The Cutting Edge of Music Marketing: A Conversation with Livia Tortella
Music exec and marketing maven Livia Tortella stopped by to talk about how getting music to the right fans has changed in the last 15 years
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This week we are talking with Livia Tortella. After spending decades marketing everyone in the major label system from Jason Mraz to Kid Rock, Tortella decided to break off on her own to provide bespoke marketing to artists or all shapes and sizes. Her firm, Black Box, got its start just as streaming was taking hold and has been innovating ever since. Over an hour, Tortella and I sat down to talk about what it means to break an artist, how movie soundtracks get curated, the impact of AI on music marketing, and so much more.
You built your career in the major label system helping break tons of artists, including Rob Thomas, Jason Mraz, and Kid Rock. When a label executive or A&R says that they helped “break an artist,” what does that mean?
I think that phrase mostly applies to artists you were with from the beginning. For me, that was someone like Gary Clark Jr. I was also there from the beginning of Bruno Mars.
You might also use the phrase if you come into an artist’s life at a critical time. That was me with Michael Bublé and Jason Mraz. I started working with Jason right when “I’m Yours” was coming out. That expanded him to a global audience. So, I guess sometimes breaking an artist means you were there from the beginning, while other times it means you made a fundamental contribution mid-career.
You always worked in marketing with these artists. What did that entail?
A&Rs find the artists. Then they hand them over to you to oversee the marketing rollout. That includes everything from digital strategy to radio to various global campaigns. You work very closely with management.
In your time at Warner Records, you did a good deal of work with movie soundtracks, including films in the Transformers and Twilight series. What is the process for putting together a soundtrack for a major motion picture like?
A music supervisor is the most important person involved with a film from a musical perspective. They source all the music for a director. The music supervisor will often talk with labels about important spots in a film that need music, like the end credits. Because of that, there is sometimes an opportunity for a label to step in and distribute a soundtrack.
That was the case with Twilight. Twilight was so exciting because I was already reading the books, so I was super eager to work on the film. I supported Alex, the music supervisor, on all of the marketing for that soundtrack. It was a ton of fun.
I feel like end credit songs used to be a very powerful marketing tool back in the 1980s and 1990s, so powerful that getting your song over the credits in the right movie could send your song to the top of the charts. Do movie tie-ins still have that power these days?
