We are living on the verge of a truly global music economy. We are entering an age where several markets, such as China, are beginning to pay for music for the first time ever. In honor of our artist ZHU’s blockbuster deal with Tencent and Sony Music closing today, I am sharing the blueprint of...

When going through the analytics of Art of a Manager, the most successful post to date was the one about Creative Commission, which means there is great desire here in the AoaM community to learn about tools and resources which help create content and market artists. Therefore, I will be dedicating every Tuesday to...

“In the absence of magic, there is metrics.” At an event we hosted this past Wednesday, Matt Medved from Billboard said the above quote came to him in a dream. In our data-driven industry, how powerful! It couldn’t be closer to the truth. Who is concerned with how many sales Bruno Mars’ album has?...

The Grammy nominations were in touch with the times this year, but here’s one the community may have missed: Metro Boomin for producer of the year. His impact on culture was undeniable. Music Business Worldwide had him #1 on their top songwriters chart for the first half of 2017… over Ed Sheeran. At one...

As we get ready to celebrate music’s grand day, let’s ensure making music is accessible to the youth and incorporated into our education system. As public school budgets get squeezed more than ever, the arts and music programs are the first to suffer. I’ve heard all sorts of statistics on what percentage of schools...

The difference in energy from a typical Grammy Week in LA to the feeling in New York right now is palpable. It reflects the emerging industry we currently find ourselves in. With the resurgence of hip-hop, the tremendous rise and ubiquity of music accessibility through streaming, and the generation changing tides at the C-suite...

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned the concept of influencing up – in other words, being able to influence those in power in a corporate setting. One of my mentors, award-winning professor Tatiana Kolovou at the Kelley School of Business helped organize the following three steps on “influencing up”. Since TH3RD BRAIN is an independent...

Yesterday night, Matt Goldstein, Jake Fain, and I hosted the 2017 Billboard 40 Under 40 nominees in New York City – About 20 of us were able to make time out of our intense Grammy week schedules to come together for the evening. We sat at one table and about halfway through dinner narrowed...

At each of our semi-annual company retreats, we typically present a paramount shift in order to grow our operational execution. Last year, we introduced the concept of Area of Expertise, whose name later changed to Area of Excellence (AOE). If you don’t write down specific goals and processes, as well as a plan to...

You may have seen this video across the internet yesterday or this morning – it has 5MM views in under 24 hours and I wouldn’t be surprised if it has 100MM by the end of the week. If you haven’t watched it yet, you need to take the next five minutes and give your...