Matt Graham On His Unique Approach To Artist Management At BRND MGMT And A Bright Future For The Music Industry

As the major label system began to crumble in the internet era following the rise of online file sharing services, record labels scrambled to figure out how to adjust to life in what would become the streaming era. 

Some labels stayed but a lot went. And artist development became an afterthought as record labels seized upon the quickest, easiest, most profitable hits.

Artists like Chance the Rapper have proven that there’s a profitable path forward - but the key is savvy management.

BRND MGMT goes about artist management differently. Founder and President Matt Graham’s start in the music industry came as the result of a chance encounter on one of his first nights at Emory College, when he met Scooter Braun. Friendship turned into a mentorship and Graham became Senior Manager at Braun’s SB Projects. The mutually beneficial professional partnership now spans decades. 

As a manager, one of the keys to Graham’s success at BRND MGMT has been his ability to learn from the music industry’s past and apply that knowledge to the present in a historically cyclical industry.

While labels tend to ignore it today, Graham has prioritized investment in the future over immediate, formulaic hits. Unlike a lot of labels or managers who try to specialize in one genre or sound, he’s built a diverse roster, featuring artists like country act Midland, rapper Wale, DJ and producer Nicky Romero, alt rock act The Score and more. 

“I think it’s a reflection of my interest and my ability to move amongst different communities. I’ve never felt like I personally identified as like a hip-hop guy from New York or a country guy,” said Graham. “I think people think of themselves in these boxes - managers specifically. They’re like, ‘I’m a hip-hop guy. All of my relationships are in hip-hop.’ I feel like I did that at times and it led me to miss stuff. So I’ve become more open-minded.”

BRND MGMT’s sister company Tuxedo Music Group, which includes Tuxedo Records, was formed by Graham in 2016 as a way to fund and distribute BRND passion projects. It’s a strategy that echoes his belief that managers and record labels should be working together to build strong new acts.

“I don’t understand why every record label isn’t scrambling to partner with successful management companies. There’s very few of those ventures. Ultimately, the record labels need managers as an A&R source. A&R used to find talent and develop talent. For the most part, now what they do is find stuff that’s bubbling on the internet or streaming services, write a check and then help source beats or maybe put someone in [a studio] with a couple of producers and writers. But it is not the same artist and repertoire job that it once was. That’s really what managers do,” Graham explained. “Everyone says, ‘Why do you want to do the label thing? It’s so hard. It’s complicated paying out the royalties. You’re going to lose money doing it.’ We’ve never lost money. Every project that we’ve ever done has been profitable. It’s always about managing the profit and loss. And buying in on artists that you think are going to have some measurable level of success. They don’t need to be big stars. Ideally, they develop into big stars but they don’t need to be initially.”

Streaming of music via online services like Spotify or Apple Music is a method of music distribution in its infancy. Embracing it, Graham sees a new lane for artists to operate in, one where the lost art of artist development is a priority and the bigger picture, as streaming profits continue to soar, is kept in mind at all times.

“That’s something I think is really lost in our business right now. And it shouldn’t be. Because of the streaming economy that’s been created, there’s a new middle class of musician that can exist. And because there’s a middle class, that means there’s a business there and we can get back to artist development,” said Graham of his philosophy. “As a manager or a label, why should we lose out when we meet someone we know is phenomenally talented because they don’t quote, unquote have ‘the song?’ That made sense to me five or ten years ago because there was no other way to finance a project. You just put a million dollars into a project and it would go nowhere,” he continued. “But now, you could put like $10,000 or $100,000 in. Put records out and they’ll stream. Even if they only do a million streams per song, that’s $5,000 per song. You put out an album of ten songs and that’s $50,000 from streaming. That’s what I call sort of the middle class of music. So for a label that’s pretty low risk.”

Graham entered the music industry at a historic low point near the advent of online file sharing which quickly changed the way people consume music, making it difficult for a record label to monetize recorded music for the first time. But one thing hasn’t changed - the importance of a great song. Artists used to get the opportunity to figure out how to write one over the course of decades and albums. Graham sees great benefit in getting back to that.

“When I was younger, I hated when older, more experienced music executives would say this to me but it always comes down to the songs. Songs really cut through. They determine whether or not someone is going to be successful. You have to find songs that really feel like they’re going to resonate and are memorable and feel different,” he said. “If major labels still don’t get that they can sign stuff early, not pay big advances and get very favorable terms? Then we’ll do it. We’ll put up the money ourselves for the artists we really believe in when we know that they’re still a little ways away from being fully developed. We’ll share in the master revenue with them and we’ll finance the record. Hopefully one of those things takes off and a major label has to come hat in hand to us and overpay. Because they’re not doing their due diligence to do artist development like they used to twenty years ago.”

Always casting a keen eye toward the future, Graham’s interested in applying his unique philosophy to film and television. 

As consumption of TV and film moves from networks and theaters online, Graham sees opportunity.

“I sort of look at it and I feel like the film and TV business is going through a lot of the same growing pains that the music business went through when I came into it. So I look at that as a huge opportunity for someone who struggled for ten years to figure out how to be successful in a depression era industry. I think it’s the same skill set and I’ve been applying it in music,” said Graham of ably navigating music industry pitfalls. “We generated billions of views in the content that we made for very, very little money. And you’re not just making programming for big networks or big studios anymore. There’s an immense amount of platforms to sell content to,” he continued, noting how his experience making music videos is a natural fit in a new media landscape where bite-size content is just as important as full length features. “It doesn’t need to be the most expensive, it needs to be the best idea. It needs to be compelling and it needs to be filled with people that you want to invest in. And that’s identifying stars.”

Looking at the music industry, it’s clear the 80s and 90s were a boom period for the major label system. The last two decades have been a period of transition in the internet era but Graham sees a bright future where artist development takes on renewed importance.

“This is a golden era for music,” Graham said. “You see a lot of these big executives, they’re leaving their bigger perches and starting their own independent labels or restarting old brands that they kind of have ownership over. And the reason being is they get that there’s a gold rush in music again,” he continued, noting with foresight an optimistic future. “You’re going to see more labels. And we’re already seeing that. You’re going to see these old brands sort of come back. There’s so much money coming in that they have to do something with it. They have to spend it and they should be spending it on artist development. That’s not what labels have been built to do over the last ten years. So I think it’s going to take time and it’s going to take acquisition of smaller labels. It’s going to take finding people that have the stomach and knowledge to be in it with an artist for three or four years before they have their moment.”