- Music Marketing Trends by Jesse Cannon
- Posts
- LaRussell's Blueprint: Building a Fan-Powered Music Empire
LaRussell's Blueprint: Building a Fan-Powered Music Empire
How an Independent Artist Created a New Model for Sustainable Success
Music Marketing Trends is a Newsletter by Jesse Cannon that breaks down how musicians really get their music heard. If you know a story we should be telling or an artist we should cover just hit reply to this email.
Save 13 Hours Weekly of Podcast Pitching with PodPitch.com
It's 2025. Want to finally be a regular podcast guest in your industry? PodPitch will make it happen. Even the beehiiv team uses it!
The best way to advertise isn't Meta or Google – it's appearing on dozens of podcasts that your customers already love.
You could write a few emails yourself to podcast hosts...
Or you could automate thousands of emails going out weekly, pitching your people as the PERFECT next podcast guest.
With PodPitch.com...
Log in with your email
Load your brand info
Click "automate"
Emails pitching your team as the perfect next guest will start sending out automatically to podcast hosts.
Big brands like Feastables are already using it instead of expensive PR Agencies.
LaRussell's figured out something most independent artists are still trying to crack - how to build a sustainable career by genuinely connecting with fans. Out of Vallejo, California, they've created something special that goes way beyond just posting on social media. Their music is just as versatile as their approach - mixing soul with modern hip-hop and constantly putting out new material. Let's jump into their strategy, starting with their NPR Tiny Desk performance, which shows exactly what makes them stand out.
Good Compenny: How LaRussell Built a Different Kind of Music Collective
LaRussell, an independent hip-hop artist, created Good Compenny with a simple but powerful idea: help artists thrive while keeping full ownership of their music. Artists who join the collective keep their masters and get the support they need, while fans decide what to pay for everything - tickets, merchandise, and the music itself.
This fan-powered model took off after LaRussell's freestyle went viral in 2021. Instead of chasing industry deals, they launched a "Let Me Hold a Dollar" Kickstarter campaign. The pitch was beautifully simple: contribute just $1 to support independent artists. The result? 713 fans turned those dollars into $40,000, proving fans will directly fund artists they believe in.
Good Compenny's physical hub is The Compound, a dedicated venue in Vallejo where artists perform, record, and connect with fans. They've expanded this intimate live music experience through their Backyard Residency series - live shows hosted under a custom-built pergola that travels to different cities. These aren't typical concerts - they're community gatherings where fans and artists share the same space, reinforcing Good Compenny's belief that music is more valuable when everyone has a stake in it.
Some Past Events
The Power of Owning Your Infrastructure
Here's what makes LaRussell's independence so powerful - straight from them: "It's very hard to loan resources you don't own. Because I own everything, I can split royalties with my team however we want. I own the house, so I decide who stays here and how we renovate it."
Think of it like this: Most artists in the major label system are just renting. LaRussell built the whole house. They don't need permission to help other artists or try new ideas. Want to split revenue differently? Done. Need to adjust the business model? No problem. It's all in-house.
Metric was one of the first to figure this out years ago - they ditched the major label path to build their own system. Now their old approach looks like the future, while traditional labels are having to get leaner and more flexible just to keep up.
Subscribe to Premium Subscription to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber of Premium Subscription to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.
Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.
A subscription gets you:
- • Read Paywalled Content
- • View Full Artist Dissections
- • View Album Rollout Breakdowns & Recaps In Full
- • Ask Lecturers Questions
- • Access To Full Unabridged Podcast Episodes
- • Discord Access
Reply