Welcome to another installment of the Haulix Blogger Spotlight series. People from every corner of the industry turn to Haulix when hoping to promote their upcoming releases, and in today’s column we’re speaking about an area of entertainment we have yet to touch on: Comedy. If you have a writer or publication you think deserves to be highlighted in this feature, please contact james@haulix.com and share your recommendation.
Some people know from an early age that the music industry is the place for them, but for others it’s a fact realized only after they’ve gotten a taste for the business. Matt Kleinschmidt entered his college career with no end goal in mind, but after joining the campus radio station he discovered a love for entertainment that propelled him to the career he now holds at one of our favorite companies, The Syndicate. His story is proof that with a lot of hard work, determination, and willingness to try new things it is possible to develop a sustainable, lasting career in music, and we could not be more excited to share his journey with all of you.
On a personal note, this column is a little special to me. I’ve known Matt and The Syndicate since I was first starting off music journalism, and throughout my career they have been nothing short of wonderful human beings. Their love for what they do and the clients they represent permeates through everything they produce, and it wasn’t until I got Matt on the phone for this feature that I learned the story of how it all came to be.
If you would like to stay on top of everything Matt is working on, be sure to get familiar with both The Syndicate and The Laugh Button. Additional questions and comment can be left at the end of this post.
H: State your name, job title, and place of employment:
MK: My name is Matt Kleinschmidt and I work for The Syndicate in the publicity department and online marketing – specializing in comedy.
H: Let’s start with your origin story. Can you recall the first album you bought with your own money?
MK: Absolutely. Let’s do CD. The first CD I bought was the soundtrack Judgment Night. It was this crazy, typical 90s soundtrack that featured collaborations between hip hop groups and alternative acts. I don’t really remember buying it, or what lead me to get it in the first place, but it definitely sticks out as the first CD I purchased.
H: Do you still have it?
MK: Oh, I absolutely still have it. It’s on my iTunes and the last time I listened to it was probably within the last year-and-a-half. The only soundtrack that I think probably compares is The Crow [laughs].
H: Did you go to school for publicity? Tell us a bit about what you studied.
MK: No, I didn’t. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I started school, but in the first month of school I joined the local college radio station. I knew how to put together a CD player so they made me the chief engineer, and then from there I moved my way up the food chain. I held a bunch of roles within the station and it’s kind of how I fell into my internship at The Syndicate. While at school I ended up studying journalism and mass media. It’s outdated now, but at the time I think the term was ‘Journalism/Media Studies’ for the degree I got.
So yea, I learned how to write and got the internship at The Syndicate. I got offered at a part-time at the end of my internship, and then from part-time went to full-time and never left. I started as an intern in 2000 and was full-time by 2002, so I had a full-time job by the time I graduated college. I promoted bands to college radio stations for a number of year, seven or eight, and then we decided we wanted to do more publicity towards websites and I took that over. Then over time our focus changed to comedy and I ran with it, creating a comedy site and a comedy ad network. It was not really a job that existed, so we just kind of created it. Then we found something else that didn’t exist, and that’s what we created next. It’s been a series of creating jobs as needed.
H: You have a rare story because most people have had many jobs by the time they’re 25.
MK: Yea, especially in the music business. I’ve had a lot of jobs within The Syndiate, and a few titles over the years, but yea – it has been an interesting journey. I’ve been able to say, like ‘oh we want to do this, so let’s try it.’ That has allowed me to guinea pig a few things over years, and it’s…yea, it’s pretty cool.
H: What advice would you offer aspiring industry professionals about breaking into the music business?
MK: A lot of what I want to say is working hard until you get your break, but I think a lot of it is being in the right place at the right time. It’s knowing people, meeting people, connecting, having something people want to offer, and the like. We have situations where we have to hire people here at The Syndicate and the question we usually ask is not ‘let’s break out resumes and linkedin,’ but rather ‘who are 4 or 5 people we know who would fit the vibe of the company?’ You don’t have to be the best, but you should have a willingness to learn and do better. I have a lot of years in this business, and I’ve found it [success] tends to come to those who go after it. No one is going to knock on your door.
H: How did comedy become such a big part of The Syndicate?
MK: We started working with comedy around 2001. A guy from Comedy Central came to us with the idea of promoting a comedian like you would a band or an album. Put them on tour, do promo, etc. So he hired The Syndicate to do a bunch of different marketing initiatives based on the idea that comedians want to be rockstars and rockstars want to be comedians. We knew there was a lot of common ground there.
So that’s how we started in comedy. We got in the door with Dane Cook and ended up working a lot of things with him – from albums, to movies, tours, and all that stuff – and we kind of rode his rise. He’s been really good to the company and really good to us to. It’s kind of funny to look at his rise because, you know, some people have taken shots at him over the years, but he’s a very hardworking individual.
H: One thing that makes The Syndicate unique is the web properties Metal Insider and The Laugh Button. How do you reason these as not being a conflict of interest?
MK: One thing you’ll learn about the music industry is that everyone does everything. Everyone knows someone who manages a band, but also runs a website. Or tours, and also works as a publicist. We have two sites: The Laugh Button and Metal Insider. It’s not really a conflict of interest because we make it a point to ensure it is not a conflict of interest. We want to talk about the promotion aspect, but if you visit the sites we keep things positive across the board, whether or not we’re working with them. Comedians come to us looking for coverage and we do our best to help them. We want to elevate the entire genre because it elevates everyone across the board. There is a lot of negativity out there, and we don’t like it so we don’t try to do it.
H: You came into this business before the boom of social media. Do you have a sense of nostalgia for those early, less connected days?
MK: You know what’s funny? I was just talking about this. I went to Oddball Festival recently, and festival organizers have put a clamp down on people capturing media from the show. They were literally kicking people out for cell phone use, and you know what, it was actually kind of refreshing.
The thing with social media is that I love and hate it. Right before I got on the phone I was damming some outlets for not needing to exist, but at the same time I love Twitter and I use it regularly.
H: Do you think it’s possible to prevent piracy, or is it more about managing leaks at this point?
MK: I think it’s kind of accepted at this point the music industry avoided [piracy] for too long before addressing that it was a real problem. I think it can be managed, and I think there are way to offer more premium products to consumers, be it physical albums or shirts, that help entice consumers.
There is an inherent problem with people not placing value with music. I support the industry I work in.
But I do think it can be managed. It’s about figuring out how your consumers engage with music and figuring out how to make it work for you. Is streaming the answer? I don’t know, it kind of seems to screw the artist, but I don’t know. I think it has gotten way better since the early days.
H: The Syndicate has used Haulix for quite some time. What do you like about it?
MK: I like a few things about it. Budgets are shrinking, and I love the idea of being able to get media out on a digital platform that is safe and doesn’t cost anywhere near as much as shipping. I also love a lot of its tracking features. It’s nice to know I can tell a client who is and isn’t engaged with their upcoming materials with ease.
H: What is your ultimate career goal?
MK: In all honesty, I don’t know. I’ve always had the conversation with myself that I would do this until it stops being fun, and so far it hasn’t stopped being fun. I think that’s the ultimate answer. Do it until it’s not fun anymore, then figure out something else to do.
