Breaking into the music industry has never been easy, and for the modern independent artist, the climb can feel even steeper. Building a music career today requires creativity in how to reach new audiences, book tour dates, and deliver a live show that stands out.  

Thankfully, companies like Greater Than Distribution and Sennheiser are here to help. As a distribution and artist development house, Greater Than Distribution is reimagining the idea of a successful tour. Instead of focusing on traditional concert venues, their recent run brought their large roster of artists into shopping malls. Sennheiser, meanwhile, has spent over 80 years supporting and empowering independent musicians with its microphone technology—and its e 835 and e 845 models were front and center on this tour. 

By choosing spaces that naturally draw a lot of people, Greater Than opened doors to new markets. Though malls can present some technical challenges, it was worth it to give audience members a chance to connect with emerging talent in fun and unexpected ways.  

The company's Co-CEO, Paula Moore, and Head of Marketing & Partnerships, Carolyn Metcalfe, recently took the time to discuss the tour. From Greater Than's unique approach to the music industry to working with Sennheiser, they explain how it all works toward giving emerging artists touring experience while creating a new way to grow their careers. 

Moore: I've been in the major label A&R space and marketing, worked with festivals and brands my entire 30-year career. But, in 2023, I wanted to start a new company that would look and feel like the music company I always thought I was going to work for. I knew there was no reason to start a new music company unless we were going to do something different. I wanted to support emerging artists in a meaningful way.  

 

Moore: Our goal as a music distribution company is to be a modern music company and look at things in a more effective, efficient, and productive path for our artists.  

For example, we're the only music company in the global music industry that has brought a non-recoupable promotional tour to life. That means, [our artists] do not have to pay anything back. They get paid a performance fee, and we pay for everything else.

 
Having a music company that cares about them getting those opportunities is really what our goal is. We want to be a curated music distribution and artist development company, combined with creating experiential opportunities for our company's visibility, to connect with fans globally, and help artists connect with fans. 

We have a launchpad program for creative professionals, where they can get hands-on experience with our artists. Carolyn came through that program after she graduated university, and she now heads up our marketing.  

Actually, our team is filled with people that came from our programs. They learned how to work within our system, learned the infrastructure of the Virgin Music System, and can truly be operators. 

Moore: Their music has to be great. There has to be some sort of connection with a fan base that's in development. And, obviously, great songwriting and being musically talented are all factors that are necessary to sign an artist. But I think the most important thing is that they are hardworking and they want to succeed. 
We don't really look at their age. That doesn't matter to us. And we are a multi-genre company. We signed this really cool label from Alabama that's basically a blues and country label. We signed a Christian rap label out of Chicago. We're just trying to look at the big picture of how we can be a cool, creative, curated roster that gives opportunities to artists who can't get that support from any other distributor or music label. 

Moore: I grew up going to the mall and experiencing music there for the first time. It was my first experience with pop music, pop rock, or R&B live. When you're a teenager, it's magical. So I was like, let's go back to the mall! 

We were already going to be on the road all week long, going to campuses, and I needed and wanted to fill the space with another free show. And where could we put that on during the weekend, other than a mall?  

Metcalfe: We got on a phone call to talk to Simon Malls about sponsoring the campus part of the tour. But once Paula started floating this idea of doing events on the weekends, they were like, "Oh, you're really checking all of the boxes. It has that nostalgia to it that so many people will recognize, and it'll resonate with them.” It also has this modern twist that's going to bring in a Gen-Z audience. 

Moore: We change out artists. We have 10 artists for every mall stop. This year, we have five to seven who have been on the road with us the whole time. And then we fill in with local talent. And then we have special guests, too.  

We flew Mae Stephens out from the UK to do a promo date with us, because she's going to be on the tour next year. Renzo, from The Voice, has joined the tour for the last four dates. It's just a variety of artists with varying levels of success. 

Next year, it'll be a whole set of mainstay artists riding on the tour bus together. 

 

Was it challenging to handle live sound for so many artists in such a live-sounding environment? 

Metcalfe: It's so true. In each mall, we're in a different location. Sometimes we'll be in a corridor, but more often than not, we're in a grand court. And as you can imagine, those have big ceilings and windows and sometimes multiple levels. So our sound team is very conscious of which way they're pointing the speakers, depending on the space that we're in. 

Moore: We had two [sound engineers] for the majority of the tour. It was challenging, but they did a great job, and their team did a great job trying to balance all the things that go on in a non-traditional music venue. 

When we first started putting all of this together and started talking to Sennheiser about what we were doing, everything had to be simple plug and play, with great sound quality. We had different venues that needed to sound great and feel like a mini festival. 

Thankfully, Jimmy R. Landry and the team at Sennheiser hand-selected our microphones to work in any environment. 

Moore: [Sennheiser] selected the e 835 and e 845 microphones. They sounded awesome, and we had very long cables. They sent us cables and mic stands and all the things to make sure it was all buttoned up. Next year, I think we're going to add the wireless ones. He was telling me about a couple of different ones that he thinks we should use. 

Metcalfe: Sennheiser is such a great brand. We knew that our artists would be excited to have Sennheiser on the tour, which they were. I don't know if you've seen the highlight reel from them yet, but it's literally all of our artists talking about how much they love those mics that we're using.