Tim Westergren

Time to get back on Twitter after four years on the bench... A year off, two years investing and one year incubating...

@sammyandrews Record, record, record. It takes a lifetime to master the craft of recording. Spend money on producers, not studio time.

If you had one piece of advice for an unsigned band / artist what would it be? I’ll go first… Don’t spend all your £$ on making a record & leave nothing to promote it. Growing a fanbase & marketing is vital. No good making the best record ever if no one gets to hear it.

After a long hiatus, my band YellowWood Junction is playing a reunion show at the Guild in Menlo Park, CA. Sept 9th. Very excited to jam again after a long detour through Pandora…

The secret sauce @SessionsLive is our proprietary growth engine. We spend marketing dollars to cultivate artists’ followings. Typically we 10-20x boost the reach of posts, sometimes more. By adding audience we create growth and sustainability!

Let's face it...in the world of DSPs the few winners that do exist are undeniably the exception to the rule. The great challenge is how to impact the majority of musicians? I think we've figured that out: @SessionsLive

As streaming services race for the top, musicians race to the bottom. Unfortunately DSPs will never be able to compensate musicians fairly. It's not evil...the business model just simply does not work. irvineweekly.com/islands-in-the… #BrokenRecord #Streaming #DSPs #Musicians

The fact that it only takes 50 fans on @SessionsLive platform to provide an artist with a livable wage means we're on the right track! Artists...get off the DSP hamster wheel!

It's not about getting lucky in the right place at the right time or getting plucked up by the viral thing...It IS about a systematic, methodical path for artists to make more and more money over time. This is why I created @SessionsLive.

Virtual events are here to stay...period. Now the challenge is turning that into a business. @RFaughnder latimes.com/entertainment-…

Every day another livestreaming company joins the fray, but artists don’t need more tools…They need an audience.

Keep coming back to this. Another truth - this service was NEVER about solving a problem for musicians. It was a business opportunity. That's it. And that's fine. But let's not pretend it's anything more. mixmag.net/read/former-sp… #BrokenRecord

Martin Mills @beggarsgroup has always been a voice of clarity, wisdom and fairness. What he said still holds true. What's the point of licensed and legal if the renumeration is insignificant? ...There are other ways. rollingstone.com/pro/features/y…

@rafael_cholo @MrTomGray Re legislation, there’s simply not the $ there to get even if you win. It would be a Pyrrhic victory.

Hmmm...Where to begin?! There is so much troubling about this, but what's most important is to understand what this means: for services like Spotify, music is nothing more than fuel. That's it. Artists MUST find alternatives. mixmag.net/read/former-sp… #BrokenRecord

@rafael_cholo @MrTomGray Remember, Digital music was a business opportunity. It wasn’t created and honed to help artists. Businesses are profit seeking, period. I’ve been there. The problem is that those business structures, while legal, don’t have musicians as their master.

@YellowBritCFRC @twestergren @latepaul @MrTomGray And yellow brit road - it cannot be based on recorded music that shares rights with a label. Key is live and new exclusive (and artist-controlled) content, behind a paywall.

@twestergren @latepaul @timwestergren @MrTomGray Jay Z tried to do that when he built Tidal, didn't he? Deezer also tried to adopt the user-centric model, but they faced pushback from record labels, who held the final rights. It's a sticky wicket to be on

@YellowBritCFRC @twestergren @latepaul @MrTomGray No. Tidal was the same business model. Just added a handful of prominent artists as shareholders. Still no economics for each artist. Same basic payouts/rates.

@kat_five @rafael_cholo @MrTomGray @resonatecoop This is cool. I like resonate’s principles. The key (and it seems always the missing piece) is marketing: finding a CAC/LTV formula that creates positive economics on a per fan basis. Sessions does this.

@rafael_cholo @timwestergren @MrTomGray Artists are building alternatives! Check out @resonatecoop #playfair #digitaldignity #coops resonate.is

@rafael_cholo @MrTomGray With the caveat that this is self-serving, yes, artists need to offe their own service, like Sessions. You decide what content goes up, when and for how much. Eventually, Spotify is a marketing channel, not a destination.

@MrTomGray A great thread outlining the challenge. Unfortunately, I don't think existing platforms hold the solution. I've seen under the hood. Need to find direct to consumer alternatives. Wildly more efficient income. Problem to focus on is marketing.

Why the music industry HAS to change and why it has to change now. A thread. Stick with it!

We know this is coming... The antidote? Live AND interactive performance. Humans ultimately crave authenticity. They will hunt for something real. That's the core of @SessionsLive. billboard.com/articles/colum… #AI #Musicians #FanFic #CyberPolicy