The future of the music industry is hard. No one does it for you. No limos, no fancy dinners, and (almost) no million dollar marketing budgets after a bidding war over your 3-song demo tape. So what next? Will Topspin ride into LA, London, Nashville, and New York to save this industry? No – we won’t, but some of you will. Topspin’s direct-to-fan marketing, management, and distribution technology just sits there until someone uses it. For the last year or so, the Topspin Artist Service team have been the expert pilots. As of Wednesday, June 3rd 2009, that begins to change after our first class of Topspin Certified marketers and web designers left the building after an intense residency with expert Topspin trainer Adam Bates (Thanks, Adam!).
So yes – the future is hard – but fortunately we are lucky enough to have some amazing (and hearty) managers, marketers, and web designers helping us all grind our way forward. Our goal is to find and train as many of you as we can both via our residency programs and through the Berklee.com certification course “Marketing your Music with Topspin” starting 9/28/2009. As the first crew of Topspin certified users trained last week will tell you, 75% of our training had nothing to do with using the app. It’s marketing in this new world that is hard. Topspin’s app simply makes executing easy and efficient. So many thanks to all of you early believers. We will keep writing code, testing new ways to create demand for your music, and educating in every way we can. You need to do the rest or, if you need help with marketing or web development, hire one of the Topspin’s certified marketers and developers.
The Topspin Class of June 2009 is
(Top Row Left to Right)
Justin Travis, Topspin Intern from Berklee College of Music, Marketer
Patrick Woodward, Topspin Intern from Pepperdine MBA Program, Marketer
Bob Cahill, Partner, Bigger Picture Group Nashville, Management
Parker Todd Brooks, Principal, We Are Everywhere LA, Web Developer
Jay Coyle, Principal, Music Geek Management Nashville, Marketer
Kami Knake, Topspin Artist Relations Nashville, Marketer
“La Professora” Adam Bates phD2F, Director, Topspin Artist Services NY
(Bottom Row Left to Right)
James Lamberti, Vice President, Topspin Artist Services San Francisco
Nicole Fields,Topspin Artist Relations Boston/NYC, Marketer
Jason Feinberg, President, On Target Media Group LA, Marketer
Mike Nelson, Two Minutes for Music Toronto, Management
How do I join the next class?
I see you Kami! Congrats!
This is great – I’ve been following you (via the site) for quite a while, and I wondered how you’d go about training and education. I’m definitely interested in this for new projects I’m starting, and I’m going to look into it further. I feel like you’re headed in the right direction when it comes to the future of the music business, and I really want to be involved with an organization (or even just an idea) that thinks about things in such a similar way to my own organization.
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