13 May Is your new favourite musician an industry plant?
Is the process in which the artists that you listen to reach the top entirely organic; or should we sceptical about the music industry’s approach to new talent?
The idea that your new favourite musician’s rapid journey from the music wilderness to the top of the charts usually is reliant on the idea that their growth is an organic development. However with the industry being controlled more and more by multinational labels and artist management brands, it appears in some cases that these new artist’s pushes for stardom are backed and almost programmed to come to fruition by the opportunities presented to them from the very start of their careers.
An ‘industry-plant’ is a term used in the music industry to describe a new artist who has the automatic backing of a major label as soon as they start out however they’re presented as an organic ‘home-grown’ talent. The reality of their situation is usually very low risk, high reward as the label’s desire to find the next biggest thing in music drives their careers.
21 year-old rapper and singer Barny Fletcher has experienced this process firsthand. After releasing seven songs on the music streaming platform SoundCloud over a year ago, his rise in the industry has been rapid and he’s due to release his first body of music next week: the mysteriously named mixtape ‘CANVAS2033’. He’s released two singles which have curated over 150,000 streams on leading music streaming website Spotify in the space of four weeks and he’s racked up over 70,000 monthly listeners already. This is in addition to weekly plays on big stations such as BBCRadio1 and being booked to perform at numerous music festivals around the world already such as Reading and Leeds in the summer, a festival owned by the father of international pop icon Dua Lipa in Kosovo, as well as the Spanish festival of Benicàssim. He revealed to me that through his management company: TAP Music Management he’s been given a ‘radio plugger’ who knows well known DJ’s who puts forward Barny’s music to be broadcasted to the BBCRadio1 audience, skipping the queue in front of other ‘up-and-coming artists’. He explained to me ‘Radio DJ’s like Annie Mac get sent shit all the time and they can’t listen to all of it, so the only people they can really rely on to send them stuff they can actually play on the radio is through radio pluggers who basically filter out the music for them as opposed to a CD being sent to the BBC office and eventually ends up in the trash’.
How he’s reached this point already after only releasing a handful of songs sparks intrigue. When many artists who struggle for years to even get a place on the bill of an event that isn’t a pub night or any other understated gig, Barny has been signed to music label giant Universal, considered one of the ‘big three’ in addition to Warner Music Group and Sony and has four album record deal already. Barny described the deal he’s signed with Universal to me and said: ’The nature of the contact I’ve signed states that I’m in the development part of the deal, which includes one mixtape and then afterwards, four albums, which is good for me.’
An artist who’s strictly independent and has full control over everything to do with their career may not understand the nature of the business in which they’ve entered into however Barny informed me that he’s got a team of people who advise him on strategies involving releasing music. When referring to his upcoming mixtape he said ‘I’m working with people who’s job it is to get the best out of every situation I’m put in. We were going to drop this mixtape in November but thought hang on a minute, if we drop it in November it means that in a month’s time, it’s last year’s album’.
A certain added bonus that Barny has received through signing his professional deal so early without making much of the climb to the top himself is that he gets to work with music producer veterans already. The common-sense conclusion made from this is that the better musicians he works with, the more chance of him making better music from the start and ultimately ‘blowing up’. This is obviously in everybody’s best interests, especially his label’s, who the potential profit of a top 50 song on the billboards is enticing to. This is also another example of how little risk there is for him at this early stage. A very common move for artists trying to make music at the beginning of their careers is to use beats and instrumentals made by producers on internet platforms such as YouTube and SoundCloud also trying to make a name for themselves in the industry. Barny disclosed to me that he’s been lucky enough to work with some already big producers: ‘I’ve got a session booked with Hit Boy in LA this summer, he produced N***as in Paris for Jay Z, he’s done Clique for Kanye West, so that’s gonna be a fucking crazy session.’ He went on to say he’s got two managers who sort deals of this calibre for him. Describing one of his live agents as a ‘fucking big fish’ in the industry and claiming that it’s difficult for musicians and producers to say no to someone of his manager’s reputation in the business.
An often fundamental part of the an artist’s progression is their image, especially in the hip-hop industry where fashion and rap cross over quite closely. Designer brands such as Samuel Ross’ A-Cold-Wall* who have collaborations with Nike and other big brands will often send Barny clothes for him to wear during his live shows. Barny told me that this is important for the branding of the artist while they make their progression to the top. This is a problem however for any artist who isn’t in this fortunate position as the brands who loan the pieces to Barny are often very expensive. The Nike Zoom Vomero 5 X A-Cold-Wall* sneakers which Barny wore in his first live show in Leeds listed for £242 on fashion retailer farfetch.com. ‘A stylist’s job is to mainly plug clothes, they know independent designers and brands who will ring up and request the pieces for me. Whereas if I was to ring up myself I’d get laughed at.’ We just had a meeting with IMG about the modelling side of the business, these agencies work closely with brands like Chanel and Gucci and eventually I’ll probably get the opportunity to walk for some of these huge brands which is really exciting.’
I quizzed him on the tactics of releasing music and he referred back to the strategy of releasing his first single: Christ Flow, a funky, disco-style track which has accumulated over 60,000 streams on streaming platform Spotify and has been used by UEFA in their preview for the Europa League semi-final TV commercial, as an example; he explained to me that his management team had advised him on releasing this particular track as it’s ‘in your face’ and demonstrates the ability he has as an artist. He is lucky in this respect because it’s one of hundreds of songs he’s been lucky enough to record in the last year or so given the facilities he’s been given by his management and the numerous deals he’s signed.
After talking to Barny and becoming aware of how the industry works from the inside as a young, up and coming artist I’ve realised that the privileges he’s been given are more than likely going to only speed up his ascension to the top of the music industry in the next years. Through the album deals, artist co-signs, stylists, festival bookings and other benefits it’s clear to see that the talented rapper has a head start on most of the budding artists in his position. This as well as the huge label backing he’s received is not only beneficial to him but the music industry is always on the hunt for new talent to put at the top of the pile. It’s clear to see that some artists such as Barny are just in the right place at the right time.
