By: Bob Bradley
Liz with her Taylor acoustic.
Today, Guitar International is pleased to shine the spotlight on Liz Kamlet, a Los Angeles based music executive who happens to have a resume that turns heads and will surely impress even the top industry players. For the past decade, Kamlet has spent her time in artist management, digital media marketing and consulting.
She’s built up experience that has put her behind the wheel of campaigns led for some of rock and pop culture’s leading artists and major industry companies, including; Phil Collins, Stephen Bishop, BMG, Sony, Jack Temphin (Eagles songwriter), Jimmy Webb, Jackson Browne, David Pack and so many others.
Her work involves overseeing and the creation and management of creative content, including social media accounts for modern and legacy artists, as well as iconic brands that have upwards of 15+ million followers, 50+ millions streams per month.
Her clients have over two billion combined streams, sold over 100+ million records and won or have been nominated for multiple Oscar and Grammy awards.
In today’s climate, marketing is more than just a positive review in Rolling Stone, and includes an array of PR, social media and visual media strategies that can put the artist on the reader’s radar and earn loyalty for the long term. The work that Liz puts into the world for her clients also includes music videos, social media advertising, strategic branding. A&R, sync licensing, tour management, NFTs, website design, Tik-Tok strategy and more.
She is currently the Director of Talent & Marketing at REAL.App, an innovative music tech startup. A revolutionary online platform that allows creators to have direct access to fans who can purchase an exclusive and broad range of authentic content. REAL allows music makers the opportunity to offer fans early access to their original content before it is serviced to other platforms, and in another breakthrough, creators can set their own pricing for whatever they upload to the site. A win-win for both fans and artists alike.
Kamlet also happens to be the wife of legendary singer-songwriter, Stephen Bishop, and with their work together has also created some incredible content over recent years.
Kamlet holds a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Music Technology from The University of Colorado at Boulder, a Masters in Music Industry Administration (Music Business) from Cal State Northridge, she also recently graduated with her second Masters degree from Harvard in Management and Digital Media Design.
Her dedication to being the best in forward thinking marketing strategy for artists is impressive, and we were pleased to sit down with her to talk more about what she is up to, the processes that work for today’s musicians.
Lastly, did we mention she has one hell of an impressive guitar collection?
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Bob Bradley: Thank you for sitting down with us Liz, can you tell us a little more about your background?
Liz Kamlet: I grew up on Long Island, in a small town called Hewlett. Music was always part of my life. At a young age, my father made sure to expose me to music of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.
Whenever we would go on long car rides or vacations, to pass the time he created a song quiz. He spent time creating an actual quiz, where I would have to name the artist, name of the song, year, etcetera. Playing the songs one by one. It was a pretty comprehensive list of questions; he did this for years. They weren’t easy! I grew to love the music of John Denver, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Joni Mitchell, Buddy Holly, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, Byrds, Everly Brothers and more.
That greatly influenced me to take the path to music. I moved out to Colorado for my Bachelor’s after high school and just went from there, picking up too many guitars along the way. [Laughs]
Liz Kamlet
Bob: What makes digital marketing even more important than say 10 years ago?
Liz Kamlet: That’s a great question. It seems like every day there is a new platform or trend popping up, it’s not always easy to keep up with. The primary strategy is to always increase awareness for an artist’s brand. I always tell other social media managers that if they are taking over an artist’s socials or working with an existing team, you do not need to know everything. However, you need to have resources or contacts available to you to help solve problems as they arise.
Digital marketing, today, in my opinion is now about budget, your networks, originality of content, and a bit of luck. Ten years ago, if you had a great song and a champion person or a team working on your music or content, you would more than likely get some traction. It was a lot harder back then to navigate platforms, as they were new. People sometimes forget that social media platforms were just beginning ten years ago, some that exist today weren’t even a thought in the founders’ minds yet.
Today, anyone can be a musician, influencer, creator as the tools are easy to access and relatively cheap. You can get started with less than $100. I think this is why I respect artists from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s so much. They sold millions of records without any social media.
Liz Kamlet
Their form of social media was radio, newspapers, television and vinyl. Could the famous artists of today sell millions of records without any social media and be as big as they are now?
I don’t think so. But, It’s all about timing, and whatever time period you release your music, there are tools available to be successful. You need a great team, a little bit of money, determination and originality. I always say, seek to be original in a world of copies.
Bob: There are so many social and digital platforms to discover, what are your top five to master in 2022?
Liz Kamlet: TikTok is the number one platform to master. I personally do not like being in the spotlight, But, I was successful with a few artists I managed to make them go viral with over 4 million views, and my own golden retriever. Yes, he got over 100k views on a video and continued to post high numbers.
So, when I tell you anyone can go viral, anyone really can. Sometimes it can happen overnight and other times it happens over many nights.
Learning the trends, hashtags, creating original and engaging content is key. And using your music to create challenges or unique sounds is another great strategy.
Following TikTok, I would recommend Facebook. It’s a great platform for direct engagement with fans, easier to run ads and review analytics. The same for Instagram. Analytics is key to discovering your audiences.
Next would be Spotify/Apple Music. I am personally not a fan of what is going on with Spotify right now, artists deserve and have deserved to be paid more for their music.
I mean, .004 per stream or less. The platform I work with now, REAL, allows any artist to create an account. It looks like instagram, but they can upload their music and content, and set the price.
Artists set the price of streams, they are the influencers. No one sets an unlivable royalty rate for them. Lastly, Twitter. I am not a fan, unless you are someone famous or with a large following, it doesn’t do much to help artists be seen and heard. That’s just from my experience.
I created a Shortcut Guide To The Music industry if anyone is interested in learning more about the music business. It is aimed to help musicians, artist managers, people who want to successfully market their music on streaming platforms, music business students and people who just have questions about certain music terminology they experience in everyday life. You can find it on my website, www.lizkamlet.com.
Bob: Your husband, Stephen Bishop, has obviously crafted some iconic music over the decades, and with your work together in recent years have taken his brand in new directions. Can you tell us about anything exciting he is up to?
Liz Kamlet: He has. It’s funny. I went back through my old music libraries and had none of his music on there. I am sure I heard some of his music in passing over the years as has everyone I am sure. But, when I met him, I had never really heard of his music or seen the movies he was featured in.
We laugh about it, and now all I hear is his music 24/7. Which is not a bad thing, he has so many albums and songs. The variety is great and each song is different. I am his biggest fan and know his music almost as well as he does.
Exciting projects we have been working on are his autobiography, On and Off, which will be released this Spring. It talks about his hardships, success and whacky experiences. Steve would talk and I would write down his stories. I acted as a ghostwriter of sorts for him.
He has a documentary that we have been filming since 2018. It has never before seen footage of him, highlights from his career, interviews with amazing artists/friends on Stephen and more. We have also been working on an NFT project with him, it’s exciting as he will be releasing something everyone knows about, but has never seen in person. We can’t wait to share it with his fans.
Liz and Steve
Bob: You have quite an impressive acoustic guitar collection.
Liz Kamlet: I consider myself a collector and archivist of rare, celebrity, and unique guitars that you usually won’t find at your local Guitar Center. Out of the 40 plus I own, 95% of my guitars are older than me by at least 30 to 40 years. They range from around 1920 to 1980, primarily.
Some of the guitars I’ve owned that I think are pretty cool includ: John Denver’s 1976 Mossman Golden Era 6-String, Jackson Browne’s Gibson Roy Smeck Model 1, a Tommy Emmanuel Maton Signature model (EBG808TE), a Santa Cruz OM pre-war cedar top with Indian rosewood back and sides, and a Ferrington 1984: Stephen Bishop Model. There are many others, including some incredible Guilds, Martins, Taylors and other makes, models and years.
