No Record Deal? ONErpm Helps Artists Release & Market Their Own Music

Emmanuel Zunz is founder and CEO of ONErpm and his music vision began years ago when he started Verge Records. He recognized early on – technology was the wave of the future.

“I realized to be successful in the music industry, I’d have to invest in technology because that’s the direction it was headed.

So, he went to work on a website that would encompass some of that technology and in 2010, he launched ONErpm. He created ONErpm with the simple goal of helping singers and musicians get their music heard, but it quickly grew into something much bigger.

“What started off as a simple distribution platform just to get your music on iTunes and AppleAAPL
, evolved into really a full-fledged modern record label,” Zunz explains. “We continued to layer on professional services from all kind of marketing aspects to intelligence tools, analytics, and more. Today we don’t think of ourselves a distribution company, we think of ourselves as a modern-day music company.

A modern-day music company with tens of thousands of clients, and offices around the globe. It’s sort of a one-stop shop for a wide range of artists from those just getting started who want to get their music on digital platforms to those who’ve watched their careers grow and are ready for next-level professional guidance to established artists who use ONErpm for marketing, branding, and other services.

Artists choose the level of service they want and pay ONErpm a commission based on the revenue they generate. That can be on the lower end for a new artist using the platform only for distribution to a more established artist getting full, record-label type service.

“Commissions can be as low as 10% to as high as 50% to 60%,” Zunz says, “depending on how much we’re doing, and how much they’re making.”

ONErpm, which started out with technology at the forefront, is determined to remain on the cutting edge. It recently became the first music company to offer artists “real-time” online transparency with regard to marketing campaigns through its Amplifier feature.

With Amplifier, artists (and artist managers) can log on and get daily statistics on how many people are streaming their individual songs (as well as other detailed data) to the status of a long list of marketing tasks ONErpm is handling on their behalf.

New York-based PLVTINUM (sounds like Platinum) is an independent solo artist successful in the electronic/alternative fusion genre. He signed on with ONErpm to help build on what he’s already successfully accomplished on his own.

“I’m a pretty stubborn guy which is one of the reasons I’ve been self-contained,” PLVTINUM says. “I stayed away from major record labels and distribution partners for a long time. And I could manage my career when I was much smaller, but now with how much volume is coming on the streaming side and so many new opportunities coming in, having a well-organized infrastructure has been really effective. And working with ONErpm, it’s clear it has a distinctly different feel than every offer I’ve received (from other companies).

He and his ONErpm project manager map out strategies for different aspects of his music. As an example, last fall when one of his songs was already doing very well on YouTube, they looked at ways to maximize that success.

He says one of the most helpful aspects of working with ONErpm and their Amplifier technology is getting specific data on each and every song he releases.

“You can look at Spotify, Apple Music, and AmazonAMZN
Music and see what territories are popping off for what songs, and you can see it in one organized chart. So, the ONErpm portal is kind of the hub for analytic research.”

Brad Cohen is the founder of Raw Material, an L-A based artist management company. He handles dozens of artists in a variety of music genres and relies on ONErpm to help with marketing different clients such as alternative pop artist Chri$tian Gate$.

Cohen says having daily access to the latest stats available helps him make important decisions – very quickly.

“Let’s say I’m looking at an artist’s catalogue – track by track. It’s simple math, right? If I see 25-percent of people listening to the music are skipping Song A, but only 10-percent are skipping Song B, it doesn’t matter about the total number of streams. If I’m going to spend $10,000 on something, Song A is not the one. I can see a fourth of the people don’t like it right off the bat. So, I’m going to focus on Song B.”

And being able to access that type of information individually for each client he has with ONErpm is extremely beneficial.

“It’s helping me help my client because I can visibly see what they’re working on in real time. It also helps from a managerial standpoint where I look after so many different artists, this is like an independent task manager for each one.”

ONErpm Project Manager Casey Childers says there’s value, too, in having all of the information charted, compiled, and available long-term.

“They can go back and check it a year from now and if we run into an issue, they’re going to see what we did for each campaign. So, instead of having to sort through 400 emails with six group chats, they can just go back to this tool each time. It’s total transparency.”

The overall aim at ONErpm is to help independent artists make a living from their music by giving them a variety of services and the latest information available to do so.

For artists like PLVTINUM, that means giving him what he needs to oversee and manage all aspects of his career.

“I think being a musician today is making music, understanding how people consume music, having sort of 360 control of a project, and understanding every aspect of what liberates you and makes you independent. I’m a big believer in that.”