What Rare Originals does for artists, managers, and labels
Rare Originals is an artist development agency working with emerging and developing artists, their managers, and their labels. We build release strategy, editorial and platform partnerships, and audience growth into a single plan, scoped either around a defined run of releases or as ongoing work with an artist, a label, or a full roster.
Everything starts from the artist's identity and where the music already connects. We pay attention to how songs move through editorial and algorithmic ecosystems, local scenes, and real listening behavior, and we work inside the team while a rollout is live, adjusting as the release moves rather than handing over a plan and stepping back.
We work across global markets, building strategy market by market based on where the music is connecting and where we see opportunity.
Our Focus
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Artist Development
Artist development is the spine of the work. We plan across releases rather than one at a time, which means deciding what an artist is building toward before deciding what to put out next.
Fanbuilding sits inside this rather than beside it. Streaming numbers describe what happened, and they don't tell you whether anyone is coming back. We work on the part of a campaign that turns a first listen into a returning audience. A track reaching the wrong listeners is a worse outcome than a smaller number reaching the right ones, and the plan accounts for that difference.
This runs alongside the artist's team. We coordinate campaigns, give creative guidance on visuals and content planning where it affects how the release reads, and stay on calls with the artist and the people around them.
What it covers:
Release strategy and rollout sequencing
Market prioritization and regional positioning
Focus track selection and A&R input
Audience insights and direct-to-fan growth
Profile optimization and strategic use of platform tools
Post-release reporting
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Partnerships
Rare Originals maintains long-term relationships with editorial teams, platform partners, and industry collaborators across markets. That network is part of what an artist gets access to, and it's why we're deliberate about how and when we use it.
Every conversation with an editor or a partner is built for a specific artist, market, and moment. We're selective about how often we reach out and to whom, because those relationships serve every artist we represent at once. Over-reaching on behalf of one artist costs the whole roster.
What it covers:
Editorial outreach across the markets a release is built for
Identifying and pursuing the artist programs an artist is a real candidate for
Managing platform-facing conversations through the campaign
Most engagements include both artist development and partnerships. Where a team already has editorial relationships, or someone in-house running that side, we scope the development work on its own and agree that before we start.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Artists with no releases out yet, building a first audience from nothing
Emerging artists building an audience in their own market first, with or without a management team
Artists ready to grow past the market they started in
Managers developing an artist across multiple releases
Independent labels that need platform representation and roster-level thinking
Teams that want a partner who takes creative identity seriously
We work with people building something lasting.
How we work together
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Per release
One campaign, scoped across three releases
Strategy and editorial outreach for a single campaign. Project-based work is scoped across three releases, because a single release rarely gives enough signal to build on.
Best for artists and teams who want to test the working relationship before committing to something ongoing.
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Artist Retainer
Minimum three months. One artist, hands-on.
Ongoing development for one artist across their releases, combining editorial outreach, algorithmic positioning, fanbuilding, and creative direction. Includes release planning, audience insights, market growth, campaign coordination, and regular calls with the artist and their team.
Best for managers and artists building across multiple releases who want a strategic partner in the room continuously.
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Label Retainer
Minimum six months. Up to three active artists, larger rosters custom-scoped.
Everything in the Artist Retainer for each included artist, plus cross-artist planning, release sequencing across the roster, and priority setting. Adds market intelligence, performance reviews, and coordination between the label and its artists.
Best for independent labels that want editorial strategy and platform representation across a roster, with someone thinking at that level rather than release by release.
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Fractional Head of Streaming
Select label partners.
A roster-wide version of the Label Retainer for labels that want a dedicated streaming lead embedded in the team. Covers artist-by-artist development and editorial outreach, plus ownership of streaming priorities, release planning, platform-facing relationships, cross-team coordination, and performance oversight across the full roster.
A note on pricing.
Every engagement is scoped around the team and the work required, so pricing reflects artist count, release cadence, market scope, whether outreach is part of the scope, and how involved we are. We share rates once we understand what a project needs.
Our background
Rare Originals was founded by Mandy Tamm after seven years at Spotify, first on the editorial team in Berlin and then on the Global Hits team in Los Angeles. That work spanned Today's Top Hits, Pop Rising, EQUAL, and WRAPPED. She has worked in the music industry for over sixteen years.
The wider team brings experience from inside streaming platforms and from both independent and major labels. That perspective shapes how we read every release.
Common questions
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Rare Originals offers artist development and editorial and platform partnerships for emerging and developing artists. Artist development covers release strategy, market prioritization, focus track selection, and fanbuilding. Work is structured four ways: per-release campaign consulting scoped across three releases, an Artist Retainer for one artist, a Label Retainer covering selected artists or a roster, and an embedded Fractional Head of Streaming arrangement for select label partners.
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Per-release work is a project fee scoped across three releases. Retainers are billed monthly, with a three-month minimum on the Artist Retainer and six months on the Label Retainer. Rates depend on artist count, release cadence, market scope, whether outreach is part of the scope, and level of involvement. We share them once we understand what a project needs.
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Yes. Most engagements include editorial outreach, and some teams want the strategy on its own because they have relationships already or someone in-house running that side. We scope it that way from the start.
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No. Editorial decisions belong to the editors, and any agency promising placement is describing something it can't control. We don’t do that. What we do is position a release so it has the strongest possible case, and make sure it reaches the right people at the right time.
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Yes! We work directly with independent artists, whether or not they have a management team, and with managers and independent labels. Per-release campaign consulting is the usual entry point for artists working without a label behind them.
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Starting from zero is where we're strongest. No releases out, no streaming history, nothing to point at yet. What we need is finished music and a reason to put it out. If the timing is off, we'll say so and tell you what would need to change first.
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The Artist Retainer runs three months minimum, the Label Retainer six. Per-release work is scoped across a minimum of three releases. We build for the long view, so most relationships run considerably longer than the minimum.