December 6, 2011
It’s never been easy for young musicians to make it in the entertainment industry. But the torrid pace of change brought on by digital technologies has made it all the more difficult.
Those technologies offer new opportunities for ambitious musicians but also demand they master a wide range of skills if they want to succeed. Industry veterans Eric Lawrence and Rob Lanni have made it their mission to help Canadian musicians navigate these turbulent times.
“Artists have to be entrepreneurs these days,” says Lanni, who began Toronto’s Coalition Music with Lawrence in 1992. “They have to be familiar with publishing, touring, accounting, public relations and social media. We have the tools to help them.”
Certainly, the duo has the experience and successful track record to guide a new generation of Canadian artists. Over the last two decades, they have launched and managed the careers of dozens of Canadian acts including such international success stories as Our Lady Peace, Simple Plan and Finger Eleven.
They have also developed their own music label—Coalition Records—in partnership with Warner Music Canada. Since its inception, Coalition has been involved in the commercial release of over 30 albums with combined worldwide sales exceeding 12 million albums.
With change sweeping the industry, Lawrence and Lanni decided last year to diversify the company with the addition of a new recording studio, rehearsal spaces and an artist development school.
For their strategy to succeed they needed expanded premises. With the support of BDC Financing, they bought a 1,100 square-metre (12,000 square-foot) building in Toronto’s Scarborough district. Inside the imposing brick building, they have created a hot house for growing Canadian music talent and touched off a growth surge at Coalition.
Coalition has now evolved into a 13-employee, full-service music development company with several million dollars in sales. At the new building, musicians benefit from state-of-the-art facilities and access to professional help and advice. For example, artists who rent rehearsal rooms are given an opportunity once a month to ask any person on Coalition’s management team questions about their career development. Those sessions pay off for both sides, Lawrence says.
“It gives us the chance to keep an eye on young promising artists,” Lawrence says. “We have created our own talent incubator.”
One of Coalition’s most ambitious new ventures is the artist development school. One course the school will be offering in 2012 is the Music Artist Entrepreneur Program in which Coalition aims to teach young Canadian artists the nuts and bolts of the music industry.
Lawrence and Lanni have built one of Canada’s strongest musical brands, and one of the few companies that have enjoyed international success through the recording and touring achievements of the acts they manage.
They attribute their success to close relationships with their clients and an ability to manage change in a volatile industry.
“The smartest way we know to do business is to collaborate with the artists,” Lawrence says. “When things go well we hug each other. When things go bad we collectively admit we may have made a mistake and carry on as trusted partners.”
“We work in a people business,” Lanni says. “Putting the artist in the centre of our business has kept us successful for so many years.”
Lessons Learned:
- Develop close relationships with your clients. Happy clients equal a healthy business.
- A passion for your business will inspire you to innovate and grow.
- Surround yourself with good, competent people. Don’t take your employees for granted.
- Be good to people. Treat your business associates with respect and generosity. This will pay off many times over in the long run.
- Diversify to benefit from multiple revenue streams and ride out ups and downs in your industry and the economy.
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