Dawson Morris

‘Manager Spotlight’ is a recurring feature on Rollo & Grady in which we speak with rising stars in the music management business. This week we caught up with Dawson Morris of DC mgmt based in Athens, Georgia. Dawson currently manages Dead Confederate.

R&G: How did you get your start in the music business?

Dawson: Well, I was shot with a handgun at an Allman Brothers concert in Atlanta, GA in 1994, and I’ve been hooked on the drama ever since….While that is true, the real story is that being involved in the music business was something I wanted to do, and I was fortunate enough to know some guys who were really good at making music. I had always been into music – played violin for 11 or so years, promoted band parties in high school, sang and played in bands in and after college, and went to countless concerts – but the career I’m working on now I owe completely to the trust of the 5 guys I currently represent. They were succeeding at a rapid pace and I stepped in to offer help. Then, when things really escalated for them, and the rubber met the road, they trusted the decisions I was making and it’s just naturally grown from there.

R&G: What advice would you give to aspiring managers?

Dawson: Obviously, you should try to work with artists who are really talented and who are good people too. And don’t be impatient. Things happen really slowly in this business…everything has a process. It’s also good to listen to more experienced people who are willing to help you out.

R&G: If I had known then what I know now, I would….

Dawson: I would have taken steps to be involved in the business side of music at a much younger age…Really, what that means is I would’ve caught on that I wasn’t cut out for performing much sooner!

R&G: How important are social media sites like Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and music blogs in promoting Dead Confederate?

Dawson: I think they’re very important. It was really strange this year at SXSW with Twitter. I was really just learning about it, and they told me that Dead Confederate was the most “Twittered” band one day. I was like, “What the hell does that mean!?” and then Dave Allen from Gang of Four told me it was a good thing, so I went along with him on that one.

R&G: Most interesting or humorous situation you’ve dealt with as a manager?

Dawson: Irish mob. Nuff said.

R&G: Blackberry or iPhone?

Dawson: I’m way too cutting edge for either.

Dead Confederate – The Rat
Dead Confederate – Is It A Rose (Live on MOKB radio)

Download:
Dead Confederate – Wrecking Ball (iTunes)

(Via – Greg Sandoval)
“There was little breathtaking about Apple’s music-focused announcements Wednesday, but what was clear is that the company has focused a lot of resources on improving the music discovery and buying experiences.

Apple’s announcements lacked the jaw-dropping device or service that in the past has spurred big spikes in music sales. The company now appears to be focusing on making incremental gains by helping music buyers find and purchase music, videos, and iPhone applications. Dare I say it, but most of Apple’s music-related announcements centered on humdrum retail chores.” Continue Reading

[Via- Emily Steel – WSJ.com]
“MySpace is in talks to acquire online music service iLike, according to a person familiar with the situation, as the social-networking site tries to stem steep declines in traffic and become a destination for entertainment content. The details are still being worked out, but a deal could come as early as this week, the person says. Technology blog TechCrunch reported the news earlier Monday.

iLike, run by brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi, lets users on social-networking sites share music. It was started in 2006 as an attempt to retool GarageBand.com, which had sought to create an independent music community for recording artists to promote themselves. iLike is popular on social-networking sites, including Facebook, Orkut and hi5, and says it has more than 50 million registered users. A spokeswoman for iLike declined to comment on the talks.” [Continue Reading]

[Via – Michael Arrington – Techcrunch.com]
iLike Just Launched Its Own Music Download Store
“Popular music recommendation service iLike launched a music download service this afternoon, offering users MP3 downloads for $0.89 to $1.29 per song. Previously the service only offered users the ability to sample 30 second clips of songs, or restricted full streaming via a partnership with Rhapsody (now phased out).

The service is rolling out now on iLike (I was able to purchase a song), and should be available to all U.S. users by end of day, says iLike. iLike applications on iGoogle, Facebook, Bebo and other platforms will also be available “soon” says the company for U.S. user. Continue Reading

Scottie Diablo

Last week we ran our first installment of ‘Manager Spotlight’, where we speak with rising stars in the music management business. This week we caught up with Scottie Diablo of Acid Bird Management in Los Angeles. Scottie currently manages Austin-based rockers White Denim.

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R&G: How did you get your start in the music business?

Scottie: My obsession for music almost got me kicked out of school at a young age. My path to the guiding light of Rock ‘n’ Roll was born in the early 80’s. I learned about the history of Rock ‘n’ Roll by reading lots of fanzines, magazines, attending live shows, studying liner notes, studying album cover art and absorbing anything music related. I never played an instrument, so starting a band was out of the question. The only way I could contribute to the “art” was becoming a manager. I had enough street smarts and knowledge of music that assisted me in managing my first band around 1995. Initially it was bullshitting club bookers on how many people the band drew, collecting money, and meeting people within the L.A. music club scene. Nowadays a band can book a tour with a few bulletins on their Myspace account. Back then, it was phone calls and driving to clubs to drop off music. My favorite clubs back then were AL’s Bar (Downtown L.A.), Bar Deluxe, The Garage, and Moguls in Hollywood. The first band I managed dissolved in the late 90’s and I didn’t manage another band until the mid-2000’s. I worked with a band that got signed to Secretly Canadian/Dead Oceans, a post-punk band from New Zealand, and a rapper from the Midwest. Those three artists independently found greener pastures. The stars aligned in 2007 when I met with White Denim. In my mind – the most important band in Rock ‘n’ Roll today.

R&G: What advice would you give to aspiring managers?

Scottie: Never be an asshole to anyone. That’ll get you nowhere fast. I never understood these young manager types that were complete dicks. People assume that just because you’re a “manager” you’re entitled to be an asshole. I’ve never bought into that bullshit. If you’re a manager of Starbucks, would you treat your customers like assholes? (#2) It’s all about your “ear” and the excitement you feel for the artist(s) you’re working with. If you’re in this for the big bucks, then it’s time to move onto a career in plastic surgery or owning a “trendy” mobile taco truck. I get hit up all the time by loads of bands asking me to be their manager. I feel really uncomfortable getting solicited by a band that I’ve never heard of. I’ve managed bands because I have a personal connection with their music. I’m not a “band collector”. Some managers or gigantic management companies take on artists because they see the flavor of the month cash cow. I actually overheard a guy at The Echo a few years back yell, “Dude, check out my artist roster on the website, it’s growing like crazy dude”. He was drenched head to toe in Ed Hardy clothing. Fuck Rosters. Fuck expense accounts. Fuck tax write-offs at the bar. I don’t buy into that. Never have – never will. I do this for the sheer pleasure of watching passionate people write/record incredible songs and blowing minds with their live show. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to an album, the band rolls through L.A., I go to see them play and they think they’re the second coming of The Who at Leeds. You have to earn that shit. Period. The “All Look, No Hook” doesn’t fly in my book. My point after all this rambling is simple: Discover and uncover bands that YOU like. Don’t work with bands that are the flavor of the month. Music flavors change as quickly as a click of a mouse. In my opinion, that’s a waste of time. Screw trends. Trends are for fashion. Also, never dwell on “potential” failure. We all fail. Managing is tough. That’s a fact. Big Daddy Kane declared “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy”, so I’ll apply that same logic to band management.

Pioneering sound search technology and applications innovator MELODIS Corporation, announced that they have raised $4M additional funding in a round led by Walden Venture Capital VII, with participation from a major global device manufacturer.

“Melodis Sound2Sound Search Science is a breakthrough technology with a mass market future in empowering applications,” said Larry Marcus. “The unique methodology of Sound2Sound provides breakthroughs in speed and accuracy that can be leveraged across a plethora of applications that would benefit from sound or voice as the starting point for search. The Company’s flagship application, Midomi Ultra is already the top paid music app on iTunes. It targets people who love music, allowing quick identification of a song one hears playing, or enabling rapid search for music people know.”

[Via – Derek Thompson the Atlantic]
“For years the greatest fear of music titans was the pimply masses of teens downloading their artists’ music and sharing it with friends, so that the musicians’ product was proliferating even as the profit margins were shrinking. (Does that kind of thing sound familiar?)

No, but it’s better bad news than the old bad news. When kids download music from illegal sites, the music industry gets nothing out of it. But streaming sites usually pay back money to the music industry, even if it’s not enough to make up for the foregone album sales. Moreover, the sites register users and can market to them — tickets, gear and more bands. Here’s author Alexandra Topping on the possible benefits of a world of streaming music.” Continue Reading The Atlantic Article

By Andrew Orlowski of the Register:

A study of P2P music exchanges to be revealed this week suggests that the ailing music business is shunning a lucrative lifeline by refusing to license the activity for money.

The P2P networks are harder to quantify, but apparently show a similar pattern, where most of the action – and profit – is in the ‘head’. Each Top 100 CD on on PirateBay averaged 58,000 downloads a week, for example. Lady GaGa’s The Fame was downloaded 388,000 times in a week from PirateBay alone. Like its predecessor, the new study also finds that downloads follow a log-normal, rather a Pareto (or “power curve”) distribution as Anderson envisaged. The WiReD man had guessed the shape of the internet – and picked the wrong shape. Continue Reading