How Nettwerk Music Group Uses DISCO Across Multiple Departments to Achieve Maximum Efficiency
Nettwerk Music Group is a global, full-service independent record label headquartered in Vancouver and with offices in Los Angeles, London, Hamburg, Eora / Sydney, New York, Nashville, Berlin, Amsterdam, Toronto, and others.
Founded in 1984 by best friends Terry McBride and Mark Jowitt, Nettwerk rose to prominence in the music industry by representing acts in the industrial/alternative space (Skinny Puppy, Grapes of Wrath). By the ‘90s, Nettwerk drew further recognition for discovering singer Sarah McLachlan and supporting her as she launched the all-female Lilith Fair traveling festival (1997-1999).
As it celebrates its 40th anniversary, Nettwerk remains a force in the independent music world by signing rising and established talent across a wide range of genres. DISCO spoke to Nettwerk Head of Global Sync Talia Rubino and Senior Vice President of Publicity Danielle Romeo, who opened up about the storied label’s history and impact, plus how Nettwerk uses DISCO across multiple teams and countries.
“When Terry and Mark started the company, they really followed one guiding principle, which was to release music they love,” Danielle tells DISCO. “The company went on to launch the careers of Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan. Terry was a huge part of co-founding Lilith Fair with Sarah and Dan Fraser and Marty Diamond. We actually found Coldplay’s Parachutes (2000) and released that. There's a lot of stuff that people don't know we're related to.”
Danielle continues: “We look at our artists and say, how can we be great partners? How can we add value, and how can we support them in making a living doing the thing that they love? I think that's really what drives us.”
Because Nettwerk is a full-service label, including marketing, publicity, radio, fan engagement, advertising, distribution, production, and sync, the company uses DISCO to serve a variety of needs. Danielle especially appreciates how DISCO combines different organizational features found on other platforms into one comprehensive platform. “We're each using DISCO in our own ways,” she says. “Talia might be using Instant Instrumentals, while I'm more in presentation mode for media partners. It's really helpful to not have to work across six different places — we can just do one thing in one place. It makes updating information easier. The team is able to share information much more easily. It’s saving time and money.”
Below, Danielle and Talia go deeper into how they utilize DISCO, including storing assets with Artist and Album Pages, sending press releases and organizing industry contacts, organizing tracks with DISCO Catalogs, and much more.
“DISCO was made by music supervisors for music supervisors”
“Back in the day, I remember having to upload CDs of music into my computer and my iTunes and then make our playlists from there,” Talia says, noting how you only need to add track information once in DISCO. Then, necessary information (songwriters, publishing) can be found by teammates both in her department and across others.
“As many people know, music supervisors want music that's tagged properly and has all the appropriate information. What's great is that DISCO has the features for us to have the writer information and the publishing information all in one go. Obviously it was made by supervisors for supervisors, and that is very helpful.”
Meanwhile, Talia namechecks DISCO’s reporting and analytics as being helpful when she’s looking for feedback. “I always have questions about improving certain things, and it's really helpful when I can just go through and see some of the stats,” she says. “I can see what clients are opening up our playlists. If somebody actually listened to it, I can also see if they decided to download a track off my pitch. I can see statistics of what songs seem to be really resonating with people.”
Storing demos and sharing mastered versions across teams
Talia tells DISCO how Nettwerk’s A&R and Sync departments use DISCO to store demos of new album releases they receive from their artists. “Eventually, they’ll share those DISCO links of work-in-progress music or mastered versions with other label teams when we're planning out a marketing strategy for a new album.”
Talia adds that her team uses DISCO on a daily basis to upload finished song files, get them tagged properly, and notify her sync client list with a customizable Playlist Presentation, which often will include additional assets like a quick artist bio and/or music video.
“Presentation mode is very convenient,” Talia also says. “The organization is great. Having everything in one place is super helpful. If I'm pitching an artist for a project, I include the album link, which has the press info already in there with a little background on them. You have a whole story. It's all in one link.”
DISCO Instant Instrumentals & Lyric Transcription
When it comes to helping Nettwerk artists land sync placements, Talia points to DISCO's Instant Instrumentals feature, which uses AI to create versions of tracks without vocals. “We always try to get instrumentals first from the original recordings,” Talia says. “But there have been a few moments where Instant Instrumentals has come in handy in a pinch. With her artist’s approval, Talia might use Instant Instrumentals to send a new version of a track if it’s being requested for an edit within a TV show or advertisement.
Talia also mentions DISCO’s Lyric Transcription in the same context. “It’s good for some of our older catalog tracks that lyrics weren't delivered,” she says. “We pretty much always get lyrics in. But having those little tools are really helpful when you're in a pinch and you need to pull something.”
“When I saw Presentation Mode, I got very excited”
Nettwerk’s publicity department primarily uses DISCO to service music early to VIP media and other tastemakers. “I was familiar with DISCO before we started using it, but it was when I saw presentation mode that I got very excited,” Danielle says of DISCO’s customizable Playlists, Album Pages, and Artist Pages.
“We can make it stream-only or MP3 download. It was such a beautiful presentation because prior to that we were using different tools for different things. We had a press release tool. We were using Box links to send music, which was fine, but the presentation — for lack of a better word — just wasn't there. We were really excited about presentation mode as a way to get music to journalists in a nice package early on. We also use it to service singles, making sure the lyrics are there.”
Using DISCO to store industry contacts and send press releases
One of the most important aspects of a music publicist’s job is to organize media contacts and regularly update them about a new artist or project, thus building awareness and hopefully landing a mention in platforms where fans visit to read about or listen to music. As Danielle tells DISCO, Nettwerk recently began using the platform to service press releases.
“We do press releases using the email tool, and we can also service music within there,” she says. “It's been really great to bring everything into one area and not have to be using three different things. The radio department is very similar. They use DISCO to service music to radio formats early on as well.”
[DISCO Email Campaign Example]
[DISCO Email Campaign Analytics]
Organizing Nettwerk Music Group with DISCO Catalogs
One of the best ways to get a sense of Nettwerk’s new and available music for sync is for Talia’s clients to scope out the label’s ever-changing DISCO Catalog. “I've had supervisors tell me that they discover things through the catalog if they’re doing Similarity Searches or looking for music in the system,” Talia says. “It's a great tool for us. It’s great to have an easy link if someone wants to know what music we have.”
[Featured Nettwerk DISCO Catalog]
If you’re curious to learn how DISCO can help your whole team stay organized, communicate with ease, and move fast, get in touch or learn more at DISCO.ac.
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