Lauv's 4 Billion Streams, Top 40 Hit, Without a Label

This episode comes to you from Foundation Management's offices in Brooklyn, New York, which is Lauv's management company. I sat down with Emma MacDonald, Lauv's label manager. Lauv is an independent artist, and I profiled him the second edition of How to Make It in the New Music Business. He is one of those incredibly successful artists without a label. In fact, he was the most spun artist in 2019 and has, to date, more than 4 billion streams.

Emma is employed directly by Lauv through his A5B label. She runs all of his label operations, including radio and marketing campaigns. We discuss what their release strategy looks like, how they worked the rollout for his most recent album, and the waterfall effect.

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Quick links:

2:35 - About Emma MacDonald and Lauv's A5B label

4:25 - Lauv being fully independent and his publishing deal with Kobalt

6:15 - What Emma's role as label manager is

11:31 - Why Lauv is so heavily involved in the process

14:00 - What are the label services that AWAL provides Lauv?

15:50 - Is Emma working with AWAL's radio marketing company In2une?

17:30 - How does anyone make the decision to pursue an expensive radio campaign? Why Lauv's story wouldn't be a success on a major label

21:42 - Spending tons of money on a radio campaign for your first song isn't a good idea.

30:00 - What is Lauv's release strategy? Is there a formula?

32:33 - What does waterfall mean?

41:59 - When the album is out, is there more of a campaign?

44:00 - What are all of the assets that you like to have for a full on release campaign?

51:04 - What are the budgets for visualizers and music videos?

54:58 - How do you choose where to put the videos: YouTube, Vimeo?

1:09:39 - What it means to Emma to make it in the new music business

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