Building your network: Finding and connecting with industry professionals
The music industry runs on relationships. Distribution deals, sync placements, management agreements, and live bookings all happen through people who know each other. For independent artists without label infrastructure, building those relationships directly is not optional — it is the job.
Key Takeaways
Centralise your industry relationships in MAM’s Network Manager to prevent missed career opportunities caused by disorganised spreadsheets and social media direct messages.
Categorise each contact by 'Relationship Stage' and link them to specific releases to maintain a clear and accurate active pipeline.
Personalise your outreach by using MAM's custom notes to reference past conversations and mutual connections, avoiding generic, mass-templated emails.
Utilise the MAM Tasks module alongside your Contacts Directory to set up automated reminders for a structured, weekly outreach programme.
The music industry runs on relationships, where critical opportunities like sync placements and distribution deals are brokered through trusted connections. For independent artists working without label infrastructure, managing these professional contacts can quickly become overwhelming without a centralised database. The MAM Network Manager solves this by allowing you to systematically organise, track, and nurture your industry relationships directly alongside your release schedules.
Why this matters
Without a structured approach to professional contact management, artists risk losing valuable career opportunities through missed follow-ups or poorly timed outreach. Relying on disorganised spreadsheets or social media direct messages often leads to forgotten conversations, unprofessional communications, and ultimately, missed bookings or ignored pitches.
How to do it
1. Navigate to the 'Network Manager' tab from the main MAM dashboard left-hand menu.
2. Click on the 'Add New Contact' button in the top-right corner of the contacts database.
3. Populate the profile fields, including the contact's name, email, industry role, and organisation.
4. Use the 'Relationship Stage' dropdown menu to categorise the contact, such as 'Initial Pitch', 'In Discussion', or 'Active Partner'.
5. Link the contact to a specific release or campaign using the 'Associated Projects' field.
6. Log your last conversation details in the 'Activity Log' panel and set a calendar reminder for your next scheduled follow-up.
7. Click 'Save Contact' to add the individual to your interactive 'Contacts Directory'.
Tips
• Avoid sending generic, mass-templated emails; instead, use the custom notes section in MAM to reference specific mutual connections or past conversations to personalise every outreach.
• Regularly update the 'Relationship Stage' after every meeting or exchange to keep your active pipeline accurate and clean.
Next steps
Now that you have populated your primary contacts list, head over to the MAM Tasks module to set up automated reminders for your weekly outreach programme.
Ready to streamline your workflow?
Stop piecing together spreadsheets and scattered notes. Join the waitlist for Music Artist Manager and get your entire rollout in one place.
Written By
Gavin Alexander
Senior Marketeer
As the founder of Music Artist Manager, Gavin has spent years at the intersection of music and technology. Seeing firsthand how chaotic release rollouts and split sheets can be, he designed a platform that brings major-label infrastructure to independent artists and their teams. He writes extensively about industry trends, artist leverage, and workflow optimisation.
