Preface
The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate how you can uplevel yourself as an independent musician in the shortest amount of time possible, regardless of which country you’re in, your instrument, your degree, your favorite records. Independent jazz musicians can dominate and disrupt the industry, especially in 2024.
In this presentation you will learn how we discovered a multi-billion dollar market for jazz musicians, and how building a brand is not what you think it is.
To understand the multi-billion dollar market, to achieve innovative success that aligns with your goals as a musician, you must shift your perspective from “building a business” to “building your brand” which leads to being the most competent modern musician that you can be.
In other words you must understand that your brand is your business, and your business is you. Ironically enough, if you actually have your brand together, you will play better.
This is for you if you’re a serious independent musician or your business services musicians, and you’ve identified that your business actually complements your playing, and that to succeed in this day and age musicians are required to be professionals.
Or, by first hand experience, you’ve toured, been approached or are signed by labels, recorded albums, and understand the power of representing yourself with professionally, and you’re looking to navigate your next steps as an artist through a tactical understanding the music industry and music market.
Maybe you don’t have the personal connections and insider information from those making moves in the industry, which takes up a ton of time both on and off of your social media accounts. Then, you have to figure out how the algorithm works, what to do with it.
You are a musician who sees the future of what it will require to succeed both musically and professionally, struggling to effectively find a balance between entrepreneurship and top-tier improvisation.
Either way, you’re looking for the shortest path to clarity and ultimately achieve higher quality gigs and opportunities - the point at which your income from playing matches the intensity of your lifestyle and business, and leads you to financial freedom.
Music Industry Trends
Post COVID shutdown - wars, society ungluing themselves from quarantine, and less time on digital devices - all the while there have been massive advances in technology behind the scenes and right in front of us.
As a result of the introduction of massive amounts of technology being developed, introduced and implemented within enterprises, the largest corporations were able to cut down costs and optimize massive amounts of time. Many low performers at their jobs were laid off, and new jobs were created.
The speed of the transmission of information increased exponentially.
Similar to social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, new technology allowed for large amounts of text and video data to be processed, transferred and analyzed, leading to the creation of more technology to keep up with the pace of big-data brokers like social media companies and credit card companies.
As a result, large enterprises who have relied on social media and financial technology for the last decade had no other option but to adopt and implement the technology in order stay up to date with the demands of the modern everyday consumers of digital media, or get left in the dust.
Because of this we are witnessing another mass adoption event. Much like the World Wide Web rising in the mid nineties, and two decades later social media platforms, enterprise level AI technology is readily available to the public, and will be the next innovation like WWW or Social Media.
We are in the middle of yet another digital gold rush which will not only impact our screens, but our day to day lives.
Today, many people share on social media daily and make in-person plans and TikTok dances - we communicate and manage our time and lives with more ease and enjoyment because of social media. Most people work for companies and jobs which leverage social media. Since these companies engage in business on social media, the trend tends to be that normal people end up leveraging all of this new and powerful Post-COVID technology as a result.
Thus almost 99% of jazz musicians are left in the past and without the help of a label or manager using the technology for them. The independent musician ends up stuck with a college education that didn’t teach them how to stay relevant in today’s global economy and society. The jazz musician often remains unable to invest in themselves, affecting their well being and their financial, personal futures.
In 2024 financial freedom as an artist doesn’t mean sacrificing your time and goals of becoming the best musician that you can be. If you understand how to position yourself to leverage the growing market and economy, scale attention to reach brands, festivals, institutions and access a global audience of new fans outside of your followers who are hungry for new, real and powerful music, you are at a huge advantage.
You can effectively grow the quality and quantity of attention on your brand and save hundreds of hours of your time just by learning about this new technology.
When you are saving a ton of time, you can produce new fans, new business opportunities, and connect the dots to make thousands of dollars within a month as an independent artist.
Most jazz musicians aren’t equipped to do so, because the technologies are new and require the understanding and motivation that come with any independent artist fully grasping that they are the original entrepreneur.
Independent artists are the only people engaged with one of the most powerful businesses models in the world, performance. Yet, they sell themselves short and lose out because they don’t understand that as natural-born entrepreneurs and problem solvers, musicians are directly competing for the attention of fans who are consumers. Instead of playing an instrument, these fans and consumers typically engage with digital technology at their jobs. In their personal affairs, technology provides solutions to their lives on a day to day basis, and a job provides the capital and relative exposure to innovative technology. It’s not too often that you see a jazz musician in a self driving CyberTruck from the future. Our consumers are sophisticated to technology and innovation.
Our fans consume our music while their personal lives and expectations are hinged to a growing, innovative and sophisticated economy. Technology and solutions for people are growing at an unbelievable pace. As a creator or producer, you are directly competing with the attention of consumers in the same technologically sophisticated market. The consumer’s expectations are at an all time because of hundreds of billions of dollars that are invested into readily accessible and convenient technology. As a jazz musician this is who your competition is. If you’re here reading this today, that’s not something to be jaded about. However, the word “jazz” is not something to rest your laurels on, either. The lexicon of our music stagnates if we are not up to speed with the world around us.
Due to a lack of understanding, many independent artists experience a gap between how much time they are able to spend deeply mastering their craft, survival and how little money and time is invested into their own well being and growth.
As a result, independent artists often are caught in a stressful, uphill battle of financial restraint. Great artists find themselves competing for the very limited market share with subpar artists, and the audience doesn’t get the chance to know much better.
Most jazz musicians don’t understand how big of a problem this is for the world. The musicians that do carry a deep rooted cynicism and deal with analysis paralysis, one of the many pitfalls of artistry that can be alleviated and solved with technology. Imagine a world where there are no thriving chefs.
Independent artists aren’t equipped with the expertise or knowledge to understand the other side of the coin until they take out an advance at a label, hope for a good press release or spend out of reach dollars on a booking agent. I wouldn’t say that the business model is flawed, but there are other efficient and alternative routes that allow artists to provide more value to these businesses and services as well.
Since the consumers and spenders in the market and economy have access to high-powered technology at their jobs and in their social circles, their finances, well-beings, educations, expectations and quality of relationships are at an all time high.
That means that there is a wide open gap for jazz musicians to leverage this same technology to improve their lives, ultimately increasing the time, attention, passion and quality given to their creative endeavors.
My heroes - people like NEA Jazz Master Louis Hayes (John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver, Dexter Gordon, Grant Green, Cedar Walton), Harold Mabern (Lee Morgan, Wes Montgomery, George Coleman), Tyler Mitchell (Art Blakey, Shirley Horne, Sun Ra, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson), Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove - have earnestly thanked me after my performances for keeping this great American music alive. I’ve been called the MVP, a great and a virtuoso, by the same people who created universes of sound that carved a rich path of American history influencing generations to come.
We are the only group of jazz musicians dedicated to solving a serious problem for the torchbearers of this great American standard and globalized art form - a lack of digital innovation and Corporate Social Advocacy in the midst of a global and digital renaissance.
The Shed
After an impromptu rehearsal Giveton and I decided to venture into business and built InTheShed.Live (also known as the Modern Jazz Institute) in 2022. At the time, we were focused on mentoring students and sharing knowledge with musicians who want to increase their improvisational prowess. This was essential to us setting the foundations for the rest of our work.
After recording on Giveton’s debut record with Immanuel Wilkins, Micah Thomas and Phil Norris, Giveton decided that it was time to learn how to be a professional, and my business expertise intrigued him.
Wynton Marsalis
Roy Hargrove
I took Giveton on as a client and mentee, where we’d met up daily and come up with a strategy. Eventually, this turned into a full blown business, where I’d provide the strategy, direction, technology, protocol and mentorship, and Giveton would let me use his digital presence as a business to generate opportunities for both of us.
In the first 30 days, we increased the brand’s reach by 1700%.
In 45 days, we had made $7.5K using social media.
****In 90 days we generated attention that led us to securing collaborations and opportunities with Grammy Award Winning Artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Nicholas Payton, and Jon Batiste, major gigs, we were contacted by labels, media agencies and doors began to open up.
**During this time we provided a discourse of improvisation, composition & personal development based seminars hosted with educators & viewership from around the world.
In addition, we taught a 6-month program geared toward Music and Artist Development.**
Managing the content that we’d planned out, our presence built from 5K viewers to 10K new viewers, to 30K+ viewers weekly, adding an additional 27.1K non-follower views to our profile. Locals knew who we were because of Instagram, and we had created global viewership by sharing the music that we know and love.
**During this time we provided a discourse of improvisation, composition & artist development based seminars hosted with educators and pioneers in music.
Nicholas Payton:** Nicholas Payton is a Grammy Award-winning jazz trumpeter, pianist, composer, and bandleader. He has been active in the jazz scene since the early 1990s and has released numerous acclaimed albums as a leader. Payton is known for his virtuosic playing and his ability to blend different styles and genres into his music, including traditional New Orleans jazz, swing, bebop, and hip-hop. In addition to his work as a performer, Payton is also an educator and has conducted master classes and workshops around the world.
****Nick Payton has been instrumental and helpful in effectively communicating his ideas on music's most complex topics in a truly insightful manner to us at #InTheShed.Live.
The lessons learned from Nicholas Payton have led me to develop a stronger understanding of the historic significance of our music and how to internalize it at the highest level.
In addition to featuring A-list artists, we also created partnerships and agreements with The Juilliard School, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Ministry of Education of the Bahamas.
The impact even led us to be recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Some of Our Members 30 days #InTheShed:
Dor Baron an 18-year-old pianist from Israel with a dream for world peace and unity through the power of music. Through the InTheShed infrastructure he has broached an agreement with the top jazz education organization in Israel and educational pioneer Yonatan Voltzok.
Pannonica Jazz is the program Dor grew up learning from, and now he has put himself in a position working with this program in a context connecting them with #InTheShed, The Juilliard School, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, ultimately helping his hometown broaden their network and impacting his community for generations to come.
Kara Kaizen - a talented multi-disciplinary artist based in Miami, Florida. In 30 days of working with ITS, she has solidified her own arts community in Florida “Open Existence” which she now is creating a network of different artists across different fields and bringing people together. We have helped her create a similar business model and platform infrastructure as #InTheShed, and she can now use that information to service her business growth.
Jeffery Miller is a world-renowned Trombonist from New Orleans who has collaborated with major acts such as John Legend, The Jonas Brothers, Wynton Marsalis, and Jon Batiste.
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Eddie Henderson:
Eddie Henderson is a jazz trumpet player who has made a name for himself collaborating with major acts such as Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, and Dexter Gordon. He is also an educator, having taught at the University of California, Berkeley and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.
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Gary Bartz:
Gary Bartz is a legendary American saxophonist and composer who has been active in the jazz scene since the 1960s. He has collaborated with many notable musicians, including Miles Davis, Art Blakey, and McCoy Tyner. Bartz is known for his innovative and versatile approach to jazz, incorporating elements of funk, soul, and R&B into his music. He has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades throughout his career, including a Grammy Award for his work with McCoy Tyner.
Educators and Musicians from around the world gathered to learn and contribute to our platform both with and without our direction, following a 60 day schedule of events.
