‘We’re A Small Big Company’: Q’s With Paradigm’s Marty Diamond & Alex Hardee

Paradigm fully integrated London-based Coda Agency after a five-year partnership, resulting in Coda Agency officially taking the name of Paradigm. 

Pollstar reached out to Alex Hardee, one of Coda’s directors now under the auspices of Paradigm, and Paradigm’s head of global music Marty Diamond, to talk about the formation of what Hardee called a “boutique corporate.”

Marty Diamond: As we’ve been in a relationship with Coda for a while, I’m excited about working with them all of the time. Obviously, the deeper relationship enhances us dramatically. We truly can say to people, that we’re a global company, and not just one with sister companies overseas. We share several hundred clients, and we were obviously doing so before the physical announcement of Coda becoming Paradigm. But now we can say it with a smile on our face: we are one company with one set of collective goals.

Truth be told, the thing I’m really most excited about is the Coda partners and the team they’ve assembled. It’s second to none, from creativity, inspiration, work ethic, I could go on.

Alex Hardee: You know, I’m not a very excitable person. 

Hardee: The bigger bands like to be represented globally now, don’t they. It’s not a great place for independent companies at the moment in this world. It’s hard to get those larger bands, unless you do have a global proposition for them.

And while we’re combined with ITG, and have our own film, TV and branding departments, it also opens up all the toolkits that the Americans have. It’s just a more attractive proposition.

At the same time, we feel that this is a company that shares our culture. Paradigm has been built on lots of entrepreneurial spirit, like we have. It’s not like a normal corporate, where people find it easy to hide. It’s a good match.

Hardee: I like to call it a boutique corporate.

Diamond: We’re a small big company. There’s something cool about being a small big company. We’re a company full of creators and instigators. We don’t do things by the book, we’re willing to disrupt. But, we’re really nice people.

When you work with Alex, you have to have your tongue firmly wedged in your cheek, and you have to be on your feet, because he’s whip-smart, as are the other partners.

 

Hardee: I once said on stage at the Music Week Awards, that I’ve always taken a dislike to Americans, because it saves time. As a joke. What I mean is, a lot of the big agencies have come over here, but ended up booking a lot of the big acts out of America, it didn’t seem like there was that much cooperation.

But, of course, I love Americans. Of course, I love our masters.

Hardee: I think what happens is, we come up with a good idea and they manage to refine it better than us. A lot of the things we’ve done have been brought on by us, they are much better at refining it, I find.

Diamond: The reality is, we have a very similar mindset in terms of signing, artist development, and the long-range plan for artists, which I can’t say every other agency has. We have much more character and spirit than most do.

Diamond: There’s absolute efficiencies in us working across the world. From a strategy point of view, it’s clear and obvious, because now when you’re having a dialogue, you’re having a dialogue that relates to a global campaign.

From a technological point of view, there are absolutely things that are streamlined. Sharing the realities of CRMs and things like that are a big part of this. Looking at everything at the same time is a big deal.

It’s not like I go and do my thing, and Alex goes and does his thing. All our agents are talking to each other in real-time and with the same mindset. 

Hardee: The main difference between America in Europe is that there is a lot more money in America still, that’s why sometimes it’s hard to get bands to come over here, because the rewards aren’t so great, to begin with definitely.

But most mechanics are the same. You have a fee, you have a deal, you set the points of the deal, and you have a strategy. It’s not rocket science we do.

Hardee: I suppose it’s just a business that’s growing up. When a business grows it consolidates, generally, when bigger money comes into it. There’s a lot of hedge funds investing into the different agencies now. That’s how capitalism works. 

The music business was a cottage industry to a certain extent 20, 30 years ago, and now it’s got big finance in it. If someone lends you 300 million pounds, or whatever, to buy up other agencies, they’re looking for a return on that investment. You have to keep on more and more EBIDTA.

The advantage we have is that we don’t have any debt. We’re growing and buying and looking at other things, but we don’t have to do it out of desperation, because we don’t have any debt to service.

Diamond: If you look for the keep-it-simple, stupid answer: There’s always strength in numbers. Artists are looking for more things, and there is a need for them to all be under one roof. That’s a big part of the consolidation.

And the expectations: Artists not only want to know if I can book their tour, but can I connect them with a brand, and can I put them in a movie, can I realize the dream for someone? In order to do that, people had to consolidate.

Hardee: You can never say. When we started Coda 16 years ago, when all the big ones like William Morris and CAA came in, that sort of drove us. I just wouldn’t like to be doing that right now. 

When we started, we were 10 people in a shitty little office, and we managed to get bands in by talking strategy. Now the bands expect a branding team, they expect [to have access] to all these other parts of the toolkit. 

As long as companies like us, and CAA etc. keep on delivering, I don’t know if there will ever be a situation where an independent agent [could make waves]. And if an independent agent did start making some waves, then I think someone would come in and try and buy them. 

We didn’t even talk about branding 12 years ago, but now one of the first conversations you’re having with artists is, “Come and meet our branding department, here’s our synch team, here’s our corporate bookers.”

The independent agencies don’t have that at the moment, and that’s going to hurt more as we go along.

Diamond: Nothing is forever. I think if someone has a creative idea, and a creative point of view, there’s certainly room for them to enter. The reality is, there’s more bands, artists and content creators out there than ever before, who have immediate access to the market, but need an ally that they might not find under the roof of a bigger agency.

Diamond: For us, there’s a mindset towards growth. We have always, as Sam Gores has phrased it, looked toward organic growth. Growth in places that look and feel right for us, that we have expertise in.

We won’t venture down a path to work with artists in genres that we’re not built for, yet. And I think there are quite a lot of “yets,” but I also think we’re builders. Paradigm has been this assemblage of entrepreneurial spirits, whether it’s me, Tom Windish, Paul Morris, or the guys at Coda and X-Ray.

We’re all builders, and we’re all entrepreneurial, it’s a spirit that really is a thread through all of us. Our goal is to continue to build our systems and make them better than anyone’s.

Hardee: I don’t think anyone disagreed with the idea of putting the two parts together to make one in principle. The way it was done made us question that maybe the cultures weren’t compatible. 

Diamond: Alex is spot on. UTA has kicked the tires several times, and I cannot comment on that, because I’m not the owner of the company. There were definitely major cultural differences between Paradigm and UTA, there just are. There have been talks between Paradigm and UTA for years. In this world, anything can happen, but I also think, in going back to the reality of who we are, we’re builders.

We’re quite content continuing to build our culture, and I say our culture with a big, capital OUR. That is why this Coda thing is so special and important to us, because it is our culture, not Paradigm’s culture, but our collective culture. And that’s something we take great pride in, and I know the Coda guys take great pride in, and it’s something we wear on our sleeves very proudly.

Hardee: I just love not working for someone, really, even though now I’m technically working for someone. Everyday is a fun day in this office. We take it seriously, but we still have fun.

And also, there’s nothing better than a great live gig. 

Diamond: I still love music. I still love going out. I love watching an artist play the tiniest room, and then, years later, see them play a stadium. I’m still someone who loves music, and it still starts and ends for me there.

Anytime I’ve ever ran and tried to sign something for the sake of thinking it’s going to be big, I fuck up. When I sign things that I love, and that I enjoy working on, I can live with the growth, no matter how fast or slow it is.

Fortunately for me, my wife and kids love music, which makes it really easy. I think my 15-year old is dying for the time when she can comfortably go out during the week to see things, but, you know, school comes first.

Hardee: I came up with my best line ever the other day to a promoter. He was trying to pull a fast one on me. It’s a good line, I thought.

Hardee: I said to him: ‘Why didn’t you send me a birthday card yesterday?’ He said: ‘What do you mean?’ I said: ‘Well, because you seem to think I was born yesterday.’