Agency Intel: MPI Talent’s New VP Of Concerts Jordan Tubiolo Talks Boutique Agencies’ New Role

It’s a good fit. Tubiolo comes on board from WLA Talent, where he booked adult contemporary artists similar to the roster at MPI, including Tiffany, Peabo Bryson, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, and The Modern Gentlemen, who’ve joined Tubiolo on a roster that includes Oleta Adams, Sheena Easton, Hiroshima, JD Souther, Keiko Matsui, Melissa Manchester and others.

Tubiolo is based in New York, but plans to relocate to Los Angeles. While he may be joining a new company, he has nothing but praise for his former one.

“I’m excited to be with MPI and working in the L.A. office when COVID calms down,” Tubiolo tells Pollstar. “But I spent 11 great years at WLA and I learned the business from Jody Wenig and Paul LaMonica, who really are pioneers in our business. They’ve been doing the agency thing for over 40 years.”

Starting over with a new company after many years isn’t always easy but, despite being competitors, the friendship Tubiolo and Bartleson forged over the years helped smooth the transition.

“Todd and I became pretty friendly going to all these conferences like Pollstar Live! and the timing just worked out really well,” Tubiolo explains. “My artists were a wonderful match with Todd’s artists and the whole idea of focusing on the adult contemporary side of our business has appealed to me for a really long time. Todd and [President and CEO] Mike Pick and the guys at MPI have had that expertise for a long time and it’s something that I’ve always really admired about MPI. We have the same kind of philosophy with booking and touring our artists, and I’m very excited to be on board with MPI and for what we can do once the world turns us loose and allows us to tour in a normal way.”

Boutique agencies come with their own unique set of challenges and rewards, no less so during a time of pandemic. Tubiolo and Bartleson see silver linings for boutiques that persevere through the shutdown as well as for new ones emerging from major agencies that were forced to cut staff.

The addition of Tubiolo and much of his roster represents some of that opportunity for MPI Talent going forward, Bartleson says.

“We’ve experimented through the years by having people and adding clients,” he explains. “When you’re at a boutique, you can only handle so much before it just gets too overwhelming. So you don’t want to have too many artists on your list. But the good part is, if you do, there’s always people out there to hire.”

One major effect Bartleson has witnessed is the increase in the number of new agencies forged from the aftermath of major agency downsizing after a decade or so of consolidation. 

“If you remember in the late ‘90s, early 2000s, there were four or five big agencies and then they all expanded and became huge in the last few years. And the boutique was kind of a forgotten thing,” Bartleson says. “Now, there’s a lot of startups like Mint Talent. I’ve known C.J. Strock for a while. He’s a great agent, and he got a bunch of good guys together to form a company. Now, there’s probably 10 or 12 little boutiques, which is great.”

He adds that the business has become more personalized with the increased number of boutique agencies, with closer relationships between clients and agents. While the smaller shops may not be able to offer packaging in other areas like television, film or literary divisions, they also have the capacity for more one-on-one relationships with their artists.

“And no boardrooms,” Bartleson says, laughing. “It’s not really what the music business is about. The music business is about having fun and art and all that, not listening to suits talking about what the bottom line is.”

Tubiolo emphasizes that booking is an art form of its own, and the boutique environment stimulates creativity. 

“I think what all the boutiques share in common is the whole idea of how you route an artist and how you put a tour together city by city, as opposed to some of the bigger agencies that make one deal with a Live Nation or AEG,” Tubiolo says. “For Todd and I, and I’m sure the folks at the other boutiques, that’s not the way we handle our artists. We take really great pride in, especially with the adult contemporary artists, routing the tour city by city and trying to make the puzzle come together. I think that’s another strength with the boutiques that sets us apart. And the fact that MPI has been doing this for 30 years also sets us apart from other boutiques. That’s something we all take pride in.”  

Another advantage boutique agencies have had during the pandemic is they’ve been able to sustain smaller salary, rent and overhead outlays at a time there is no income rolling in. And, at least at MPI Talent, they and their artists had the flexibility to pivot quickly.

“We managed the best way we could,” Bartleson says. “Everybody took a step back. We all kind of did our own things for a while and monitored the business, moved a lot of dates. We were running a pretty lean ship to begin with. We made a deal with the building to lower the rent. You just make deals. That’s what we do; instead of making the deal for an artist, we’re making a deal with the building, we’re making a deal with the accountants. We’ve all been doing this for a while now.”

Tubiolo, who represents Tiffany, says it’s been “amazing” to see his artists adapt. 

“Tiffany has been incredibly creative through this whole thing,” Tubiolia says. “She does a whole format called ‘Cooking with Tiffany,’ where she does cooking videos and plays an interactive acoustic set in front of the camera. She’s done a lot of TV appearances and she’s been able to home in on streaming.

“Thankfully, now we see a little light at the end of the tunnel. And that’s more than exciting. We’re chomping at the bit to get going, and obviously we’ve been keeping pretty busy moving dates. But actually the past few weeks we’ve booked a handful of new dates. So that’s been really exciting to see that there’s some new activity going on.”