ARTIST DEVELOPMENT

Let's go ahead and answer two questions to get them out of the way.

What is "artist development"? And how is it different from "artist management?"

The main difference between "management" and "development" is determined by where the artist is in their career.

Going from point A to point B.

Management requires the business to develop to a point to where the artist can't do it all alone. That's Point B.

Development is starting at point A, and implementing a strategic combination of education and practice to get to point B.

Our program is designed to offer management-style support in an easy-to-digest, and accountable service.

WHAT WE DO / HELP WITH:
✅ Daily communication
✅ Monthly consultation calls
✅ Planning short, medium, & long-term goals
✅ Optimize release plans
✅ Social media best practices
✅ Business organization & planning
✅ Band agreements & writing splits
✅ Establish / optimize branding
✅ Develop websites / web stores
✅ Fan development (see "MARKETING" section)
✅ PR outreach
✅ Playlisting outreach
✅ Influencer outreach
✅ General music industry education

WHAT WE DON'T DO:
🚫 Take 15% of your gross revenue
🚫 Pitch to labels
🚫 Pitch to managers
🚫 Pitch to tours
🚫 Pay for anything on your behalf

...but we'll teach you about how and when to do those things.

Standout Agency first started solely as a music marketing agency.

The more we worked with artists, the more we figured out that we had to do more.

We are artists ourslves, and if we saw that a band was ready to invest $900 into marketing, but didn't have a good release plan... well, we couldn't just NOT help fix it.

We're here for artists, so we won't allow your hard-earned money to get wasted.

That's what led to the development of this overall program... but marketing is still a HUGE part of what we do.

The best part for you?

It's 100% FREE (minus your ad spend) & 100% DONE FOR YOU.

CAMPAIGNS WE RUN:

• FANBASE (SOCIAL) MARKETING
  Growing your social media pages via paid and organic marketing. We place a heavy focus on TikTok.

• MUSIC (SPOTIFY, APPLE, ETC) MARKETING
  Growing your fanbase and numbers on Spotify, Apple Music, and more. Mostly a focus on paid marketing.

• VIDEO (YOUTUBE) MARKETING
  Best practices for YouTube channel growth via paid and organic marketing techniques.

• EVENT (TOUR/SHOW) MARKETING
  How to promote your upcoming shows, generate more awareness and hype, and sell more tickets.

• PRODUCT (MERCH) MARKETING
  How to sell more merch (when you're ready).

• EMAIL MARKETING
  Arguably the most important aspect of growing and developing a fanbase, we'll show you how to set it up and keep it growing.

Even better! You'll also get access to our entire library of courses so you can learn how to market yourself.

All artists want to play shows. We all dream about playing arenas and sold out festivals... but, the truth is that it takes time and smart decisions to get there.

Both owners of Standout Agency started their respective journeys into the business side of music as booking agents.

There's A LOT that goes into making a run / tour / show successful, and there are important steps in building up to those milestones that shouldn't be skipped.

Not only will we help you book shows, we'll also teach you best practices on how to do it yourself.

WHAT WE DO / HELP WITH:
✅ General booking tips & strategies
✅ Planning / booking regional weekend runs
✅ Planning of release shows
✅ Maintaining show/tour finances
✅ Merch strategies for shows

WHAT WE DON'T DO:
🚫 Take 10% of your payouts
🚫 Pitch to agents or promoters on your behalf
🚫 Book national tours

A lot of artists think they need to tour more, when really they just need to tour smarter.

We are partnered with Four Pillar Music Group to offer label-style distribution for all development artists.

FPMG uses the exact same distribution channel we use for our own label that consistently lands editorial playlists, and has helped grow multiple artists from 10k to 100k+ monthly listeners.

WHAT'S INCLUDED / WHAT WE DO:
✅ Priority Pitching to Editorial Playlists*
✅ Access to Spotify's Discovery Mode
✅ Hands-off release set up (we do it for you!)
✅ Artist dashboard for analytics
✅ Easy writer splits & payouts
✅ Monthly payouts
✅ Music delivered to over 200 streaming services worldwide.

WHAT WE DON'T DO:
🚫 Take any % of your royalties
🚫 Pay for anything on your behalf
🚫 Advance you any budgets
🚫 Own your masters forever

How is this different from Distrokid (or similar option)?

To put it simply, it's different because we care.

Companies like Distrokid or Tunecore have no approval process for the music coming in. If an artist pays, they can set up their music and release it.

Other than offering new ways to take some of your money through "features" or "add-ons" they are hands off. Your success is up to you.

And, because there is no barrier to entry, what little support staff they do have is often overwhelmed (and therefore slow to respond).

With us, you first have to be approved for the Artist Development program. That's the barrier to entry.

All of the "add-ons" and extra features that cost you more on other platforms are INCLUDED FOR FREE with us (if you even need them - usually you don't).

We set up your release ourselves, automatically minimizing the chances for mistakes or issues.

If there is somehow still an issue, you don’t have to search through pages of FAQs, or chat with an AI bot. We’re just an email away! (And if it's a problem beyond us, we have a direct contact - her name is Kelsey - who can help). She's never taken more than a day to respond.

We call this “label-style” because we are more than just a middleman; we are invested in your success.

*Placement on Editorial playlists is not guaranteed.