By 2018, the global music streaming economy had matured from a wild frontier into a massive, highly structured marketplace. According to IFPI data, global revenues rose 9.7% to reach $19.1 billion, with subscription streaming accounting for a solid 37% of the entire market. Believe was riding this wave at full speed, reporting an annual corporate turnover of $500 million and commanding a global team of 700 employees.
With this massive scale came a new challenge. Independent artists who had used Believe for years to get their music onto digital platforms were growing up. They were no longer just looking for a way to get their files onto Spotify or Apple Music; they needed full-scale marketing campaigns, branding expertise, and localized support; but they still refused to sign away their independence to traditional major labels.
To bridge this gap, Believe officially formalized a brand-new corporate arm in 2018: the Artist Services division. It was a structural leap forward designed to give independent artists the muscle of a major label while preserving greater flexibility in the way partnerships were structured.
Inventing the digital record label team
The building blocks for this new division had been quietly developing within the company’s local offices. In France, Henri Jamet had realised early on that modern streaming campaigns required an entirely new type of music executive; one who understood social media algorithms and streaming store optimization rather than traditional physical manufacturing.
“I helped develop artist services, the label model and the project manager function,” says Henri Jamet. “The role of community manager didn’t exist at the traditional level in music companies. I hired one person to manage our Deezer, Spotify and Instagram pages, which was a completely new approach.“
Going local in underserved markets
When we think about artist services, it is always local. We are thinking about local artists and how these local artists are interacting in their market. The idea is to have a strong local brand that supports artists in the local market.
Elsa Bahamonde-Bourgain
President Artist Services and Label & Artist Solutions
While many major labels organized their international operations around established music centres such as New York, London and Paris, Believe’s Artist Services division emphasized local teams and expertise. The company invested in high-growth markets across Asia and Latin America, adapting its model to best serve each local music ecosystem.
Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain, who joined Believe to scale these international operations, explains how the division was built from the ground up to support regional music ecosystems.
“The idea was to launch Artist Services to accelerate our position in the artist services field across the different countries that we decided to launch in,” Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain explains. “When we started twenty years ago, we concentrated more on how to best distribute artists and labels, and how to develop them. What we did really well at that time was to be very early in some countries in Asia and in Latin America where perhaps other players in the music industry were not investing so much.“
The demand for these hands-on marketing campaigns grew organically from the artists themselves as their digital fanbases expanded.
“We observed in Asia, in Latin America, and also in Europe that Artist Services had been started very naturally at the request of some of our artists to support them on the marketing side, to support them on how to develop them on branding activities, on a more 360-degree approach,” Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain says.
To turn this demand into a professional reality, Believe focused on hiring local market experts who understood the distinct cultural nuances of their own domestic music scenes.
“My first mission was to hire the teams locally to make sure that we had great leaders to develop artist services in each one of those territories, to position the offer and create strong brands in the different countries,” Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain says. “When we think about artist services, it is always local. We are thinking about local artists and how these local artists are interacting in their market. The idea is to have a strong local brand that supports artists in the local market. The mission was to make sure everyone in the market – the artists, the producers, and all the people working with them – understood all this additional value we were bringing to them.“
Flexible pathways for artist development
To make this model work and unlike more fixed contractual models, Believe designed Artist Services to be entirely fluid, acting as a modular bridge that lets artists scale their operational backing up or down depending on the exact timing of their careers.
The structure allowed artists to move between service levels as their careers evolved, providing support that could be adapted to changing needs and ambitions.
“The idea is to not be siloed in how we work with an artist,” Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain insists. “An artist will go through a path through their career, and what we want to do is to ensure that we can support them at every single stage.“
This flexibility meant that an artist could easily transition from basic digital distribution to full-scale marketing support as their momentum grew.
“We have several interesting cases of artists who started on TuneCore and then, at some point, they decided to sign with Artist Services, or they decided to sign with artist distribution”, Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain notes. “There are other cases of artists that moved from artist distribution to artist services because their needs were changing and evolving through their career. Our idea is not to block one artist in one offer, but it’s making sure that we adapt to what an artist needs at each moment.“
From Pop Queens to Hip-Hop Superstars
Take Nancy Ajram, a big pop Lebanese artist.She was previously signed to an artist distribution deal. We moved her into an Artist Services deal because she was willing to have more marketing expertise actively supporting her in her development.
Elsa Bahamonde-Bourgain
President Artist Services and Label & Artist Solutions
The real-world proof of this modular strategy quickly rolled in across international borders, showing its effectiveness across completely different musical genres and regions.
“Take Nancy Ajram, a big pop Lebanese artist,” Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain shares. “She was previously signed to an artist distribution deal. We moved her into an Artist Services deal because she was willing to have more marketing expertise actively supporting her in her development.“
A similar, long-term development story unfolded in Southeast Asia, where Believe used its local infrastructure to turn an emerging underground artist into a massive regional headliner.
“We also have artists that were, for example, just signing to Artist Services, but we signed them at a very early stage”, Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain continues. “What we have done is also to grow the services that, even inside artist services, we were delivering to them. Saran is the top hip-hop artist in Thailand and we’ve been working with him for the past five years. When we signed him, he was really at this emerging phase, so his needs were more limited to the digital side. The market five years ago in Thailand was extremely organic and digitally driven, but now we are working with him on branding and on PR. It is a global collaboration.“
Feeding the streaming algorithms
The secret engine behind Believe’s Artist Services model was a heavy reliance on data tracking. Instead of planning a release based on old-school music executive guesswork, Believe used a multitude of digital data points to perfectly sequence their marketing moves and feed the streaming platform algorithms.
“We are very data-driven and powered”, Elsa Bahamonde Bourgain explains. “We use a lot of data to understand the best orchestration of levers on the marketing side. Is it better to launch this kind of media buy campaign, then the influencer campaign, then do the release? Then what is the additional media buy or PR that you need to do at that moment to make sure that you are impacting properly on the audiences and the algorithms that exist in the ecosystem? How do you make sure that TikTok is working well versus what you’re doing on Spotify, Meta, and all the other different platforms? This is one of the big areas where technology and data are working together for us in artist services.“
By combining the analytical precision of a tech company with the localized nuance of a record label, the launch of the Artist Services division permanently rewired the definition of music career success. Believe proved that an independent creator could conquer the global streaming ecosystem while retaining absolute control over their own work.
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Article written by Eamonn Forde. Eamonn Forde is an award-winning music business journalist and author. He writes for The Guardian, Forbes; Music Week, and Music Business Worldwide and several other publications.
