Artist development isn't dead, but it's definitely changed. Two decades ago, a 20-something jazz musician named Norah Jones became a star for Blue Note Records, a traditional route to stardom when people still bought CDs and social media didn't exist. Last year's jazz artist, Laufeyshe has cultivated a fan base on TikTok and posts sheet music for her songs online so fans can download them before the recordings are released.
To the CEO of AWAL Lonnie Olynyk, Laufey's success is a sign of the times. The Icelandic singer built an online audience on her own, but needed a team to grow her career and handle marketing and promotion logistics. AWAL's second album, Spellbound, topped Billboard's Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums charts in September. “We're seeing this real tipping point where artists are starting to realize, with their own groups and then between the group and AWAL, that there are no barriers to what can be accomplished,” says Olinick, who earned an MBA from Stanford Business. School and worked at the consulting firm Bain & Company before joining Kobalt in 2016.
Artists like JVKE, whose “Golden Hour” reached No. 10 on the 2022 Billboard Hot 100, and Mercury Prize winner Little Simz used AWAL to find success outside the major label system. AWAL's service-centric approach is becoming the norm as major labels increasingly provide distribution, marketing, promotion, accounting and even financing without having to own the rights to artists' recordings as part of standard deals. Sony Music acquired AWAL in 2022 to complement its labels and distribution business, The Orchard. Universal Music Group is also creating its own artist services business, through a revamped Virgin Label group.
A ping pong table that Olinick says “we have artists sign when they're in the LA office.”
Maggie Shannon
Surprisingly, service-based music companies still have to do many of the same things as traditional labels — just with different offerings. Only recently, Olinick says, has the 16-year-old company really risen to that challenge. “Last year and the year before were probably the first years where we fully realized that vision, where I'm confident we can do all the things that exist in the traditional world.”
Most people in the music industry understand labels and distributors, but service-based companies are a little harder to understand. I get. How would you describe AWAL to the uninitiated?
The most important part of music in my mind is the development of artists. You try to find artists who have great music, compelling stories and work ethic and try to help them carve their own path. And throughout history, the best artists have been artists who don't fit into a box, and the path they take is completely custom. And you can't do it the same way again. What we've tried to do is build a company that's the best in the world at doing that — at finding artists who have great stories to tell and helping them grow. You need a great marketing team, a great digital marketing team, radio, timing and branding — all the things that exist in the brick-and-mortar world. What we've tried to do is create a company that can do all of those things, just with a different business model to keep the finances in favor of the artist.
You don't have a one-size-fits-all model — you choose who you want to work with. How do you do that;
We are very opinionated about music. It's really important as a company to have that creative aesthetic that's driven by A&R. There are three dimensions to this in my mind. There is music: Does music speak to people? Second, is there a story that needs to be told and does this person want to communicate something beyond the music that is interesting and compelling? And three, does the person have a work ethic? Success in music requires relentless hard work from all sides.
“I love art of all kinds and I'm very inspired by culture,” Olinick says. “These books cover amazing music, art and sneaker culture.”
Maggie Shannon
Tell me about the staff on the creative side, as well as the administrative side.
We do everything, but the majority of our staff is focused on A&R, marketing and creative. That's where we believe we can be different and where we can help our artists tell stories. There are 180 people in 14 offices. It operates as a global company. If we find a record in Sweden, the American company can jump on it, or the British company or the Canadian company. Everyone works as a team to try to do the best they can for the artist. And in each of those offices, we have traditional marketing, digital marketing, timing, brand partnerships, publicity — we basically do everything an artist needs largely in-house. And then to the extent that we feel we need something beyond what our 180 people can do, we'll work together.
What is the financial commitment when working with an artist? Do you always write a check?
It depends. Some of the deals are not funded. We're lucky to be part of Sony, so if it makes sense and we believe in the opportunity, there's no audit we couldn't write if it made sense. But each deal is tailored for the artist. We try to put as much money into marketing as possible because we think that's the thing we can do and hope it makes a difference.
This “eye thing is something my son made for me,” Olinick says. The feeling of being watched 'keeps me motivated every day. The little trophy comes from our office awards for “Person on the Phone the Most”. I'm very proud of that.”
Maggie Shannon
Sony acquired AWAL in 2022 and already owned The Orchard. How do the two work together?
The whole Sony ecosystem makes a lot of sense and AWAL and The Orchard are great examples of that. The Orchard is best in class in supporting record labels. And if you look at the scale at which they operate and the quality of what they do on behalf of the labels, there's just no one else doing that kind of work. They are an incredible team to lead Brad [Navin] and Daughter [Theis], which are just incredible strains. I look at us in a similar way: the best at developing artists in this non-traditional way. Being able to collaborate on tools and distribution is a big plus for our customers and The Orchard's customers.
A few artists have gone through big or big indies on AWAL, including Nick Cave, Cold War Kids and Jungle. Have some artists gone from AWAL to major labels?
Our job is to develop the best artists in the world. And I think if we do that – especially if we do it on any scale – there's going to be some artists where the deal that a major label offers is really exciting. Early on, we saw a lot more artists that would migrate and go do another deal. We developed Steve Lacy, Omar Apollon and Kim Petras — artists who went on and had real major label success.
“The Marshall cabinet is actually a refrigerator,” Olinick says. “My office tends to have items from our artists, but the exception is that Beatles collectibles — I have nothing to do with the Beatles, but it reminds me that I aspire to work with the greatest artists.”
Maggie Shannon
You've had some time to integrate into Sony. How has being part of this larger company changed your life as a CEO?
Whenever you're dealing with these things, you have aspirations of what they're going to be. At the same time, [merger and acquisition] Deals tend not to be what you expected. People think I sometimes tout the company line, and it couldn't be further from the truth: The experience was amazing. This boils down to two dimensions. Rob [Stringer, Sony Music CEO] it's just an incredible strain of music coming from an A&R perspective. Being part of a company that sets the tone that music is at the heart of everything you do has made us a better company. And so it was basically, “Here are all these resources that Sony has that you can take advantage of, but continue to run the company the way you have because we've had a lot of success doing that.” Everything was prosthetic.
We have more resources to invest. We have better technology. We can work with Sony in certain markets where it makes sense. We are out there building local businesses in Spain, Brazil, Nigeria and India. The Sony team has been incredibly supportive. Everyone sees that this is an important part of the business, and because AWAL is so music-centric, like Sony, there's just a lot of mutual respect and collaboration. It was nothing less than a refresh to an already active business.
The music industry is undergoing some downsizing with layoffs and consolidation. Are you planning to lay off people or are you hiring?
We are actively hiring. We hired a head of hip-hop and R&B last year Norva Denton. We hired a senior VP of A&R at Chris [Foitel]. We hired Cami [Operé], who is our reporter. We just hired a new CFO [Sumit Chatterjee]. We have recruited in Spain, Brazil and Nigeria. We bought a company in India [digital distribution firm OKListen]. So we are active in the market because the business continues to grow. We had our best year last year. we will have our best year this year.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/awal-lonny-olinick-interview-sony-orchard-artist-deals/
