Music production. Artist management. Event planning and promotions. As a Full Sail student, Michael Congdon gained experience in multiple aspects of the music and entertainment industry; it only made sense for him to incorporate all those components into his career after graduating.
The Artesian Entertainment Group, a business that Michael first conceived as his Final Project at Full Sail and launched within two months of graduation, covers four basic elements of the music industry in Richmond, Virginia: Artist Management, Music & Audio Production, Event Promotions, and Music Education. With his position as President of AEG and considerable involvement with each branch of the company, Michael has definitely been busy over the past year.
“In the mornings I’m pretty busy with paperwork and updating marketing materials for the company and our clients,” he says. “Afternoons don’t follow a set schedule. Sometimes I’m at the recording studio doing sessions for the rest of the day. Sometimes I spend more time working with my clients who have hired me as a manager or consultant.”
Many of Michael’s artists have performed at the events that AEG throws on a quarterly basis. Benefest, the last large-scale event that the company organized, filled their venue to maximum capacity, garnered attention from the local media, and raised money and awareness for local Richmond charity the Music Resource Center.
“For Benefest, I used the exact business plan template that we used in an Artist Management class at Full Sail,” Michael admits. “I followed it exactly, and put on a huge event that was widely successful. That’s a great feeling.”
Besides the aforementioned event planning, recording projects, and artist management that Michael is involved in, he also contributes to AEG’s Music Education Department. “We’ve got 11 teachers and a constantly growing number of students, both adults and children,” he explains. “I teach piano lessons every Thursday, as my way of giving back to the community. But the rest of the time I delegate the majority of the work out to all of our instructors. The rest of the time, I’m either in the office or the recording studio, trying to get the ball rolling on the next project.”
“I knew when I started my business plan that I needed a platform of four departments. I didn’t see how just one would stand on its own,” Michael says. “Running my own business can be challenging at times – it’s totally on me whether AEG succeeds or fails. But this business model is great, because when one department slows down, it can lean on the others.”
“We’ve been following the business plan I wrote at Full Sail to a tee,” he says. “Every month the numbers keep going up. If things keep going like this, Artesian Entertainment Group is going to be around for a long time.”
