Sean Lynch, Ronnie Tomlison, Ravi Ramkeesoon & Carter Van Pelt talk Digital Trends in Music
All photos by Champion Hamilton of Champion Eye Media
VP Records in association with CITE Collective and Style & Vibes presented an engaging conversation about “Digital Trends in Music.” The event was an informative and detailed conversation on how digital analytics, playlist curation, social media, podcasts and more impact artists in today’s music industry.
“Within this modern digital age of music, where data is so abundant, this (analytics) is now a significant part of the formula.” Ravi Share on XModerated by Mikelah of Style & Vibes, the event was free and ideal for anyone interested in learning more about the digital segment of the music industry and beyond. The panelists included, Ronnie Tomlison (Music Publicist & CEO of Destine Media PR), Sean Lynch (VP of Marketing for JSSI, formerly of FILA North America), Ravi Ramkeesoon (CEO of Findmyfans.co) and Carter Van Pelt (Director of Catalog for VP Records) The panelist engaged in the topics of the current state of the music industry’s digital trends representing some of the best in marketing, publicity and branding.
When it comes to music, digital has changed the way artists reach their fans and how fans consume artists’ music. With so many avenues to discover new music putting some context behind how the digital landscape has impacted Caribbean artists. The panel concentrated around digital trends as it relates to music artists branding themselves, remaining relevant and using the right tools to find your audience and to create engaging spaces and experiences for artists and fans.
On playlist curation
“Just like there was in the 90s, there’s still some pay to play happening with some of these playlists. Sometimes it take a budget and sometimes it takes a lot of man power from the management team putting in work to get you on playlists.”-Sean
“I’d like to see the radio DJs playlist, I trust them, but most don’t do it. As a community we need to encourage them to get in on that.” -Carter
“The playlists are important to get the music out there. We’re starting to see artist curate their own playlists.” -Ronnie
“We see the importance when our songs getting onto playlists. What we need to look at is the programmers, the people who actually impact what you see when you land on any positioning within the streaming service. They deal with unimaginable amounts of content do they have the cultural competence to deal with music from the Caribbean? Africa diaspora, China or wherever? Probably not. It’s such a big universe of music and the most vulnerable to influence of very few people.” – Carter
On taking on clients and budget strategy:
“I tend to look at artist who are really out there on social media. An artist is their own biggest promoter. If s/he are very active on social then I’ll shift budgets as opposed to the person who is straight studio, straight talent, but shy away from social media. It also depends on the market. What countries and cities we’re targeting. ” – Ronnie
“Figuring out your strategy is important. (Do you want) radio play, bookings, promotion. It’s really about the strategy to get from one point to the next.” – Ravi
“We definitely create a budget by project for digital marketing for each release. It’s up to the project managers to decide how it’s allocated.” – Carter
“Double down at what you’re good at. This year J Balvin became the biggest streamed artist on Spotify because his team doubled time on the energy spent there. He’s no slouch on Apple Music and Youtube, but he knew where his fan base is and where it was growing.” – Sean
On Social Media Clout
“Social media itself has become this place to push products. Which is really good from an artist point of view, because it allows for artist to deliver to their fan base. And you don’t have to be that big, you just need to have the right artist/product fit. So in that way social media clout is important.” – Ravi
“While it’s less important for the work that I do, it’s desirable when an artist has a social media presents. One thing to think about, from a legacy standpoint is what you want to happen with your social media when you pass. The biggest influence for Dennis Brown is his daughter Marla, she runs his Original Dennis Brown account and any time we’re releasing an album we can reach out to her for support on the project. -Carter
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