The Music Gardener - Artist Manager, Music Marketer

This weekend was a special occasion for me as I attended my first Dave Matthews Band concert ever. I have been a huge fan for many years buying every cd and dvd the guys release. For one reason or another, I just never had the opportunity to attend a show. First of all, the show was an incredible experience as they played Vanderbilt Stadium on a weather perfect evening in Nashville. Dave worked it like it was going to be his last show ever. What an incredible showman! There was one thing that puzzled me though and that was the addition of Tim Reynolds. I love the acoustic stuff Tim has done with Dave in the past but this rock guitar thing just felt out of place. Tim also looked out of place among the rest of the band. Never thought I would see a Flying V guitar on stage with Dave Matthews. They also featured him way too much. I would rather hear Boyd Tinsley go off on the violin or Dave throw down some acoustic lead than hear Tim Reynolds play out of place sounding rock guitar. I guess there has to be some reason they have added this awkward element to the show? Anyway, glad for the experience and looking forward to the new record!

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Artist Garden Entertainment attended the artist managers track of GMA Week this week and we were pleasantly surprised! Coming from a record label perspective in previous years, I really didn’t know what to expect. For GMA Week, someone would hand me a badge, a schedule and point me in the direction of where I needed to be for specific meetings and showcases. I have taken in a few seminars in the music professional track in the past only to be disappointed by the attendance. I kind of expected the same this year, however, I was really impressed. This year, I participated in the MAPs track which is designed for managers, agents and promoters. One of my favorite seminars was “Deal or No Deal” with Roy Morgan, founder of  Premier Productions.  I walked away from that seminar with a ton of new knowledge about live concerts. There were other great panels including the artist symposium with Amy Grant, Marty Roe of Diamond Rio, Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay, Stephen Petree of Shiny Toy Guns, Brad Arnold of Three Doors Down, Cedric Dent of Take Six, Brian Littrel of Backstreet Boys, and Michael Sweet of Stryper (and now lead singer for Boston). Probably the highlight of my week was seeing Jars of Clay perform an acoustic set at 3rd & Lindsley.

One thing that I continually heard all week was that this was the last year for GMA Week. Not sure where that rumor started but it spread fast. It strikes me as a little odd that people in the Christian music industry would want to speak that into being. Yes, the industry is changing and GMA week should evolve to reflect the change but I would hate to see GMA Week disappear. Apparently many of the Christian radio stations chose not to attend this year for political reasons and are planning their own separate convention in Florida? If that is true, it is extremely disappointing. Of all industries, the Christian music industry should be a team and work together to build the presence of Christian music in the world.  Anyone who chose not attend this year really missed one of the best GMA Weeks I have attended in the last twelve years!

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Great Benefit concert this weekend at MTSU!

As Artist Managers, there is nothing more exciting for us at Artist Garden Entertainment than hearing newly recorded music from one of the bands we manage. This week we were overwhelmed with excitement as we listened to three new songs from Circleslide. Wow! The growth in Circleslide’s music is refreshing. Front man, Gabe Martinez, has been writing with some great Nashville writers over the last few months  which is really paying off for the band. There are also some new members in the band which contribute to the new fresh sound. Producer Chris Bevins (Salvador, Jaci Velasquez, Saturn Project), brought a new production approach to Circleslide’s music giving it a bit more commercial flavor. Circleslide still rocks but I think they may have some music that radio will love with their next release. We will be sharing some of Circleslide’s great new music soon so stay tuned.

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At Artist Garden Entertainment, we meet with artists looking for artist managers on a fairly regular basis. We have noticed a common thread among artists who have previously had management. They are very gun shy about paying someone to represent them due to some bad experience they had with past management or the artist is too focused on saving money. First of all, let’s clear the air. All managers are not lame. If you do want to grow your career, then you absolutely need a manger. There are good managers available, you just need to do your homework to find them. Talk to other artist they manage, booking agents they have worked with or record companies they have worked with in the past. A Google search should reveal people they have worked with. Contact those people for references just like any other business hiring an employee would do. If you hear about more than one negative experience, then you should proceed with caution.  A good manager should be paid from the beginning of the relationship if money is being generated. Your manager is working all aspects of your career, not just things surrounding live dates. Personally, I wouldn’t want someone working for me that I was unwilling to pay. How hard do you think they will work for you knowing they aren’t being compensated? Let me ask the question “would you take a job under the premise that you will not get paid for your first few months of work?”  We know it is a tough decision finding management but once you find them don’t ne afraid to pay them!  http://www.artistgardenentertainment.com

This week has been interesting around Artist Garden Entertainment. We got an e-mail at the beginning of the week from one of the members of Manic Bloom, a band we manage. Apparently some college guys at Texas A&M put together a video showing amazing backyard basketball shots and posted it on YouTube. They call the video Dude Perfect. The guys chose a Manic Bloom song “Running From The Scene” for the soundtrack to the video and they were kind enough to add a link to the Manic Bloom website. By Thursday evening, the Dude Perfect video was blowing up! The video went from 40k views to 100k views by Friday morning. As I was checking voice mail Friday morning, there was an urgent message from Good Morning America. I also had an urgent e-mail from Good Morning America. Thinking it was a prank, I called the number on the voice mail. It was indeed Good Morning America. They were looking to get in touch with the guys in the video. We scrambled around on our end trying to find a phone number as all we had was an e-mail address. Good Morning America aired a clip from the video Friday morning and plan on airing again this week with an interview with the Dude Perfect guys. All I can say for Manic Bloom is Dude Perfect!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD6eQY7yCfw]

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Can I just say that Apple amazes me daily! I have taken a few of their free workshops over the last couple of weeks and I am happier than ever that I bought Macbook a few months back. The iLife software which comes loaded on your Mac is absolutely incredible. One of the workshops I recently attended, was for iMovie which is part of the iLife suite. I have played around with iMovie making home movies but iLife 09 has some great new added features. I think the time has arrived that I will attempt to put together my own EPKs. I do apologize to any readers whose business model is built around producing EPKs but I think your plan may be in trouble? Much like iTunes changed the way music is sold and Garage Band and Pro Tools changed the way music is recorded, I expect iMovie will have a huge impact on the EPK business. Especially with the shrinking marketing budgets in the music industry. I’m not saying that companies that focus on EPKs need to throw in the towel just yet but their business model will probably be forced to change as businesses discover what they can do on their own and how easy it is. For the price of a Mac, which they start around $1,000, you can produce an unlimited number of EPKs. The last time I checked it was hard to find anyone to do even a simple EPK for less than $1,500 and they are normally going to cost in the 3k-5k range. The one major missing element that I see is the fact that you still need to be creative and know how to write and produce a great EPK. I also realize that the lighting and video quality won’t look as nice as hiring a professional company, but honestly, EPK’s don’t need to look like a $10,000 video these days. Here is a link to a resource for filming and lighting techniques that may help you http://lightsandcameras.com This “how to”video series was developed by NightGlass Media Group. I should probably be clear on the fact that I haven’t actually made an EPK using the iMovie software, however, I plan to attempt making one soon. Once we have the results, I will post a link and let you be the judge. Artist Garden Entertainment

Artist Garden Entertainment is proud to announce that Manic Bloom a band we recently signed to a management deal, was just awarded “Best New Artist” of the year by Nashville’s rock station 102.9 The Local Buzz! Their song “What Scares You Most” became a regular rotation favorite for The Local Buzz show this past year. This band is definitely on their way to great things!

We sure had a fun this past week working with some amazing folks to help launch a new makeup artist and imagery company Visage Bella http://visagebella.com . First of all, Orta Universal http://ortauniversal.com did an incredible job designing and building the amazing website! I have never worked with such a fast and incredibly creative person as what we experienced with Pete Orta at Orta Universal. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND ORTA UNIVERSAL FOR YOUR BRANDING NEEDS! Pete’s design work made building the blogsite http://visagebella.wordpress.com a piece of cake. Visage Bella is the company launched by make-up artist, Kathryn Kimble. Kathryn has worked with Taylor Swift, Lorrie Morgan and Jaci Velasquez in the past and her work has been featured in Mademoiselle Magazine. She is the official makeup artist for the Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders for 2009.  Looking forward to seeing the impact Visage Bella has in the fashion and entertanment world! www.artistgardenenterainment.com