360DigitalInfluence

Post 1 - Digital Influence on a College Entertainment Booking Agent

Students at an O.A.R. concert at Clemson University April 18, 2009. Photograph by Chris Newman.

This week I had a chance to sit down with Corey Ellis, an agent at the Auburn Moon Agency, to find out how digital media has influenced his profession. Auburn Moon specializes in booking entertainment for colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Corey is also the large-scale event specialist for the agency and coordinates sponsored tours.  Prior to joining Ogilvy PR I had the privilege of working with Corey on an artist management and development venture for the band FLOREZ. We still find time for weekly conversation and debate over the state of the music industry, trends within the college marketplace, new online resources and artists to watch. He’s undoubtedly a rising star in the music industry and I expect to see him among many 40 under 40 lists in the years to come. As a result I’ve decided to put him in the hot seat this week to answer a few questions about how digital and social media has impacted the way he does business.  

Corey Ellis, booking  agent, Auburn Moon Agency

Brian: Generally speaking, what opportunities has the proliferation of digital and social media generated for your business? 

Corey: The proliferation of digital and social media has truly opened up (and arguably evened out) the playing field in the entertainment business.  The barriers of access are crumbling rapidly.  For us it is much easier to gather information on artists.  Instead of waiting on someone to send you a CD/DVD/press kit I can go online and find all the information about an artist I may need in less than 30 minutes.  It has also made it more cost effective for us to deliver content to our buyers.  As of last year we are no longer producing CDs or DVDs to provide to buyers and instead we are providing download cards to deliver content to everyone.   As the world has moved toward digital/social media the ways in which our artists can create and shape their appearance to the world is endless.  But as much as we as agents try to shape our artists’ spheres there is an equal force (fans, bloggers,etc) that we no longer have strong influence over.

Another benefit (that does not directly impact my daily work) is that the music business has returned to the control of its rightful owners: the people.  I believe we are going to look back and see that artists that successfully navigated and monetized their relationship with their fans are the ones that have long-term success as the music business changes.  The nebulous concept of “fan management” is the key concept for artists to grasp.  

Brian:  In the same light, what challenges has digital and social media created for your business?

Corey: The biggest challenge (and I think most interviewees will agree) is the size and scope of social and digital media—It can be overwhelming at times.  As a booking agent I feel like there is no end to the work I can do to get shows for my artists.  There are always more venues to call and more emails to send…Now that has been compounded with “there are always more websites to check”.  I am constantly searching the web to see if there are mentions of my artists.  We have even had to create and maintain a YouTube page for our agency.  Even though I have videos of our artists on our page I know many of our buyers are going to YouTube first so I have to be diligent about making sure the right content is there.  I had an incident where the administration at a college was upset with a buyer because they saw a clip of one of my comedians on YouTube—T \hey thought he was going to be too dirty and racy.  The clip they pointed to was from his set from the “Bad Boys of Comedy”.  He was instructed to structure his show that way.  I had to provide them with multiple other clips of his “normal” show before they would approve the show. 

Another challenge for our business is that the college market has become flooded with artists.  Our buyers are being inundated with (in my opinion) sub-par and not fully vetted artists.  It is now much easier and cheaper for artists to appear larger/bigger/better/more important/more seasoned than in the past.  The personal touch that goes with being a great agent does not seem to carry as much weight.  The role of an exemplary agency is being diminished.
 
Brian: What digital or social media channel(s) is your company currently devoting the most time, energy and resources to? Why?

Corey: The aforementioned YouTube page could be a full time job since we represent over 50 artists.  We also work with sonicbids on a regular basis since each of our artists maintains an EPK (electronic press kit) there.  I am in constant contact with dropcards.com because they supply our digital download cards.  Our website currently has sections for each of our different buyer groups (colleges, military, and performing arts) but over the next few months we are going to create a separate site for each of those constituent groups.  They will have a similar look & feel but the content will be tweaked for each buyer group.  I also spend a fair amount of time on our artists’ myspace pages to explore what comments are being left.  I can often turn these comments into selling points.  Finally I just added an account @ artistdata.com as an agency.  I am going to export our internal database calendar for my artists and use it to help them keep all their calendars up-to-date. 
 
Brian: Thinking ahead three to five years from now, what do you think could be the next “big thing” in digital and social media that will impact the way you do business? In other words, what would you like to see?

Corey: I would love to see a social media site that could really be used for business.  Most artists have myspace pages but I do not really like conducting business there (nor is that the purpose of myspace in my opinion).  Sonicbids was built more for business purposes and they do not have enough users in the industry to be truly affective.  I really like some of the tools provided by reverbnation but there are not enough buyers using it to work for our business. 

Brian: How do you keep up to speed with industry news? Is there a Web site or blog that you just couldn’t live without? 

Corey: Google Reader is a godsend.  I subscribe to the feeds from Topspin, Pitchfork, Billboard Biz, Hypebot and Kings of A&R.  I also frequent Alternative Addiction, Celebrity Access, Starpolish.com and the Hype Machine. 
 
Brian: What social media network do you personally use the most?

Corey: Personally I’m always on Facebook.  For business I use YouTube, Reverbnation and groups on LinkedIn.
 
Brian: Do you have a social media pet peeve?

Corey: That I’m only 32 and I feel “old” when it comes to social media.  And I’m a technophile!  I feel bad for people trying to navigate the current industry who are not tech savvy (or cannot hire people that are).

Brian: Ok, let me put you on the spot. Above you put an emphasis on fan management. So how about leaving us with three “things” that you equate to good fan management?

Corey:

1.) Sincere communication with your fans.  I do not think you should post something just to post something. Your communication should be relevant and totally transparent. 

2.) Be available everywhere they might go.  Facebook, MySpace, Last.fm, Pandora, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Unfortunately I do not think you can pick and choose.  You have to be everywhere.

3.) People want to hear from you,  not your publicist or manager.