Hi,

This newsletter is one of the more fun ones I’ve ever written - it’s an interview with Ty Baisden, one of music’s most brilliant minds and the operator behind Brent Faiyaz’s career.

I was very familiar with Ty going into our conversation and it was everything I expected it to be. I left feeling impressed, motivated, and energized with new ideas.

Let's get into it below.

This newsletter highlights:

Let's dive in ⬇️

For those who may not be familiar, this is Ty Baisden - he’s a music executive, manager, author, and creative entrepreneur.

Aside from helping Brent Faiyaz become one of the biggest independent artists in the world, he’s also the author of the COLTURE Playbook series.

As I mentioned before, I was very familiar with Ty’s work going into the interview. Brent Faiyaz is one of my favorite artists of the last few years (Sonder Son is up there with my favorite albums) and I admire Ty’s perspective on things. His approach to building leverage, making deals, and helping to shape Brent’s career into being one of the biggest indie artists in the world is super impressive to me.

To name a few accolades, Ty helped take Brent’s album Wasteland to #2 on the Billboard 200 fully independent, was named Billboard's Indie Power Players Executive of the Year in 2024, and wrote The Colture Playbook Vol. 1 and 2 with journalist Yoh Phillips. He's now building Playbook Distro, his own distribution company while continuing to build artist businesses.

Below is our interview paraphrased with some of my favorite takeaways.

This was probably my biggest takeaway from the interview - I'd heard him mention this on another show and had to ask. Apparently, they’re still running ads promoting Brent Faiyaz’s first album “Sonder Son”, which came out in 2017.

Yes…you read that right and that is not a typo lol. Running ads on an album that’s almost 10 years old!

Ty explained that they spend around $20/day on AdRoll ads, not Instagram ads. There’s essentially a pixel on Brent’s website, and anyone who lands there gets pulled into a retargeting web that follows them around the internet and keeps serving them the project.

When I asked Ty how they came up with this “always-on” approach, he shared:

It may sound simple (or obvious), but it’s actually kind of antithetical to how most of the music industry treats advertising. Somewhere along the way, best practice became running ads for 3-4 weeks after a release and then stopping.

Ty and Brent have been doing it for almost 10 years! And when you think about it, it makes sense. Because of how streaming works, music really does live forever - new fans can discover old music at any moment in time…years or decades later. There are always going to be new people that have never heard of an artist and the music is still new to them.

Now, I know what some of you might be thinking… “no shit, Mike…that only works because it’s Brent Faiyaz”.

To that I would say, the reason it's worth it to him is the same reason it should be worth it to anyone: if you know the product is good, there will always be someone hearing it for the first time. And yes…not everyone will have the budget to spend a few thousand dollars per year promoting old catalog but it’s the principle that matters.

Music truly does live forever and can reach new listeners at any time.

While the advertising strategy was my favorite tactical takeaway from the whole interview, this was my favorite mental takeaway.

I asked Ty if there was ever a point early in his career, before he achieved financial success, where he doubted himself and or questioned his journey.

He proceeded to tell me a story that I think can resonate with a lot of people…

On Labor Day weekend 2011, Ty attended Ludacris's celebrity basketball game in Atlanta as part of Luda Day Weekend. While at the game, Ty spent time hanging out with Scooter Braun and Justin Bieber. Mind you, this was when Justin Bieber’s career was exploding and he was entering superstar status.

After the game, while everyone headed to the day party, Ty couldn’t attend because he had to go to work his day job at Target.

I love this story for lots of reasons - I couldn’t even imagine the mindfuck of hanging out with some of the biggest artists in the world and then having to stock their CD on the shelf THAT SAME DAY. Literally a complete 180 with the CD being a physical representation of that juxtaposition.

What I love about this story though is that Ty’s self-belief never wavered. Even in those days when he was living a double life, he still remained steadfast in his vision and belief that he would become successful. He didn’t let that juxtaposition of both worlds keep him down and prevent him from moving forward.

In a full-circle moment, by May 2018, Scooter Braun was actually looking to buy into Ty’s company. It’s an amazing takeaway for anyone who feels uncertainty about their journey and needs motivation to keep going.

The same discipline Ty showed in never giving up also showed up in how he described the years when Brent started really breaking. While everyone on the tour bus was partying, he was in his bunk with the curtain closed, counting the night's settlement so he'd be sharp the next day.

Ty’s company, COLTURE, stands for Can Our Leverage Teach Us Real Equity. Ty told me the name came to him first and the meaning took about seven months to land.

His approach to helping artists build their businesses hyperfocuses on their ability to create and sustain leverage. Simply put:

His frustration is that most new artists can't see it, because early on their asset isn't making money so it’s not as obvious that it’s leverage.

Ty talked about how some artists give up their leverage too early by selling their IP.

He shared that one of the first steps in building leverage is growing a catalog and building it as an asset:

He framed the idea as building assets that compound - for example, 20 songs per year, each one hopefully better than the last. Better writing, better hooks, better vocal delivery, more captivating production.

He had a sharp metaphor for it:

Each song acts as a house in that it can act as a revenue-generating asset of different sizes. Some houses are mansions (hit songs) and some are smaller. The mortgage on each differs based on the success of that song - so imagine the income of the song is comparable to how much you’d be able to charge in rent if you were renting your house.

This part of the conversation was super interesting for me. When I asked how he’s building his own distribution rather than using an indie distributor like STEM or TuneCore, his answer reframed what being "independent" means.

Ty explained that having music that does well while being distributed by another company helps raise awareness and visibility for them. They become associated with it. Not in a malicious way, but because the music is distributed through their system. It becomes a case study they can claim.

He took the idea of being independent even further in that most artists think going through a distributor is independence but Ty thinks it’s still renting unless you actually own the means of distribution.

He explained his approach to the economics of it:

What he’s essentially talking about is what’s known as the apartment building model.

Each unit generates its own income based on the success of the song.

The goal isn’t just to own a couple units (songs) - it’s to own the whole building (building a catalog).

It’s also worth noting what he isn't doing: he told me he's not trying to own artists' catalogs. He'll buy once something has proven value, at a real number, not a lowball, but the ownership play for him is the soundtracks his company creates from scratch and the distribution itself.

I've always admired how unique the Brent rollouts are…from the early days I first discovered him, it always felt like he did things his own way.

The yellow duck on Wasteland for example, or leaking music via Dropbox links.

It never feels like a calculated marketing plan, it feels like a world that keeps the fans involved and guessing.

I asked if that was an intentional strategy and Ty gave credit to Brent’s vision:

I asked Ty for three things independent artists should be doing right now to make money and generate revenue. He touched on something the entire music industry is trying to figure out right now:

We hear it all the time in the music industry but hearing it from someone of Ty’s calibur resonates differently.

As the interview was wrapping up, the last question I asked was for one piece of advice for artists. Ty’s answer actually kind of surprised me if I’m being honest.

Ty’s point is the moment you start worshipping the thing (the dream career, the come-up, the success) it’s easy to look at it with a blind eye and miss bumps or hurdles because you’re blinded by the love.

His take: enjoy the work and take the fruit of it but don't make it your identity.

A quick honorable mention question, because it's the shortest and bluntest answer in the interview. I asked what the biggest mistake artists make right now is and Ty stressed the importance of artists not taking the time to educate themselves.

With how much information is currently available, he finds the biggest mistake to be people not taking the time to educate themselves on the deals they’re signing or learning about the business.

By the end of the interview, it was everything I was hoping it would be…I had lots to think about after our call and chew on.

One of the common threads in Ty’s approach is how he views time differently than the rest of the music industry.

For example, he runs advertising campaigns on an album for almost 10 years.

He measures catalogs in decades.

He does this when everything in music is built to make you optimize for the next few weeks or a viral moment right now. His whole operating system truly is playing the long game.

Ty's Colture Playbook Vol. 1 and 2 are out now with Volume 3 on the way.

Hopefully this was helpful on your journey.

Thanks for reading, until next time.