122 Music Management works with a handful of amazing independent acts: Sky Diving Penguins, Broken Bear, and George David. The company is fairly new, but its founders have many years in the music industry between them. The team includes Mark, who led the Indie Music Collective to the Independent Label Market, Pete and Adam, who have over twenty years experience each in the music industry, and Mike, “statistician extraordinaire.” Recently, they’ve launched a blog called Fresh on the Camp, which features newly released albums by indie artists. To find out more about the blog – and the company in general – I dropped them a line…

Your slogan is “Letting Artists Be Artists.” What does that mean to you, and why is it some important? Also, how does it distinguish your management team from other players in the music industry?

First off, thanks for inviting us to do this interview. 

Sure thing!

For us, the idea of “letting artists be artists” is to alleviate the outside noise of what being an artist is now. So, for those we look after, the social media, we can take away some of the social media aspects e.g. the promo side. We can deal with chasing radio and podcast plays, rather than the artist. This allows the artist to focus on what they do; create music.

As for how it distinguishes us from other management teams, I’m not entirely sure. I (Mark) can’t say that I have an in-depth knowledge of what other management teams do. What does matter, is that I regularly see artists lament the fact that they have to put as much energy into self-promotion as they do their music. We want to help out. 

Mark led the Indie Music Collective to the Independent Label Market. What are those two organizations, and how did Mark lead one to the other? What was the result?

The Indie Music Collective (IMC) was a group of 14 multi-genre independent acts that were formed to sell their physical products (e.g. vinyl) to the public. The Independent Label Market (ILM) is a marketplace where independent record labels sell their artists’ music and merchandise. 

As many independent artists struggle to place their music in stores, I (Mark) identified the ILM as being an ideal place to sell Sky Diving Penguins’ music. It made sense then to bring together a bunch of artists to act as a quasi-label so that we could all take our music to the wider public. As such, it was a means for us to raise public awareness of who we all are and to extend our reach.

Result? That depends on how you measure it. Financially, it wasn’t as successful as it could have been, but we did all right; at one point we were selling as much as our more illustrious neighbours. On top of that, Broken Bear were asked to play on the same bill as Kristin Hersh, and when she was unable to play, another of our collective, Vernons Future played in her place. 

Also, I think that we altered people’s perceptions a little that day; our next door neighbours were PIAS, and one of their merchandise team bought a Slundarq cassette. I also know of customers who picked up our promotional booklet, and then purchased bands’ albums in the following days.

Overall, we (the IMC) felt positive about the day that we had had.

Can you talk a little bit about what Pete and Adam have done in the music industry?

I’m going to pass this to Pete and Adam.

Pete: I worked at PRS for over two decades specialising in live performance royalties for major live music tours. I’m currently working as a contractor for Universal Music as a Catalogue Cleansing Specialist.

Adam: I have been in the industry for over 20 years. I started out in 1997 as a Talent scout for Food Records (a subsidiary of EMI records ran by ‘Boss’ Andy Ross – (RIP)). I learned my trade there and was promoted to A&R manager in 2001 

I left Food records in 2001 (disbanded by EMI / Parlophone) and set up the independent label ‘Boss Music’ with former Boss Andy Ross.

I’m struck by the fact that Mike, a core member of the team, is a statistician. Why are statistics so important, and how does having a statistician on board help in the effort to let artists be artists?

It makes sense in the streaming era. For example, you have something like Chartmetric which provides acts with data that can help them work out how they need to move to the next level – they can compare and contrast streaming figures to plot an upward trajectory. 

Having someone like Mike onboard, with his analytical eye for numbers and an ability to see the wider statistical picture, takes the pressure off an artist trying to work out what these figures actually mean. 

You’re starting a blog called Fresh on the Camp. What are you envisioning?

Right now, the idea is to help artists promote whatever they have released in Bandcamp. Now that might take the form of tweeting (or other social media shouting out) about an album. We might even like it so much, that we approach an act to see what other support we can offer to help them grow it. 

That’s a bit nebulous, but we have ideas as to how we might do that, but we’re keeping them under wraps for the time being. 

I’m curious as to why it will exclusively feature Bandcamp releases.

I think that Bandcamp is the best platform for independent artists. Not just from a financial perspective, but I think that it is also where you get genuine fans who want to listen to your music. Bandcamp also offers act the opportunity to reach out to fans, and update them with whatever news you have. It makes it a far more personal and personable platform.

Of course, your artists appear on other—some might say “less generous”—platforms as a management company, what’s your take on services like Spotify that pay so little to artists?

Haha, “less generous”… for me, streaming is nothing short of a rip-off for artists. I was going to write that it’s great for music consumers, but I don’t think it is. It’s not allowing fans to take their time to listen and get to know an act, because the algorithm wants you to listen something new, and again moments later, something new, and round and round we go. 

However, streaming is here, and will be here for some time. For me, as an artist, you have to play it to your advantage; for example, I never released the Sky Diving Penguins album to streaming. Only the singles, as adverts (for want of a better term). 

Back to the blog, you’ve laid out some fairly strict rules with respect to submissions. For example, artists are allowed to submit one album per year. Why is it important to maintain – and enforce – such policies?

I didn’t realise we were being strict! I think that one album a year is plenty for an artist to be getting along with. Especially when many are working full-time jobs, with family and lives to live beyond that. 

Even in Bowie’s 1970s heyday, he was only releasing an album a year. They were all quality. And it’s important for artists to take that step back and focus on improving their art (whether that be lyrically, technically or as mixers and producers) to produce the best album they can, and forget the whole “streaming of consciousness” need to get something out now, now, now.

As a side note, can artists submit through sites like SubmitHub or MusoSoup?

Nope. We’re not acting as reviewers. Just conduits to help promote whatever an act has released.

Why is it important for indie artists to work together? What can we achieve? 

Like most things in life, when people collaborate, they have strength in numbers. For indie  artists, this is particularly relevant, as it allows them to share the promotional workload if they don’t have any representation.

As for what indie artists can achieve by working together? There are far too many variables to dare to suggest they they can break through the glass ceiling. But it increases your visibility. So, going back to the Indie Musicians Collective, just by coming together, it allowed all of us to be a part of the ILM which is a known industry event. I

I can’t speak for the other acts, but as the manager of Sky Diving Penguins at the time, I noticed an upturn in our streaming and followers after it. 

Similarly, I’m wondering about how management companies and independent labels might also work together. Any thoughts?

OK…have you been reading my notes? We will be approaching a handful of small indie labels in the near future about an event that we’ve just agreed a date for in London. Hopefully, they will be up for our proposal. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!  

You’re welcome. Before I sign off, and because everyone involved in what you have termed #Tweetcore, is essential to the ecosphere in which we operate, I would really appreciate just giving a few shoutouts to a few of those who have supported Sky Diving Penguins/122MM. 

By all means!

So Radio/DJ-wise: Soph (@MacaronPurpl), Danny (@oldindiekid1), TJ (@IndieCentricCMR), Charles (@CMotorbikeShow), Billy (@BillyBrownSongs), Chris (@chrisredjam), Shaun (@chuckstar85), Kath (@alt_frequencies), Aron (@TheBruthaVoodoo), John (@SpeedOfSoundUK), Oli (@RadioTfsc), Vimal (@MeMyselfI)

Podcasters/Playlisters & more: Lean (@LeanCoolTop20) & (@cooltop20), Kris (@TheVinylCutPod), Paul (@DerringerPod), Tom (@TheABRecords)

Reviewers: Iain (@iainkey), Jeff (@JeffA92234), Hans (@hctf), Julie (@Sonicjules), Dennis (Poprock Record), Brian (@MonolithBlogger), Michael (@Mobytanner), Kate (@KateHSHoare), Fresh On the Net (multiple reviewers) & UpToHear (@UpToHearMusic)

Artists: Joe (@JoeAdhemar), Anthony (@dunkiedemos), Nunny (@nunnyb1), Lyn (@LynMusician), Gary & Joe (@The_Future_Us), Pete (@PostIndustria12), Chris (@LaLettes), Gomrund (@Gomrund_Music), John (@johnmichiemusic), Nick (@TheJoJoManBand), Paul (@3LittleWolves1), Mikey (@mikeyj_music)

Superfans – these people love their music and share widely: Spencer (@spenh01), Steve (@Stevo286), Kristy (@littlefuzzball1), Vicky (@VickyMayArt), Helen (@HelenRobinson67), Simon (@Knitted_Fish)

And of course yourself Marc. Thanks very much for all your efforts.

Sure thing!