Intercept Music is a game changer in music marketing, offering technology for passionate independent artists and labels to promote their art. In collaboration with Virgin Music Group, the company empowers musicians with innovative distribution, sharp marketing services, and sleek management tools to create global reach with a local vibe.
"We do the heavy lifting on the marketing side so our customers can focus solely on what they do best, which is making music," says Tod Turner, the CEO of Intercept Music.
The company works within the entire marketing ecosystem surrounding an artist. The music is promoted through social media platforms, ad campaigns, DJ pools, music reviews, lyric videos, public relations, press releases, and merchandise featuring the lyrics or titles of the new song. The data is then collected and viewed on a single dashboard, containing detailed information from streams generated across every demand-side platform (DSP) in 230 countries and territories. Intercept Music analyzes the data and guides artists with geographic locations for marketing campaigns based on stream rates, helping them rise above the noise. Using proprietary algorithms and factors like cost-per-click (CPC) rates, streaming payout rates, audience demographics, and targeted DSPs, every campaign is designed to match the artist and track at that point in the artist’s career.
Intercept Music has created many success stories through the use of their technology. The company's AI integration sets it apart by providing services in various languages, including English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The AI-integrated system collects information from customers' bios, media contacts, followers, song lyrics, and all other metadata related to the song into the platform. These materials are then used to create social media posts that can be reviewed and altered by clients if needed. Clients can also be provided with a list of other artists with similar sounds, helping them expand their audience by tapping into the larger fanbases of those artists. The system even produces press releases and designs promotional materials for marketing campaigns using AI.
Intercept Music has helped hundreds of artists promote their music worldwide. One particular artist was an exceptional guitarist who was part of a well-known rock band 15 years ago. The band had secured a major label deal with Virgin Music, but the guitarist and lead singer stopped playing and changed careers for personal reasons. He became a high school teacher but continued writing music. One day, he wrote a song for his students and wanted to market it. The artist contacted Intercept Music, who liked the song and designed a custom campaign to introduce him and his music. He spent $1,500 marketing the song with a lyric video and an ad campaign on YouTube and Facebook. Intercept Music helped him grow from 5 streams per day to 5,000 per day in the first 30 days. The artist gained about 2,000 monthly listeners in just two months of collaborating with Intercept, and he continues to grow as he systematically releases more new music. On the other end of the spectrum, Intercept has delivered results that led to Grammy nominations, Billboard 100 hits, and major label deals for their artists.
We do the heavy lifting with the marketing so our customers can focus on what they best do - making music.
“We’ve been with Intercept for over three years now,” said Clay Dustin, CEO of Xstream Entertainment based in Texas. “During that time, we’ve had multiple successes in both country and urban genres using Intercept’s technology—and it just keeps getting better and better.” Dustin added, “The Intercept team gives us all the tools we need to make smart decisions with our artists. The label dashboard gives us oversight across all of our artists, how they’re doing, and which ones need our attention. Most importantly, the Intercept team is always reachable—with real people—when we need them.”
The company plans to extend its technology to manage the entire marketing process, tailored to individual artists, independent labels, and music catalogs, and self-adjusting based on real-time performance. The software and support are currently available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and the company plans to add most other major languages by early 2025.
Intercept Music's aim is clear: to advance the music careers of independent artists and labels by cementing its position as the leading technology platform.
