Kiss 102 Radio in Manchester and 105 inYorkshire. He left the festival to set up Phil Jones Presents in 1997. Promotions have since been mainly USA artists such as Steve Earle, James Taylor and Crosby and Nash, although he is still the only promoter used by the Buzzcocks In Manchester.
He founded and still directs the Manchester food and drink festival in 1998, which has led to a new career as food festival organiser nationally.
He is founding director of SWAP festival for songwriters In Manchester.He still programmes non Classical music @ the Bridgewater Hall,and now promotes concerts by new artistes such as Rodrigo Y Gabriella, Bellowhead and Martha Wainwright as well as the good old names!
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Melvyn Phillips: Former buyer at T.H.E 1981 - 2008
Over 26 years spent at one of the UK’s leading distributors of music based right here in Stoke on Trent.
Early years were spent on the phone selling 7 & 12 inch singles together with LP Vinyl Chart & Catalogue albums of the day to Independent Record Dealers across the UK long before supermarkets stocked music and before the arrival of the CD.
With the mid eighties came a new format to sell music in the form of the CD and the arrival of major high street multiples and supermarkets retailing music to a wider customer base.
From this period onwards and now a buyer at T.H.E I saw at first hand how Record Companies went about promoting albums and singles by established artists as well as trying to break new talent.
My involvement would see me deal on a day to day basis with both major & indie record companies to establish what marketing and touring activity was happening with major album releases and in turn working with major high street multiples to support these albums in store.
I would also be looking at releases by both new development artists and the classic album cd reissues for the Independent market that always look to support a wider range of music.
Saturday 26 April, Forum Theatre, 4:00pm, Seminar
Tickets: free!
