I’m a firm believer in paying attention to the past. Keeping an eye out on what has come before you can help you move forward to the future. It has been a long road to get Vindico where it’s at now. Did that road specifically start one year ago, five years ago, ten years ago? Who knows? I can give you a little background info, and a very brief summary of my music career, to see how I’ve placed things together to get to this point though.

I started playing bass when I was 13. I had been slowly building a record collection up to that point and had become increasingly more interested in music on a daily basis. I played in bands in high school, saw lots of shows, and even took a few music classes. When it was time for me to choose a career path I decided to major in music in college. 

In 2003 I graduated with a “jazz studies with an emphasis in music technology” degree from Webster University in my hometown of Saint Louis. Shortly thereafter I got a part-time job teaching Jazz Band at a local high school not to far from my house. I found myself learning more by actually having to “teach’ something whether then just trying to “learn” it.

During this period I got to experience, on a small level, what went into to having someone put their musical career in my own hands, for me to help them achieve the next level in their playing. Some of my guidance came through actual music lessons while many others came through giving advice in directing students in which direction to take their careers. I had some really amazing students during this time.

I had always wanted to start a record label, or some type of music business, and was waiting for the right time to do so. Pretty soon I realized I was stalling and if I didn’t make a move soon I would wait forever. I then began to lay the groundwork for what would be Vindico.

 I’ll lay out my first steps in starting Vindico in part 2, stay tuned.

Welcome to Vindico Music Group. This is our first post for our blog. Simply put, we are an artist management and development company. We started with no magic secrets, no short cuts, no miracle contacts and no money. What we did start with was a tireless and diligent work ethic and efficient networking skills. From here on out we will be blogging not only our own opinions on the music business, but also all our downfalls and successes. We will try to be as open and honest as possible about all the moves we make to help our company create a dent in the music industry. I’ve been a musician for 14 years and a teacher for almost 10 years and I can honestly say that you learn way more as a teacher then as a student. By no means do we have the answers to all the questions about how to be successful in this business. We are learning everyday just like everyone else. But if we can teach others what we find works and what doesn’t work, hopefully we can open up relationships with many new people and share ideas on how to achieve our ultimate goals. The key to the ENITRE music industry is relationships. I don’t care how good your music/talent is, if you do not have the right relationships in place then you will not succeed. No one will ever be able to tell me of a person who achieved ultimate success and did it alone. It’s just not how this business, or truly any business for that matter, is set up.

It is now May 2009. I have been working for many years, waiting for the right time to start this journey. Jan. 18th 2009 was the day Vindico officially started, although there had been a lot of planning to get to that point. Since then, we have grown a sizable contact list and have had many big doors opened up to us. Don’t worry. We will talk about how we’ve grown our contact list and how we’ve put ourselves in the position to make bigger moves than when we had started out.

Our roster currently only has one official artist and we are actively engaged with a second. We are looking to add several more artists to our roster at this moment and would love to hear any material from ANY genre of music that artists have to offer. I will save all the details on our artists and our staff for later blogs. There will definitely be time for everybody to learn about our clients and personnel.  

Vindico has grown to a massive army of…five people, including myself. We will all be blogging on here to provide everyone an insight into how we operate, personally and professionally. We look forward to meeting many new people and developing many new relationships as we travel down this road. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the ride.

Ben Kniffen

Vindico Music Group