It often feels as though the music industry is in a constant state of flux. Social media followings have trumped organically built fanbases, album success is determined by streams, and artist branding—for better or worse—is just as crucial as the musical content being produced and distributed. Since their humble beginnings in 2004, Reach Records, founded by Grammy-winning rapper Lecrae and CEO Ben Washer, has survived by adapting to that constant change. For this edition of What’s in Store, Lecrae and Ben invited us out to chat about how the label’s marketing and digital teams are using a few automation recipes to continue growing and communicating with their fans.
“Back when MySpace was still hot,” Ben says, he and Lecrae filled every role for Reach Records, and admittedly had no idea what they were doing in terms of email marketing.