ABOUT US

Welcome to 'The Artists', a new media company that provides artists with a platform to connect directly with their fans, in their own words. 'The Artists' publishes first-person stories from artists, providing unique insight into the life of an artist.

Through impactful and powerful long and short form stories, video series and podcasts, 'The Artists' brings fans closer than ever to the artists and art they love.

The following presentation covers About Us (above), What Makes Us Different, What We Offer, How We Pick The Artists, Market Analysis, Our Team, and What We Need. If you need any other information, or want a full business plan, please feel free to reach out!

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT

We are not trying to compete with traditional media outlets, instead we aim to compliment them. We at The Artists have 3 major focuses that make us different and that we take pride in:

(1) Artist-Authored Content

Now, more than ever, publications are only interested in a sound-bite or quote that will drive traffic and increase advertising dollars. Certain quotes get taken out of context or focused on, and the artist becomes frustrated by the misrepresentation. Then the artist resorts to social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to vent their opinion.

Not anymore!

The Artists allow artists the ability to create a thought-provoking piece that is a clear representation of their thoughts on a given topic. We have a talented staff of editors to work alongside the artist, take any stress away, and aid in any aspect of the creation process. At the end of the day though, our articles are written and approved of by the artists: directly from the source.

(2) The Preservation Of Great Art

Due to the ADD culture we have created, we constantly want the newest and best thing. The current population under the age of 25 is at risk of losing out on appreciating hundreds of years of amazing art, simply because they are too focused on the 'now'. Since we have access to the newest art at the tip of our fingers, it seems impossible to stop and go back in time.

We have an opportunity to use current artists to help shine light on some of their mentors, inspirations, and all-time favorite artists. We can collide two worlds using the famous musicians of today to help preserve the legacy of artists past. We have seen this work with interviews like Kendrick Lamar interviewing Quincy Jones done by HYPETRAK, but that is just the start to what is possible. This is an unheard of opportunity that we couldn't be more excited to explore.

(3) Authentic Cobranded Campaigns

A focus on traditional cpm advertising for revenue has created cluttered websites and made it nearly impossible to create a loyal fanbase. At The Artists, we do not clutter our website with traditional advertising blocks. Instead, we focus on bigger corporate partnerships. These will include cobranded campaigns and pieces of content that seamlessly integrate major brands into The Artists. A great example of this is The Players' Tribune landing a seven figure deal with American Family Insurance this year after their $20M fundraising efforts 2 years ago.

We want to focus on creating a brand that corporations want to be a part of. Once The Artists brand is established we can create authentic cobranded content with a corporation. This could be a video series, an editorial series, a podcast series, or more. The key is that we offer corporate brands the ability to cobrand with their favorite artists in an authentic way. This could be as simple as Guitar Center sponsoring a series where artists talk about their favorite instruments, or having Bose sponsor a series about the tweaks that make a song great but go unnoticed. At the end of the day though, we want to focus on organic partnerships and not traditional advertising cpm for our revenue.

WHAT WE OFFER

We specialize in 3 forms of media: (1) long and short form editorials (2) video content and (3) podcasts.

In addition, we are partnering with A Plus Filmz so that for each Co-Founding artist we will produce 1 professional photoshoot and 1 video interview / podcast. This will serve as TheArtist.com’s exclusive content (exclusive photos for use in editorials, and at least one exclusive podcast/video). Each photoshoot and interview will be shot with a cinematic artistic style.

The editorial pieces are crucial in the creation of a website that people will come back to on a daily basis; however, one of our major focuses is on video content. Recent trends show that video content is being consumed more and more on a daily basis (nearly double the amount from 2013). Knowing this, our brand will focus on consistently releasing different types of videos - short clips, mini-documentaries, and eventually full length films. In addition, longer editorials (over 500 words) are 4x more likely to be shared on social media than short pieces, so we need to have quality long editorials that are thought-provoking and can't be summed up in 100 words. Here is a glimpse into each form of media and how we plan to use it:

(1) Editorials

Long-Form Editorials: These are 500+ words from an artist that are about a major topic in their life. The concept with these pieces is that we get a glimpse into the vulnerable human element of each artist and make them relatable to the masses. After reading one of these pieces, you should gain respect for the artist without knowing their art, simply because of the well-expressed vulnerability within the piece. While these will be flagship pieces for our brand, they will also take the most amount of time between both the artist and the editor they are collaborating with.

Short-Form Editorials: These are less than 500 words and are typically either a post about a podcast/video, a photo heavy article, or less serious in nature than the long form editorials. These can be a fun way to show a glimpse into the personality of an artist without quite the work of a full-length piece.

(2) Videos

Repeating Series: We need a couple different repeating series in order to establish a clear brand/vision. These series should have multiple episodes with the same theme, but different artists. The other flagship series need to finalized, but we envision at least 3 upon launching.

Directing The Day: One of our flagship series will be picking a video director or photographer and having them create a mini-documentary about any event in music they want (along the lines of what ESPN did in their 30 for 30 series with 30 different directors covering 30 different stories). They could have been a part of the event and have their own footage, or want to pick something in history and we would help (when possible) with clearance for footage.

1-Off Content: Sometimes we might want to create a piece of content for a branded campaign, or we may come across an amazing story we want to live on its own ... so we need to be open to creating one-off content that is not part of a series. The idea is to stay open to possibility of anything, if it fits.

(3) Podcasts

Artist Vent: We offer artists the ability to talk and shed light on whatever topics they want, completely unfiltered. They can talk for 3 minutes, or 2 hours, but it's a chance to reach a larger audience than just their fans, and share whatever message they want. Since their is no visual to accompany it, this series should feel extra raw.

Artist-Via-Artist: One of our flagship podcasts will be a program of one artist talking to another artist on a variety of topics. Rather than doing it as a standard interview (with one clear interviewee and one clear interviewer), we would set it up as a podcast where they can ask each other questions, debate a topic, or just have a conversation.

Recaps/Reviews: Whether it is recapping The Grammy's, or what happened this past week in music, we want to let an artist give their take on it. These can have other people involved (either The Artists staff, or people the artist's specifically request) or it could be a solo podcast.

Our website, TheArtists.com, will be the home base for all content we put out. Here is how we see our weekly content scaling in the first 2 years:

15 Pieces Of Content Per Week: (10) short form editorials (2) long form editorials (2) podcasts (1) piece of video content

For the first 18 months, the focus has to be on quality. If we need to start at 5 pieces of content a week, that is simply to make sure we have an emphasis on quality in the early branding stages. As we become familiar with everything and build our database of artists, we expect to be able to ramp up the quantity of content within the first 6 months to 15 pieces of content. Our goal would be within 18 months we would be at the following content breakdown:

30 Pieces Of Content Per Week: (19) short form editorials (5) long form editorials (3) podcasts (3) pieces of video content

The key is not having a plethora of content, but creating a loyal fanbase that believes in the attention to details we put into each story. The editors have to be able to help shape the story in a way that is somehow relatable to the masses. And our readers have to trust us enough to click on an article by an artist they have never heard of, simply because they know the quality of content at The Artists is always worth it.

How Do We Pick The Artists To Author THe Content?

While we will allow all artists to fill out an application to become a contributor for our site, we need to focus on building a core group of mainstream artists who believe in this mission. Through all the connections our staff has, thanks to years of experience working with artists the past 7 years in the music industry, we will have no problem getting "A level" artists involved from the jump. Our initial focus will be on mainstream artists who have the ability to make a large impact expressing their vulnerability; however, we don't want to exclude the 80 year old rocker who never got his big break.

Our core group or artists we launch with will be called our Co-Founding Artists and will be given a role such as Contributor. In order to be a part of the Co-Founding Artists, an artist must guarantee at least 2 pieces of content during our first 12 months. They must have a large social reach, as well as a personal brand that resonates with The Artists brand.

Market Analysis

While there is no existing company using strictly artist-authored content, there are companies that either focus on (a) athlete-authored content , (b) artist annotations, or (c) artist-on-artist video content.

The Artists has the opportunity to use applicable parts of all 3 different types of competitors, to create a market that is completely untapped.

(1) Athlete-Authored Content

In the last 3 years, there has been a swarm of athlete funded, athlete owned, and athlete created companies. Two of the most famous are Derek Jeter's The Players' Tribune and Vice's The Clubhouse. The Players' Tribune, founded by Jeter in 2014, raised over $15M (of which 5.5M had to be athletes). Since it's founding, it has maintained an advertisement free website thanks to landing major advertising partnerships with cobranded content. It has been the main case study in creating our content strategy, marketing strategy, and revenue opportunities for The Artists.

"Messler commented that the site [The Players Tribune] does not have plans for traditional banner ads anytime in the near future and will instead, move toward branded content as an advertising move. In the last year, the site has formalized relationships with Porsche, Dove and Powerade for branded content. The Tribune just announced a partnership with Chocolate Milk, which will center around Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love and his recovery from a shoulder injury."

- Forbes

"The volume of stories and Web traffic has increased steadily since Jeter published his first story. Back then it was three stories a week. That number grew to an average of 14 a week in February 2015, and the site now averages more than 30 a week. Site traffic has also increased. The Players’ Tribune had 3,158,000 unique visitors in November, according to comScore, making it No. 31 in comScore’s ranking of sports properties. According to internal numbers, the site’s 750 posts have generated more than 38 million page views."

- Sports Business Daily

"Fans can expect even more stories from their favorite athletes, thanks to the constantly growing athlete network we have built. We’ve done a really great job at providing fans with authentic stories from athletes, and this investment means a broader offering of content. We are working on developing more robust content that includes not just long form stories but fun, short form content that show the different personalities of athletes."

- Derek Jeter

(2) Artist Annotations

Companies, such as Genius (formerly Rap Genius), have increasingly used artists to directly explain their lyrics, rather than leaving it up for interpretation. Genius has proven that people care about understanding why an artist chooses to say what they say in their songs, and we have the opportunity to expand upon that. While Genius has raised nearly $60M to date because it is trying to annotate the entire web, we just need to focus on the proven fact that people want to know what artists think, why they do the things they do, and what makes them who they are. We aren't limited to just annotating lyrics, we want artists to be able to annotate anything in the world by working with our editors to create their own thought-provoking pieces of content.

"Rap Genius launched in 2009, originally as a place to explain the esoteric metaphors and allusions of rap lyrics, but it had a larger ambition to annotate all sorts of texts from legal documents to poetry to news"

- Tech Crunch

"His love for rap and hip hop gave him an appreciation for what Rap Genius had done that few other VCs would have had, Horowitz said. “The thing that really made it great wasn’t that they were annotating lyrics. They were doing the definitive canonical explanation of every rap lyric ever written. That’s just amazingly hard to do. You are getting into incredible depths of the culture."'

BizJournals

(3) Artist-On-Artist Content (Traditional Media)

The idea of having one artist interview another artist is nothing new. Noisey has created a flagship program "Back&Forth" based around this principal, and HYPETRAK had Kendrick Lamar interview Quincy Jones in a similar series. Both of these series have done extremely well; however, none of the companies are thought of as being the true voice of an artist. Instead, these videos are edited to fit a specific target audience and keep that company's audience entertained. With The Artists, we can create real thought-provoking and authentic content based around a proven principal, thus quickly creating a meaningful brand. Artists enjoy conversing with other artists on a variety of topics. These conversations can serve as inspiration and entertainment for fans of all ages. We put the power of the conversation directly in each artist's hands.

Meet Our Founders

Founder/CEO: Timothy Weber

Tim is an innovative entrepreneur and leading tastemaker for the college music market. Seven years ago he founded GoodMusicAllDay.com, the largest college music website in the world. In just 12 months he took the website from 100 views a day to over 150,000 views a day and an advertising contract with VIBE Magazine. He created a global platform (GMAD) for musicians to be discovered and was recognized by Complex, VIBE, and MTV as being an integral part in helping artists quickly explode. As reported by Billboard, Tim partnered GoodMusicAllDay with Verge Campus Media in 2015 and remained on as CEO.

In addition to GoodMusicAllDay, throughout the past 7 years Tim has created and executed cobranded marketing campaigns for TOYOTA USA, Rockstar Games, Coors Light, and more to help them reach the college audience in an authentic way. He has also done A&R for Wyclef Jean, marketing consulting for OnePiece, founded the viral website BestFromTheWeb.com (which reached 200,000 views a day in it's first week), and more.

Co-Founder: Aaron "Ace" Christian

Aaron "Ace" Christian is an entrepreneur in a corporate world. Wearing multiple hats, Ace has been the bridge between many successful brand collaborations and endorsement deals. He has done A&R for artists such as Wyclef Jean, Curren$y, and Machine Gun Kelly. Ace has also represented brands such as Raw Rolling Papers, Rumchata, T-Mobile, The Kind Pen, and Odd Sox.

One of Ace's most notable accounts has been Raw Rolling Papers, who he first took on as a client in 2013. Since stepping in as Head of Marketing, Raw has quickly become the most successful smoking company in the world, in addition to a cultivating lifestyle brand in society. Most recently, Ace stepped in as Project Manager for Machine Gun Kelly's ESTFest facilitating a partnership with EventBrite. ESTFest is Machine Gun Kelly's very own festival that is thrown on the lakes of his hometown in Cleveland. In just its 3rd year, the festival is projected to attract 15,000 people, double the amount of its previous year. Last year the festival had performing acts such as Waka Flocka, Yo Gotti, Juicy J, Bun B, French Montana, and Kid Cudi.

What We Need

Who Will Be Our 'Derek Jeter' For The Artists?: We need an A List artist who crosses generations and genres (with no bad publicity) who is willing to (a) publicly put their name behind it as their company so we can say "'X' launches The Artist" and (b) willing to invest during our seed money phase which can be turned into equity during our Series A, or paid back with interest at that time. Our targeted list for who this person could be is as follows: Pharrell, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Jimmy Fallon, John Legend, Ryan Leslie, or Adam Levine.

Investors: In the short-term we need investors (artists and private investors) who can help finance the roughly $450,000 we need in seed money to get this venture up and running. From there, we need to find investors who believe in our long term vision for our (roughly) $4,000,000 Series A funding efforts. Investors will be the ones to make this a reality, and ideally we would like as much of this as possible to be filled by artists (active and retired).

Executive Staff: We are going to need a full-time GM/COO before we undergo our Series A funding. This position is to handle the day-to-day business operations including, but not limited to: staff management, coordinating deals with advertisers, finalizing strategic partnerships, coordinating with the law firm, overseeing new hires, providing efficiency reports, and more. We also need a part-time CFO who will be responsible coordinating with our accounting firm, budgeting/planning our finances, and providing monthly financial reports.