The Gospel According to Terry McBride (Nettwerk)

The man of the hour in my book at the moment (and actually for a number of years now) is my friend and colleague Terry McBride, Founder & CEO of Nettwerk-- an artist-centric, forward thinking artist management firm that also houses a label and a publishing arm for its artists.

Terry is an artist advocate; we are cut from the same cloth. He has run Nettwerk now for over 20 years, and he's far and away the most artist-friendly guy in the industry. Some of the top artists who have chosen to be on his label over the years include: Coldplay, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, Dido & Avril Lavigne (among many others) -- most of whom remain staunchly loyal to him. The reason is that Terry is charting a new course for artists in the digital age. I first met Terry about 12 years ago when I was driving music efforts at Apple -- and he came to me about sponsoring this new concert series called Lilith Fair that he and Sarah were launching; to my chagrin, Apple passed on the opportunity and of course Lilith was a huge success in the three (or so) years that it took place. He was ahead even then.

With regard to Avril, he's launched a Manga series of animated cartoon stories that speak directly to the core of her audience (these will live online and in book form). Terry also believes strongly in honoring the cultures where an artist has big audiences. For example, under Terry's direction, Avril has also recorded several of her songs in multiiple languages geared towards her fans in the countries where she's strongest. Avril's #1 in the charts this week -- so he must be doing something right. He's also taken on the industry -- in particular the RIAA (lobbying group for the major record labels in DC). The RIAA have been suing fans who are caught downloading songs illegally, including underage kids. When one of Avril's fans was sued accordingly, Terry took a stand agains the RIAA & took on the kids' legal bills.

Terry is also a leading advocate for 'collapsed copyrights' where artists retain control over their recorded masters, their publishing & domain names -- thereby allowing them full control (and the majority of their revenues) with a wide range of licensing opportunities. This makes the job of a major film studio music supervisor much easier, for example -- in the case of their desire to use a Barenaked Ladies track -- when they can just go directly to the artist and get the deal done (one-stop-shopping). And of course the artist pockets the majority of the proceeds in turn.

There are many other such examples of where Terry is paving the way for artists to retain control over their assets and revenue streams. and connect in a much more meaningful, long-lasting way with their core audiences. I couldn't be more in synch with his philosophies, and artists & the industry at large are also starting to sit up and take notice; Terry's been the subject of countless articles and interviews in the past year & has been actively sought out as a Keynote speaker at a myriad of industry conferences. If you want to know where things are headed for artists in digital music moving forward, listen to what the man says.