Tate Music Group and The Other Guys

No one can dispute the fact that Tate Music Group is offering a unique deal, and several in the industry are still reeling as to how we can accomplish it all. While the industry is changing and artists are forced to find new ways to promote their music, make money, and find fair record deals, we are proud of our uniquely artist-friendly contract and truly believe it's the best in the business. In fact, we guarantee it! Check out the comparison chart below to see just how much our contract is different than the traditional or typical deal.

Want to Get My Attention?

Here are a few great tips from Music Clout on getting my (or any A&R rep's) attention.

Getting noticed as an unsigned independent artist is tough no matter what situation their in. Getting noticed by a people who matter is damn near impossible for most up and coming musicians, so this article will give you a few tips on how you can stand-out amongst the sea of other unsigned independent musicians in today’s music industry.

Having a Great Product
Hands-down the number one way to stand-out from other artists is to have a superior product. Making sure your demo/EP is the absolutely best it can be with both the writing and also the production should be at the top of any musicians list as with every release they put out.

Building a Solid Fan-Base

One of the first things A&R reps want to learn once they’re turned on to your music, is who else is turned on to it. A&R reps know that without the support of a large loyal fan-base, independent acts have a hard time making any real head-way with having an actual music career. So for independent acts, building and maintaining a large loyal fan-base should be a top priority in their overall strategy for getting noticed by A&R label reps

Get In Their Face
With well over five million independent musicians trying to make it in today’s industry, trying to organically stand-out is nearly impossible and sitting around waiting for A&R rep to knock on your door is most likely never going to happen. One thing technology did besides change the sales landscape for music sales forever, is to knock down the barriers previously in place before the rise of social media. Now, with just a few clicks of your mouse and a few creative words you can speak directly to the head of A&R at any record label regardless of the size. Independent artists should always put themselves in the face of any record label A&R that they have interests in signing with for all their releases or any other major event happening with their career.

Sounds simple, but it’s actually a lot of work and therefore a barrier that most independent musicians will never break through. So if you’re independent musicians and have a great work ethic and consistently follow these three simple steps, you’re very likely to get the attention of any record label A&R rep.

Original article: http://musicclout.com/article/104/3-simple-tips-for-getting-noticed-by-ars.aspx?utm_source=Potential+Members&utm_campaign=c8e8d359f9-3_Simple_Tips_for_Getting_Noticed&utm_medium=email

Take a Tour of TMG!

Not able to make it to Mustang, Oklahoma, to check out our campuses? Then check out the video below which will take you on a virtual tour so that you can meet our staff and see where and how are music, books, magazine, and promotional items are made!

To The Sky posts vlog about experience with TMG

Tate Music Group's Christian rock band To The Sky posted this vlog last night, and I had to share! It cracks me up because in typical rock-band fashion, they get called out in the middle of it for being too loud. Ha! It's a great video detailing their photo shoot and studio time while out here recording in our studios. And most importantly -- it showcases their fun personalities! Other bands out there: take note! This is how you connect with fans!

Look for To The Sky's album to drop some time this summer!

TMG's Tiffany Alvord Debuts on iTunes at #2!

TMG’s Tiffany Alvord Debuts at #2

Tate Music Group is proud to announce the release of Tiffany Alvord’s newest album. “My Dream” has debuted at Number 2 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts following a pre-sale campaign created by Tate Music Group. Tate Music Group sent out a press announcement for the pre-release to over 4,500 media contacts and premiered the “My Dream” Pre-Release commercial on YouTube and National Television Networks a week prior to her December 20th release. During that time, fans of Tiffany Alvord’s music were able to buy “My Dream” at a special price. Tate Music Group has currently made “My Dream”available for digital download on iTunes worldwide, and her official CD Release will soon follow nationwide. The CD is also available for purchase on the Tate Publishing Bookstore. TMG expects great things from the young YouTube starlet and her new recording career.

Tiffany Alvord
“My Dream”
Location: Palmdale, CA

Buy “My Dream” CD here

Download “My Dream” today on iTunes

Check out her YouTube channel

http://www.tiffanyalvord.com/

Along with the recent pre-sale announcement, Tiffany made a video for her YouTube followers. In the video, Tiffany shares her self-recorded tracks alongside the TMG-produced tracks, her Tate Music Group produced pre-release commercial, and a special message for fans. Check it out below:

Top 16 Things You Need to Know About Tate Music Group

• On an "as needed" basis, our accepted artists and bands receive (at no cost) a professional studio recording, studio musicians, producers, CD production, release, nationwide distribution and promotion by our in-house staff, along with ongoing marketing and publicity. To see more on each of these aspects, check out the brief videos covering each step of the process here.
• Both TMG and our parent company Tate Publishing have an A+ rating with the BBB. You can see those here: Tate Publishing, and here: TMG.Our chamber of commerce also loves us (feel free to call here), and as a fun aside, we were voted one of the top 2 places to work in Oklahoma 2 years in a row!
• Our booking agents schedule about 200 events per month for our artists, and this does not include what our artists are booking for themselves, which we then publicize. You can see a calendar of events here. You can also see some of the big-name venues that some of our artists benefit from.
• While we do require the refundable $1,990 retainer fee for non-celebrity-status artists, we have signed several high-profile artists including Neal McCoy, Lee Greenwood, and Roy Clark. TMG picks up the yearly tab for all non-celebrity-status bands and artists for their event coordinator, publicist, radio promoter and marketing rep.
• Voices of Glory left the major label deal they were signed to when they took 5^th place on America’s Got Talent, and opted to sign with TMG instead.
• We have lined up numerous artists for major festivals around the nation.Here are a few recent ones.
• We have national distribution through the largest distributor of independent music in North America, E1 Entertainment. This provides digital distribution to all major players and more, including Itunes, Amazon etc. When warranted, we have partnerships in place that allow us distribution through brick and mortar retail stores such as Hastings, Barnes and Nobel, Best Buy etc. We’ve had artists placed in Best Buy and Wal-Mart around the nation (those two retailers aren’t guaranteed for every artist because we have to show proof of sales before we get it.)
• In 2009 and 2010 we hosted an Artist of the Year event, whereby we had all of our artists entered into a contest, narrowed down by online voting, and we flew the top 3 out to Oklahoma City for an all-expenses-paid week of rehearsals, dinners, time with the staff, and fellowship, which was capped off by a live-streaming event and judges from several different labels including Universal and Capitol, as well as the Billboard World Songwriting Contest. Here are blogs (unsolicited by us) written by winners Jeff Chandler and Chuck Tocco about their experiences with TMG. Of course you have to consider that they each won $15,000 cash and opportunities to play at major festivals like Rock the Universe and Rock the Light opening up for Newsboys, Skillet, Jars of Clay, and TobyMac!
• A few months ago we began producing music videos for our artists. It’s not guaranteed in every contract, but an artist can choose to either do full studio production with us at TMG's expense, or to do production on their own and we do a music video instead. Here’s a sample of a hip-hop,country, and CCM.
• In March we took 5 of our artists to the largest independent music festival, South by Southwest. See a write-up about that showcase from the Oklahoma Gazette here.
• We fully believe in the power of social media and encourage our artists to stay on that trend as well. With 20K followers on Twitter and 3k followers on Facebook, we understand what a powerful tool it can be.
• We have a first-class, multi-million dollar manufacturing plant where we create all of our CDs, books, posters, tickets, t-shirt, bookmarks, etc. This means we are able to offer the lowest buy-back rates and no minimums.
• Last July we launched Variance Magazine, a quarterly online magazine featuring music, movies, and books. We feature mainstream artists, highlight our own artists right alongside top 40 artists, and bring in user-generated content as well. Our covers have featured the Goo Goo Dolls, Yellowcard, and Kristin Chenoweth. We average more than 100,000 hits on each issue, and we are currently filming a pilot episode for Variance TV which will launch on a local cable channel first for testing before we launch nationally.
• We run national television commercials for our artists, on the cable network of their choice. In the last 7 days we’ve had commercials on MTV, CMT, BET, VH1, MTV2, FUSE, Great American Country, Fox News Channel, E! Entertainment, Comedy Central, and others. We have different campaigns for different artists depending on whether we’re promoting their CD’s release or an event. Each commercial averages 40,000 impressions. Here are a couple of my personal favorite commercials: Fab Rudies and Tune in Tomorrow
• We’ve created a revolutionary system of getting radio airplay for our artists, including partnering with about 400 Christian radio stations nationwide, where we program the shows and are able to play our artists right next to top-40 artists. See more about that and the other ways we promote artists for radio here. Also, through our efforts Jeff Chandler broke into the top 10 on radio.
• Artists and entertainment attorneys, whom have reviewed other label contracts, appreciate the fact that our contracts are concise, in plain English, allows artists to keep the rights to their music, retain creative control, terminate at any time without penalty, earn royalties higher than industry standard, AND get their $1,990 setup fee refunded once 2500 CD's are sold in distribution, or purchased by the artist for personal sale and profit. There’s not a better or fairer deal out there!

Tate Music Group Artist Featured in Hyperlite Video

We recently connected Tate Music Group's own Justin Cross with Hyperlite for a video promotion they were working on. Check out the video here featuring Justin's song "Ten Hail Marys" from his album Listening to Ghosts. Check it out here and turn your speakers up!

Hyperlite Team Shoot Vol I from Hyperlite Wakeboards on Vimeo.

You can see more of Justin's project and even purchase it here!