Atlanta Cobb is a renowned artist manager and music business educator with over 13 years of experience in the industry. Through her online artist development and music business membership platform, Music Industry Mentor, she has coached thousands of independent musicians, producers, and music entrepreneurs around the world. Her aim is to provide them with the tools and opportunities needed to grow their careers in music.
We had a great chat with Atlanta Cobb about bands and solo artists, a topic she'll be speaking about at ESNS as well.
Absolutely not. There’s so much exciting guitar music coming through at the moment - like with so many other industries, music has cycles.
We go through seasons in commercial/mass music, and it’s been very synth/pop-heavy over the last few years, but I forsee the demand for bands as evergreen.
More personalities, more opinions, more conflicting schedules, more egos, more expectations- just 4x more to handle than if you were going out solo. Biggest problem I see at the beginning is that 25-50% of the band are more committed and driven than the other half. To really work and stay consistent, we need everyone in the band on board, and in the same boat. That said - Solo artists tend to feel more lonely / take on all the pressure and workload as they aren’t surrounded by their friends amongst a band as they go through this process.
I don’t believe that no, I believe bands have just as much of a shot at it than solo artists do. Especially due to the rise of how artists can connect with people from around the world. Just look at the latest artists coming through: Good Neighbours, Ezra Collective, The Last Dinner Party, Infinity Song - all bands.
Lean into what each of you individually do best. Practice the art of communication - that skill you use with each other in the band, and everyone around you will seriously help. Make sure everyone is clear as to what jobs each person is doing and share the workload. Next thing is try to disrupt and build a real brand and movement, even if you think it might a little weird, or feels too risky - try it. Don’t just copy what the next 4x piece guitar band is doing.My favourite is when everyone in the band swaps instruments, a bit like FIZZ, or Blusher.
Can I say our panel? haha. “What’s Killing The Band?” @ 4:30pm on Thursday 16th, I’ll be there dropping some gems with some real, class industry experts alongside me. Otherwise - try and catch Kingfishr play on Thrusday 16th - I love all of their stuff!
You can’t beat in-person networking. It’s where so much goes on that you tend to not see as it’s happening offline. I always walk away feeling empowered, and motivated - having learnt so much from so many people who are actively in the industry, and at the top of their fields. It’s the perfect place to discover some of the best new talent breaking through as well as your own chance to network and walk away with tangible connections.