FAC Insights: Interview with Marc Brown, founder of Byta
On 31st August, FAC and Byta.com are partnering to present: #HowWeListen Live: In Conversation with Christine Osazuwa (Global Marketing Director of Data & Insights - Warner Music Group). Damn Good Numbers: Backing up Your Music with Data & Insights. A workshop followed by an in-depth interview. An event providing artists with the opportunity to learn how to make the numbers work: using data and insights to grow your audience and inform your marketing strategy.
Byta is the platform enabling everyone to send and receive digital audio in a clean, simple and secure way. Built for everyone working with music today. #HowWeListen is Byta’s nonprofit education arm. Passing on knowledge to tomorrow’s artists and industry leaders. Byta’s aim is to provide the tools and the knowledge to help creators, artists and musicians navigate the music business. Demystifying the music ecosystem one step at a time, making information accessible for all, through interviews, events, content and resources.
Synergy? We think so. The FAC represents the specific rights and interests of music artists. Serving a diverse, global membership of creators at all stages of their careers. The FAC is formed by artists, for artists, and we place this ethos at the centre of all we do. This partnership represents an aspiration to inform and educate artists of all backgrounds.
The music industry is an incredibly fast-moving and evolving space. Music creation is at the heart of what artists do. But in this digital age, there's so much more to do, post-creation. By partnering on this event, the FAC and Byta aim to inform artists about the numbers that matter. Backup your music with data and insights to aid in growing careers, understanding your audience and maneuvering the music ecosystem. Business can be an art and art can be a business. What does it mean to oversee and develop a marketing data strategy? How does one identify and break global priority artists by creating benchmarks and KPIs in order to ensure long-term global artist growth?
Christine Osazuwa has managed to combine all of her passions into roles consulting and working with various music startups, venues, festivals, radio stations and labels bridging the gap between music, data & business. Moderating the session is Byta founder Marc Brown. From owning a label to managing artists and radio promotion, Marc has 25+ years global music business experience.
FAC Insights: Interview with Marc Brown, founder of Byta
Who are you? Where are you based?
Marc Brown. I’m Canadian but based in Stockholm, Sweden.
What do you do?
Founder & CEO of Byta.
How did you come up with the idea for Byta?
I ran my own boutique radio promotion company when I lived in London. When I started everyone still sent CDs back and forth to each other through the post. I came up with the idea for Byta during the painful transition from CDs to digital. While consumer’s digital music experience improved markedly, as soon as Spotify launched, people who work with music suffered from a mix of platforms either not built for music or for niche use cases. What is most odd is that while most private audio sharing is done digitally today we are somewhat in the same situation, where audio sharing is still not as simple as it should be! That is what Byta is all about - enabling anyone to send and receive digital audio files and streams in a clean, simple and secure way.
Why #HowWeListen? What makes you want to demystify the music industry?
We started the #HowWeListen interview series out of frustration about what we were reading in the media. That the key to an artist's success was getting on a playlist or that algorithms were the best or only source of music discovery. Everyone at Byta has worked in and around music so we knew this was just a marketing narrative. Initially we just wanted to highlight all the diverse and interesting ways people find, listen and experience music.
The whole idea of How We Listen being more of a way for people to learn about how the music ecosystem works came later. I was going to a lot of conferences, getting super frustrated that so many people giving advice were just trying to sell their own services - “hire me if you want to succeed” type thing.
How important is it for artists to learn about navigating the music industry themselves before building a team?
I believe it is essential. When I started in music in the 90s there were no music business degrees and the internet was just getting going. That meant if you wanted to learn anything you needed to ask around and learn from your friends. I was lucky I lived somewhere (Halifax, Nova Scotia) where bands were making records, touring and making stuff happen. It comes from a long tradition: a punk rock, do-it-yourself or indie rock mentality is about making things happen for yourself, whatever that might be.
Fast forward to today and that mentality is even more important. Artists have control over their destinies in ways that were never possible before. However there are so many more decisions to make, systems to understand and hoops to jump through. Everyone needs help eventually but all of us, be it artists or people wanting to build a career in music, need to chart our own paths forward. I’ve written about this in Where is “There”? a post I wrote for my monthly blog series. Everyone has their own view of success so it's important they understand that and build their own vision before getting anyone else involved.
The workshop & interview on 31/08 will provide important insights and tips for emerging artists / creators. So, why Christine Osazuwa?
I can’t remember how I first heard about Christine, perhaps around her Measure of Music event Byta took part in last year. What impressed me about that was she was running this complex worldwide event with tons of different people from all corners of music from her kitchen while holding down a full time job. That is the ultimate in DIY for me.
I think the first time we really chatted was when I invited her to join a metadata panel I was moderating for Canadian Music Week earlier this year. We chatted about some pretty nerdy stuff but Christine’s magic is that she makes complex stuff very understandable and relevant and I think that is the key to being more comfortable in this increasingly data-driven world.
What do you think of this quote: "what gets measured gets managed"?
Ha ha ha, good quote! I wasn’t familiar so had to Google it, seems to be some controversy around it? Either way I think the spirit of the quote is spot on. The first step in understanding something, be that a metric or a concept is to be aware that it exists. Once that happens measuring or learning what that number, series of numbers or viewpoint is telling you is the next step. Then the more you understand the more you can benefit from the information.
What do you expect to be key takeaways for artists at this event?
Much like the question above I hope everyone who comes to this #HowWeListen: Live event will get a better understanding of how they can make data work for them, be they artists or people building a career in music. Specific takeaways should be:
How data can help you connect the dots of the music industry.
What artists can do to make an impact & develop a long-term music career
How to use the numbers to build your story: marketing strategy and audience development
Tips and advice on how best to manoeuvre the music industry at every level
Spreadsheets CAN be your friends. Oh, as can pivot tables!
Why are you partnering with the Featured Artists Coalition on this event? What’s significant about this partnership?
When we started these live events we thought it would be right to hand pick partners who have the same goals and ideologies and are suitable to the topic and who we are trying to help. An organisation like Featured Artists Coalition, representing the rights and interests of artists is very aligned with both Byta and #HowWeListen.
I for one have also been very impressed with Featured Artists Coalition’s own events so we thought FAC would be a great partner for our first event from London, UK.
Finally, 3 words of advice for artists. Go.
DIY - Do It Yourself.
Thanks Marc!
To join FAC and Byta on 31st August, sign up free and find more information here.