Record Label Marketing ─ How Music Companies Brand and Market Artists in the Digital Era

Record Label Marketing, Third Edition is the essential resource to help you understand how recorded music is professionally marketed.

Fully updated to reflect current trends in the industry, this edition is designed to benefit marketing professionals, music business students, and independent artists alike.

As with previous editions, the third edition is accessible for readers new to marketing or to the music business. The book addresses classic marketing concepts while providing examples that are grounded in industry practice.

Armed with this book, you’ll master the jargon, concepts, and language to understand how music companies brand and market artists in the digital era.

Features new to this edition include:

• Social media strategies including step-by-step tactics used by major and independent labels are presented in a new section contributed by Ariel Hyatt, owner of CYBER PR.
  An in-depth look at SoundScan and other big data matrices used as tools by all entities in the music business.

• An exploration of the varieties of branding with particular attention paid to the impact of branding to the artist and the music business in a new chapter contributed by Tammy Donham, former Vice President of the Country Music Association.

• The robust companion website, focalpress.com/cw/macy, features weblinks, exercises, and suggestions for further reading. Instructor resources include PowerPoint lecture outlines, a test bank, and suggested lesson plans.

Amy Sue Macy, Professor in the Department of Recording Industry at Middle Tennessee State University, received both her undergraduate degree in Music Education and her Masters degree in Business Administration from Belmont University. For fifteen years, she worked for various labels including MTM, MCA, Sparrow Records, and the RCA Label Group. Amy created strategic marketing plans for launching new releases into the marketplace, working closely with artists and their managers including Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Clint Black, Alabama, and Lonestar. While maintaining a marketing focus, Amy was responsible for all sales at the national retail level with clients including Walmart, Kmart, Target, Best Buy, and Musicland, to name a few all the while communicating key marketing strategies coast to coast with RLGs national distributor Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG).

Since securing her teaching gig at MTSU, she has served as the Music Business Internship Coordinator for 8 years and has taught Marketing of Recordings, Record Retail Operations, Survey of the Recording Industry, the Lecture Series, and an Old Time String Band Music Ensemble and the student-run record label MATCH Records. She also teaches online utilizing the Desire2Learn Online System integrating web conferencing software, collaborative study through wikis, virtual tests, and links to various websites and live "spreadsheet" activities. She has been the recipient of various teaching awards including the 2009 Distinguished Educator in Distance Learning and the 2009-2010 Outstanding Achievement in Instructional Technology.

Amy's love of music extends beyond the business world. She initially moved to Nashville to be a musician and has toured professionally with several artists internationally. She is a vocalist and is accomplished on guitar, fiddle, and banjo. Amy has performed in musicals at Nashville’s famous Ryman Auditorium as well as the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, has been an artist in residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame and has recently created a concert series focusing on the "story behind the song" which highlights Civil War and Irish music that has migrated to America.

Clyde Philip Rolston is Professor of Music Business in the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business at Belmont University. Prior to joining the faculty at Belmont University he was a Vice President of Marketing at Centaur Records, Inc. While with Centaur Records, Dr. Rolston engineered and produced many projects, including recordings by the Philadelphia Trio and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is an active member of the Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association. Dr. Rolston received a Ph.D. in Marketing from Temple University and has taught marketing to music business students for twenty years.

Paul Allen is Associate Professor in the Department of Recording Industry at Middle Tennessee State University and co-author of Record Label Marketing, also published by Focal Press. He is also a frequent lecturer at other universities on artist management and other music business subjects. His career work has included radio, TV, political management, and the music business.

The late Tom Hutchison was a professor of marketing in the Department of Recording Industry at MTSU, but was on leave to serve as the director of the School of Business and Management at Husson University. He worked with a wide range of popular artists including Faith Hill, The Dixie Chicks, The Roots, and Beck. Tom also conducted market research projects for Sony, MCA/Universal, DreamWorks, and Warner Music Group.