In this episode, Allan Benedict, Director of Business Development and Marketing at Play MPE, discusses the challenges and strategies involved in marketing and expanding in the music industry. Play MPE is a SaaS product that caters to both labels and independent artists, helping them reach their marketing goals and compete with industry giants. Allan emphasizes the importance of prioritizing investments, monitoring data analytics, and collaborating as a team. He also shares successful strategies, such as partnering with songwriting competitions, and highlights the unique features that set Play MPE apart from its competitors. Building connections, understanding target audiences, and thinking outside the box are key elements for success in the music industry, according to Allan.
In this episode, Allan Benedict shares his career journey, from working as a Radio Marketing & Promotions Intern at Secretly Group to becoming the Director of Business Development & Marketing at Play MPE. He also served as the National Director of Radio Promotion, U.S. at [PIAS] and Radio Promotion Manager at The Syndicate. Allan’s expertise lies in planning and executing successful radio marketing campaigns for renowned artists and labels, as well as fostering strong industry relationships. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Hard to Market:
- Play MPE is one of the first companies to deliver watermarked audio to radio stations securely.
- Play MPE offers the same level of functionality and ease of use to both labels and independent artists, making it ideal for various users in the music industry.
- Constantly shuffling resources to ensure they are where they need to be.
- Utilizing testimonials and reputation to educate artists on the value of their platform.
- Build connections with people in the industry to gain support and opportunities.
- Understand the needs and preferences of your target audience for effective marketing.
- Adapt your marketing approach based on the unique characteristics of different music markets.
Resources:
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Connect with our host Brian Mattocks:
Quotables:
- 01:27 – “So if you’ve ever wondered how radio gets the new songs to play, it’s through a system kind of similar to ours where labels or artists or promoters or managers will utilize our platform to deliver that stuff securely and be able to track some metrics on it too.”
- 24:09 – “Especially with just the, the shift in culture really where everyone’s looking at TikTok and these kind of short snippets of releases versus album plays like they used to. Right. It’s, I mean, they always say that the music industry evolves really quickly, and this is just over the last five, six years, the most I’ve seen it evolve in the 20 or so years I’ve been working new music one way or another.”
- 11:18 – “One of the things that I find so compelling about your kind of your role is you’ve got, so you’ve got the stations on one side and the station networks for that matter because you know, very rarely is it like independence you have then the labels. So, and some of those labels vary in size and scope. And then you also are going after the independent artists. So like just on at a high level you’re marketing to almost four different types of organizations and you’re doing it all and every one of those markets and every one of those organizations needs varying levels of education.”
- 17:40 – “So when you go through this process and you’re identifying, you know, the upcoming artists you’re going after or the labels that you’re working with and then getting them in front of the right, the right folks securely, how much of the work you’re doing is education versus, you know, in terms of like the marketing conversations up until the transaction point and then afterwards, what does that kind of like, help me understand like what the split is?”
- 25:51 – Brian: “And in your journey to the, you know, wildly successful and complicated marketing position you’re in, what are your three biggest things you’ve learned along the way to help the next guy out?”.. Allan: “My three biggest along the way, these might skew a little more music industry than traditional marketing, but one thing I’m a big believer in is, is keep in touch with people you’ve worked with in the past. Like you can program ads and set up ad groups and do some SEO work all you want, but it’s always easier if you have someone you can turn to and either ask questions or you never know where someone’s going to end up five years from now. Whether they could be a partner for whatever you’re working with or help you get a leg up on a conversation you need to have.”