Red Bull Records

Hey, my name is Adam Libon and I work for Red Bull Records. As stated in my last post, Red Bull Records is a small indie label based in L.A. So far, this experience has taught me a lot about the music industry today. I mean it isn’t at all what it was like thirty years ago. Now the executives only care about money and how much they make off a certain artist. Red Bull Records is different. They care about their artists and they want to make sure they succeed so that the label itself can succeed.

I’ve always wanted to be in the music industry in some capacity. But since I’m doing a lot of advertising, marketing, and promoting I think I will stick with it. I enjoy talking about music and exploring new and different kinds of music. And getting people to discover new music is always fun to do. There has been countless times where I’m sitting on my couch in my apartment and my roommate comes in and asks what I’m listening to. Then a couple days later I hear him playing the same song or the band that I told him about. And in some aspect that is what I’m doing with Red Bull. Getting people interested in these bands will generate more buzz about them and get them big in Philly.

This experience has really been everything that I thought of. They told me right from the beginning that it will be a learning process because it is the first year of this program. They also told me that sometimes the markets might be slow so that if you can’t do a lot then it’s not a big deal. Since there are so many different mediums to advertise music and bands, it can be tricky to pin point the right ones that will have the most effect. We live in a social media world right now so that is the best way to get messages across. Another thing that has been working is passing out download cards. I realize that Temple is slow right now because it is summer so I’ve been going around the city and passing out cards. When school starts back up in the fall, I will be able to reach all 36,000 of the students on campus as opposed to the couple hundred. This whole process is basically guess and check. If it works then keep doing it, if it doesn’t find out why and fix it or move on. That can be said for most labels and not just Red Bull. No one wants to pay for something they can get for free. So you got to find the happy medium where people will be interested in music and get it for really cheap or free.

As stated in my last post, check out AWOLnation, Innerpartysystem, Twin Atlantic, and Black Gold. Black gold is in the writing process right now. But the other three are touring and performing their new music. So check them out, you will be pleasantly surprised!