The billion dollar music industry is in the middle of a number of significant changes. Artists are cancelling tours, TikTok is driving song popularity, and the introduction of AI raises questions about ownership and how music is made.
It is a lot to manage for even the most experienced artists. But how does someone just getting their music career started find their way?
In Philadelphia, Brianna DeMayo may have some of the answers. She is the founder and CEO of Taste Creators, an artist development company that helps upcoming musicians with performance coaching, business strategy and audience monetization, content creation, and other elements that determine an artist’s success — beyond their talent, looks, and luck.
Taste Makers also opened a private recording studio in Fishtown in 2022, which DeMayo and those working with her believe is the only one in the city owned by a woman.
“I just knew I wanted to protect artists, and I just love helping people,” DeMayo, 37, said.
From blogger to studio owner
DeMayo’s knowledge of the music industry comes from lived experience. She grew up in South Philly, and her dad played the keys and drums, sang and wrote songs, and got to know some older Philly artists like The Delfonics.
“I literally grew up surrounded by music,” she said.
DeMayo was in a pop music singing group with her nephew and a friend when she was a teenager, and they did shows all over the city. They even performed at the Apollo Theater in New York when she was 14.
Bigger contracts came their way, but the idea of signing their lives away to labels and other people who would be in control of them was scary. Her mom had studied how the music industry and contracts worked, and kept DeMayo from those deals.
“My mom was like, ‘yo, I’m not signing you into this,’” she said.
Without the support that comes from being signed, DeMayo became discouraged by the music industry and stopped performing as she grew older.
“There’s a lot of people on the business side that never picked up a mic before.”
But she stayed interested in the business side even as she started a real estate career, reading and learning as much as she could. DeMayo gave business advice to her indie artist friends and started sharing information on social media, simplifying it for everyone to understand. She started providing artist development services part-time.
It was the blog era of the mid 2010s, so she wrote articles on the industry and developed a following under the name Taste Creators. She co-hosted a monthly networking mixer and performance series called Philly Sound Sessions, where upcoming artists played and producers showed off their beats.
“The mission is to change how the business is done to be more in favor of the artist. That’s the big goal. And I didn’t feel like I can do that working at a major label,” she said.
“People gravitate towards us because we are creatives, too. There’s a lot of people on the business side that never picked up a mic before,” she said.
The music fitness trainer
After Amir Burnley, a.k.a. Amir Ali, went viral last year for his freestyle on The Come Up Show hosted by DJ Cosmic Kev, DeMayo reached out to him to see if he was interested in working with Taste Creators to build off the momentum he’d created.
“Everybody’s hitting me and asking me things and I went and met with some labels and I met with some people and you know, it’s good conversation, but nobody [is] there to actually guide me and help me. And I think that’s what Brianna provides for me,” the West Philly rapper said.
He said that since working with DeMayo, the most important thing she’s taught him is about understanding his value as an artist. She’s also arranged the “On the Radar” music platform to shoot Ali freestyling at Taste Creators, and organized his first live show just last month.
“It’s overwhelming. I’m still on a high from it,” Ali said about the show. “It was a great turnout. The music sounded good. There was a lot of love in the building [for] all of our ideas.”
Every artist that comes to Taste Creators has different needs. Jada Dale, an R&B singer performing as Jada Lee, worked with DeMayo on developing who she is as an artist, and to figure out who her audience is. Part of that has come from building her confidence, too, and realizing she has to work purposefully to expand her reach.
“The mission is to change how the business is done to be more in favor of the artist.”
“I have a habit to overthink and not put stuff out [on social media]. So [DeMayo’s] just like, release the art, release the art,” Lee said.
“You can have good music and still not reach the audience that you’re trying to reach because it’s all about marketing … I’ve always felt like, if my music is good enough I don’t have to put money behind it or I shouldn’t have to run ads. I should be able to get organic listens … but you also have to be willing to and able to put the money behind it just like any other business does.”
Dane Dillard, who performs as the rapper firstnamedane, said that DeMayo helped him launch his merch line, which made $2k in sales within the first two weeks.
“Breezy is like the music fitness trainer for recording artists,” he said. “The studio is like the gym, and I’m in here and she’s making sure that I’m doing the right things to grow.”
What’s next?
DeMayo is still building out Taste Creators and its services. She plans to start signing more artists to management deals, and is exploring what it would look like to operate as a record label; but that would have to be done in a way that is as artist-friendly as possible.
“I still don’t think we’re in full form yet,” she said.
Even while she is looking towards the future where she continues helping more and more Philly artists, DeMayo is still appreciative of Taste Creators’ impact in its relatively young history.
“I think that’s been the most fulfilling part, just being able to help creatives actually make money doing what they love,” she said.
“And honestly, I still walk around the studio like, wow, I can’t believe we have this. Most of the time, I can’t believe we’re doing all the stuff that we’re doing.”
