Client Tales: Nashville’s 12South Music Helps Artists Make Names for Themselves

So many of our clients are creative agencies, working in branding and online marketing, but 12South Music is a definite first of our Client Tales who focuses on helping musicians and other creative folks — in the heartland of music, Nashville — to promote themselves and get their albums heard. Let’s jump in and learn more about what they’re up to!

Jennifer Riggins: Could you please briefly introduce yourself and tell us what your business is about?

Bobby Dirienzo: I’m the VP of Digital Marketing.
Michael Shoup: I’m the Founder, Creative Director and Lead Developer for the Nashville-based artist and creative development company, 12South Music.

We’re a boutique agency that specializes in content creation and consultation for artists and members of the entertainment industry. Our services range from graphic design, website design & development, to artist branding, social media campaigning, strategy and consultation.

Jen: Why did you start 12South Music? What makes it unique?

Michael: Two reasons: 1.) I’ve always been a horrible employee. I have too many of my own ideas to really be a team player. 2.) The flip-side of that being I actually really enjoy helping folks, especially musicians and people in the industry. I felt that with the decline of the music industry that was one of the things that needed help the most.

Jen: What do you love about being an entrepreneur?

Michael: It’s rarely boring. There’s always a new problem to tackle or crisis to avert. There’s a certain kind of freedom to it, even though you work more than you ever have in your life, there’s this element of “I could choose to do whatever I wanted today.”

Jen: How do you envision success?

Bobby: We always imagine divisions under Michael, Myself and Sarah, our lead designer. Having skilled people underneath us who we can rely on and trust.
Michael: Things being smooth to where we’re always working on stuff that we enjoy. We’re constantly pushing the limit of what we do.

Jen: How did you hear about Quote Roller? Why did you decide to try our app?

Michael: Before I started the business I started to grab all the possible tools to automate. Quote Roller was one of the five apps I was looking at and I decided to use it since it tied into all the other apps I was using.

Jen: How does Quote Roller help your business?

Michael: It took my proposal time down from an hour to about 15 minutes. As the company expanded beyond just me it helped people piece things together to how they felt things needed to be for that project.

Jen: What would you tell your friends about Quote Roller?

Michael: The reason I use Quote Roller is that it makes my sales process a lot quicker. I actually showed it to my friend Ariel who uses it all the time.

Jen: Have you seen any winning rate increases? Any other delightful numbers?

Michael: Yeah, I have. I’m probably not a good gauge for that because the number of proposals I was putting out before Quote Roller were so small. Obviously my winning rate will increase since I’m creating more.

Want to star in our next Client Tale? Just shoot Jen an email at jennifer@quoteroller.com!