There are many arguments as to when the Streaming Era began. Some say it started with the launch of Spotify in 2008. Others claim it began much earlier – when platforms like Pandora and Last.fm gained popularity. Regardless of when exactly it commenced, the repercussions – good and bad – are being felt now more than ever before. Despite the ease of accessibility, a quick chat with any artist nowadays will reveal great disdain for the monetary structures of DSPs. This, in turn, has highlighted a pertinent need for change. One person who’s set on spearheading this change is Mag Rodriguez – a former producer/engineer and artist manager turned tech entrepreneur. Since launching his direct-to-consumer music commerce platform EVEN earlier this year, Mag’s been on a mission to prove to the world that better possibilities are out there. We recently had the pleasure to chat with Mag about the genesis of EVEN, what differentiates the platform from every other music platform, and how he foresees technology continuing to impact the music industry in the future. 

Can you walk us through your journey in the music industry? 

​​I started making music in 2008 when I was in eighth grade. I was transferred to a different school across town, and that's really when I was introduced to Hip-Hop. I'm originally Mexican, and grew up listening to a lot of Mexican music. When I ended up getting transferred to a school on the North Side of Milwaukee, which is a primarily Black community, they put me on to a lot of Hip-Hop and R&B. A lot of my classmates were also making music. 

In high school, I started producing and engineering. My music teacher really embraced my creativity and ability to dive into the unknown. I started recording my classmates and producing for them. Two of my early classmates were incredible artists. One of them, my friend Wade, ended up signing to CMG during our senior year of high school. That was my first introduction to working with an artist that kind of went to the next level. Then my other friend ended-up becoming my first client. His name was IshDARR. He was a year younger than me, and, straight out of high school, we just kind of went on the road for six years. He graduated in May, and then we immediately went on tour with ScHoolboy Q and Ab-Soul – and soon after Europe with Post Malone. Throughout this time, I built a roster of various producers, songwriters, and other artists that I began developing. This was essentially the start of my career. I kind of just got thrown into it really. 

I also had great support from great mentors. The person I always give a lot of credit to is Amanda Berkowtiz. At the time, she was an A&R at Epic. She ran a label called Vested In Culture with Sylvia Rhone, and she co-managed IshDARR with me. She was my guide to the industry. There were also various other people whom I learned from throughout my time in the industry, including Nima and Ghazi at EMPIRE. They were some of the first people who really took a chance on me and my clients. But there were more – Jonathan Master who was at EMPIRE, Tunji who’s now CEO of Def Jam. Joe Hadley is someone who always picks up the phone when I call and always offers great advice. They’ve all been a part of my journey in music. Even if it wasn’t direct mentorship, all of them were incredibly helpful. 

I did take a turn in 2018 and started working for a venture firm that wanted to launch a music program for artists and managers. We launched that in Milwaukee. It was an incubator program. But then we launched a program in Detroit called the Motown Accelerator program through a partnership with Universal Motown Capital, launched a program in Cleveland, and, yeah, that took me on this five year run within the venture space. A five year run of taking the venture model, but bringing it to the music industry and helping incubate and develop artists. I’ve worked with over 60 artists during this time and awarded over $600,000 in grants to artists. We did over a billion streams with the artists that we worked with there, and we never took a percentage or any equity. It was just fully community driven. And then, yeah, started building EVEN in Spring of last year. 

Early on in your career, your primary role in music was that of an artist manager. How did your experience in management influence your current role as CEO of EVEN? 

I dove into artist management without any expectations of what it was and meant. Management is less about managing the client or the artist, and more about managing the relationships around the client. The biggest thing it taught me was managing relationships and being a good person. People in this business want to do business with people they like. I think that has now trickled down to where I’m at now in my career. A lot of those relationships that I developed in my early days are now relationships that I can lean on when building EVEN. 

How would you describe EVEN to a kid? 

I would describe it like a movie theater. If you want to watch a new movie, you have to pay a certain amount of dollars at the movie theater, or wait 30-45 days for it to be on a streaming platform. That’s what we’re doing for the music industry. 

Artists can now release an album directly to the fans. The fans can either purchase the art directly from the artists, or they can wait a certain amount of days for it to be available on a streaming platform. It’s the same model. That’s at least how I describe it to my little brother, and it makes sense to him. His response is always “Well, I only like to watch five or six movies a year at the theater.” And I’m like, “Well, that’s exactly what we’re building.” You’re not going to buy every album or every release, but you’ll buy those handful of albums from your favorite artists every year that motivate you to go a step beyond just pressing play. 

What sparked your vision for EVEN, and why did you decide to name the organization EVEN? 

Yeah, it's interesting as far as the name goes. I had the name before I had the company. I used to drink the Kool-Aid that is “streaming” for a long time. I believed, and still believe, in streaming and what it has done for the industry. Throughout that period of time, as I started working with more and more artists, I saw how the output had outweighed the demand for music. There are hundreds and thousands of songs being released every single day, and everyone’s chasing one of the 100 slots on the New Music Friday or Now Playing playlists. The problem is that only so many artists can get in front of fans and these ecosystems. What ends up happening is you don’t end up with a sustainable ecosystem for both parties – the streaming platform and the artist. This is where the name came from. I was like, how do we build an ecosystem in the music industry that feels even? 

Sometimes we lean on words of equity and equality, but I think for me, it was really leaning into a word that didn’t feel too aggressive or ambitious – something that feels a part of everyday life. Simply saying artists should be paid more doesn’t really offer a solution. I wanted to find a solution. I wanted to help artists put a price on their work, and give it value. That’s my aim. 

On EVEN’s website, it describes the platform as a “first-class experience for fans”, and claims to revolutionize the way artists connect with fans. How is EVEN restructuring the way that fans and artists are interconnected? 

We are opening the door for both artists and fans. On the artist side, an artist can have a million fans, but unless they’ve ever bought something directly from the artist, it’s impossible for the artist to know who these fans are. On the fan side, the fan knows who their favorite artists are, but they have no way of reaching them directly. Sure, they can shoot an Instagram DM, but they’ll likely never see it. You can comment on every post, but you aren’t actually creating a relationship that feels “even”. 

With EVEN, fans have the opportunity to not only buy art from the artist, but to engage with the artist. The artist now has the opportunity to engage with their fans, and it’s amazing to see. We hand over our data to artists – emails, phone numbers, location, etc. – and I hear stories on the daily where artists are making incredible connections with their fans. I heard one story recently where an artist had a woman who he’d never met before pay $55 for his album when his close friends were paying something like $5. So he ended up calling her and asking her why she bought the album, and she responded saying that she’d been a fan for years. These are the types of relationships we want to see. We want artists to be able to connect with their fans from all over the world. 

How does EVEN differentiate itself from traditional DSPs, and other music marketplace platforms like iTunes and Bandcamp? 

The number one thing is that EVEN isn’t a DSP. In many ways it’s similar to one, but EVEN is more of an infrastructure. We understood that to create the appeal for artists to trust us with their art, we needed to create a level of discovery, something that we are continuing to develop. EVEN is closer to a Shopify. The backend operates more like a Shopify, where you’re taking the music and converting it into a product and an experience that you can sell to you fans, audience, and community. This is something that traditional DSPs don’t provide access to. When you upload your music to a DSP, you’re entering your product into a buffet. It’s just something that can be picked up whenever it’s wanted. There’s no guarantee that it’ll be consumed. 

With a platform like EVEN, you position your art where people have an option to consume, but in order to do so, they have to pay for it. In this way, many people won’t remember the last meal they had for free. But they certainly remember the last meal they paid $100 for. 

Another way EVEN is different are all the community features. You aren’t just paying for an MP3 file – many times you don’t even get a file when you make a purchase. You’re paying for access and proximity to artists and community. We have community features like a chat where you can talk to other fans. We have virtual release parties, Q&As, meet and greets, as well as general, early access to music and content. But it doesn’t end there – we also give early access to tour tickets and merchandise. That’s what you’re buying with EVEN – the experience of community. 

We personally believe having music available directly to super-fans on EVEN first, similar to Netflix’s model, greatly attributes to the hype and momentum of the eventual release on DSPs. Have other DSPs embraced similar models? 

This is a question that I’ve asked myself. I believe what EVEN is doing is a new category within the landscape of music, but also in consumer behavior – this idea of “sell music first, stream second”. I think the best way to push a category forward is competition. You need other companies attempting to do the same thing. The same way there isn’t just one record label or distribution company. There are hundreds. So far, we haven’t seen anybody else instill this model. 

Artists often hear that if they offer their music exclusively on a particular DSP first, the other DSPs will not support the release because of the exclusivity. What do you say to artists who are concerned about such risks? Does this risk truly even exist?

If we were a streaming platform, that risk would be very real. When an artist releases their music on EVEN, it’s not an EVEN exclusive, but rather an artist exclusive. EVEN enables artists to lease their music to their fans. We are just a vessel that allows you to do that. We are the infrastructure that allows you to offer that experience to your fans. 

Now, I think on the other side of that, there are more than 200,000 songs being released every day, and that number is constantly growing. So with that in mind, I’d say chasing streaming platforms is not a viable and scalable solution for your business and career as an artist. The only viable and scalable business is building a fan base, building a community, and incentivizing and awarding them. That’s not limited to this current moment either. Look at the biggest superstars on the planet. Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande – all of them have been doing this. They’ve cultivated a fan base since day one. Building a fan base and building community has been a core part of their business, and a big reason for their success. 

What are some of the biggest lessons that you've learned during your journey in creating EVEN?

Building a team when scaling is hard. It is less about finding talented people who have done amazing things in the past and more about finding passionate people who believe in the vision of the work we are doing and are willing to unlearn everything they thought they knew to help build a better ecosystem for artists and the industry at large. It's okay to say no to opportunities. It's okay to change your mind and try something new.

Who are some of the artists on EVEN's platform that you're especially excited about?

I'm excited about every artist who decides to trust us with their art. But every day, I become more and more excited to work with emerging artists and creators who have never made a dollar from their music, and they come to EVEN and make their first $100, $500, $1,000, etc. Those are the moments I value the most.

What are the top three tips that you'd share with artists who are looking to get the most out of EVEN's platform?

1. Focus on the community around you first.

2. Create a compelling campaign for your current audience.

3. During and after your campaign, make an effort to talk to as many people who bought your release.

How do you foresee EVEN evolving over the next 5-10 years?

EVEN will continue to evolve as the needs of our partners evolve. EVEN's initial vision was to answer the question, "Will fans pay for music before streaming?" The answer was yes. Then it evolved to, "Can we connect artists and fans like never before?" We did that through experiences, community chats, live streams, etc. Then something magical happened: we began to attract creators outside of music.

Through this, we discovered something: owning the relationship with your fans requires dozens of tools, and EVEN will solve that for them. EVEN is becoming a creator suite that provides flexibility, makes day-to-day operations easier, and frees up time and brain space to focus on the most important element of their businesses: creating.

How do you foresee technology impacting the landscape of the music industry over the next decade?

It's easier now than ever to reach a global audience, but it's almost harder than ever to connect directly with your audience. Globalization is a fairly new term in entertainment, and it is something we prioritize at EVEN. Can a fan in Kenya, Malaysia, or Brazil buy a release from an artist in Mexico using their native currency and payment methods? It might sound very simple, but it didn't exist until now, with EVEN.

If you could only have access to one artist's discography for the rest of your life, which artist would you pick?

Frank Ocean.

What’s one album that you’d take with you wherever you go? 

It's not even a tough question, it's just an embarrassing answer. I play this album on every flight, and I can't give you a real reason beyond just like, it's one of my favorite albums. It's not my favorite album, but it's the album that I listen to all the time and it’s Views by Drake.

It's such a good album and maybe it's just that 2016 was just such an interesting time in my life that maybe I’ve always resonated with this project. Hopefully I don't catch any heat for that one.

What does the phrase “big ass kid” mean to you? 

I think for me it's to stay curious. The name really resonates with me. It’s a something that I say all the time – that I’m a big ass kid. I relate to it in a sense of always being curious and asking questions. So, without making it a long answer, I would say it means to stay curious.