We were lucky to catch up with Dexter Bensman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dexter thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.

Right now in the music industry, the biggest trend shouldn’t come as any surprise as it started with TikTok and transformed into the utilization of short-form video content. TikTok, Facebook/Instagram reels, YouTube Shorts, Spotify Canvas, etc have all taken a dominating spot in the music industry.

Innovo got ahead of this curve by becoming experts in the TikTok space early on and we now have offerings in both the music and brand marketing space. For music, whether it’s running ads, consulting, creating content calendars, or collaborating with influencers we have the reach and knowledge to do so. We have also grown to develop a whole division built around Brand Marketing. We now have worked with thousands of influencers and numerous brands like Zales, Lands End, Beyond Burger, NordVPN, etc to activate TikTok brand campaigns.

As this popular trend has continued to grow, so has our Innovo team.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My story is probably a little bit different from other business professionals in the music industry. Unfortunately, I didn’t fully realize that music was a passion of mine until the absolute last second of my last semester in college. By that time it was far too late to change majors.

After graduating college at The University of Dayton, I applied to every single music-related business I could find in the Nashville area. At this time, I knew very little about the music industry and was not aware that I was competeting against a million Belmont students. Surprise, I didn’t receive a single response. After about 8 months of living at home and working construction, which I’ve done on and off for my whole life, I finally landed a sales job at Groupon in Chicago.

So I packed up and moved into the heart of Wrigleyville, living about a minute’s walk from Wrigley Field. I spent three years in Chicago and got to experience the Cubs winning the World Series, breaking the 108-year drought. Go Cubbies! During my time in Chicago, I remained in the sales space but I still had my eyes set on the music industry. At this point, I’ve exhausted and probably annoyed every possible music company in the greater Chicago area. I loved Chicago and it will always hold a special place in my heart but I decided it was time to make the move to Nashville to pursue a career in the music industry.

I took a sales job to get me down here and officially move into my apartment in January of 2019. I continued to work that sales job until I got laid off due to covid in March of 2020. Which ended up being a blessing in the end because I was able to shift my focus solely on getting a job in the music industry. Using all of my sales tactics to hound every company I could find in the Nashville area. I got a few responses but nothing super promising due to my lack of experience and how competitive the music industry is here.

So I decided to start my own music venture to give me some sort of recognition in the music industry. I created a brand and a popular Spotify playlist called KnoMusicRow, that showcases all of the up-and-coming country artists to keep an eye on. With an Instagram showcasing their talents from a lighter less professional perspective. I’m continuing to grow and mold KnoMusicRow but it’s become more of a side project at this point as my focus has shifted.

After being unemployed during the covid pandemic for about 7 months, finally, my persistence paid off. I emailed Innovo Management through their project management inquiries email on Facebook and received a response months later for a Project Manager role available. After going through the interview process, I was officially hired at Innovo Management as a Project Manager in September of 2020. After about 6 months in the role, I was promoted to Project Director. Then after another 6 months or so I was promoted to VP of Project Management where I oversee the entire Project Management division. I have two other employees on my team and our eyes are on growth!

As the VP of Project Management, I build out and manage custom digital marketing campaigns for musicians across the globe. My team can be brought on to create fully customized plans pertaining to project rollouts and to assist artists in navigating the digital space to make the most of their upcoming releases. Assisting with all things digital marketing, including Spotify Studio/Marquee ads, pitching to targeted user-generated playlists, TikTok ads, TikTok consulting, TikTok content calendars, YouTube ads, YouTube Playlisting, Facebook/Instagram ads, and much more. Essentially, we aim to assist musicians with as much or as little as they need help with in rolling music out. No matter if we’re a piece or the entire puzzle, we work to ensure all artists exceed their goals and create a release that everyone is happy with. We’re here to help new or established artists create a better path for success and I think that’s what sets us apart. We’re a one-stop shop for all artists and creators alike to make the most out of their upcoming projects.

Overall, It was a long hard road for me but everything eventually paid off. I made it into the music industry, I love what I do, I’m here to stay, and I’m just getting started!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth. The artists that we work with know that everything we do, we do to support creatives. “Put The Art First” is our motto at Innovo and we stand behind that. With that getting more and more known in the industry, the vast majority of our clients are either repeat clients or have been referred and sent our way from previous projects.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

By supporting them in any way we can. A large chunk of the artists we work with are fully independent grinding to make it on their own and we keep that in mind. If we’re teaming up with an artist on an upcoming project we’re going to do our best to knock it out of the park and keep it as budget-friendly as possible. Also, supporting them on socials, streaming their music, going to shows, buying merch, etc are all things that may seem very little but go a long way when you’re an independent artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://innovo-management-website.webflow.io/project-management
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dedder14/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dexterbensman/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/knomusicrow/