Marketing and Music: The Man Who Built Led Zeppelin

The most important member of Led Zeppelin wasn't even in the band

Happy Thursday, y’all! Welcome to this month’s edition of Marketing and Music, featuring perhaps the greatest rock band of all time, Led Zeppelin! Please Like and Restack this issue to help increase its visibility on Substack. Thank you! And if you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to Backstage Pass. Free subscribers get access to all new articles as they come out, for one month. Articles older than one month are paywalled. Paid subscribers have access to all Backstage Pass content with no paywalls.

It was June 5th, 1968 at the Montgomery International Speedway. And Jimmy Page had officially had enough.

After two years of playing bass guitar for The Yardbirds, Page decided it was time for a musical reboot, and looked to start his own band. If talent was all it took for a band to have success, then The Yardbirds would have been one of the most successful rock bands of all time. In a period of about 5 years, the rotating roster included three of the greatest guitarists of all time: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.

But clashing egos and creative differences led to the final breakup of The Yardbirds in June of 1968. Bandmate John Paul Jones had already told Page he would be interested in following him to a new band, if Page was so inclined.

Page then approached Terry Reid to be lead vocalist, and he declined, but suggested a then unknown Robert Plant instead. Plant accepted, and suggested his childhood friend, John Bonham as the new band’s drummer. Think about what an amazing turn of events this was: Reid declining Page’s offer to front what would later become Led Zeppelin resulted in the band adding one of the better lead rock vocalists ever (Plant), and possibly the greatest rock drummer of all-time in Bonham.

Meet the Man Who Built Led Zeppelin

So the lineup for Led Zeppelin was set:

Robert Plant - Lead vocals, harmonica

Jimmy Page - Guitarist

John Paul Jones - Bass and keyboards

John Bonham - Drums

However, any serious discussion of Led Zeppelin is incomplete without examining the impact of its manager, Peter Grant. Page and Plant were the musical heart of Led Zeppelin. But during the 1970s, Led Zeppelin became the most successful band in the world. And much of that is due to the business and marketing skills of Grant.

When Page started assembling his musical supergroup while he was still with The Yardbirds, Grant was actually the first piece of the puzzle.

In the late 60s and early 70s, most band managers were sourced by record labels. And they typically worked as an extension of the label, with little or no interest in serving the actual needs of the artist.

Grant was completely different. He treated his clients as if they were royalty, and Led Zeppelin was no exception. Early on, Grant told Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham that “You handle the music, I’ll handle the business”. And that’s exactly what Grant did, always advocating for better terms for Led Zeppelin in all areas of business. Sometimes employing nothing short of mobster tactics to ensure that the band always got the best deal possible.

How Peter Grant Revolutionized Music Marketing

Believe it or not, the press absolutely buried Led Zeppelin when the band first launched in the late 60s. There have been theories as to why this was, most feel it was simply because the band drew from so many different musical styles that critics didn’t have a template to compare the band against. Some offer that the press trashed the band because Led Zeppelin wouldn’t talk to them.

If the press slammed Led Zeppelin in an attempt to get more exposure with the band, the tactic completely backfired. Grant all but shut off the band from the press, and instead took its music directly to the fans.

Via rock concerts. Early on, Led Zeppelin embraced a brutal concert schedule. There were two reasons why; First, Grant wanted to use concerts to give the band a way to speak directly to its fans. This would bypass the press and radio stations and give Led Zeppelin complete control over messaging.

Second, the band wanted to use concerts to expand its fan base. Grant knew that America was the key to superstardom, so he had the band criss-cross the United States in the 1970s with frequent tours.

It paid off. Led Zeppelin became the first true ‘stadium rock’ band. Setting attendance records in both Europe and the United States. As Led Zeppelin’s popularity grew, Grant constantly used the additional popularity as leverage to secure better financial terms for the band. For instance, in the early 1970s, it was standard that when touring, the concert promoter would receive 90% of the profits, and the band would only get 10%. Grant would go to promoters and demand new terms: Led Zeppelin would get 60% of the profits, the promoter only 40%. If the promoter refused, Grant would just work with someone else who would accept the terms. Given that Led Zeppelin was insanely popular at the time, promoters were all but forced to accept Grant’s terms.

One reason why Page wanted Grant to manage Led Zeppelin was because they were on the same page when it came to music. From an artistic standpoint, Page didn’t care about releasing singles for radio airplay, he was focused on creating amazing albums. Grant had a similar distaste for singles, but from a business standpoint. A record label once asked Grant why in the world he was opposed to releasing Whole Lotta Love as a single. The label said it would easily sell 800,000 copies as a single. Grant countered if that was the case, then it would lead to 800,000 more album sales if it wasn’t released.

Grant was also smart enough to let the band play the music they wanted to play, especially when it came to concerts. The members of Led Zeppelin delighted in experimenting with concert performances. They would often tweak or completely redo the sound and design of all their songs, creating entirely new performances over the course of a single tour. A typical set that might last 90 minutes at the start of a tour could balloon to three hours or more by tour’s end. All this did was drive interest in album sales, and concert tickets. Which is exactly what Grant and the band wanted.

Led Zeppelin’s entire marketing strategy was based on communicating directly with its fans. This is why the band rarely talked to the press, because they didn’t trust the press. Those early critical reviews were never forgotten.

The rock concert gave the band a way to connect directly with the fans without having to deal with another filter like the press or a radio station. The concerts were simply an experience, and fans clamoured to attend to simply witness the musical genius of the band firsthand. Check out the videos included in this issue, they give you a sense of not only the raw musical brilliance of Led Zeppelin, but also how the band created an amazing experience for concert attendees.

While many bands were giving boilerplate, cookie-cutter performances, Led Zeppelin concerts were a spectacle of lasers, lights and sounds, decades before arena concerts would become popular.

Led Zeppelin’s musical and business strategy was focused on tight control of messaging and amazing concert experiences for fans. If you wanted to hear Led Zeppelin’s music, you had to buy their albums or attend their concerts. And when you did, you were guaranteed an amazing experience.

Record sales verify that Grant and Zeppelin’s strategy worked beautifully. Led Zeppelin’s catalog includes seven albums that reached #1 on the Billboard album charts, and worldwide album sales are thought to be north of 300 million.

How Led Zeppelin Communicated With Fans In a New Way

For most music artists, the path to communicate with their fans looks like this:

1 - Artist makes music

2 - Press reviews the music and interviews the artist to tell fans how to view the artist and its music

3 - Radio stations play singles from the artist, and tell fans how to view the artist and its music

4 - Fans then decide how they feel about the artist

Yet look at how Led Zeppelin communicated with its fans. The band all but eliminated the ability of the press and radio stations to influence fans when it came to Led Zeppelin’s music. The band focused on connecting with fans directly via the music itself, and concert performances.

Almost no interviews. Almost no singles on the radio. Almost no television appearances.

The band’s message and music wasn’t filtered through other sources, it went straight to the fans. The fans could make up their own mind about the music, without being told by press or radio stations what to like or dislike.

As a result, the fans themselves became the main promotional channel for Led Zeppelin. Just as the band, and its manager, had designed it.

I hope you enjoyed this issue of Marketing and Music. Next month’s issue of Marketing and Music will feature How Sarah McLachlan Set the World on Fire for $15. See you on Tuesday!

Mack