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Everything You Need to Know About Co.Lab: Release Strategies

October 26, 2018

Details on the next event in this great new community series from Spotify For Artists.

Part of the job of the artist now is to craft a deliberate plan to ensure that releases hit the right audience. Your release strategy is intrinsically linked to the music itself and to your identity as an artist.

These days it’s a challenge to rise above the ocean of content being released all the time, so you have to be smart and inventive with regards to your roll out. At Co.Lab: Release Strategies, we’ll highlight some of the best work being done when it comes to releasing music in the modern world. We hope you’ll listen and learn from fellow artists, and trade strategies on how you can best get your music in front of your audience now and in the future.

Who’s going to be there?

An incredible group of artists and musicians, our host, Mindy Abovitz Monk (publisher and founder of Tom Tom Magazine), and five music industry experts:

  • Sam Hockley-Smith – Music Editor, New York Magazine’s Vulture
  • Shaw Walters – Chief Technical Officer, Tin Drum
  • Sioux Zimmerman – Founder, Magnum PR
  • DeForrest Brown Jr. – Rhythmanalyst, Media Theorist & Curator
  • Christine McCharen-Tran – Co-Founder, Discwoman

What’s going to happen at Co.Lab: Release Strategies?

You’ll have a chance to learn strategies for your career, gather useful resources, meet other artists, have a couple drinks, and get your picture taken. It’s going to be a good time.

5:45pm ..... Doors open.

6:20pm ..... Kick Off: A quick introduction to the Release Strategies theme, our experts and host. Get to know more about the program and what each expert will be doing during each Breakout.

7:00pm ..... Breakout No. 1: Your choice of Group Sessions or Office Hours.

7:40pm ..... Breakout No. 2: Your choice of Group Sessions or Office Hours.

8:20pm ..... Breakout No. 3: Your choice of Group Sessions or Office Hours.

9pm ..... Roundup: A chance to share your insights from the evening with our experts and host in a group conversation.

9:30pm ..... Social: You’re invited to hang out in the space for as long you want, as long as you leave by 10pm.

What are Office Hours?

These are one-on-one conversations between you and an expert. You get five minutes; first come, first served. This is a space for scheming, collaboration, and access that would not otherwise be possible.

Each expert will be available for Office Hours during at least one of the Breakouts.

What are the Group Sessions?

Workshops, group conversations and brainstorms hosted by our industry experts:

Who’s Your Audience? With Sam Hockley-Smith What’s the best way to make sure people notice the music you make? What tools are at your disposal? If you know some basics about who your audience is—or who you want your audience to be—you can find the best ways to approach them and get them to notice you work. Sam Hockley-Smith, Music Editor for New York Magazine’s Vulture, will show a few case studies of artists connecting with their audiences in specific ways, then lead a group brainstorm to help you figure out ways you can do it yourself.

It’s Not Magic, It’s AR with Shaw Walters It’s great if you can make a great album, but how will it stack up against a hologram of a musician making a great album? Augmented reality content may be niche right now, but it’s just a matter of time before it’s everywhere. The way we talk about AR now might end up being like how people talked about TV during the days of radio. Shaw Walters, CTO of Tin Drum—a production company that focuses exclusively on creating content for “mixed reality devices.” It’s safe to say they know a few things about AR content: it’s going to be everywhere, very soon; it’s not magic; and finally, it’s not that hard to make. Join Shaw for an Intro to AR content creation.

Identifying Your Story with Sioux Zimmerman The music you make is only part of your story. Your successes, your failures, your team, where you’re from and even your non music-related talents are all part of it too. Sioux Zimmerman, founder of Magnum PR, will help you identify your story. Sioux will walk through some examples of compelling stories, then help you understand where these types of stories can fit in your release strategy (spoiler alert: if a press push isn’t complemented by a strong social media presence, it might not do much for you at all). Get ready for story time.

It Takes a Village: Collaboration in the Music Industry with DeForrest Brown Jr. What’s the “right” division of labor between artist, label, and the PR team? How do you time drops to optimize the value of each release and encourage fans to revisit your music? Using his background as a media theorist as a jumping off point, DeForrest Brown explores the configurations of the music industry. He’ll breakdown how the media ecosystem has evolved over the last ten years and investigate moments of disruption in the music industry like the rise of the surprise album and crossover phenoms like James Blake's CMYK or Arca's &&&&&.

How to Turn a One-off Show Into a Full-fledged Business with Christine McCharen-Tran Discwoman started in 2014 as a two-day showcase in September 2014 at Bossa Nova Civic Club in Brooklyn. Four years later, Discwoman has become a talent agency, platform, amplifying tool and family, having produced and curated events in more than fifteen cities around the world and working with over 250 DJs and producers. Come hear from the person who started it all on how to formalize your art practice and how to separate your individual artist identity from collective branding.

Co.Lab: Release Strategies is right around the corner: Monday, Oct 29. Check out the Co.Lab website for more info and apply to attend our next two LA events if you haven’t already. And there are more events in the Co.Lab series on the way, and updates coming, so follow along on Instagram and Twitter or you might miss something!

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