Artist Development in 2026: What Every Independent Artist Gets Wrong ft. Amber Grimes (LVRN) #274

Amber Grimes is only the fourth guest to ever return to this show, and she came back to argue something uncomfortable: the music by itself is not enough. She is an executive at LVRN and a Billboard Power Player who has built rollouts for 6lack, Summer Walker, and Belly Gang Kushington, and her case is that artist development matters MORE when you are independent, not less. A hit record can make you known. Artist development is what makes you matter. In this episode, Amber breaks down what artist development actually is, why "artist development is dead" is something people say when they are tired of doing it, how to find your story and stage it instead of dumping it all at once, the two houses every artist has to build, the full Belly Gang Kushington rollout, why you need people to like you more than they like your music, Instagram broadcast channels, Trial Reels for free discovery and free data, CoBrand, EVEN, how to name and reward your fans, and the gatekept YouTube Shorts play that turned an artist's press run into his own blog. Amber Grimes: Instagram:   / ambergrimes   Podcast (If You Knew Better):    / @iykbetter   Her Substack article that inspired the episode: https://withambergrimes.substack.com/... Her first appearance on the podcast:    • Amber Grimes Interview: Music Rollout Mast...   Everything OMT: Website: https://onemoretime.fm/yt Instagram:   / onemoretime.fm   TikTok:   / onemoretime.fm   The Blue Room:   / discord   Apply to be on the show: https://onemoretime.fm/guest 30% off DistroKid: https://omtdistro.com Merch: https://onemoretime.fm/shop Business inquiries: [email protected] 0:00 Intro 3:59 Is artist development dead? 7:12 What artist development actually is 15:01 Your music can suck, your brand can't 19:07 Belly Gang Kushington's rollout 25:28 Why your story beats your song 28:20 Finding your story without a label 35:22 Reverse engineering an artist you love 42:01 Amber's own story as the example 48:04 Sponsor: DistroKid 48:59 Broadcast channels and your real fans 53:35 Fans are subscribers now, not stans 57:44 CoBrand, the tool she was gatekeeping 1:01:50 What LVRN did with EVEN 1:07:23 Trial Reels, the free cheat code 1:20:20 LaRussell built his own house 1:24:47 Why artists should be on Substack 1:27:16 Rapid Fire Rampage