It’s Simple: Single Music Allows Artists to Manage Everything in One Space

Single Music has taken a complex industry with various outlets and centralized everything--digital music delivery, merchandise, chart reporting, video content monetization--to one interface: the artist’s storefront. With Single, musicians and their teams can replace the long standing behavior of sending fans to external places with the mindset of “bringing things home” to their own storefront.

The beauty of Single (www.singlemusic.com) is it’s as simple a solution as it sounds. “Single marries all the aspects of the music industry in one space where users have control,” said Tommy Stalknecht, Founder and CEO of Single Music. “If you want to buy music, merch, livestream, it’s all on the artist’s site. Single brings it all home and allows artists to maximize their relationship with their fans in the one place where they have full control.”

Not only is Single’s direct-to-consumer approach of giving artists their own all-inclusive platform a common sense solution, the service digs deeper by offering users an array of helpful automations for artists, labels, and ecommerce specialists to streamline their daily business burden and focus on their art. For example, Single offers straight-forward chart reporting available to users. “Most music charts have nuances,” Stalknecht explained. “They may cover different countries, and there are different lists such as Billboard or Rolling Stone, all with different rules. Our reporting is a simple automated process that takes the leg work out of knowing those rules.”

Single’s digital toolkit gives artists the ability to turn their existing storefronts into an iTunes-like experience, where artists can release tracks early, offer preorders, and all major functions necessary to maintain direct relationships with fans.

How does a “black sheep, music geek kid from D.C.” set out to improve the music industry? It’s also simple: he listened to mentors and seized opportunities. “Growing up in D.C. and wanting to play music, I knew I needed to get out, but I didn’t know the first step,” said Stalknecht. “I had a teacher who knew about my dreams and convinced me to attend his alma mater, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). The first person I met there was my eventual Single Music cofounder, Taylor O’Connor.”

While attending MTSU, Stalknecht found himself drawn to the business side of the industry. “Despite being creative and wanting to make music, I discovered the business aspect is what clicked with me,” he said. This would lead him to move to Nashville, Tennessee, and eventually work as an Account Manager and then Director of Product Development position at MCN Interactive, where he had the opportunity to start working with big names in the music industry.

It didn’t take long for Stalknecht to spot a need to unify certain aspects of the music industry behind something the artist controls. “Ticket sales, merch, livestream--artists were sending their fans to multiple places to purchase when they should be able to do that directly,” he said. “I started doing data research and building my own database in my free time, trying to see if I could find a way to help artists keep everything in one place.” While doing his own market research, he noticed the growing presence of Shopify at each turn, and realized its potential as a helpful ecommerce tool in the music industry. When everything clicked, Single Music began.

Going forward, the company plans to increase data distribution to its users, all with the goal of building those fan relationships in mind. “The ultimate goal for us is to take this data and present it back to artists so they can use it to appreciate and grow their fan base,” Stalknecht said. “Numbers are obfuscated between multiple platforms, but we have a unique ability to show artists their fans in their entirety and help them reach the people who have supported them all along, especially during arguably the worst time for the industry.”

Because artists have control over how they utilize Single, Stalknecht noted the creativity of many of its users, particularly during this difficult time for the industry. “The greatest trend has been virtual album release parties, but we’ve also seen other innovative uses of our service, like a joke-tell-a-thon, $5 fan club meetings and exclusive signed copies, fundraising concerts, and countless other ideas. Switchfoot took money generated and paid their road crew. It’s incredible what artists have done with the platform, and shows you that ultimately we’re all just trying to support each other. At the end of the day, the goal is to put food on the table.”

Single’s greatest success so far is as simple as that: their service helped keep artists afloat during a particularly tough time for the industry. “We don’t take money from merchandise sales like other services do--it all goes to the artists,” Stalknecht said. “They have control. It’s practical--with everything in one place, why would you send your fans elsewhere to do X, Y, or Z, when Single turns your store into one interface for everything? It’s that simple.”