Industry disruptor Artist Republik broke the mold this year with its debut of a new indie music business marketplace valued at over $5M and counting. Its simple yet pioneering tech-driven premise caught the eyes of major industry players like independent rapper Hopsin as well as top investors David Beirne (a founding general partner of Benchmark Capital, known for lead stakes in eBay, Twitter, Instagram, OpenTable and Juniper Networks) and respected pro-sports and Hollywood wealth advisor Humble Lukanga. CEO and Founder of Artist Republik Nick Cianfaglione chose to introduce the new talent-controlled platform to return career control and expenses back to the artist: this is our interview!
1) Congratulations on your partnership with SoundBridge! Can you tell us what specifically made you want to partner up with Soundbridge versus other DAW systems?
For us, SoundBridge was the perfect partnership because both of our companies’ missions are strategically aligned. Both SoundBridge and Artist Republik believe in providing extremely high quality resources and services for independent artists at an affordable price. So with our missions aligned, it really came down to functionality. This was the other key part that made partnering with SoundBridge so attractive because although they are still in their early phases (been around for 4/5 years), the platform is extremely robust as it is comprised of leading production systems that enable it to directly compete with some of the best DAW systems in the world. So between our aligned mission and both of our technology platforms providing robust, industry leading technologies; a partnership was really a no brainer.
2) How do you feel Artist Republik’s distribution services can specifically assist producers?
Artist Republik’s distribution service favors all artists across genres in every major way! Whether it be pricing, the accuracy of our delivery to streaming services, customer support, or other resources, our distribution sector is designed to be the most artist-friendly service in the industry. Not only does it already include the baseline offerings of every other major distributor, but due to Artist Republik’s multi-faceted approach, we are able to offer individualized and customized services in a much more efficient and cost effective manner. A perfect sample of this is the way that our distribution runs on the idea of a one-time only fee, without the burden of lengthy contracts and no hidden costs for lifetime distribution. This means artists only pay once for the initial distribution and then never have to pay out any profits from the song. This structure saves independent artists and producers thousands of dollars over the course of the career.
3) How do your distribution services differ from other distributors?
Artist Republik lives in an entirely different ecosystem as compared to most distributors. Unlike the distributors who only offer distribution to streaming services, Artist Republik offers access to tools in production, marketing, networking and more to manage more then just their music. In our production and distribution hubs, Artists from around the world can use SoundBridge to produce their music, while also making use of the Artist Republik production suite to purchase beats, sample packs, and samples, as well as to get their song mastered or to hire someone to design cover art. Then when their song is finished, they can distribute to over 50 of the top global streaming networks directly through the Artist Republik-SoundBridge
4) Your platform also provides access to marketing and design services, ticketing and booking, etc. What do you look for in a company when seeking a partnership for the Artist Republik platform?
The biggest thing we look for is synergy; we want to know: does the company we are partnering with also believe in empowering the independent music industry through legitimate, reliable, and efficient tools? There are alot of companies who use misleading sales tactics to take advantage of artists without providing any real value. So we go through a strict vetting process with all of our partners to make sure they are providing their customers with productive value and not just smoke and mirrors.
5) What are your top goals for disrupting the music industry and why?
Our biggest goal is providing artists with an easy, efficient, and reliable way to get their music out to the world without running into problems or feeling like they are being taken advantage of. We have a full team of high tier customer service reps who are always on call for our users, proving one way that we try to build a system that enables artists to get their music out to streaming services as easily as possible.
6) What about the music industry specifically appealed to you as an entrepreneur?
I have grown up in the music industry all my life. I was involved in theater/musical theater since the 4th grade before going to a theater arts high school until my sophomore year. At which point I realized that I had a stronger passion for working in the music industry as well as helping other artists, instead of being an artist myself.
7) What is some advice you would give to first time users of the Artist Republik platform?
Be patient while we continue to add new tools to the Artist Republik platform. We are introducing a huge undertaking so that we can best serve the artist community. Because of the amount of offerings we already have on our website, a lot of people don’t realize that we have only been around since May 3rd, 2020. We are working everyday, non stop, to improve this platform and to keep innovating through leading tools. Rome wasn’t built overnight and I can say the same thing with us. Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to our customer service! Our customer service team is headquartered with us in the US and is built up of music lovers, and music industry veterans, so we love talking to artists and are always here to help!
Artist Republik Online
