Album Release Strategy, Hot 100 Hit, from Create Music Group

The New Music Business with Ari Herstand

06/02/21 • 61 min

My guest is Alexandre Williams, the co-founder and COO of Create Music Group. They're a distribution, publisher, YouTube royalty collection, rights management, influencer, and TikTok (through Flighthouse) marketing company. Inc Magazine named them the second fastest growing company in America in 2020.

Create Music Group has over 25,000 artists and 5,000 label clients. They distributed Tekashi 6ix9ine's track "Trollz" with Nicki Minaj, and it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's the first time that a completely independent, distributed single has ever reached the No. 1 slot in the Billboard Hot 100.

We discuss playlist pitching, release strategy, and how Create Music Group approaches working with their artists.

6:20 - What is the core mission of Create Music Group?

10:53 - Create Music Group's business model

12:27 - How CMG allocates their resources for their 25,000 artists

18:15 - Advances and CMG's proprietary algorithm to determine them

19:59 - Devoting time and resources into the 'middle class musicians'

24:52 - How CMG decides which artists to work with

28:18 - Building strategies for and with artists

31:55 - The secret to pitching to official Spotify playlists

38:18 - How much goes into the release plan before and after a track comes out

41:07 - How important is release day?

45:35 - How relevant is press today? Is it worth it?