Both Sides Now: An Introduction
Or, the sausage maker becomes the sausage.
If you’re reading this, it’s likely we know each other in some way.
If not, then allow me to give a very brief overview of who I am and why I’m here…
My name is David Ecker, and I’ve been working in the music industry for over ten years. For most of those years, I was working with indie artists, labels, managers, and marketers on behalf of Spotify (a small Swedish startup… similar to Grooveshark, I believe). I was lucky to get in at the right time and watch it business grow from a scrappy grassroots operation into a multinational division of a publicly traded company with a sizable footprint at the World Trade Center complex.
Since 2023, I’ve been working as the Head of Label Development (essentially a marketing role) for Exceleration Music - a label group that recently acquired Redeye Distribution and Mack Avenue Records. It’s a refreshing change of pace for me, and an opportunity to get back to the ‘in the weeds’ approach that first attracted me to my early work with Spotify.
As I’m no longer the conduit for every indie label to access the worlds biggest streaming platform, it’s also a space where I finally have the freedom to promote (or hell, even to acknowledge) my own status as a recording artist without fear of treading into ethically dubious waters. In short - I can really invest in myself as an artist in a way that wasn’t possible before.
I’ve been recording and self releasing music since 2018, some of which has done all-right despite everything. Last year, however, I was lucky enough to sign to one of LAs underground institutions, Alpha Pup Records. I won’t give you their full backstory here - but if interested, I suggest you read up on the label and it’s founder, Kevin Moo (aka Daddy Kev).
This development coincided with my recent completion of a project that pushed the bounds of what I thought I was capable of, as a composer, as an arranger, and as a producer. Suddenly, things got real in a way they hadn’t before, and I became determined to do right by this release and myself as an artist.
Oh yeah… and Grace and I also had a BABY last September. Talk about a reason to a) outsource as much of my “business” as possible and b) do some serious work on my time management skills…
Mostly though, becoming a parent has made me super reflective. What do I want to replicate from my own childhood and what do I want to avoid? What parts of me that developed over the past 33 years do I want to carry into this next phase of life and what do I want to leave behind?
Likewise - what have I learned during my decade in the music business that I should bring to the next 10 years of myself as an artist? Where has my advice to developing artists been solid and where could it use some shoring up?
What better time could there be, than one of such personal and professional transition, to become a case study, a proverbial lab rat for artists and industry professionals alike?
At the very least, it may help me make sense of the chaos…
It is with this ethos that I decided to start - with little to no filter - documenting my own experience creating and rolling out “How To Rebuild” , as well as my efforts to build some semblance an artist career over the next several years that is worthy of the time I’ve put into my own music thus far.
If this is something you’re interested in following along for, please subscribe.
I hope this can become more of a conversation than a monologue. Please do share your own experiences as an artist/industry pro as relevant with me as well, and I’ll be happy to include them in my posts.
Next post, we’ll begin at the beginning…. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from any of you in a similar boat. Feel free to share your own experience or wisdom gleaned from navigating life as an artist/music industry hybrid with me at david@davideckermusic.com.
As always - be kind to yourselves and one another.
Best,
David