September 23, 2024 • 55 mins
Harrison Bennet is the head of A&R and label manager for Zeds Dead's record label Deadbeats. He is also a manager with the Toronto-based management company 2+2 and works with Zeds Dead, SIPPY, Levity and more.
In this episode we talk about what it takes to get signed, how to properly promote a release, how much of a marketing budget you should have, the reality of life on the road and more.
Follow Deadbeats and 2+2 here:
https://www.instagram.com/deadbeats
https://www.instagram.com/2plus2mgmt
Follow Nik Cherwink here:
https://www.instagram.com/nikcherwink
And visit my site to join the mailing list or book a free coaching call:
https://www.nikcherwink.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Harrison Bennett (00:00):
there's not a clear.
(00:01):
roadmap for artist developmentor what a career trajectory
should look like.
Everybody, I think has theirown.
path they're traveling on andpeople, hit different levels at
different times.
But I think if you are.
In it for the right reasons.
Like three years, quickly turnsinto five years and seven years
and 10 years.
And, you're not really likelooking to get into the next
(00:23):
level and you're just kind oflike along for the ride and
enjoying what, comes.
Nik (00:40):
What's up, everybody.
Welcome to the Headliner MindsetPodcast.
Today's guest is the manager ofone of the biggest acts in the
bass music scene, Zedd's Dead.
He is also the label manager fortheir record label, Dead Beats,
which has helped launch thecareers of artists like Rez,
Mersive, and Tate B.
He's got a wealth of knowledgeto share about how to grow your
brand and project as anelectronic music artist.
(01:01):
This is Harrison Bennett.
Let's go.
Let's go, baby.
Harrison Bennett (01:05):
Good intro.
Nik (01:06):
the show.
Harrison Bennett (01:07):
Thanks.
Good.
Good to be here.
Nik (01:09):
Yeah, man.
I'm pumped to have you as wewere saying just before we
started.
It's been a long time coming.
I have been, um, working withSippy over the last few months,
which is cool just to come fullcircle.
She was the very first artist Iever had episode number one of
the headliner mindset podcast.
Go back and listen to it.
My girl Sippy.
Um, we've been doing somecoaching together over the last
(01:31):
few months.
And so, of course, Of course,I've heard a lot about you, uh,
because she's one of the artiststhat you work with as well.
So just a, a, a cool moment toget connected.
Harrison Bennett (01:40):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Looking forward to it.
Nik (01:43):
And so let's start there.
You work with the artistmanagement company two plus two,
right?
Um, based out of Canada, youguys have an incredibly stacked
roster over there working withsome, some huge artists.
Who are the artists that youwork with as a manager?
Harrison Bennett (01:57):
Um, so I'm on the Zed Zed management team.
Um, the, the lead manager onthat is Adam Gill.
Who's the, uh, owner, uh, of twoplus two.
And then I also am managingAmani, Sippy, and Levity and
recently we just signed DistinctMotive, which I'm very excited
(02:19):
about.
Nik (02:20):
Awesome.
Awesome, man.
So you've got your, you've gotyour hands full.
You're a busy dude.
Yeah.
Harrison Bennett (02:28):
normal home life stuff, it's, uh, definitely
enough to keep me busy duringthe day.
Nik (02:34):
Yeah.
So let's talk about what you doon the label sides.
Uh, I think everybody knows ifyou're listening to the show,
you probably know who Zed's Deadis, you probably know that they
have a really awesome recordlabel called Dead Beats.
Um, as the label manager, whatdoes a label manager do?
What is your actual role withhelping with the label?
Harrison Bennett (02:55):
That's a good and very open ending question.
So I guess like first to justkind of like paint the picture
of like dead beats is we have a,uh, rather tiny team,
considering, I guess, like theperspective of, of how the label
is.
But there's about four of usthat work on the team.
(03:18):
And.
Out of the 4, like, 1 of us,like, that's their, that's the
sole thing that they focus on,um, and that's, uh, and her
name's Harley, and she does,like, all the marketing and all
the social media and, a bunch ofcreative direction stuff for the
label, so as a label manager, I,uh, very much lead on all the A&
(03:42):
R stuff, kind of projectmanagement in terms of, you
know, Getting the initial demoscoordinating, getting the
artwork in submitting it in fordistribution and then handling
all of the dot connecting withall the DSPs and the artists and
just making sure that theproject gets out successfully
(04:02):
and is.
Marketed successfully and takencare of for the entire term that
we're we're in charge of it.
And then I get to do all the funlabel stuff, like royalty
accounting and, uh, you know,dealing with budgets and and all
that stuff.
And then there's, um, you know,kind of unique for dead beats is
(04:25):
we also have our events.
Which we do, you know, anywherefrom 12 to 25 events a year.
And so I work with our, ouragency team at Wasserman.
Uh, to build those lineups.
Come up with the creative forthe marketing and the poster
design and all that stuff.
And then, um, on the ground,kind of making sure that things
(04:47):
are going as planned.
So, it's a, it's a lot of hats,on the label side of things, but
it's very exciting.
Um, I started on the labelbasically when it started.
I kind of came on board.
As label manager about, I'd say,like, 3 or 4 months after it
(05:07):
formally launched, um, and Idon't know if any of us really
knew what we were doing.
I certainly didn't.
So I just kind of took it andran with it and was like, how am
I going to fill up my hours inthe day?
And turn this into a full timejob and really just kind of went
for absolutely everything Ipossibly could.
(05:28):
And, I think it's done prettywell.
I think we've done a decent jobwith, with kind of scaling and
growing this label and making ita destination point for a lot of
artists.
Nik (05:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I guess a better questionwould have been, what do you not
do as the label manager?
Harrison Bennett (05:43):
I don't sleep.
That's the main thing.
Nik (05:46):
For sure.
For sure.
And so you came in right aroundwhen it was starting, a little
bit after.
I was really curious about whathad Zedd's dead, know that it
was time to launch a label?
And maybe we can just open thisup to a little bit more of a
broader, you know, question.
I think for a lot of artists atsome point in their career, they
(06:09):
may or may not decide to starttheir own label.
We've seen that with so manyartists.
And so I guess I'm just curiousabout like when might be the
right time and how did they knowthat it was the right time
Harrison Bennett (06:21):
Yeah.
So, uh, so I came on with thatin 2015 and, uh, originally
started as like working, uh, ontheir social media and marketing
side of things.
At that time, they were startingto seriously, uh, set aside time
and work on what was going to betheir debut album, Northern
(06:42):
Lights.
And, uh, they were like, well,we don't really want to have to
deal with Posting on socials orevent marketing or anything like
that during this, because wejust want to focus on the album
stuff.
And so I helped, you know, filla lot of those.
Needs that they had, and then.
It was roughly like, 8, 9 monthslater, they were like, hey, we
(07:05):
want to launch this label andthis has been an idea that we've
had in our minds for a longtime.
And I think the real.
Kind of like push to do that wasbased around this album that
they, you know, they ultimatelythey worked with a bunch of
different labels kind of as theywere starting and done a bunch
of EPs and random singles withlike mad decent and Denmark and
(07:26):
spinning and ultra and, youknow, they, they'd done the
whole gamut of, of dance musiclabels.
Um, but, you know, with thisalbum, they really didn't want
to compromise.
On anything they wanted to putout the record that they wanted
to put out.
They wanted to be in absolutecontrol of, you know, the
artistic direction for thisproject.
(07:47):
And they felt that.
You know, doing it under theirown label would give them that
kind of artistic freedom thatthey, that they wanted so badly.
So that was, um, the realimpetus for, for them kicking
off the label.
Nik (08:02):
Where do artists potentially not have artistic
freedom and have to compromisewhen it comes to working with
labels?
Harrison Bennett (08:10):
So, you know, some labels, I'm not going to
name names, but like, you know,some labels will have, templates
for artwork that they want touse and there's, you know, not
really.
There's like, some wiggle roomthat the artists are afforded,
but they're not really givenkind of carte blanche for
whatever they want to do.
Other labels will give a lot ofnotes on the music and, you
(08:32):
know, they'll want to change andtinker with certain things.
And, you know, so they can getinvolved in a bunch of different
places.
And then there's also just like,marketing budgets to, like, you
know, artists may want to.
Uh, invest in a music video ormotion graphics or whatever it
might be.
And the label is like, no, wekind of have like a, a capped
(08:55):
budget at this.
And until we start to see likecertain sales metrics, we're not
going to really open up thewallet for more stuff, on that
side of things.
So, you know, there's, I thinkthere's inherent limitations
that come with working with,with labels.
We've tried to.
Be as artists focused as wepossibly can on the label side
(09:18):
for dead beats.
And that really.
You know, kind of comes down to,we want the ultimate version of
whatever the artist isdelivering us to get.
Projected into the world, sowhatever the artist wants to do
on artwork, aside from, youknow, kind of running afoul of
any of the DSP.
P's and Q's, which will justkind of make them aware of and
(09:42):
if they still really want topush for it and have, like, a
giant, but on the cover, then,like.
I don't know, we're probably notthe label for that, but, um, you
know, for the most part, like,we really just try to, like, put
the, the artist in the driver'sseat as much as possible on all
this stuff.
And we, you know, when it comesto budgets, we always scale up
(10:04):
our budgets as much as needed.
And really, I'd like, alwaystell, like, artists and their
teams, like, whatever you guyswant to do, we want to make
happen.
Obviously we don't want to.
Battle a project and like, aninsurmountable amount of debt,
but, uh, you know, we want tokind of.
(10:24):
Be able to put forth a projectthat the artist is 100 percent
willing and happy to standbehind and isn't like, kicking
and screaming to the finish lineon this and is bored of the
project and doesn't want topromote it to 2 weeks after it's
at.
Nik (10:38):
Yeah, yeah.
So I hear how one as an artisthaving your own label, just
having the freedom to do whatyou want to do artistically with
the artwork.
Also, I'm sure with just releaseschedules and, you know, handle
handling that, you know, thebudget that makes a lot of
sense.
I mean, I imagine, you know,they were at a certain point in
their career where like, Hey,we've kind of, we've tapped into
(10:59):
all of these other labels.
We've gotten in front of thosemarkets.
We've, we've built our audienceup to a point that we can, we
actually have somebody toreally, you know, get in front
of now, it seems like there'sprobably like a tipping point
there.
The other piece though, that Ihear is there's also just that
genuine desire to, to put otherartists on and create a platform
for them as well.
Harrison Bennett (11:20):
Yeah, I mean, that was a big factor that too,
like, you know, we're, we're allbased in Toronto and Toronto has
got a very, very fertile musicscene here and they've got a lot
of friends and past and presentcollaborators that are in the
city.
so it was very much like, how dowe kind of help out people in
the same way that we've beenhelped out before in the past by
(11:44):
like, you know, kind oflegendary artists led labels,
like a dimmock or a mad decent,you know, how do we kind of do
for this next generation?
What was afforded to us.
So that was a big, big, reasonfor, for wanting to start a
label and also open it up toother artists.
Cause it's pretty, like youcould start your own imprint and
(12:07):
just release your own stuff andhave that freedom there.
But now like opening it up toother artists, like they, you
know, they have to fit theirreleases in around like other
projects that are on the label.
So, that freedom of a releaseschedule.
Is not as free as it once was,but, um, we still try to make it
(12:27):
work as best as possible.
Nik (12:29):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the other piece that I hearin that is I think the reality
of what not just a good labelis, but really a good brand, you
know, like Dim Mok is a greatexample.
Dim Mok, not only were theyputting out great music, But
really at the same time, theywere throwing sick parties.
Like I remember being like DimMock Tuesdays back in LA.
(12:51):
They threw a weekly party everysingle week.
And so there is a differencebetween having an imprint of
like, Oh, I just have a I havea, an online label that puts
music out through thedistributor and that's the one
lane, which, you know, prettymuch anybody can do, but you
guys have really, Builtsomething much more than that.
You guys have built an actualbrand.
You know, you mentioned you guysare also doing over a dozen
(13:13):
events a year as well.
Um, was that always part of thevision?
And, and could you just kind ofkind of speak into, what that
landscape really looks like interms of being more than just a
label, but actually a brand?
Harrison Bennett (13:25):
Yeah.
I mean, so Zed very much gottheir start obviously in
Toronto, but, um, they kind ofcame, they became like a, a
force in the local scene becausethey were doing their own weekly
event.
Um, and it was a Wednesday nightparty called base mentality that
started in like, I wanna say2009.
(13:46):
And, it was a showcase spotprimarily for them originally,
because they weren't gettingbookings in other places in the
city.
Like, there was like, there wasother dubstep nights in Toronto,
but they were like, you know,kind of like old school UK.
Dubstep nights and, you know,they weren't really booking or
(14:09):
looking to book anybody fromNorth America.
Um, and so they started theirown night and it's it developed
and grew into a kind of like apremier.
weekly and base music weeklyevent, not only in Toronto, but
also in North America.
Um, they were.
You know, they booked Skrillex,like, incredibly early, like,
(14:30):
maybe like a month after that,like, massive EP came out in 20,
2009.
they had, like, everybody, like,16Bit was through there, Dr.
P, Cookie Monster, like,everybody stopped by.
Um, and played on this Wednesdaynight and everybody would be out
(14:50):
incredibly late and drag theirasses to work on a Thursday
morning.
And it was very different.
I don't even know how, uh,anybody really got shit done
during those times, especiallythrowing a weekly.
It's just like, it's a lot ofwork.
Um, so, you know, the eventstuff was very much kind of
ingrained in, in, in.
Like Zed's Dead's kind of likeworking model for how they, they
(15:13):
do that, get out there and getin front of people.
And they, they're just veryheavy on the touring side of
things.
Nik (15:20):
Just gotta say real quick.
If you're not getting booked,you can throw your own fuckin
party.
That's the lesson that I'mhearing in this.
Like, if people aren't bookingyou, if you're not getting the
love, you're not getting theattention, or if in your city
the scene doesn't exist, You getto create the scene.
I didn't know that about theirstory, but that's so fucking rad
because not only do you get to,you know, you're adding value to
(15:41):
the culture, you're creating thescene, you're creating a
platform.
Only good things are going tocome out of that.
I'm sure.
Yes, it took a lot of work, alot of time and a lot of energy,
but look where that got them.
You know, not only that, youalso really understand.
And how to throw parties, youknow, when I hear about artists
who have a background in alsobeing a promoter, they just have
(16:03):
a whole different mindset and awhole different understanding of
the music business and thelandscape when they actually
came in from throwing partiesthemselves, which not everybody
has.
So just to plant that seed, ifyou're out there and you're
like, man, I'm not gettingbooked, there's no parties
happening.
Throw the fucking partyyourself.
Harrison Bennett (16:20):
yeah, 100%.
And that kind of like do ityourself ethos is kind of what's
carried through into Startingdeadbeats and then doing the
events as well So, you know thethe event side of things with
with deadbeats started veryearly.
It was like, okay Let's do adeadbeats tour and that that
idea kind of kicked off within ayear Of, uh, of launching the
(16:42):
label, um, we started puttingthe dead beats branding on kind
of key Zed's Dead headlineevents, like their Dead Rocks,
uh, Red Rocks run that they doevery July.
and then, you know, kind of grewit from there.
We did, we did a show at Southby Southwest.
We did a show at Miami musicweek and, um, it's just kind of
developed from there.
(17:03):
And I think, you know, whatit's, what it's turned into is a
main.
Uh, I guess selling point forwhy people would want to work
with with dead beats is, youknow, not only were you going to
put your music out there and,you know, try to do our best
promoting it and making gettingit heard by as wide an audience
as possible, but we're going to,we're going to offer you, you
(17:25):
know, opportunities to get onevents and play in front of, the
Zed Zed audience, which, youknow, We've, like, been very,
very fortunate enough to havethe extremely receptive audience
that gets there early, is downto be exposed to new artists
that they may not be aware of,and, you know, You know, we can
(17:46):
ideally convert them into fansof that artist.
Um, and so that they're going totheir headline shows and buying
their tickets and theirmerchandise and supporting the
releases that are outside ofdeadbeats so that they can
develop a nice, healthy, youknow, long term career outside
of just working with deadbeats.
You know, and we've always kindof been from the, from the
(18:09):
start, like, the way we alwaysuse the label was.
We wanted to be supporting andputting on what we think is
going to be big in the next sixmonths or a year from now.
We didn't necessarily want to belike working with, you know,
today's headliners.
We wanted to be like, if youthink of a music festival, it's
got the main stage and the sidestage.
(18:30):
We wanted to be the side stage.
That's the talent that we wantedto be pushing.
We wanted to be getting people,uh, earlier in their careers so
that, you know, if you.
Look at a bunch of the peoplethat are headliners right now.
A lot of them have a deadbeatsrelease of their discography
that's like buried kind of deepin there.
And that's kind of all by designbecause like we want, we wanna
(18:53):
be that, that starting point fora lot of folks and then also be,
you know, a nice safe spacewhere when they have a big
project, or you know, a bigcollab or a big, you know, a
release that they're like, wellwe, we have some larger ideas
around it and we want to getbehind this.
We want to be that space thatthey come back to in the future.
(19:14):
And that's all kind of done bylike, you know, opening up our
entire arsenal of like what wehave to afford everybody and
make available to them and, andlet them kind of build it into
their own thing.
Nik (19:29):
So what do you guys look for when you're signing new
talent to the label?
Harrison Bennett (19:35):
I mean, first and foremost is the sound.
Like Can't really do much withsomething that we don't vibe
with and that we don't dig.
and the overarching idea foreverything that we sign is, Is
this something that we thinkZed's Dead would play?
is this something that would fitin a Zed's Dead set?
And luckily, Zed's Dead plays avery eclectic, Batch and music,
(19:58):
um, they kind of all over theplace in their, in their sets.
So it hasn't pigeonholed us tojust like one style of dubstep
or even just dubstep.
Like we can do a bit of houseand drum and bass.
We can do some down tempo stuff.
We can kind of go all over themap.
But that's kind of the overriding idea of everything that
(20:20):
we signed.
And then beyond that is, youknow, is this somebody that we
think is going to kind of meshin our world?
Because we are doing the liveevents.
These are people that we haveto.
Hang out with and enjoy beingaround and are they going to
enjoy being around us andplaying at our shows and getting
along with our audience?
(20:40):
So those are usually the 2 mainfactors.
Uh, like, less important islike.
You know, their metrics online,like, I really don't bring that
in as like a factor all thatmuch.
Certainly makes our liveseasier.
If somebody has like anextremely engaged audience, but,
(21:01):
you know, I think that's part ofthe label's job is to help, you
know, find.
That artist audience and helpkind of introduce them to new
people.
You know, more so than just likethe top follower numbers or
whatever we do look at.
Engagement are, are people kindof enjoying this music outside?
Is that fan base enjoying thismusic and enjoying what this
(21:24):
artist is putting out there?
And then, you know, does theartist have a desire to be on
the road is the other bitbecause there's plenty of
producers that are very happy tojust kind of produce and sit in
their studio and, and that'sfine.
But that's not.
That's not kind of giving usthe, the, the tool set that we
think we can work best with andreally elevate to its best
(21:46):
position and, and, um, you know,kind of create a project with us
and the artist that's going tofind success.
Nik (21:54):
Yeah.
And I think a lot of artiststhink they want to go on the
road, but I, you know, I don'tthink everyone actually really
knows what that entails.
And, and I'll bring that upright now.
For those of you that arelistening is it's, it's good to
really think about that, toreally think about what do I
want the next, Five years of mycareer, the next 10 years of my
(22:15):
career to look like.
Um, I think a lot of times wehave this, you know, fluffy
vision of like, yeah, I'm justgoing to be on, you know, flying
on private jets and touring andgetting, you know, it's like,
there's a grind, there's a grindthat comes with it.
And like, you gotta be a fuckingroad dog.
Like you gotta be a, you gottabe a road warrior for this shit.
You know, like I've been invitedto tour manage before, which I
(22:36):
think would be such a, on theone hand would be a cool idea.
Like, yeah, it'd be fun to belike.
You know, a life coach on theroad.
And the other hand, I don't wantto fucking like travel and be on
planes and buses.
I'm like, I like my morningroutine and getting up.
And so, you know, that, that onehour that you are playing the
show and you're getting that fatdopamine hit and, and you're the
(22:57):
man or you're the girl, that'sone hour.
There are so many other hoursthat go around it.
And so, um,
Harrison Bennett (23:05):
there's 23 other hours of you sitting in a
hotel room alone, waiting foryour ride and, uh, or sitting in
an airport and just watchingyour flight get delayed and
delayed and delayed.
Um, it's something that I thinkpeople are just like, certain
people are built for it.
Um, other people can getaccustomed to it and then other
folks can.
Don't really fully getaccustomed to it, but kind of
(23:27):
figure out what works and whatdoesn't work for them.
Um, and, you know, being able tobuild some kind of routine on
the road, even with, uh.
With all the challenges that arepresented in that, and you're in
a different city, you don't haveany of it.
You know, home familiaritiesthat you would get in, like,
(23:47):
you're at home basically.
And, um.
You're staying out late, you'rewaking up super early.
It's a, it's a challenge forsure.
And, and I don't think it, Idon't think it necessarily gets
any easier, like the bigger theartist gets, like, you know,
obviously it's incrediblyluxurious to be like flying on
(24:08):
private jets and staying in likethe nicest suites in a hotel.
but that's really only out therefor a very select few artists.
Um, the vast majority of.
Headline artists are still likethey're flying commercial.
They're staying in the samehotels as everybody else.
And, you know, they don't havelike, secret access to,
(24:32):
convenient flights.
That is only afforded to like,everybody's on the same shitty 6
am flight the next day.
Nik (24:39):
Yeah, that's a lot of what I've been working with Sippy on.
You know, she's doing aheadlining tour right now,
fucking crushing it, and it'sjust like, alright, how do we
keep our mindset, Solid.
How do we keep our energy solid?
What are some things that we cando to add to the routine and
things that we can be working onjust to make sure that, you
know, we're, we're, we'resurviving the road life and
it's, um, it's, it's definitelypossible, but like you gotta,
(25:01):
you gotta put some time andenergy into setting yourself up
for success.
Harrison Bennett (25:04):
and even when you're on the road, like, you
know, for Sippy, for example.
It's not a bus tour.
It's a fly tour, right?
So she's like, flying in andout.
She's usually doing 2 to 3 datesa week, like, Thursday, Friday,
Saturdays.
And then she's flying back homeSunday, probably just before
Totally crapped out by the timeshe gets home on Sunday and, you
(25:26):
know, Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday, she's, she's got to
be like in the studio again, orshe's got to like, turn out
social media content or finish aremix or finish an EP like, you
know, it's kind of a nonstopthing.
It's definitely not for thefaint of heart.
Like, it's it's a, it is verymuch a grind.
Especially at that kind ofcareer stage that that Sippy's
(25:47):
in and a lot of other artistswhere, you know, a large chunk
of your of your pay every nightis going to flights and hotels.
Um, or you're paying for aphotographer, some kind of media
person to be at the show foryou.
And that's eating up your stuff.
And then you have your, yourcommissions on the management or
agent side that you got to pay.
(26:08):
And then, just general cost ofliving.
Like, you can't cook a meal inyour hotel room.
You got to go out for dinner andyou got to eat some shitty fast
food in an airport to kind of,like, stay alive.
Like, it's, uh.
Nik (26:21):
adds up
Harrison Bennett (26:22):
not pretty.
Yeah.
It's, it's, you know, you don'treally walk away with all that
much money, on a lot of thesetours, unfortunately.
Nik (26:29):
yeah, that's why I like you got a fucking love it man you
got to love this shit You got toeat sleep and breathe and this
has to be your your passion.
You know, you can't be doingthis For from your ego and for
the attention and for the cloutor whatever that may be like if
that's what's driving you likegood luck, you're gonna get
swallowed up.
But if it's
Harrison Bennett (26:48):
Yeah.
You're going to get,
Nik (26:49):
from a place of I am genuinely so in love and so
passionate about making musicand the scene and the culture
and playing shows and engagingwith fans like that's it will
drive you to keep going.
But you know, that's where wesee a lot of people get
swallowed up because it's like,well, probably weren't in it for
the right reasons in the firstplace.
Mhm.
Harrison Bennett (27:07):
yeah.
I mean, I see it with, withartists and I see it with, uh,
even with like fans too, wherelike, there's seems to be like a
three year cycle that I thinkpeople can kind of, you know,
they'll, it was like three yearsof like, of going to every
single show I possibly can or,You know, from a fan standpoint,
and then they just get rinsedout.
(27:28):
They're just like, they'recooked on it, or you know, they
weren't there for the rightreasons, or, um, their fan group
has, like, aged out of it, ortheir musical tastes have
changed, or whatever it is.
And the same thing with artists.
Like, artists will, like, Workon a project for 3 years, and
then just like, won't get to thelevel that they think it should,
or maybe they get tired of thatsound and they want to bounce
around and rebrand and go tosomething else.
(27:49):
Or maybe they're just like,screw this.
Like, I just want to be an audioengineer and sit in the studio
all day long.
But I think if you are.
In it for the right reasons.
Like the three years, you know,quickly turns into five years
and seven years and 10 years.
And, um, you're not really likelooking out as like an out to
get in on, like to get into thenext level and you're just kind
(28:12):
of like along for the ride andenjoying what, what it comes.
And, um, there's not a clear.
Kind of roadmap for artistdevelopment or what a career
trajectory should look like.
Everybody, I think has theirown.
Their own path they're travelingon and people, you know, hit
different levels at differenttimes.
(28:33):
And it's not like, if you're, ifyou're not hitting this by like
year three, then like you'refucking done.
Like you can, you should just dosomething else.
Like it's not, it's not the wayit works, unfortunately, but
it's three years of doing thatis, will burn anybody out for
the most part, so.
Nik (28:49):
Well, the thing, the thing that's gonna Keep somebody going
is if you're enjoying it andyou're loving it and you're
loving your life and you'rehappy, like, because if you're
not, if you're, if it's a, ifit's just a grind and it's a
struggle and it's always youknow, a horse chasing a carrot
on the stick, you're alwaystrying to get to that next
(29:10):
level, you're not going to lastthat long.
You know, this is so much of thework that I do.
With artists as a coach, youknow, it's recognizing like,
there's always going to beanother next level to get to.
And if you're waiting to behappy.
Until you get there, if you'rewaiting to be fulfilled, if
you're waiting to really havefun, you know, you're putting
(29:31):
everything off into the futurebecause there's artists that
they are full time and they'retouring and they're getting the,
you know, a decent rate, butthey're not happy yet.
Like, I won't be happy until I'mat the next level or the next
level.
That's never going to go away.
We have to literally trainourselves to be like, no, you
know what I wake up every day.
And I put myself in a state, inan energetic, vibrational,
(29:54):
emotional state of being happyand being fulfilled and being
fucking full of life and full oflove and full of gratitude.
I bring myself to that placefirst, and now let me go make
some music.
And now let me go on the road.
Not, I'll feel good when I getthere.
Cause that's gonna be an endlessfucking cycle, right?
No matter how much money youmake, no matter how big your
(30:14):
shows are like that, that's thegame.
And a lot of people kind of losesight of that too along the way.
And it's like, no, no, no.
Come back, come back to thepresent moment.
Now is the only time that wehave to be fulfilled.
That's when you get to startreally, really enjoying the
journey.
And that's, what's going to keepyou in the game for the long
run.
Harrison Bennett (30:32):
Yeah.
I mean, you got to appreciatethe trail, uh, not just the
destination, because if you'renot kind of enjoying in the
moment, then you're really notgoing to know when you've like
reached where you wanted to goeither, and you're not going to
enjoy that.
So, again, yeah, it very muchcomes down to like, are you
passionate about this?
(30:52):
Is this absolutely what you wantto do?
Nothing else you can think of todo that's going to fill that
void.
Like, when people are happy inthis space, then they are, you
know, some of the.
Best people to be around, Ifind, uh, and if they're
miserable in it, then fuck,like, I don't want to be around
that
Nik (31:12):
yeah.
And it's good.
I mean, I hear that that issomething that you guys are also
looking for in who you welcomeinto the dead beats family.
Obviously, the music's dope.
We fuck with this like we wouldplay it out.
But also, yeah, do you havethis, the right personality, the
right vibe?
Are we going to want to take youon the tour bus?
You know, are you actually areyou actually about it?
(31:34):
Are you actually in it for theright reasons?
How do you figure that out withmaybe a newer artist that you
guys are working with?
Do you guys like have zoom callswith them and kind of, you know,
is there like a, an interviewprocess to kind of vibe people
out or how do you actually, youknow,
Harrison Bennett (31:50):
That's an interesting question because,
you know, a lot of our, like, A&Ring kind of comes from just
like cosigns from other people.
So you know, we have a networkof, of artists that we work with
regularly that will put us on tonew music or, you know, my own
network of like other agents ormanagers that are like, Hey,
(32:13):
like, have you checked this out?
This is pretty sick.
Okay.
Yeah.
And then there's just like, youknow, randomly meeting people at
shows too, because we are, youknow, we do all these events and
the backstage.
We usually keep pretty loose interms of people that work in the
industry.
Kind of invite everybody backthere, and that's always a good
place to meet people and try toget a sense of who they are and
what they want to do.
(32:34):
And.
It's not like I'm walking aroundwith, like, a briefcase of
contracts and I'm like, allright, like, we like you sign on
the dotted line.
It's a lot of like, a back andforth kind of like, wooing
process.
Um, and yeah, I mean, I think ifyou talk to anybody that's like,
released on our label in thelast 2 years, they would tell
you that I'm absolutely.
Painful when it comes tolistening to demos, like, it
(32:56):
takes 6 months sometimes to getaround this shit, but it's also
like, coming through a littlebit of a place of caution on my
end, where, like, we don't justkind of dive in on stuff.
Um, we want to make sure thatwe're signing the right people
that are going to last in thisin this space long, a long time.
And, um, we're very slow andkind of, cautious and how we
(33:18):
move and sign lately, buthaving, you know, kind of other
artists or other managers thatwe work with vouch for, for acts
and be like, Hey, you shouldcheck this out.
It's pretty sick.
We've had them on shows forsupport and they, they do a good
party.
It's a good vibe.
That's a a big, big factor for,for how we're signing stuff
(33:39):
lately.
Nik (33:40):
yeah, yeah, for sure.
Just have that, that, that wordof mouth, really Networking, for
lack of a better word, but just,you know, being a part of the
scene, being a part of theculture, developing
relationships, being a fuckinggood person, goes so far, you
know?
Uh, yeah, I get that, I getthat, cool.
So it's not so much like we'rejust digging through demos all
(34:01):
day long, you know, hunting forlike that next sound, it's more
like there's a natural kind oforganic process to
Harrison Bennett (34:08):
Yeah, and like I wish like I had more free time
to kind of like dig onSoundCloud or go through my
inbox And be like, oh shit likethis is like some random thing
that got sent to me I neverheard from this person before or
whatever, but do that for likeour compilations, like our new
(34:28):
artist compilations, like our,we are, we are deadbeat series
or the deadbeats and browniesdrum and bass package that we
did, where it was more of likean open submission space.
but for the most part of the,the stuff that we're releasing
guys like singles or EPs, um, iskind of coming from a, a
nurtured relationship that we'velike developed over some time.
Nik (34:52):
speaking of you guys just put out a compilation recently
as well.
Tell me about that.
Harrison Bennett (34:58):
Yeah, so that was, uh, this is the 6th volume
of, uh, the We Are Deadbeatseries, um, and this was the
biggest one that we've done.
It was about 20 tracks,including a new record from
Zedd's Dead, um, which theycollabed on with Chi.
And, um, I get these done likeevery year or two years or so.
(35:18):
I think the last one that cameout was in 2021.
they just take a really longtime to put together, like not
only finding the tracks, butthen also finding, a spot in the
calendar that works for, in thisinstance, like 25 artists, so to
make sure that they don't havetheir own releases coming out
then too.
So, yeah, I mean, you basicallyhave to schedule it onto the
(35:40):
calendar.
At least, like, 4 to 6 months inadvance to kind of make sure
that it's going to work foreverybody.
And then.
Uh, you know, it's a massiveprocess of, like, getting
everybody to submit their premasters or their self masters,
like, in on time and getting theartwork done and getting
individual art assets done andpitching this into PR and, into
(36:02):
the different, like, digitalservice providers as well.
Just making it feel and soundcohesive is the other kind of
final bit on it.
But it's, you know, there are acouple of these tracks that were
on there were demos that weresent to me last summer.
Um, and I'm just like, Ilistened to it.
I liked it, kind of set itaside.
(36:23):
It was like, all right, this isa potential thing.
And, you know, we built out, Ithink we had like 50 potential
tracks that we whittled it downas much as we could and we got
it down to 20.
so it's a very, very long andintensive process, which is why
I also only ever do this likeevery 2 years because it's like
(36:43):
really a monster to kind of takea hold of.
But, um, it's a great way for usto introduce new artists on the
label.
Kind of.
expand the roster of folks thatwe're associating with deadbeats
and also start to like test thewaters with different genres or
different styles of, of trackstoo, and see what, what folks
(37:06):
are responding to.
It's just a great, like, youreally don't know a lot of the
time.
Cause like, Just sitting, youknow, in an office most of the
time listening to music on myheadphones and or like in my
car.
And it's like, okay, I likethis, but does anybody else like
this?
Like, who the fuck knows?
Um, and so a lot, this is likeour chance to kind of experiment
(37:27):
a bit more and just put stuffout there and see what folks are
reacting to.
Nik (37:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, well congrats on therelease.
Quite a, quite a big endeavor.
It
Harrison Bennett (37:37):
Thank you.
Yeah.
Nik (37:37):
work goes into that.
Um, let's talk about marketing.
I want to know about.
How you guys market a trackbecause I think, you know, for
everyone out there that'slistening, they've got their new
music, maybe they're gettingsigned and they get to partner
with the label and have help andassistance with the marketing.
But a lot of people are reallystill releasing music on their
(37:59):
own and trying to figure outwhat's the best way to really
get this out there.
I'm curious from yourperspective as a label, what do
you guys do when you put out atrack?
Like, how do you actually get itin front of people?
What are the, I don't know ifyou have like a, a checklist of
things that you, you do withevery release, but how does that
look at the
Harrison Bennett (38:17):
Yeah.
So, I mean, there's, I guessthere's different buckets for
this, right?
There's kind of like the, thevisual packaging of the release,
like artwork, motion graphics,all that kind of stuff.
There's the social presentationof it on TikTok or Reels or
Twitter, whatever the preferredplatform is on that.
(38:38):
And then there's, uh, paidmedia.
So pitching it out to.
Like most blogs now are paidplacements.
So, you know, for 250 bucks,they'll post your stuff on their
Instagram
Nik (38:50):
that's wild, man.
I remember when blogs used to befucking, you know, free, like
what,
Harrison Bennett (38:56):
Oh yeah,
Nik (38:57):
was
Harrison Bennett (38:57):
yeah, exactly.
And
Nik (38:58):
to get tracks from, from people.
Like,
Harrison Bennett (39:01):
it was not only that, but they were also
just like, Oh, let me support,like I found this cool thing.
Nobody else has found this.
Let me put it out there.
Um, yeah, it's that whole, thatwhole world has very much
changed.
So this is the paid me.
And then there's also like, youknow, buying ads on, Facebook,
Instagram, or TikTok orwhatever.
and then there's the kind ofmore editorial promotion, uh,
(39:22):
and marketing too.
So how do we make this appealingto the editors that are doing
the playlists on Spotify orApple Music?
so, you know, kind of break eachone of those down.
You know, the visual The artworkand the motion graphics and
stuff like that.
That's kind of like the purestform of, aside from the music
(39:44):
itself, but, like, the purestform of like, artistic
expression that that kind ofgoes along with this, like,
whatever the artist wants to do,what do they see is like the
visual elements that that matchthe sonic palette that they've
put together.
And so on that side, like, we.
You know, we'll introduce themto whatever designers are in our
network that they think could,you know, get the job done for
(40:08):
them.
If there's no fits, then we'llgo out and outsource beyond
that.
Or if they have somebody theyprefer to work with, we'll just
try to.
You know, make it happen and getit done as best as possible
there.
The social promotion stuff,that, you know, ultimately falls
very much on the artist.
We can help them strategize and,and try to figure out like,
(40:28):
okay, we should do, you know, abunch of live clips or we should
post carousel posts, or weshould get some new press picks,
or, you know, whatever it isthere.
We'll, kind of.
pay for, but then also help likekind of curate like what is
actually going out into theworld.
Paid promo stuff.
Like we obviously have a, anetwork of folks that we work
(40:51):
with repeatedly.
So we will, you know, kind ofreach out to them and say like,
Hey, what kind of content areyou looking for?
Can we figure out some kind ofdeal in terms of the promotion
of this?
Nik (41:00):
These are like social media accounts mostly
Harrison Bennett (41:03):
Yeah, a lot of them are social media accounts.
Um, a lot of them are like thoselike review pages on TikTok.
And I say review in quotesbecause they're just like
reacting to the music.
Um, and those are like, Youknow, sometimes they'll pick
stuff up organically and like,it's great, like saved everybody
(41:23):
a bunch of money.
And then other times it's, youknow, you gotta, you pay them
to, to, to take a listen to it.
And, um, I will say the, uh, thereaction that they gave is
always authentic.
Like, they've, we've paid forstuff and they've been like,
this isn't for me.
Nik (41:38):
I was totally gonna ask that like are they required to
give a positive
Harrison Bennett (41:42):
No, I.
Nik (41:43):
just like that
Harrison Bennett (41:45):
Unfortunately, not, but I will say, like,
sometimes like the, it's noteven a bad review.
They'll be like, very nice aboutit.
But like, sometimes that's like,even more beneficial than like
them being like, Oh, my God,this is amazing.
Nik (41:59):
There's, there's no such thing as bad press, as they say,
Harrison Bennett (42:01):
Yeah, and then there's, um, yeah, there's like
the, the DSP pitching, which islike.
Nik (42:08):
Yeah.
Harrison Bennett (42:10):
how do we make this appealing?
Like, so we've got to breakdown, like, the metrics and the
growth that the, that the artisthas had and, um, what their
audience is like, and which,which playlist we think this
will fit in and where, you know,things will react the best.
So there's all those littleelements that are kind of going
in and, but I think, like, themost important pieces that gets
(42:33):
overlooked a lot, especiallywhen it comes to independent
releases, is.
Getting the music into the handsof other DJs and making sure
that these tracks are gettingplayed out and that it's, you
know, the audience is able toreact to it as well.
And so I think that part gotoverlooked a bit, especially
(42:54):
during, the pandemic when, like,everything was shut down and
everyone was like, okay, I madethis track.
Let me get it out in a week.
Um, I'll promote a little bit ontick tock or whatever.
And it's just like, out in theworld.
But, you know, the stuff thatwe've seen getting the biggest
reactions.
At least on our label for thelast couple of years has been
(43:15):
stuff that has circulated.
In amongst like, DJs for a fewmonths prior to release.
Or stuff that, like, you know,like, I guess levity flip it is
a good example of somethingthat, like, was made and then
released pretty quickly.
But the, the real push on it.
Came not just from their socialvideos, but like making sure
(43:37):
that like every single DJ hadthis track and that, you know,
hopefully they'll play it andput it in their sets and then
they'll make remixes or, orwhatever.
Distinct Motive is another goodexample where like he had this,
he has this record Mellow Man,which we put out in January of
this year, which he was likerinsing out for like six months.
(43:58):
Before it came out, and youknow, he had sent me a package
of records and he was like, Hey,what do you like out of this?
And I was like, Oh, like thisone, this one, this one are
pretty cool.
Like, let's do an EP.
And he was like, yeah, those aregreat.
But like, Check out this.
This one's getting a lot of DJsupport and like immediately
like that's, you know, I'm like,okay, well, that's clearly the
winner.
Like, I'm, I'm not aware.
(44:18):
Like, I didn't get that off myheadphones, but, you know, you
start seeing videos of peoplereacting to the track live and
kind of freaking out over it.
And that's, that's to me islike, always like, oh, shit.
That.
Okay.
Let's release that.
Let's go for that.
Nik (44:34):
And I imagine it's a little bit of a combination of Just
people hearing the song in thecrowd and they're, they're
starting to maybe get familiarwith it.
Right.
But the other element is havingthe video of that existing on
social media.
So there's this sort of like prerelease social media buzz as
well.
Harrison Bennett (44:52):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Like, uh, like for distinctmotive, for example, there was
this video of him playing athree 60 set at infrasound, uh,
last year and it was duringmellow man.
And like the crowd was just likegoing apeshit during it.
And like that video will getlike popped back up and
recirculated all the time.
And it just kind of like, youknow, it keeps promoting and
(45:12):
pushing the track and it'sreally done.
More work for that track than Ithink like any traditional
marketing can do.
Nik (45:21):
When it goes, it goes back to just the classic DJ method of
like, test the track out withthe crowd first, you know, like
as you're making it, you'replaying it and testing it out.
Like, does the crowd like it?
Does it get a reaction?
You know, if you see the crowdfreaking out, like, cool,
there's something here, like,let's keep going.
If it's not, then maybe it stillneeds to be worked on or it's
(45:42):
just, not really a hit.
And that, that does get lost.
I mean, especially for.
Artists that aren't touring orthey're not really playing
shows.
You don't really have thatability to test it out But
getting it
Harrison Bennett (45:55):
But like, get it, yeah, get it into the hands
of other DJs, um, you know,people that you think that who
said it could fit into, like,don't send all of your demo,
like all of your 140 dubstepdemos to like Martin Garrix,
like he's not going to play it.
But if you get it out to like.
You know, folks that you're likemore easily able to network with
and kind of make the, make theconnections with, and that, that
(46:17):
also like know you too, thenthey're going to play that track
and they're going to support itand maybe they get a video of it
and they send it over to you andthen you've got, you know,
you've got a bunch of stuff thatyou can share on your socials or
build up and like help you, youknow, pitch to a label or pitch
to a manager or whatever itmight be.
Nik (46:35):
Totally.
Yeah, that's just that, thatsocial proof.
I mean, in the, I just had WillRunzel, manager of Slander and
Nightmare on two weeks ago and,you know, literally just broke
down the formula in the sameexact way.
Just like, make really goodmusic, make really good content,
and get your tracks out to DJsand get them playing it and get
that content too.
You know,
Harrison Bennett (46:55):
Yeah.
I mean, it's, you know, it's, itsounds simple, but it's dance
music.
You know, like, and if peoplearen't dancing to it, then
something's not fully jiving.
Yeah.
Nik (47:07):
So I'm also curious about as a label, you guys are
obviously investing in thesetracks.
You gotta, you gotta pay forartwork.
As you said, you're paying for,for the marketing.
Are you making that money back?
You know, and really, how often?
I mean, I come from working inthe major label, days you know,
(47:28):
2008, still selling CDs, and itwas like, you sign nine artists
and they lose money, but thenthe tenth artist makes enough to
kind of recoup for all of it.
Is it still kind of work thatway?
Like, what's that, if you'reopen to sharing, like, what does
that look like on the back end?
Harrison Bennett (47:44):
Yeah.
It's, um, it's still a lot of,to be honest, like you'll have
like a lot of, you know, passionprojects.
Nik (47:52):
Yeah.
Harrison Bennett (47:53):
You're like, I really like this.
This is a cool track.
I like this artist.
Maybe they don't have a massiveaudience yet.
And he put it out and, you know,that's why I said, like, we
don't like to burden the recordwith like a wild amount of debt,
like we try to keep everythingkind of like in line with how we
think something's going toperform.
And having done this now foreight, nine years, like I.
(48:13):
Got a pretty good beat on, like,how much I think a record is
going to make in, like, thenext, like, six months or a
year.
And then beyond that, like, youdon't know, like, something you
can just, like, pop offrandomly, you know, as a viral
moment and, um, carries things.
But, you know, for the mostpart, like, a lot of releases
just kind of go and like, theybreak even, or maybe they lose a
(48:34):
little bit of money or make alittle bit of money, like, here
and there, a little bit ofpocket change.
And then it's like a couple ofthe handful of releases that go
out every single year thatcarrying the bulk of the label,
fortunately, With Z dead on thelabel.
We know that like those tracksare gonna go out and get, you
know, millions of streams orwhatever, and, uh, we can tailor
(48:56):
our budgets accordingly so that,you know, we don't need to just
break even on those tracks, butlike a lot of those tracks can
kind of support the variety ofthe label, that goes out
throughout the year.
Nik (49:09):
Yeah, yeah, because in the bigger picture, it's like,
that's just helping grow thebrand of dead beats in general.
It's really like an investment,right?
Even if we, you know, maybe losea little bit on some of these
songs, it's still helping thebrand grow.
And that brand is then gettingto, you know, throw shows and
probably make money off theshows.
And there's like a bigger, abigger ecosystem there.
Harrison Bennett (49:31):
absolutely.
It's, it's very much about like,kind of the, the overall
picture.
Like, I'm not looking at it likerelease by release.
Like everything needs to, youknow, it's not going to be like
a steady, like.
Going up chart on anything.
There's always going to be ebband flow and like, even with,
you know, like saying like, youknow, Zed's dad, like their
(49:52):
releases kind of like helpsupport a lot of these smaller
things.
They may take a year off andjust like want to work in the
studio and not release anything.
Or maybe it's just like, it'smore of a touring year and then
we got to kind of have to, youknow, budget accordingly with
that or find other releases thatwe think can support a lot of
these other, you know, kind ofexperimental projects that come
(50:13):
out.
I
Nik (50:14):
Yeah, for someone that's self releasing, what kind of
budget do they need to have?
Obviously, the bigger thebetter, but like, at like a base
level, how much could someone beexpecting to put into just like
a single release?
Harrison Bennett (50:28):
mean, artwork, motion graphics, like, all that
kind of stuff so that yourrelease, like, goes up online
and it looks, you know,official, like, it was done
proper so that you have, like,something for your Spotify
canvas and you have, like,something to go up on your, on
your YouTube as well.
So, you may not want to pushyour motion graphics on
Instagram or whatever, becausethey perform terribly, but
(50:50):
you're going to have to fill inthose gaps on other platforms
that and artwork.
You know.
You can get it done super cheapon Fiverr.
Like you can probably getsomething for like a hundred,
150 bucks.
Or you can get, you know, afriend of yours or something
like that to do it for kind ofcheap, but the safe ballpark is,
I think, you know, payingbetween like 500 just to get
(51:12):
your like, visual assets kind oflocked in.
But, you know, like I said,like, that stuff always performs
awful on socials.
So, uh, you know, you need tohave kind of like a, a more
organic promotion strategy,which can be done for.
Nothing, but is going to, youknow, require a fair bit of
(51:33):
creative, input from yourself toget something out there.
And then once it's out in theworld, you know, you have to
promote it.
Um, you can promote it againorganically, like posting on
your feed and telling peopleabout it, or coming up with
unique ways to make a video.
That's going to catch people'sattention and pull them in.
(51:53):
You can.
Do it by promoting the record todifferent DJs and getting them
to play it or paying for a promopool service to kick it out to a
wider network.
Those are anywhere from like twoto 500 as well.
And then, you know, you could dosome ad spend as well, which I
don't think you need to go crazyon, but like, probably spend
(52:16):
like, again, like 200 bucks to500, whatever you're comfortable
with.
Like, you can, you can go prettyfar with that, with that stuff,
but I think in general, likeputting out a release.
I'll be looking at spending like1, 500 to 2, 000 to like kind of
get all those those check boxesdone.
Nik (52:37):
yeah, yeah, it's gonna go a lot further than just uploading
your track and hoping thatpeople see it, you know Maybe
you maybe you get luckysometimes but that's something
I've heard from Just themarketing world in general like
like marketing agencies is whenit comes to your budget That
basically whatever you spend onthe creative, like you're
(52:57):
creating a video, you'recreating these really cool
assets.
I spent money on artwork.
Maybe I made a music video thatyou should also be spending an
equal amount of money on theadvertising of it.
You know, cause I think a lot oftimes we just put the whole
budget and like, Oh, I spent athousand dollars making all
these really cool graphics andmade this really cool video.
And, but then you upload it.
And nobody sees it, right.
(53:18):
So you got to put anotherthousand dollars into running
the ads and pushing it out andactually getting people in front
of it.
So that's, that's what I'veheard about just kind of, uh, a
basic rule of thumb is like halfon the creative, but then also
half on the advertising half on,on pushing it out.
And I learned that lesson whenI, I worked at icon collective
and, we got a budget to makevideos and I made it for a whole
year, made all these incrediblevideos, little documentaries
(53:40):
about each of our, uh, you know,clients, but then we just
uploaded it to a YouTube channelthat nobody fucking followed.
We put all this super sickcontent.
It was actually, well, now Ithink about it.
Well, I think it was Will.
Will Runzel was the one, uh,cause we did one with nightmare.
He's like, yo, you gotta, youmade this incredible video.
You also got to spend the moneyto put, push this in front of
people.
That's just the way marketingand advertising works, you know?
Harrison Bennett (54:00):
Yeah I know that that one to one ratio is I
it's a very like kind of safeformula to go with but that
stuff where it's You know and itdoesn't need to be just like Oh,
I spent a thousand dollars on,on a video.
I need to spend a thousanddollars on ads.
Like you could put some moneyinto PR or put some money into
like the blog promotion stuff orwhatever it might be.
(54:23):
But yeah, you gotta, you gottapay to get it out in the world.
Unfortunately.
Nik (54:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, my man, thank you so muchfor, um, peeling back the
curtain, you know, showing us,uh, how the food is made in the
kitchen, you know, and reallydigging into the, some of this
stuff with us.
I'm sure, you know, everybody'staken away a lot.
I hope you guys are taking notesand applying this.
I, here's the thing.
I'm going to, I'm going to callyou out.
If you have been listening to, Idon't know what we're on fucking
(54:48):
70 episodes of the headlinermindset podcast.
If you've been listening everyweek and just listening.
And not applying and notactually going out there and
doing this shit.
You're, you're dropping theball.
All right.
So go back, take some notes, butactually please go back and
apply the stuff.
We're giving you, we're givingyou the sauce every week.
We're giving you the, the, thegame plan here, you guys.
So, good luck to you all.
(55:09):
Harrison, thank you so much forhopping on today.
Harrison Bennett (55:12):
My pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
there's not a clear.
(00:01):
roadmap for artist developmentor what a career trajectory
should look like.
Everybody, I think has theirown.
path they're traveling on andpeople, hit different levels at
different times.
But I think if you are.
In it for the right reasons.
Like three years, quickly turnsinto five years and seven years
and 10 years.
And, you're not really likelooking to get into the next
(00:23):
level and you're just kind oflike along for the ride and
enjoying what, comes.
Nik (00:40):
What's up, everybody.
Welcome to the Headliner MindsetPodcast.
Today's guest is the manager ofone of the biggest acts in the
bass music scene, Zedd's Dead.
He is also the label manager fortheir record label, Dead Beats,
which has helped launch thecareers of artists like Rez,
Mersive, and Tate B.
He's got a wealth of knowledgeto share about how to grow your
brand and project as anelectronic music artist.
(01:01):
This is Harrison Bennett.
Let's go.
Let's go, baby.
Harrison Bennett (01:05):
Good intro.
Nik (01:06):
the show.
Harrison Bennett (01:07):
Thanks.
Good.
Good to be here.
Nik (01:09):
Yeah, man.
I'm pumped to have you as wewere saying just before we
started.
It's been a long time coming.
I have been, um, working withSippy over the last few months,
which is cool just to come fullcircle.
She was the very first artist Iever had episode number one of
the headliner mindset podcast.
Go back and listen to it.
My girl Sippy.
Um, we've been doing somecoaching together over the last
(01:31):
few months.
And so, of course, Of course,I've heard a lot about you, uh,
because she's one of the artiststhat you work with as well.
So just a, a, a cool moment toget connected.
Harrison Bennett (01:40):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Looking forward to it.
Nik (01:43):
And so let's start there.
You work with the artistmanagement company two plus two,
right?
Um, based out of Canada, youguys have an incredibly stacked
roster over there working withsome, some huge artists.
Who are the artists that youwork with as a manager?
Harrison Bennett (01:57):
Um, so I'm on the Zed Zed management team.
Um, the, the lead manager onthat is Adam Gill.
Who's the, uh, owner, uh, of twoplus two.
And then I also am managingAmani, Sippy, and Levity and
recently we just signed DistinctMotive, which I'm very excited
(02:19):
about.
Nik (02:20):
Awesome.
Awesome, man.
So you've got your, you've gotyour hands full.
You're a busy dude.
Yeah.
Harrison Bennett (02:28):
normal home life stuff, it's, uh, definitely
enough to keep me busy duringthe day.
Nik (02:34):
Yeah.
So let's talk about what you doon the label sides.
Uh, I think everybody knows ifyou're listening to the show,
you probably know who Zed's Deadis, you probably know that they
have a really awesome recordlabel called Dead Beats.
Um, as the label manager, whatdoes a label manager do?
What is your actual role withhelping with the label?
Harrison Bennett (02:55):
That's a good and very open ending question.
So I guess like first to justkind of like paint the picture
of like dead beats is we have a,uh, rather tiny team,
considering, I guess, like theperspective of, of how the label
is.
But there's about four of usthat work on the team.
(03:18):
And.
Out of the 4, like, 1 of us,like, that's their, that's the
sole thing that they focus on,um, and that's, uh, and her
name's Harley, and she does,like, all the marketing and all
the social media and, a bunch ofcreative direction stuff for the
label, so as a label manager, I,uh, very much lead on all the A&
(03:42):
R stuff, kind of projectmanagement in terms of, you
know, Getting the initial demoscoordinating, getting the
artwork in submitting it in fordistribution and then handling
all of the dot connecting withall the DSPs and the artists and
just making sure that theproject gets out successfully
(04:02):
and is.
Marketed successfully and takencare of for the entire term that
we're we're in charge of it.
And then I get to do all the funlabel stuff, like royalty
accounting and, uh, you know,dealing with budgets and and all
that stuff.
And then there's, um, you know,kind of unique for dead beats is
(04:25):
we also have our events.
Which we do, you know, anywherefrom 12 to 25 events a year.
And so I work with our, ouragency team at Wasserman.
Uh, to build those lineups.
Come up with the creative forthe marketing and the poster
design and all that stuff.
And then, um, on the ground,kind of making sure that things
(04:47):
are going as planned.
So, it's a, it's a lot of hats,on the label side of things, but
it's very exciting.
Um, I started on the labelbasically when it started.
I kind of came on board.
As label manager about, I'd say,like, 3 or 4 months after it
(05:07):
formally launched, um, and Idon't know if any of us really
knew what we were doing.
I certainly didn't.
So I just kind of took it andran with it and was like, how am
I going to fill up my hours inthe day?
And turn this into a full timejob and really just kind of went
for absolutely everything Ipossibly could.
(05:28):
And, I think it's done prettywell.
I think we've done a decent jobwith, with kind of scaling and
growing this label and making ita destination point for a lot of
artists.
Nik (05:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I guess a better questionwould have been, what do you not
do as the label manager?
Harrison Bennett (05:43):
I don't sleep.
That's the main thing.
Nik (05:46):
For sure.
For sure.
And so you came in right aroundwhen it was starting, a little
bit after.
I was really curious about whathad Zedd's dead, know that it
was time to launch a label?
And maybe we can just open thisup to a little bit more of a
broader, you know, question.
I think for a lot of artists atsome point in their career, they
(06:09):
may or may not decide to starttheir own label.
We've seen that with so manyartists.
And so I guess I'm just curiousabout like when might be the
right time and how did they knowthat it was the right time
Harrison Bennett (06:21):
Yeah.
So, uh, so I came on with thatin 2015 and, uh, originally
started as like working, uh, ontheir social media and marketing
side of things.
At that time, they were startingto seriously, uh, set aside time
and work on what was going to betheir debut album, Northern
(06:42):
Lights.
And, uh, they were like, well,we don't really want to have to
deal with Posting on socials orevent marketing or anything like
that during this, because wejust want to focus on the album
stuff.
And so I helped, you know, filla lot of those.
Needs that they had, and then.
It was roughly like, 8, 9 monthslater, they were like, hey, we
(07:05):
want to launch this label andthis has been an idea that we've
had in our minds for a longtime.
And I think the real.
Kind of like push to do that wasbased around this album that
they, you know, they ultimatelythey worked with a bunch of
different labels kind of as theywere starting and done a bunch
of EPs and random singles withlike mad decent and Denmark and
(07:26):
spinning and ultra and, youknow, they, they'd done the
whole gamut of, of dance musiclabels.
Um, but, you know, with thisalbum, they really didn't want
to compromise.
On anything they wanted to putout the record that they wanted
to put out.
They wanted to be in absolutecontrol of, you know, the
artistic direction for thisproject.
(07:47):
And they felt that.
You know, doing it under theirown label would give them that
kind of artistic freedom thatthey, that they wanted so badly.
So that was, um, the realimpetus for, for them kicking
off the label.
Nik (08:02):
Where do artists potentially not have artistic
freedom and have to compromisewhen it comes to working with
labels?
Harrison Bennett (08:10):
So, you know, some labels, I'm not going to
name names, but like, you know,some labels will have, templates
for artwork that they want touse and there's, you know, not
really.
There's like, some wiggle roomthat the artists are afforded,
but they're not really givenkind of carte blanche for
whatever they want to do.
Other labels will give a lot ofnotes on the music and, you
(08:32):
know, they'll want to change andtinker with certain things.
And, you know, so they can getinvolved in a bunch of different
places.
And then there's also just like,marketing budgets to, like, you
know, artists may want to.
Uh, invest in a music video ormotion graphics or whatever it
might be.
And the label is like, no, wekind of have like a, a capped
(08:55):
budget at this.
And until we start to see likecertain sales metrics, we're not
going to really open up thewallet for more stuff, on that
side of things.
So, you know, there's, I thinkthere's inherent limitations
that come with working with,with labels.
We've tried to.
Be as artists focused as wepossibly can on the label side
(09:18):
for dead beats.
And that really.
You know, kind of comes down to,we want the ultimate version of
whatever the artist isdelivering us to get.
Projected into the world, sowhatever the artist wants to do
on artwork, aside from, youknow, kind of running afoul of
any of the DSP.
P's and Q's, which will justkind of make them aware of and
(09:42):
if they still really want topush for it and have, like, a
giant, but on the cover, then,like.
I don't know, we're probably notthe label for that, but, um, you
know, for the most part, like,we really just try to, like, put
the, the artist in the driver'sseat as much as possible on all
this stuff.
And we, you know, when it comesto budgets, we always scale up
(10:04):
our budgets as much as needed.
And really, I'd like, alwaystell, like, artists and their
teams, like, whatever you guyswant to do, we want to make
happen.
Obviously we don't want to.
Battle a project and like, aninsurmountable amount of debt,
but, uh, you know, we want tokind of.
(10:24):
Be able to put forth a projectthat the artist is 100 percent
willing and happy to standbehind and isn't like, kicking
and screaming to the finish lineon this and is bored of the
project and doesn't want topromote it to 2 weeks after it's
at.
Nik (10:38):
Yeah, yeah.
So I hear how one as an artisthaving your own label, just
having the freedom to do whatyou want to do artistically with
the artwork.
Also, I'm sure with just releaseschedules and, you know, handle
handling that, you know, thebudget that makes a lot of
sense.
I mean, I imagine, you know,they were at a certain point in
their career where like, Hey,we've kind of, we've tapped into
(10:59):
all of these other labels.
We've gotten in front of thosemarkets.
We've, we've built our audienceup to a point that we can, we
actually have somebody toreally, you know, get in front
of now, it seems like there'sprobably like a tipping point
there.
The other piece though, that Ihear is there's also just that
genuine desire to, to put otherartists on and create a platform
for them as well.
Harrison Bennett (11:20):
Yeah, I mean, that was a big factor that too,
like, you know, we're, we're allbased in Toronto and Toronto has
got a very, very fertile musicscene here and they've got a lot
of friends and past and presentcollaborators that are in the
city.
so it was very much like, how dowe kind of help out people in
the same way that we've beenhelped out before in the past by
(11:44):
like, you know, kind oflegendary artists led labels,
like a dimmock or a mad decent,you know, how do we kind of do
for this next generation?
What was afforded to us.
So that was a big, big, reasonfor, for wanting to start a
label and also open it up toother artists.
Cause it's pretty, like youcould start your own imprint and
(12:07):
just release your own stuff andhave that freedom there.
But now like opening it up toother artists, like they, you
know, they have to fit theirreleases in around like other
projects that are on the label.
So, that freedom of a releaseschedule.
Is not as free as it once was,but, um, we still try to make it
(12:27):
work as best as possible.
Nik (12:29):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the other piece that I hearin that is I think the reality
of what not just a good labelis, but really a good brand, you
know, like Dim Mok is a greatexample.
Dim Mok, not only were theyputting out great music, But
really at the same time, theywere throwing sick parties.
Like I remember being like DimMock Tuesdays back in LA.
(12:51):
They threw a weekly party everysingle week.
And so there is a differencebetween having an imprint of
like, Oh, I just have a I havea, an online label that puts
music out through thedistributor and that's the one
lane, which, you know, prettymuch anybody can do, but you
guys have really, Builtsomething much more than that.
You guys have built an actualbrand.
You know, you mentioned you guysare also doing over a dozen
(13:13):
events a year as well.
Um, was that always part of thevision?
And, and could you just kind ofkind of speak into, what that
landscape really looks like interms of being more than just a
label, but actually a brand?
Harrison Bennett (13:25):
Yeah.
I mean, so Zed very much gottheir start obviously in
Toronto, but, um, they kind ofcame, they became like a, a
force in the local scene becausethey were doing their own weekly
event.
Um, and it was a Wednesday nightparty called base mentality that
started in like, I wanna say2009.
(13:46):
And, it was a showcase spotprimarily for them originally,
because they weren't gettingbookings in other places in the
city.
Like, there was like, there wasother dubstep nights in Toronto,
but they were like, you know,kind of like old school UK.
Dubstep nights and, you know,they weren't really booking or
(14:09):
looking to book anybody fromNorth America.
Um, and so they started theirown night and it's it developed
and grew into a kind of like apremier.
weekly and base music weeklyevent, not only in Toronto, but
also in North America.
Um, they were.
You know, they booked Skrillex,like, incredibly early, like,
(14:30):
maybe like a month after that,like, massive EP came out in 20,
2009.
they had, like, everybody, like,16Bit was through there, Dr.
P, Cookie Monster, like,everybody stopped by.
Um, and played on this Wednesdaynight and everybody would be out
(14:50):
incredibly late and drag theirasses to work on a Thursday
morning.
And it was very different.
I don't even know how, uh,anybody really got shit done
during those times, especiallythrowing a weekly.
It's just like, it's a lot ofwork.
Um, so, you know, the eventstuff was very much kind of
ingrained in, in, in.
Like Zed's Dead's kind of likeworking model for how they, they
(15:13):
do that, get out there and getin front of people.
And they, they're just veryheavy on the touring side of
things.
Nik (15:20):
Just gotta say real quick.
If you're not getting booked,you can throw your own fuckin
party.
That's the lesson that I'mhearing in this.
Like, if people aren't bookingyou, if you're not getting the
love, you're not getting theattention, or if in your city
the scene doesn't exist, You getto create the scene.
I didn't know that about theirstory, but that's so fucking rad
because not only do you get to,you know, you're adding value to
(15:41):
the culture, you're creating thescene, you're creating a
platform.
Only good things are going tocome out of that.
I'm sure.
Yes, it took a lot of work, alot of time and a lot of energy,
but look where that got them.
You know, not only that, youalso really understand.
And how to throw parties, youknow, when I hear about artists
who have a background in alsobeing a promoter, they just have
(16:03):
a whole different mindset and awhole different understanding of
the music business and thelandscape when they actually
came in from throwing partiesthemselves, which not everybody
has.
So just to plant that seed, ifyou're out there and you're
like, man, I'm not gettingbooked, there's no parties
happening.
Throw the fucking partyyourself.
Harrison Bennett (16:20):
yeah, 100%.
And that kind of like do ityourself ethos is kind of what's
carried through into Startingdeadbeats and then doing the
events as well So, you know thethe event side of things with
with deadbeats started veryearly.
It was like, okay Let's do adeadbeats tour and that that
idea kind of kicked off within ayear Of, uh, of launching the
(16:42):
label, um, we started puttingthe dead beats branding on kind
of key Zed's Dead headlineevents, like their Dead Rocks,
uh, Red Rocks run that they doevery July.
and then, you know, kind of grewit from there.
We did, we did a show at Southby Southwest.
We did a show at Miami musicweek and, um, it's just kind of
developed from there.
(17:03):
And I think, you know, whatit's, what it's turned into is a
main.
Uh, I guess selling point forwhy people would want to work
with with dead beats is, youknow, not only were you going to
put your music out there and,you know, try to do our best
promoting it and making gettingit heard by as wide an audience
as possible, but we're going to,we're going to offer you, you
(17:25):
know, opportunities to get onevents and play in front of, the
Zed Zed audience, which, youknow, We've, like, been very,
very fortunate enough to havethe extremely receptive audience
that gets there early, is downto be exposed to new artists
that they may not be aware of,and, you know, You know, we can
(17:46):
ideally convert them into fansof that artist.
Um, and so that they're going totheir headline shows and buying
their tickets and theirmerchandise and supporting the
releases that are outside ofdeadbeats so that they can
develop a nice, healthy, youknow, long term career outside
of just working with deadbeats.
You know, and we've always kindof been from the, from the
(18:09):
start, like, the way we alwaysuse the label was.
We wanted to be supporting andputting on what we think is
going to be big in the next sixmonths or a year from now.
We didn't necessarily want to belike working with, you know,
today's headliners.
We wanted to be like, if youthink of a music festival, it's
got the main stage and the sidestage.
(18:30):
We wanted to be the side stage.
That's the talent that we wantedto be pushing.
We wanted to be getting people,uh, earlier in their careers so
that, you know, if you.
Look at a bunch of the peoplethat are headliners right now.
A lot of them have a deadbeatsrelease of their discography
that's like buried kind of deepin there.
And that's kind of all by designbecause like we want, we wanna
(18:53):
be that, that starting point fora lot of folks and then also be,
you know, a nice safe spacewhere when they have a big
project, or you know, a bigcollab or a big, you know, a
release that they're like, wellwe, we have some larger ideas
around it and we want to getbehind this.
We want to be that space thatthey come back to in the future.
(19:14):
And that's all kind of done bylike, you know, opening up our
entire arsenal of like what wehave to afford everybody and
make available to them and, andlet them kind of build it into
their own thing.
Nik (19:29):
So what do you guys look for when you're signing new
talent to the label?
Harrison Bennett (19:35):
I mean, first and foremost is the sound.
Like Can't really do much withsomething that we don't vibe
with and that we don't dig.
and the overarching idea foreverything that we sign is, Is
this something that we thinkZed's Dead would play?
is this something that would fitin a Zed's Dead set?
And luckily, Zed's Dead plays avery eclectic, Batch and music,
(19:58):
um, they kind of all over theplace in their, in their sets.
So it hasn't pigeonholed us tojust like one style of dubstep
or even just dubstep.
Like we can do a bit of houseand drum and bass.
We can do some down tempo stuff.
We can kind of go all over themap.
But that's kind of the overriding idea of everything that
(20:20):
we signed.
And then beyond that is, youknow, is this somebody that we
think is going to kind of meshin our world?
Because we are doing the liveevents.
These are people that we haveto.
Hang out with and enjoy beingaround and are they going to
enjoy being around us andplaying at our shows and getting
along with our audience?
(20:40):
So those are usually the 2 mainfactors.
Uh, like, less important islike.
You know, their metrics online,like, I really don't bring that
in as like a factor all thatmuch.
Certainly makes our liveseasier.
If somebody has like anextremely engaged audience, but,
(21:01):
you know, I think that's part ofthe label's job is to help, you
know, find.
That artist audience and helpkind of introduce them to new
people.
You know, more so than just likethe top follower numbers or
whatever we do look at.
Engagement are, are people kindof enjoying this music outside?
Is that fan base enjoying thismusic and enjoying what this
(21:24):
artist is putting out there?
And then, you know, does theartist have a desire to be on
the road is the other bitbecause there's plenty of
producers that are very happy tojust kind of produce and sit in
their studio and, and that'sfine.
But that's not.
That's not kind of giving usthe, the, the tool set that we
think we can work best with andreally elevate to its best
(21:46):
position and, and, um, you know,kind of create a project with us
and the artist that's going tofind success.
Nik (21:54):
Yeah.
And I think a lot of artiststhink they want to go on the
road, but I, you know, I don'tthink everyone actually really
knows what that entails.
And, and I'll bring that upright now.
For those of you that arelistening is it's, it's good to
really think about that, toreally think about what do I
want the next, Five years of mycareer, the next 10 years of my
(22:15):
career to look like.
Um, I think a lot of times wehave this, you know, fluffy
vision of like, yeah, I'm justgoing to be on, you know, flying
on private jets and touring andgetting, you know, it's like,
there's a grind, there's a grindthat comes with it.
And like, you gotta be a fuckingroad dog.
Like you gotta be a, you gottabe a road warrior for this shit.
You know, like I've been invitedto tour manage before, which I
(22:36):
think would be such a, on theone hand would be a cool idea.
Like, yeah, it'd be fun to belike.
You know, a life coach on theroad.
And the other hand, I don't wantto fucking like travel and be on
planes and buses.
I'm like, I like my morningroutine and getting up.
And so, you know, that, that onehour that you are playing the
show and you're getting that fatdopamine hit and, and you're the
(22:57):
man or you're the girl, that'sone hour.
There are so many other hoursthat go around it.
And so, um,
Harrison Bennett (23:05):
there's 23 other hours of you sitting in a
hotel room alone, waiting foryour ride and, uh, or sitting in
an airport and just watchingyour flight get delayed and
delayed and delayed.
Um, it's something that I thinkpeople are just like, certain
people are built for it.
Um, other people can getaccustomed to it and then other
folks can.
Don't really fully getaccustomed to it, but kind of
(23:27):
figure out what works and whatdoesn't work for them.
Um, and, you know, being able tobuild some kind of routine on
the road, even with, uh.
With all the challenges that arepresented in that, and you're in
a different city, you don't haveany of it.
You know, home familiaritiesthat you would get in, like,
(23:47):
you're at home basically.
And, um.
You're staying out late, you'rewaking up super early.
It's a, it's a challenge forsure.
And, and I don't think it, Idon't think it necessarily gets
any easier, like the bigger theartist gets, like, you know,
obviously it's incrediblyluxurious to be like flying on
(24:08):
private jets and staying in likethe nicest suites in a hotel.
but that's really only out therefor a very select few artists.
Um, the vast majority of.
Headline artists are still likethey're flying commercial.
They're staying in the samehotels as everybody else.
And, you know, they don't havelike, secret access to,
(24:32):
convenient flights.
That is only afforded to like,everybody's on the same shitty 6
am flight the next day.
Nik (24:39):
Yeah, that's a lot of what I've been working with Sippy on.
You know, she's doing aheadlining tour right now,
fucking crushing it, and it'sjust like, alright, how do we
keep our mindset, Solid.
How do we keep our energy solid?
What are some things that we cando to add to the routine and
things that we can be working onjust to make sure that, you
know, we're, we're, we'resurviving the road life and
it's, um, it's, it's definitelypossible, but like you gotta,
(25:01):
you gotta put some time andenergy into setting yourself up
for success.
Harrison Bennett (25:04):
and even when you're on the road, like, you
know, for Sippy, for example.
It's not a bus tour.
It's a fly tour, right?
So she's like, flying in andout.
She's usually doing 2 to 3 datesa week, like, Thursday, Friday,
Saturdays.
And then she's flying back homeSunday, probably just before
Totally crapped out by the timeshe gets home on Sunday and, you
(25:26):
know, Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday, she's, she's got to
be like in the studio again, orshe's got to like, turn out
social media content or finish aremix or finish an EP like, you
know, it's kind of a nonstopthing.
It's definitely not for thefaint of heart.
Like, it's it's a, it is verymuch a grind.
Especially at that kind ofcareer stage that that Sippy's
(25:47):
in and a lot of other artistswhere, you know, a large chunk
of your of your pay every nightis going to flights and hotels.
Um, or you're paying for aphotographer, some kind of media
person to be at the show foryou.
And that's eating up your stuff.
And then you have your, yourcommissions on the management or
agent side that you got to pay.
(26:08):
And then, just general cost ofliving.
Like, you can't cook a meal inyour hotel room.
You got to go out for dinner andyou got to eat some shitty fast
food in an airport to kind of,like, stay alive.
Like, it's, uh.
Nik (26:21):
adds up
Harrison Bennett (26:22):
not pretty.
Yeah.
It's, it's, you know, you don'treally walk away with all that
much money, on a lot of thesetours, unfortunately.
Nik (26:29):
yeah, that's why I like you got a fucking love it man you
got to love this shit You got toeat sleep and breathe and this
has to be your your passion.
You know, you can't be doingthis For from your ego and for
the attention and for the cloutor whatever that may be like if
that's what's driving you likegood luck, you're gonna get
swallowed up.
But if it's
Harrison Bennett (26:48):
Yeah.
You're going to get,
Nik (26:49):
from a place of I am genuinely so in love and so
passionate about making musicand the scene and the culture
and playing shows and engagingwith fans like that's it will
drive you to keep going.
But you know, that's where wesee a lot of people get
swallowed up because it's like,well, probably weren't in it for
the right reasons in the firstplace.
Mhm.
Harrison Bennett (27:07):
yeah.
I mean, I see it with, withartists and I see it with, uh,
even with like fans too, wherelike, there's seems to be like a
three year cycle that I thinkpeople can kind of, you know,
they'll, it was like three yearsof like, of going to every
single show I possibly can or,You know, from a fan standpoint,
and then they just get rinsedout.
(27:28):
They're just like, they'recooked on it, or you know, they
weren't there for the rightreasons, or, um, their fan group
has, like, aged out of it, ortheir musical tastes have
changed, or whatever it is.
And the same thing with artists.
Like, artists will, like, Workon a project for 3 years, and
then just like, won't get to thelevel that they think it should,
or maybe they get tired of thatsound and they want to bounce
around and rebrand and go tosomething else.
(27:49):
Or maybe they're just like,screw this.
Like, I just want to be an audioengineer and sit in the studio
all day long.
But I think if you are.
In it for the right reasons.
Like the three years, you know,quickly turns into five years
and seven years and 10 years.
And, um, you're not really likelooking out as like an out to
get in on, like to get into thenext level and you're just kind
(28:12):
of like along for the ride andenjoying what, what it comes.
And, um, there's not a clear.
Kind of roadmap for artistdevelopment or what a career
trajectory should look like.
Everybody, I think has theirown.
Their own path they're travelingon and people, you know, hit
different levels at differenttimes.
(28:33):
And it's not like, if you're, ifyou're not hitting this by like
year three, then like you'refucking done.
Like you can, you should just dosomething else.
Like it's not, it's not the wayit works, unfortunately, but
it's three years of doing thatis, will burn anybody out for
the most part, so.
Nik (28:49):
Well, the thing, the thing that's gonna Keep somebody going
is if you're enjoying it andyou're loving it and you're
loving your life and you'rehappy, like, because if you're
not, if you're, if it's a, ifit's just a grind and it's a
struggle and it's always youknow, a horse chasing a carrot
on the stick, you're alwaystrying to get to that next
(29:10):
level, you're not going to lastthat long.
You know, this is so much of thework that I do.
With artists as a coach, youknow, it's recognizing like,
there's always going to beanother next level to get to.
And if you're waiting to behappy.
Until you get there, if you'rewaiting to be fulfilled, if
you're waiting to really havefun, you know, you're putting
(29:31):
everything off into the futurebecause there's artists that
they are full time and they'retouring and they're getting the,
you know, a decent rate, butthey're not happy yet.
Like, I won't be happy until I'mat the next level or the next
level.
That's never going to go away.
We have to literally trainourselves to be like, no, you
know what I wake up every day.
And I put myself in a state, inan energetic, vibrational,
(29:54):
emotional state of being happyand being fulfilled and being
fucking full of life and full oflove and full of gratitude.
I bring myself to that placefirst, and now let me go make
some music.
And now let me go on the road.
Not, I'll feel good when I getthere.
Cause that's gonna be an endlessfucking cycle, right?
No matter how much money youmake, no matter how big your
(30:14):
shows are like that, that's thegame.
And a lot of people kind of losesight of that too along the way.
And it's like, no, no, no.
Come back, come back to thepresent moment.
Now is the only time that wehave to be fulfilled.
That's when you get to startreally, really enjoying the
journey.
And that's, what's going to keepyou in the game for the long
run.
Harrison Bennett (30:32):
Yeah.
I mean, you got to appreciatethe trail, uh, not just the
destination, because if you'renot kind of enjoying in the
moment, then you're really notgoing to know when you've like
reached where you wanted to goeither, and you're not going to
enjoy that.
So, again, yeah, it very muchcomes down to like, are you
passionate about this?
(30:52):
Is this absolutely what you wantto do?
Nothing else you can think of todo that's going to fill that
void.
Like, when people are happy inthis space, then they are, you
know, some of the.
Best people to be around, Ifind, uh, and if they're
miserable in it, then fuck,like, I don't want to be around
that
Nik (31:12):
yeah.
And it's good.
I mean, I hear that that issomething that you guys are also
looking for in who you welcomeinto the dead beats family.
Obviously, the music's dope.
We fuck with this like we wouldplay it out.
But also, yeah, do you havethis, the right personality, the
right vibe?
Are we going to want to take youon the tour bus?
You know, are you actually areyou actually about it?
(31:34):
Are you actually in it for theright reasons?
How do you figure that out withmaybe a newer artist that you
guys are working with?
Do you guys like have zoom callswith them and kind of, you know,
is there like a, an interviewprocess to kind of vibe people
out or how do you actually, youknow,
Harrison Bennett (31:50):
That's an interesting question because,
you know, a lot of our, like, A&Ring kind of comes from just
like cosigns from other people.
So you know, we have a networkof, of artists that we work with
regularly that will put us on tonew music or, you know, my own
network of like other agents ormanagers that are like, Hey,
(32:13):
like, have you checked this out?
This is pretty sick.
Okay.
Yeah.
And then there's just like, youknow, randomly meeting people at
shows too, because we are, youknow, we do all these events and
the backstage.
We usually keep pretty loose interms of people that work in the
industry.
Kind of invite everybody backthere, and that's always a good
place to meet people and try toget a sense of who they are and
what they want to do.
(32:34):
And.
It's not like I'm walking aroundwith, like, a briefcase of
contracts and I'm like, allright, like, we like you sign on
the dotted line.
It's a lot of like, a back andforth kind of like, wooing
process.
Um, and yeah, I mean, I think ifyou talk to anybody that's like,
released on our label in thelast 2 years, they would tell
you that I'm absolutely.
Painful when it comes tolistening to demos, like, it
(32:56):
takes 6 months sometimes to getaround this shit, but it's also
like, coming through a littlebit of a place of caution on my
end, where, like, we don't justkind of dive in on stuff.
Um, we want to make sure thatwe're signing the right people
that are going to last in thisin this space long, a long time.
And, um, we're very slow andkind of, cautious and how we
(33:18):
move and sign lately, buthaving, you know, kind of other
artists or other managers thatwe work with vouch for, for acts
and be like, Hey, you shouldcheck this out.
It's pretty sick.
We've had them on shows forsupport and they, they do a good
party.
It's a good vibe.
That's a a big, big factor for,for how we're signing stuff
(33:39):
lately.
Nik (33:40):
yeah, yeah, for sure.
Just have that, that, that wordof mouth, really Networking, for
lack of a better word, but just,you know, being a part of the
scene, being a part of theculture, developing
relationships, being a fuckinggood person, goes so far, you
know?
Uh, yeah, I get that, I getthat, cool.
So it's not so much like we'rejust digging through demos all
(34:01):
day long, you know, hunting forlike that next sound, it's more
like there's a natural kind oforganic process to
Harrison Bennett (34:08):
Yeah, and like I wish like I had more free time
to kind of like dig onSoundCloud or go through my
inbox And be like, oh shit likethis is like some random thing
that got sent to me I neverheard from this person before or
whatever, but do that for likeour compilations, like our new
(34:28):
artist compilations, like our,we are, we are deadbeat series
or the deadbeats and browniesdrum and bass package that we
did, where it was more of likean open submission space.
but for the most part of the,the stuff that we're releasing
guys like singles or EPs, um, iskind of coming from a, a
nurtured relationship that we'velike developed over some time.
Nik (34:52):
speaking of you guys just put out a compilation recently
as well.
Tell me about that.
Harrison Bennett (34:58):
Yeah, so that was, uh, this is the 6th volume
of, uh, the We Are Deadbeatseries, um, and this was the
biggest one that we've done.
It was about 20 tracks,including a new record from
Zedd's Dead, um, which theycollabed on with Chi.
And, um, I get these done likeevery year or two years or so.
(35:18):
I think the last one that cameout was in 2021.
they just take a really longtime to put together, like not
only finding the tracks, butthen also finding, a spot in the
calendar that works for, in thisinstance, like 25 artists, so to
make sure that they don't havetheir own releases coming out
then too.
So, yeah, I mean, you basicallyhave to schedule it onto the
(35:40):
calendar.
At least, like, 4 to 6 months inadvance to kind of make sure
that it's going to work foreverybody.
And then.
Uh, you know, it's a massiveprocess of, like, getting
everybody to submit their premasters or their self masters,
like, in on time and getting theartwork done and getting
individual art assets done andpitching this into PR and, into
(36:02):
the different, like, digitalservice providers as well.
Just making it feel and soundcohesive is the other kind of
final bit on it.
But it's, you know, there are acouple of these tracks that were
on there were demos that weresent to me last summer.
Um, and I'm just like, Ilistened to it.
I liked it, kind of set itaside.
(36:23):
It was like, all right, this isa potential thing.
And, you know, we built out, Ithink we had like 50 potential
tracks that we whittled it downas much as we could and we got
it down to 20.
so it's a very, very long andintensive process, which is why
I also only ever do this likeevery 2 years because it's like
(36:43):
really a monster to kind of takea hold of.
But, um, it's a great way for usto introduce new artists on the
label.
Kind of.
expand the roster of folks thatwe're associating with deadbeats
and also start to like test thewaters with different genres or
different styles of, of trackstoo, and see what, what folks
(37:06):
are responding to.
It's just a great, like, youreally don't know a lot of the
time.
Cause like, Just sitting, youknow, in an office most of the
time listening to music on myheadphones and or like in my
car.
And it's like, okay, I likethis, but does anybody else like
this?
Like, who the fuck knows?
Um, and so a lot, this is likeour chance to kind of experiment
(37:27):
a bit more and just put stuffout there and see what folks are
reacting to.
Nik (37:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, well congrats on therelease.
Quite a, quite a big endeavor.
It
Harrison Bennett (37:37):
Thank you.
Yeah.
Nik (37:37):
work goes into that.
Um, let's talk about marketing.
I want to know about.
How you guys market a trackbecause I think, you know, for
everyone out there that'slistening, they've got their new
music, maybe they're gettingsigned and they get to partner
with the label and have help andassistance with the marketing.
But a lot of people are reallystill releasing music on their
(37:59):
own and trying to figure outwhat's the best way to really
get this out there.
I'm curious from yourperspective as a label, what do
you guys do when you put out atrack?
Like, how do you actually get itin front of people?
What are the, I don't know ifyou have like a, a checklist of
things that you, you do withevery release, but how does that
look at the
Harrison Bennett (38:17):
Yeah.
So, I mean, there's, I guessthere's different buckets for
this, right?
There's kind of like the, thevisual packaging of the release,
like artwork, motion graphics,all that kind of stuff.
There's the social presentationof it on TikTok or Reels or
Twitter, whatever the preferredplatform is on that.
(38:38):
And then there's, uh, paidmedia.
So pitching it out to.
Like most blogs now are paidplacements.
So, you know, for 250 bucks,they'll post your stuff on their
Nik (38:50):
that's wild, man.
I remember when blogs used to befucking, you know, free, like
what,
Harrison Bennett (38:56):
Oh yeah,
Nik (38:57):
was
Harrison Bennett (38:57):
yeah, exactly.
And
Nik (38:58):
to get tracks from, from people.
Like,
Harrison Bennett (39:01):
it was not only that, but they were also
just like, Oh, let me support,like I found this cool thing.
Nobody else has found this.
Let me put it out there.
Um, yeah, it's that whole, thatwhole world has very much
changed.
So this is the paid me.
And then there's also like, youknow, buying ads on, Facebook,
Instagram, or TikTok orwhatever.
and then there's the kind ofmore editorial promotion, uh,
(39:22):
and marketing too.
So how do we make this appealingto the editors that are doing
the playlists on Spotify orApple Music?
so, you know, kind of break eachone of those down.
You know, the visual The artworkand the motion graphics and
stuff like that.
That's kind of like the purestform of, aside from the music
(39:44):
itself, but, like, the purestform of like, artistic
expression that that kind ofgoes along with this, like,
whatever the artist wants to do,what do they see is like the
visual elements that that matchthe sonic palette that they've
put together.
And so on that side, like, we.
You know, we'll introduce themto whatever designers are in our
network that they think could,you know, get the job done for
(40:08):
them.
If there's no fits, then we'llgo out and outsource beyond
that.
Or if they have somebody theyprefer to work with, we'll just
try to.
You know, make it happen and getit done as best as possible
there.
The social promotion stuff,that, you know, ultimately falls
very much on the artist.
We can help them strategize and,and try to figure out like,
(40:28):
okay, we should do, you know, abunch of live clips or we should
post carousel posts, or weshould get some new press picks,
or, you know, whatever it isthere.
We'll, kind of.
pay for, but then also help likekind of curate like what is
actually going out into theworld.
Paid promo stuff.
Like we obviously have a, anetwork of folks that we work
(40:51):
with repeatedly.
So we will, you know, kind ofreach out to them and say like,
Hey, what kind of content areyou looking for?
Can we figure out some kind ofdeal in terms of the promotion
of this?
Nik (41:00):
These are like social media accounts mostly
Harrison Bennett (41:03):
Yeah, a lot of them are social media accounts.
Um, a lot of them are like thoselike review pages on TikTok.
And I say review in quotesbecause they're just like
reacting to the music.
Um, and those are like, Youknow, sometimes they'll pick
stuff up organically and like,it's great, like saved everybody
(41:23):
a bunch of money.
And then other times it's, youknow, you gotta, you pay them
to, to, to take a listen to it.
And, um, I will say the, uh, thereaction that they gave is
always authentic.
Like, they've, we've paid forstuff and they've been like,
this isn't for me.
Nik (41:38):
I was totally gonna ask that like are they required to
give a positive
Harrison Bennett (41:42):
No, I.
Nik (41:43):
just like that
Harrison Bennett (41:45):
Unfortunately, not, but I will say, like,
sometimes like the, it's noteven a bad review.
They'll be like, very nice aboutit.
But like, sometimes that's like,even more beneficial than like
them being like, Oh, my God,this is amazing.
Nik (41:59):
There's, there's no such thing as bad press, as they say,
Harrison Bennett (42:01):
Yeah, and then there's, um, yeah, there's like
the, the DSP pitching, which islike.
Nik (42:08):
Yeah.
Harrison Bennett (42:10):
how do we make this appealing?
Like, so we've got to breakdown, like, the metrics and the
growth that the, that the artisthas had and, um, what their
audience is like, and which,which playlist we think this
will fit in and where, you know,things will react the best.
So there's all those littleelements that are kind of going
in and, but I think, like, themost important pieces that gets
(42:33):
overlooked a lot, especiallywhen it comes to independent
releases, is.
Getting the music into the handsof other DJs and making sure
that these tracks are gettingplayed out and that it's, you
know, the audience is able toreact to it as well.
And so I think that part gotoverlooked a bit, especially
(42:54):
during, the pandemic when, like,everything was shut down and
everyone was like, okay, I madethis track.
Let me get it out in a week.
Um, I'll promote a little bit ontick tock or whatever.
And it's just like, out in theworld.
But, you know, the stuff thatwe've seen getting the biggest
reactions.
At least on our label for thelast couple of years has been
(43:15):
stuff that has circulated.
In amongst like, DJs for a fewmonths prior to release.
Or stuff that, like, you know,like, I guess levity flip it is
a good example of somethingthat, like, was made and then
released pretty quickly.
But the, the real push on it.
Came not just from their socialvideos, but like making sure
(43:37):
that like every single DJ hadthis track and that, you know,
hopefully they'll play it andput it in their sets and then
they'll make remixes or, orwhatever.
Distinct Motive is another goodexample where like he had this,
he has this record Mellow Man,which we put out in January of
this year, which he was likerinsing out for like six months.
(43:58):
Before it came out, and youknow, he had sent me a package
of records and he was like, Hey,what do you like out of this?
And I was like, Oh, like thisone, this one, this one are
pretty cool.
Like, let's do an EP.
And he was like, yeah, those aregreat.
But like, Check out this.
This one's getting a lot of DJsupport and like immediately
like that's, you know, I'm like,okay, well, that's clearly the
winner.
Like, I'm, I'm not aware.
(44:18):
Like, I didn't get that off myheadphones, but, you know, you
start seeing videos of peoplereacting to the track live and
kind of freaking out over it.
And that's, that's to me islike, always like, oh, shit.
That.
Okay.
Let's release that.
Let's go for that.
Nik (44:34):
And I imagine it's a little bit of a combination of Just
people hearing the song in thecrowd and they're, they're
starting to maybe get familiarwith it.
Right.
But the other element is havingthe video of that existing on
social media.
So there's this sort of like prerelease social media buzz as
well.
Harrison Bennett (44:52):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Like, uh, like for distinctmotive, for example, there was
this video of him playing athree 60 set at infrasound, uh,
last year and it was duringmellow man.
And like the crowd was just likegoing apeshit during it.
And like that video will getlike popped back up and
recirculated all the time.
And it just kind of like, youknow, it keeps promoting and
(45:12):
pushing the track and it'sreally done.
More work for that track than Ithink like any traditional
marketing can do.
Nik (45:21):
When it goes, it goes back to just the classic DJ method of
like, test the track out withthe crowd first, you know, like
as you're making it, you'replaying it and testing it out.
Like, does the crowd like it?
Does it get a reaction?
You know, if you see the crowdfreaking out, like, cool,
there's something here, like,let's keep going.
If it's not, then maybe it stillneeds to be worked on or it's
(45:42):
just, not really a hit.
And that, that does get lost.
I mean, especially for.
Artists that aren't touring orthey're not really playing
shows.
You don't really have thatability to test it out But
getting it
Harrison Bennett (45:55):
But like, get it, yeah, get it into the hands
of other DJs, um, you know,people that you think that who
said it could fit into, like,don't send all of your demo,
like all of your 140 dubstepdemos to like Martin Garrix,
like he's not going to play it.
But if you get it out to like.
You know, folks that you're likemore easily able to network with
and kind of make the, make theconnections with, and that, that
(46:17):
also like know you too, thenthey're going to play that track
and they're going to support itand maybe they get a video of it
and they send it over to you andthen you've got, you know,
you've got a bunch of stuff thatyou can share on your socials or
build up and like help you, youknow, pitch to a label or pitch
to a manager or whatever itmight be.
Nik (46:35):
Totally.
Yeah, that's just that, thatsocial proof.
I mean, in the, I just had WillRunzel, manager of Slander and
Nightmare on two weeks ago and,you know, literally just broke
down the formula in the sameexact way.
Just like, make really goodmusic, make really good content,
and get your tracks out to DJsand get them playing it and get
that content too.
You know,
Harrison Bennett (46:55):
Yeah.
I mean, it's, you know, it's, itsounds simple, but it's dance
music.
You know, like, and if peoplearen't dancing to it, then
something's not fully jiving.
Yeah.
Nik (47:07):
So I'm also curious about as a label, you guys are
obviously investing in thesetracks.
You gotta, you gotta pay forartwork.
As you said, you're paying for,for the marketing.
Are you making that money back?
You know, and really, how often?
I mean, I come from working inthe major label, days you know,
(47:28):
2008, still selling CDs, and itwas like, you sign nine artists
and they lose money, but thenthe tenth artist makes enough to
kind of recoup for all of it.
Is it still kind of work thatway?
Like, what's that, if you'reopen to sharing, like, what does
that look like on the back end?
Harrison Bennett (47:44):
Yeah.
It's, um, it's still a lot of,to be honest, like you'll have
like a lot of, you know, passionprojects.
Nik (47:52):
Yeah.
Harrison Bennett (47:53):
You're like, I really like this.
This is a cool track.
I like this artist.
Maybe they don't have a massiveaudience yet.
And he put it out and, you know,that's why I said, like, we
don't like to burden the recordwith like a wild amount of debt,
like we try to keep everythingkind of like in line with how we
think something's going toperform.
And having done this now foreight, nine years, like I.
(48:13):
Got a pretty good beat on, like,how much I think a record is
going to make in, like, thenext, like, six months or a
year.
And then beyond that, like, youdon't know, like, something you
can just, like, pop offrandomly, you know, as a viral
moment and, um, carries things.
But, you know, for the mostpart, like, a lot of releases
just kind of go and like, theybreak even, or maybe they lose a
(48:34):
little bit of money or make alittle bit of money, like, here
and there, a little bit ofpocket change.
And then it's like a couple ofthe handful of releases that go
out every single year thatcarrying the bulk of the label,
fortunately, With Z dead on thelabel.
We know that like those tracksare gonna go out and get, you
know, millions of streams orwhatever, and, uh, we can tailor
(48:56):
our budgets accordingly so that,you know, we don't need to just
break even on those tracks, butlike a lot of those tracks can
kind of support the variety ofthe label, that goes out
throughout the year.
Nik (49:09):
Yeah, yeah, because in the bigger picture, it's like,
that's just helping grow thebrand of dead beats in general.
It's really like an investment,right?
Even if we, you know, maybe losea little bit on some of these
songs, it's still helping thebrand grow.
And that brand is then gettingto, you know, throw shows and
probably make money off theshows.
And there's like a bigger, abigger ecosystem there.
Harrison Bennett (49:31):
absolutely.
It's, it's very much about like,kind of the, the overall
picture.
Like, I'm not looking at it likerelease by release.
Like everything needs to, youknow, it's not going to be like
a steady, like.
Going up chart on anything.
There's always going to be ebband flow and like, even with,
you know, like saying like, youknow, Zed's dad, like their
(49:52):
releases kind of like helpsupport a lot of these smaller
things.
They may take a year off andjust like want to work in the
studio and not release anything.
Or maybe it's just like, it'smore of a touring year and then
we got to kind of have to, youknow, budget accordingly with
that or find other releases thatwe think can support a lot of
these other, you know, kind ofexperimental projects that come
(50:13):
out.
I
Nik (50:14):
Yeah, for someone that's self releasing, what kind of
budget do they need to have?
Obviously, the bigger thebetter, but like, at like a base
level, how much could someone beexpecting to put into just like
a single release?
Harrison Bennett (50:28):
mean, artwork, motion graphics, like, all that
kind of stuff so that yourrelease, like, goes up online
and it looks, you know,official, like, it was done
proper so that you have, like,something for your Spotify
canvas and you have, like,something to go up on your, on
your YouTube as well.
So, you may not want to pushyour motion graphics on
Instagram or whatever, becausethey perform terribly, but
(50:50):
you're going to have to fill inthose gaps on other platforms
that and artwork.
You know.
You can get it done super cheapon Fiverr.
Like you can probably getsomething for like a hundred,
150 bucks.
Or you can get, you know, afriend of yours or something
like that to do it for kind ofcheap, but the safe ballpark is,
I think, you know, payingbetween like 500 just to get
(51:12):
your like, visual assets kind oflocked in.
But, you know, like I said,like, that stuff always performs
awful on socials.
So, uh, you know, you need tohave kind of like a, a more
organic promotion strategy,which can be done for.
Nothing, but is going to, youknow, require a fair bit of
(51:33):
creative, input from yourself toget something out there.
And then once it's out in theworld, you know, you have to
promote it.
Um, you can promote it againorganically, like posting on
your feed and telling peopleabout it, or coming up with
unique ways to make a video.
That's going to catch people'sattention and pull them in.
(51:53):
You can.
Do it by promoting the record todifferent DJs and getting them
to play it or paying for a promopool service to kick it out to a
wider network.
Those are anywhere from like twoto 500 as well.
And then, you know, you could dosome ad spend as well, which I
don't think you need to go crazyon, but like, probably spend
(52:16):
like, again, like 200 bucks to500, whatever you're comfortable
with.
Like, you can, you can go prettyfar with that, with that stuff,
but I think in general, likeputting out a release.
I'll be looking at spending like1, 500 to 2, 000 to like kind of
get all those those check boxesdone.
Nik (52:37):
yeah, yeah, it's gonna go a lot further than just uploading
your track and hoping thatpeople see it, you know Maybe
you maybe you get luckysometimes but that's something
I've heard from Just themarketing world in general like
like marketing agencies is whenit comes to your budget That
basically whatever you spend onthe creative, like you're
(52:57):
creating a video, you'recreating these really cool
assets.
I spent money on artwork.
Maybe I made a music video thatyou should also be spending an
equal amount of money on theadvertising of it.
You know, cause I think a lot oftimes we just put the whole
budget and like, Oh, I spent athousand dollars making all
these really cool graphics andmade this really cool video.
And, but then you upload it.
And nobody sees it, right.
(53:18):
So you got to put anotherthousand dollars into running
the ads and pushing it out andactually getting people in front
of it.
So that's, that's what I'veheard about just kind of, uh, a
basic rule of thumb is like halfon the creative, but then also
half on the advertising half on,on pushing it out.
And I learned that lesson whenI, I worked at icon collective
and, we got a budget to makevideos and I made it for a whole
year, made all these incrediblevideos, little documentaries
(53:40):
about each of our, uh, you know,clients, but then we just
uploaded it to a YouTube channelthat nobody fucking followed.
We put all this super sickcontent.
It was actually, well, now Ithink about it.
Well, I think it was Will.
Will Runzel was the one, uh,cause we did one with nightmare.
He's like, yo, you gotta, youmade this incredible video.
You also got to spend the moneyto put, push this in front of
people.
That's just the way marketingand advertising works, you know?
Harrison Bennett (54:00):
Yeah I know that that one to one ratio is I
it's a very like kind of safeformula to go with but that
stuff where it's You know and itdoesn't need to be just like Oh,
I spent a thousand dollars on,on a video.
I need to spend a thousanddollars on ads.
Like you could put some moneyinto PR or put some money into
like the blog promotion stuff orwhatever it might be.
(54:23):
But yeah, you gotta, you gottapay to get it out in the world.
Unfortunately.
Nik (54:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, my man, thank you so muchfor, um, peeling back the
curtain, you know, showing us,uh, how the food is made in the
kitchen, you know, and reallydigging into the, some of this
stuff with us.
I'm sure, you know, everybody'staken away a lot.
I hope you guys are taking notesand applying this.
I, here's the thing.
I'm going to, I'm going to callyou out.
If you have been listening to, Idon't know what we're on fucking
(54:48):
70 episodes of the headlinermindset podcast.
If you've been listening everyweek and just listening.
And not applying and notactually going out there and
doing this shit.
You're, you're dropping theball.
All right.
So go back, take some notes, butactually please go back and
apply the stuff.
We're giving you, we're givingyou the sauce every week.
We're giving you the, the, thegame plan here, you guys.
So, good luck to you all.
(55:09):
Harrison, thank you so much forhopping on today.
Harrison Bennett (55:12):
My pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
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