News: Music Firm's Deal with Acts Covers All Bases
David RobkinExecutive Q&A: David Robkin
Earlier this month, David Robkin was named chief executive officer and president of Bigger Picture Group, an independent Nashville music, recording, publishing and promotion company. Bigger Picture Group had its beginnings in the creative ambitions of well-known Music Row professionals Keith Stegall, a former Mercury Nashville A&R executive and a producer and songwriter best known for his work with Alan Jackson, and Michael Powers, former senior vice president of promotion for Universal Records South. The 3-year-old company now has a staff of about 35 and a roster that includes country artists Craig Campbell and the Zac Brown Band. It also has a publishing arm that has produced cuts for country music artists Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington and LeAnn Rimes. Robkin, 62, a Philadelphia businessman who commutes between that city and Nashville, has more than 30 years of professional and entrepreneurial experience in the music, entertainment, hospitality and financial sectors. He describes Bigger Picture’s approach as “entrepreneurship meets art.” Tennessean reporter Anita Wadhwani interviewed him last week at the company’s Berry Hill campus.
Describe Bigger Picture’s business model.
Bigger Picture’s structure is much different from a traditional label deal and different from a new model for the major record labels known as the “360 deal.” In the 360 deal, the artist signs basically a normal recording contract similar to the way it’s always been. But the major labels are now demanding pieces of the rest of the artist’s revenue stream, say 10 percent of the revenue from touring, 10 percent of the merchandise income, etc. Our model is different. We refer to it as “entrepreneurship meets art.” We literally enter into a partnership, a joint venture with an artist. We currently have five of these joint ventures.
What does the “joint venture” look like?
We form a new business entity with each artist. It’s a partnership, and often it’s a 50-50 partnership.
Just like any other business partnership, each partner brings something to the table. In our case, we bring the capital needed to launch an artist’s career. That would include the money to record, to promote the record, to support the tour — whatever it takes to get an artist to the point they become self-sufficient. We provide in these four walls all the resources the artist needs, so an artist doesn’t have to go out to a separate publisher or merchandiser or manager. We provide all of that.
The artist brings their talent, their goodwill, their brand. Together, we develop a business plan. We’re in this together. We’re not slicing off a piece of your career or your income stream. We put it all in one pot and share it.
What’s included in our joint-venture partnerships is recording, publishing, touring, merchandise and digital streams of income. It’s comprehensive. Virtually any revenue that is produced through the artistic endeavors is included in the joint venture. If we launch our artist and they’re successful and have other business opportunities created and associated with their brand, it’s also included in our partnership.
If each artist is a separate business, what is the overall Bigger Picture business structure?
We have a few ventures under Bigger Pictures — a publishing company, a digital service company and a company called Artist Ventures. Underneath the Artist Ventures umbrella are the five new entities that we formed with each of the five artists on our roster. It works well, but it is a little challenging from a business standpoint.
Bigger Picture has incredible talent and creative people who come from the artist world, but we recognized our back of house wasn’t as strong as our front of house. We didn’t have a strong business piece in place. But it’s key for our model. Part of our model in forming a partnership with our artist is transparency. We have to sit down as business partners and provide the books on a quarterly basis and review where we’re at.
How are you different from the record labels?
We actually provide the services that allow for touring. It’s not like we just say, “Give us a piece” and we’re not doing anything in exchange for it. We will do the tour accounting. We will provide merchandise services. We will provide Web services. So there is a reasonable exchange. We’re providing services, rather than say, “Give us a slice.” Within our shop we have the resources, we’ve made the investment in the resources to allow an artist to have his entire career supported here.
Do you have specific criteria for artists you sign to your roster?
Many of the artists we have are at a development stage of their career, but not exclusively. For example, we’re working with (country singer) Chris Cagle. He has had a long and successful career in country music. He took a break for a few years, and he’s come back. I think we are also looking opportunistically at artists who are coming out of a major label and looking for a fresh approach.
What are your expectations for growing your roster?
I don’t think we’ve set a hard goal. We certainly want to grow the roster. Right now, we’re looking at a roster that has five artists on it. Part of the challenge is that as you grow the roster, you need to grow other parts of the business. Right now, we have one promotion team of eight or nine people that work those records. What feels comfortable to us is eventually get to 10 artists as part of our recording roster.
Describe the other parts of the business, including digital and publishing.
One of our sister companies is called Songs of Bigger Picture. We presently have nine songwriters on contract, meaning they come to work every day and write songs. Last year, we had a number of songwriters have cuts on major artists’ albums, including Brandy Clark, who has been quite successful.
Our sister company Idea Den provides innovative digital services for our artists and others, as well. They are launching a new state-of-the-art platform later this month that will provide comprehensive fan engagement for entertainment brands of all kinds. Dale Manning, founder of Idea Den, has assembled a great team of experts. It’s crucial for artists to have a solid digital presence. We’re looking forward to the launch and expanding our artists’ online capabilities.
How is your company financed?
Red Stripe Plane Group, based in the Philadelphia area, a publishing company that I was affiliated with … realized they wanted to be in Nashville. At that time, the people here in Nashville who were the foundation for Bigger Picture were looking to affiliate with an investor. There was a merger of those two companies that took place in 2009. Red Stripe Plane has, to a great degree, been the financial sponsor of the business.
Red Stripe Plane is a holding company whose holdings consist of three pieces: One is Bigger Picture Group; second is the digital platform, Idea Den; and the third piece is Dusk Management Group, which is in the business of managing nightlife in casinos, hotels and hospitality. The three pieces of the business are all connected by music. In the grand vision, down the line, how we see the opportunity in the music business is an integration of all that together. As the traditional record business goes away, there’s an evolution in where and how music gets distributed, and Red Stripe Plane will provide Bigger Picture Group an even larger landscape to launch and sustain artists over multiple platforms.
By - Anita Wadhwani