Know What You Want: Key Moments From CHANGES' 'Music Passport: Live America' Panel

Digital progression might mean the world is more connected than ever but breaking into a foreign market as an emerging artist is still an incredibly difficult task.

Moderated by Sounds Australia Executive Producer Millie Millgate, the audience at music industry summit CHANGES heard from Carly James, an agent for Paradigm Talent Agency, The Bowery Presents Talent Buyer Michelle Landry, SXSW Showcase Manager Stacey Wilhelm and Our Golden Friend Label Founder and Artist Manager Lorrae Mckenna. Here's a little bit about what they had to say about taking on America.

making a strategy

Paradigm Talent Agency's Carly James started with a warning about just how expensive it is to bring an act from Australia to the US, stating that "building a strategy that has multiple components is super important".

"If you go at the wrong time you’re spending a tonne of money, you’re spending a tonne of time and if it’s slightly off cycle, if it’s not hitting at that right moment where there's is a bit of organic momentum, you might not make it back over.

"America is a huge landmass with hundreds of markets. So what is popping off in LA or New York, people in Cleveland, Ohio maybe have never heard of. So you have to take all of that into consideration when you are building a strategy and building a routing."

Using PTA artist Julia Jacklin’s Don’t Let The Kids Win album cycle as an example, James stressed the importance of manufacturing a sympathetic environment before just plunging in.

“I find a support tour for a like-minded headliner that will have a receptive audience is always such an ideal scenario for a developmental act that is coming from overseas.

“[Jacklin] did a lot support touring and then did kind of key markets - short west coast, short east coast, no frills tours. And that led us into where we’re gearing up for our new cycle. She’ll be out supporting First Aid Kit in the fall, which I think couldn’t be any more perfect as far as getting her in front of a huge audience that will be receptive to her. And then it will fall right into where we’re starting a new record cycle.”

gigging without representation

The Bowery Presents Talent Buyer Michelle Landry shared that although in the US the venues and promoters are often one entity that deals with agents "on a two-way street on an act by act basis for each specific market", it's not strictly necessary to have a booking agent to get decent shows.

"It’s definitely possible. I used to book the Mercury Lounge prior to working Rough Trade and at that level, there’s a lot of super emerging bands. We have a submissions inbox that I check myself every couple of days. If it looks like something is happening and somebody who is actively reaching out and interested, in Australia, that stands out.

"It can’t hurt... Starting that one to one relationship, even without a manager or without an agent, is definitely an effective way to get people talking about you on the ground in America.

"Like Carley said, getting support tours and just connecting with the local community and the markets that you want to break into is a really important way to start, instead of just coming and not knowing anyone. Reaching out to similar bands, whether it’s through Instagram or Bandcamp, just doing your research and knowing a little bit about the market you’re going into as well."

Getting a platform

With 30,000 industry reps, 3,000 media members, and more than 2,000 acts taking part per year stages don't come much bigger than SXSW, but for Australian act looking to make a splash overseas, it's also an expensive stage.

"We offer a platform," says SXSW Showcase Manager Stacey Wilhelm. "We don’t pay travel, we don’t pay accommodation, we don’t give you any guarantee of per diem. If you’re accepted and invited to play that means you’re coming on you’re own provision, this is your own investment."

To make that investment, a four-piece is looking at "a minimum of $25,000 per band”, shares Our Golden Friend Label Founder and Artist Manager Lorrae Mckenna, who took RVG, Jess Reibero, Totally Mild and Jade Imagine to last year's SXSW. "There’s no cheap way of doing it.

“Each of my bands achieved a different thing. They were all at different stages so, for RVG, they’re coming off the back of having this record that they put out a year and a half again that just keeps finding new life.

"After the trip to South By, we’ve ended up doing a deal with Fat Possum in the UK and Europe, and in America they’re on Caroline.

"It’s just been building and South By was really instrumental for them in that a lot of the festival offers in Europe and things like that came from people seeing them at SXSW."

Wilhelm says there are three different ways to get an invitation; general open submissions through the site, via a band's representation and their relationship to SXSW, or by being a universally established act ("There’s no way that I’d really need Bruce Springsteen to have his manager fill out an application and then put it in the queue").

The key to standing out among all those applications, says Wilhelm, is two-fold. “What genre are you working in and are you doing it well? Do we like you? Are you skilful? Are you achieving what you’re setting out to achieve? And then, is there that certain je ne sais quoi? Is there something, some kind of charisma, some kind of new take, some kind of fusion, something endearing that just is compelling beyond being a really great musician.

"But then the second part that we have to look at is, do you have any proof or evidence of career already happening or some indicators that you have a career to look forward to, some kind of trajectory.

"This can be a DIY tour, DIY record release... The more you've accomplished on your own or at the least the more digital footprint you have for a fanbase, that we can see there's potential for growth."