D.I.Y.

Topspin’s Ian Rogers Becomes An Artist Manager

image from futureofmusic.org On his personal blog, Topspin CEO Ian Rogers has revealed that in addition to running the direct to fan tech start-up, he's also co-managing a new artist. The focus of Roger's attention is Get Busy Committee, a duo of RyuApathy (solo MC, Army of Pharoahs, Demigodz) and Scoop Deville (in-demand producer for Snoop Dogg, Clipse, The Game, Murs and more).

image from 2dopeboyz.okayplayer.com
As Roger's explains it, "being the CEO of Topspin and not having experience managing a band is like running Flickr and not taking photos".  The debut album has, as you might imagine, been released with the help of Topspin. But Rogers and the band have also assembled a team to support the release and he's shared their choices in the post. He also promises that this is just the beginning.,"I am going to try to blog the experience in hopes it might be interesting/useful for others."

That's where things could get interesting for the rest of us.

Ian Rogers is smart to share to publicly his experiences as manager. Too many management and revenue relationships stay hidden in the music industry. Continuing to share the "how" proves transparency; and many will find the information useful.

The single measure of the success of this experiment should be Roger's ongoing blogging – not the band's sales numbers.  He needs to follow up regularly with the results, with what works and what doesn't. Otherwise, today's blog post will feel like clever release hype.  I'm betting that is not what Rogers is up to; though I admit that his post led me to listening and I liking what I heard: kid of Gnarls meets Girl Talk with a tip of the hat to Run DMC.

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10 Comments

  1. ^^By the sound of things, the decision was made prior to October, for sure.
    I thought this was a really standout piece, one of the best reads on music management I’ve seen in a long time. Very thorough and, more important, actionable.

  2. It’s about time Ian Rogers actually tried doing something in the music business as opposed to just getting his face in the press and theorizing about everything.

  3. Hey guys,I wear cool horn-rimmed glasses, have long hair, and an overall meticulously-cultivated CEO 2.0.image. I’m ridiculously overexposed, and deliver stimulating lectures that shroud my company’s products in suspense and mystery.
    I now manage an obscure hip-hop duo. Write an article about me in hypebot!!

  4. Again, it always reverts back to the music. GBC is just another unoriginal rap act – nothing new.
    Widgets – I still think Tunecores widget blows Topspins out the door.

  5. ^at least Topspins are white labeled unlike those god awful ReverbNation ones.
    GBC being a sucky group is a matter of opinion. They aren’t my cup of tea either but thats not my type of music. They definitely serve a niche.
    just my two cents.

  6. OH thi sis huge and exactly what I WANT TO SEE. These types of sites are the labels of the future. they get it – they can immediately suss out artists through the network that have provable listeners, fans and sales. Making smarter investments than online recording labels. Labels have completely forgotten that their primary business is connecting fans to artists not selling recorded music – when they figure out there are very valuable ways of connecting fans to artists that they can monetize, then they will have solved the primary industry problem, making their fight against Piracy irrelevant!

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