Latest / The Scene Projects / Brad Stewart on Music Mogul AI, Industry Challenges, and Mentorship in Nashville
Transcript
- 0:02This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
- 0:07Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
- 0:12from across the Midwest.
- 0:15Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
- 0:28Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
- 0:31I am your host Bubba Starts, and with me today is Brad Stewart.
- 0:34Brad, welcome to the show.
- 0:36Thank you.
- 0:37How's it going?
- 0:38It's It's going well.
- 0:39You know what?
- 0:40I figured just best I'm gonna let you introduce your agencies and the things that you do and
- 0:46allow you to give us a little bit of the backstory because it's all kinda tied in
- 0:49together.
- 0:49And then, obviously, we're gonna talk a lot about your new venture with Music Mogul AI.
- 0:54But, the floor is yours, sir.
- 0:56Give us a little bit of the backstory here, and we'll jump into the future.
- 1:00Sounds good.
- 1:01Yeah.
- 1:01Appreciate it.
- 1:02Thanks for having me on.
- 1:04So I started out, you know, as a booking agent in Charlotte, North Carolina with a boutique
- 1:13agency.
- 1:15Worked with about 30 to 35 bands a year, and I did work with them for eight and a half years.
- 1:22So you can do the math on thirty, thirty five bands a year times eight or so.
- 1:27That's how many bands.
- 1:28And all I did was booking for and I was one of three people that did the entire US and Canada
- 1:34for that company.
- 1:36I then moved to Nashville, Tennessee.
- 1:38My wife got a job opportunity in Nashville, and it definitely made sense for me to be in
- 1:45Nashville over a banking city.
- 1:47So I made the change.
- 1:50When I did that, I started Stewart Entertainment Agency, though, and that started
- 1:56in 2014.
- 1:58And ever since, we've been operating as a booking agency, management agency, publisher,
- 2:07publicist.
- 2:08I do consulting and mentorship as well, mainly for the artists that are not quite ready for a
- 2:14full time professional representation.
- 2:17So I kinda did that because it's like, could still help you out, but without getting into,
- 2:22like, a $3.60 deal or a full contract.
- 2:25So, but, yeah, so that's how, things started.
- 2:30COVID definitely, put the kibosh on our entire industry.
- 2:35And, you know, after that, you know, came back in and started to rebuild and rehire agents and
- 2:43all that stuff.
- 2:44And up until about May, I just I I thought there had to be a better way.
- 2:53I feel like the current model for most agencies and for artists as well is really broken.
- 3:02So what I did was I, started a sister company called Music Mogul AI, and it is essentially a
- 3:11software.
- 3:13And it's really the first of its kind software, and so I think it I think it's going to
- 3:18revolutionize the way entertainment well, independent artists do business.
- 3:25But it is basically going to automate the booking, the marketing, and the management
- 3:30functions, for them.
- 3:33And it is backed by my twenty years of expertise and knowledge.
- 3:37It you know, they get access to my database, all the workflows, the emails, the templates,
- 3:42all that kind of stuff.
- 3:45And it basically gives them control over their business.
- 3:50So it essentially helps them set up the infrastructure and the systems that all of them
- 3:56most of them need.
- 3:58Most of them do not have any kind of system.
- 4:01So that's what it's designed to do is to do that heavy lifting for them.
- 4:05And then Stewart Entertainment Agency is able to offer consulting and mentorship either as an
- 4:12add on to that software or as a stand alone service.
- 4:16So to me, the right formula for today's music industry is really a combination of leveraging
- 4:24technology to automate those repetitive tasks, but having the, personalized approach from a
- 4:32consultant with twenty years of knowledge to help guide, you know, the brand or do strategic
- 4:37partnerships or publishing.
- 4:39And there's just a number of things that the software can't do.
- 4:44And we're still in a relationships business.
- 4:46So for me, the combination of the two of those is the right formula for success, and that's
- 4:53what I've built.
- 4:55It's currently in beta testing at the moment.
- 4:58It will go we're scheduled to go live the second weekend or January for the official
- 5:05launch.
- 5:06We've done a soft launch.
- 5:07We have a number of artists that are already testing it out, giving us feedback, and making
- 5:11it better already.
- 5:13So I'm super excited to, be able to announce this to the world and to, you know, implement
- 5:21and deploy this because it's really going to change people's lives.
- 5:26I have no doubt about it.
- 5:28Yeah.
- 5:29And and we are in the age of the independent artist.
- 5:32As the industry has all but cannibalized itself completely at this point, AI artists are
- 5:38topping the billboard charts.
- 5:39YouTube's no longer sending data to billboard.
- 5:42IHeart is being bought out and having their podcast bought by Netflix.
- 5:47Like, the world is going crazy.
- 5:49It's only a matter of time before it completely eats itself, and all of these people with 6
- 5:55figure and 7 figure salaries at the top put themselves out of jobs as well as they have put
- 6:01out a lot of the little guys.
- 6:03And a lot of people in your field have already been put out of work because there's just not a
- 6:08lot of gigs.
- 6:08I mean, I know I'm surprised that you're still here, and I'm sure a lot of your friends in the
- 6:13booking industry had to find other jobs through COVID because there weren't the gigs anymore.
- 6:19Right?
- 6:20And to just to survive, Brad, is a testament to your thinking on your feet, and this is no
- 6:27different.
- 6:28I was really thrilled to see you pop up on my calendar to get to know you and to get to know
- 6:35this program a little bit.
- 6:36And I hope I get to put some eyes on it and to see what it can do because for a small like, I
- 6:41grew up in South Dakota.
- 6:42I've always been an independent artist, and I've never had the dream of going and getting
- 6:47signed by any number of record labels or any of that.
- 6:51To me, that dream died along with a lot of other things that have died.
- 6:56MTV and things that I remember from my childhood, Rolling Stone, and, yeah, they're
- 7:01still around, but they're so much different than they used to be.
- 7:05And it it we need the tools.
- 7:07Right?
- 7:08And with the tools, you need a little bit of that human element still to it because not just
- 7:14in using it, but in the the right way to behave in some of these situations.
- 7:20If you're going to have to put on the hat of the booking agent, then you're going to have to
- 7:24even though you have a tool that can function to do some of the repetitive tasks, you need to
- 7:30know how to talk and how to structure deals like a booking agent would as well.
- 7:35That's right.
- 7:36That's right.
- 7:36Yes.
- 7:37And, you know, it's you're everything you said is a 100%.
- 7:43You know, wages or, you know, the guarantees for artists have essentially stayed the same
- 7:51for fifteen years, maybe longer than that, actually.
- 7:57You know?
- 7:57But the cost and the expenses of gas and cost of living and all that, that has all gone up.
- 8:04So the margins have been shrinking, not only for the artists, but for the agencies as well.
- 8:11And, you know, for most artists to get on with the booking agency, you know, we need you to
- 8:18already have momentum.
- 8:19We need to see some data and some numbers behind what you're doing.
- 8:23And, typically, the the point where agencies start to get interested in your band is once
- 8:30you hit at least, like, 150 k a year in annual live revenue gross, we really want you to be in
- 8:37that 2 to 300,000 level before because we get paid a percentage of commission.
- 8:43And, you know, if we're if you're doing a $100 a year and you got a deal on us, which below,
- 8:50like, a 150, you're typically paying 15%.
- 8:53But let's just say you got a deal with an agent and you got them for 10% and you're doing a
- 8:58$100 a year.
- 8:59That's only $10,000 for us as an agency, our staff, the office manager, the agents,
- 9:06everybody.
- 9:06We only get paid $10 to book you for a whole year.
- 9:11You know?
- 9:12You're paying a publicist, you know, $5 a month to promote your album.
- 9:17They only do that for three months.
- 9:18They get $15 in three months.
- 9:21So, like, the numbers and the math, that's just where the math works out.
- 9:27And that's why you know?
- 9:29But most artists struggle to get to that $152,100 k a year mark because they have to
- 9:37wear all the hats.
- 9:38They have to produce the music.
- 9:39They have to deliver the show.
- 9:40They have to be a manager, a publicist, a social media marketer.
- 9:43They have to do all of this, and, you know, they haven't even performed yet.
- 9:47You know?
- 9:48So it's they burn out.
- 9:51And so that is really where I saw the need to fill the gap because I can't tell you how many
- 10:00tremendously talented artists that I've come across in my twenty years that are honestly
- 10:06more talented than the bands that are doing more in revenue.
- 10:10They really are.
- 10:11The majority of them are.
- 10:13But the problem is that they burn out before they ever reach that point to get to a booking
- 10:19agent.
- 10:20Yeah.
- 10:21Or they run out of money because to get out and to to play enough shows to have made a 150,000
- 10:27a year.
- 10:28Say you're only making a thousand of shows, you played a 150, you probably spent a quarter
- 10:32million dollars to play those 150 shows and only recouped one fifty.
- 10:37Right?
- 10:38So the numbers the math just doesn't math, Brad.
- 10:43You you said it.
- 10:44And and that's when you know, I've been doing this for such a long time.
- 10:49I I have to look at the numbers for my agency as well as for them, and I've done the
- 10:55consulting.
- 10:55I know I've done the management.
- 10:57I know what their numbers look like.
- 10:59I know what our numbers look like.
- 11:01And the juice just isn't worth the squeeze for for both parties, honestly.
- 11:07And that's why I was like, I'm and, you know, I looked at a bunch of other softwares throughout
- 11:14the years to help me.
- 11:16I was like, maybe I could find another software to help me run the biz my business and the
- 11:20agency better.
- 11:22But the majority of them are basically just CRMs.
- 11:26They're just customer retention management software.
- 11:29It just helps you kinda organize your stuff.
- 11:32It doesn't actually do anything for you.
- 11:36And so that's why I was like, I can't find anything that's gonna help me operate more
- 11:41efficiently.
- 11:41I'm just gonna build my own.
- 11:43And I was like, worst case scenario, I'll use the software inside Stewart Entertainment
- 11:47Agency that'll allow me to scale from having 10 bands at a time to a 100 bands at a time.
- 11:54And I was like, so let's do it.
- 11:55You know?
- 11:56I was like, I know I love technology.
- 11:58Always been passionate about, operations and inefficiencies and, strategic partnerships
- 12:04really is what I'm what I do for the most part.
- 12:08And so that's when I was like, I I know I have the knowledge.
- 12:14I have you know?
- 12:15Like, I know I know the need.
- 12:16I have the knowledge.
- 12:17I just need a team to help me build it out.
- 12:20I'm not a developer, so I've hired a company to help me develop.
- 12:24You know?
- 12:24I've given them the blueprint, and I've given them do it.
- 12:27That was my next question, Brad.
- 12:30Yeah.
- 12:30You know, I used to do some coding back in the Myspace days, way back when, definitely showing
- 12:37my age here now.
- 12:38But, you know, that is, I I can kind of understand some of that, but that's not my
- 12:44lane.
- 12:45So I've definitely learned in, you know, consulting.
- 12:48You you need to pay people for their ten, twenty, thirty, forty thousand hours to and so
- 12:54you can stay in your lane, and that's what I've done.
- 12:56But I have some of the best developers in the world working on this out of Silicon Valley,
- 13:03and it is it's insane.
- 13:06You know, they kept telling me stop building features, you know, into this.
- 13:11And, you know, most most, founders or developers, they just they would have just
- 13:17built built a booking software, just the marketing or just the management.
- 13:21And I was like, it has to be all three because they're all three connected.
- 13:26And if one of them isn't working, the other two suffer.
- 13:31So And
- 13:32it honestly speaks to what most artists and bands and and a lot like you said, I mean, I
- 13:37I'm a songwriter and a musician myself.
- 13:39So selfishly, I'm like, man, I would love to see what this could do because it's not that
- 13:43I'm not motivated.
- 13:45It's that eventually you just run out of time.
- 13:47And trying to wear all of the hats, there's not enough time and one of them suffers.
- 13:51Right?
- 13:52And if you're doing all of the business things, then you're not creating the art that got you
- 13:56the gig in the first place.
- 13:58So Which is the whole reason why you got into the music industry was not to learn about AB
- 14:05testing and ads and metadata and, you know, all this you know, like, that's not why most
- 14:10artists get into this.
- 14:11And God bless the ones that can do it all.
- 14:14There are a few who god bless you guys that can do all of that.
- 14:19And, you know but at some point, even if you can do all of that, you need a team around you.
- 14:27None of us do this by ourselves.
- 14:30No one does it by themselves.
- 14:32At because at some point, you will burn out.
- 14:35Even if you know how to do it all, you will burn out at some point because it it's just
- 14:40it's too much to handle.
- 14:42And, you know,
- 14:43that's where the the consulting side and still having the agency melds very well with the tech
- 14:50stack that you're providing is that you still have something to offer.
- 14:56Your knowledge and your experience are still extremely valuable, but it's only valuable if
- 15:02it's worth your time to do it as well.
- 15:06And what the AI is helping you do is to make your time more valuable by making you more
- 15:11efficient.
- 15:12Like you said, if if you're the only one who's using it at the end of the day, it's going to
- 15:16allow you to help more people and to actually be able to invest into them because you're able
- 15:23to automate some of the process these processes that you are spending exorbitant amounts of
- 15:28time doing, whether it's emailing venues and, like, I've done it all.
- 15:32I've I've I've never had a manager.
- 15:33I've never had a booking agent.
- 15:35I've never done any of it.
- 15:36You know?
- 15:37And last year, I was on tour for a considerable amount of time and not necessarily just with
- 15:42the band.
- 15:43I was doing podcast stuff as well, but I was the one who contacted all of these people.
- 15:48I know the exorbitant amount of time that went into it.
- 15:51And by the time I got home, Brad, I was collapsing under the weight of the stress and
- 15:57just being plum tired.
- 15:59Yeah.
- 16:00And that's, you know, that's the consulting and the mentorship side of things is critical.
- 16:07You know?
- 16:08We we've broken it down to where, like, you can just do the booking agent.
- 16:11Because some some bands are like, well, I've got a manager.
- 16:14I'll have a pub publicity team that I like.
- 16:16I just need someone to help me do bookings.
- 16:18And you can do that with the software.
- 16:20Now we give you a bundle pricing if you do all three.
- 16:24You know, you save a thousand dollars a year if you do all three, and that is honestly the
- 16:30biggest value.
- 16:31But you're able to just do the booking or just do the marketing or just do the management,
- 16:36agents because there's three agents in the software, one for each of those.
- 16:40But the consulting and the mentorship is really the secret sauce, on top of, of course, the IP.
- 16:47And, you know, our site is, it is all custom coded.
- 16:53This is not a vibe coded thing at all.
- 16:56You know?
- 16:57This is completely custom software, that is specifically designed for independent bands,
- 17:03musicians, and DJs.
- 17:05And so right now, you know, the consulting and the mentorship side, like, you can I have over
- 17:12forty thousand hours?
- 17:13I don't I I have you know, like, I've been doing this for twenty years, but I have over
- 17:17forty thousand hours of doing this.
- 17:20You can the artist can learn from my mistakes.
- 17:23I've made tons of mistakes.
- 17:25I've watched all the other miss I've learned from the other mistakes from all the teams that
- 17:30I've worked with, you know, from their managers and their publicists, and I know who's worth
- 17:35the money and who's not worth the money.
- 17:36And, you know, like, I've I've we've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know,
- 17:42launching artists and campaigns and, I mean, hundreds of bands that I've worked with over
- 17:47the years.
- 17:48And there are common denominators, you know, for success and failures, and that's what you
- 17:54get is a faster track from point a to point b with that consulting and mentorship.
- 18:01And like I said, you don't have to have that, but we feel that that is the right formula
- 18:07combined with that infrastructure and the software, which you have control over, by the
- 18:12way.
- 18:13You know?
- 18:13So that's another thing that we can certainly talk about is, you know, you know, the software
- 18:19is really meant to get bands from, you know, say, 50,000 a year to that $300,000 a year
- 18:27mark.
- 18:27Right?
- 18:28Because once you get to that point, the agencies will start calling you.
- 18:34We we we talk to those buyers every day.
- 18:37We're pitching them, and we ask them, who's doing well for you?
- 18:40Who's easy to work with?
- 18:42What kind of ticket sales do they do?
- 18:43We talk to them every day.
- 18:45We know what numbers are we also get the reports in Polestar, and we see the numbers of
- 18:50who's selling tickets.
- 18:51So we can find you once you get to that point.
- 18:55You know?
- 18:56But the problem is bridging the gap between that 50 k a year mark from, like, you know,
- 19:02that regional level to get you to that national and international level.
- 19:07And that's really my lane and has been my lane for twenty years.
- 19:11That's really my specialty is taking bands from that regional to the national and international
- 19:16level.
- 19:17So, you know, the the whole point of all of this, though, is to give the artist control as
- 19:26well.
- 19:26So the software doesn't just send out slop.
- 19:30You know?
- 19:31It just like, you know, you as the artist, you have control over everything that happens.
- 19:37It simply will draft the emails and the copy for the social media and all that, and you, the
- 19:44goal is for the software to do everything, but you need to spend twenty minutes a day per
- 19:50module or per agent to approve the activity before it goes out.
- 19:56So you can approve the emails that that, you know, exactly what you want it to say.
- 20:01Now it's gonna have a draft of you know, it's gonna do that, and then you can go in and
- 20:05change it for anything that you want.
- 20:07So you get to approve the activity for everything.
- 20:11None of it is going to be weird like it's coming from, you know, a bot or anything like
- 20:16that.
- 20:16You have full control over that.
- 20:18Okay?
- 20:20And so that is critical because artists are very, hesitant about AI, for the most part.
- 20:29A lot of them don't trust it.
- 20:31They feel like it's taking their jobs.
- 20:33And and on the music production side and the creation side, I can I sympathize with them
- 20:39there?
- 20:40But this is a tool to help you run your business and to automate the things behind the
- 20:46scenes that they don't see.
- 20:49Like, they don't know if the email's coming from a, you know, a bot or from a human or not.
- 20:54It's it's an email.
- 20:55Right?
- 20:56But I
- 20:57get a lot of them.
- 20:57As a podcaster and as the content creator of the year, a lot of people are seeking us out,
- 21:03and I get the emails from Podcast Pitch and from these different organization and, you
- 21:08know, these different people who have paid for these AI programs to draft them and had a
- 21:12conversation today with a podcast booker on the podcast, in fact, who is using the software,
- 21:19and I don't begrudge them at all for it.
- 21:21You have to find ways to be more efficient, especially if you're going to be a one man show
- 21:26or, you know, essentially, most bands have a person in the band who may be doing this or
- 21:32that, especially these independent artists.
- 21:34This is an absolute game changer, Brad.
- 21:36I am thrilled to get to have this conversation with you and hope that we get the chance to,
- 21:42work together to change the lives of independent artists around the world because
- 21:46this is what has been most needed.
- 21:49And this is one of the areas that has always traditionally been gatekept the hardest because
- 21:54this is where the margins were sometimes the biggest.
- 21:57That's right.
- 21:58That they've been eliminated almost to the point of like you said, you know, these bands
- 22:02no longer have there are no margins, well, then to hell with it.
- 22:06Let's just let's just collapse it and break the system completely by redefining and reshaping a
- 22:13new paradigm.
- 22:15You're right.
- 22:16Agencies have been consolidating for years.
- 22:19You know, going back to when COVID I mean, like, at that point, I mean, agencies were
- 22:25dropping.
- 22:25I mean, they were firing all their agents.
- 22:27I mean, there were some good things that came out of that, but, you know, the it's just not
- 22:35efficient.
- 22:36The the old model is broken.
- 22:37It doesn't work for today's landscape, in my opinion.
- 22:41It just doesn't.
- 22:42And, you know, so and we can kinda circle back a little bit.
- 22:46You know, most artists, they spend, let's just say, around $50, you know, to produce an album.
- 22:52Right?
- 22:53And then they do all this work getting together their ticket sales and the tour history to
- 22:58build up to get an agency.
- 23:00Right?
- 23:01And let's just say you finally hit that point.
- 23:03You finally get an agent to take you on.
- 23:06And most artists think, oh, I can just sit back.
- 23:09I can just let them do their job.
- 23:12All I can, now I can focus on the marketing and connecting with my fans.
- 23:16Right?
- 23:16And they think this is the answer.
- 23:20In about 50% of the time, maybe 40%, that is the that is the case.
- 23:27However, if you're not one of the top grossing artists on that roster for that agency, they're
- 23:35gonna do three things for you.
- 23:37They're gonna list you on the website.
- 23:38They're gonna put you in the newsletter, and they're gonna hope the phone rings for you.
- 23:44And if the phone doesn't ring for you, guess what?
- 23:47You're dropped.
- 23:49So you spend all this money, time, and effort to get it to that point, and most of these
- 23:55agencies are just mailing it in.
- 23:57They're just reactive.
- 23:58They're they're order takers.
- 24:00They're just reactively, you know, hoping the phone rings for you.
- 24:04There are very few agencies that are proactive today that are you know, you give them a a time
- 24:11frame, and they go out and fill the dates.
- 24:13Regardless of what happens and what the offers, they're just you know, their their job is to
- 24:17fill the dates.
- 24:19And that is kinda you know, the agency that I used to work with, that's how we were.
- 24:24We were a proactive agency even back then, but that is not the norm in the agency world.
- 24:32So And, Brad, I'm interested in digging into that.
- 24:35Now was it just booking agents inside of these agencies got lazy, or what broke the system?
- 24:43Right?
- 24:43Like, mean, the money leaving is one thing, but it's not like music is any less desirable in
- 24:49the in the large scale.
- 24:51Right?
- 24:51People still want to go out, or is that the root cause of it is that people aren't going
- 24:56out like they once did?
- 25:00It so I I think it's a combination of all of those, to be honest with you.
- 25:08But, you know, used to labels invested more into developing artists than they do.
- 25:16So we had there was more of a a network that was working know, together with us as agents.
- 25:24Like, when we would sign on to Band, you know, we wanna make sure that we're in the right
- 25:29stage of the product cycle for you.
- 25:31We wanna make sure you have something new coming out.
- 25:33We wanna make sure you have a publicist or a team that is going to be marketing your shows,
- 25:38and we would like to see a manager that's going to be, you know, handling the day to day for
- 25:43you because they speak our language and sometimes artists, you know, take it personal
- 25:48and don't get the business side of things.
- 25:51So we like for you to have a manager, And then we like for you to have a label for
- 25:55distribution purposes.
- 25:57And the labels used to give signing bonuses, or they would put in more, you know, for your
- 26:02album so that you could spend more money on the marketing, and now they don't really do that.
- 26:08You know?
- 26:08So we would kind of ride we would sync everything up together with the publicist and
- 26:15the manager and the record label for the timing to be right for an agency to put you on.
- 26:21Right?
- 26:22Because if we're putting our name and our butts on the line for you and we're trying to get you
- 26:27more money and you don't sell those tickets, it not only hurts you as a band, but it hurts us
- 26:34or any of the other bands that we go to pitch that club or that festival or that venue
- 26:39because we're we we're like realtors.
- 26:41You know?
- 26:42Our job is to find the win win win for all three parties.
- 26:46And if one side gets screwed, then that's bad business.
- 26:50And reputation is everything in this game.
- 26:53It it is.
- 26:54It truly is.
- 26:55So that's why we wanna make sure that you have a system around you for promo because we're
- 27:02putting our butts on the line for you.
- 27:05And if we get you more money than what, you know, you're bringing in at the door, there's
- 27:11only so many times the buyer's gonna answer my phone call for that.
- 27:15So, you know, I try to make sure our clubs, I treat them like gold.
- 27:20I need to make sure that they are making money on every single deal.
- 27:24Now they don't have to like, it doesn't have to be completely one-sided.
- 27:28It has to be a win win win for everybody.
- 27:31But anytime a club loses money on my band, I would always go back to them and say, hey.
- 27:37You know, you gave us a thousand points and rooms on this gig.
- 27:40I know we only had 50 paid on a $10 ticket.
- 27:43I'm gonna talk to my artist.
- 27:45We're gonna come back in.
- 27:46We're gonna try and make this up to you because we don't want you to lose money.
- 27:49We want to invest in you, and we appreciate you investing in us.
- 27:53And we want to make this right, Christine.
- 27:55So we'll come back in for 500, maybe $750 this time, promote it better, make 1,500, and then
- 28:03we're back to the thousand.
- 28:04But we will always wanna make sure that, you know, everybody is winning, and that's what
- 28:09good agencies or good agents do anyway.
- 28:13We're not just trying to snow, you know, a venue one time and get in and get out because
- 28:18they're not gonna answer the phone calls for our other bands if we do that.
- 28:23Right.
- 28:24And that's the biggest thing.
- 28:25You want them when they see your name up there to be excited to answer the phone, not avoiding
- 28:29it like a bill collector.
- 28:31That's right.
- 28:31They wanna say, that's Brad.
- 28:33He made me money last time.
- 28:34I'm gonna answer his emails.
- 28:36I'm gonna answer his calls.
- 28:37I'm not gonna ghost him for four weeks.
- 28:39You know?
- 28:40Do you feel
- 28:40like there's a a lack of education for independent artists in how to properly market
- 28:48and publicize their events to even get to the level where an agency would want to work with
- 28:53them, and then even after that fact because it was traditionally something that the labels
- 28:59did.
- 29:00Yep.
- 29:00You you're on the money, man.
- 29:02It's, you know, a lot of what artists don't realize is any artist that you see that is
- 29:11successful, there's money behind them.
- 29:15They're just it.
- 29:16Well, it's a business.
- 29:17And I think that, a lot of people just starting out, for forget that or or just don't know
- 29:23better.
- 29:24Right.
- 29:24And so, you know, at least today, you know, you can run ads on Meta, you know, Facebook and
- 29:32Instagram and even Spotify and bands in town for relatively cheap, but you gotta know how to
- 29:38run them.
- 29:39You know?
- 29:40You have to know how to find your lookalike audiences and, you know, to target fans of
- 29:45other bands that are similar to yours to pull them in.
- 29:48And most artists don't have a budget for that because they spend it all on the production of
- 29:52the album, and they they're out of money.
- 29:55You know?
- 29:55So it's it's, half hearted, you know, not in the natural sense, but in a financial sense.
- 30:03So it typically breaks down with that.
- 30:07And if they had any money to really develop an album at all anyway because traditionally,
- 30:12those were the labels investing in those and investing in a a lot of, you know, I don't
- 30:17wanna, like, not losers in the, you know, in a in a personal sense, but in that, the bands
- 30:23lost money and got dropped from the labels that they hemorrhaged enough money to the point
- 30:27where now they're just cannibalizing the rest of the industry to a a zero point.
- 30:33And that's what I see coming is that it's only a matter of time until it just eats itself
- 30:38completely, and all that's left are independent artists functioning inside of a new paradigm,
- 30:44not the old division, you know, the old industry as it was traditionally since the, you
- 30:49know, 1900, you know, the early nineteen hundreds when radio and everything came around.
- 30:55That's right.
- 30:56That's right.
- 30:56Yeah.
- 30:57It's and that's why we need a team around us, you know, because we can't do it all.
- 31:03You can't be expected to know every single facet of every single function of running a
- 31:10music business.
- 31:11And, you know, that's what we are trying to solve, with the software and with the
- 31:17consulting because you can learn from our strategies.
- 31:21We've paid ads.
- 31:22We've done campaigns.
- 31:24You can learn from our mistakes, you know, running ads or, creating, campaigns for your
- 31:32merch or whatever.
- 31:33You know?
- 31:34Like, there's so much to do that then that's the real value of the consulting and the
- 31:40mentorship.
- 31:40But, you know, going back to what we were talking about a little bit earlier, even if you
- 31:46do make it, though, and you sign on with an agency and they drop you, you are right back to
- 31:52square one with that.
- 31:54And, you know
- 31:55Yeah.
- 31:55And even if you had made it to square five before the agency got there, if they didn't do
- 32:00anything for you and you lost all that momentum that you had previously, you may be going back
- 32:06to square zero and really have done yourself a disservice by putting your career in someone
- 32:12else's hands.
- 32:14That's right.
- 32:14And then, you know so that is the whole thing that I love about, you know, our system is that
- 32:22this software only works for you twenty four hours a day.
- 32:27It doesn't take vacation.
- 32:28You don't have to wonder what's being done.
- 32:30You can see all the activity that's being done.
- 32:34You know?
- 32:34It it doesn't it doesn't take time off.
- 32:37It just works.
- 32:37It just keeps working, and you just approve the activity just as you would with a human.
- 32:43And so, you know, all the emails that are going out with it, you know, and this is some of the
- 32:50feedback that, you know, we got, in the beta testing so far is, you know, they didn't want
- 32:55the emails to come from at music mobile AI, you know, because they're like, the buyer's gonna
- 33:01know this is a bot, and they're gonna it's gonna go to spam, then they're not gonna answer
- 33:04my emails.
- 33:06And so I was like, okay.
- 33:07So I switched everything over to where they come to from at stewardentertainment.net, which
- 33:13is a reputable booking agency.
- 33:15It's been around since 2014.
- 33:17So it, you know, it is coming from us.
- 33:20Like, you
- 33:21little extra cache to make it look like you are signed to an agency.
- 33:25That's right.
- 33:27But you get to approve everything.
- 33:29Like, it's you know, you're you're approving all the activity.
- 33:33And having that control and the clarity with your business is, to me, is worth the price of
- 33:42the software in itself.
- 33:44Because if, you know, if you don't you know, like, even if you had a booking agent, alright,
- 33:49and you got them for a deal for 10%, you're doing a $100 a year, you're gonna pay them
- 33:54$10,000 for that year just to book your band.
- 33:59That's it.
- 33:59Okay?
- 34:00We are able to offer booking, marketing, and management with a $2,000 consulting on top of
- 34:08that for $10,000 a year.
- 34:12Yeah.
- 34:13And that's a flat fee.
- 34:14That's not a percentage.
- 34:16Should you make more than that?
- 34:17That's right.
- 34:18We don't take yeah.
- 34:19If you make more than that, great.
- 34:20You get to keep that revenue.
- 34:22We don't make a percentage.
- 34:24You only pay us a monthly subscription fee.
- 34:28Brad, this is absolutely life changing for so many people, and and I'm really glad that we
- 34:33got to talk about it today.
- 34:34And I got some plans that I'd like to talk about you off camera here for helping you talk
- 34:39about it a lot more in the future as well.
- 34:41So with that, go ahead and tell everybody where they can find it, where they can find the
- 34:46software, where they can find you at, and then, of course, we'll we'll make sure that we get
- 34:50the links in the show notes as well.
- 34:52And, yeah, hang out with me after we finish up the show, and I'd like to talk some more.
- 34:57Sure.
- 34:57Absolutely.
- 34:58Yeah.
- 34:58So Stewart Entertainment Agency, you can find us at stewardentertainment.net.
- 35:04That's stewar,tasintom, and then entertainment.net.
- 35:09And then for the software is musicmogulai.com.
- 35:15You can see all the different plans and the pricing and everything.
- 35:18We have a quick sign up form that kinda tells us a little bit about your band.
- 35:23I will do a one on one call with you as you sign in so that I can have a good understanding
- 35:29of where you are and what your goals are, and I can help craft and tailor, you know, the right
- 35:35structure for you as you progress.
- 35:37And, you know, the consulting is kinda done when you need it.
- 35:42There's no huge contract to lock you in for that.
- 35:45It can be a month to month, whatever.
- 35:47You know?
- 35:48We do kinda create bespoke custom tailored plans on the consulting because every artist is
- 35:55different, and all of their, you know, plans and infrastructure are different.
- 35:59So but, yeah, definitely excited.
- 36:02I really appreciate you having me on.
- 36:04This is amazing.
- 36:06You know, I know that this is going to change the lives for a lot of people.
- 36:11And, you know, right now, we're testing this out for the independent artists and musicians.
- 36:17And once that is done, there is a a plan for an enterprise level where we will be taking this
- 36:24software to other booking agencies, other management firms, and even record labels so
- 36:29that they can work more efficiently as well.
- 36:31So there's a whole another level to this that's coming.
- 36:34Lots of new features, that are gonna be built in, and we're just getting started.
- 36:39Awesome stuff, Brad.
- 36:40Well, thank you so much for everything that you've been doing in the background to help the
- 36:44independent artist, and thank you for being part of the scene.
- 36:48Yeah.
- 36:48Thank you so much.
- 36:49It's been great.
- 36:50Really appreciate you.