Tony van Veen
We caught up with the CEO of Disc Makers, BookBaby and Merchly, Mr. Tony van Veen during some of his away time form work. How long have you been in the business of music? I’ve been gainfully employed in the music business for 33 years as of August 10, 2020 (but who’s counting?). What made you decide to get in the business? When I was in college I played drums in several punk rock bands. The whole punk rock scene in the mid 80’s was at the vanguard of the huge DIY music scene we know today… We did everything ourselves – write songs, book gigs and tours, promote concerts, build mailing lists (old school snail mail!), record, press records, you name it. I loved the energy, the entrepreneurial spirit, and the fact that if you had an idea, you could just try it. Punk rock kept me sane and helped me graduate business school. It also inspired me to pursue a career in music. Ideally, my music career would have been as a songwriter and performer. But… I figured that it would be hard to make a living as a punk rock drummer, and so I ended up taking a job at Disc Makers instead. Disc Makers at the time was a small regional vinyl pressing plant located in Philadelphia, and I did whatever needed to be done – answer phones, take care of client projects, sales, marketing… Perhaps what’s most amazing is that today, 33 years later, it is the only employer I’ve ever had. Describe some of the things your business does? We help artists get their content out to market and monetize it. What does that mean in real life? We focus mostly on helping artists get physical media produced: we manufacture CDs, vinyl records, USBs, posters, T-shirts. However, we also get artists onto streaming platforms through our partnership with CD Baby. How does your business help indie and major artists? Streaming has been great for music fans, but it’s been difficult for artists to make money from their music through streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and YouTube. 1,000 streams on Spotify pay just $4. 1,000 YouTube views pay $1!!! Think about that. You need to get 250 people to watch one of your songs four times each, and all you’ll make is a buck!!! As an add on to streaming, the physical media we produce provides a more viable revenue stream for artists. We give our artists the tools to make more money from their music by selling CDs, vinyl, and T-shirts at their concerts and online (including at the Bandcamp site). Besides manufacturing services we offer.
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