Luke Pierce of WORKS Entertainment and Promoter 101 on Building Artist Brands by Creating Communities, Content, and Digital Marketing

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Building a powerful brand in today’s music business includes creative marketing strategies, recurring content, and building communities. Luke Pierce is one of the artist managers and the production manager for WORKS Entertainment, which works with Straight No Chaser, Home Free, Brass Against, Brian Culbertson, Brain Newman, John Mclaughlin, Lucky Chops, Morgan James, and Striking Matches. He’s also one of the hosts for the popular music industry touring podcast Promoter 101.

In this conversation we talk about ways to pivot during COVID-19, building communities, nurturing campaigns, what he looks for in artist management clients, digital marketing, and much more.

To learn more about Luke Pierce visit https://www.worksentertainment.com/ or http://www.promoter101.net/.

Highlights from this Episode
[01:32] Must go to Food Spots in Nashville
[04:45] Nashville Music Scene
[10:22] Current Projects
[12:10] Real Estate Investing
[14:00] House Hacking
[16:54] Day to Day Managers
[20:53] Pivoting During COVID-19
[27:16] Strategies for Patreon
[33:46] Building Communities
[39:29] Opt Ins to Emails, SMS, or Discord Lists
[42:25] Nurture Campaigns
[47:39] Recurrent Content
[52:45] Picking New Artist Management Clients
[55:27] Resources to Learn About the Music Business

Quotes from Luke Pierce
“There is really something biomechanically different between live music and recorded music.”
“I would never underestimate the value of written word or blogs or poems or whatever types of media. It doesn’t need to be about music.”
“If you’re really trying to build a community and business, it needs to be weekly” (on sharing content on Patreon)
“Try to cater to your audience in terms of technical styling and how you think they prefer to communicate.”
“Wherever fans are go there.”
“Having a really effectively run mailing list is an essential part of an artists digital life.”
“Making sure you’re hitting the right people with the right funnels and right journeys through your catalog or body of work is an important thing to do.”
“There is literally an algorithmic importance of having consistent content on YouTube.”
“The consistent mix of consistency but authentic is really important.”
“Are you an authentic creator? Can you create?”
“Artists are entrepreneurs and they need to have an understanding of their business.”
“The artists most important job is to deliver music and content and engagement on daily basis.”

Links to people, places, and things mentioned
James Beard Awards
Sean Brock (Chef)
RJ Cooper (Chef)
Saint Stephen (Restaurant)
Emmy Squared (Restaurant)
Pelican and Pig (Restaurant)
Margot Cafe & Bar (Restaurant)
Setsun Pop-up (Restaurant)
Prince’s Hot Chicken (Restaurant)
The Station Inn
Tim McGraw
Prescription Songs
Rusty Gaston
WORKS Entertainment
David Britz
Bigger Pockets Podcast
Amanda Palmer
Penny Fractions
Discord
Philip DeFranco
Grace Helbig
The Try Guys
Mailchimp
Shopify Masters Podcast
Dan Steinberg
Emporium Presents
The Mailroom - The Hollywood History from the Ground Up by David Rensin [BOOK]