Next up in our series of blog posts highlighting our fantastic clients is Rick Bridgman from Good Intent a Sydney-based artist services agency, founded by three local music enthusiasts (Rob Carroll, Nick Moran, and Rick Bridgman) in 2018.
Across a broad range of fields in the music industry, Good Intent's team has an exceptional wealth of knowledge, with experience in artist management, touring, venue bookings, label management, club promotions, event curation, and as an owner/operator of recording and photography/videography studios on their latest venture Good Loco Studio.
We had a great time catching up with Rick, Artist & Label Services Manager, as we got to hear about his journey into the music industry, the work of Good Intent, and course how they utilize radio airplay data to deliver value for their clients.
Hi Rick! Thanks for taking the time to catch up with us and spill the beans on the great work you guys are doing at Good Intent! First of how long have you been in the music industry and what brought you to this line of work?
I’ve been working in the music industry since 2013. I’d been playing/creating music since I was a teenager, and whilst on a ‘gap year or two, I was working in a high-end hotel and had met tour managers for Cypress Hill, Incubus, Nicki Minaj to name a few – having chats with these people got me more excited about the business side of music. When I returned to Australia, I studied and ended up with an internship at a record label (Vicious Recordings), and after a lot of hard work, focus and determination, turned into a full-time job.
Tell us a bit about Good Intent. When did you guys start, what clients do you work with, and what markets do you work in?
I joined Good Intent in the middle of the pandemic, after working for a booking agency / touring company, UNDR Ctrl. I was working on logistics, marketing, and also on the management team for Bag Raiders (I was also their Tour Manager), but when the world shut down, I started helping my good mates Rob Carroll and Nick Moran in my (very) spare time.
Good Intent was started by Rob in 2018, primarily as a PR agency and we’ve since expanded into tastemaker club and radio promotions, venue and event bookings, digital marketing, and artist management where I generally focus my time. We also run a photography/videography studio called Good Loco.
We work generally in Australia and New Zealand for our clients, with a sprinkle across the globe. We work with everyone from established, major label artists, emerging indie acts, and everyone in between. If we think it’s good, we want to let the world know about it!
Over the course of our careers, we’ve worked with the likes of Yungblud (UK), Lime Cordiale, Ocean Alley, Dune Rats, Peking Duk, FISHER, Pacific Avenue, Sheppard, Bas (USA), Freddie Gibbs (USA), Trophy Eyes, Dappled Cities, Kim Churchill, Washington, Harts, Jinja Safari, Luude, Bam Margera (USA), Duke Dumont (UK), Loud Luxury (CAN), Jax Jones (UK), Kult Kyss, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (USA), Guttermouth (USA), The Gooch Palms, Deep Sea Arcade, A.GIRL, and Nathan Cavaleri.
Good Intent works with both artist management, PR & labels, could you explain a bit on how this works?
We love music, and almost all our management clients started as a PR client. They are separate divisions at Good Intent, but the knowledge we have from the management side helps us when working with PR clients (and vice-versa) and helping guide their careers, and providing advice on what they should be doing next to achieve their goals. If they win, we all win.
How are you working with the radio as a release and promotion channel?
Radio isn’t quite what it used to be (now in the streaming era), but radio is still such a crucial outlet for artist discovery. This is especially so with community radio stations, as we find they’re much more engaged and passionate music fans, than those who may just pop on the radio and hear the ‘hits’, or kick back and not really be a big music fan.
You have seen the music industry evolve and how music is consumed over the years, how would you describe the role of radio as a medium in 2022?
The wins we find with radio help us across the board with finding further support whether that be with DSP’s, blogs, or in the artist’s journey in building their team (booking agent, manager, sync agent, etc).
You have been a client with WARM for some time now, could you explain to us why you selected WARM over alternatives?
I came across WARM (from another PR agency) and have found it to be such a valuable tool in finding our radio plays. It trumps a lot of the other competitors in the market and also plugs some gaps in other reporting tools we use.
Could you explain how you use WARM?
We use WARM to track radio plays for our PR and Management clients, being able to track our radio plays are crucial to the success of our campaigns and artists’ careers respectively. Occasionally, we’ll find stations playing our roster that we may not be aware of, and are then able to join the dots to make connections and build relationships with stations/presenters.
How has access to data and analytics tools affected your work as both artist management and promotion-related activities?
These tools have been handy in finding where our clients' music is working best, and who the champions are of the acts. This can help us when it comes to connecting further with stations/presenters as mentioned above, but also when building out our teams – to show where the engagement is coming from specifically, and even to assist in plans around tour routing.
To wrap this up we'd love to hear what's been one of the biggest wins for you guys in ‘22 so far?
Recently, our management act Close Counters had their collab with Young Franco, Scrufizzer, and Jay Prince added to the FIFA 23 Soundtrack – literal goals! Off the back of this, we’re working on a UK and EU tour… So I guess overall, we’re generally excited to see things starting to come back in a live sense, with the community engaging more with events/festivals – all our artists back on the road and chucking up sold-out banners makes us super keen for 2023.
