Q&A WITH MARC ALLAN

posted in: Music News

Knowing that a manager handles the day-to-day business of a band while working towards the big picture, acquiring management is the one goal most emerging artists work towards. Nevertheless, many musicians never find the opportunity to get face time with a real life manager. Meet Marc Allan. Allan runs MOVE Management, a boutique music management agency representing the stylistically-varied talents of Steel Train, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Apollo Sunshine, Tom Biller (co-producer of the Where The Wild Things Are soundtrack and member of the LA indie rock band Afternoon) as well as Benevento Russo Duo. OurStage’s Editor-at-Large, Jay Sweet caught up with Allan and asked him to give some advice to the newbies trying to chart the industry waters without a manager as their beacon.

JS: As a manager of a newbie band, would you urge them to sign a record deal?

MA: As the manager, one of my roles is to weigh the options available to the band then counsel them with regard to my opinion of what the best option is to reach the band’s desired goals. Everything really depends on the goals of the act/team. Personally, I don’t like shutting off any option available to a band/artist that increases the act’s ability to reach their desired goals. And while many are ready to write off the entire major label system, there is still value there.

If you are a pop act (thinking more of Lady Gaga type act) or a hip hop artist with commercial aspirations, you need to seriously consider your label options. The labels are still probably going to be the best way to reach your goals because regardless of the way many of us feel, commercial radio is still a force in breaking an act (I mean selling hundreds of thousands to millions of records/tracks/albums, etc.) and the majors are still the gatekeepers of that universe. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that they have any interest in you, which is another bag altogether.

If you are a rock and roll band (pick your sub-genre at your own risk), you must determine how self-sufficient your organization can be. You need to see what kind of response you are receiving locally/regionally (and if you have developed enough, nationally) when you are playing live. There are many more alternatives available to you as an artist, and it is in your best interest to delve into all possibilities before jumping into the label world. It doesn’t do you much good to role independently if you can’t figure out how to plug into the utilities available to artists today. It also doesn’t do you much good if you have a vast knowledge of the social networking field, but can’t write a good song. So before we get too far, let’s remember that it starts and ends with the song.

The catch-22 is that, in many situations, by the time labels become interested in you, you may no longer need them to reach your goals. Isn’t this fun?

JS: Any tricks of the trade to spur good word of mouth about a band when they are trying to break into a new territory?

MA: I wish ;)… Not to beat it to the ground, but if you have good songs and are going into a new market, that is your best weapon. Hopefully you have done the legwork before booking shows in markets/territories that you otherwise have no business being in. If supporting, hopefully you have worked with the talent buyer (or your agent has) to put you on a bill with a complementary artist with a stronger local draw. No shame in winning over a crowd and always better if they are willing to be won over. I don’t think of complementary as somebody that sounds like you, so all parties can still be creative when developing a bill when you are just entering a market.

Trading shows with strong bands from the territory is another method that has been used by plenty of bands when they are just getting out of their home markets. I know that plenty of the HORDE bands used this [method] along with their extremely dedicated fanbases to launch them into new territories back in the early 90s. Now, a method like this can be combined with effective use of social media to create the early makings of a groundswell.

I’ve noticed, over the past 3-4 years in particular, a significant increase in the amount of bands trying to pull off cross-country tours with a limited national footprint when they can’t really do the business yet. Obviously, you’ve got to get out there and get into new territories at some point, but now every band from (name any state) with 15 friends in Topeka (and half of them are bots) on MySpace/Twitter/Facebook thinks they can do strong business across the entirety of the midwest. It seems to have simmered a bit this year, possibly due to the general economic situation across the country.

Moral to the story? Know where your sound lies within the industry, find your audience and grow it. Bots don’t buy tickets to your shows. Make sure you are realistic about your draw!