Welcome to The Manager’s Playbook, my personal newsletter where I share weekly insights for aspiring artists, emerging music managers and executives on how to navigate the music industry, by Ruiz.

Note: For any links that are behind a paywall, copy the URL and paste it into this paywall ladder to read the article without any issues.

Ruiz Note:

“If Beyonce… Wants to Make A Country Record…That’s A Testament To The Genre. That’s Amazing!”

Simon Tikhman of The Core Entertainment is more than ok with Pop Star acts jumping into the Country Genre.

It’s not that Simon is an authority or gatekeeper to the Country music genre. It was simply an answer from one of the most sought-after managers in the genre to a question I asked on the latest edition of 'The Manager’s Playbook' podcast.

For edition 007 of the› TMP Pod, I had the opportunity to sit down Chief Zaruk and Simon Tikhman, two artist managers that have had great success in the world of Country music.

We not only talk the upward pop momentum/trajectory in the Country space, but we also deep dive into their backgrounds, the importance of Artist Development and their approach to a specific legacy act that has had an insane resurgence.

Here’s the beauty of this convo with the guys. To me, it’s clear as day no matter what genre you operate in, the fundamentals still apply! A lot can be learned from these two and how they use today’s tools to operate one of the biggest management companies. It’s transferable to ANY genre of music you or your artist operate in.

Enjoy The Pod.

On a personal note, I can’t believe we’re on episode 7.

I dunno how many more of these I’m going to be shooting (it’s all out of pocket and the bills are adding up), but I enjoy it. It’s been a real labour of love thus far. So long as their’s an audience interested, I’ll keep trying to bring you the best value in these conversations with my peers in this space.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. I’m not always going to get it right. This journey is a process, a long one at that, but I’m sure as hell going to give it my best to bring you something that is entertaining, factual and educational.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel HERE

You can also listen to ‘The Manager’s Playbook’ Podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon and several other platforms HERE

-Ruiz

STRATEGY

The Science of the Hook: How Brands Can Cultivate Curiosity on TikTok

Make no mistake. The artist is a BRAND. Like it or not, it’s a reality most need to come to terms with. The sooner the better.

Now, this doesn’t mean the brand component is everything. You still need put in the work into your craft!

On that note, a lot can be learned from how a brand can be integrated from this vidmob link/PDF I found online. Have a look. See what is applicable to the strategy of your artist.

A link to the PDF HERE

A couple of main takeaways:

-Ditch the celebrity talent and go for everyday people, as they’re 1.7x more likely to hook a user, whereas ads with celebrity talent (identified through IMDB) have a 13% decrease in 6s view through rate. Using real people goes way beyond just keeping eyeballs on an ad. It impacts a users intent to purchase and feeling of connection with the overall brand too. When the opening seconds of an ad features an everyday person or a relatable creator, the brand is 20% more likely to be seen as meeting the users’ needs.

-When utilizing talent, direct to camera, talking head style footage works best, having a 14% lift in 2sVTR, as it feels like a casual conversation between friends.

PAY ATTENTION

WMG Overhaul Complete

I don’t even know where to start.

Elliot Grainge, the son of Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group (one of the Big 3 major record labels), has now taken on the role of CEO at Warner Music Group’s Atlantic Music Group."

That’s a lot of Groups.

With that being said, Max Lousada who used to head Warner Records will no longer be with the company come September. Julie Greenwald announced she will exit the company at the end of the calendar year and then retire.

A few notes, because I’ve seen a bunch of shit out there about this.

-No, Elliot Grainge is not running one of the 3 majors. That title still belongs to Robert Kyncl. If you been paying attention, Robert, who comes from the tech world (more on this in a sec), has been restructuring WMG non-stop since he got there eighteen months ago. You can read some more about his approach here, where he is now taking a “flattening” organizational structure.

-A few have cried foul on Elliot Grainge, as far as calling the move flat out Nepotism. Is there truth to this? In definition, yes when it comes to his tenure at UMG. As far as WMG, there is no actual proof. He doesn’t have a relative working at that organization.

-In terms of this move being unwise? Time will tell. Here is what we do know though. Elliot Grainge broke three artist with his label 10k in the last eight years. You might read that and think three is nothing. In this day and age it’s incredibly difficult to do. Two of those artists that broke are/were arguably the biggest pop acts in the world in Ice Spice and 6ix9ine (the other being Trippie Redd).

My take is this.

Robert Kyncl has had a different approach for the music business since he got to WMG. He’s not your average Record man of the past. Again, he comes from the tech world. More specifically, the content world as his prior employers were YouTube, Netflix & HBO. In Robert’s 3 points that he made regarding WMG’s “The Year of The next 10” he made 2 & 3 about marketing:

B. Strengthen MARKETING of artists, songs, and albums into a sustained competitive advantage: This is a deep partnership between A&R, Marketing, Technology, and Business Intelligence to develop best-in-class solutions.

C. Holistic deep and shallow CATALOG management. In order to create the most value, we must: Selectively lean into the marketing of our catalog in the ways we do with frontline; and increase focus on optimizing every title on DSPs, as that is where the majority of catalog consumption and revenue is.

So if you follow the bread crumbs, instead of finding a reason to get angry or annoyed at the recent moves, it’s no surprise he would put in charge Elliot Grainge. Elliot is the one CEO at the majors who has put a TREMENDOUS amount of emphasis on content marketing with his prior record label, 10k Projects.

When you start to look at it from this lens, in my opinion the choice is obvious!

Plain and simple, we are no longer just in the music business. We are now fully in the media business.

Anyways, if you want to read more on this click HERE & HERE.

Chappell Roan’s Rise

Chappell Roan came out of nowhere…Or Did she?

NY Times covers her story. Washington Post also has a good piece on her glow up.

Heads up, both articles behind a paywall. To get passed it, scroll up to the top of the newsletter, click “paywall” ladder, and climb away.

Today’s Hit’s Are Born, Not Made

Top 10 hits used to build over months after they were released. Now most big singles debut in the top 10, and pre-release marketing is crucial. Read via Billboard.

INDUSTRY NEWS

SUSAN WOJCICKI, FORMER YOUTUBE CEO, DIES AGED 56

Susan was a trailblazer in the content space. A champion of creators and artists. She was a true visionary who took over as YouTube CEO in 2014 where the company saw rapid scale in growth.

As per MBW:

Wojcicki’s death after two years of living with cancer was confirmed by her husband, Dennis Troper, in a social media post.

“It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing. My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non-small cell lung cancer,” Troper wrote.

100GigsForYourHeadTop

The GOAT put out a whole hard drive of content of his career over the last 16 years.

Drake/OVO also officially dropped three songs, “It’s Up”, “Blue Green Red”, & “Housekeeping Knows” from the Hard Drive on DSPs last Friday.

CHECK THIS OUT..

Music Industry Job Openings

Have a look at ROSTR’s job board for paid work in the industry.

Stay hungry. Stay open.

Bio

I’m Mauricio Ruiz, the Founder/CEO of 8 Til Faint, an Artist Management company with over 5 billion audio streams worldwide. Our past and current clients include Grammy nominated, Juno Award winning and nominated singer/songwriter Jessie Reyez, Skratch Bastid and more. I am also the Co-Founder of Mad Ruk Entertainment, a content agency with over 3 billion long form video streams worldwide. Our client list includes The Weeknd, Eminem, and Celine Dion, along with renowned brands like Nike, Pernod Ricard, Canon, and the NBA. Most recently I am the Founder of ‘The Manager’s Playbook’

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