Hello Substack.
tl:dr: a bit about my journey. what we care about at Medallion. whats on the horizon. why i am writing here now.
I have been following along as a ‘reader’ on Substack for a very long time (i.e. subscribing to other peoples content), but never written anything myself. Im feeling more and more like I want to write these days and so here it is, going to give it a shot. Maybe ill do longer stuff like this or some shorter stuff through notes. Expect mostly music x tech pretty much all the time ha.
Background
Quick 2 mins on me (i dug out some old photos to try and make it more interesting). I have been a music obsessed business builder for over 2 decades now. From the UK, I left school at age 17 after realizing that I wanted to go after the music dream. With no music heritage and not a musical bone in my body, I just went after everything. Internships at labels, making tea at music publications (NME!!!!), starting my own magazine, putting on concerts, a record label, artist management, street team company (??) and prob other stuff I cant remember (more below - my ideas sheet from way back).
Promoting
After years of just trying anything to survive/immerse myself in the thing I loved, something clicked; putting on concerts. Myself and some of my closest friends (to this day) just started doing what we loved, booking the bands we were drawn to (most of them discovered through myspace RIP). But we grew our little club night in Hertford to becoming a real stop on the touring scene and lots and lots more cities across the country. SO many artists to call out but early shows from Adele, Mumford, Foals, Ben Howard, Glasvegas, Friendly Fires, White Lies, Laura Marling, The xx, Ellie Goulding. Anyway, this hard work paid off and we had the incredible honor in 2006 of our little company SPC Live partnering with the absolute GOAT, Barrie Marshall and Marshall Arts. A dream come true.
Direct to Fan
Following my promoting days I got increasingly interested in solving high value problems for artists and how to use technology to do so. CrowdSurge was born in 2008 as a way for artists to sell tickets directly to fans. Back then I thought (as most people probably do now), that artists knew who they were playing to. Shock horror they don’t. With e-commerce exploding, mobile etc - it was obvious to attempt to put artists in the driving seat, help them take more control back around their live experience, share ticket purchaser data with them, and give them control over ticket prices and fees. We grew the company and helped artists to do this in 50 countries around the world. We powered direct ticket sales for artists including Paul McCartney, Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Andrea Bocelli, The xx, J Cole, Kenney Chesney, Adele , Arcade Fire, Imagine Dragons, and about a thousand others over our 7 year journey. With a team of ~50 CrowdSurge die hards (some of whom I still work with today) we really were on a mission to empower artists.
Songkick 2.0
In 2015 we put CrowdSurge & Songkick together to attempt to create the no.1 live music destination in the world. But with a very key point - artists in the centre of it and calling the shots. What a journey. Shortly after my 30th birthday we were at the centre of one of the biggest moments in live music in a century: Adele. An unforgettable and defining 2.5 years for me, the company and everyone involved. Shortly after this, the story twists and turns but you can all read it for yourselves here.
Medallion
After a short break, I’m back at the thing I love at Medallion. We got started in 2022, and taking all the learnings from the last 20 years we are a team of 10 shifting the balance of power for artists. Medallion feels like the culmination of 20 years of work. Something 1000x bigger than what came before it, with incredible DNA for artist empowerment and people building technology with one mission in mind: to create a digital ecosystem that artists control. Making artists less reliant on the system and once and for all putting them in the driving seat for all facets of their business.
We kicked things off with a launch in summer of 2022 with Tycho (shout out to Bryan and Scott for all the love) Our product today is a community building platform that allows artists to start creating a 1:1 relationship with their most ardent fans. Whether its new music, tickets, shows, merch, videos etc - Medallion has created a simple to use product for artists to engage with fans. Our theory is that in order to shift the balance of power for artists, we first need to take one fundamental step: artists need to be able to build a direct relationship with the fans that are driving the most impact for them overall - the biggest show goers, super streamers, merch maniacs etc etc. So the Medallion product today is built with that in mind; establishing that initial connection. But… i hear you say - this is a solved problem, there are loads of tools to do this…. Correct (and there are probably tools that in isolation do parts of this better than Medallion). But our belief from the absolute beginning is that there is no point just collecting the data. You need to own the consumer experience as an artist. We have built a beautiful web experience, all presented artist first, for fans to be as close as possible to the artists they love. As an artist, you’re no longer collecting your fans and sending them somewhere else. Fans can live in your world in perpetuity and you can start to understand them better. For fans, they are starting to build a record of their fandom directly with with their favorite artists as well as start to really express their fandom amongst other fans inside and outside of Medallion.
Tycho was not alone - we’re still in ‘invite only’ mode but now we have lots of amazing artists using the platform including Jungle, Overmono, Sigur Ros, Disclosure, My Morning Jacket, Nicki Minaj, J Balvin, Lord Huron, girl in red, Parcels (!!), Interpol, Santigold, Greta Van Fleet, Rainbow Kitten Surprise and more . They are all building vibrant spaces online and they are doing some incredible things to connect with fans - listening parties, show check ins, ticket pre sales, scavenger hunts, merch drops, new music drops etc - all on their own terms, in their own experience and most importantly, in online spaces that they own.
What’s Next
Well, its funny i am writing this on Substack. Substack has created an interesting digital experience for writers. I think we actually share a similar vision to Substack. But music is and always will be a very different beast. More stakeholders and rights holders, lots more IP types to consider, completely different production process, the importance of live performance, etc etc. So for Medallion, we are going to continue to carve our own lane 100% focused on music. The next era for us is going to be about doubling down on the consumer direction we have been playing around with. Artists need to have more control and influence over how the end product (e.g. content/commerce) is delivered and experienced by fans. Rather than relying on the instagram algo, DSP algo, ticketing company rules of engagement etc, we need allow artists to build a truly independent lane and not be reliant on anyone. I believe that this will unlock more economics for artists and make creative output skyrocket. Music x technology - i.e. the digital consumer experiences where artists and fans connect - has seen little innovation since the early 2000s (Soundcloud, Spotify, Songkick etc). I believe Medallion is here to change that. I see the next era of music x technology where the artists themselves are the platform.
Lastly, back to the original question ‘Why am i writing here’. I think Substack has been (and continues to be especially in recent weeks/months - nice job btw) have a really interesting melting pot of creators, operators, journalists, investors and others where its good to have a conversation about all these topics - i am excited to be here. Lots more soon.
