The Template: Diamond District Remix
Posted by Justin Boland on Nov 16, 2009 | 19 comments
After writing The Template: Planning Your First Album, I’ve been re-thinking it ever since. I’d like to introduce you to Oddisee, the DMV renaissance man, who’s got a system that’s proven to work and gives us some real numbers to work with. Diamond District’s debut album, In the Ruff
Oddisee, Preaching
“If you go about putting out hip hop the old way, you’re going to be destroyed by leaking and bootlegging. If you’re still subscribing to the formula of ’my albums done and I have to give it to press immediately 3 months before, and I have to promote a single on college radio and be underground, and do a tour 3 months before and 3 months after,’ you will be destroyed by downloading.”
Source: Crate Kings
If you dig Audible Hype you should definitely be checking Crate Kings—it’s the best source for news on hip hop production I’ve found. They’re also paying close attention to the business end, and it was this video that first made me realize how ambitious Oddisee was.
The Oddisee Template
“The most recent projects, they kinda came out right at the same time. Diamond District came out on April 14th, which was a group album, Mental Liberation is a compilation album that I produced, which came out May 5th, and then I dropped an EP called Odd Summer on May 29th.
Those three projects are kind of a new formula that I’m experimenting with, of putting out a limited version of those projects for free, gaining the numbers and the statistics from those, and then using those numbers to go to labels and get bigger deals once I re-vamp the record.
Same thing with Diamond District: it was 12 songs, edited, with slightly different cover art. So now that it came out, 12,000 downloads later, rave reviews, all of the legends I look up to bigging us up, tour offers, etcetera…I pitched that album for new distribution, and it’s coming out, again, as a physical version and on iTunes. It will have 14 songs, it will be un-edited, you’ll also be able to get the instrumentals free when you download it, it will be on vinyl…all different types of incentives to purchase something.
I believe in statistics, really. If I can get—by the time it comes out—20,000 people to download it…that means I can get, units sold, 5 to 8 thousand to buy it. Just based off sheer numbers. And that 5 to 8, translates to a “a living.”
The “new distribution” pitch found a home at Mello Music Group, which is run by Michael Tolle, someone I’d like to interview before 2010 rolls around: “We heard In The Ruff and thought ‘this is the best album of year.’ We had to document it in a physical, tangible way. MP3’s are cool, but in the end, we wanted to leave behind a cd, some vinyl ““ something audiophiles could hold in their hands.”
Mello Music Group pursued the same approach Oddisee does: testing the digital waters to gather data before the full release. They led off with two early iTunes single releases: I Mean Business on Sept. 15th and Who I Be on Oct. 6th. Both Tuesdays, in case you were wondering. Exactly two weeks later, they dropped the full LP on iTunes.
I have no idea how it’s selling. If you do, please drop a comment and let a mammal know.
Audible Treats: Digital PR Done Right
A good team matters, because DIY never really means Do It Yourself. One of the invisible hands involved with the success of In the Ruff is the “marketing and publicity firm” Audible Treats. They’ve got a wicked impressive track record going—Black Milk’s TRONIC, Finale’s Pipe Dream and a Promise, and Tanya Morgan’s Brooklynati. Dope projects that were everywhere and stayed in circulation for months at a time. There was a team behind that kind of consistency. The front end looks like this:
Check out how they set up their promotion page for Diamond District. Simple, clean, and it includes everything that a blogger or a journalist (or a potential corporate sponsor) could want. Maintaining links and material like this involves attention to detail, and Audible Treats is an operation worth studying.
Writing good Bio copy is not easy, but it’s necessary. Bad writing doesn’t have to happen to you. Check out Greg Rollet’s very useful and powerful exercise, Learn to Describe the Crap Out of Your Music. I’m not writing an advertisement for PR crews like Audible Treats, I’m recommending you spend some time taking notes on what they’re doing. And steal it ASAP. Apply it to your own operation.
Remember, though, one thing you can’t replicate, swipe or copy is a network. When you’ve got a product you really think is potential gold, it’s worth buying the attention of experienced and connected people.
The Vision Statement
“My long term goal is to become a consolidated version of Motown, to be honest. Now, Motown found artists, groomed them, cultivated them, recorded them, mixed and mastered them, and booked their tours. It was a label that did everything. And that what I want to do, but in a smaller version.”
Comments are closed.
My Music
19 Comments
1 Daniel \"Danny Dee\" Aguayo says...
This is a testament of how music, now more than ever, is a data driven business. Take all the guess work out of your project by taking a social audit and using your data to direct your online campaign.
Study your analytics & look at all digital touch points & create estimates based on the following criteria:
how many people are coming ot ur website
how many people are searching for you on google
how many fans do u have a direct conection with
(via email,twitter, facebook)
You now know roughly what your conversion is if you know how many fans you can touch & you know what % of this will convert based on the offer. And if you know what your margins are on those offers you can roughly estimate your revenue.
Oddisse took it 1step further and used that as leverage after to garner interest from an outside label.
Bravo brotha, bra fuckin vo!
Hat tip to Audible Treats...they are the truth.
Posted at 2:53 a.m. on November 16, 2009
2 Quiet Entertainer says...
good post. I got tuned in to Diamond District by following one of your comment threads. Ironically, all of this promotion discussion is humbling and reminding me that you really ought to have great music to go along with this; as has been said before on this site.
Posted at 3:52 a.m. on November 16, 2009
3 HubertGAM says...
This is more along the lines I am thinking, but I am wondering how Oddisee is keeping up with the 5-8000 that he assumes will buy his music. I am a fan, but I have not opted-in to one subscriber list and I haven't seen any either. I would have to rely on other sources to find out about their tour. PR is great, but having your own personal network is EVEN BETTER.
Posted at 9:51 p.m. on November 16, 2009
4 Infinitez says...
This is one of the best drops you've done on audible hype so far. thank you.
Posted at 7:33 p.m. on November 18, 2009
5 Justin Boland says...
Thanks, folks.
I definitely think this was an important puzzle piece. I appreciate everyone's help promoting it. Got an interview with Tolle in the works and I'll be contacting Oddisee, too.
Posted at 7:39 p.m. on November 18, 2009
6 robotic optic says...
great post as usual .. thanks .. Im just checking out that Diamond District now, hoo0! Hologram is my new jam I think!
the business mind behind this young guy = very impressive .. I wonder how long he was "in" the industry observing and thinking before he build his empire?
you should interview oddisee, too .. keep up the good work here
Posted at 2:35 a.m. on November 19, 2009
7 Justin Boland says...
His first release "Foot in the Door" was a DJ Jazzy Jeff co-sign, and it was apparently heavily bootlegged and mostly shelved because of the leaks. This was clearly a formative experience because everything he's done since is built around strategies to deal with the REALITY of leaking.
I know I've been hearing of Oddisee since 1999, when I was a senior in high school back in Vermont. He's been around for awhile now.
Posted at 1:41 p.m. on November 23, 2009
8 Sat Heezy says...
He used to do a ton of shit with Kenn Starr and Halftooth Records... I got a label comp back in 2004 or so that had him on half the songs and he was the highlight by far
Posted at 8:42 a.m. on November 28, 2009
9 Adera says...
Hugely inspirational blog. I will be up for the rest of the night tieing up my loose ends. Thank you for the dose of inspiration.
Posted at 2:13 a.m. on February 28, 2010
10 Max Voxx says...
Gotta be the best fucking music busness article I have ever found on these internets, fuck yeah.
Posted at 5:33 a.m. on March 6, 2010
11 101 says...
This is one of the best drops you've done on audible hype so far. thank you.
Posted at 5:01 p.m. on March 13, 2010
12 Maudite Etranger says...
The best article you've ever written, this was perfect.
Posted at 9:51 p.m. on April 4, 2010
13 L Ron Thuggard says...
Nobody inspires me to up my game like Oddisee. I always google for interviews with him but this is great journalism. Just wanted to say!
Posted at 11:50 p.m. on May 4, 2010
14 The Weight says...
So you do World Around Records, right? got linked here from that Twitter. Always good stuff here. This site looks dope, too, and this was a great breakdown, I like ur style.
Do you know what Oddisees deal is on distribution now? How does he handle multiple projects? There's a lot more questions I Wanna ask him obv. So do an interview, ha ha.
PEACE and thanks and keep doin it
Posted at 5:50 a.m. on May 6, 2010
15 Justin Boland says...
Yes indeed, captain, I'm part of World Around. Glad you're digging the site and the stream of music biz BS I flood twitter with.
I, too, would like to ask Oddisee about dealing with multiple projects. I'll definitely try to get that interview.
Posted at 11:32 a.m. on May 6, 2010
16 Closure says...
World Around has dope shit, you should do a breakdown like this on what you guys are doing and how you run the business.
Posted at 2:11 p.m. on May 7, 2010
17 Justin Boland says...
^^Well, check how many Oddisee albums you can get on iTunes and then look for our guys. We're just getting started, 2010 is a launch-pad more than us running a clinic on How To Do This. Audible Hype is me documenting the learning process.
See, I just always talk like I understand the entire fucking Universe and there is nobody else with a mouth you should ever bother listening to. I do that around the clock. People assume I'm some sort of expert because of that.
I'm not complaining! Just saying, we're all better off listening to people who have already done this. Experience trumps intelligence all day, every day.
Posted at 3:08 p.m. on May 7, 2010
18 Piff Piven says...
THIS WAS RAD please PLEASE do something like this for Def Jux and Atmosphere and other underground artists who "DONE DID IT"
Posted at 1:01 p.m. on May 11, 2010
19 Chris Evanston II says...
Great material here. I found it quite especially interesting that his early experience getting burned by piracy is the very thing that made his thinking evolve so far ahead of the curve. When artists ask me for advice today, well I usually pretend I'm someone else but otherwise I tell them "Nike ruined your life" They took the most important phrase, Just Do It, and reduced it to an ad for shoes. They spent trillions of dollars doing it, too, with rather raises some questions about our cultural priorities. At least we have nice kicks, eh??
For those who don't know me, I'm just a glorified rich kid who hung out with rappers since college, which put me in a position to fund and manage a number of projects. Everything our elders and our mentors told us was BS. No lawyer we ever gave us accurate advice or prepared us for dealing with labels and distributors. We learned by experience. Messing up pissed us off and it made us sharper, better.
I would add that nothing ever lasts. Money always goes sour. The longest working relationship I had was 2 albums in a row and that was the ugliest final act too. The other smart thing Oddisee is doing is building himself first and foremost. I don't make beats or rap or even want to be THAT GUY but if you do, study Oddisee very carefully. Observe how he builds community THROUGH himself, not a metaphor, I mean geometry and math, connecting PERSON A to PERSON B literally through himself. He books shows, produces in the top .05% of the game, does promotion and artist management, creates groups and seeks out talent around the world, never stops moving.
So remember, money never lasts. F that wall street movie coming out, money sleeps 24/7 and that's why wall street is possible inna first place, rite? MONEY NEVER LASTS. Build yourself as the foundation, when people in your crew question it, explain that it benefits the entire operation. If they keep questioning it, tell them to fuck off. But only if you have a gun.
Posted at 2:17 a.m. on May 14, 2010