We’re Rachel Hurley and Frank Keith IV, co-owners of the music publicity firm Sweetheart Pub. We’re industry veterans with over 30 years of combined experience in the music business, having worked in licensing, talent buying/booking, label management, tour management, and more. Once a week, we’ll publish a new edition of this newsletter, where we’ll share actionable advice on all facets of the music industry.
So…this year’s been crazy, huh?
Our initial plan was to re-launch the newsletter at the top of the year after making some adjustments to our branding and content.
Our relaunch date was January 6th. LOL.
It didn’t feel right to be pushing an indie-music-focused newsletter in the middle of all the socio-political uncertainty, so we decided to wait a little longer. Thankfully, January 20th came and went without a hitch, and we’re excited to get back to a (somewhat) normal routine in our little corner of the industry.
We started this newsletter/podcast last summer as a litmus test — trying things out, seeing what worked and what didn’t. We kept the podcast private until we were happy with the format and didn’t embarrass ourselves (we only did that a few times).
One big discovery we made...people don’t listen to podcasts on Soundcloud! We had such an amazing stable of guests — real movers and shakers — but all of their advice and insider knowledge did not reach the audience we had hoped for. We decided that the best course of action was to make the podcast public in order to reach as many of our intended listeners as possible.
We also realized that the branding of the newsletter and podcast — “My Manager” — made us sound like a couple of suits and not the Dive Bar Stars™ that we strive to be / actually are IRL.
We reworked the content, came up with a new name, rebuilt our website, and sharpened our goals. “Fail Fast” is a standard piece of advice in any start-up. It’s a philosophy that values cutting your losses when testing reveals that something isn't working. When all else fails, pivot.
We wanted to share all of this with you so you can feel confident in launching your own ideas, and not be afraid to make mistakes. We certainly did!
The podcast has been rebranded to “Music Rookie: A Beginner’s Guide to the Music Industry” and is now free and available on all streaming platforms (we’ll link a few below). The first official episode will be released on February 3rd. For now, you can listen to our trailer and subscribe so that you won’t miss an episode.
As for the newsletter...things will stay mostly the same in concept and content, but we plan to make it more personal. Think Lefsetz Letter but shorter and to the point. Ain’t nobody got time to read ten paragraphs of nonsense just to get to one piece of useful information.
Thanks for joining us on this journey. We’re excited to continue sharing our knowledge with you in 2021 and beyond, and we’re optimistic that we can grow together.
Onward & upward!
Rachel & Frank
News You Can Use
247 Management on Tiktok and viral apps affecting the music industry
NIVA, AEG, Live Nation, More Offer Venues and Staff to Help Covid-19 Vaccination Efforts
Will Apple's Rumored Podcast Subscription Service Derail Spotify?
S*** You Can Do Today
Have you claimed your artist profile on all DSPs (Digital Service Providers // streaming platforms)?
Spotify and Apple may seem obvious, but don’t forget to cross your t’s and dot your i’s with the other players in this space…
There are of course many other streaming platforms out there, but they don’t offer the same level of direct-to-artist access to analytics or profile control. Consult your digital distributor for more information.
...and don’t snub AllMusic’s submission process for any of your releases, which is outlined here.
TikTok of the Week
Nickelback did a sea shanty version of their song “Rockstar” and it’s much better than the original. We almost followed them.
Just for Fun
Forget The Timer; There’s A Spotify Playlist For That
Thanks for sticking around! If you dig what we are doing, here are some easy ways to support us:
Forward this to a musician or industry professional
Subscribe to the $5 / month paid version
Follow us: Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // TikTok // Spotify