MBW’s World’s Biggest Managers sequence profiles the perfect artist managers within the world enterprise. Chris Woltman is the long-serving supervisor of Twenty One Pilots, one of many greatest different rock bands of the final 15 years. He talks about breaking the band, staying on the high, constructing a roster at his Element1 administration firm, and launching a brand new label, ARRO. World’s Biggest Managers is supported by Centtrip, a specialist in clever treasury, funds and overseas trade – created with the music trade and its wants in thoughts.
Chris Woltman takes a name from his artist.
It’s 2015 and Woltman’s administration purchasers, Twenty One Pilots, are the most well liked band on the planet, having fun with an enormous breakthrough hit with Harassed Out, taken from their fourth album, Blurryface. The music is No.2 on the US Sizzling 100, it’s everywhere in the radio, it’s going gangbusters on this new-fangled factor known as streaming and it’s a High 10 hit world wide. Which is why Tyler Joseph, again in his Ohio hometown of Columbus, is looking.
“In all places I am going, I hear my voice,” says the considerably bewildered frontman.
Some managers might need pushed for the band to squeeze final each drop from this second. However Woltman – safe within the data that he had already helped construct the band to enviornment stage earlier than Harassed Out’s ubiquity – selected a special path.
“It was an fascinating second,” says Woltman, with trademark laidback, deadpan cool. “Like, perhaps the technique right here is to not push and push and push, however to close it down. At that time, there was sufficient music available in the market, so the fanbase that was coming in needed to dig deeper. It actually helped to unfold the success of all that music. There might need been a little bit of magic in that second.”
And magic moments have been a specialty for Twenty One Pilots – and Woltman’s Element1 administration company – ever since. Regardless of rock’s points with gaining traction within the streaming age, TOP have persistently remained one of many greatest attracts within the style.
Their Clancy tour, which concluded its most up-to-date leg with two spectacular sold-out dates at London’s cavernous O2 Area in Might, shifted over 1.1m tickets throughout a run that included the band’s first stadium headline present in South America, in addition to big gigs throughout North America, Europe and Australasia. One other tour kicks off in North America in September.
The Clancy album went High 3 on each side of the Atlantic and world wide, superb a couple of billion streams, whereas the follow-up, the band’s eighth album Breach, is due in September. Lead single, The Contract, has already racked up greater than 20 million streams on Spotify alone.
It’s an old-school story of long-term artist improvement and slowburn success, and Woltman’s personal path to the highest has been an identical story of fixed incremental upwards momentum.
Though now based mostly in California, Woltman – like his most well-known expenses – hails from Ohio. Certainly, he began his profession selling reveals at Columbus’ legendary 1,700-capacity Newport Music Corridor, the very venue that TOP as soon as dreamed of promoting out (a feat they managed in 2011).
From there, he moved into the label world, first as a school rep for Sony, then in more and more senior roles at Columbia Data. Clive Davis headhunted him for J Data and he ultimately turned SVP of Rock for RCA, working with the likes of Foo Fighters, The Strokes and Kings Of Leon.
However, with the broader recorded music enterprise burying its head within the sand over the post-Napster stoop, he noticed the potential for digital music and left Sony, organising Element1, initially as a label and administration firm, earlier than concentrating on administration from 2011. In addition to TOP, Element1 now additionally takes care of platinum-selling rapper NF, rising rockers The Band Camino and varied different artists, songwriters and producers.
“Ensuring all the things is marching to the beat of the identical drum is a tremendous problem each day. Nevertheless it’s thrilling…”
Woltman can also be making a return to the label enterprise with ARRO, co-founded by him and Joseph. They’ve partnered with Atlantic on Balu Brigada, the opening act on Twenty One Pilots’ world tour, who’ve scored a No.1 US different airplay hit with So Chilly.
“It’s excruciatingly arduous work!” Woltman laughs as he contemplates his rising roster. “Ensuring all the things is marching to the beat of the identical drum is a tremendous problem each day. Nevertheless it’s thrilling…”
There’s a giant yr forward for all of Woltman’s purchasers. However earlier than all that, he sits down with MBW to speak AI, A&R and TOP’s lengthy street to the highest…
WHAT’S THE SECRET TO MANAGING A SUCCESSFUL ROCK BAND IN 2025?
Within the final 15 years, the power for brand spanking new bands to have success has confirmed to be a giant problem. That’s what makes it that rather more fulfilling, to have a look at it and say, ‘Wow, by some means we’ve been capable of thread the needle’.
However the extra issues change, the extra they keep the identical. On this trade, in case your imaginative and prescient is for long-term, sustainable careers, what it’s at all times been about remains to be what it’s all about: make nice our bodies of labor – an actual file not only a single – get out on the street and actually perceive and keep dedicated to the concept of what neighborhood and fandom may be on your model proposition. It isn’t about making a giant break for a TikTok second – if that comes, that’s nice, nevertheless it’s an additive.
Take a look at Twenty One Pilots and NF. You don’t get 14 years right into a profession by skipping any steps. For those who skip steps on years one, two or three, you’re in all probability going to place your small business in danger. Even in case you can take the leap, you don’t. It’s a whole lot of self-discipline!
WAS THAT DIFFICULT TO STICK TO WHEN TWENTY ONE PILOTS HAD A MASSIVE HIT WITH STRESSED OUT?
I couldn’t be extra pleased with the truth that, after they have been thrust into the zeitgeist of common tradition, we didn’t even actually observe that up. Within the US, earlier than Harassed Out turned a success, we have been already on an enviornment run that was 72% bought out. I like to put that on the market; for individuals who actually perceive what which means, it’s a ‘Wow!’ statistic.
In Europe at that stage, the blokes have been at 5,000 or 6,000 tickets in all places and we have been capable of experience by means of the success of all that. We did one thing actually fascinating popping out of that part: we shut all of it down, the web site went darkish, the blokes got here offline, we went darkish for a yr. There was a philosophy behind that as nicely, as a result of there was all of the success earlier than there was all of the success.
DID YOU ALWAYS EXPECT TOP WOULD BE THIS BIG?
The brief reply is sure, however there’s extra to it than that. Early on with the blokes it was a dialog about, ‘Do you wish to be the most important band on the planet or probably the most vital bands on the planet?’ And it was at all times [the latter].
The concept being that changing into probably the most vital bands on the planet would result in a long-term profession and to a worldwide fanbase that was as passionate as this fanbase has now confirmed to be.
I don’t wish to sound like, ‘Oh, we knew 14 years later it was going to be as huge as this’ – you don’t know that. However after I look again, all people displaying up each day and placing all their effort into it, gave a way of confidence that this was going to be one thing actually particular.
HOW IMPORTANT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE AT LABELS WHEN IT CAME TO BECOMING A MANAGER?
Being within the label world for these years has confirmed to be invaluable in relation to forming my philosophy. I used to be actually lucky to work for individuals at Columbia Data specifically, who gave me an opportunity to place a few of these philosophies in play and construct careers alongside the way in which.
Even working in live performance promotion, I used to be uncovered to issues like settlements, load-in and catering – no matter it was, I noticed all of it on the bottom and in actual time. As I moved throughout to the label facet, I touched on so many various classes of what it takes to run a enterprise.
On the time, I don’t suppose I knew it, however I look again and suppose, ‘How fortunate was I that folks would share what they do and permit me a deep dive into their view on it?’ It led to a profession which went by means of radio promotion, distribution, advertising and marketing, A&R and even slightly little bit of finance – it put me in the perfect place to have as a lot data as I probably might.
To say it was invaluable and that it shaped the pillars of all the things that has helped me alongside the way in which, is an under-statement.
WHY DID YOU LEAVE THE LABEL WORLD?
I’m not going to name it a crystal ball imaginative and prescient, however I’d gotten to the purpose the place administration at all times intrigued me; the concept of sitting throughout the heart of an artist’s profession and dealing with the stakeholders that truly have a hand on the wheel was at all times intriguing.
There was an period when a whole lot of a supervisor’s job was simply to get an artist signed to a significant label after which let the main label do no matter they have been going to do. However while you get to the early 2000s, the recorded sector was cratering on each stage. That they had not, as an trade, seemed down the street to see what their position could possibly be or must be.
Administration has taken on a better performance; you sit throughout the core of the model and you’re employed together with your brokers, your promoter companions, your label and music publishing companions, and others throughout the totality of the enterprise.
And, most significantly, a supervisor’s job at its very core is to be the final guard on the gate for the artists that they work with by way of their artwork. That’s a reasonably deep duty; it’s important to be sure to shield that, as a result of that’s an important piece of the puzzle.
MANY MAJOR LABELS ARE RESTRUCTURING: DO YOU WORRY THEY’RE STEPPING AWAY FROM ARTIST DEVELOPMENT?
Properly, they’ve stepped away from it. The distribution half is now so important for brand spanking new artist signings, it has modified the economics of a label.
We’re within the midst of this financial restructuring relative to what an artist place is and what the artist will get out of a file. The times of the 14-point royalty full of all kinds of recoupables is winding down. Which goes so as to add a further problem: if the upside for a label is no longer as important because it was previously, then how does all of this heavy lifting play itself by means of and what does it take to do this?
“artist and administration should set the tempo and should be ready to re-invest of their careers as a result of, finally, it’s their profession.”
There are some labels that do perceive the significance of constructing a profession. Does it imply that you may’t have fast hits and there aren’t artists and songs that come and go? No. However that, coupled with a dedication to artist improvement, finally makes essentially the most sturdy roster on the planet.
However artist and administration should set the tempo and should be ready to re-invest of their careers as a result of, finally, it’s their profession.
SO, DO ARTISTS STILL NEED LABELS?
Sure. As a result of there’s one thing concerning the magic of a label, whether or not that may be a conventional label set-up or a distribution mannequin. Nevertheless it defines itself, while you stand up to the beginning line and also you hit go, the concept of with the ability to corral a worldwide accomplice and the extent of communication and push that goes into that… There may be great worth in that second.
The flip facet of that’s, you’ll be able to’t depend on the label to fund your small business and drive these core rules of creating nice information, getting out on the street and touring and constructing a neighborhood.
There are very outlined items of the puzzle that labels do and nonetheless do very nicely. After which there are issues that labels don’t do very nicely and that’s the place that you must be sure to’re doing them.
IT’S BEEN A TOUGH FEW YEARS FOR ROCK MUSIC. IS IT COMING BACK NOW?
Some individuals are arguing that the pendulum is swinging again as a result of, whereas hip-hop was so dominant, now you’re taking a look at nation, which is working all world wide, together with elements of the world the place it by no means labored previously.
So hopefully the pendulum goes to swing again – I have a look at TOP’s streaming numbers each week, and the numbers are large.
On this tour, Tyler does this factor on the music Journey, the place he brings a fan up they usually get to sing a part of the hook with him out on the B-stage. Each single one of many children he has introduced up wasn’t born when the primary Twenty One Pilots file got here out. However there they’re with the masks or the make-up, the yellow tape or the purple tape. At 12, 13 or 14, they’re the subsequent technology of fandom. It’s fascinating to see that.
TWENTY ONE PILOTS ARE A BIG STREAMING SUCCESS. BUT DO THEY MAKE ENOUGH MONEY FROM STREAMING?
No. Once you have a look at the economics of streaming and what an artist brings to the desk, feeling the artist deserves extra of that income is a legitimate argument to proceed to have. Whether or not it’s the platform or the label or whoever, all of it begins with what these artists do. Music is the lifeblood of all of it.
“On the recorded facet, the economics are clearly shifting, so it will likely be fascinating to see the place it lands within the subsequent couple of years.”
On the recorded facet, the economics of that world are clearly shifting, so it will likely be fascinating to see the place it lands within the subsequent couple of years. These economics are altering for the betterment of the artists and that’s going to show to be invaluable.
Any manner you chop it, it begins with the people who find themselves making these songs and have that imaginative and prescient and see these songs by means of. Ensuring that they’re compensated correctly is an on-going quest. We’re in the midst of that sea change nevertheless it’s shifting in the fitting path.
DO YOU WORRY ABOUT WHAT AI WILL DO TO ARTISTS’ CAREERS?
I’m not anxious. The emotion of an awesome music, an artist delivering that nice music in a studio, writing lyrics which might be concerning the human situation after which getting out on the street and delivering that have each evening… These issues nonetheless require extraordinarily gifted individuals.
They’ll press a button and it might probably sound like Twenty One Pilots, nevertheless it’s not. Whether or not it’s a high-quality line or an enormous hole between with the ability to press that button and sound like [an artist] versus sitting down, writing these lyrics, moving into the studio, struggling by means of how these lyrics, the melody and the manufacturing come collectively within the studio – these issues nonetheless maintain true.
THERE ARE STILL A LOT OF ACQUISITIONS HAPPENING IN THE BUSINESS. HAVE YOU HAD ANY OFFERS FOR ELEMENT1?
Sure. I can’t say I’m not in any respect, however the thought of with the ability to run your small business the way you wish to run it, even in case you’re concerned in a partnership, is vital.
I wish to run the place I’m at independently. I’ve obtained some partnerships which might be a part of it, however I run my enterprise how I run my enterprise and that half is sweet, so I’m proud of the place it’s at.
HOW BIG DO YOU WANT YOUR NEW LABEL TO BE?
When the potential to signal one thing feels proper, then we’ll. And there are such a lot of shifting elements within the thought of one thing feeling proper.
There’s no mad rush to go on the market and have this huge roster. If an artist comes alongside tomorrow that matches into the full image, then we’d be in that dialog. It’s not that dissimilar to how the roster has developed on the administration facet – it’s going to come when it comes.
