With the advent and growth of streaming as the major means of music consumption, the industry has evolved greatly since Kevin Day launched Rocket Science Artist Services in 2006––when physical sales generated 60% of the revenue. Yet his mission on behalf of artists remains the same, with a focus on top-level marketing strategies to maximize their visibility, revenue and streams to create substantial monetization opportunities.
Day started the company after 14 years in sales and marketing at Universal Music Group (MCA and Geffen Records). At the same time his position was being “downsized,” many artists in the Universal system were being dropped. Day’s idea was to provide core record-label services to these (often well-known artists) who found themselves without a label, many for the first time. His first clients were often major label artists who found themselves without a label, including Chrissie Hynde, Mötley Crüe and Collective Soul.
Essential Services: Currently, the independent music market is the fastest growing segment of the music industry, representing over 40% of the entire recorded music business. Day and his team are uniquely qualified to serve the needs of independent artists seeking fresh opportunities to maximize exposure of their releases and other ways to generate income from their catalogs. Rocket Science’s label-related services include worldwide streaming release, distribution, social media management, new release strategies and playlisting. Revenue services include advance funding, content acquisition, content brokering services, and in-house publishing administration.
Brokering Content: Rocket Science’s fastest growing segment is providing content brokering services for independent artists and labels interested in exploring the sale of their copyrights or masters to generate fresh capital from their previous music. Oftentimes an artist or label will use this service to re-invest in current projects or, in some cases, to launch a new label and sign artists. Day says synch licensing for film and TV is still an important way to generate revenue, but the hottest trend is artists selling their masters and publishing to other labels, investors and distribution companies. In today’s market, artists and labels can sell a fraction of their content to raise funds to continue to build their label or career. Rocket Science has developed a “specialty niche market” working with smaller catalogs of indie artists and labels in the $5 million or less range.
NFT: Another unique service Rocket Science provides is the sourcing and development of NFT to facilitate unique and creative revenue generating deals in the growing marketplace for NFTs, which are unique tokens that can be used to certify the provenance, authenticity and ownership of a piece of digital media. Like cryptocurrencies, NFTs are tracked and exchanged on a public blockchain. But they are unique; where one bitcoin is identical to another, each NFT is one of a kind.
Quote from Kevin Day: “Beyond the superstar names and large ‘heritage artist’ transactions, there is an underserved community of independent artists and labels interested in understanding the value of their creative work and the options available to them... We know the marketplace and present a variety of options in a complicated, rapidly changing content acquisition landscape. We are eager to explore options with artists in what is often a very personal decision.”
Contact Rocket Science Artist Services, 818-300-9991
