Means Management

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Means Management Assisting with 500+ Million Streams & 7+ Figures in Royalties since 2017. MeansMGMT is a music marketing agency. We do one thing well, and we measure everything.

Founded by Benjamin Means in 2017, we run paid ad campaigns on Meta, Google, and TikTok for artists, labels, distributors, and managers. We are Meta Agency Partner and Google Ads certified. We connect musicians directly with their fans: Our data-driven approach bypasses traditional gatekeepers and empowers you to build a loyal, engaged audience. We believe that an artists network should be more than just a social media page. Since 2017, we’ve helped structure publishing and distribution deals, facilitate collaborations, and execute extensive ad campaigns, projects, and release strategies alongside artists such as:

By.Alexander, Ani Difranco, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Rett Smith, Frankie Ballard, Zoe Levert, Eery, Eli Filosov, Blocktane, Ward Wills, Devon Rea, Mahaji, Cliffe, HM Surf, Alek Olsen, Ivri, Naveih, Sadboy Prolific, The Bootleg Boy, Eevee, Dosey & many more. Working one-on-one with A&R teams, founders, and label and distribution partners such as:

Feature.FM, Vydia, Warner, Alchemy Artist Services, Promoting Sounds, Catch Point Rights, Ambiqo Records, Deep Rest Records, Righteous Babe Records, KidInaKorner, Downtown Music, SoundCloud, Too Lost, MSYHF, Conduction Live, New Tomorrow Music Group, AWAL, RX Music, Lofi Girl, 11:11 Music, Effortless Audio, College Music, Purple Crunch Records, Ryan Celsius, Kindbrew Records, Etymology Records, Autumn Theory, Fresh Goodies, Lofi Cafe

We’ve focused on empowering a self-sustaining ecosystem that strengthens the direct-to-fan experience. Connecting artists, labels, and industry partners with engaged listeners while capturing first-party data and building lasting fan relationships.

10/14/2026

Rod Serling on The Mike Wallace Interview, 1959, on a sponsor pulling Coca-Cola bottles off a live TV set. Back then you needed a sponsor to reach an audience. Today an artist can pay for that reach directly and keep every word.

Follow for more from the archive.

Music: "BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0

10/13/2026

Nile Rodgers on the Madonna deal a label only agreed to because it doubted him, and the club DJ who played Chic before Atlantic signed them. In 1977 the proof was a packed dance floor. Now it can be listener data a label can read.

Follow for more stories from inside the record business.

Music: "Circles Round the Sun" by Mr Smith, licensed under CC BY 4.0

10/12/2026

Barry Manilow on writing jingles in the 1970s: 15 seconds to stick, and a flat fee for the composer. His State Farm jingle paid $500 and ran 45 years. Hooks still get seconds to land, and usage terms still decide who earns on them.

Follow for the music business history that still applies.

Music: "Bossa Antigua" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0

10/08/2026

Halsey on Zane Lowe, 2025: she stepped away for four years and came back to a generation that didn't know her. Audiences turn over faster than album cycles.

Follow for more interviews like this one.

Music: "Casa Bossa Nova" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0

10/07/2026

Dolly Parton on the 1974 call asking for half the publishing on "I Will Always Love You." She said no. When Whitney Houston covered it in 1992, she owned all of it. Splits still get decided before anyone knows which song is the hit.

Follow for the music business history that still applies.

Music: "Life is Great" by Ketsa, licensed under CC BY 4.0

10/06/2026

Clive Davis on the Grateful Dead's plan to go independent and sell albums off Good Humor ice cream trucks. He warned them about collections and radio promotion, and both showed up. Distribution takes a few clicks now. Promotion is still the job.

Follow for more stories from inside the record business.

Music: "Life is Great" by Ketsa, licensed under CC BY 4.0

10/02/2026

Busta Rhymes on Yahoo Finance, September 2026. Streaming pays in fractions of a penny, and one song earns across mechanicals, publishing and SoundExchange. The per-stream rate is one line. Collecting every line is the part artists skip.

Follow for music economics without the hype.

Music: "Circles Round the Sun" by Mr Smith, licensed under CC BY 4.0

A YouTube mix called "90s computer room" never names a genre. It names a decade, a room, and the Windows 95 desktop sitt...
10/01/2026

A YouTube mix called "90s computer room" never names a genre. It names a decade, a room, and the Windows 95 desktop sitting in it.

Full post at meansmgmt.com, link in bio.

Kester Spach told Polyester the idea started with the old desktop he inherited from his grandfather. He layered era music over computer whir and crickets. His Jane Austen mix hands you a role. His Utopian Scholastic mix names its chapters after rooms: a bookshop, a museum, a museum shop.

Genres have long carried who made the music, when, and where. These titles swap that for the listener's who, when, and where.

For artists, build your own world. Put your songs next to similar music you're cleared to use, under a title that names a real time, place, or kind of person. Credit every track.

One catch. YouTube lists "collections of songs from different artists (even if you have their permission)" as not eligible for ads. Treat it as discovery, not income.

If AI is trained on art, artists should control the terms.Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst have been leading this conversa...
04/15/2026

If AI is trained on art, artists should control the terms.

Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst have been leading this conversation, and their DLD 24 talk is one of the clearest breakdowns of what’s at stake for creators.

The shift from extraction to collaboration isn’t optional. It’s the foundation of how progressive labels and artists should be thinking about their catalogs right now.

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Pittsburgh, PA

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