Andrew Imbesi is a 22 year old visionary who has been producing music nearly all of his life. He has made it possible for musicians to survive and thrive doing music without having to wait tables. Andrew easily proves that generating a substantial independent music career is viable even with the diversity and the fiery, plague ridden nightmare-scape of 2020.
By relentlessly researching data that will propel him and his musicians to the highest level, he maximizes effective sales and marketing to cater to his unique clientele. Through his company BogeGroup, Andrew shares all the sales, networking and marketing strategies taught to him by his renowned mentor Mike Barron. Andrew not only assists his clients in managing their own brands, bookings, promotions, clients, fans, products, and services, but also teaches them to turn their talent into full-time standalone careers.
Living in a world where too little is none, Andrew leads his clients into a world that shifts around us, teaching his clients how to shape themselves to fit. I spoke with Andrew as he divulged some of his secrets and some of his techniques…..
Andrew, what exactly do you do?
Basically, I help musicians with sales and marketing. I help them land more opportunities for themselves, and help them get more exposure online.
What motivated you to start such a unique business?
So, I’ve been a music producer for most of my life and I recently started connecting with people online because I also have a passion for entrepreneurship. I started connecting with people with sales on Digital marketing space and from one course to another, from drop shipping to digital marketing agencies. I was able to start developing my own course and my own program and my own agency program where I not only teach musicians how to do sales and marketing but also have the ability to do agency work and coaching work for them.
Are you a musician yourself?
I’ve been producing music since I was 12 years old. I really downloaded my first digital audio workstation when I was 14. I play mostly the synthesizer. I’m not really great at guitar or anything like that, but I studied a lot of music and I’ve learned how to program it with a computer. My dad plays guitar and I want to learn. It’s definitely on the bucket list.
What do you use to program it?
I predominantly use logic pro, but I also use Ableton and ProTools if I need to. I understand them pretty well.
How do these musicians find you and come to you for help?
I’m about to run more Facebook advertising, but the way that they find me is I have actually been finding them. The way that I find them is through organic outreach methods. There is actually a lot of high-level strategies used such as reaching out to the Facebook groups, Instagram or whatever platforms you are kind of hanging out on, you get in front of traffic, and start reaching out to them.
Important question….does it work?
YES! We actually use the strategies, my partner’s agency, and he predominantly has a lot of affiliates and all of the affiliates help him form this eight-figure business.
You’re like a 22 year old genius.
I guess I surround myself with a lot of smart people.
Did you study this at school somehow?
I went to college, but I learned the most in the Internet courses I took. I went to college for business, information technology and sound production and engineering. However, I also personally invested into all the Internet courses. I think my experience with Internet courses was a lot more applied. I might’ve gotten a lot more out of that to be honest.
Do love what you do?
Absolutely!
What advice would you give to a starving indie music artist?
My advice would be not only hone in on your craft, and get really great however you do that…. or creating music however you do that, but what is more important is understanding how to make connections and learning sales and marketing because that’s how you connect with even more people who are great at creating music. You could get really great at doing it by yourself, but it would get you further down the process by connecting with more people who are also great at it and who can also show you some cool tips and tricks and teaching you sales and marketing. Sales and marketing will help you get further along in your career.
So, you actually teach them the sales and marketing or do you do it for them?
Both. I have courses and programs for musicians that are interested in learning how to do it themselves and then on top of that I also have marketing services and coaching services. The coaching services kind of goes hand-in-hand with the marketing programs however, I do also have a marketing agency where I could run the advertising, like the Spotify marketing, the Facebook marketing and even YouTube marketing for them. On top of that, setting up their pages and setting up what they need to do to have a successful music business spot on from like the listeners perspective or the musicians perspective. I also have coaches consulting packages where I meet with them pretty regularly, but that’s a much higher ticket price.
If you could have me ask you any question on the planet what would it be and how would you answer?
I would want someone to ask how can I be successful and turn my talents into a full-time career? And I would say learn how to connect with more people, learn sales and marketing and learn how to be the best at what you are doing musically and business-wise.
Is there anything else that you would like to add that we haven’t spoken about?
I would say that for musicians that are struggling it is important to figure out what they should be doing with themselves. During the times of Covid, when there aren’t really too many shows right now, their are still opportunities online to sell yourself as a musician and to create an income that allows you to do music full-time online. It’s really all about learning how to adapt to the changes in social media and being online and creating that online presence, and ultimately learning sales and marketing because I think that’s the one area that musicians are lacking in. When it comes to business, that’s one focus that it’s not really focused on a lot, but that’s something that needs to be focused on the most, because that’s how you really enable yourself to have a full-time career doing music. You can create music all you want, but if you can’t sell it then no one’s going to hear it.
The official website for the BogeGroup may be found at https://bogegroupmedia.com/bg-homepage
Interview by Eileen Shapiro