Tim Westergren founded Pandora in January 2000 and also now serves as its Chief Strategy Officer. Tim is an award-winning composer, an accomplished musician and a record producer with 20 years of experience in the music industry.

By all accounts, George Martin, the legendary producer/engineer/arranger for the Beatles played a pivotal role in shaping the Fab Four’s sound in the recording studio. Over the years, he has come to represent more broadly the potentially vital contribution that can be made by someone who’s not writing the music or playing an instrument in the band. In some cases, this individual can be more important than any one band member.  A great producer can single handedly change the fortunes of an artist.

I want to suggest that every band consider hiring their own Fifth Beatle – only this additional band member’s instrument is online marketing. Their role is to figure out ways to amplify the awareness of the band, leverage every possible tool at their disposal to build a fan base, and to position the band properly to take advantage of the digital market. With the amazing number of low cost tools now available, one person with the motivation and requisite skills can accomplish a ton. And this person could well be a 19-year old college sophomore who loves the band and happens to be an online promotion genius. Give him/her equal share, and treat them with the same respect and deference that you do your fellow bandmates. They get a vote on the set list, they’re at the band meetings… and they get royalty checks along with everyone else.  The band can continue to focus on what they do best – composing, performing, recording – while the marketer takes care of squeezing every ounce of opportunity out of the music product.

As a former working musician, I can say without a doubt that musicians have chronically undervalued ‘external’ contributors - sound guys, bookers, agents, attorneys, you name it.  It’s a natural propensity of artists who often lack an understanding of the workings of the ecosystem around them. I would say that a good percentage of bands fall apart because they fail to grasp this – they’re either sloppy in choosing people or ignore these roles altogether.

Never before has it been more important for artists to get this monkey off their back – because never before has there been more to gain by getting that part of a career right.

The digital age has brought with it unprecedented access and opportunity for working musicians, but it also comes with great complexity.  Self-producing, distributing and promoting a record is now a real option for anyone with a PC, but if you aren’t smart about marketing and promotions you’ll just be another tree falling the forest.  It’s kind of like having lousy sound at a show.  You can play your best set, but if nobody’s paying attention to what’s coming out of the speakers, it won’t matter. 

As the label/band model evolves, musicians are going to have to start thinking more expansively about who is ‘in’ the band. Advances and outsourcing are going to give way to equity and cooperatives as aspiring bands grow their teams.

Consider this simple example: Soundexchange, which administers the performance royalties coming in from online radio, already a multi-million dollar annual revenue stream, keeps 50% of the money it receives because it has no mailing address for the artists. That’s one phone call that the Fifth Beatle will make sure is made.