One date, forty jobs
A release date looks like a single event. Behind it is a long list. The masters and the artwork have to be delivered on time. The credits have to be right. The biography needs updating. The press photographs need choosing. The pitch to playlist editors has a window. The video, the pre-save, the email to fans, the posts, the interviews and the show announcement all hang off the same day.
A label has a department for this. An independent artist has a manager with a phone. The manager is also booking shows, chasing invoices and keeping the artist steady. Something on the list always slips. Usually it is the part nobody will notice until it is too late, like a credit that is wrong on every platform or a pitch that missed its window by two days.
The music was ready. The business around it was not.
A label has a department for this. An independent artist has a manager with a phone.
A word about the title
In music, “business manager” often means the person who looks after an artist’s money: accounts, taxes and royalty statements. That is not what we do. We are not accountants, and we do not hold or direct anyone’s funds.
We use the words the way a small company would. We manage the business tasks around the work: the calendar, the materials, the follow-up, the marketing, the PR and the social media. We work alongside the artist’s manager, accountant and attorney. DecodedMusic is where our music work lives.
What we take off the manager’s desk
The list is agreed in writing before we begin. Around a release it can include:
- A weekly conversation with the manager, or with the artist if they manage themselves, written up so decisions hold.
- A release calendar that works backward from the date, with every delivery, pitch window and announcement on it and a name beside each.
- A materials folder kept current: biography at three lengths, press photographs with credits, artwork, lyrics, credits and links. One folder, one link.
- A credits and details check before delivery, so names, roles and titles are entered the same way everywhere.
- Follow-up with press, playlist contacts, venues and collaborators.
- Coordination with the designer, the photographer, the video director and the distributor’s support desk.
- A monthly report in plain words.
Registrations, splits and royalty collection are decisions for the artist, the manager and their advisers. We can keep the checklist and chase the paperwork. We do not make the decisions.
Marketing: the artist’s three answers
Listeners, editors and promoters all ask the same things in their own way. Who is this? What are they about? Why should I care now? An artist who can answer in a few plain sentences is easier to write about, easier to book and easier to recommend.
We work through those three questions with the artist and the manager until the answers fit on one page. Then we build from it:
- The biography. A short version for platforms, a medium one for press and a longer one for the website. All true, all current, none written in the language of a press release from another decade.
- The release story. One paragraph on what this record is and why it exists. It gives a writer an angle and gives the artist something to say in interviews.
- The website. Music first. Then dates, a mailing list sign-up and one way to reach the team.
- The email list. The audience the artist owns. We set a simple schedule: a note before release, one on the day and one after, plus tour dates.
- The one-page summary. For promoters, supervisors and partners. Who the artist is, key links and how to get in touch.
PR: fewer pitches, better aimed
Music writers and playlist editors are sent more than they can hear. A short, well-aimed pitch to twenty people who cover this kind of music does more than a blast to two thousand.
We build that list by reading and listening. We write each pitch for the person receiving it, with the story, the link and the date in the first lines. We send it early enough to be useful, and we follow up once, politely.
We prepare the artist for interviews: the three things they want every piece to say, and how to answer the question they would rather not get.
Coverage and playlist placement are never ours to promise, and we do not buy either. Anyone selling guaranteed streams is selling a problem. We promise the pitch will be honest, well made and on time.
Social media: the artist’s voice, on a schedule
Artists are told to post constantly. Most find it draining, and it shows. A steadier approach works better and costs less of the artist’s energy:
- A monthly calendar approved in one sitting, built around the release dates.
- A bank of material captured in batches: studio clips, rehearsal, artwork in progress, short pieces to camera.
- Captions in the artist’s own voice. We draft and they adjust.
- Replies and messages watched, with anything that needs the artist flagged to them.
The aim is for a fan who checks in at any point to find the artist present and the next date clear.
Rights, credits and honest numbers
Music marketing touches other people’s work. A clip uses a co-writer’s song. A photograph belongs to a photographer. A feature has to be announced with the other artist’s say. We keep a record of what may be used and we ask first.
We state credits as agreed. We do not announce signings, collaborations or dates before the people who control that news have confirmed it. We do not inflate numbers, and we report streams, sales and followers as they are.
Contract and rights questions go to the artist’s attorney.
How we work inside the team
One person approves what goes out. That is usually the manager, or the artist if they manage themselves. We ask for about an hour a week and more in the fortnight before a release. The website, the accounts, the masters, the mailing list and every login stay with the artist.
Where to start
The 90-Day Plan fits the run-up to a release well: a review of the website and social accounts, the three answers, five rewritten pages, twelve pieces of content and a monthly discussion with the team, for one fixed fee.
If a date is already set, tell us the date and what exists so far. We will start with what that date needs.