Why Singer-Songwriter Charles Watson Views DISCO As a “Perfect Solution” to Music Management
London-based singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Charles Watson is probably best known within the indie music industry for his work in the folk-rock duo Slow Club, which he co-founded in Sheffield with Rebecca Lucy Taylor in 2006. After releasing five albums together, Slow Club parted ways in 2017, and Watson went to work as a solo artist.
Watson has since released three solo albums, including 2018’s Now That I’m A River, 2022’s Yes, and 2023’s YUP. He also plays with the garage-rock outfit The Surfing Magazines.
“I just really love collaborating, and I love being in studios with people, whether it's working on films or records or writing with people,” Watson says of how he’s matriculated from playing in a touring band to spending more time in the studio and composing for TV and film. “Once I stopped touring as much, I realized that the thing that really got me going was the actual making of the thing rather than the going out and playing.”
DISCO caught up with Watson during a session at Chill Up studios on the Isle of Wight in England, where he’s working on a new record. During our chat, Watson spoke to DISCO about how he got started using the music-management platform, why he appreciates its user-friendly organizational tools and branding customizations, and how DISCO’s reporting tools and analytics save him time when following up on emails to industry contacts.
"Just drop it in my DISCO"
Watson first learned about DISCO through a music supervisor. “They sent me a message with a brief and a quick turnaround,” Watson says. “They were like, ‘Just drop it on my DISCO.’ And I was like, ‘What is this DISCO?’”
Watson says he quickly realized that the platform was ideal for efficiently sending files back and forth and organizing his catalog. “It was like, ‘Oh, this is actually great. You can just drop it, leave a message. It seemed like the perfect solution.”
"DISCO is like this fun filing cabinet that anyone can access anywhere"
On the organizational front, Watson talks about how easy it can be to misplace just-recorded tracks after leaving a studio session. But saving everything to DISCO — which offers a familiar nested folder structure to organize playlists and albums into projects, artist/composer folders — solved that issue immediately. “When you leave the studio, the record's done. It's on a hard drive somewhere that might be underneath someone's desk for a year or something,” he says. “It's so easy for these things to disappear, especially if it's not the final master.”
Watson continues: “Say you’re recording a film score or a bunch of stuff that's associated with some production. “Having folders and playlists and places where they can live is really handy. That keeps it organized. And DISCO could be used for loads of things — not just music. It’s kind of like this fun filing cabinet that anyone can access anywhere.”
Watson also mentions how much he likes storing his files on DISCO’s Artist and Album Pages, which are fully customizable according to the owner’s tastes and can include everything from press images to bios, playlists, social links, and videos. “If music is presented in a certain way, I think that subconsciously, your brain just does something with it,” Watson tells DISCO. “Your brain just thinks about it differently. Rather than it just being like a white page with a ‘play’ sign. Little things like that really help us, as artists, place ourselves where we want to be placed.”
“Being in possession of the numbers is always good, because the numbers don't lie”
DISCO's reporting tools let indie artists like Watson track their own pitches and engagement so they can get a clear idea of who is listening. Knowing who is listening can save Watson a lot of time when following up with industry contacts over email. “I think we go out into the world and we expect people to have the same enthusiasm, but sometimes people don't,” Watson says. “If someone's said that they've listened to it and they haven't, maybe you just don't spend your time with that person. That's good information to have, isn't it? Being in possession of the numbers is always good because the numbers don't lie.”
Meanwhile, sending tracks out with DISCO Watermarking provides additional security for sharing sensitive material and quickly tracing any leaked files back to the source. “When I first started, they would send out CD press copies with watermarks. Then, like six months later, you would see them all for sale on Brick Lane on a Sunday morning,” Watson recalls. “I think Watermarking is one of those things that I will use a lot going forward.”
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