There always seems to be some sort of rivalry between approaches that take either simpler, or more complicated workflows to accomplish their goals. Whether it’s DJing on vinyl versus a controller with a sync button, how you hold your drumsticks, what genre of music you prefer, or in our case, which CMS you use - the debate remains the same:
Is it better to go with a simple or more complex tool/workflow/language etc.?
About a year ago, Reprtoir decided to go nocode. We switched from using WordPress, to Webflow, and there is some solid (state?) logic behind our decision. Let’s start with a well known fact that has nothing to do with music, and everything to do with technology.
In WWII, aircraft designers, tasked with building the airplanes that would help stave off the evil of the time were told to refer to a piece of infallible logic above all. It was summated in a now famous acronym:
Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS)
The reasoning behind this order and ours for switching to no code aren’t the only similarities we found:
In this piece, we simply want to show our understanding for the challenges our clients - music industry professionals - face. We drew on some interesting parallels throughout the experience, so maybe there is something to be learned, as we face many of the same challenges.
Finding a Better Way to Manage Our Digital Presence
As a music industry pro - whether you work A&R, produce, market or what have you - you understand the importance of time management. There are only so many hours in the day and when we were using our previous content management system (CMS), we found that we needed several people to be working on it at a time and coordinating with the tech department meant that we wasted more time waiting than we would have liked.
This is the first similarity to our service that we noticed.
The music industry is certainly complex and multifaceted - it is, in fact, notoriously so. From managing catalogs to splitting royalties, sync licenses, etc, etc, etc. The flowchart doesn’t take long to look like spaghetti - so why spread yourself so thin? That’s what Reprtoir does - it simplifies a complex, multifaceted, interoperable ecosystem that is any music business, and puts into one place. Not only does it make sense to simplify - it’s quite frankly a no-brainer! Think back to math class (if you can) - no mathematical problem said “Complicate”.
Reprtoir works in the same way as a workspace - not just a CMS. Teams can get right into the nitty gritty, complicated and (previously) tedious work of managing the assets, marketing, payouts, and operations and collaborate in one space from across the globe, if necessary.
Choosing our solution for simplifying our workflows and saving time, meant that we needed an automated, no-code solution. About a year ago, we decided to make the leap.
It was scary before we did it, no doubt - change is naturally frightening. But right off the bat, we noticed improvements, and anxiety was replaced by relief, and a spurred motivation.
Now, it’s easier (and faster) for us to collaborate online, within a no-code framework - kind of (very) like how Reprtoir works for our clients. Here’s another piece of infallible logic:
Work smarter, not harder.
Why use a complicated tool only to cause delays? Using a simpler system meant that we could avoid easily making tiny mistakes that would disrupt our work! There we drew another parallel between our decision and our service: task automation.
We’re in the business of making music business management easier and more effective. It would make sense that we do the same on our end - which we do. We automate administrative tasks because it makes it easier to avoid mistakes and well - it’s easier.
That’s exactly what our Royalty Accounting solution does for our clients -it automatically calculates thousands of Excel spreadsheet lines - almost instantly. How much time and resource does that save?
Here at Reprtoir, we were music publishers long before we got into this gig, so it makes sense that we took the same approach to finding software as find our clients do now.
We wanted to find something that would help us manage our business, support growth, and scale with us, and securely:
All of the things that Reprtoir strives to accomplish for our clients.
At the end of the day, it’s about building a system that allows you to perform as well as possible for your clients, and the point of this piece is that we get it, because we do the same.
Simplicity is often under-appreciated, but when applied to the right areas, it is a beautiful thing.
