Exploring Life & Business with Morgan Peters of Ears 4 Hats

Today we’d like to introduce you to Morgan Peters

Morgan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Sure thing! Well, these days my main gig is that of a small business owner. I founded Ears 4 Hats over four years ago now out of an earnest desire to put my technical savvy and mind for creative problem solving to use to support my fellow independent musicians who were struggling to “go it alone”. While I didn’t originally set out to manage artists for a living, I find it extremely gratifying work, on both a professional and personal level.

I grew up in a blue collar, creative household on California’s central coast, and was was lucky to have the dual importance of both pursuing your passions and prioritizing the practical impressed on me from an early age. My father is a musician and my mother is a painter, and even when times were tough, art was always a part of my upbringing. At the age of 5, I fell head over heels in love with music, performance and storytelling, and found an unparalleled home and camaraderie in the theatre.

Eager to expand my horizons beyond my hometown and pursue my performance dreams, I transferred to the University of Colorado Boulder and earned my BFA in Musical Theatre in Spring 2014. While at Boulder, I began my parallel career in arts administration working as the Booking Coordinator for the nationally recognized CSF in the Schools Shakespeare and Violence Prevention program, and continued my work in the live events and entertainment sector as a professional event planner with Happily Ever Laughter, both experiences which I draw on heavily to this day.

After completing my undergraduate degree, I set my sights on a career in performance, eventually moving to New York City to pursue acting full-time in 2019. But it was there that I found that, despite making meaningful connections and affirming my love for the artform, the ultra-competitive audition grind and tunnel-vision of Broadway hopefuls was not fulfilling me in the way I had hoped. I knew I had to make a change.

Launched in the midst of lockdown, the earliest iteration of Ears 4 Hats focused primarily on general Virtual Assistance, but I eventually pivoted away from corporate work and toward serving independent artists. It was in late 2020 that things really started to blossom professionally, and I began managing the Americana duo Wild & Blue [wildandblueband.com] and nerd-folk crowdfunding darlings, The Doubleclicks [thedoubleclicks.c0m]. Within a matter of months, I was helping to launch crowdfunding campaigns, strategizing album releases, managing recording sessions, booking multi-city tours, designing websites, social media and marketing campaigns and more! Four years later, I am fortunate to say I’m still at it, serving musicians and artists both local to my new home of Los Angeles and beyond.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Launching a small business in the midst of a global pandemic was not without its fair share of learning moments, and I’ve definitely had to think on my feet from day one, teaching myself the in’s and out’s of an ever changing industry while remaining flexible to my client’s individual needs. The music and live events industry was, of course, significantly impacted during this time, and I found that much of the traditional advice that an early-career professional in the industry may find on their own just did NOT apply.

Another challenge about working as an independent artist manager is you don’t have the trappings of a larger organization to fall back on when things hit a rough patch with your clients. It often just comes down to you, your artists, a contract and a prayer! Everyone is trying their best to keep things afloat and make good art happen under immense financial pressures and the struggles of standing out in an over-saturated industry — it’s not for the faint of heart. That being said, I am so lucky to have incredible clients and artists whose immense talent and valuable perspectives continue to inspire me to keep on going through adversity. It really does come down to surrounding yourself with good, hard-working people who share common values!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Ears 4 Hats is boutique artist management company offering creative growth consultation, marketing and administrative support for independent musicians and busy creatives who want to keep their focus in the place that should matter most… making art. We believe that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to designing your ideal creative career, and that the artist’s intuition is the most powerful force in determining the path to success. Making art is personal, and thus requires a personal touch!

In addition to empowering musicians to grow their career and showcase the best versions of themselves through all-inclusive behind-the-scenes band support, we also offer services a la carte! This includes one-off branding and social media consultation for creatives looking for personalized guidance, as well as graphic and poster design. We also work as a freelance website designer specializing in professional portfolio-style pages for musicians, actors and small businesses.

“Ears 4 Hats Presents…” our live events branch, books and promotes indie shows, with a particular focus on the Los Angeles market. We love discovering new genre-defying bands and creating performance opportunities for artists on-the-rise, currently hosting shows regularly at Fan Girl Cafe in West Hollywood and ArtBarLA in Mar Vista. We also volunteered at WeHo Pride 2024 as Marketing Captain and Vendor Coordinator for Fan Girl Cafe’s Pride Fest, which drew over 700 RSVPS and featured cafe service, a DJ, and 15 local vendors. One of our proudest achievements to date is producing Roaring Rainbow, a livestream benefit concert in 2021 that raised over 14k for Trans Families and the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
It could be argued that the transition to digital recording and distribution have fundamentally altered every aspect of the music industry, but perhaps one of the greatest changes has been that of access. The ubiquity of inexpensive recording software and gear and free online educational resources has leveled the playing field for music release. Anyone with a digital audio workstation, minimal gear and a YouTube account can now learn to produce their own music and release it to the masses. Coupled with the rise of social media marketing and crowdfunding, virtually anyone can become a successful recording artist, sidestepping the previous gatekeepers of the industry entirely.

As an artist manager who caters their services specifically to independent musicians, I have witnessed this process first hand. My former client, sibling nerd-folk outfit The Doubleclicks, recorded and distributed all eight of their full-length albums independently. In their twelve years as a band, they racked up over 4 million YouTube views, toured the US, Australia, and Europe, and charted on Billboard multiple times. All of this was made possible not only by digital recording and distribution methods, but through the power of crowdfunding online through companies like Kickstarter and Patreon. By developing and maintaining a deep personal connection with their grassroots audience and funding their music directly, they were able to avoid the traditional process of signing with a record label, choose their own definition of success, and grow their career… on their terms.

While these developments in digital technology do open doors for artists that previously remained shut, these industry changes are not without their drawbacks. The market has become saturated with recordings of widely varying quality. The sheer quantity of music out there to sift through has had detrimental effects on independent artists across the industry, as the competition for attention is at an all time high. Radio stations, booking agents and talent buyers are overrun with inquiries and take fewer chances, thus making it increasingly difficult for even the most electrifying of performers to stand out from the crowd.

That’s why I think it is more important than ever that independent artists and musicians not relying solely on being “discovered” by industry big-wigs, but instead prioritizing making organic and meaningful connections with their fanbase and working to build their audience from the ground-up in order to achieve major success down the road.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ears4hats.com
• Instagram: @ears4hatsmgmt

Image Credits
Personal Photo: Betsy Martinez

Additional Photos:
1: Jeremy Manning
5: Wilderspace Photography
8: Elyza Reinhart