Symphonic Is Distribution (Re) Defined.
We’ve been hard at work this year with new hires, solutions, and much more to continue to take the company to the next level. This is a recent article I wrote, with the assistance of my colleagues and executive team and thought it would be great to share with you all through this medium as well. Enjoy!
When people ask me what makes Symphonic different from other distributors, here’s what I believe and what I say:
First, we’re truly independent. We’re not owned by a major record label. We’re not the so-called “independent” arm of a huge corporation. That means we have the flexibility to work with who we want to. It also means we can challenge the status quo.
Second, we’ll give it to you straight. It’s hard to “make it” in music. I know, because I started Symphonic back in 2006 to distribute my own releases. Now, we’ve helped a lot of clients gain traction, break through, and even become superstars … but we’re not going to tell you it’s easy. It turns out, money is not the answer to every challenge in music. If there’s something you should be doing differently, or something you should consider, we’re going to tell you, and we’re going to help you get better results with our resources, our team, our network, and our experience. But we’re not going to give you false hope or BS.
Third, we have a personal touch. We are focused on our clients’ careers and their content. At Symphonic, you will talk to a Symphonic employee, not a “bot” or an overseas contractor. Everyone who has been in the industry awhile knows an artist who got a big sales pitch from a major label, signed on the dotted line, and now they can’t get their emails and calls returned. If your application is accepted, you’ll have personal relationships with the Symphonic team. We’re not going to go “ghost” on you!
Symphonic Is Growing
As a part of our mission for 2018, I am proud and excited to announce some amazing hires. This talent will help maximize the value of our clients’ hard work, create incredibly compelling pitches to playlist curators and industry influencers, and blow you away with cross-platform digital marketing campaigns.
But It Wasn’t Easy
Now that we are an established player in the industry, I’ll admit that building Symphonic up from scratch was tough as hell. You see, we’re artists and record labels just like you. We know how hard it is to get a business and a brand off the ground and we’ve done a lot of great things but, as a company, we’ve made mistakes too. When you’re going all in, sometimes you try or test things that don’t work out. I know that every musician, manager, record label, and artist can identify with that. It truly takes time, hard work, blood, sweat, tears, you name it! All of that to become something and to make an impact.
Music Keeps Evolving
We’ve seen the industry go from physical to downloads and now, downloads to streaming. It has been a truly remarkable experience for me to have seen this and serve many clients that have been with us since day one and that continue to be.
With the evolution of our industry over the past 15 years, it is amazing to see that the music industry today is growing for the first time in many years. All of that growth should really be attributed to artists and in my view, independent artists for helping to democratize and create a new industry.
Distribution Is Easy, But It’s Only Step One
As the industry has grown, it has attracted more distributors, given the relatively low barriers to entry around creating a basic distribution platform. Many of these new companies have taken the “volume discount” approach, offering distribution, but not much else, for a ridiculously low price. That’s a good way to attract tens of thousands of users to your website, but I am left wondering how any small company can provide a high level of service to so many “clients.”
We actually think cheap distribution is super expensive. Ask yourself, what’s the true cost of not having a trusted and highly competent team pitching your music to playlist curators at Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, TIDAL, Beatport, and others? What’s the true cost of not being able to get ahold of a trusted advisor to your career when you need an important question answered?
Distribution is easy. Getting 10 million+ streams requires a team.
So the question becomes, who is the right team for your record label? For your career? For your artists?
It Takes A Team
Everyone that is independent, whether artist or label, needs a solid team to maximize their brand, sound, social media strategy, video strategy, and more in today’s crowded music industry.
Since day one, our plan has been to build a strong team, enhance our technology, and ensure that record labels and artists have the personal touch and customer service that it takes to build great relationships. Today, I am happy to report that our team is growing and that we’ve re-launched our public identity to highlight what’s important to us as the industry evolves.
Symphonic will:
- Be selective. We want to ensure that we can work with artists, labels, and managers that we feel we can truly help, that are talented, and that are dedicated to doing what it takes to be successful in this industry.
- Seek to distribute and promote the best Latino, Hip-Hop/R&B, Electronic, and more.
- Continue to invest in creating incredible technology to give you as much transparency, ease of use, and personal touch as possible.
- Hire the best music industry executives and managers to ensure that you are supported by a truly incredible team.
We are the team that you can work with consistently, get feedback and advice from, and not have to pay any per-release, monthly, and/or annual fees. Distribution isn’t going to get you anywhere without a great team to help you grow, market, pitch and promote.
Thank You!
Thank you for being a friend, fan, client, and partner. The team is building and we will continue to bring forth a unique, boutique, and powerful solution for our clients. Stay tuned!